Sheep Guarding Llama

I woke up this morning at 6:20 – forty minutes before my wake up call. Not bad for having gone to bed at 2:00 and having barely gotten any sleep the night before. I was very proud of myself. I got right out of bed, showered, shaved (beard and head,) packed and was out of the hotel right at 8:00. Plenty of time to get out to Warren, New Jersey where my interview was this morning.

The sun was bright and shining and it was a truly beautiful day. It was almost forty miles from Easton, Pennsylvania where I was staying in the hotel to Warren. I thought that traffic would be awful and that it would take forever but almost all of the trip was very lightly trafficed and the trip was great. I was in Warren quite a bit before 9:00. Interview was at 10:00.

I ended up spending a lot of my spare time driving around looking for the address that I had been given. It turned out that the address doesn’t really exist at all and that I actually had to be on a different road than I was told. But fortunately the directions got me close enough that I was able to find the place without any additional help anyway. I was into the parking garage by 9:30 and had some time to kill.

I met my consulting firm contact at 9:45 and he got me signed in and past security. I went up to the interview at 10:00. I had three separate interviews by noon. Then I was done and able to head out of town. The facility sits directly on US 78 and I was right back onto the highway in no time at all. I called in to the consulting firm and gave them the overview of how it went and headed for home.

The state of New Jersey provides Google with awesome satellite photos of the entire state. It is really handy. I guess of any state it makes the most sense for New Jersey to do it since they are our most densely populated state. Here is the satellite photo of the building that I was interviewing in. On the left is the parking garage and on the right is the actual office building. That is Building B. If you zoom out just a tiny bit you can see that that building actually sites directly on the side of the on ramp to US78. It doesn’t get any handier than that.

So how did it go? I know that everyone is wondering that. Well, it is an interview. It is impossible to tell how well it went. It didn’t go horribly. That much I know. I felt pretty good about the whole thing. Dominica and I are really not thinking much about me getting this position. It is very unlikely and I haven’t been job hunting so it isn’t like we are dependant on it in any way. In fact we aren’t really convinced that we even want it. Sure the money would be great but there are a lot of factors. The interview did reinforce the fact, though, that this is a massively enterprise environment and there is a lot of great educational opportunity to be had.

It only took half an hour before I was back into Pennsylvania. It was a great day for traveling. I called around and let everyone know how the interview had gone. I stopped at the Delaware Water Gap rest station on US78 just as you enter Pennsylvania and headed for New York. I grapped a quick lunch at the one service center on the turnpike headed north so that I wouldn’t have to make a major stop and get off of the highway again until I got to Geneseo. It took only five and a half hours for me to go from Warren to Geneseo and that included two bathroom stops, one lunch stop and at least fifteen minutes lost because I missed a turn and had to figure out how to get back onto the highway going the direction that I wanted to go. So I figure that the drive itself is only about five hours flat. Not bad at all. At least when there isn’t any traffic. I hit almost none the entire way.

It is really positive that the commute to and from Warren is only five hours. We had been assuming that it was more like seven hours. Seven hours would make the job a lot more prohibitive. It would mean driving home on a Friday night just to go straight to bed. But five hours means that the drive itself would not be completely exhausting and that there would be time left to do things once I got back. It I left Warren at 5:00 on a Friday evening I could easily beat Dominica home from work.

I was home at 5:30 and dad was over shortly thereafter to drop off Oreo. Oreo was very excited that I was home and gave me lots of kisses. He really hates me being away. If I end up getting this job, which I won’t, it will be really tough dealing with him. Dominica has started looking into doggie day care options because he can’t possibly be left home alone all day.

Dad and I did dinner at the Omega. We didn’t hang out too long. I was pretty tired between just having had so much to do and not having gotten very much sleep the last several days. I really needed to just get home and relax for a little while.

Dominica’s USB powered desktop aquarium finally arrived today. I ordered it for her so that I could give it to her for Christmas and it only just arrived today. How ridiculous is that? She will be very excited to finally have that. She told everyone at work that she was getting one and I don’t think that they believe her anymore.

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.

Well it has been one long weekend. I am totally worn out today. I worked on that server all weekend long and got practically nowhere. I am not encouraged by the progress that has been made thus far. I have no idea where I am going to go from here. I really wanted to have this over and out of the way by the end of the weekend but apparently this nightmare is going to be with me all week long. At the rate we are going I am going to be incredibly fortunate if I am able to wrap up this server build by the end of NEXT weekend.

Dominica had to be up early this morning so that she could be ready for dad to pick her up at the house at 8:20. She is going down to Castile to help teach today. Dad will be alone tomorrow so that Dominica can stay home with Oreo. I will be out of town (see previous posts so I don’t have to repeat my itinerary too many times here.) I slept in until 9:00. I had to get up because Oreo decided that he needed me. Then we proceeded to have two and a half hours of uninterrupted “Oreo needs his daddy” time. I had to take him out no less than five times and had to spend all of the time that I wasn’t taking care of him outside to play with him in the living room. I have never seen him have so much energy before. He was totally nuts. I was starting to sweat from playing with him for so long. He didn’t give me a break. I think that he wore me out more than I wore him out. Finally around 11:30 he laid down and went to sleep.

