First day on the new job
As of today I officially work in NYC. I commuted in and commuted out flawlessly. It actually felt good to be on the train and the subway because I knew where I was going. I agonized over it so much the first time I went in that this time it was cake. I actually enjoyed the trip. The way home was a different story. I was worn out and really didn't feel like waiting forever to get home. Of course I hopped on the first train home and ended up on a freaken local train that stopped more times than I'd like to remember. Tomorrow I'm waiting for a midtown direct that is nonstop for most of the way even if that means staying later than I had wanted to originally.
But wait, what didn't I mention? Oh yeah, the freaken deepest snowfall in NYC's recorded history! OH SNAP! Well, it doesn't mean shit to me. Only inconvenience I could see was the walk from my apartment to the train station (which sucked, but wasn't so bad). I get to the train station at about 5 after 7... train is due to arrive at 7:17 and I have ZERO DOLLARS on me. So, I go inside to buy a week pass to NYC and there is a HUGE line of people doing the same thing. I'm watching the clock and tapping my feet and 7:17 is rapidly approaching, but the line isn't moving fast enough. I couldn't get on the train and buy a ticket because I had no cash, so I was going to miss my train to buy a ticket if it didn't start moving. 5 minutes till go time and I'm maybe 3 people back from the teller. Then this asshole dude gets to the front of the line and is lollygagging. He was seriously at the teller for 5 minutes. Why do I know that? Because I was WATCHING THE CLOCK LIKE A HAWK! 7:17 rolls around and he's putting his wallet away and laughing with the clerk while I'm still 2 spots back from the pole position. They both come and go and I buy my pass. Now it's 7:19 and I'm like... "WTF?" Still no train. Then a voice comes over the loudspeaker, "The 6:27 midtown direct has been delayed 40 minutes. We'll update you as we have information." 6:27? What about my train? Well, the 6:27 showed up at 7:45 and there were 4 trainloads of people waiting to get on. I get on, sit down, and a man sits next to me with his video ipod watching the simpsons. I thought that was actually kinda cool. I never understood why anyone would go crazy for an ipod, let alone a video ipod, but that commute is a long quiet ride packed in tight with a lot of people. It would be nice to have a distraction. So, I'm on the train and it's a half hour later than I expected, but I was planning on being at work an hour early. I'm still in good shape right? Wrong. The train I got on had to be made into a local train because one of the four loads of people were waiting on a local train. So we stopped at the first 4 or 5 stops to let people on and off. At that point it was obvious that every single seat on the train was full and a couple people had to stand, so they expressed it the rest of the way to manhatten. I don't know what people were doing if they were looking to get off at other stops, but I didn't really care at that point. I just wanted to get to work on time.
The train stops at NY Penn and I get off. Panic sets in for a second. I start worrying about where to go and then I realize that I KNOW where to go. I casually follow the crowd of other commuters to the 1 uptown and walk right on. This time the subway didn't seem confusing or scary at all. I went 1 stop, got off at times square, walked to the shuttle, rode it to grand central, and walked right into my office... 9 minutes late, but very very happy. I didn't think I'd be intimidated and scared forever, but I had no idea I'd be comfortable with it all so fast. I really had no problem at all.
I get in and there is a group of people sitting around the conference room table and the GA was standing at the helm with a big drawing board and a marker. He joked about me being in a hurry, to relax, and get comfortable. I did, and the rest of the day was cake. The GA had the floor for the morning and another manager had the afternoon. It was all introductory information and information about the company, but I learned two important things today: 1. I'm off on monday. 2. I only have a week of training. I really wasn't looking forward to a month or two of training like I had at AGE. I allready had that crap and I didn't really think that another month of product training would help. The way this program works is you get a crash course for a week and then your only job is to get appointments. When you get the appointments you go with an experienced guy and do joint work until you have a firm grasp on everything. At that point you start taking over the meetings, but still do joint work. When you are at 100% you get to go out on your own. When you feel you need help, you bring someone with you to help. Eventually, you're the one being called on to help and the circle of life goes on. I love it.
