Week 2: Virginia

Week 2

I am writing this while sitting at the Samuel Adams bar/restaurant in the Richmond International Airport, finishing off a draft Sam Adams Summer Ale (which was exceptional, BTW) pondering over the burger I just finished off, listening to miscellaneous Russian pop and euro music in my headphones. After having gone through this pretty wild week, I must say life is good… for the most part. Eventful, if anything.

I flew out on Sunday, barely made my flight from DFW (Dallas Fort-Worth) to RIC (Richmond, Virginia.) The accommodations were Hotel Sierra in Short Pump mall – one of the biggest outside malls in the country. Snazzy contemporary-looking setup, with basically all the furniture I want for my apartment. I actually decided since I had all of this time on my hands (I arrived at 7pm), it would be cool to just explore. Most places were closed by then, with the exception of a few restaurants. Having grabbed a steak sandwich from Firebird’s and ate at the hotel. Further I decided that a work out is in order – first one in a month or two. Eating and drinking without much physical activity is not a good layout.

Virginia. On Monday we were expected to meet in the lobby after a pretty nice breakfast bar to get on a shuttle to Capital One headquarters. The lounge area was full of ADP kids, some familiar, some not. There was a group from McLean, VA staying there as well. The day was basically focused on HR, culture, history, etc… Good overview, but a bit overkill. Afterwards came the cocktails. Funny part – they gave out 2 drink tickets per person, since apparently the class before us was a little rowdy. There we got to hang with a bunch of McLean & Richmond, as well as some associates and managers. I hovered all around with my classy glass of chardonnay. Later was the dinner. In a mildly forced fashion, I sat with one of the senior guys at a table, surrounded by several Virginia ADPs. The evening closed with a miserable experience at a nearby bar. The ADP crowd headed out to Bar Louie’s, just outside the hotel. Apparently in VA, a temporary driver’s license is considered a “fake”. So is a Green Card. My attempt at getting a beer was an utter fail. Throughout the course of the night, I sipped water and spewed out nasty comments about the bartender and the bar in general. In the process, I ran into Nataliya, the only other Eastern European in the bunch. We chatted for a while, and then I headed out. The night closed out with me going to a gym with my buddy Ryan and pumping iron. I felt very accomplished.

Tuesday. More speakers, divisional overview, etc… Only thing I recall was that our crowd ended up at Applebees of all places. Fail. This time I had my passport, so I succeeded in getting a beer. There were some talks of going out downtown, but that never worked out. I actually knocked out way early, at about 10pm.

Wednesday. Capital One Economics – effectively, now I can explain exactly how a credit card company makes money. It wasn’t too bad, but the overlap was starting to get annoying. Lots of similar information all over. After work me and Ryan ended up going shopping with a couple of cute McLean girls… and man it’s been a while since I’ve acted so ridiculous at the mall. The night took us to the Fan district of Richmond. That is effectively where the college kids hang. We hung out at this absurdly crowded but interesting college/yuppie bar called 3 Monkeys Bar, which was pretty good for what it was. There were the usual suspects, mixed with a variety of Richmond and McLean based ADPs. Afterwards, I ended up driving the car, since Jacob and was already done by that point, and after getting lost 5 times in a 10 block square, we made it to the next venue – Banditos Burrito Lounge. Wow, Virginia, really? It was basically a college dump where they hosted karaoke. Hardly a pleasant venue, but a bunch of our peers seemed to be thrilled. We promptly departed, with me driving back to the hotel.

Competition. Thursday was the day of the case competition. Recalling the interview, I was expecting something similar to that. Actually it turned out to be a paper/computer based version of Markstrat (a marketing simulation game). While it felt a bit flawed, it was still a good experience. My team placed last, but I was more than happy with our strategy and results. I think we got a star for effort. The night was a spontaneous decision, based on a recommendation of a fellow ADP from McLean on Tobacco Company. It was a particularly fancy restaurant with a beautiful lounge on the first floor, and two levels of dining rooms above. Instrumental guitar jazz was in the air.

