I began my day by waking up at 5am so that I could go to San Jose for a 10am job interview. I get out the door at 6am but don't have time to read my bible or pray, let alone do a breating treatment (all part of my regular morning routine). I ate no breakfast. As soon as I got into my car, I some how broke off the belt-clip for my insulin pump... CRAP!
No time to go back up stairs, so I hit the road. The commute was remarkably uneventful (thankfully!) and I made it to my Uncle KC's house by 7am. I slept for an hour. Then I began going back through my emails and notes to make sure I have proper directions to be able to get to the interview on time... well the head hunter didn't include any address! So I call up and finally get the proper address with about an hour to spare, then I am out the door again... (still no breakfast)... and of course hit San Jose traffic. I swear LA's traffic is making its way North, because it was horrible. Mapquest said it should have been a 12 minute drive. It took 50 minutes! Nevertheless, I got to the interview with 10 minutes before we're scheduled to meet. I am calm, cool, collected, suited up, ready to go. I walk in only to find out that the guy wasn't even there! >:-x
Wow! He had an appointment in Sacramento at 8am, and he scheduled me in at San Jose for 10am?! He must be Superman or the Flash, because by my estimations he'd have to wrap up his 8 o'clock, then do an at-minimum 2 hour drive in order to get there at time... Faster than a Speeding Bullet? He better be! He planned to attempt this during morning rush hour.
So: I woke up early, moved my 9-6 shift to a 1-10pm, made the long commute, crashed at my uncle's, and fought traffic, only to get to San Jose and then be stood up?! Okay... could be worse...
Well I get the feeling that this company I really want to work for may be "testing my deterimation" by not returning my calls and attempts to setup a second interview. The first went well, but for almost an entire week after I had been unable to schedule the next step. So after my interview, I call and tell them that "hey, I really want to work with you guys, but I need to know if you're still considering me, because I am going to other interviews, and can't hold out forever."
They call me back and ask if I could come in today to meet with the VP because after 11am the VP was going to leave for a week and a half. Geez! Well, I could if I hadn't wasted my time going to San Jose!
So after all that I end up going to work. I work hard, then come home for "lunch" around 6pm. My wife is just getting home from an appointment of hers, and she begins to tell me how her day was going...
My Wife's Day (written by her): Everything has been going so well until today. I've generally been in better moods, so I'm nicer and more fun to be around. My husband and I have been getting along great. Then today. To begin with, I was alone this morning because Tim had to leave super early for this interview in San Jose. So I HATE being here alone. Got to work, but hit pretty much every light red. When I got up to my desk, I noticed that I had dribbled some of my dark-colored lip gloss onto the kacki pants I was wearing today. When I started working on a file that I had begun working on yesterday, I kept finding so many things out of order and in the wrong places, so I basically had to just start all over. And it's only 11:00am. Then the receptionist calls me and asks me to cover her for lunch at 12. I just about started to cry then because I get too overwhelmed and stressed out trying to transfer more than one call at a time!
My boss walked by and noticed that I was not doing well. She said that I could go home, but then reminded me that if I don't work the full 30 hours this week, I will lose my medical benefits. I did cry. Then she said that she would talk to the receptionist and tell her that I don't do the phones. So that's good. But then I hit every red light coming home from work for lunch! That means that I really only had about 15 minutes to prepare and eat my lunch befor having to fly back to work. I get back after lunch to discover that yet another case that I'm working on was messed up, so I had to start IT all over. Geez!! Okay, so then in the middle of this one of the secretaries comes to give me this copy/mail job. There were over 1000 copies made by the time I had finished, which left me no time to re-do the case from after lunch. Oh! And as I was refilling the paper on the copy machine, my hand slipped and two of my nails just broke in half! Ouch! I've got a bandaid on my middle finger because the nail broke so far down that I'm afraid to cut it off! Well, then I went to therapy after work and that went well. So I was wondering what to do tonight because Tim's working till 10pm. I called my mom to see if I could hang out with her, but she said no because her and my dad are going away this weekend so she has to do laundry and pack. : ( That made me sad. But I made it home just in time to see Tim getting ready to head back to work after finishing his 'lunch' break. Tim and I were starting to talk when we heard yelling and screaming in the hallway outside of our door. Ahhh!! So we listened for about a minute and then we heard pushing. I dialed 911 and Tim went out to see if it was safe.
This woman, our neighbor two doors down, is standing out in the hallway and Tim goes into her apartment to talk to the guy. I'm out in front of her door (it's her apartment) talking to her while waiting for the sherif. She's telling me that she let this kid (21-22 yrs old) stay with her sometimes, but she was getting upset that he wasn't holding up his load, so she asked him to leave. He persistantly kept telling her that he wouldn't leave. Then she threw his stuff outside their door and that's when Tim and I started hearing the yelling. Turns out, he also pulled out one of her kitchen knives and threatened to KILL her!! So I take her downstairs while Tim's still trying to keep this guy under control, knowing that the cops are coming. The cops came and they took the kid. I went back to my apartment and Tim headed back to work. Whew!! I'm alone now. I think I'll go get ready for bed, so when he does come home, we can go right to sleep.
My Day again:
Well I get back to work only to be accosted by another tweaker lady. She is throwing a fit in the upstairs section of our job... and of course I am the one sent to confront her. Needless to say I heroically pacified the beastess... but I can't help but recall the strange occurance of taking on two aggressive drugged out situations in a single day...
My wife concluded and I concurred:
We can't believe that we got all that down. It really was a pretty sucky day. But oddly, neither of us feel very mad. Mostly just tired and probably sad. But maybe there is humor in all of this. I mean, how often does everything go wrong all in one day? Oh well. At least this crazy day is just about over. Thanks for 'listening.'
Oh, and some good did come: I was able to meet the VP by catching her 5 minutes before she left the building so that she could at least meet me... and this was a good move, because I was subsequently able to setup a shadow-shift day for Wednesday 02/22/06! Woohoo! Also, I was able to clean the house a bit to encourage my wife when she got home for lunch (and it worked). Also, I was miraculously supplied with energy all day. I believe it was because I prayed often (not long, but frequent) all day long. Praise God for sustaining us on days we need it most!
Snowboarding is like poetry: Done properly it is fluid, creative, expressive. It can be aggressive or peaceful. Watching someone from a heli-drop carve up untouched back-country snow inspires thoughts of Chinese caligraphy; Being awed by a daredevil doing incredible tricks in a terrain park is like visiting the circus. Snowboarding is a confluence of extremes: Somewhere between Circus and Caligraphy we find Snowboarding!
