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It is hard being on the road over 200 nights a year...away from your family, isolated in many ways. It definitely isn't for everyone. This blogs represents the thoughts of just one such person. Read along and find out if the road is for you.
This is my new blogchalk:
United States, Georgia, Gainesville, Unity of Gainesville, English, John, Male, reading, RE Investing. :)
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Thursday, December 12, 2002
Another day in paradise (yea, right!) No 1 Ago today. There wasn’t anything that memorable for that day.
This day turned out to be interesting. It didn’t start out on a good note, got better during the day and then ended up with some guilt.
I am sure that Memphis can have its’ moments, but I haven’t been able to capture any memorable ones yet. Well, not any good ones anyhow.
Breakfast was a bust. I went downstairs to the restaurant and spoke with a woman who hardly spoke English (why would you have someone who didn’t speak English be hired for wait staff?). They try to push the breakfast buffet on you, but I really don’t have a desire to eat that much anymore. I ordered some granola and she had a quizzical look on her face. 25 minutes later, I didn’t even have orange juice. She had passed by my table at least 15 times without saying a word to me. Finally, I asked her about my granola and she brings the manager over, who tells me they don’t have granola. I walk out a bit miffed.
Heading to the client, I get a call from Lori. Never a good sign this early in the morning. I had called her yesterday and of course got a loud no reply. The only reason she called me was that she needed something from me. She also inquired whether another consultant had called me as he was supposed to. He hadn’t.
As I get to the clients location, I am somewhat disturbed. The place is deserted. I call the client and find out they had moved a year earlier. Fortunately, I had passed their new street and was only about 10 minutes away.
Once at the clients, I get the call from the consultant. He tells me there are several things that aren’t working on their software. Not a problem, except that is what I am supposed to train on. The folks are nice though, so that makes it a little better.
I am still miffed about getting my health care package so late and having to make an instant decision on my PPO and dental choices. I end up making several calls to Da Company; getting some forms faxed to me and overnighted them to the health nazi’s.
After work, I head to downtown Memphis to pick up a Hard Rock pin for Julie. Thinking back, Hard Rock would be the theme for the evening. Of course, they don’t have the pin I am looking for. The guy there is non-stop sales and makes the visit less than comfortable.
As I cruise Beale Street, the place is dead. And I am a little surprised at that. This is Christmas season after all and I thought at least a few folks would be out and about. It was eerily empty on the streets and inside the bars and eateries. I go to a restaurant that I had been to some months back. I should have had a clue by the wait for the table. It couldn’t have been from the overflow of people, because there were only a few folks there. The last time here, the food was good. This time, even the guy next to me complained about their servings.
Back to the hotel. Jenny called from DC. She was doing me a big favor and called me from their Hard Rock telling me the pin I had asked her to get for me was unavailable. Our call got broken up. She next called me from her hotel to tell me she had got into an accident on the way back to her hotel. I felt bad on one hand and good on the other. Bad because she had made a special trip out to get me the pin and got in the accident on the way back to her hotel. Good, because she wasn’t hurt. We spoke for about an hour until her husband called for the second time.
So there you have it. A little angst, a little frustration, and a little guilt. Another perfect day in paradise. Tomorrow will be a better day. (It will won’t it???)
posted by John Panico at 5:30 AM
Tuesday, December 10, 2002
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
Oscar Wilde –
It is not like I gave up on blogging recently. Once again, lack of time contributed to my demise. If I was a bit more disciplined, I would have blown off my friends last week, but I am not.
So my last week was spend in the San Francisco area. Ah, California, the land of conspicuous consumption and overpriced houses. I arrived earlier than I needed and trekked to Grace Cathedral to walk their Labyrinth. I parked several blocks away and as I walked to the church, I noticed an “Apartment for Rent” sign that said 2 BR/$2,000. That is something that I don’t miss about living there. And although the traffic is better, because they have expanded the number of lanes, you still have the feeling that you are a rat running the maze going to and from work each day. The other issue is that there just isn’t any open space left. The area had changed sooooo much because of all the building that has gone on since I left.
But there are things that I do miss about California and the San Francisco area in particular. It is amazing watching the trendy people walk, talk, dress and shop. Unquestionably, there is an energy there. Different from New York, but definitely there. I hesitate to say, but the energy just seems younger, hipper and more alive than New York. It was great to soak it in. There were only two downsides to the trip to Union Square. One, I was there by myself. I have always tried to get to Union Square at Christmas. The sidewalk vendors, the long lines to check out everything at the FAO toy store, the champagne bar at Nordstrom, seeing how the windows are decorated are just great times. But it isn’t fun when you are by yourself. Secondly, the weather was so beautiful, that it didn’t seem like winter or Christmas at all.
But I also had the opportunity to visit old places. The client’s location was less than 2 miles from one of the houses I used to live. That was cool. And I got to see my last house in California on Saturday where I lived on a mountainside overlooking the Pacific. That brought back sweet memories.
But as usual, I digress!
Da Company’s antics have pretty much made me want to leave before my original time schedule. Some opportunities have come up and I am giving them serious consideration. I want to take a wait and see approach with the new management that is bound to come in with our company being bought out a few weeks back, but the changes aren’t looking real good at the moment.
Lori has sent some emails that just boggle my “alleged” mind. Typical knee jerk reaction. She wants everyone to go back a year and create trip reports. The trip reports are going to take some time and I am now starting to add that to each clients billable time. I wouldn’t mind starting from this day forward in mandatorily doing trip reports. But we are forced to cover up for Da Company’s management oversights. If they were such a big deal, they should have wanted them from day one. I for one had stopped sending them in, because no one was interested in getting them and didn’t complain if they didn’t. But she doesn’t seem to have a problem with giving away our time that is deemed “off” if you worked somewhere else.
I do like my job. I like to help people and their businesses. But things like the above, having to have your end of month expenses in on a Saturday or they will hold your bonus check, and now the final straw. Because Da Company wasn’t paying attention; their emergency is causing me stress in figuring out my health plan for next year. I have had it. If this one opportunity doesn’t pan out in the form of a job, I am going to start something that will allow me to transition out of Da Company.
I have been doing my Christmas shopping without my luck. The problem like everything else in my life is time. I might really have to do most of this year’s shopping on the net. I know some of the things I would like to give as gifts, but I need the time to source them out locally.
Anyway, don’t forget the Monday Mission. Yea, it is late, but you have to start somewhere. I really enjoy doing it. Over the holiday, I have set aside some vacation time to redo this blog and add some new features, take off some of the less popular ones and work on generating some blog heat.
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