Today is a busy day of me getting ready to travel Tuesday and Wednesday. I am really bad about getting up and getting ready early in the morning. I always end up forgetting half of the things that I need. I am a terrible traveller in that way. The travelling itself and the being out of town isn’t a problem but just getting ready to go I find very stressful. I know that I forget things so I worry about them a lot. I made a list of things and have been getting things together all day and putting them either directly into the car or into a box that will go into the car. I have maps and directions all printed out. I have my cell, a camera (why not) and am filling my MP3 player with plenty of IT Conversations stuff to keep me really busy. Hopefully there will be something really interesting to keep me occupied while I drive. Fourteen hours is a lot of driving.

I made hotel reservations at the Comfort Inn in Easton, Pennsylvania. Ardent followers of SGL will note that this is one of the hotels that I stayed in while working in Eastern Pennsylvania during the summer of last year. It was while staying at that hotel that I took the long evening walk and ended up in New Jersey. The hotel is about twenty miles away from the interview but I didn’t find a Choice Hotel near to the place where I was interviewing (Warren, NJ) and I figured that it would make more sense to be familiar with the hotel than anything else. I know how to get there, how to get out and I know that the Internet access works. Not that I will have any time for that. I will be arriving very late at night tomorrow night and need to be awake pretty early in the morning. So I might not even bother to set up my laptop. But I have it just in case. I have not yet used my new laptop while out of town, I don’t think. I will definitely be getting some use out of it next week while Andy and I are in Pittsburgh.

Dominica got back from Castile and did some errand running for me. She took a stool sample from Oreo over to his vet so that they could identify his worms. Of course they didn’t find any so they didn’t have any good advice for us. But she had to make a second trip over there to get an alternative worm medication for him to try. She also ran over to the dry cleaners to pick up my huge load of dress shirts that she had dropped off on Thursday (I think it was Thursday. I am too lazy to look it up now.) Now I have something to wear to the interview. Hopefully my suit is okay 🙂

I have a book packed. Never travel without a book. That is a key to happiness when traveling. You never know what might happen that you will have no power, Internet access, television, et ceterra and the one thing that you will have is your book. I generally bring at least two books and a few magazines so that I have a selection. Best to be prepared for just about anything when you are out of town. I don’t need too much for this trip. It is just one night and I am going to be very busy Tuesday and I will be coming home the moment the interview is over on Wednesday.

Now I know that everyone is rooting for me to get this position but lets not be too hasty. This job is a long way from home in an area that I am not very familiar with. The consulting firm is willing to help me get an apartment and everything but still the logistics of the whole thing will be a nightmare. We could sure do with the money. That would be great. And it would do wonders for the company because it would mean suddenly that we were able to keep Andy on full time for the duration of my contract time in New Jersey and probably a bit longer than that. But still the job will be a huge headache. Dominica and Oreo will almost never see me. I should be able to come home most weekends but I will be exhausted by the time that I get home and Dominica works all day on Saturday so we would only see each other on Sundays. And I would have to drive back down on Sunday evening so our total time together would be pretty minimal. She thinks that she would be able to get some serious time off from work so that she could spend every fourth week or so down in Jersey with me. That would help tremendously. It would mean that we would have every other weekend together down there. And then I would drive back to New York for one or two weekends out of every four weeks. So we wouldn’t actually see each other too much less than we do now. It would be tough but doable. But there are other options. I have been getting lots of calls about jobs recently and I haven’t even been looking. It wasn’t even a part of the plan for me to get any work this year. Of course, with the pending danger of Pittsburgh next week we may end up needing me to work but that is another matter. So we really aren’t tied to the idea of me working in New Jersey. We will just wait and see where the Lord leads.

I did get a call about some small survey work that T-Mobile needs to have done over the next few weeks. I might even manage to keep myself busy if they give me enough sites. I love the small projects that this because they can’t possibly get too stressful and they help to fill in between things. I should know more about that by Monday.

I got everything packed and ready to go with Dominica’s help by 10:00pm. I had some web design and maintenance work that needed my attention this evening so I had to squeeze that in as well and I continued working on that awful server nightmare.

Oreo desperately needed a bath so I saw to that this evening as well. Oreo much prefers getting a bath from me because I steam the bathroom to keep him warm and actually give him a shower instead of a bath. He is very content just standing in the warm water. If you move the water away he will actually move to get into it. I think that it keeps him warm. He gets cold very easily. We had to give him a bath today because Dominica was doing the laundry and all of his blankets were washed so we couldn’t have a stinky dog on clean blankets (and boy does he have a lot of blankets.) He is very spoiled and he steals everyone else’s blankets whenever he can. He has two that are “his” that always have been plus two that he “keeps” in the basement and two that he keeps on our bed. So six blankets dedicated to one little Boston Terrier. All in the same house. Now tell me that that isn’t one spoiled dog. He also has two pillows of his own as well. Custom made pillows just for him.

Finally tonight I got to the point where I am 99% sure that I am not going to be able to get the new server up and running the way that I had hoped that I would and I am going to have to fall back to the old server with a new build. That is really a bummer. All of this work for nothing. And a bit of money spent that isn’t exactly wasted but that isn’t the investment that we had thought that it was going to be either. Ah well. C’est la Vie. At least I am to a point where I know what needs to be done and I have so much to do over the next few days that I can’t be focusing on it anyway. It is a really straight forward process once I get back and have the time to devote to it.