354 - I love 5pm

Another interesting day in the Tower. Tons of meetings today with content peeps. It wasn't terrible, but mostly because I couldnt get a word in edge wise. So really, not too bad. After the 2nd meeting, I started going to the content persons office 5 minutes early. Grabbed them before web girl could get in and interject her tard-ness into them.

All in all, it was unsatisfying. I have alot to talk over with the mother ship before I take another step, but I have 3 or 4 meetings tomorrow to deal with as well.

I parked in the pricey garage today. It was supposed to downpour, I was running late and I simply didn't feel like playing Bum Frogger today. Not very money-responsible, but some days you need to park closer. heh.

Had a phone conf with NH. That was fun, although I couldn't hear all of it. Got a lot of work done. Got my bank account all set here, paid my credit card, bought some ice cream, got lost... same ol same ol.

OH... found out today that 300 comes out on Tuesday!! Holy camel crotch! I'm SO excited! We got this kick ass 65 inch HDTV and 300 is coming out! I'm gonna drool all over the spartans.. yeah I am.

Hmm... nothing really interesting to write about today, or maybe there was but I'm sleepy and whiney, so I'm not gonna.heh.

OH.. One last thing, Kiddo gets here tomorrow!!! YAY!

PS. Kitchy Fun time:
SciFi Channel's "Who wants to be a super hero" is back! I can't help but watch. Its a total train wreck, but it's fun.

355 - And so it begins

Today was another good day. (Day 10 btw!)Tomorrow (and every day work day til the 31st) promises to be dreadful, ghastly, vile and all around suckitty suck suck.

This morning after downing half a bottle of Advil (that damn headache won't let go of me) I went off to get the gang at their hotel. I dropped them off at the Tower and went to park (I park a few blocks away, and I figure those NH people can't hack it... Plus.. they're like, old and stuff *snicker*) Then played Frogger with the bums on the walk to the office. *walk on this side of the street.. Ooh.. old bum with one shoe, cross to the other side, walk a bit, oh oh, old bum with two shoes but no pants, walk to the other side of the street, avoid the old bum that tells me Jesus loves me and would love me more if I'd give him a cig or some change, run across the street avoiding the train that seems to seriously want to run me over some day, leap into the office building across the street from my office, down the escalator into the tunnels to my office* Now make a mental picture of that and overlay the Frogger sound effects. It's amusing.

9am meeting with some of the politically retarded, adversarials who want me to crash and burn. It went well actually. I wasn't sure if I was pleased with the boss or wanted to bap him for repeatedly mentioning to "web girl" that she should probably sit with the designers on how to make a web page, rather than with the ultra smart developers who she would not understand and just find boring - until "web girl" finally got ultra-snotty and answered "I do have a degree in computer programming, you know!" I was really tempted to say "Yeah? So does my dry cleaner. Not a feat of greatness there, cupcake." But I retained my vacuous smile and professional composure. Always let people think you don't know much, makes them much more likely to slip in front of you. heh.

Our main contact/supporter at the Tower (a NH guy who typically listens half heartedly while fondling his Blackberry - and no that's not dirty) showed up for the meeting. I was a bit shocked, really. It wasn't a terribly important meeting so I didn't expect to see him there. But there he was, and there I was greatly underestimating him. By the end of the meeting the things we were worried about; "web girl" doing her damnedest to undermine us, "Web girl, Special Edition" being nasty and irritating and attempting to aid "web girl" and the ensuing blow up never happened. "web girl, special edition's" boss showed up. Now maybe it's just because he grew up in Boston, but this was a guy I could understand. Sorta say it like it is, lay the cards on the table sort. Now I only was in an hour meeting with the guy, so I could be wrong, but I felt he was fairly genuine in his wanting to work with us, not against us. "Web girl" went sour faced pretty quickly. "Web girl Special Edition" though.. that was a surprise. She actually seemed really interested in what we were proposing. I think she caught the "I could learn something new and interesting" bug. At least it shows she's got a brain. Regular old "web girl" would poop a kitten before admitting she knows nothing and doesn't want to know anything new. "AAAAAAAAAAh! Progress! Get it off me! It may stain!" ..... dumbass. I'm just sayin'.

