I test drove this Kia on Saturday. It is a little smaller than the Taurus and a nice quiet ride.

Good bye, my Taurus, my friend

This past week I said good-bye to my long time friend and companion, my 1996 Ford Taurus. I had it for 10 years. This past week I had some engine trouble that sounded alot like transmission trouble. I brought it into the mechanic to get an assessment. He said that with 162,000 miles, even HE wouldn't fix it. It would cost me between $2-3k to fix. Not worth it. For that price, I could put a deposit on a new or newer car. So, my friend Carrie helped me clean it out and take the title over to Good News Garage, a company that will take any car living or dead and fix it or sell it to give the money or refurbished cars to needy people. It's a tax write-off, which is great.

Here's a little bit about my car...

• I got it when I was working at Disney Online
• It held 7 people for a brief ride once
• It was a nice purpley gray
• It held alot of stuff
• I drove it across the country - over 3,000 miles
  
• I only took it to the car wash 2 times since I moved to VT
• It liked to unlock its doors for no particular reason

It was a good car. Did well for me. My plan now is to walk and take the bus as much as possible. It's a little inconvenient to not have a car, but it isn't the end of the world. I want to see if I can last all summer without a car. Walking will be not only better environmentally, but give me some good old fashioned excercise. I took the bus three times last week and will buy a bus pass this week. I am looking forward to riding the bus. It will also help me leave work at a reasonable time.

Good bye, my Taurus. You were a great car. Thanks for all the good times.

The new building (or not so new)

In the fall, Company X moved into a new building, not too far away from our previous location. When we moved in, there was still a few months of construction left in our lives. Picture an open area like Costco but with office walls (not cubicles). Imagine, if you will, the constant hammering, drilling, sawing, beeping, pounding of tools and machinery for three months. Then imagine being able to hear the person 3 feet away, not the person 10 feet away, but conversations 30 feet away. Imagine when you are on the phone with a client and they yell at their counterpart for being so loud but it's your construction that's loud. Imagine how the client can't hear you over the aforementioned sounds. Imagine that for months. And the dust, though the air is filtered better than most homes and probably hospitals. But I think the best day of all of that was when they were installing the flooring in the executive area. Bamboo floors - BAM! (pause) BAM, BAM, BAM (pause) for about 5 hours.

After all of that imagining, imagine with me one more time... a cool looking open area where there are no cubicles. There is a cafe and a gym. Not many companies have that. I suppose it was worth the pain. My ears have adjusted to the sounds of my co-workers 30 feet away and there is no longer construction. It is brightly colored. Though we can't hang any pictures, we do have plants and $350 bean bags (about 10 of them). I have worked in much worse places.

More about work...

Boy, oh boy! Company X has been a busy little place in the last 6 months.

• We have a gym and cafe (yes, I mentioned this before, but it's pretty impressive if you think about it)


• Several people got promotions which really surprised me, some deserved it, several didn't


• Several new hires in my department which means work should get easier


• Two guys just had babies this week (not together, and it was their wives actually who did the birthing) and two more are due this year (that we know of so far)


• Three couples got engaged, one more married


• Company X landed some big deals


• I had my review and am still employed

I am still in the same place, doing the same thing like I did last year. Like I did the year before that and the year before that. Not exciting at all. No babies, no promotions, no big clients (or deals). In fact, today (as I think I am a little PMS-y) I am in a really bad mood when it comes to things work related. I am really happy about most of the aforementioned things. But I have issues. I am not really liking me a whole lot right now, especially where work is concerned. I wonder if this place is the place for me. CA is waaaay too expensive (and damn hot). But is B-town the right place? With the economy sucking as much as it does, I am really glad to have a job. I do like my job and the people I work with, most of the time. I think that I will forever be tainted because of the problems I had two years ago and last year with the big clients I worked on. I don't know how I can get people (and myself really) to look past that crap and see that I am a capable and intelligent person who can be more than what my job says. Will I ever have a chance to evolve in my job? I believe Company X prefers the pro-active approach to everything. If you want to do something or get something done here, do it. Then sit back and see where the chips fall. They might fall in a good place, who knows? I have seen several people create their own jobs at this company. Maybe that's what I need to do.

Next time, "All About My Mother" and the May trip to California.