klsiegel320 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
klsiegel320) wrote2004-01-21 12:26 pm
klsiegel320) wrote2004-01-21 12:26 pm
December Update....
So, having written Aurora's epitaph, which I think deserved an entry all to itself, I still haven't really caught up with what's been going on.
I survived the crazy December reasonably well, considering. There were adventures, to be sure - the first night here, I essentially wound up staying at a golf resort almost halfway to St. Augustine because there was - appropriately enough for the season - no room at the inn. The project's engagement manager found a cheaper, closer hotel for me for the rest of the week. It was okay - but there was definitely a reason it was cheaper.
That first week here was incredibly frustrating. Part of that is - as I've mentioned in other entries - the restrictiveness on the Internet usage, although I have also discovered through intrepid exploring that LiveJournal is not blocked (probably they haven't thought of it yet).
Part of that was also having to be so entirely dependent on other people getting their jobs done so that I could start mine. I do hate that, I really do, and I hate sitting around with nothing to do while I'm waiting.
All that said, I managed to be somewhat productive that week. Not so much as I would have liked; more than the PM had allowed himself to hope for. And this in spite of getting lost two different times, in two different ways, getting from the second hotel to the office. I have yet to live that one down, although I have at least some ammunition with which to fight back, now.
So I drove back to Atlanta on the Friday after that first week here, on very little sleep and a long day. I get to the place where I'm going to pick up I-285, and I make the wrong guess about which way to go, so instead of a twenty-mile drive to the exit nearest my apartment, I accidentally circumnavigated the city of Atlanta, which takes about half an hour or so.
Next day, I flew home to NJ for an oddly-placed "weekend." Spent the Saturday evening and Sunday relaxing, worked from home on the Monday and Tuesday, and then we drove into NY for the Messiah Sing-In at Lincoln Center. We were in the approach lanes for the Lincoln Tunnel when it occurred to my husband to ask if I had the tickets. Not the best timing in the world for that question. I did not.
I was convinced we weren't going to get in, and cried for the rest of the drive. We approached the box office, battered Messiah scores in hand, and I explained that I had tickets but had forgotten them. I expected to be turned away; I expected at least to be asked my name and to show some kind of proof of who I was and that I'd paid for these tickets.
What happened was that the guy staffing the box office said, "Well, if you can tell me where the seats were...?" And I couldn't remember; I knew which price range, and that they were orchestra seats, but not exactly where. And he said, "Well, all I can give you is third row." Like this is bad? And he simply handed us two tickets, for the third row on the aisle. No proof of identity, no proof even that I'd actually bought the tickets...I could have been anybody.
My husband says this is proof that sometimes the universe does look out for you. I pointed out that it's very annoying when he says things like that, since he doesn't actually believe in an interventionist deity, or universe, either one.
At any rate, we had a lovely dinner and a good Sing-In...and then I went home and cried half the night because I didn't want to leave.
This one was the real craziness, in terms of exhaustion factor. We got up the next morning and he took me to the airport, and I took the 9:30 flight to Atlanta, which got delayed for some little while, I forget now just exactly why. So it was maybe 12:30 by the time I got to Atlanta. I then went and picked up the car from parking, got gas and something to eat, and set out from Atlanta for Jacksonville. I made one stop for food, gas, and restroom, and was checked in and in my room by 7:00 that evening - just in time for one of my colleagues to bring some documents by my room for me to read in preparation for the 8:00 meeting we were about to have the next morning (which I hadn't known about).
So we had our meeting, and came back here to the office, and then went off together with the rest of the folks for a Christmas lunch with our other colleagues in the area. This also included the trading area president, who happened to be in town.
Now, I'd heard he would be there, and was prepared to hate him. I've never been impressed by any of the "town hall meeting" speeches he'd given. Turns out he was very personable. Very hard to reconcile that with the appallingly stupid decisions he's made for the business, but I guess it helps that he's not evil.
Came back from that, worked for another two hours or so, and then went off to the divisional Christmas party, at a place called Dave & Buster's. It appears to be a chain; there's one in Atlanta as well (ironically, the IT department of my previous client had their
departmental Christmas party at the one in Atlanta the day before this IT department had the one here; must be "the thing to do" this year).
