Snow Day Part Deux

So the last snow day that hit Omaha was a bit of a bummer. For me, it was just like any other day, which meant I slept in until 11:30 and watched Netflix all day with my cat, feeling sorry for myself? Today was a new snow day.

First, I should point out that there was been way too much hype over this "Winter Storm Q". Naming winter storms is a trend that needs to end. Like now. But that's a whole separate blog. Due to all of the hype, and the Weather Channel's Jim Cantore being in town, many local schools canceled Wednesday night. So of course, this meant that there was zero snow on the ground this morning. Seriously.

My plan had been to e-mail my boss and tell him I was too scared to drive to work and was fearful for my life. However, the complete lack of snow eliminated this option. I'm glad I actually got to go to work for several reasons.
1. Being home all day at my apartment is terrible because of the children across the hall.
2. Getting paid and having a purpose for waking up in the morning.
3. Still parking on the 8th floor of the parking garage and having a bit of a snow frolic up there before going home.
4. The thrill of getting to go home early, while still feeling somewhat productive!
5. Getting to eat amazing Chinese food from The Summit (secret underground food place that I previously blogged about).

After working, I got to enjoy a special snow day meal of crock-pot turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy, that I prepared this morning and my cat supervised in my absence. The evening has been a productive blend of prepping for my class I'm teaching this weekend, and watching Thursday night TV on NBC. Not too shabby of a day.

Lunch time!!!

I finally got to experience the joy of downtown lunch! One of my co-workers suggested that we check out all the secret places and offered to show me where everything is. We invited my boss and he politely declined, so there is still awkwardness there.

We first left our building and headed to the Brandeis building, which is a fancy historical landmark in Omaha. It used to be big department store, where my mom would go and get her picture taken with Santa when she was growing up. It's still a very pretty building, but the inside is a hodgepodge of abandoned office buildings, and new condos that are being built. The food court is in the basement and has nearly every ethnicity you could hope for represented. There is also an Eileen's Cookies and a Vic's Corn Popper for if you just want snacks. Unfortunately, today was President's Day, a fake holiday in which the banks are closed, thus taking out a large chunk of the downtown population. Instead of eating at Brandeis, we continued through an UNDERGROUND TUNNEL. Yes, you read that correctly. There is an underground tunnel that leads over to what I think is the old First National Building (we were inside, so it was tough to tell exactly which building it was). Inside, they have what looks like a normal giftshop (random for being inside a bank). If you go to the very back of the giftshop, they have a takeout area where different caterers come in. Today was La Mesa (Mexican food for those of you who don't speak Spanish). I ended up with a giant takeout box of Mexican food, plus chips for about $8.00 bucks. We took our food back to the office, because there weren't a ton of seats, and so we could pretend to talk about work stuff to get paid through the lunch hour. Classic!

The only downside was feeling incredibly full and sleepy after eating all of that. It might have to be a once in a while treat for me, since I am trying to maintain my unemployment diet (down almost 20 pounds, holla!).

To balance out my victorious lunch, you know something else had to happen to spoil it. In honor of President's Day, the parking garage was half empty. I normally park on the top level, because it is so full (and because the view is a beautiful thing to walk out to after a long day). However, today, I parked on level four, making a mental note. When I went to look for my car, I definitely could not find it, and wandered around for probably 7-10 minutes. Super embarrassing because a lot of people drove by and probably thought I was drunk.

I also missed my interstate exit again. Win some, lose some.


If it was 1908, I may have eaten lunch here.

Blog Love!

Thanks to the amazing Taleen Brady for plugging my blog on her blog. The truth is, hers is way cooler than mine and she was the inspiration for me starting my blog. It will change your life.

I quit numbering my days on the job, because they are starting to blur together a bit. I get paid next week, which I am pretty jazzed about. I'm already plotting on how to spend my newly earned money after my triumphant return to the same budget I used while I graduate school (hint: it will involve pink lady apples and Banana Republic).

This week is going much more smoothly. I'm finally figuring things out and becoming more efficient at getting things done, and maybe even impressing the boss a little bit. I'm also forcing him to talk to me more, thus causing him to like me and be nicer. So far it's working. I sometimes think I would like to teach a class on social skills that everyone in America would be required to take. I could design the curriculum and market it to the masses at a huge profit. I've been doing some preliminary research on this by testing my own social skills.

Being unemployed is lonely business. Most of the time I would spend at home alone with my cat (who you know was very judgmental at the time), or out being treated to lunch or drinks my unemployment sympathizers. Now that I am around people again, I'm trying to embrace it. I've already become besties with Melody, the parking garage attendant. Our discussions right now are primarily weather-based, but I'm excited to see where our relationship goes. Maybe she will go to lunch with me? I've also been trying to talk to people in elevators, which has been fairly successful so far. Finally, I try to say hi to everyone I pass in the hallway. I never knew that people did this in workplaces, because in graduate school, people were chronically awkward and unfriendly. It's nice to have human interaction again!

Speaking of lunch, I have still yet to experience lunchtime awesomeness, mainly because I've been working through lunch due to some project deadlines. Maybe next week the lunch revolution will start? Maybe I will ask Melody to join me...