The décor was something of an early 20^th century feel, showcasing a massive “Adams Family” elevator in the middle of the restaurant. After enjoying a gorgeous New York Strip with a cherry reduction and a Red Diamond cabernet sauvignon, we decided to go to the rumored “club”, which was supposedly located in the SAME building. The hostess directed us outside and down into the basement. And to my amazement, there was an actual top-40 night club with lasers and everything right there! Moreover, there was a blackjack table (seemed unusual), but what made it particularly incredible was the fact that it was for CHARITY! They even issued a receipt for the $5 buy-in. The crowd was a mix-bag of college kids, yuppies, and a healthy amount of a well-dressed older crowd, spread across the whole cultural spectrum. Cupid Shuffle was a pure win. Later me and JoAnna decided to pull a little random Top-40 salsa to Modjo, of all things. The night closed with a miserable attempt to get into a couple of other bars with our Plano crowd. A couple other ADPs had some ID issues and were denied.

Ropes! Friday was the Challenge Discovery (CD) team building day. CD was an outdoor sport activity type of place with a variety of climbing locales, tight rope setups, etc… My team, unsurprisingly a mix of Plano, Richmond and McLean, was pretty heavily weighted on girls – we had maybe 5 or so out of 14 people. Some groups had none… In either case, we started with a criss-cross tight rope where 4 people had to get to the opposite side at the same time. I loved it. A couple of our team mates didn’t do very well though. Then was the incredible 15FT wall, over which we all had to get across. It was concluded that I was the best fit to go last (since the person on top would have to pull me up). In the process I got to throw at least 10 people up. The end was spectacular, however. I got my running start, and very much in a Spiderman fashion, nearly ran up the wall, latched onto John’s wrists and got up. Massive win for the team. Nobody fell or got hurt. Then was a pretty mild activity where we had to lower a tent pole with nothing but 14 index fingers, without anyone losing contact with the pole. Pure precision. We finally got it after a dozen attempts. Last was the best part. A 50ft tower, built of 3 pillars in a pyramid fashion, with rock-climbing attachments all over, and a platform up top. Our goal was to climb up 4 people at once, with the aid of another team, and push 2 humongous exercise balls up to the top. That was an incredibly difficult task, but we succeeded a couple of times, even though we never quite got them on top of the actual platform. Wow that was plenty of adrenaline. CD experience closed with a 4-way tug of war. We were directly opposite a team with nothing but guys, several of which looked to be of the football/baseball player variety. And I am proud to say that we held up incredibly well, all thanks to a strategy of synchronizing our pull attempts, rather than applying static pressure on the rope.

The Drive. Thanks to Dhruv, a McLean based ADP, I got a ride to DC. Despite the ridiculously cramped headroom of the Scion TC back seat, we had a pretty good road trip. With us was Justin from Plano and Dave who was also in McLean. Oddly enough, both Dhruv and Dave happened to be dating Russian girls. I found that particularly amusing.

DC. Once I got in, I quickly hopped on the rail and headed towards Stephanie, my good friend from RPI. In Wheaton we linked up with several of her friends for dinner and hit the club later. We got on the list at Tuscany West – an upscale Latin club downtown DC. It felt pretty awesome to be able to do salsa again.

Russian Saturday. The next day I met up with my dear NYC friends, Elina, Alla and Gosha. We went to eat lunch at a marvelous Uzbek restaurant, Café Assorti. I had okroshka, a unique Russian cold soup, pirojki, and manti, Uzbek dumplings, following with kompot, a classic fruit drink. We were later joined by the one and only Alexander Zolotov.

Heat. Despite the absurd triple digit temperature, we still ended up going on a tour of DC hosted by Alex. The tour effectively ended with the National Harbor. Here is a picture of me standing on top of a huge silver man stuck in sand... he is biting my leg off?

A spectacular development just outside of DC, with a massive resort hotel and plenty of mixed-use buildings.

