office ratios

Is the ratio of men to women in an office directly proportionate to the cleanliness of the break rooms/kitchens?

Salad

Mmmm... salad.

I know there are some people out there that enjoy the bitter greens in their salad, but I'm not one of them. Complex flavor profiles; flavor contrasts; adds interest, BLAH! It's bitter and icky!

New Job! New Perks!

The perks at the old job were the best I had ever seen. Not so good for the girlish figure, but yummy to my tummy! (Daily lunch, free vending machine, espresso machines, popular sodas, fruit 2x/week, etc.)

I was very sad to leave the daily lunch benefit. You don’t realize how much of a pain in the ass lunch is when the only lunch worry everyday is making sure you order what you want by the daily cut-off time. Now I have to plan for lunch by either bringing it, wrangling people to take me to places, or (GASP!) going out on my own to find the good eateries.

At past jobs, lunch was the highlight of my day. Around 10:30am I’d start bugging my usual lunch buddies about what to do about lunch. If they brought theirs or where we could get a cheap bite, or do we want to venture out and have a real lunch. Lunch was easier to deal with when I worked in the SF financial district. All the great lunch places were there, from the cheap to the fancy and every type of cuisine you could ask for.

At the new gig, we aren’t really close to anything except Chili’s. I hear there is a Mollie Stone within walking distance up the hill by the GAP headquarters, but I haven’t explored that area yet. Maybe today I’ll go solo. I hear there is a tasty sushi place and a crepe place too.

Also, being the newbie on the block, I haven’t quite found my crowd yet. Sure I have some old friends that work here (what software job doesn’t come along without a referral?), but I don’t want these friends to feel like they have to include me in on all of their plans. I’d like to branch out and find some new buddies. I’m used to hanging out with a bunch of tech geeks, but this company is full of ultra-geeks and very highly dominated by the male gender.

Now about the perks that I have discovered…

• I didn’t loose out on the 2x/week fruit delivery, they have that here too (but its just Safeway Apples, oranges & bananas)
• Krispy Kreme doughnuts on Wednesday (and yes I have 2 at my desk now – ok now there is only 1) -- update -- doughnuts are all gone now and I just looked up the calorie count... 500 calories for the two of them. I guess I'll be walking to get a lovely salad for lunch today.
• Peet’s Coffee
• Good Tea selections
• Free soft drinks – and a HUGE selection of them
• Milk delivery every other day
• Bagel’s on Friday
• Beer Bash social hour on Friday afternoons
• Access to the business park’s gym & showers
• Dry Cleaning pick-up
• FREE PARKING – ok, some people don’t understand what a great perk this is, but after working in SF for 6 years, this will be a great $$ savings for when I drive to work
• Cool old school video arcade machine with every old timey arcade game you could think of - yes I am still a geek, just not an ultra-geek

But the ultimate benefit that only women can appreciate:

• FREE Feminine Hygiene products machines!

That’s right ladies, no more having to run back to your desk when you’re coming out of a 2 hour long meeting where you drank so much water to keep you entertained you think you might burst!

Ok, maybe not all of you can appreciate this, but this is a HUGE deal for me. Hehe

Brownies

This morning as I was driving to work I was thinking how odd it was that I was craving chocolate layer cake or brownies. You see, I'm one of those weird women that don't really crave chocolate. I'm more of a vanilla/caramel/fruity person, then a chocolate person. I always ate around the chocolate in neopolitan ice cream, and if a restaurant doesn't have caramel sauce then I'd rather skip the sundae all together.

Someone just put brownies in the break room. I don't know who you are, but THANK YOU!
Mmmm

Dooce Break

As I sit here, trying to remind myself that it’s Friday and it’s already considerably late on this first Friday at the new job, I needed a break from working on a project that I have little understanding of (seeing as this is my first week), so I took a little blog-break.

Thank you Heather (aka Dooce)! Thank you for being brilliant and timely, and putting an honest smile on my face. You are very inspiring. Now I know exactly what I will have for dinner!
http://www.dooce.com/archives/daily/04_21_2006.html

Are there other Dooce groupies out there? I admit when we were driving across the country and we had planned a stop in Utah to visit some of the amazing parks there, the thought did come to mind that maybe we should drive through the town where she lives and we might see her. (I’m sick!) I have little interest in buying a map to the star’s homes when I am in LA, but I consider making a drive-by in a different state to catch a glimpse of a blogger whom I admire and adore? (Sick I tell you!) Thankfully I’m not sick enough to actually make it a plan or act on the thought.