Day Three...Frustration and Triumph...

How long can I maintain blogging? I feel like numbering the days helps keep me accountable. Today was incredibly frustrating. First, the type of work I am doing is brand new. Second, my new boss is super socially awkward and has basically given me no instruction or training of any kind. Third, the project I am working on is way behind schedule, so tensions are a little high. I thought I might lose it and walk out today after trying to read this guy's mind, doing something, and then being told I did it wrong. Part of my task involves entering data into an incredibly complicated Excel spreadsheet, which I found several errors on. The final straw is that I was given a Dell laptop circa 1989 that is running what I can only assume is Windows 97. It's really slow and horribly inefficient.

Now for the good news. After almost freaking out, I did manage to figure out a lot of stuff today. I feel like I have some sense of what I am doing now, and will hopefully get a lot done tomorrow. My goal is to wow this guy, even though he seems to be hard to impress. Let's be honest, if there's one thing I can do, it is deal with difficult people and still rock the shit out of whatever I do.

Boom.

(that was a truth bomb, in case you are unfamiliar)


PS. I left after 5 today and took the "long way' home. Meaning no interstate. Took the same damn amount of time. Ugh.

Day Two Awkwardness...

I think I jinxed myself with all of my glorious talk about lunch. Through a series of bizarre events, I did not even eat lunch today. No, I'm not anorexic, or trying to maintain my depression-fueled Unemployment Diet. Here's how it went down.

Today it was only me and my new boss in the office. I had assumed that he would take me to lunch, due to the information I received yesterday about him going out for lunch everyday, and the fact that I am delightful and everyone wants to have lunch with me. However, as a backup, I took a cereal bar and a Soup at Hand with me, just in case.

My boss left for lunch and did not invite me. It was awkward. Maybe he was meeting someone else for lunch? Maybe he is manorexic, and actually doesn't eat lunch? Maybe he thought I would be weirded out by a lunch invitation? Maybe he was worried about sexually harassing me? I did have on a rather fetching cardigan today. After he left the office, I pondered these various explanations and then decided I would just eat my soup that I brought. At that point, I realized we do not have a microwave, or any other mechanism for heating soup. We have a refrigerator, a Keurig machine, and a fancy water cooler (hot and cold water!), but I definitely imagined a microwave that does not exist on this plane of reality. I briefly considered having cold soup (it was creamy tomato) or thinking of some way to use the hot water from the water cooler to heat it. Neither option seemed appealing.

Next, I considered leaving and going somewhere for lunch by myself. I decided against this because. 1. It sounded depressing. 2. I was worried about potentially running into my boss at a nearby lunch establishment and dealing with more awkwardness. 3. It looked kind of dreary out and I wasn't thrilled about leaving the building to wander around in search of food.

Finally, after all of this obsession, I realized that I actually wasn't even hungry. I went in at 10am, meaning I had a later breakfast and wasn't even hungry at noon. It was all in my head! So I powered through the stuff I was working on and ate my cereal bar later in the afternoon. When my boss came back from "lunch" he didn't even acknowledge that I didn't appear to have eaten lunch. Maybe he thinks I have an eating disorder?

The moral of the story is to bring a backup lunch that does not require heating. Or to make lunch plans with someone in advance.

Today also ended with a minor emotional breakdown in my car driving home. Mainly because I cannot figure out how to efficiently get home from downtown during rush hour traffic. That might need to be its own entry though.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go eat all of my calories for the day for dinner.

Day One!

Today I started my new gig! I think things went pretty smoothly, considering I was rolling on three hours of sleep and puking the night before. I was able to get up sufficiently early to drive downtown and figure out how to get into the parking garage I needed. Then, I went to the wrong building. There are actually two larger "towers" downtown labeled north and south, and I accidentally went to the north one instead. Luckily, I got there plenty early to bond with the dude at the information desk. I'm working with a friend from school and she gave me a tour, including the skywalk, which is the easier way to get to the garage, and to ensure that I reach the correct tower. Our office is pretty cool. It looks like a "real" office. Especially compared to what I was in before. Some of the highlights include: really nice chairs, windows that overlook downtown Omaha, a watercooler (just like in the movies!), and what appears to be an unlimited supply of Bakers chocolates. I'm also excited about all of the places to eat lunch downtown. From what I hear, the other people in the office are very "pro lunch". I might just gain back my ten pounds that I have lost while unemployed. First, there are a billion restaurants nearby. Second, the First National bulding (the one I puked in one time) rotates catering from different restaurants every day. Third, Union Pacific is right across the street, and the rumor is that they have a kick ass cafeteria that is open to the public. Finally, there is the Brandeis building that has tons of secret restaurants in the basement that only downtown people know about. Apparently there is a really good Greek place that even serves breakfast. Greek breakfast! Can you imagine?

So naturally eating food is what I'm most excited about at this point. The work itself is likely going to be a little on the tedious side, but I'm excited about learning something new. Tomorrow is just me and the boss. He told me not to come in until 10 (he is also pro sleeping in).

That's all I got for now, blog world. I'll keep you posted on any exciting developments, like what I eat for lunch tomorrow, and how long it takes me to drive home in rush hour traffic. Stay tuned!