Day 4 .. not much more

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Day 4 - and literally not much more to add.

I had raisin bran for breakfast. Ok, I had some bacon too and a spoonful of scrambled egg. The bacon was really thin though; you could practically see through it. I couldn't pass it up because it was so crisp and I love crisp bacon.

I'm laughing as I write this because the people I'm working with are obsessed with food! I told them they're turning me into a restaurant critic because all I have to write about is what I've eaten for the day.

The first day when they were telling me how to get back to my hotel room, they were identifying streets by what fast food place was on that street. "You take I-35 until you see the Round Rock Bakery and then you turn left. Go straight until you pass Tia Tina's Taqueria" Seriously.

When I got in today (I "slept in" until 6:15 -- didn't get in the office until almost 8:30 -- subtract 2 hours for CA time) Scott had brought in a donut to celebrate my being here. In the box was ONE gigantic donut -- donuts done Texas style!

I got to spend an hour with Donna for some OJT (on the job training). She was explaining the Genesys system to me, even though I won't actually be using it. I just need to know the basics for when I'm on call, but that won't be for several months. Great. I've already forgotten what she told me and I won't even use it for months!!! I'm encouraged.

Then it was time for a cigarette break. I swear the number of times these people go out for a cigarette make it tempting to start smoking. Although as I said, I have enough second hand smoke now built up to last me a month of Sundays. Even better, when we went to lunch (Peggy, Donna and I) they were both smoking in the car! Yippee.

Lunch was at "Puffy Taco". That's not the complete name but that's what they all call it. I had a crispy taco and a chicken enchilada with Spanish rice. It was pretty darned good, too. No puffy tacos. The chips were obviously made by them and oh, so greasy! I had a few and I think I'm going to regret it. I think tomorrow will be a double raisin-bran day.

Back at the hotel dinner was Frito pie. Basically fritos with toppings of chili (it took me awhile to get just the chili w/o any beans), sour cream, chopped tomatoes, shredded cheese and shredded lettuce. Took it back to the room to eat.

While I'm eating I hear this really strange noise!! Sounds like someone is vacuuming close to my door. Kind of a vibrating, moaning sound. Then I thought it might be the refrigerator. Then I thought it might be coming from the next room. It doesn't happen all the time, but every time it did I jumped up and ran to the door to look out the peephole. Couldn't believe anyone would be vacuuming this time of night. After pulling the refrigerator in and out and looking in the freezer several times, and just about ready to call management, I figured out what it is. I have my windows open and it's VERY windy out. 80% chance of rain and possible thunderstorms. Every time the wind blows hard, I hear this noise. I think the wind is making the door vibrate. Sounds like when we used to put waxed paper over a comb and blow on it to make that vibrating noise.

Oh, just before I left this evening, Charles tells me they've gotten a complaint from one of our big agents that when they connected to NorCal, they got disconnected. Three times. He asked me if I could access our switch, (no) and he was on a very lengthy conference call about it. He finally told them there's nothing to be done at this point in time. Don't think they liked that!!

Well, I'm getting ready for bed while most of you are just getting home or fixing dinner. Whatever. Adrain has offered to take me to San Antonio on Saturday for Fiesta! Apparently 80,000 people come from all over the world for this event. Sounds like fun??

BTW, people from San Antonio say Santonio. Donna is from there and I asked her if she knew the rest of the world pronounced it as two words. She laughed. No one here has a Texas drawl either. She said that's more likely people in the hill country or just the country folk. Huh.

Okay, enough of my chatter. I've been getting a real kick out of your replies to my nonsense. If this were a book, it would never hit the bestseller list! Oh, and Barb, I saw Vince Thompsen again and I said "Vince, from Pleasanton!" He confessed it was indeed him and I told him that I'd mentioned to you that I thought I saw him. We were in a group of people so didn't really have an opportunity to chat.

Okay, everyone. Good night for now. Signing off until tomorrow....