.: angilou and tucker too :.

more brazil

well, i'm back from brazil and it was great!  not at all what i expected.  here's some pics from the trip.

here's the porto alegre skyline from the plane after we landed, and a picture of my two travel mates, candy and jill:

our hotel was in this area called moinhos de vento, and is apparently an upscalee neighborhood of the city.  there was a fancy mall connected to the hotel, so that definitely made for some convenient shopping; i bought three pairs of shoes on a five day trip - not good!  porto alegre is the fourth largest city in brazil, but it felt really small.  i had been to costa rica and mexico, and was expecting similar, but brazil was totally different.  there was a strong european feel, and there is a dominant german, italian and japanese presence there - did you know that the largest japanese population outside of japan is in sao paulo?  i didn't either.  so, the city was filled with charming shops and storefronts, and low-rise residential buildings and brownstones. 

and the food!  the food was fabulous!  of course, we went to a churrascaria, the brazilian barbecue, but i expected that to be good.  what i didn't expect was how good everything else was!  monday night we went to a thai place called "koh pee pee", which sounds like something i would tell cal to do.  the food was yummy, but the decor an ambience was what made the place stand out.  tuesday night was a french/italian restaurant, whose name i can't remember - great risotto.  wednesday night was na brasa, the barbecue place, which was much more utilitarian than i expected.  having been to fogo de chao, i was expecting something similar, and na brasa was much more like your no nonsense local kind of place.  of course, the meat was still great, and it was a bunch of fun.  one thing about na brasa is that it was a lot less expensive.  fogo charges about US$40-50 per person, and at na brasa, i think it was about US$15 per person, which was a bargain.

our last night, one of the girls from work took us out for pasta.  a couple of blocks from our restaurant was usina de massas, which i think translates to house of pasta, or something like that.  babelfish gives it some kind of wierd translation.  anyways, this was my favorite place because we ate outside and the weather was gorgeous.  it was in the 70's, an occasional breeze, under trees and the night sky, no bugs - awesome.  the single serving was still a big pot of pasta, i had to be rolled out of there at the end of the evening.

brazil

well, am down here on my first trip to brazil!  was very excited to come here, since the only other latin american country i have been to is costa rica.  luciana said that brazil was still considered a third world country, but i think she is smoking crack.  i've been to two airports here now and they were both modern and clean - one of them even had chair massages in the waiting area! 

ok, one retarded thing is that they had two entry points for the departure gates.  i couldn't read portugese, but i could read the numbers and one side said "1-13" and the other side said "2-14".  and the line for "2-14" was way long, and my gate was gate 1, so i got in the other line, and whizzed right through.  once i got through, it was wierd because it turns out all the ODD numbered gates are on one side, and the EVEN numbered gates were on the other side.  which wouldn't have been such a big deal if there weren't a glass wall that went along the whole length of the departure hall.  so, the reason it was retarded is there were chair massages, but only on the even side.  so i sat there, looking through the glass at my more fortunate even numbered comrades and was frustrated that there weren't any on the odd side!  the chairs were there, but they were locked up and no massueses.  i had an hour to kill, so a chair massage would have been perfect.

quick update

holy cow, i haven't posted in over a week!  i'm supposed to be full of stuff to say!  ok, work observations of the week:

- my cafeteria makes awesome turkey burgers.  i can also get sushi and cherry garcia ice cream - not bad.
- they use those gawd-awful styrofoam cups, which i hate.
- they close at 1:30pm, which i hate.
- my teammates REALLY like printing in color.  they print every presentation out in color, and bring color copies for everyone else - so nice, yet wasteful, of them.  i like to print things out, but i want to save paper, so i print things like six slides to a page, or extra small font and it drives them crazy.
- i'm starting to feel out the "fun" people and the "dud" people near me.  more on that later.

i'm in my sixth week now and it's been pretty good.  the pace has been really reasonable, the people nice and the work, well, slightly boring.  i mean, it's interesting, but where's this crazy pace every warned me about.  maybe they are being kind to me because i'm new.  i'm expecting it to pick up after my trip to brazil.  oh yeah, did i mention that?  i'm going to brazil in two weeks!  should be fun.

parking karma

ok, so here's something i've discovered about working at a large company that has a campus: parking's a pain.  being as lazy as i am, i want to park as close as possible to the door.  tucker had a term for it: "more not walking".  when we used to drive to work together, we'd park in a lot not too far away, but he would always drop me off at the door, because i liked not walking so much, he wanted to give me more of it.

anyways, enough of that sappiness (he's in sf this week so i miss him).  so, i tend to get there early, so i get lucky and not only park close to the door, but usually under a sapling so i get a modicum of shade from the hot texas sun.  for the first several weeks, i parked on the west side of the tree, because it looked shadier, but then kelly pointed out that the better spot is on the EAST side of the tree, so that i'm shaded from the afternoon sun, instead of the morning sun.  duh.  ok, so i've got my spot, close to the door, and on the east side of the tree.  all is well.  then one day i have a meeting at another building that is far enough that i have to drive.  so, no big, i figure by the time i get back, around 1:30p, there should be some open spots from people who have taken off early, etc.  i get back and i circle around THREE different buildings for FIFTEEN minutes and no parking.  not just no parking spot not close to the door, but no fricking parking space, period.  i had heard about this situation, when one had to park in the "overflow" parking lot and then take the shuttle.  what the heck is that about?!!  it's like i'm at the airport and i have to park in the cheap lots.  finally, some poor soul leaves from teh farthest corner of the parking lot, which i think is in teh next county, and i park.  i'm already ten minutes late for my next meeting, and it's in yet another building that is at least a five minute walk.  by the time i get there, i MAY have 15 minutes left in my 30 minutes meeting.  so, i have to call and cancel.  super annoying.

