Lunch Break

I guess you can say this is my lunch break right now. I got hungry so I went to the cafeteria and got a grilled chicken quesedilla with mixed green salad. It's odd when you come to a place and you're new because you're so...aware. Aware of what people are talking about even when you try not to be. You see everyone and everything in the room and not just your destination. Some people sit in gorups and talk, and some people (like me) sit by themselves. That's kind of a good thing for me now though. I'm too tired to talk to someone right now and do the small talk thing. Although I did chat with the chefs at the grill. They were really upbeat and were really nice to me.

I kind of wonder if I fit in here. I look around and see people standing in line and staring off into space, with dark circles under their eyes. Not all of them, but I can tell that some people overwork themselves here. I'm liking it right now when I still feel new and fresh and immersed in all the new things going on, but I'm afraid of becoming like some of these people I see around me...so familiar with everything they don't notice anymore...just do the same thing, walk the same routes, eat the same foods, sit with the same people, and stare off into space instead of taking a look around. I might start getting to that point in a month or so, but that's when a few hundred more coops will be coming in and Ray has ask me to help with some of the large scale events and planning. I'm pretty excited about that.

The setup here at the SVL is kind of neat. I think it could be better, but oh well. They got a bunch of buildings in square blocks (all connected underground) which surround a middle plaza, which is actually very nice and I can see them having large events out there every once in a while. Some buildings above ground are connected, but there are large gates where they aren't connected so we can leave the premises, and get in using our card ids.

I am very sleepy right now for some reason, and am glad that the two hour meeting scheduled for today was canceled and moved to tomorrow. I got a ton of meeting "invitations" today, which would add up to about 17 hours of meetings next week. Sigh. If I don't fall asleep, it'll really catch me up to date on the project I'm going to be working on lol.

It was raining today, so traffic was a little bit slower. I took me an hour to get to work today, leaving at 7:50am and arriving around 8:45am. There was traffic on the other side from about 5 miles after I got on the 101 freeway all the way down to the 85. I would not want to be going north bound in the morning. On the way down I was thinking of what it would be like commuting like this every day. I didn't like the idea. Unless something else pops up and someone calls me to go see a place, I think I'm gonna give Brian a call and take up his offer. $650 a month, including utilities and cleaning services lol...he says he takes care of the house and all I have to do is take care of my room. The rent is about the same as my place in SLO...actually less since the monthly bills there are so high. But paying double rent is still a pain. Yet, even with that, I'll still be making more for my savings account than I ever had before, so I'm not really going to complain.

I laughed to myself as I was listening to the English guys again today. It's funny because I really am the cat put into the same rooms as a litter of puppies and so their conversations stop and they stare at me and smile or wave whenever I come or leave the room. I still have to pack everything up whenever I go out and take everything out again whenever I come back, since the room isn't secure. I walk around IBM everywhere in my business clothes and my Northface backpack on my shoulders...sometimes my laptop in my arm if I got to lazy to stick it in my pack again.

Ah, the sun just came out. A little breezy around here, but I was actually enjoying the overcast weather. Although it did dash my plans today of exploring IBM outside the main campus. I see people taking walks around the facilities all the time and I've spotted some outdoor basketball and volleyball courts. I want to find the trails around here too.