We left the meeting and had some interesting talks about the state of the mine field which is my job. heh. Then we went to lunch. The boss guy took us to lunch and although I was feeling queasy (damn freakin' migraine!) I was looking forward to actual human interaction during lunch. We went to "Massa's Seafood Grill" in The Houston Center. I had the most amazing grilled salmon ever. SO yummy. Had fun conversation, had the prerequisite "invoices, making money, blah blah blah" conversation, and enjoyed the time out. The boss is good to us.

We went back in and I got a phone call from one of the NH guys (not my team, the supporters team who has a wee bit of pull in the Tower) to tell me that he had no clue that I wasn't getting cooperation there and that the second I feel that I'm being pushed out or not being listened to to call him. He'll make sure I get what I need there. Now, "web girl" after being chastised by... well... someone, finally made me the appointments I had been waiting for and I did let him know that. She also made sure to make some headway on the printer I needed as well. Let me say, she SO didn't want to.. which is why I know she was 'spoken' to, although I'm not sure by whom. From what the boss guy said the NH supporter people had been made aware that I wasn't being treated in a hospitable way and were out to put an end to that.

Here's what web girl did today that made no sense to me. I had sat with her talking about all new content stuff... a small contingent of exec types (and her) had gone through current content and slashed it. Took out paragraphs, pages, etc to knock it down a bit before re-write. But that content has to be looked at by the 'content owners' to verify numbers, etc. We did not want the content owners to know that lots of her content had been slashed... they never look at it, but had we said "We removed that"... they would have said "I need it in there". They don't. Honestly, But that's what would have happened. So I had devised a way to subtly do this. I had gotten web girl to agree that instead of showing the printed pages of stuff with big red X's through paragraphs we'd show them word docs that already have the paragraphs removed. If they noticed some content missing (which they wont) we could address it then... but showing it to them and calling attention to the missing stuff was just asking for trouble. So that's what we did. Redid the content in word doc form, removed everything, then I sent her copies to make sure she was good with it. To check the work done I left the edit tracking on. (to those of you who don't know that means that things that were removed/changed show up in a different color with a call out balloon showing that it's gone) The plan was for me to show her make sure she was good with it, then 'accept changes', which removes the balloons and crossed out text, and that's how the content peeps would see it. But nooooo... web girl sends out invites (which she was supposed to do Monday) for meetings with me to go over what I needed done with the damned marked up docs attached! grrrrr. So not only have we removed the stuff, but then we gave these people (who WILL bitch about this now) docs that show we removed it. Lets really make sure we call attention to what we're trying to remove. That's the very best way to make sure they see it. arg. grr.

So I said, "Update the meeting request, I'll accept all changes to the documents and resend them. Attach those to the meeting updates. We'll be golden". web girl says "well, I could do it from home tonight I guess.. *sigh, moan*" ..... wtf...... she's a boob. I'm not just sayin'... I really mean it.

So tomorrow it starts. I have 14 meetings (by way of web girl) to attend and discuss content. Great. No clue what the hell I'm doing, but I can tap dance pretty well.

Tonight was quiet... thankfully. My little one gets here in two days! Ok.. so she's not so little. Still.. I miss her and worry about her and cant wait to squish her silly. I'm so scared she won't like it here... wont' give it a chance. It's gonna be a tough transition, but she's pretty good at realizing that things may take work. We'll see.

Off to finish making dinner.

PS: New House Observation:
Sure it's great and good to have the coolest latest appliances, but wtf with my stove!? It's all digital and gas... so it's totally foreign. Now yes, those of you who know me know stoves are odd foreign entities anyway, but still... Can't I just say ON or OFF... this thing is like something they dragged out of the space shuttle! grr. Haven't eaten yet cus I couldn't figure the damn thing out and ended up NOT turning it on, apparently I just teased it a little or something. freakin' thing.

356 - They're here...

Today was pretty good all around actually. It started off a wee bit boring, and I assume once the team leaves it may be back to being that way, but having Ben and Sharon come to Houston was great. Communication from the home planet has been a bit sparse, so I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy my boss and my team mates. Since I hadn't heard much from back home not only was I feeling useless in my current position, but I simply assumed I was outta site, outta mind. I also suspected that the boss guy was irritated with me about something or other.

I watched the psycho window cleaners for a bit again this morning. Someone really should have them checked out by a trained psychologist. I again forgot my camera, which irritates me silly since I really did want to post a picture of them. I'll try and remember to bring it with me again so I can catch some of that action on film...um...digital whatever.

Once everyone was in the office I felt far more in my element. Rather than sort of skulking around and taking periodic cig breaks (alone of course) I had new direction and people to bounce stuff off of and a way to sort of point out some things that happen at the new office that makes me wonder.