I do like to think that I somehow have a close relation to her. I mean I am a really good friends with the cousin of one of her best friends. That’s right Ben, I am only friends with you to get closer to Dooce. I admit it.

Comment or Post It

Whoa! Once again, much time has passed by without posts.

Throughout the day I think of topics to write about, but then I don’t. Or I end up blathering on and on in a comment field on some unsuspecting blog. As I write these comments (which go on and on.. much like this post already), I think that maybe I should write a full post on this on my own blog, and link back to the blog I'm reading! But that would take more effort then I seem to have at the moment, so I just click submit on the comment and leave my blog untouched for weeks at a time. Silly me.

It's over

Phew! What a trip.

I am a bit bewildered by the last few weeks that just flew by.

2 weeks ago was my last week at my OLD job. It's over. Finally.
And in that last week, I worked harder and longer then I needed to by just about anyone's standards, but there was something in me that HAD to get things done. I worked a minimum of 12 hour days, including leaving at 12:30am on the last Thursday just to return for my last day at 8am. That night I had to do a couple loads of laundry and pack for a week long road trip which I was leaving for straight from my last day at my job. Needless to say, I got little sleep. And hence the absense of posts.

That last day flew by. Tons got done, and I think I left things as neat and tidy as I possibly could under the circumstances of the last year. However, I never got to send out my farewell email. I was supposed to meet my co-workers at a bar across the street at 4pm for my sendoff, but I was struggling to get things finished and my personal files taken care of. I was working on my farewell email and finally clicked SEND, but some unnamed power told "them" to shut down my access because I was supposed to stop working and go drink. I thought he was joking and assumed "they" would understand this to be a joke.

This email was very important to me because I didn't want to leave the people I worked with. I wanted to leave the company. I wanted to say goodbye and thank them all for their support, their time and their friendship, and of course pass on the customary personal info which most people never save or use, but it's nice to think someone might want to connect with me at some future date and not via the company global address book.

I CC'd my personal email account, added all of the people I wanted to send it to and clicked SEND. Then shut down the laptop, handed it to IT and out the door I went, luggage in hand to grab a beer, get/give hugs and run off to SFO to fly to Pennsylvania.

I didn't check my email until days later. I thought it was odd that I didn't get any emails from people at my personal account. Then realized that I didn't get the farewell email I had CC'd myself on. I contacted the-best-teammate-a-person-could-ask-for, who is also the person that made it the hardest to leave, and he said he didn't get it either.

Those bastards!

Kick me in the pants why don't you.

Maybe they didn't actually shut it down, but instead it got lost in the wonders of the ethers. Who knows.

This may sound like nothing to y'all and that I should get over it (and I will now that I've written this -- blogging = therapy), but damn I'm glad I'm outta there.

Tonight we had a wonderful dinner at one of my OLD co-worker's homes with his wife, and the-best-teammate-a-person-could-ask-for and his wife. They were wonderful and hardly talked about the company. Sure it came up, it's bound to seeing as that is the biggest tie we share. But they didn't tell me how the projects I was working on are going, or how my replacement is doing. Part of me wants to know, but a bigger part is working on the de-stressing project that is more on my mind. I haven't checked the company stock or website (although I hear it isn't doing well).
My manager at my new job (starting in one week) has already voiced his concern that I will have to deal with some separation anxiety. We seem to be very much alike in our work practices, and he shared some of his experiences with leaving jobs and really letting them go. He was very nurturing and I hope he can help me adjust my behavior to work in a healthy way. I think this new job will be a good fit, for the people and the work (at least for now).

My new personal goals:

• Learn to care about work but not let it in
• Work 8 hours/day
• Work effectively and efficiently
• Leave work at work
• Take breaks
• Breath
• Live

Wish me luck!

**Note** Posts about the vacation will be coming shortly. Until then, check out a sampling of the pictures at my Flickr account.