WhistlinDixie

The Beach, Just Not Myrtle

This morning I took part in a charity sand volleyball tournament for the United Way that was put on by UPS. When I signed up, it sounded like it would be fun. That is, until I found out that it started at 8:00 in the morning. After all, what teenager wants to get up at 6:10 in the morning on a Saturday? It was about a forty minute drive to get to North Avenue Beach for the tournament. I am just glad that they were late getting started since I showed up at 8:05. Anyway, my team, CACH TSG, lost the first match 15-7, 9-15, 13-15 to Metro TSG. However, since we had an odd number of teams, there were a couple of "wildcard" spots in the bracket for teams that lost by the fewest points. It just so happens that we fit into the first wildcard position. We were feeling pretty good heading into the second game against CACH Finance. Unfortunately, we did nowhere as well as we did in the first match, losing 4-15, 7-15. We were horrible. Only explanation that we could come up with was that people were tired. Afterwards, I decided to walk down to the lake and dip my toes in Lake Michigan. It was freezing (apx. 65°)! Since it was so cold, I decided against actually taking a swim in the lake to cool off. After watching another one of the games for a while, I decided to leave so I wouldn’t get a sunburn.

In other news, my last day of work for the quarter is Thursday. I get to drive home on Friday, then turn right back around and leave for Myrtle Beach with the family the next day. I get back the next Thursday. Then, just a few weeks later, I get to leave to go back to school, which starts on the 11th of July. I guess that I won’t have too much time to get bored this summer.

To Much to Sum Up In One Line

First off, I’d like to say goodbye to Reggie Miller of the Indianapolis Pacers. His career ended last night in a loss to the Detroit Pistons. His 27 points were the fifth highest in a player’s last career playoff game. He retires as the twelfth highest scorer in NBA history. He made it to the Finals once and lost. He gave the Chicago Bulls a run for their money a few times in the playoffs in the late nineties. Unfortunately, he ran up against Michael Jordan, possibly the greatest basketball player of all time.

Now, about me. This week has just been a little weird. I had to come in to work half an hour early two days this week. Craig, the guy who previously worked on my project, finally called me after two weeks of playing email tag (he works night shift now). Today, I got volunteered to work in a car wash fund raiser for United Way. Not a problem: I get to stop work an hour early and go wash cars for an hour. Unfortunately, as I get ready to leave, I noticed that I had lost my ID badge. I went back and checked under my desk, under the table where I ate lunch, and in the restroom. It was nowhere to be found. I took a five minute walk over to Security in the mezzanine, only to find out that my badge had not been turned in there. I then took a walk back over to the Outbound 4 office and asked the people there if any one had turned in an ID. Again, no luck. I finally made it up to the car wash half an hour after I was scheduled to start. Even though no one was keeping track, I still stayed an extra half an hour to make up the time. Next week I’ll have to get a temporary ID so I can still get in and out of the facility. If my badge doesn’t show up in four days, I get the privilege of paying five dollars for a new ID.

Money!

Ahh, my first paycheck. Ever. In paper that is. I normally have direct deposit set up (a great convenience), but UPS didn’t have it set up for my first pay cycle, so now I have a nice check in my room that I’ll have to cash over the weekend. It is kind of weird getting paid for the month of April when the month has yet to finish. I guess that is one of the advantages of being salaried.

In other news, CJ is planning to visit on the first weekend of June. It’ll be great to see him. Now all I have to do is scout out downtown so I can be a good (or at least decent) tour guide. I just want everyone to remember, you are more than welcome to come and visit sometime. It gets lonely sometimes being here alone. (It’s almost pathetic how much time I spend with my computer.) If you feel like visiting, give me a heads up and I’ll get you hooked up with directions. Remember, you are always welcome.

Hard Time

Today I got to go to my first department meeting. It was actually the April TSG (Technology Support Group) Recognition Meeting. Birthdays, anniversaries, both marital and employment-wise, and A+ certifications were on the agenda. Also, I was recognized as the new guy, the quiet co-op that needed to be loosened up a little.

Right now, you’re probably thinking, "So, what’s so hard about that?" Well, yesterday, I was handled the TOFC project. This had been worked on for over two months by one guy in the Applications Group, but he left us for bigger and better things, leaving the project without anyone to do it. During the meeting, Marcia (pronounced Mar-see-a), the manager of the Apps Group announced that I had inherited the TOFC project. After she said that, I got a bunch of very sympathetic looks from the other TSGers and a few "I’m sorry"s. This project is actually a complete overhaul of a database application that has been in use for almost fifteen years. It DB2 for a database and uses a Q&A front end. Don’t feel bad if all of that made no sense to you, because it made no sense to me either, because it was all from before my time. Anyway, this system makes very little sense to me and the program that I started writing in Access with VBA is proving to be a pain. Who ever thought that Visual Basic would act so much different from Visual Basic for Applications?