Clubbing, part 2. Saturday night took us to Slaviya, on thanks to the suggestion of Alex. It was a Serbian/Bulgarian restaurant, with a very modern, club-like décor. Soft lounge beats filled the atmosphere. The heart of the meal was a Wine Kebap – closest thing I can think of is like a crawfish etouffee, but with beef and more of a red bell pepper type feel rather than tomato base. I was impressed. Towards 11pm, our area started getting roped off, and tables nearby were carried to the back. Soon, powerful house beats started kickin. And the club was on. I was thrilled with the transformation. Alex knew the owner, the DJ, his wife… and at least a dozen more people in the place. It was kind of nice to get grandfathered into VIP. The party was organized by a certain Troika Party, a DC based entertainment group. Alla kept trying to get me on the dance floor, since they were departing soon, but I was locked up a bit on the fact that it was still pretty early, and the club was a bit bright and hardly full. After a little while I worked up the courage, and we turned out to be the only people on the dance floor. However, in a little while, girls started edging closer to the dance floor, and before we knew it, the crowd was bouncing. Win.

Lumbar. So sitting in this airplane seat, finishing up this post, I am coming to a conclusion that airplanes really should at least try to add some comfort to these seats. There is absolutely 0 lumbar support. But that’s beside the point.

Return. Sunday morning, I woke up at a pretty early hour of 8am. Stephanie’s family was going to church, and out of respect mixed with curiosity, I decided to join them, despite it being a Catholic service. After the service, we headed out to Richmond. I am particularly grateful to her, since driving me to an airport 150 miles away is not exactly fun. The reason for the inconvenience is my obnoxious tendency to try to “wing it”. When I booked my flight, I was under the impression that Richmond and DC are right next to each other. Fail. Before I flew out, I assumed I can get a $50/day rental and just go to DC and back. Well little did I know that a one way rental would cost close to $200! Fail 2. So I tried to change my flight on Saturday, and was pretty unsuccessful, since a flight out of DC would be close to $400. Well to be precise, I ended up dropping my reservation by accident, panicking, but still reinstating it. After 2 hours of stress, I was back where I started. Fail 3. Boy, is it good to have friends that are willing to help out when you just fail all over.

So in the end, I concluded that in the future, it would probably help to plan a bit more in advance. Tomorrow is going to be crazy – my first day without much of a program. I have to learn new software and start completing projects soon. My first deadline – July 30! Despite it all, thanks to Vladimir Z., a Dallas veteran, I got connected to a certain international loop here in Dallas, and will be going to an indie movie opening event on July 29. Quite excited.

First Week in Texas

Tuesday Night - The show was actually a success – a guitar, a vocal and a trumpet. Such an unusual combination, but worked very well.

Wednesday – July 14, 2010 – First day at the office

9:03am – I’m bolting out of the garage, frantically trying to locate “Building 1”. Capital One’s Plano campus has 4 buildings, 5^th under construction. I was supposed to meet my supervisor, but instead I got to meet the guy just below him. We have a tiny team of 3 guys, an intern and myself. Quite an eclectic mix. Ian – a very sharp guy, he’s boss. But he also can pull off neon-pink socks with a pink/blue checker white button up. The guy just below, Galen – a very Texas kind of guy. Like Dodge Ram extended cab, jeans at the office and the slight accent thing going. PhD in computer science, nonetheless. Then there is Adam, a very Jewish gentleman (wearing the traditional cap), who was particularly astute with the technical stuff. The intern is this Chinese-American girl from Rice, Wendy. An awfully nice young lady. The team seems like a win at this point.

The Boss. I did not get to see Ian until later that night, at dinner. We had a very active conversation, seems like there was a connection. Overall, I suppose I’m a bit tired of constant presence of my coworkers. The day promptly ended as I got home.

Thursday - July 15, 2010

Tax Office. Aparently in Texas you have to go to the tax collector to register your car. As of today, I am officially a car owner, with my own insurance and Texas plates. Now I have to have 2 plates on the car =/

Hurry Fail. So as I run into the office, all happy that I’m coming in at a very mildly late 9:15am, announce to Galen that I’m finally legit. Only later I realize that I am missing my driver’s license. Fail. Now I’m worried that I left it at the tax office. I bolt back to my car, and it turned out that it was just stuck with all the other papers in my bag. Lack of attention – not good.