I didn't let my trainers get away with anything though. I grilled them on every piece of the puzzle and every aspect of my job no matter how plain and simple it seemed. I have enough experience now to know how things work (at least how they worked for me) so I'm doing everything in my power to make sure I don't get into a similar "no win" situation like the one I was mired in at AGE. The best way I can describe it is that I have a reality, they are telling me their reality, and I have to trust them enough to bridge the two in my head and understand that this process works. No matter how much proof there is on paper it's not enough to tell me 100% that it's going to work for me, so that's where the bridge comes in. I'm doing everything in my power (asking a shit load of questions, prying at every angle) to make sure that the bridge is a short and sturdy one, but there is still that leap of faith I have to make where I just say "this bridge is safe" and start walking. Until I've walked it, there's no way to know for sure, but from what I've heard it's strong enough.
In other news, Wyatt was rolling around on my lap tonight and fell off... well... not so much fell off as slipped and caught himself by digging his enourmous nails into my upper leg and holding on for dear life. Enter, stage left, nail clippers. I held him down in my lap and clipped his nails. I was fearing doing that forever, but the feeling of 10 little needles piercing you an inch from you ball bag makes you a believer in clipping nails REAL quick. Wyatt really didn't want me messing with his feet, but Virgil was asleep when I grabbed him, so he was pretty chill the whole time. It was actually pretty easy. The nails are tiny and the quick is very very clear through their transparant claws. When I used to help my mom cut the dog's nails it was scary because they have black nails and it's really hard to tell how short you can go. The kittens' nails have a curve that you just have to hook in the clipper and snip. I will definatly keep that up on a weekly basis.
I also am going to get myself an ionic breeze or two seeing as my best friend came over and looked like he was going to die from allergies. I know a lot of other people are going to be allergic too, so it wouldnt' hurt to try and reduce the allergens in the air around here. I don't want people running from my apartment with swollen eyes because I have cats.
Anyways, it's past my new bedtime. I wanted to be in bed by 10:30... not to wake up, but because I was tired as shit. I'm going to bed NOW.
But wait, what didn't I mention? Oh yeah, the freaken deepest snowfall in NYC's recorded history! OH SNAP! Well, it doesn't mean shit to me. Only inconvenience I could see was the walk from my apartment to the train station (which sucked, but wasn't so bad). I get to the train station at about 5 after 7... train is due to arrive at 7:17 and I have ZERO DOLLARS on me. So, I go inside to buy a week pass to NYC and there is a HUGE line of people doing the same thing. I'm watching the clock and tapping my feet and 7:17 is rapidly approaching, but the line isn't moving fast enough. I couldn't get on the train and buy a ticket because I had no cash, so I was going to miss my train to buy a ticket if it didn't start moving. 5 minutes till go time and I'm maybe 3 people back from the teller. Then this asshole dude gets to the front of the line and is lollygagging. He was seriously at the teller for 5 minutes. Why do I know that? Because I was WATCHING THE CLOCK LIKE A HAWK! 7:17 rolls around and he's putting his wallet away and laughing with the clerk while I'm still 2 spots back from the pole position. They both come and go and I buy my pass. Now it's 7:19 and I'm like... "WTF?" Still no train. Then a voice comes over the loudspeaker, "The 6:27 midtown direct has been delayed 40 minutes. We'll update you as we have information." 6:27? What about my train? Well, the 6:27 showed up at 7:45 and there were 4 trainloads of people waiting to get on. I get on, sit down, and a man sits next to me with his video ipod watching the simpsons. I thought that was actually kinda cool. I never understood why anyone would go crazy for an ipod, let alone a video ipod, but that commute is a long quiet ride packed in tight with a lot of people. It would be nice to have a distraction. So, I'm on the train and it's a half hour later than I expected, but I was planning on being at work an hour early. I'm still in good shape right? Wrong. The train I got on had to be made into a local train because one of the four loads of people were waiting on a local train. So we stopped at the first 4 or 5 stops to let people on and off. At that point it was obvious that every single seat on the train was full and a couple people had to stand, so they expressed it the rest of the way to manhatten. I don't know what people were doing if they were looking to get off at other stops, but I didn't really care at that point. I just wanted to get to work on time.