I had been feeling a bit ostracized, and basically 'felt' that I was purposefully being overlooked, even led astray a bit, but without someone else there to validate it I simply internalized it and didn't pay very much attention. (that sentence had too many "..sized" words.)

We hit a few semi-productive meetings... all politically based... and I felt that the boss and Sharon really did get a good feel for life in the big glass tower. Not only that, I kind of felt vindicated when I found that after a few hours there a discussion was held big-wig to big-wig about the lack of communication and cooperation I was receiving. Typically I totally frown on being a tattle tale or having someone step in for me, but at least I felt that someone remembered I existed and didn't like what was going on. One of my main contacts here is just so irritating. Passive aggressive really. No "Hey, I don't like you but I have to work with you but I'm not going to be nice about it", it's all "Sure I'll help, Sure I'll make things easy, but as soon as you walk out of here I'm rolling my eyes and forgetting you even exist". I so hate that. I know I'll wheedle my way in there and end up in a good place (No, wheedling is not on my resume, it comes from life experience, and I'm darn good at it. A "social chameleon" one friend called me once. I figure it's apt and not necessarily a bad thing.)

After the meetings and the validation and the officey stuff was done I dragged them back to my place to show it off a little bit. The boss pays for it, I wanted to see how great it is in person. I felt he was suitably impressed and from there we hit Cyclone Anaya's, a trendy hip spot in midtown that is all the rage right now. We initially wanted a seat inside with all the beautiful people, but the place was incredibly obnoxiously loud. We moved out to their outside seating pretty quickly. Ben and Sharon are horribly fun people, and typically I can be funny, but not fun. I get a wee to freaky in major social situations, so I tend to clam up quick. But I had a raspberry margarita (a small one as opposed to the troughs that the rest of the crew ordered) and a great meal. Sitting outside was great. It was a bit thick and muggy, but I've found Houston to have a great breeze pretty much all the time. We hung out and chatted, fended off a few bums that came by (which is a daily occurrence and something I don't even mention here much) and had a really nice time.

I dropped them off at their hotel around 9:30 and came home to bed. Unfortunately having a drink will often give me a headache. That coupled with the oncoming storm sort of laid me flat. So there was much Advil, tossing and turning, and wishing I had a good dose of Oxy or something that may knock my ass out.

Tomorrow I'll grab the gang at their hotel to drive them to the Tower at 8:15am. They didn't get the super close hotel and even though not far, walking with laptop and all in tow is not fun. Plus, trying to keep up with Ben when he's walking too or from work/a meeting... pretty much anything is a challenge in itself.

Things seem good today. Busy, but I so prefer it that way. Still can't seem to get my ADD meds refilled. Some odd Texas thing apparently. I'll work on that more this week.

P.S. - Random weird Texas thing I have noticed:
Houston apparently has no mosquito problem. None. I sit out on my balcony at night, sometimes with the super high powered high beam spot light on, and never have to flee from the buggies. We occasionally get one in the house, and what's weird is they don't go for us. They simply sorta fly around. Either they re not hungry, or Texas mosquitoes are tards. Haven't figured that out yet. Anyway. It's a good observation I'm making today.

PPS. This is a retro active post, since my migraine interrupted regularly scheduled blogging, so no weather for the day.

357 - Tell me why..

I don't like Mondays. The alarm didn't work again this morning. What gives!? Is it really so technical that I can't seem to figure this thing out? arg!

I arrived at work late. I ended up parking at that garage a couple of blocks away to avoid the high parking fee. I figure I'll hit the expensive one if it's raining terribly (since it's connected to the tunnels) but I'm done with hoping I won't end up paying every cent I have to park for a few hours.

I got in and had a chance to meet with one of the work girls for a bit to go over a few things, so that was good. Meant some work to do. I also had the pleasure of actually having Internet. Yay!

I've switched jobs here and there before and I know that the beginning of a new place is always frustrating and lonely. All I can do is keep my head down, work, and keep my ears open. I did have a chance to have a quick discussion with someone outside today. Nice girl, unfortunately she's leaving her job at the end of the month to move to Alaska. That's a change of climate, for sure!

Other than that, well... I'm pretty set adrift out here. I don't hear much from back home, can't seem to get some of my emails answered from the NH office, and am really not sure what I'm doing out here work wise. So I'm a bit useless at the moment. I know this will pass, I've been through it before, but honestly it's really making me hate my job at the moment.