Work. For real. This was the first day I actually was at my desk and in meetings the whole day. It’s like a bizarre combination of self-teaching and mini-seminars. We all got loaded with about a dozen slide decks, expected to get through everything pretty quickly… but the only problem is that with meetings and seminars eating up half of the day… you realize that getting work done is going to be quite difficult.

Teh Computa – For all my tech people, I figured you might enjoy this bit. My workhorse – HP Elitebook (Core 2 Duo vPro) with a docking station (keyboard and mouse) and a 19” HP screen. HUGE desk. And actually a really decent chair. I know in some companies it’s actually not the case, so I suppose I’m pretty fortunate.

Happy Hour. This time I and the ADPers ended up at the Uptown Pub, and I think I observed some of the worst service ever. The waitress would give people a hard time for ordering water. One kid simply never had his order put in, because “she didn’t hear him”, but naturally, it was his fault. Best part – she gratted us 20%! It also didn’t help that the burger was mediocre.

Friday – July 16 2010

DMV. I tried to wake up at 6:45a to make the DMV for 7:30a. The reality was more like 8:30a at the DMV. Fail. Then came the incredible 1.5hour wait. DMV in Louisiana might have actually been faster… but only marginally. Moral of the story – block out 2 hours for the experience, and try to get there 15mins before open. But I am now officially a Texan.

Hectic. The rest of the day flew by at an incredible pace. I had an 11am meeting with my boss for the first time, since he has been in training the whole time. Apparently, I now have 2 projects with actual deadlines. That was a splash of cold water in the face. But I suppose it was a good reality check. Only problem is that I know nothing about what I have to do. Good thing was that it actually is moderately interesting stuff, despite being largely a reporting function. At the end of the day, it seems like on the entry level, you’re either selling or reporting, when it comes to business.

Meeting Madness. The rest of the day included a 2 hour lunch with the Mortgage team, another meeting with Ian, and then a 3 hour seminar with half a dozen mortgage kids.

The lunch was held at Razzoo's of all places. Apparently out here it is not a slimy bar, but actually a decent Cajun restaurant. So this is what a combo skillet looked like:

Next thing I know, it’s already 5pm and I have to get a U-haul and get to the furniture store in time to pick up my overdue bed.

The Move. Wow… I think there is a good reason why the mover/assembly service actually costs $75. Effectively, cost wise, I may have saved 20 bucks, but in process I had to deal with massive inconvenience of getting the truck, driving through traffic, and having a buddy from ADP suffer through all that mess. Not to mention the back breaking up the stairs =/ I think I’ll stick to movers, now that I can afford that 20 dollar differential. Plus I still have to put in another 30 mins or so to assemble it. On the brighter side, I still have the U-Haul, which I’ll probably use to get a TV Saturday.

The evening was pretty eventful. We went out to Idle Rich's, a pub uptown. Since I'm now a Texan, I have a paper temporary license, which means I have to carry an 8x12 sheet of paper everywhere they card. Naturally, I forgot it. So I convinced the bouncer somehow with my work clothes and my work ID that I'm a grown adult with a job and I do not need to show him my ID. At first he was hesitant, but then he assessed us to not be punk college kids, and let me in. Yuppie win.

There I had a pretty incredible roast beef sandwich coupled with a seafood chowder (0_O), chased with a Mardsedsous, a particularly bready dark German beer.

We then proceeded to Claire's house to crash her party. Apparently, Claire was throwing a house-warming party with her roommate, but mainly for the 2nd and 3rd years. Well the froshies were invited, but the quantity was not specified. She got at least a dozen. After a couple of beers, it seemed like we got kicked out of the apartment, just when I was getting into some great conversation.