And I got lost getting there. Again. Although at least this time I had what I consider an iron-clad excuse: I followed the printed directions, and they were wrong.
And then, a quick frantic morning producing the last deliverable of the year, and out onto the road again to go back to Atlanta, to pack up and go home for Christmas.
Being home for Christmas was wonderful. I admit, I was pretty broken up about my little car; she has been such a faithful servant, indeed. She has kept me safe and gotten me where I needed to go and almost never failed me in a crisis (there was one time, over Thanksgiving break one year, when she absolutely refused to start when we were saddling up to go home, and we had to have her hauled off to the dealership she came from on a flatbed to be interrogated and have her attitude adjusted, and there was last winter when she blew a hose...but other than that...) - and it's hard to think of something I've loved (even something inanimate) being torn up for scrap.
But other than that, as the saying goes...
And that's as far as I got, when I was initially drafting this. And so much has happened since that it almost doesn't seem to make sense to post it, but I suppose better late than never. More soon about other adventures...
I survived the crazy December reasonably well, considering. There were adventures, to be sure - the first night here, I essentially wound up staying at a golf resort almost halfway to St. Augustine because there was - appropriately enough for the season - no room at the inn. The project's engagement manager found a cheaper, closer hotel for me for the rest of the week. It was okay - but there was definitely a reason it was cheaper.
That first week here was incredibly frustrating. Part of that is - as I've mentioned in other entries - the restrictiveness on the Internet usage, although I have also discovered through intrepid exploring that LiveJournal is not blocked (probably they haven't thought of it yet).
Part of that was also having to be so entirely dependent on other people getting their jobs done so that I could start mine. I do hate that, I really do, and I hate sitting around with nothing to do while I'm waiting.
All that said, I managed to be somewhat productive that week. Not so much as I would have liked; more than the PM had allowed himself to hope for. And this in spite of getting lost two different times, in two different ways, getting from the second hotel to the office. I have yet to live that one down, although I have at least some ammunition with which to fight back, now.
So I drove back to Atlanta on the Friday after that first week here, on very little sleep and a long day. I get to the place where I'm going to pick up I-285, and I make the wrong guess about which way to go, so instead of a twenty-mile drive to the exit nearest my apartment, I accidentally circumnavigated the city of Atlanta, which takes about half an hour or so.
Next day, I flew home to NJ for an oddly-placed "weekend." Spent the Saturday evening and Sunday relaxing, worked from home on the Monday and Tuesday, and then we drove into NY for the Messiah Sing-In at Lincoln Center. We were in the approach lanes for the Lincoln Tunnel when it occurred to my husband to ask if I had the tickets. Not the best timing in the world for that question. I did not.
I was convinced we weren't going to get in, and cried for the rest of the drive. We approached the box office, battered Messiah scores in hand, and I explained that I had tickets but had forgotten them. I expected to be turned away; I expected at least to be asked my name and to show some kind of proof of who I was and that I'd paid for these tickets.
What happened was that the guy staffing the box office said, "Well, if you can tell me where the seats were...?" And I couldn't remember; I knew which price range, and that they were orchestra seats, but not exactly where. And he said, "Well, all I can give you is third row." Like this is bad? And he simply handed us two tickets, for the third row on the aisle. No proof of identity, no proof even that I'd actually bought the tickets...I could have been anybody.
My husband says this is proof that sometimes the universe does look out for you. I pointed out that it's very annoying when he says things like that, since he doesn't actually believe in an interventionist deity, or universe, either one.
At any rate, we had a lovely dinner and a good Sing-In...and then I went home and cried half the night because I didn't want to leave.
This one was the real craziness, in terms of exhaustion factor. We got up the next morning and he took me to the airport, and I took the 9:30 flight to Atlanta, which got delayed for some little while, I forget now just exactly why. So it was maybe 12:30 by the time I got to Atlanta. I then went and picked up the car from parking, got gas and something to eat, and set out from Atlanta for Jacksonville. I made one stop for food, gas, and restroom, and was checked in and in my room by 7:00 that evening - just in time for one of my colleagues to bring some documents by my room for me to read in preparation for the 8:00 meeting we were about to have the next morning (which I hadn't known about).
