Archive for December, 2007

Chat Enabled

December 21st, 2007

So as you may or may not have noticed, I’ve added a chat/shout box to the main page. This was at the request of Susan, so you can all thank/mock/throw things at/berate her. I just did the dirty work.

You can just leave a shout out to say hello, start a lively conversation with other reader [sic] or chat with me while I am work. It all works in real time, so have fun.

And speaking of work, can I just tell you how boring the first half of today was? I totally ran out of things to do. Apparently I’m “too fast” and the big projects they had me working on have all dried up. And since it’s around the holidays, the place is deserted and no one has any random work to do. I actually re-did tedious data entry work I did the other day because I was so bored. I’m also not the one in charge of the office in general like I was at SWE, so I could even busy myself with tidying up the office or ordering things. I just work under three different groups, none of which had anything to give me.

But I already have a lot of work to keep me busy tomorrow. So that’s good. And it’s Friday. And there’s a meeting. And there’s the “pre-meeting picking up of cookies.” And then it’s Christmas! Dear blessed the year went by quickly. It seems like almost yesterday I was flying across the world in order to hide in your living room and scare you senseless…

I speak solely on a metaphorical basis, as I would never do such a thing!

My Weekend with The Q

December 19th, 2007

So the big news of last week, that I’m sure you’re all aware of now, is that Q (The Sara Jo Becker, herself), flew out to P-town for work, but she stayed for me. Thursday, being the big day, I took Max out to the Airport to pick her up. She was planning on taking a taxi, which would have cost a whopping $35 bucks. Max only costs $2.05. So there.

So happy to see her I was. The whole thing was rather surreal. I decide to not-so-randomly move to pdx and she just happens to fly out on business. Neither of us were complaining. Once we got back to town, we got her checked in to The Governor, a rather well-to-do hotel. She gave it rave reviews.

Friday we didn’t get to see each other because we worked and she had an office party at the Portland Art Museum after. Saturday we met when she checked out of her hotel. We wandered over to a diner near by for very excellent breakfast. Oh so much food, but oh so good. Needing to walk off the cholesterol, we wandered through downtown to the waterfront park. I wanted to show her the mountain, but alas, it hasn’t been out lately.

From the waterfront we walked to the Saturday Market, but first stopped at Mill End’s Park, seen above. This small plot of land is officially recognised as the world’s smallest park. There’s a lively bit of history involved as well, but we’ll save that for another time. Just know that it involves leprechauns.

We wandered around the Saturday Market awhile and listened to an awesome marimba band. Two actually. Q bought a cd from one as well as a christmas present for someone who I don’t think reads this, so we’re all good. It’s a pretty cool gift; I think said recipient will enjoy it.

When we had our fill of the market, we found ourselves in the centre of the city with hot drinks and listening to the annual tuba christmas concert. I was a little leery about nothing other than a hundred tubas playing Christmas songs, but it was actually pretty cool. We didn’t stay horribly long due to the rain that showed up.

After running a few quick errands we hung out at my place a while resting from our adventurous day. Once we were sufficiently rested, we headed north to a hookah cafe where we met my friend Julia for dinner and hookah. The shwarma was actually pretty good, but the Iranian place in Philly is much better.

We all had a craving for something desserty, and Julia knew just the place. Or so she thought. We went to an authentic Italian restaurant not too far away for tiramisu and coffee. It was pretty good, but it wasn’t real tiramisu. It did hit the spot, so that’s all that mattered.

Having to get up at an ungodly hour the next morning, we headed home and promptly fell asleep. Four in the morning came all too quickly and neither of us wanted to get out of bed. Going through the motions of dressing and making ourselves somewhat presentable, we head off to take Max back to the airport. Forty-five minutes later and we arrived. Sadly, our weekend had ended much too quickly.

The sun had not yet risen by the time I made it back to my apartment, and wisely not having coffee beforehand, I fell asleep until eleven. I went into the office for some overtime to get a project done (not how I enjoy spending my weekends, but time and a half is nice). That basically took up the rest of my day. I went home after and just vegged until it was time for bed.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

My First Day

December 5th, 2007

So after some initial delay, I finally started my job at OHSU. Most of the morning was spent waiting around for various things and/or people. At one point they had me wait down in the cafe area which you see as you ride the elevators. It’s a nice little area with tables, fountains and couches. I snapped a quick picture above.

Eventually they sent me up to the main campus on “the hill” to get my id badge. Not only do I have my official OHSU badge, but it’s also necessary to get onto my floor since it’s locked down. I have super secret ninja access! And they’re getting me a work cell phone. Heh? Heh? Not too shabby for a temp. And with any luck, they’ll want to hire me full on at some point after thirty days.

I didn’t really get that much done today since I’m still waiting for them to give me computer access. So I basically familiarised myself with the office, my cube and whatever else I could get my hands on. Another nice thing about the job is that there’s a lot of people working on our three floors, and a good number of them are around my age. So here’s to meeting new people.

Well, that’s about it for my first day back on the job. Oh, what do you think about the new layout? It’s a bit different from what you’re used to. Questions, comments, concern?? Leave me some lovin’!