All right. I've stayed away for roughly 10 months, which isn't too shabby I guess. I've decided to come back here for a bit of refuge actually. I'm not too sure why but it's just one of those times when blogging seems to be the thing to do.
Let's see....my last blog post was about 2 months ago. What have I been up to since then? Mainly projects and travelling for projects. I spent a couple days in Indiana doing a tech talk for Purdue. Course, my luggage didn't arrive with me so I had to do the career fair portion with the clothes I was wearing on the plane, namely an IBM hoodie (doh) :) As a slight tip if you ever go to Purdue and don't have a vehicle of your own, rent one. The drive from the airport to the school will cost $120 one-way and cab drivers don't take credit cards. (Btw, funny thing is that when I got to my hotel, I asked the cab driver how much the fare was and he asked, "How much do you want to pay?". This certainly caught me off guard. I mean really. Yes, I did have a terrible time in the cab. He wasn't sure how to drive in the rain, took me to the wrong hotel first, then had me navigating the back seat just to get to the right hotel. So how about, "Free"?) Oh well, we made it, the tech talk went really well, and I got my luggage a few hours before I had to head back to the airport for my next destination - Kentucky.
Btw, you really may as well drive from Indianapolis to Kentucky. I was heading to the Louisville airport and I think the total driving time would have been the same as all the wait and transfer flights at airports bit. That said, I had another 1.5 hours to drive from Louisville to our facility and I could use all the sleep I could get with having to leave the hotel by 4am to catch my flight. The next few days were filled with work, requests for work, and driving. We have several facilities in Kentucky, 3 of which my team deals with on a daily basis so they were going to be my destinations of choice. After a few of these 12 hour days with about 1.5-2hours of driving between facilities, I was really glad to see the weekend roll around. How tired was I? I got on the plane to head home and the flight attendant comes by to ask me if I'd like a drink. I ask for water and in the time it took him to bend down and grab a bottle of water, I was out cold again. I woke up to see a snack box and a bottle of water in front of me and I have absolutely no idea how those got there. Another funny story was that I pulled into the parking lot of one of our facilities and another car pulled up beside me asking me if this was "The Gap". Since I don't work for the Gap, I had to say it wasn't and to try next door (there actually was a Gap facility next door and a Gap outlet around the corner so I wasn't just toying with the woman) :) Course, it was funny because I was 20 feet away from the building and our big logo so I wasn't sure what to make of that.
Anyhow, I went back home on Saturday and was on a flight out again on Wednesday. Back the next Saturday and working here for a couple weeks thus far. In late April, it's to Nevada and then back to Kentucky. May is TBD as I may want to go home and see the family back in Canada but since I also need to head to our European facilities, it may also be a travel month. Only time and scheduling will tell.
All in all, I've been a bit tired and stressed and I'd really like an actual vacation right about now. I thought to come here because this is usually just a good place to vent but I haven't been doing a good job at the venting bit and now my head just feels light-headed ... I'm stuffed as I ate most of a box of blueberries earlier (they're so small, you don't even know how much you've eaten til it's too late). Yet, I still want a cookie. On the upside, I have some homemade tiramisu in the fridge (yes, I kid you not. It actually worked out...sort of). The problem is that I put a little rum in it and although it's no more than a spoon of rum in the remaining piece, I just don't feel like the taste of alcohol right now. I feel a little overwhelmed and underachieving. I want to do better and be better and I just don't think I'm anywhere near the mark.
I'd like to go out for a little walk but it looks like rain is imminent (haha yes, this is the northwest. i know) and I think....I think I need to do my taxes. *sigh*.
Any accountants in the house?