The skyline was super pretty today, and having helicopters drive by now and then is pretty interesting. And today I got to see the window washers go up and down. Freaks of nature, these people. I was having heart palpatations just watching them. swinging back and forth 40+ stories above the street... ugh.

The boss comes into town tomorrow. That'll be fun.

In other news... Biddy is having trouble adjusting. She's really kind of depressed and is pulling her fur again. She got ganged up on by the other two today and went into hiding. The guy and I walked around with our flashlights searching for her behind couches and chairs, under things, in closets... we were getting a bit nervous when we finally found her huddled behind the washer. We poked her to get out and I spoke softly to her, but she's just having some difficulty.

Chels will be here in a week or so, then I think Biddy will settle down. Speaking of Chels getting here.... I've asked my boss a few times to get her her ticket, and for some reason I can't seem to get an answer on that. It's kinda driving me nutty. I'd understand no answer if I emailed him and said "What are your thoughts on global warming", but this is kind of important.

meh.

358 - Sunday mellow Sunday.

Today was pretty good. Not much going on. Lots of cleaning of course since it's Sunday, but other than that it was pretty mellow. I got laundry done and swept and mopped floors, did the glass and stuff.

I decided to go off to Target and pick up a cardigan, ended up with a new printer (we needed one) more clothes hangers so I'll stop stealing Ray's hangers, a new book, a new phone cus the phones here suck, and some new jammies... cus... well cus I wanted new jammies :D

I got a little lost on the way home, but the AIG building is huge and I used that as a landmark. So I made it home without too much issue. Spent the rest of the day sorta lazing around. I played around with photoshop a bit, did a wee bit more cleaning, played with the kitties... except for Biddy, who got in trouble so she's hiding under the couch right now.

It was sunny all day. Hot hot hot. My car thermometer said it was 97. It's way cooler now though. It's storming too with huge loud thunderclaps and lightening. It actually gets loud in here when it rains. The rain hits the skylight which is pretty big and is quite loud.

I didn't get a chance to talk to the kiddo today. I miss her. I can't wait for her to get here.

359 - I have found the promise land

I adore Saturday. I think I like Saturday even more than Friday night. Friday nights I'm tired, and don't much feel like doing lots. Saturday morning is my favorite. Sunday morning is OK, but you know that tomorrow you'll have to go to work, so there's always that little cloud over your head. Saturday you know you have a whole 'nuther day to lounge around.

So today I got up, fed the girlies, did some cleaning, had some waffles and lounged around for an hour or so. Hubby got up and lounged too (He's wicked good at lounging. He never feels compelled to get up and clean. Seriously. Never. *snicker*)

I made phone calls, one to my step mother - who wasn't home, but I expected that. One to my friends Sarah and Dan, they were home and it was great to talk to them. They're talking about buying a house. I plan on keeping every sticky-outie extremity crossed for them. They're the nicest people I know and deserve so much happiness.

The tow truck called. Chelsea's car died yesterday (I didn't blog it simply because I was too tired) Seems as if her fuel pump has gone and her car is now d-e-d. I told her to call my auto club and have them tow it. They called saying "There are no keys in the car", I said "Yes there is, the steering column is broken, we've never been able to take the keys out." Anyway, I ended up having to call Gene and Chels to tell them to get there quick, then I realized the tow truck driver had said the wrong address so I called him back and found that he already had it and was driving. So I called Gene and Chels back to tell them to turn around and get back home to meet them. All crisis diverted (other than an unhappy teen who wants her car fixed. ugh.)

Ray and I decided to go cash our checks (OH.. yeah. Checks came! YAY!) Check cashing is a bit of a pain in the ass here since we're not all set up and we don't have a TX license yet and blah blah. So I'm hoping we'll get direct deposit soon. We ended up deciding to go get some of that spray to keep cats off stuff at Target. So we made our way over there, shopped a bit (I got some cool desky stuff for work, a scratching cardboard matt thing for Lucy cus it's her fav, some Pyrex dishes cus they didn't have any here and a kit kat bar. Yum.) Then I said "You know Ray, I really wanna go to the Galleria. Want to come with?" I assumed he'd say no. It's a mall. I believe men's testicles actually shrivel in some sort of autorepsonse way to malls in general. But he said "Yeah. K". So off to Galleria. I asked directions of "Frankie" our friendly Target store employee dressed in cheerful red. Frankie told us how to get there, and Ray navigated with our nifty Taxi Map Book (Do you know... our city is so big it has a book with 200 pages of maps!). We got there and there was GAWD awful traffic. Chicky at work told me that it was like that... I should have listened. heh.