The train stops at NY Penn and I get off. Panic sets in for a second. I start worrying about where to go and then I realize that I KNOW where to go. I casually follow the crowd of other commuters to the 1 uptown and walk right on. This time the subway didn't seem confusing or scary at all. I went 1 stop, got off at times square, walked to the shuttle, rode it to grand central, and walked right into my office... 9 minutes late, but very very happy. I didn't think I'd be intimidated and scared forever, but I had no idea I'd be comfortable with it all so fast. I really had no problem at all.
I get in and there is a group of people sitting around the conference room table and the GA was standing at the helm with a big drawing board and a marker. He joked about me being in a hurry, to relax, and get comfortable. I did, and the rest of the day was cake. The GA had the floor for the morning and another manager had the afternoon. It was all introductory information and information about the company, but I learned two important things today: 1. I'm off on monday. 2. I only have a week of training. I really wasn't looking forward to a month or two of training like I had at AGE. I allready had that crap and I didn't really think that another month of product training would help. The way this program works is you get a crash course for a week and then your only job is to get appointments. When you get the appointments you go with an experienced guy and do joint work until you have a firm grasp on everything. At that point you start taking over the meetings, but still do joint work. When you are at 100% you get to go out on your own. When you feel you need help, you bring someone with you to help. Eventually, you're the one being called on to help and the circle of life goes on. I love it.
I didn't let my trainers get away with anything though. I grilled them on every piece of the puzzle and every aspect of my job no matter how plain and simple it seemed. I have enough experience now to know how things work (at least how they worked for me) so I'm doing everything in my power to make sure I don't get into a similar "no win" situation like the one I was mired in at AGE. The best way I can describe it is that I have a reality, they are telling me their reality, and I have to trust them enough to bridge the two in my head and understand that this process works. No matter how much proof there is on paper it's not enough to tell me 100% that it's going to work for me, so that's where the bridge comes in. I'm doing everything in my power (asking a shit load of questions, prying at every angle) to make sure that the bridge is a short and sturdy one, but there is still that leap of faith I have to make where I just say "this bridge is safe" and start walking. Until I've walked it, there's no way to know for sure, but from what I've heard it's strong enough.
In other news, Wyatt was rolling around on my lap tonight and fell off... well... not so much fell off as slipped and caught himself by digging his enourmous nails into my upper leg and holding on for dear life. Enter, stage left, nail clippers. I held him down in my lap and clipped his nails. I was fearing doing that forever, but the feeling of 10 little needles piercing you an inch from you ball bag makes you a believer in clipping nails REAL quick. Wyatt really didn't want me messing with his feet, but Virgil was asleep when I grabbed him, so he was pretty chill the whole time. It was actually pretty easy. The nails are tiny and the quick is very very clear through their transparant claws. When I used to help my mom cut the dog's nails it was scary because they have black nails and it's really hard to tell how short you can go. The kittens' nails have a curve that you just have to hook in the clipper and snip. I will definatly keep that up on a weekly basis.
I also am going to get myself an ionic breeze or two seeing as my best friend came over and looked like he was going to die from allergies. I know a lot of other people are going to be allergic too, so it wouldnt' hurt to try and reduce the allergens in the air around here. I don't want people running from my apartment with swollen eyes because I have cats.
Anyways, it's past my new bedtime. I wanted to be in bed by 10:30... not to wake up, but because I was tired as shit. I'm going to bed NOW.
posted by NJX70 at 8:07 PM
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