the last few days of 2006

2007.01.04 12.27

I was checking and rechecking my phone endlessly as noon approached. I could see gray skies through an adjacent office window. During one of my clock checking benders, I got into a brief planning discussion over a Team Project we're working on. It was finally noon before the conversation had ended. I spared no time grabbing my jacket and running out the door. I took the stairs down one flight, made a few turns, slipped out the backdoor, and walked briskly down the parking garage driveway to the lot below where my rental car stood waiting. I keep a SIRIUS satellite receiver in the rental car, so Howard Stern and Robin Quivers’ voices filled the frozen air as soon as I'd turned the ignition key. I put the car in drive and unceremoniously pealed away. I believe I nearly ran over only *two* people this time. Ahem.

My dog was already boarded at the kennel, so all I needed to do was pack and get to the airport. I’d started a load of critical items laundry (e.g. my underoos and socks) earlier that morning, so all I had to do was hit the dryer, pack, and split. When I opened my apartment door, the smell of burnt rubber permeated the air. Curious as to the source of the stink, I immediately walked over to my super computer MONSTERBOX. No problems there. I then turned my attention to the washing machine. I lifted open the lid and saw the machine was still full of water. In lieu of totally flipping out, I restarted the rinse cycle. It quickly became apparent that this freakin’ machine had other plans. Darting nervous glances at the time on my phone, I opted to dump my wet clothes into a garbage bag which I immediately took into the bathroom to hang them to dry. Even now as I’m typing this I have no idea if they dried successfully or if I’m going to come back to a smelly fungal bonanza.

The trip to the airport was quite excruciating thanks to the first snow of the year. This was big blobby wet messy snow and it spewed everywhere. Traffic crawled along, but I felt comfort in the knowledge that the airport would be in a similar situation. When I left Minneapolis for the Thanksgiving holidays, I left work with only 90 minutes until take-off and I still hadn’t packed. Hell yes I made it. Today I’d given myself three hours. There was plenty of time to deal with the traffic snarl. We were moving so slowly that I had time to play with the rental car’s traction control system in the snow. I’m not sure what the driver following behind me thought of my swerving around. Drunk? Drugs? Doofus?

I bought a fish meal at Burger King prior to my flight’s departure. Fish meal. Yes. I believe tropical fish are fed something called fishmeal, but I’m sure Burger King only uses that stuff on their salad. My flight was uneventful. I arrived and met my dad at baggage claim where we waited for at least a half hour until my one bag finally made an appearance. We left and went straight to Texas Land and Cattle. Usual meal: spicy caesar no croutons, chipotle tuna steak, and garlic mashed potatoes. Mmmm! You know you want it.

I was working remotely at the 290 and Tidwell Panera Bread the next day. There’s a sibling project that I’m helping out with. I figured this would be a working vacation anyway, so I did my best to at least get comfortable. I found the egg soufflé was tolerable as a breakfast item, but the Fiji Apple Salad was definitely kick ass.

On Friday night, I went to Numbers accidentally wearing my special shoes. Have I not mentioned these? They offset your feet at a three degree angle. This works out your calf muscles, lower and upper back, and improves posture. I lost 3 pounds just standing in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles wearing these shoes. Good times. I spent the evening visiting with Tom, a Numbers regular I've known for 10 years. I met a really sweet massage therapist girl that needed 50 hours of interning to get licensed. If you want an hour long Swedish massage for $35, let me know and I’ll drop you her info. Sadly, this was the only time I got to hang out with my Number's crew. Wah.

Christmas was Monday morning so I had to get on the ball the next morning and figure out my game plan. I got my dad a sweet 42 inch Phillips plasma television on the 19th from Amazon.com. It was supposed to arrive January 2nd, but instead it arrived that morning. Yay, Amazon. Mom, sis, the niece, and the brother in law were getting gift checks. Olga and Rosy (my maid and her assistant) got a bonus. Hey, come to think of it, if you need awesome maid service in Houston Texas, call Olga at 713-771-6908 Monday through Friday. She is awesome! 10 years of experience and references available (including myself). She vacuums, cleans floors, the kitchen, the bathroom, and dusts. I have her come by every other week and the house looks like I’m anal retentive. Okay, I am anal retentive. Didn’t you read the Betsy report a few blogs back? My younger niece got a mini camera and DVD that I picked up late Sunday night at pretty much the last possible minute from a Best Buy way out of town on 290 only minutes from closing time. I was close to the ex-girlfriend’s house but didn’t bother to do a drive by. I haven’t done an ex-girlfriend drive by in years, so what’s the bother? Hmmm. Who was that last drive by? It was probably the aforementioned Betsy. Yay.

Christmas came and went. I got some clothes, lots of DVDs, and gift cards for Starbucks and The Buckle. I eventually got new shoes from Buckle, and lots of coffee from Starbucks. Mmmm. Coffee.

I was camping out at Panera Bread the day after Christmas when some stranger having trouble with his laptop’s wireless asked for my assistance. At first I thought he was asking anyone with a laptop if they could help him. I’ve become a bit introverted thanks to my time in Philadelphia. INTJ is the common term I’ve heard as of late, although it doesn’t really make an sense. Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging. I can dig on the Thinking and Judging part. The Introverted part is a Philly side effect, like I said. The intuitive part must imply that you don’t need to be an extrovert to know what people you’re interacting with are thinking. That’s hit or miss with me. I’m always wondering if I’m being nice enough because I tend to be to the point and direct a lot of the time. Anyway, back to the guy need help with the wireless. It took me three minutes to get him going. No problem. We spoke off and on during the next few days. Self proclaimed Rocket Technologist Chris Kirby is also know as Kirbo Turbo. Chris’ moniker reassures me that my Super Genius moniker is completely normal. A project manager that worked for me this past summer cited the Super Genius thing as an issue when she left. I can see where she’d make a comment like that, though, not being a super genius and all. ;-) I'm kidding Deborah -- you know I love ya. You know, like on old high school notes passed between friends. That whole Love Ya thing. Okay, nevermind.

I ended up working a full work week and then some as I approached New Years. I have never been on my cell phone for 12 hours in a row before. First time for everything. The people I work with are so intelligent, though, that it’s quite exciting to solve problems with them. It also doesn’t hurt that they’re also witty goofballs. We eventually got things working as the zero hour approached. January 2nd 2007 will be the true test. I’m feeling good about it. No stress.

Hey! My laptop’s on board right mouse clicker thing clicks again. I missed the clicking during the week. Clicking is good.

It’s January 1st and I’m flying back to Minneapolis as I’m typing this. My resolutions for the New Year include figuring out how to move on up to a deluxe apartment in the sky, getting all my stuff moved out of my house in Houston so I can rent it out, and getting back on my pumped up workout schedule. My muscle tone has been good enough to tide me over the last few months, but Spider-Man needs his bulging muscles! That reminds me -- I filled out a quiz online that attempts to figure out which super hero you are. No surprise here: