my day…
was pretty craptastic, and although I was dealing with some stuff that stressed me out pretty well (and if you know me… I really don’t stress out much) I stopped every now and then to put it into perspective. It seems my problems in this case (work stuff) are pretty minimal. Right now they may seem huge, but in the long run, I can’t let stuff like this bother me. Somebody, somewhere is having it worse than me. I know that to be true… so all I can do is to be thankful that I even have this opportunity to feel this way. Does this make any sense?
comic via overcompensating.com
Germany…. Day 1 & 2
I finally made it to Germany… after US Air totally messed up my schedule… they upgraded me to first class on the flight to Frankfurt. It was more than a little weird for me… the social injustice in the idea of “first class” kept me awake for all of the flight… I wasn’t brave enough to ask to be downgraded to regular… but for all of the flight I had this overwhelming sense of the “haves” vs the “have nots.” It kept me up for quite awhile… Ira Glass and Garrison Keiller kept me in check for the remainder of the flight.
I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I got to Germany. Beyond my expectations, the people have been kind, friendly, and most helpful. I was immediately lost in the Frankfurt Airport, and two kind Germans helped me find my way.
The days have been filled with mostly work stuff…. nothing to exciting or worth mentioning. The fun has been had at night, while trying to find spots to eat, places to drinking Dankel and Pils, and sitting around tables playings poker and silly games boys played while we were in elementary school. ( Anyone ever play table football?) The young German guy serving us in his bar promised us that we could could stay there until we wanted, and he kept his word, taking shots with our entourage until we shut the bar down.
The sense of being a world away is very real to me right now… I can’t quite get over the distance I feel from my family. I am happy to be here… but I would rather be home with the crew. The reality of being half a world away has set in… And I’m not sure I like it. The people are great, the colleagues I am with are great too, but I feel a distance within that I can’t quite put into words.
I must say goodnight for now… the day has been long, we’ve been eating and drinking for quite a bit, and if If I don’t go to bed soon, I will be a mess tomorrow,… so good night from Germany my friends…….
In preparation…
Yup… I’ll be going to Bad Orb, Germany in seventeen days for a business trip, and while I’m really thankful I’m going, its driving the wife nutty that I’m not bouncing off the walls with excitement. I’m trying to get there… my mother-in-law sent me the above book, and I bought some German beer to get in the mood. It’s just that the trip marks the beginning of me being gone for twenty-two straight days (Germany, then out to Delaware and then to Indiana.)
I’m working on it, and once I get off the plane (I hate flying, btw) I’m sure I’ll be really excited to be there. For now, I’ll drink the German beer and read the German guide… I’m sure my inspiration will come soon.
Been there and there and there….
One more week and I’ll be home…
Small minded people suck… revisited
A couple of months ago, I posted about an anonymous comment my company received on a website that “outs” companies who hire illegal labor.
The bad news is that we haven’t had much luck in having the information removed. The good news is that Style Weekly got a hold of the story and did a great job digging some more information and helping us get our side of the story out.
Yea for Style Weekly and reporter Chris Dovi.