Today begins my traveling days. I was up nice and early this morning. I went to bed early last night but had a terrible time falling asleep. I did manage to get a little sleep but very little and very broken up. At most I got three hours of sleep all night and probably quite a bit less. I was up around 7:15 this morning and out of bed.
The car was packed last night and anything that I needed that I couldn’t pack was sitting by the front door so I could just grab it on my way out. That was really good because I definitely was not going to be any good at getting ready this morning. I showered and was out the door by 8:30 which put right about on the schedule that I was hoping for. I ran over to Burger King and grabbed some quick breakfast before I left town.
It is funny. I haven’t worked at that Burger King since I was nineteen but every time that I go in there I get this really nostalgic feeling. I can still remember interviewing there and getting my training. I had originally applied for just sixteen hours a week as a cashier because I was working as the crew chief at the Pizza Hut next door and needed a few extra hours because Pizza Hut was not treating me very well. The manager of the BK asked me to stay after on my first day of orientation and told me that the company wanted me to be a manager up in Henrietta at the Marketplace Mall location. It was a lot more money than I had been anticipating. So I got to quit Pizza Hut. That was great because the management there was really rotten and corrupt.
I can still remember sitting in the dirty, nasty back room of that BK watching the training videos on the little thirteen inch television/VCR combo. In the videos they showed people making hamburgers using their bare hands. They had to tell everyone that the videos were made in Florida where there were almost no health codes and that in New York we obviously had to be gloved all of the time. I only worked in Geneseo’s BK for two weeks. I had to go rushing through all of the regular training so that I knew how to do every position in the store plus learn the management processes as well. It was a rough two weeks. But really, the job didn’t entail all that much.
I was shipped off to the Marketplace Mall store. That is where I did the bulk of my time at BK. For a while I also managed out at the Attica store. That was kind of cool. It was quite the change of pace. That was really slow out there and the employees were completely different from the suburban employees. The whole thing of working at BK didn’t last all that long. It wasn’t the best job ever. There was some good experience to learn from there though.
I made decent time down to Ithaca. It was a bright and clear day. A good day for a lot of driving. Which is really good because I had a lot of driving to do. I arrived in Ithaca at 11:00. I was working in Varna all day. I was expecting it to be one of those days where nothing goes right and it ends up taking far longer than I had anticipated to get anything done. Well, it actually wasn’t one of those days. In fact everything went really, really well. I was done by 3:30 and was able to head back over to Trumansburg and arrive before 4:00.
I had originally been scheduled to arrive in T-Burg at 5:00 or later which usually means at least 6:00. But today I was actually early which really surprised everyone including myself. Steve and I had a good time hanging out. We even managed to see a bald eagle soar back and forth in front of the giant windows facing out over the lake. It was really awesome. I have seen bald eagles before. I remember once seeing one fly right over my parent’s farm back in 1983 or so. But this one was REALLY close and kept going back and forth so we probably got three minutes of really intense viewing. It was really cool.
It was almost 10:00 by the time that I managed to leave Ithaca. I had scheduled to leave at 9:30 so it wasn’t all that bad but it was still pretty late considering how long the day had been all ready and how much driving I had to do yet. Fortunately the weather was really good and the drive was very pleasant. I drove out to Whitney Point and hit the McDonald’s for a late night snack and some caffeine. While I was getting gas (it is one of those big McD/Quickie Mart combo deals) some fifteen year old kids came up and were talking to me trying to get a ride several miles back towards Ithaca. They even offered me beer – yes, they were CARRYING over thirty cans of beer with them as them tried to bum a ride. That is a lot of beer to have stashed in a backpack.
The trip went quickly. I mostly listened to my Samsung MP3 player while I drove and made it threw a lot of material. I was really excited when I got off of the highway several miles outside of Easton and suddenly recognized the area. I was quite proud of myself knowing where I was having only ever been to this part of the country that one time last year on that project with Wegmans. I drove all of the way to the impossible to find Comfort Inn in Easton. I made it right to the parking lot that it shares with some restaurants and a plaza. I didn’t miss a turn the entire way which is awesome because even when the hotel is the very next building in the parking lot you still have no way to see it and once you know where it is you still can’t figure out how to drive there. This is the same hotel that I stayed in the night that I decided to try to walk to New Jersey (and succeeded.) So I remembered it somewhat.
It was 1:30 in the morning when I rolled into the hotel. I got everything that I really needed unpacked and into the hotel and I was in bed at 2:00. I was asleep pretty quickly. It has been a really long day and I have a really busy day tomorrow. My wake-up call is scheduled for 7:00 in the morning and I pretty much have to rush at that point.
Chuck Norris Facts. These get to be pretty funny.
Also, if you are looking for a funny aside to your day watch the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny – requires Flash.