work: week 1

Kitchenette complete with a Keurig

As of yesterday evening, I have officially worked for two whole weeks at my new job.  WOW!!!  I can’t believe it!  Learning everything has been slightly overwhelming and even though I’ve only just gotten out of software tutorials I love it!  The first few days were somewhat hectic but it seems to have slowed down some…thankfully…for now!  [Shh….don’t let my coworkers hear you!] 

Looking out the front windows [from my desk]

day 1:

Per request from the boss, I arrived at 9:30 a.m. :)  I was shocked to find that I was given a computer right there on the spot!  We are packed in here extremely tight—five people per one workstation!  Apparently a guy gave up his seat for me.  This won’t last for long, though, as construction is underway at a new location.  Needless to say I’m getting to know people pretty well rather quickly.

Looking at the back windows [from my desk]

More than half of the office went out as a group and took me to lunch at a local restaurant nearby.  This was awesome and it showed me how open, accepting, and easy to get along with everyone is.  A blessing!

Photo taken by Yours Truly!

day 2:

When I got to the office on Wednesday, things were a little different.  For one, there were only about six people in the office.  Am I that early?!  [Fat chance].  With no existing overhead lighting, it took me a few minutes to realize that the power was out!  So for the next hour and a half, I sat in the dark and heat with the coworkers that I had only met the day before.

Soon after we were back up and running, the Office Manager took me to AT&T to get my new iPhone!  Pretty cool.  Except I guess this means they can contact me whenever they want.  They’re paying for the line, aren’t they?!

Press Room

After lunch we loaded up into several vehicles and journeyed over to Reliant Stadium—Home of the Houston Texans—for a private tour of the entire facility.  So cool!  We were taken everywhere: locker room, training room, Coach’s office, press box, field level [there was no field as the Iceskapades and their ice rink had just vacated the stadium days before].

Contender for the next Heisman?!

Oh!  I almost forgot—I ended up knowing another girl in the office!  We met about a year ago at an Aggie Networking event and exchanged contacts and tips for job seeking in the fields of design & architecture.  I haven’t talked to or seen her in at least 10 months.  But lo and behold, there she sat at one of the front desks of the office.  It has definitely helped knowing someone within the ranks.

50-yard-long Locker Room?!

day3:

Somewhere in the craziness of the first two days I was supposed to be learning a new CAD program.  I got through a little but was really able to get into on my third day of employment.  It took me almost a week to get through all ten chapters of the tutorial and, like so many tutorials, completed it more confused than I was before I even started.

Demeco Ryans' cubby hole [Roll Tide!]

day 6:

We had a Thanksgiving Feast!  [Number 3 in my line-up of Thanksgiving meals]

I wish I could personally meet and kiss the hands of the person who made this.  NOT jealous!

day 7:

The boss sat down with me for a few minutes to give me a very simple schematic to pull together.  I was so excited to actually start ‘real’ work!  I found it very difficult though; I have been out of the field and mind-set of things for so long that I suffered from a pretty severe mental freeze for the first two hours.  [I assume that my 6 days of software experience and 7 days as a Mac proficientee had something to do with this as well.]  I only worked a half day that day as it was Thanksgiving Eve and left very frustrated.  I found out two days ago that Boss had to complete the work on Thanksgiving night!  I guess that’s the life as the Boss :/

day 9:

I sat down with Boss to go through the parameters and current status of the project that I will be working on!  The project is based in Canada and I am not hoping for a site visit.  [At least not until May!]  Ha.  I doubt any site visits are in my immediate future but maybe one day!

thanksgiving: take four

I am tired of eating.  Seriously.  In the past, there were years that my only Thanksgiving meal was grilled hamburgers—true American!  But this year I managed to squeeze in four!  I don’t want to take any of it for granted, as I know that there are many people all over the world who are not as fortunate.  Dear Lord, please never let me forget those people.

For the ‘real’ Thanksgiving, Jeff & I traveled north to be with his family.  What should be a 4 hour trip turned into a 6+ hour drive; slowed by the 3 million people vacating the city and stalled by one very dead car battery!  [Had we been in my car we would have had jumper cables.  A Daddy’s girl is always prepared thanks to said Daddy!]  We made it, though, and just in time for a delicious meal at a small local Italian spot.

Chef Jeff

His Aunt and Cousin arrived at the house just in time for lunch on Thanksgiving Day.  And lunch we had!  Everything was delicious but my favorite moment came at the end of the meal when his Mom said, ‘Ellen, I don’t know if you know this, but it is tradition for the guys to clear the table and wash & put everything away while we the women stay right here.’  Thank you, Lord, for traditions!

I have no idea how long we sat there enjoying dessert, drinks, and each other but I do know it was well past dark when I first stood up.  [Keep in mind we had Thanksgiving lunch.]  Later that evening we went and hung out with Jeff’s friend, Greg, and probably watched some football.

The rest of the weekend was spent lounging, eating, & Roll Tiding, sprinkled with some shopping, and showered with a defensive driving course that I was racing to complete.  Christmas decorations were also seen exploding and popping up all over the house.

Crazily enough, Emily’s boyfriend’s family lives practically in the next town over.  They came up the weekend so we got to hang out with them one night!  I also got to see my friend, Brooke, from grad school.  I was so excited to see her and meet her new boyfriend.  I love old friends.  Our friendship has had some rocky patches, though.  A brief timeline of events might look like this:

Brooke gets the flu; sick for two days.

Ellen gets the flu from Brooke; sick for seven days, fever reaches 104.1, visits doctor once and receives shots & meds.

Brooke wants to make Ellen feel better with a tub of ice cream; driving to the store, she is hit in an intersection and totals her car.

Good friends see each other through the worst things!

I think this was the first Thanksgiving/holiday that our family was in four different places.  Mom & Dad were in Alabama fixing up his house the week before and didn’t get home until midnight the night before then turned around the next day and headed up to the TAMU football game.  Andrew probably slept till noon and then went to the football game.  Emily probably slept till 2:00 as she did not have tickets to the football game.

I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  And remember, the diet doesn’t start until after New Year’s!!!