Clubbin. Next was Blackfriars. Odd name, but it was a sort of patio-club/bar thing. The ID issue came up again. So the bouncer here was giving me serious crap. I tried the bouncer next to him... and without luck, I got turned around. I go back to the car, move it just in time to save it from a fat ticket, and end up scoring a spot just around the corner from the club. More bar than club. Typical college/post-college crowd. With typical crappy music. But the bouncer was so impressed with me getting the ID, he bought me a shot! Massive win. At that point, I was not interested in consuming any more alcohol, so I provided JoAnna, a fellow ADP with the shot of tequila. Further the conversation landed on Bhangra, the Indian kid Nachi was a huge expert on the subject. I decided to deviate from Bhrangra, on a much more familiar subject of salsa. That later resulted in me and JoAnna dancing salsa to some mediocre rap song. Double massive win.

After sitting around for a while, I brought Matt back home, and headed back. Knocked out after 2am.

Saturday – July 17, 2010

Surprisingly I woke up before the alarm again, and got up with the alarm right at 8am. I had to make the dry cleaners before 9am.

Yuppie Livin’.

So majority of the morning was spent at a coffee shop just outside my building. Breakfast, online errands, and plenty of people watching. The conversations passing by are quite amusing. Everything from the likes of a post-frat days yuppie, who was still acting like he was in his mid-teens; a few serious yuppies, probably early 30’s carrying on pretty deep conversations on politics, chess, car buying, healthy cuisine, etc... and then the sorority types chirping about miscellaneous junk. Amidst all this, there are a few 30-somethings, of familial nature. Some with a baby, some with a dog. Lots of runners. Overall not bad. And up until 11am or so, the breeze was actually really nice, causing the 90F+ temperature to feel closer to lower 80’s (while in the shade).

Off to chores - gotta bring back the U-Haul, maybe get a TV and a mattress. But I don't know... I kind of like my air mattress. Next update will probably be a little late, since I will be flying to Richmond, VA for training, and then visiting DC to see several good friends. Should be fun.

Work Day 2

Bad Habits. So the day began at 7am with the typical scurrying out of the house, trying to get dressed in my only suit and (effectively) only tie. At least the only tie I ever wear.

Here is a shot after work.

Somehow, I woke up 10 minutes before the alarm. I was quite impressed, actually. But anyhow – today was the big meeting day. Rich Fairbank, CEO, was addressing 300 some associates in Plano, TX. Mostly the Auto and Mortgage folks.

Double fail. I arrive at the hotel just in time to park on the roof, and stuff my face with a 3/4 of a bagel and slurp coffee with juice all in under 5 mins. And then I try to get my name tag, but realize that I forgot the one thing that the HR lady stressed 5 times yesterday - the ID! Fail.

Anyhow, I sort of expected a couple hour speech and the rest would be all the support executives. Not quite. The guy spoke from 8:30 am until basically 3:30pm with an hour lunch break. That was intense. Unlike any lecture back in college. It also didn’t help that the AC seemed to be set at 50F… and this was the day I resumed my 4+ caffeine consumption habit. But overall, the overview of the industry and the company was much needed.

Networking. Good thing was the opportunity to meet all of the big wigs and the mid-level guys. I’m surprised less kids actually used the opportunity… I, however, was determined to meet Rich. As the end result, me and a handful other eager first-timers managed to shake the CEO’s hand on our second day. Success. And I was the only person at the conference to have a full suit. Didn’t want to conform to the rest of the guys who took the tie off, when they realized that it may have been a bit overkill. I figured if I am going to overkill, I might as well do it right. On a random note, Rich’s mother and father were both physicists… probably explains why so many candidates for my position are engineering, math, and physics backgrounds, with a few economics exceptions.

Bizarre Encounters. I interviewed with Capital One TWICE. Not like two rounds, but like in 2009 and 2010. The guy that failed me out of first round in 2009 was sitting a couple of rows behind me… hopefully he didn’t recognize me, because I doubt I will be introducing myself to him. In the crowd were several mid-level guys that interviewed me in 2010, all of which seemed like they recognized me. Win.