OK, as a change of pace, a quick commentary on JAG. I just happened to be watching TV while I am typing this and caught the end of tonight’s episode. Rabb finally got promoted from Commander to Captain. He was way past due since I think he has been a Commander ever since the series started all of those years ago. (I don’t even remember when the first episode aired, but it could have easily been eight or so years ago.) The new commander of JAG, a Marine, has decided to reassign Mac and Rabb to new jobs. Mac will be transferring to San Diego and Rabb to European Command, staying in London. Next week will be the series finale. A sad day, since JAG was one of the better shows out there. I don’t know how I feel about the teaser for the finale. It appears that Rabb is finally going to propose to Mac. It has been obvious that they have liked each other for a long time. I just don’t like the way that shows always wrap up everything in their last episode. Would it really hurt the viewing public to leave a few loose ends, have some conflicts go unresolved? I would love to see that happen, even if just once. Now I leave you for Numbers, a geek’s dream come true.

Settling In

Well, I am finishing my move into my apartment here in ChiTown. I am about a twenty minute drive from work, which is a huge improvement from the fifty plus minutes that it took to travel between work and Stephanie’s during rush hour. We actually got a great deal on this room. It normally costs two grand a month, but we got it for 900. The only trade off is that I don’t get room service (boo hoo). If you were wondering, room service does not cost $1,100. A lot of that discount is because of the apartment hunting agency that we booked through.

Westmont, the ‘burb that my apartment is in, seemed pretty nice when I first got here. When I went out for groceries last night, I about peed myself. Just up the road are dealers for BMW, Lexus, Mitsubishi, and Porsche, to name a few! The real accomplishment last night was just getting groceries and getting all of my stuff off of my bed (and onto the floor) so I could sleep. One way that I have found to help with getting up at 6:15 is to just convert it to EDT, so I think of it as 7:15. So, I am actually getting to sleep in. (I awoke at 7:00 every weekday while I was at school). The trade off has been going to sleep when the clock reads 9:00. Make me feel like a kid again, just not the way that I had always hoped to experience it.

Work has been interesting. First day I must have walked three miles in brand new dress shoes. My feet are still recovering. I finally got my ID number today, so I can request permissions tomorrow. Without permissions, I cannot log on to any of the computers. I should get them Friday or so. Until then, I have been having some of the other guys log me in with their accounts. The past two days, I have been working on a redesign of the internal website for CACH. I finished it up before I left today, so it should be posted soon. What I get to do tomorrow, who knows. I just hope I remember my lunch this time.

If you want to hear more, talk, whatever, IM me or call me. (OK, so maybe calling will be a little difficult, since I have received no requests for my number. Maybe all have you have been calling my parents. Just call, I get lonely.)

ChicagoLand Ho!

Just got the callback from UPS. I am now an employee of theirs and will be starting on Monday. That means that I will get to rush and pack my stuff so we can go apartment hunting over the weekend. Not only that, but it looks like an entire wardrobe restructuring will occur on Wednesday so I have the clothes that are appropriate for the job. (Shirt and tie, anyone?) I’ll be in ChiTown until mid-June when the work term ends. Then, it’s family vacation time. Then I get something like two weeks downtime before I go back to school. I don’t think that my life will be boring anytime soon.

Big News

OK, first off, Brian gets the honor of having arthroscopic surgery on Wednesday to repair some torn meniscus in his knee. He actually injured it originally a few years ago playing soccer with AYSO. It started bothering him toward the end of the wrestling season before he injured his chest. He goes in at 12:10 and starts the procedure at 2:10. I might go, but I am not sure.

Now, for the big news. I am going to Chicago (yes, the same one that the Bulls and Bears call home) to interview with UPS on Thursday. My dad will be going with me to help with driving and possibly apartment hunting. We hope to make it the entire round trip in a day. If we do achieve this, we’ll spend at least 13 hours on the road, according to MapQuest. If I get the job, I could be starting as early as Monday. It’ll suck to have to pack up everything all over again after being home for only two weeks, but I do need a co-op to graduate, so I don’t have much choice. I’ll update you when I have more information.