So we had our meeting, and came back here to the office, and then went off together with the rest of the folks for a Christmas lunch with our other colleagues in the area. This also included the trading area president, who happened to be in town.
Now, I'd heard he would be there, and was prepared to hate him. I've never been impressed by any of the "town hall meeting" speeches he'd given. Turns out he was very personable. Very hard to reconcile that with the appallingly stupid decisions he's made for the business, but I guess it helps that he's not evil.
Came back from that, worked for another two hours or so, and then went off to the divisional Christmas party, at a place called Dave & Buster's. It appears to be a chain; there's one in Atlanta as well (ironically, the IT department of my previous client had their
departmental Christmas party at the one in Atlanta the day before this IT department had the one here; must be "the thing to do" this year).
And I got lost getting there. Again. Although at least this time I had what I consider an iron-clad excuse: I followed the printed directions, and they were wrong.
And then, a quick frantic morning producing the last deliverable of the year, and out onto the road again to go back to Atlanta, to pack up and go home for Christmas.
Being home for Christmas was wonderful. I admit, I was pretty broken up about my little car; she has been such a faithful servant, indeed. She has kept me safe and gotten me where I needed to go and almost never failed me in a crisis (there was one time, over Thanksgiving break one year, when she absolutely refused to start when we were saddling up to go home, and we had to have her hauled off to the dealership she came from on a flatbed to be interrogated and have her attitude adjusted, and there was last winter when she blew a hose...but other than that...) - and it's hard to think of something I've loved (even something inanimate) being torn up for scrap.
But other than that, as the saying goes...
And that's as far as I got, when I was initially drafting this. And so much has happened since that it almost doesn't seem to make sense to post it, but I suppose better late than never. More soon about other adventures...
Just a quick hello
Today feels oddly like Monday to me, since I took a sick day yesterday. Nothing baby-related, so no worries there. I ate fresh pineapple for breakfast, which ordinarily I love, but this time it gave me heartburn and an acid stomach. Also, our (new in October) furnace had a problem with its relay switch, causing it to make obnoxious noises all night, causing me to be utterly exhausted. The two things together induced me to take the day off. It was fabulous to be home. I went back to sleep for a little while, read/sorted through a stack of magazines, made homemade beef stew in the crockpot, watched the State of the Union (and fell asleep) and went to bed earlier than normal.
Re: Just a quick hello
What did you think of the SoU? I couldn't bring myself to listen; I was afraid I'd vomit.
Re: Just a quick hello
Sorry about your loud neighbors. :-(
As far as what I thought about the SoU speech, I'll just point you to my entry. I like to watch it so I can get the full flavor. Then when I read the rantings and ravings the day after I will know who's on target and who's over the top with their criticisms, in my ever so humble opinion.
Re: Just a quick hello
The most baffling thing, to me, is how on earth my (very intelligent) colleague here can support Bush. This is not a stupid person; this is not a blue-collar gun-totin' Bible-thumpin' redneck who maybe finished 8th grade. This is a very intelligent man of about my age, with a college degree. How he can possibly stand to support an ignoramus of the gross degree of our President mystifies me.
Not to mention how he can support policies that are clearly having a detrimental effect on the country. Although he did say in one discussion we were having that he doesn't really know enough about politics to carry on a debate, and he said at another time that he'd deliberately avoided learning more about the "what the Bible does and doesn't say about gays" issue.
Odd as it seems to me, I think he - like the president he supports - chooses to remain ignorant of those things that contradict what he has chosen to believe. I find that disappointing, and frustrating. It dishonors God who gave him that native intelligence to deliberately choose not to use it - and this man has more native intelligence in his little finger than Bush has in his entire body.
Sigh...so long as we keep the name-calling to a minimum, I guess I can stand it. But obviously we cannot discuss politics.