Happy Hour 1. After the hotel, we ended up going to some nearby pub for drinks. This is becoming another bad habit I suppose… but still in moderation. After meeting several Finance Rotation Program kids, finishing off a Stella Artois, I decided to head out. It seems like there is quite an interesting breakdown forming in our ranks. The wild single socialites and the responsible married/engaged kids. And then there is me… not quite one or the other. Hopefully, us moderate kids will be able to chisel out some middle ground. But at this point, I’m trying to straddle all loops.

Now, finishing up my kabob platter
at the Sidewalk Café, also on Addison Circle, stealing Pastazio's internet (I still can't get over the name), I will be flying back uptown to meet up with a dozen ADPers (people in the program) at Wine Therapist, a wine bar with live music. Should be interesting.

Tomorrow is my first day of actual work. Well at the very least I meet my supervisor… if he is not in training. At least I’ll meet some coworkers, see my desk and building. Pretty excited.

Ah well. That’s it for now. Off to see first live music show in Dallas.

//A

First Day of Work

First Day of Work - Pulled it off

So overall, this was as to be expected. Woke up at 6am, did my paperwork, hurried to work. Mind you I'm rockin my only clean shirt.

But it's all good. Grapefruit juice for breakfast =( I was one of the earlier ones. Good start. And they had coffee with breakfast. Success. The rest of the analysts seemed pretty cool. As expected, something like 6 girls out of a class of 28. In some sense it’s much like college, except now you have people that are engaged all around you. I’d still say that is more welcome than an obnoxious frat boy crowd. There are certainly a couple of those in the crew, but at the very least, you can have an intellectual conversation with them. I guess one could say this is a relatively matured version of college. The competitive nature probably explains it. It turned out that the numbers behind the competition was actually 1 offer to 100 applicants that applied. Success.

Majority of my peers seem to live in the "happenin" areas of Dallas, namely, The Village and Uptown. Both areas I considered before I moved, but they all are at LEAST 30 minutes away from work. I decided to hedge my potential of always being dangerously close by being only 15 minutes away... and I cannot say I ended up in a boring part of town. It's apparently not too bad. But we'll see. I have the next 5 months to think about it.

Most of the day was lectures and speeches. We had one activity where we actually had to do a presentation on two of the values of the company. Talk about HR cheese… but oh well. It was amusing, out team did a skit for one.

Afterwards, it turned out that a couple of the guys at my table were interested in rockin the ping pong table after work. Success. We got a solid 8 people to come out. And then we went out to happy hour and got dinner uptown to Primo’s. My first time seeing actual uptown. Good times. Nice to establish a bit of a network already. And had good tacos with a Margarita.

Tomorrow, I actually have a whole day at a hotel! Richard Fairbanks, the chairman of the Capital One will be there addressing the first timers… and a couple hundred other associates. Still cool to see the CEO. And we already have plans for Wine Therapy – apparently a live music venue that might have 2-4 musicians perform tomorrow. We’ll see how that works out. The shady poker player type was the one organizing the outing.

This last bit was actually written out of Astoria, a nice little coffee/wine shop just outside my apartment. Very quaint little place. My waitress Teddy, was actually Bulgarian. The place is apparently owned by Bulgarians. And Hotel California just came on the speakers. Awesome.

Over and out. Back home.

Weekend 1

Weekend 1 – Last Minute

So, as a responsible adult, I set my alarm for 8:15am the night before, so I can get enough rest and still make the 9am last call for shirt washing/pressing. Naturally, I spent most of the morning wasting time (thank you FB and YouTube)… and only by 10:30am, while finishing cereal, I remembered that there actually IS a purpose to waking up at a decent hour. Except that the purpose is now past due. The dry cleaners in Addison Circle and EVERY dry cleaners in the area seems to have the 9am last call for same day jobs, since they all send them out. Somehow I end up finding a place that has their own machine and was willing to do something on Saturday. Prior to then, I decide that I still have time to go War Walking (or searching for free internet. To my great surprise, it was a lot more difficult to find it then I expected. Wi-Fi was found behind Pastazio’s, the pizza place from Thursday, and that is where I posted “Day 2”.

