I left town and forgot to pack myself

After a crazy day on Thursday where I had to finish a task for work, get a root canal and visit my doctor I packed and headed out of town. Not for anything fun, no, I left town for more work. So, here I am in my hotel room in Newport News, VA getting ready to pack up again and head back home. I really don’t want to pack right now; I didn’t want to pack when I left either, so I did that in a hurry and forgot a ton of things. One of those thing being my normal everyday self. I have not eaten the way I normally do, I have not been functioning the way I normally do, I am just totally off my game here. At night I have found myself driving around aimlessly in hopes of finding something to do only to return to my hotel room and lie in bed reading. Now, the reading thing is not so bad, I have three books with me that are enjoyable. But, when I go two days without so much as turning on a TV I get a little concerned. I have still been working out on this archaic gym equipment that makes me laugh while I am doing my workout, plus this tiny little gym is just full of mirrors, too many mirrors. I like looking at myself when I workout as much as the next guy but it’s a bit much. Plus, the only non mirrored surface of the room is an open view straight to the pool, so people enjoying their weekends, having drinks and going for swim get to watch me sweating my ass off and making funny faces. And even that isn’t really all that bad, but this whole trip has just thrown me off a bit. I am forgetting what day it is, what time it is, being down here these 4 days is just one big blur. Thankfully, there is just one more to go before I can go back home, unfortunately I think I am going out of town again next week, for fun at least but still. When will I ever get back on a routine?

 

 

If anyone has made it this far, wow was that a rant. I am not even sure if it makes sense or it just comes off as crazy man gibberish. As I wrote that last sentence above about craving a routine I remembered a post I wrote back in the early days of my blogging about how much I hate my routine. I believe I called it a prison. And now here I am lamenting that my routine is all out of whack. I wonder if that means I have changed or if I just need a bit more of a balance between the routine and the random? After all isn’t life about balance, moderation, nothing in excess? I’d like to think so and on that note my crazy man rant is done.

Upstarts in a Blowout

Have you ever woken up and just known it was gonna be a bad day? That is exactly how my day went last Thursday. Wednesday night I was supposed to go down to Virginia beach but everyone cancelled so instead I spent the night in my hotel room watching movies and resting up for another day of work. Everyone apparently had decided that Thursday night would be a better night to go to the beach, I did not agree and went to bed with my mind made up not to go the next day. When I awoke the next morning I went to the hotel coffee maker like I had every other morning but this morning I found that no coffee was there to make. Anyone who knows me also knows that I do not handle the lack of coffee very well. Still, I pressed on, began getting ready for work and picked up coffee on my way in to work. But, before I could get too far into my day I realized my sunglasses had gone missing, this time it seems they have been lost for good. With two mishaps so early in the morning I knew there was something left on the horizon but still I had a job to do and I could not let a few setbacks ruin an entire day. When I got to work everything went as usual, I bantered with clients, talked with co-workers, solved a few problems and let everyone know I would not be joining them on their trip to the beach. However, as the day wore on so did my resolve and eventually somehow not only did I get wrangled into going to the beach, I was driving.

 

In anticipation of driving to the beach we all made sure to get off post as fast as possible and by about 4:30 we were all ready to go. My car was full of beach things, one coworker was lying down in the backseat, and another was in the passenger seat resting her eyes. Everything seemed fine and then 2 miles from my hotel I decided to change lanes, a harmless act that I have done countless times. But, this time was not the usual. I hit some debris in the road and immediately heard my left front tire go boom. I instantly knew that Anya had just lost a tire but I was not going to do any more damage and quickly got the car to the side of the road. Of course I was upset but I had to get my car off the small shoulder of the highway. Thankfully, a VDOT truck came up within minutes and offered to change the tire for me as this particular stretch of highway was very unsafe. There had apparently been 5 deaths recently changing tires and I did not want to be number 6. After the donut was on and the car was ready to roll, we got back on the road and returned to the hotel where I took about 20 minutes to collect myself and decide whether or not to take care of the tire or head out to the beach. I called my mom, cracked open a beer, then another beer, then hopped in a car and headed to the beach. All in all, we lost an hour of sunlight, but we did make it and we had a great time.

Connect the Dots

For the past couple of days, due to my work location, I have had much less access to the internet. Of course, I still have my Blackberry and can get to anything I really need to view during the day but this is a huge change from my normal working environment. I am usually online for 10 – 12 hours a day so this short break from that is nice. It really changes my daily routine as I can not jump over to some website every time I feel the urge for a distraction. And what I have been doing instead of those web distractions has been a lot more satisfying.

What I have been doing in the absence of the distractions is simply talking. Talking to coworkers, clients, management and anyone else around. Some of my teammates have even commented on how much more conversation is occurring between us. The conversations range from serious to silly. We have discussed politics, music, food, vacations and just about everything else you could think of. From all of this we really see that our perceived differences are just that, perceptions but not facts. After nearly a week of being disconnected I am more connected to the people I work with than ever before. So, this raises the question of whether or not our unlimited access is really helping or hurting us?

Travelling, testing, and that summer camp feeling

I promised to write more but work always seems to get in the way of doing just that. I’d much rather it be the other way around but I’ve got bills to pay so I think for now this is the way its going to stay. My project is actually extremely chaotic right now, most of us have been working long hours or straight through weekends. I am looking at two weeks straight as of this coming Friday. But, right now it is not bothering me so much. Mainly because where I am feels so much like summer camp.

Summer camp, you say, how can work feel like summer camp? Well, for starters myself and about a dozen other team members have all checked into the same hotel near our client site. At night we go to meals together, we drink together, and in the morning we all meet up for breakfast together before carpooling into work. Work that just so happens to be located on an army base. Now most people wouldn’t equate an army base with summer camp but I spent most of my summers at a camp that was previously a military base. So, when I get on Post I get the feel of that camp. From the style of the buildings to the look and feel of the grounds it is all very familiar and welcoming. And thankfully we are only here for a few more days.

Over the next fews days my coworkers and I will be testing our system in hopes of having it ready to go live next month. Work, of course, is not all we will be doing. We already have trips planned to Virginia Beach and Williamsburg. Field trips? See this really is more like summer camp than work, right down to the very summer-like weather. And possibly the best part of this little trip is that when we return to our local office it is 4th of July week and no one will be in the office anyway. July is already shaping up to be a good month.