Anyway.
I wanted to write about my trip to Fremont, CA last week, the trip I got to hang out with
Dinner at Cluck-U was, of course, delicious. I brought home six tubs of sauce for Roho to try, since he's never had the pleasure of partaking in this delicacy. I'm waiting to hear the words I've come to know and love: "I hate you, Inkblot."
After eating at the chicken joint it was off to Frysco's house, where I got to hang out for a while and tease his two incredibly cute and fun cats, Otter and Boone. I also got a chance to say howdy to his housemate, whom I haven't seen in quite some time. Then it was back off I went (I need to send a big "THANK YOU" to Frysco again for playing taxi-cab for me while I was stranded rental-less in CA), finishing my whirlwind tour of California by ending up back at San Jose International airport, killing time and waiting for them to board my evil flight back to O'hare. I arrived right on time, 4:54 AM Thursday morning. Red-eyes suck.
Thursday night I was able to take advantage of my evil manager's concession to my picking up the Columbus trip (I hear rumblings they want to stick me with Kansas City, now, too): a dinner reimbursement of up to $75 for
Monday was mostly a wash as I struggled to catch up on my workload at the office, fielding helpdesk tickets and e-mails. They were coming at me with such ferocity that it was hard for me to keep up with it and not feel like I was actually being overwhelmed. Eventually 5:00pm rolled around and I was able to trudge out into the snow (WTF?!?!?) to head home. Traffic was atrocious, as usual when we have any form of weather, and visibility of about 1/4 mile made things all that much more interesting.
Today has been a long day, even though it's only about halfway over. My manager made some incredibly arrogant statements and I just wanted to slap him. I've gotten the blessing of most of the Systems Engineering team to apply for the supervisor position, something that makes me feel a little more confident as I go forward with my plans. More on that later. This afternoon I head out to O'hare (I leave in about another 30 minutes or so), to catch a 5:44pm flight out to Boulder, CO. It's ironic that
I don't look forward to the trip to Colorado, really. There's nobody I know out there, and it's three days long this time instead of the more traditional two days. I'll be falling Yet Further Behind back at the office, and it's all a lot of grandstanding. Perhaps if I felt like my being there actually accomplished something more than sending the message of "We're the home office, don't screw with us," I'd be a bit more eager to go on these campus audits. As it is I'm really just blank, I don't feel good about going but I'm not totally torqued off about it either (hey, it's frequent flier miles for me, at least). Since I don't have a functional laptop to take with me (damn this office and the politics within that prevent me from getting my laptop fixed) I'll be mostly isolated, which in at least one way is a good thing: I'll be able to give my wrists a break from typing. They're starting to really get bitchy about all the keyboarding I do, even when I "cut down." Evidentally the ergonomic changes I've made haven't been sufficient to make a real difference. I've just recently doubled the amount of vitamin B6 I'm taking, with luck that will have some positive outcome in this war against my slowly degrading body....