Y7 D141

Yesterday reminded me why I can't/don't work in a typical office environment any more. Between bullshit security issues, loud talkers, non-stop talkers, people walking around, lack of space, network issues, and just plain annoyance, I can't be in that setting.

I got there at 7:30 and tried getting in the door. Nope. Waited until 8 until the security/receptionist arrived. She kept trying to tell me my key was fine and it was a problem with their doors. It wasn't. After much back and forth she realized they punched the badge holder hole in the wrong side. Thanks for listening to me the 12 times I told you there was something wrong with the badge. At least now I could get in all of three doors. Yes. Their security is door by fucking door. Unfortunately tomorrow and Friday I need to behind other doors my stupid badge doesn't open. What a joke. It was 8:30 by the time I got settled in and started working. That's when other people started showing up and yap yap yap. I wish I could somehow chart out how much time is wasted in a day by people not actually working and just running their mouths. I finally gave up and put on a 4 hours techno playlist with my headphones turned up loud enough to drown out the loud talker and the yappers. The upside is all the noise and all the annoyance was a strong motivator for me. I finish all the customization I needed to do to the class by 4. Which means I don't have to go into the office today. I am free. We estimated it would take me three days to make all the changes to this class that they wanted. In reality it took me about 19 hours so the estimate wasn't that far off. I just managed to squish those into 2 days instead of three. Mostly because I didn't want to be back there today.

Got back to the hotel around 5 and immediately had to focus on booking trips. We finally got confirmation on St Louis for both November and December. I needed to book all of those right away. The November trip is easy. Fly out on a Monday. Home on Thursday. I do then leave for Pasadena on Saturday, but it was a straight forward trip to book. The real bitch was December. This trip overlaps with our trip to MI. I had to make 3 one way flights. Portland to St Louis, St Louis to MI, MI to Portland. And of course none of them are direct so it's really PDX - DFW - STL, STL - ORD - DTW, DTW - DFW - PDX. The tricky part is I also had to set up B's trip at the same time. I did it fast enough that we are on the same flights home, right next to each other. I got all that done plus all the hotel stays for these trips. Whee.

When that was all done I went back to El Pollo Loco for dinner. 16 minutes this time. I realize what is going on at this location - there are a number of latino families who eat here and when they do, they get the 25 piece combo which takes forever for them to put together. It's not that they are slow workers, it's that the orders are so big. I am going to try something else tonight if I can. Came back, ate my dinner while making proofing changes to the document for the client. It should be going to the printer this morning. That's my big task of the day. Heading to Fedex to pick up the docs. Speaking of deliveries, my package from Germany arrived yesterday. For our anniversary I got B something from an artist she likes. It's a panel comic with a great story. I had the artist sign it and everything. Only trick was getting it here from Germany in one piece. Well it made it!

Watched a bunch of TV last night and then went to bed around 10. Right now, I am going to relax, take my time, go for a walk, and enjoy the day of peace.