By the time I arrive to the cleaners, it seems like I nearly missed this train too. The guy said they are closing soon, but I talked him into doing one shirt. Win. Barely.

From Russia With Love. Next I end up calling around and finding some tailor near by. Sounded pretty Hispanic on the phone, so I don’t think much of it. Texas, right? Golden Thimble Tailors, I walk in – classical music playing, and this lady walks out from the back.

After telling her I just called, I catch her accent. Not too thick, but thick enough for me to know my own J Russian indeed, in Dallas since 1974. So now I have a tailor, Lucy, a Russian one at that. Well, as it turns out, Ukranian – Odessa =) And tailored pants in less than 2 hours. Definitely win. It also seemed like her mom is working there as well. And the leftovers from обед (obed) just screamed Russia.

Ceviche. Lunch was a quick chips and tapas at a cantina right by the tailor. Modelo and Ceviche at the bar… ah now that was definitely success too.

The tart nature reminded me of marinated селёдка (seledka) a bit. To me, at least, that’s a good thing.

Favors. While writing this bit at the tailor, conversing with a customer and Lucy, it turns out that Lucy’s assistant needs a ride one stop light down. Naturally I cannot say no, especially considering that the lady just finished my pants. So I bring her to the nail salon. At the end of the trip, she asks me if I’m Russian or Jewish. Priceless moment (for those who still maintain that Jewish is a religion. I suppose it really depends where you are - in Russia it is definitely more cultural rather than religious. Aparently, Lucy is Russian, but her husband is Jewish.

Indecision. The rest of the day I attempted furniture shopping for the first time in my life. Wow. Up until this day, I did not realize how difficult it is to pick furniture. I suppose I’m just a perfectionist… with a big spender taste, but no check to keep with it. I was only able to find just one out of four major items. A table with chairs. Which is good progress.

On a whim. Afterwards, I decided to cruise down closer to uptown, but without much success. Then I figured I need some sort of lagniappe, so I decided why not call my friend and see if she is up for a movie. So I drive way out to Lewisville (30 minute North/West). And me and La Quenta go see Toy Story 3. It was AWESOME.

Sunday. I drive about 40 mins North to the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox church. It was kind of nice to see an actual church building with some clearly Russian people there. It was about half Americans and half FSU. The priest was very much like Fr. Alexander back in Mobile (and they actually knew each other). Good experience.

Afterwards, I decide to go furniture shopping, and this time, hopefully with a purpose. I.E. not look at coffee tables BEFORE getting a bed and a couch. La Quenta was interested in coming out and sharing her opinion, which helped greatly with my particularly indecisive perfectionist approach. So when I looked at the bed and came to the conclusion that it is what I WANT, especially so at that price, I decided that is it.

It did take a dinner with a glass of wine to make the final push… but seriously, ladies and gents, if you find something and you feel it is right – just do it! Chances are, it will be too late if you think twice. So I bought it. Now I have to get it to my house some time. After the furniture store, we walked around the SMU area, which is apparently known to be snob central of the entire SOUTH. At least according to a random NOLA guy we met at West Elm… an interior designer working as a sales guy at a furniture store. Recession.

Afterwards, we just walked around Mockingbird Station area and enjoyed the sunset. On the way to the car, there was an F355 in the lot. Naturally, I had to take a picture of it. And to complement a fine vehicle, conveniently, I had a nice lady right next to me.

The day was success. Except for the ending. I recalled that I needed to fill out some online paperwork BEFORE my first day. FAIL. So I scurry over to the business center, only to learn that some guy and some drag queen occupied the two working computers. It didn’t seem like they would get off any time soon. FAIL. Next I end up running around the Addison circle trying to find internet somewhere, without luck… and without juice in my laptop battery. So I turn in. Decide to wake up at 6am and do it then. So in the end, I managed to procrastinate BEFORE I started working.