Sandwich Day!

This actually took place on March 13th, and for some reason I forgot to post it. Since then I have had several more delightful experiences with these sandwiches. Enjoy!


I had a life changing experience. Involving a sandwich. As part of my new research into downtown food places, I kept seeing Worker's Takeout being rated as one of the highest places downtown. Apparently, they had relocated from midtown to downtown, and according to their website, exist somewhere inside the First National Building (doesn't everything?). I asked my co-worker if she had ever been there. She said no, but had heard that it was really good. We asked another co-worker, who said the exact same thing, and had always wondered where it was. Abandoning our salads and yogurt cups, we decided to go investigate. After spending entirely too much time on the internet trying to figure out exactly where it was, we decided to walk over there and look for a Scooters, which apparently housed a secret sandwich shop. After walking through the Brandeis building, under the street, and into the First National building. We wandered around looking for a Scooters. We ended up the atrium of the building where some people were eating lunch, but still no sign of a Scooters. We finally broke down and asked the front desk security guy, who seemed reluctant to give up the location, but assured us that it was "really good'.

He directed us to yet ANOTHER TUNNEL in the building that would take us under the street to where the old First National building used to reside (they still have some offices there). This tunnel was awesome because it was pimped out with some neon lights that reminded me of the Chicago O'Hare airport. I didn't take a picture because there were too many people around. We finally emerged out the other side and found the Scooters. The menu was overwhelming because everything sounded amazing. We both ended up getting half sandwiches, which we cut in half again to swap flavors. I got a roast beef, bacon, and artichoke sandwich, while my co-worker got a Cuban. Both were the most amazing sandwiches of all time and only cost about 4 bucks. Needless to say, we will be back. Repeatedly. 

Lunch was definitely the highlight of the day. When I went to leave the parking garage for the day, my BFF Melody informed me that the credit card machine was broken and the garage was cash only that day. Of course, I had spent my last bucks on that amazing sandwich (no regrets), and who the hell carries cash anyways? Instead of being cool about it, Melody proceeded to exit her tiny kiosk and yelled at the line of five cars behind me to "back up, she has to go get cash!". I was completely mortified. After backing my car up into a nearby parking space, I got out, thinking I would go wander aimlessly across the street where Melody told me there was an ATM. Luckily, my co-worker/sandwich eating partner in crime, was in the line to get out and had witnessed my social shaming. She loaned me the cash, and I awkwardly re-entered the line of cars. I suspect Melody and I might be on thin ice for a while.

Parallel Parking Nightmares

Work continues to be crazy. Hence the lack of blogging. Last Thursday, I worked from 8:30am to 10:00pm. That is a long day, my friends. I almost wished I had a child to use as an excuse to go home at a reasonable hour, but alas, corporate American loves to dump on young, unmarried ladies.

One of the really annoying things about working so late is that the parking garage closes ridiculously early. At least it does for people who pay everyday and don't have a cool monthly swipe card. To be on the safe side, my boss suggested that I move my car and park on the street while he went home to walk his dogs and pick up pizza for our late night work date (gross). I left the garage just before 6pm, thinking it would be empty and relatively easy to find street parking. Not the case. At all. I drove around for probably 20 minutes looking for a place to park that wasn't a billion miles away, or in the hood of Omaha. I finally spotted an open spot on the street between two cars. After circling around it two more times, I decided to attempt to parallel park.

I never learned how to parallel park. Despite taking driver's ed in high school and passing with flying colors, this was not even part of the curriculum. Ten minutes later, I wedged my poor car very badly in between the other two, saying a tiny prayer that they would both leave before I did. Then, I got to hike back to the office, still beating my boss back there.

Once 10pm rolled around, my co-worker and I had made a pact that we would leave at 10, no matter what. You would think that my boss would be a nice guy and offer to drive us to our cars, or show the least bit of concern for our safety when wandering the streets of downtown Omaha, but not so much. Instead, I walked with my co-worker to her car, and she drove me to mine. When we pulled up, the same two cars were there, effectively trapping me. I told her I was fine, and then took about 10-15 minutes to pull my car out from between the two cars. It was awful. And I kept driving up in the curb. People driving by probably thought I was wasted, and to be honest, I wish I was.

The moral of the story? Leave work when the garage closes. No later.

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.

Elevator adventures

Perhaps you remember my previous rant about the creepiness of the elevator at my old job. Well, luckily my new job has an equally terrifying elevator situation.

One of the cool things about my job is that there is a parking garage with a sky-walk that attaches to my office building. Sky-walks might be one of the greatest inventions of our time. It allows you to get where you are going without dealing with the harsh elements of the outside world (although our sky-walk is about the same temperature as outside, at least there is no wind).

The parking garage is nice too because parking downtown is terrible. I'm sure parking downtown in any city is terrible, but Omaha just seems a bit more ridiculous. The garage takes away the stress of looking for street parking and having to walk (again, the elements!). This comes at a price, specifically eight dollars a day. Luckily, I get reimbursed for parking, otherwise that might be a deal breaker.

Ugh, why does it have to be glass so I can see everything?!

Do people really like gazing out of a clear elevator at the ground below them? I think it's creepy. That, coupled with the fact that the thing shakes like crazy, and makes an extremely unpleasant and terrifying whining noise when it is cold, makes me only too certain that I will die at the nonexistent hands of this elevator.

Look out, sky-walk! Imma coming for you!

The first couple times I rode it, I would hold my breath close my eyes (assuming I was alone). Now? I take the stairs. All the way from the eighth floor. No regrets.

Once I pass through the magical sky-walk, I still need to go up a floor to get to my office. There are six elevators, just like a damn Hilton hotel. They seem more mechanically sound than the garage elevator, but still have an odd hesitation when you reach your floor, before the doors open. Also, one of them has padded walls. No joke.

This elevator takes you to the psychiatric ward.

The weird thing is, I don't think I could tell you when I developed my irrational fear of elevators (maybe around the same time I started disliking birds?). Either way, I'm thankful for the cardio workout I've been getting by taking so many stairs.

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.