Weekend Recap

Sleeping on the air mattress in my parents apartment did a number on my back. Once I got my parents AC working in their bedroom i slept in their room, but my dad is back tonight so I will be back on the air mattress for 2 nights until i move.

I was supposed to go on Doug’s boat today but I had a head ache and he ended up canceling so it wasn’t in the cards. I did get to go out to Manhasset (can’t spell it) to do some shopping at Bed Bath & Beyond and Linen’s and things. Unfortunately neither place had allot of what i was looking for to put in my new place. I did get a few little things but need to go online to order the majority of stuff.

Friday I went out with people from work to a bar for a while. I drank more than i would have liked, but all in all i had a good time. Everyone is pretty cool to hang out with. Saturday I slept most of the day away and then i went to see the Bourne Ultimatum by myself since i was out by my parents. It was a good movie.

Now I just have one more full day before i move!

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Life at the Parents

So far my life at my parents has been relatively dull. Their apartment is empty, no one home. No food that i will eat, and not even cold water in the fridge. Last night i walked to the Outback near their apartment. Tonight i took the bus from the LIRR station and went to Applebies.

Going to work i tried out the express bus that stops across the street from the apartment. It took about an hour but it was all in all a peaceful way to get to work. It dropped me off about 2 blocks from my office, so i will be doing the express bus in the morning, but the LIRR still seems better in the afternoon. Just a few more days until I can move into my new apartment!

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The Move

The move went as well as you could expect. No major issues, but I was very worried about the movers showing up with enough time to move me out while i still had the elevator. Apparently my building only gives you 2 hours to move out, and my movers weren’t the most prompt group even though they suggested scheduling them first thing in the morning to prevent just what i was worried about them (not being there when the elevators were mine). They showed up and got everything out around the time i had been given.

My mom showed up with Zach to wait with the couch that my sister decided she finally wanted. I ended up leaving around 12:30 with all my stuff gone, my mom and Zach hanging in an empty apt while Carrie was getting the moving truck. I took my luggage with my clothes for my parents place with me in a cab and went to work. The rail road home wasn’t too bad, but dragging the big luggage was a bit of a pain. SInce both my parents are at my sisters this week i have their apartment to myself. The down side is that it is hot in most parts of the place except for the living room and their bedroom, and i can’t find any wifi spots to connect to so to be on the internet on my laptop requires me to plug into my dad’s cable modem in his really hot office.

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Packing

Not much to report since i haven’t had much of a life since i got back from France. I have been spending most of my free time trying to pack my apartment for my move on Tuesday. My place is a huge mess. Packing sucks, and it is not the cheapest thing to be doing either. Who knew box’s were so expensive. Thankfully my Mom brought me a ton of them from my sister that she had left over from her move. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough so i had to go out and buy a few more. I just want this to be over and to be in my new apartment.

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France Trip Recap

Wednesday and most of Thursday were taken up by work at one of our companies offices near Lille. It was a massive place. It is weird getting used to going to a place like that when the office I work in only has 90 or so people. Thursday night we ended up heading back to Paris on the TGV and walked around the area by our new hotel until we found a sidewalk cafe to have dinner at.

My boss and I also had to figure out a way to get on a conference call with our team back in NY while at our hotel. The call could have turned into an hour long thing, so mobile phones and hotel phones would have been very expensive. We ended up using my macbook and skype to call our conference bridge. It was an interesting use of the technology we had at hand. The hardest part was getting the high speed connection in the hotel to work. Connecting to Skype worked flawlessly once we were online.

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Friday the morning was spent trying to go sight seeing but work took priority so we didn’t get out of the hotel until the afternoon. We hit the Louvre and got lost walking around there for a few hours. Then we walked to the Eiffel Tower. It was crowded so we didn’t go up. The line was really long. I got some decent pictures though.

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After that we had a decently hard time finding a cab back to the hotel. We hit dinner near the hotel at another cafe, and then at night meet up with some people from work who were finally in Paris from Lille.

A Very Long Day

It feels like monday night but it is fact Tuesday night in France. I am in Lille, France. The red eye last night was ok. I took some stuff to help me sleep and it worked a little but not completely. The bose noise canceling headphones also helped but it was still a long flight.

Once we got to Paris, we were able to goto a hotel and get a Day room. It is basically a room you pay for during daylight hours so you can shower, sleep, etc. We landed like 7AM local time but didn’t have meetings until noon so we needed a place to go and relax. That room made all the difference. I was able to take a shower and just lie down for an hour. I didn’t sleep but just able to relax on the bed was all i needed to get through the day and even end up at dinner at 10PM local time.

We had our meeting in Paris after we got a bit lost walking around to find our office. We then toured a data center for a bit and then our host took us to the train station so we can catch the TGV to Lille. The TGV was awesome. We got biz class on that also, but it probably wasn’t needed for the hour long trip. That train is fast, and quiet. I always like trains but this one was really cool.

Once in Lille we hit the hotel and then went out for some dinner. We ended up meeting up with some other people from our office and had dinner together. I didn’t get back to the hotel until late. It is weird when it is like 10PM and there is still some daylight out.

I am off to a much needed sleep in a bed.

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Ready To Go

I haven’t mentioned it before (or did I, now i don’t remember) but I am going to France today. I have a flight later this evening (a red eye) and then I am there with my boss until Saturday. It is my first trip to France, or mainland Europe for that matter so i am a bit excited.

I don’t like red eye’s since i can’t sleep well, so this flight will be interesting. The bright side is i get to travel business class so hopefully I can sleep when the seat reclines allot but not 180 degrees. More details as the trip unfolds.

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Busy Day

Today was one of the two busiest days of the year for the company i work for. That ment i had to be up at work really early last night and work through the night. I got to the office at 9PM or so and worked to 10AM. It was very hectic because we had allot of executives watching everything as well as a few “minor” issues that kept people busy. Over all it was an interesting night and even with our issues it was apparently a successful day.

Last night i went and signed the lease to my new apartment so i am finally squared away with my living situation.

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The New Baby, Not Mine BTW

Today I went to Rick & Amanda’s baby welcoming party. I guess that is what you call it. It was a small party Rich’s cousin threw to have friends and family welcome the new baby, Madeline (hopefully i spelled it right). I haven’t seen Rich or Amanda in a while so it was nice to see them even if the party was a bit awkward at times since i didn’t know many people and i do tend to be shy around people i don’t know. WIth people i do know, i won’t shut up. But with strangers it always feels kind of weird to me. Overall it was a good time.

At night I ended up back by Austin Street to have dinner with Jayson at Sante Fe. I like that place and Jay and I got to hang out and drink for a bit.

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Drinks with Gus

Jayson & I, and eventually Gretchen meet up with Gus for some drinks tonight. It is always hard to nail Gus down to plans so it was good to see him. I probably drank more than i should have but we had a great night out just talking and drinking. Gus tried unsuccessfully to recruit either jay or i to work for him at his latest venture. I was tempted but I am not ready for another start up just now. Of course who knows if he wasn’t kidding the whole time. I can never read him!