i am NEVER leaving the building for lunch unless someone else drives.

cubicle life is pretty good so far

so, i am sitting here in training, with my cup of tea, lounging on a comfy sofa. the training is for all new hire phone sales people, mostly young, but you've got a whole range of people.  i was please to see at least a couple of minorities (austin has a big hispanic contingent, but otherwise it's pretty white bread), and even a couple of people with disabilities - a nice diverse spectrum.  the room is set up with different stations, and one area is set up like a mini living room.  so, the first day in training, i sat on the side of the room on a squeaky, hard to adjust office chair.  and i was right in front of the binders, so i had to move out of the way whenever they needed the binders, which is like 5 times a day.  so, today, i am sitting in the mini living room and life is WAY better. 

there is wireless throughout the buildings, and i finally got it working, hence my posting real time.

work life is pretty good so far.  there's no formal training for hr folks, so you are kinda thrown in and have to figure it out.  they are big on meetings and building your personal network, so my first three weeks have been a lot of one on one meetings; i think i've met with an average of ten new people a week, not counting new people i run into in meetings.  contrary to popular thought, i LOVE having my own cube.  after 10 years of sitting in an open space, it's great to actually have your own private little space!  now, it does cut down on the openness and team feel, and the expanse of cubicles really does fit the "cube farm" title, but it isn't getting to me yet.

has it really been a week...

..since i last posted?  well, i am at work right now, so can't post any cute cal pictures, but can tell you that life in a cube farm ain't so bad.  it's kind of nice having my own little domain.  i do feel bad for those poor folks in the half height or quarter height cubes, because they have no where to hide, can't scratch themselves discreetly without a whole row of people seeing them.

i'll have to take a picture of my cube and send it out so you can see my palatial digs...

setting the record straight

ok, so it's time to set the record straight.  some people were asking, "so...were you laid off or did you quit?"  i was waiting until i officially left, but yes, i was laid off.  i found out in december, so i had a loong notice period, i guess.  i was hoping to have a leisurely lame duck tenure, but they kept me working until the last day!  fortunately, i still managed to squeeze in some job hunting, which started off slow, but then once i narrowed in a couple of things i was really interested in, it picked up.  i got my offer my last week at work, which was a big relief.  i got to take three weeks off and i just finished my first week!  so, i left a small/medium (3000+ people) consulting firm, and am now working at a large (60,000 people), technology manufacturing company.

i just created a new category "jammies to cubicles" for any interesting posts about the job.

ok, other things.  oh, i took this test, the gphr, which stands for "global professional in human resources".  it was one of those computerized tests, so you sit in this cube and answer everything with a mouse.  they didn't even give me paper and pencil, they give you these little "erasable" sheets, like laminated graph paper and some dry erase markers - so lame.  anyways, i did have to study, and fortunately, i passed!  so, now i can put letters after my name like a cpa or something.

"great fun dinner with two terrific guys"

apparently, i am remiss in mentioning that i had a great fun dinner with two terrific guys a couple of weeks ago.  no, it wasn't tucker and cal, although they are two terrific guys also.  it's funny because one of my ex-employer's (oo, first time i typed ex-employer) vendors were making a trip down to austin, so i got to meet them.  most of our vendors are in the northeast, so it's rare that people come to see me.  i wanted to go somewhere a little more austin-y, so took them to hula hut.  i forgot to get a table outside, but it was still cool, and probably the most fun "business dinner" i've had.  you know how those are: you usually need to be on your best behavior, sometimes the conversation is stilted, you worry about being un-couth and dropping food on yourself (or at least i do).  but there was none of that!  we always had stuff to talk about and it was fun.

so, a shout out to jon and jeff; come back and treat me to dinner again soon!

unemployment: day 1 and 2

so, my first day of unemployment was quite exciting: cal got a fever and i got to stay home and hang out with him and his cranky self all day.  i had all these errands and projects lined up, but i guess they were meant to be put off - again.  fortunately, his fever broke around midnight, and he's been doing ok so far (fingers crossed).  my fun activity for today was going to be going to the tax foreclosure sale on the courthouse steps.  i've never been to one and i thought it would be interesting, just to see if those properties really go for so low.  alas, it shall have to wait until next time.

i'm hoping that cal doesn't have a relapse, because we have our beach trip this weekend!

LAST DAY!!!!

woo hoo!  my last day is finally here!  at long last, i say goodbye to the company i grew up with...

years at the company: 10.4
rounds of layoffs dodged (until this year): 3
countries visited for work: 5
laptops/pc's i've gone through: 9
life events occured: 2 (marriage and kids)
all nighters pulled: 6
pounds gained (since joining): 28

so, i've had my last meeting, and sent off my last official deliverables.  i may still tweak a couple of things, but i am essentially done.  can you believe it?  i wonder how long it will take to truly dis-engage?  since the main person i am transitioning to was out on maternity leave, i do feel a sense of lack of completion, and may send him a couple of pointers next week.  for the last several years, it's hard to have days where work doesn't cross my mind at least once, and it really has dominated my life for so long.

well, stay tuned.  i'll have to give up an update on my upcoming adventures, entitied "from pajamas to cubicles".  more later...