Monthly Archives: April 2009

Headlights Look Like Diamonds

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Starting off, I don’t like the new hours. Sure, going to work at 9:00 is nice, less of a rush hour crowd, but leaving the office at 7:00, getting home around 8:00 and then having to make dinner is not my cup of tea.

Maybe I can get used to it, but on day one, I don’t like it.

The day today was a fiasco, even before I got on the bus. As it happened, I was waiting for the bus when Greg Stevens called my cellphone wondering if I was coming in to the office. I told him I was.

Then he asked if I was close to the office and I told him I was still in Hoboken waiting for the bus. He was off to a meeting and needed a letter that Vivek had sent out earlier this month, the letter stating that the company was broke and belly up.

I told him that I should be in the office by 10:00 and if he left me a fax number I would fax the letter over to him. I was there a little after 10:00, I found the letter and faxed it to wherever he was.

The day progressed awkwardly. Basically I was doing the same job as before, only 90 minutes later. Things still needed to be done and the other people in the office weren’t about to do it themselves.

The conservatives were all dressed up for meetings, I was casual since it was going to be close to 90 degrees today.

I got a phone call from Abby this morning as I sat at my desk. He asked if I was going to call the various hotels and motels that were discussed yesterday.

I told him that I still would like some help with this aspect since the people that I was calling had questions that I couldn’t answer, and I too had some questions.

He didn’t seem to hear that and asked again, and I raised my voice telling him that I requested help yesterday when he, Vivek and Sanjay (gave the business partner a name) sat opposite me at the table and all they did was nod their heads in unison, and still nothing was resolved.

I don’t want to look like an idiot and I don’t want the company to look bad.

I told Rand yesterday that it was like the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, only this was worse since the hands were attached to the 8 arms of Shiva and the left still wasn’t saying anything to the right.

I did what I could, calling up the hotels and motels, and doing my best after Sanjay sat down and we did a phone call together. Still, things didn’t go as smoothly as anyone would have liked.

Some people I called didn’t know anything about what I was calling about and some simply weren’t interested. This was the equivalent of a ‘cold call’ or so they thought.

I heard from Sanjay that this was ordered by a guy who owns several of these hotels and motels, unfortunately the owner didn’t tell the managers of these places.

It was confusion on both ends.

Some people weren’t in, some people were unavailable. I had to keep calling because all of a sudden this needed to be taken care by 6:00 this evening.

‘Let’s give it to the new guy’ must have been the thinking behind that one. I called one motel manager at 4:49, telling him I’d call back in an hour to help him with the questionnaire. At 5:55 the guy’s phone was out of service.

It was truly the essence of ridiculousness.

20th Century Boy

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Presently in the phone with Harpy. Blood pressure which is usually low is quite high while talking to him. It all stemmed when for some strange reason I tried giving him a call to let him know the latest developments at work.

Like last week when I wrote I have all these phone numbers in my cellphone and hardly any of them were available. Well, Rand was available and I told him about the latest.

Harpy was unavailable, as was Bill, Annemarie, and everyone else. That’s fine. They have their lives, their problems and I’ve got mine.

What happened was mainly a continuation of last week. Last week was when I started phoning up a few hotels and motels and asking them questions regarding beaming movies to their rooms.

I couldn’t do it all the way through since the people on the other end had questions that I couldn’t answer. Vivek and his business partner and Abby were all unavailable.

Still I felt it best if I went through the questionnaire with one of the three next to me in case there were questions. I told them this today and they agreed.

It didn’t mean they were going to find time to sit there next to me. In fact they still wanted me to call, looking and sounding stupid sitting next to an empty chair. It’s just ridiculous.

But the peak of ridiculousness was when they told me that I would be driving to different hotels and motels to check out the properties. Oh how their faces fell when I told them I didn’t drive.

They offered to pay for driving lessons but I told them I knew how to drive, it’s just that I don’t want to drive. And I don’t have a license.

I am probably one of the few Americans they’ve met who steadfastly refuses to drive.

I explained to them that I used to drive for a living. I drove to California and back. I’ve driven to Florida and back. I drove to Austin, Texas. And twice a day I used to drive from Saddle Brook NJ to 757 Third Avenue, only a few blocks away.

When I had to do an “impersonation of Janet Leigh” for Vivek’s business partner is when I tried calling.

Rand understood. He was my unofficial co-pilot for about a year.

Things have changed since I last drove 23 years ago. More new drivers and more older drivers. It’s not so much I don’t trust them, but the tons of metal are unsafe at any speed.

All it takes is one split second, one thing to go wrong and everything could all go bad.

And I do not want to drive a car or truck or van ever again.

Harpy insisted on telling me over and over that it would be something new to do. That if I want to keep my job I had better start to drive again. Sorry, but if it comes down to that I would rather walk than drive.

And dealing with Vivek and his business partner and Abby is something else entirely. Several times as I sat with them, plans for what I should do change within seconds. ‘John should do this.’ Then ‘John should do that’ which totally conflicts with the initial proposal.

What am I getting myself into? I was also told that I could start coming into the office at 10:00 since Vivek and his business partner don’t usually make it in until noon sometimes.

So they want me to stay later, until 6:00 or 7:00.

Sorry if tonight’s entry is incoherent. I think I should put off talking on the phone until after I’ve written since whatever state of mind I might have been in previously, it’s gone now and I am a bit tense.