Tag Archives: Vivek

Time to Pretend

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After a beautiful weekend weather wise, it’s a definite downer today. Sheets of rain again. It’s supposed to be like this until Wednesday, with the drying out (or so they say) on Thursday.

Last night Bill and I watched a documentary on Leonard Bernstein. Bill had never seen it before, for me it was the second time I think. Bill told me his father had issues with Leonard Bernstein and really had problems with West Side Story.

He felt it was demeaning towards Puerto Ricans, which is too bad since the message is quite powerful and the music of course is still amazing 50 years later.

Then it was bedtime for Bill and eventually me. We never go to bed at the same time.

Didn’t want to wake up and go to work, not in this weather. But I had to of course. Bill was up and running as I shuffled past, making my way into the shower. He was out the door by the time I got out. Had some coffee and cereal and was smart enough to wear an rain coat.

Rode to work, almost done with last week’s New Yorker, making me almost up to date.

After a good talk with my sister yesterday about job security, I decided that picking up used tissues is not beneath me, especially if it means I will still have a job.

So for me, it was picking up snot rags and washing coffee cups that people couldn’t wash for themselves with a smile on my face. I had to get over the fact that the used tissue in the empty tissue box stayed on the conference table most of last week, and the one who put it there simply could not see the two trash cans in the same room.

Yep, that’s how it’s going to be until February 28, 2010.

Casey Chasm was due in today and it was a good thing I cleaned up the conference room. Casey invented something and got it patented. Such a thing it makes you wonder, why hadn’t anyone invent something like this before?

I told Vivek about it a few weeks ago and asked if he’d be interested in meeting with Casey. Vivek said yes, Casey was into it, so it was all about trying to pin Vivek down. Today was the day he was able to be pinned.

I didn’t have any clear idea on what would transpire. Perhaps Vivek would pull out a check book right then and there. That didn’t happen.

What Vivek did was give Casey some good advice on marketing and business presentation. Good advice for free. There is still more work to be done for Casey but he now has an idea in the direction he should be headed in.

Now I’m trying to get Casey together with a former co-worker who has some good ideas on marketing. I’m just putting them together, hopefully they could work things out.

Also today was the Boston Marathon, which my niece Meghan ran in Hooray for Meghan De Carlo, my niece who finished the Boston Marathon with an Official time of 3:19:31! Excellent time, much, much better than I could ever do. Perhaps riding my bicycle I’d keep up, but without wheels she would leave me in the dust.

The whole family is proud of her for this accomplishment. If she runs in the New York City marathon, I will be on the sidelines, egging her on.

All in all, an interesting, out of the ordinary day.

One Less Bell To Answer

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Back to work for me today. Very cold this morning. I lay in bed, kept hitting the snooze button. I would get out of bed eventually just waiting for the right time. My cellphone kept going off with a text message. I figured it was Bill wishing me a good morning. When I got out of bed I checked it.

Bad news.

While Bill slept last night, his mother (who has Alzheimers) wandered out of the apartment without her coat and shoes and went looking for something, perhaps a ride to Puerto Rico. Stuyvesant Town security found her and brought her back. She cannot be left alone and obviously needs an eye on her at all times.

When I responded to Bill’s text, with an ‘Oh jeez’ he immediately called and filled me in. She had frostbitten feet from being outside with the temperature in the teens and a knife like wind chill. Bill told me the story and said he had to get a locksmith and see how much it would cost to get an additional lock on the door, one that you lock with a key inside.

All this before a shower and coffee. I said all that I could to be supportive, then jumped in the shower. Got myself together, wore a nice suit, not too nice since the world was a frozen mess, and some work boots which did not go with the suit at all despite being a similar color. Rode the bus and read the New Yorker.

Walked across town with the iPod playing a range of songs from Pet Shop Boys to the Monkees ending up with the Neville Brothers. The office was quietly buzzing when I came in. Some people came in yesterday, most didn’t. Greg Stevens was in New Mexico on vacation for a few weeks.

Tom Chin made it in and while I was talking to Bill, he asked me to come in his office when I got off the phone. I walked in expecting the worst but it was just asking me to go to the bank when I had the chance. I had errands to run and decided to stagger them, do some now, do some later.

As the day went on I spoke with Bill a few times, just checking in. Medicare had sent a bureaucrat to size up the situation with Bill’s mother. They tried to do it last week but Bill was unavailable. Their visit was to see whether or not Bill’s mother needed 24 hour care. Perhaps after hearing of her unauthorized excursion they will see the need.

I made it to the bank and picked up my lunch. By the time I came back, Vivek was in the office. Not that it mattered. He and his partner sound like they’re arguing, but they are just really loud Indian guys. After an hour or so, Vivek comes up to me and says he needs to speak with me. I figured, this was it.

We go into an empty conference room, he sits on the couch I sit on a chair near the couch. It almost looked like a psychotherapy session. He tells me that things aren’t going so well and that he will have to cut my hours.

Effective this week, I will be working 4 days a week out of 5. I was ok with that. Not happy about it but I realized that I would rather work 4 days a week rather than 0 days a week. I told Vivek, if that was the case I would like to take Mondays off since Tom Chin is out on Fridays.

He told me that wasn’t going to happen since Tom Chin will not be around much longer. They asked Tom Chin for his resignation and he gave it to them. I don’t have the details on his last day but he will be more of a consultant and really not around much at all. So I’ll have Fridays off.

I told Bill about it a few minutes later and he was concerned, but I tried to ease his mind since he had enough on his plate, telling him that 4 days is better than none. And it’s true, it is. Things will be tighter around here, but I think it’s manageable.

Who knows? In a few days I could be totally panic stricken.