We pulled into the parking garage and were bumper to bumper for quite awhile. I'd say we tried to find a spot for a good 15 - 20 minutes. The parking garage there has to be 2 football fields long. Then we went down to a lower level. Yep.. so big they have 3 levels of 2 football fields long parking lots. Amazing.

we went up into the mall and I swear... had it been quiet for just one moment... you would have heard angels singing. I do believe it may just be some sort of retail heaven. Now, I was going for just one store, Torrid, but let me tell you what I walked past;

Betsey Johnson.... I swear I nearly died. Betsey bags in the window, cooler than cool fashions... my fav designers store right there. *sigh*

Tiffanys, Dior, Armani (A/X), Urban Outfitters, Vittons, Coach, Dolce & Gabbana.... the list goes on and on. It was truly miraculous.

I hit Torrid cus I love it, then we wandered around for a bit. The place is MASSIVE! We went into two wings and it was hours. We ended up eating at the Daily Grill. I had a really great Chicken penne pesto. Very yummy. My hubby had the meatloaf.

Now here is the super cool part.... we drove home and decided to skip the highway and do Westheimer instead. So we're driving down the road and I see Restoration Hardware and get all happy . "I'm going to have to come back to go there!" Then I see Crate and Barrel.. and about 10 other big time "Girly furniture type shops" (as hubby called them) WOO! I said "I swear if there's a West elm here too I'm going to cry!" and hubby points to the left and says "West Elm". Oohh!! I'm SO going back there without him. hehe.

Then there was a whole section of antique places. Neat looking ones tho, not the boring kind we have in NH. Then a section that was all cool 'retro' shops. A section with a ton of tattoo parlors. A section of all fast food places. It's weird how they all sorta grouped together.

We made it past there, Ray laughing at me the whole time, and then went to Randalls to go grocery shopping. We got yummy stuff, and now we're home happy and half asleep... well.. I'm half asleep.

OH... Hubster took pictures of our birdies. We have a mamma and daddy bird who squawk and jabber at us constantly, and a baby bird who does the same, but he's too baby to fly. He hops around on the bushes down in our yard. We became worried that maybe that's why the parents are yelling at us... perhaps baby can't fly yet and they think we'll hurt him. I also worried that maybe baby fell and he can't get back to his nest, so Ray and I put a dish of water under the bushes for him in case he needs a drink. So here are our birdies :D

It's Saturday... I'm going to eat some of my Blue Bell ice cream (best damn ice cream ever!) and snooze on the couch for awhile. :)

Happy Saturday!

P.S. - Random weird Texas thing I have noticed:
All the traffic lights are hung horizontally, not vertically like at home. So instead of the read being top, yellow center, and green bottom - its red on the left, yellow center, and green right. I hate it. Seriously. I never notice that there's a light. I've been blowing through lights all over the place. Ray teases me, I tell him to shut it. The South is freakin' weird for hanging their damn lights like that and they deserve to have me blowing through them.... I'm just sayin'.

360 - TGIF

I got up late today. Not sure what I did to mess with my alarm clock, but it wasn't going off, so late it was.

Getting up late sorta sets the tone for the day, and since it was raining BUCKETS this morning it wasn't shocking that I wasn't feeling all sunny.

I went back to the parking garage across from the office (The one that charged me $15.00 yesterday) and this time parked on the very top. Yay. Of course, raining buckets and tops of garage is not cool. I stepped out and the water was literally up to my ankle. Luckily I wore my flipflops and carried my work shoes.

I ended up getting in at 8:40am. Blah. Things went OK at work. Boring right now. Hopefully that will change soon.I'm tired tonight so this is a short one. heh

I went out for lunch and walked around downtown for awhile. Very pretty place :)

Finally got Internet! YAAAY!

Found out that parking on the top is only $8 bucks... IF you get in before 8am. Early bird freakin' lame assed special. Next time I see an early bird I'm going to run it over. SO... $15.00.

Came home, cleaned a bit, took a nap, woke up , made dinner, ate, drove to the store, drove home, ate a cookie.

That was about it. heh

Told you I was tired today. I'm sure I"ll have interesting stuff to write about tomorrow.