First Day on the Job

What. A. Day!

Ha that could mean anything...the downfall of words on a screen and not being heard aloud. Of course I mean it in a good context. I had butterflies for sure, but admittedly they were kind of muted with all the other happenings of the day. What other happenings do you ask? Well, I'd get ready to laugh a bit (it's okay, I laugh at myself too).

Buzz...buzz...my alarm goes off and after hitting the snooze button a few times I drag myself out of bed. Four hours of sleep does not leave me waking up refreshed. But the early morning light coming in through all four of my tall windows is quite gorgeous so I stretch out my arms, smile and say good morning to Fish, and head off to take a shower. The tub is an old style tub (you know, the ones with four legs) and I reach over to turn on the water, which comes out nice and fresh. Now this is where it gets tricky...there's no pully thingy to activate the shower head. No buttons, knobs, levers...nothing. I am confused out of my mind and step in anyways hoping to find the magic of this shower. Well. I failed. That had to be the most awkward shower ever lol. I won't really go much further than that since I guess it wasn't officially a shower LOL. I figured it out later after getting to work and talking to Scott that you have to kind of reach inside the pipe and flip some plug. Now why didn't I think of that?? Sigh.

Now to get to work. I've got a bike that's in three pieces (frame and two wheels), some money, and some minor sense of direction. No map. No internet (apparently we don't get wireless at the house, it's hard lined and I don't have time to figure out where that is. I grab my backpack with potential things I might like to have for the day (packed a few hours before), and walk outside to my bike taking a few minutes to put it together and get my hands all greasy before hoping on and just picking a general direction with lots of traffic. I was told that there was a BART close by...somewhere. And I had remembered Kim making some side comment of "oh there's a BART" when we were driving around a few days before. I keep riding and stop a nice young man to confirm my suspicions of an existing BART and he says to keep on going. Yay I found the Ashby BART! Okay. Now what?

Lol I've seen these kiosks before when I went to SFO from Pleasonton over spring break to Minnesota. I go to an empty one and kind of quizically push buttons as the thing pings at me. It's too easy. I felt like I did something wrong. I finish and look behind me to find a line of about five people behind me. I swear the place was empty a minute ago lol. I move quickly out of the way and stare at the slots to walk through seeing how people got through and wondering how (and if) I can get my bike through. I'd heard they were allowed on BART, but wasn't sure. Some guy passing with his bike gives me the low down on getting through (there are no formalities), and the bike black out hours. I head on down. For some reason I get the feeling that bikes shouldn't be allowed on escalators, but I don't know how else to get it down...didn't look very hard for an elevator though there must be one lol. Grabbing maps, I stare and keep looking up at the blinking signs before picking a station and hoping on the BART that rolls through. It's not such a bad ride...kinda boring since I'm standing most of the time and with a bike I have to hold up and keep out of people's way. When I get to Montgomery, I hop off and ride up the escalator with my bike. This time, there is no wide exit to go through and I stand there wondering how on earth I'm supposed to go through the skinny stations with a bike until someone else lifts his up vertically on the back wheel and slides on through. Aha! So I do the same...a lot more ungracefully mind you, but it works.

It felt like the movies watching the City scene slowly rise into view as I ride up the escalator to the street surface from the caverns. I take a second to look around. I'm pretty aware that I'm close to my work and what general direction to go (based on somewhat of a memory of looking at a map last week), but I must've looked lost or shocked or something because one person asked me if I was alright, and another asked if I was lost. I smiled and said I was fine. Then headed on my way up 2nd Street. I parked my bike and locked it to a pole (someone had suggested a tree, but I couldn't get myself to lock my bike to a tree) before heading inside. I was 20 minutes late (surprising eh?). I went down to orientation, and found that I had missed nothing...just some mingling and waiting for people to take their ID photos. Libby wasn't even there yet.

Snap my photo, get my badge, get access to the bike room, go through orientation (this is gonna be a fun summer I'm sure) with the one other person starting today Jackie and go on a tour of the place (getting Libby to detour to lock my bike in the bike room she'd never even been to) before getting dropped off at the Ops area to begin my work. Jackie and I are the last interns to start of the summer. She works in corporate marketing. My eyebrows were definitely raised.

Work was fun. I went all over the place. Third floor was awesome with GameSpot taking up the floor. Every console and PC game imaginable down there with a studio, testing rooms, action figures, the works taking up the floor. I'm on the fifth floor and I like it up here...nice view from the side windows. I get introduced to everyone...I mean everyone all over the place, not just my team. It's great. Everyone is so nice. There's also a new hire that started today on my team named Sergey. It's nice to do all the training and learning with someone else. And I love my team...they are fun and dynamic.

After the day is over, Steven calls and comes by the office to check it out. I'd remembered he was in the City and sent him a message to hang out earlier that day. He came up and found me with Niklas to my surprise since I didn't know how he got in (Niklas obviously), and the fact that I'd been looking for Niklas earlier that day and never found him. We all walked over to North Beach area for some good Italian food and wine and a good time before heading back to Market to catch a show. There's nothing really good out right now, so we settled on Forgetting Sara Marshall. Oh my goodness my poor eyes! Lol I got a kick out of the movie, but it could have done without the crying men and full frontal male nudity. I would give it...not a very high rating. But it was fun none-the-less and the company was great. We jumped on a BART and parted ways to head home.

I met a woman on the BART home who smelled of beer and was a project manager for some company. We talked the entire ride back and it was good conversation. She's from Tustin down in the OC so we had a lot in common. She put me on the right connection BART and told me to be careful. I was kinda sketchy to begin with, but her fears of being mugged didn't help my own lol. I got off at the Ashby station and started to walk home. It's a LOT slower without a bike (I'd left it at work to walk around SF that evening) and 1am in the morning. My boss earlier that day had made a comment about how I lived in the hood lol. Well that didn't help either. I was tired and to be honest, yea...I was scared. I put my hood on and walked quickly down the streets and neighborhoods an ran up the steps to my haunted house (I'm just gonna call it that lol). I am tired! Falling asleep is never a problem these days lol.