01/23/05

Jan 2 2005 Flying back to the North of Dakota

Jan 17 2005 It's warmed up quite a bit

Jan 23 2005 A few of my favorite products

Jan 2

Well I just finished my first "vacation" from my first full time job. I was off Dec 24th till today. Now I'm flying back to Williston, ND. I'm currently waiting in the newly constructed wing of the Jacksonville International Airport. Like a good citizen my bags are not left unattended, and I have refused to listen to anyone asking me to take something onto the plane.

This break was nice. It felt very long, I guess because I was in such a routine of working so much. The bad thing is that the whole break I was tired, and I'm very tired right now. I was able to catch up with a bunch of friends in both Jacksonville and Orlando. On the way to the airport I had the air conditioner on in the car -- for the last time for many moons. I talked to a coworker last night, who is from Brazil. He answered the phone and said, "It is -15 degrees right now man!!! FAHRENHEIT! hahahaHAHAHARHARHAR!!!"

I was able to see a Jaguars game, and go to the Gator Bowl to see FSU beat (unfortunately) West Virginia. Besides that I was pretty much hanging out with friends and using all my gift certificates that my mom got me for Christmas. Why did I get so many gift certificates? Because my surprise visit was successful: I showed up very early Christmas Eve morning, when my family was expecting me on the 28th. My mom screamed, hugged me, slapped me, and then spent all day trying to get me some gifts for Christmas. It was pretty funny.

I also got an update to my dad's adventure at shooting out the church light across the street. It turns out that, predictably, the church replaced the light. My dad witnessed this, and much like Dostoevsky's main character in Crime and Punishment, his conscious started to gnaw at him. He has since tried to bring up the subject of the light's replacement coyly with the maintenance crew at the church.

"So, I couldn't help but notice that you guys had to replace that light. What happened to the other one? You don't say! It exploded! Hmm, maybe a large bird or something, I'm not sure. Anyway, how much would something like that cost to replace?"

So far they have not told him how much it costs, and our family suspects that the church probably knows what happened. But my dad is determined to find out how much it cost, and sneak into church one day and put that same amount in the offering plate. In the meantime he installed some thicker blinds in my parent's bedroom so that they can sleep now.

Oh, my youngest sister also got her nose pierced over the break. That provided some entertainment for our family and friends. There's always something going on at the Baxter's. It's amazing that I'm not crazy.

It also looks like that I'll be shipped out to Montana soon after I get to North Dakota. It's kind of bad timing, because my stuff from storage will be shipped up there in the meantime, and I'd like to set up my apartment. It will also make studying for my break out a little more difficult. Right now I am a JFE -- junior field engineer. Once you break out you become an FE -- field engineer, and you do unsupervised jobs, make job bonus, and get the elusive rotating schedule (for me 12 days on, 6 days off). To break out you need to graduate the training school, which I just did in Scotland, and then after you do a certain amount of supervised jobs and study up some, you go to a regional sales center (mine is Denver, Colorado), and give speeches and pass tests to prove that you're ready. It helps to study for these tests and "interviews" -- but I'm need the Schlumberger network to do so, and we do not have a server out in Montana, so there is no access to it. What can you do? No one ever said life was easy.

Just now at the curbside check in, both my bags were over the weight limit, a $25 fine each bag. The employee at the check in said, "I'm going to help you out if you you'll help me out," with a wink in his eye. I tried to tell him that I'd pay the fee -- I had no cash to tip him, but it was too late and he was off using his underground connections of the airline concierge network. When he returned, all I had for him was a 5 pound British note. He was obviously disappointed, and I had to explain that I had no atm card nor any cash. I then tried to cheer him up by assuring him that the money was not fake, and worth about 10 dollars at a bank, or he could give it to a child/grandchild. He wasn't impressed. I'm getting more used to not having any cash, permanent address, zip code, or any other detail that makes me pause so often whenever I try and conduct any sort of personal business.

Well that sums up my novella. I hope you guys enjoyed the reading. Peace out.

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Jan 3 - Jan 12 2005

MINUS 3-FREAK'N-7 DEGREES!!   Oh, did I mention THAT I WORK OUTSIDE???? 

It's really not as bad as it sounds, but it does sounds pretty bad...I contemplated several different openings for this entry in my blog, and the one above won out. But here were some others incase you were interested:

North Dakota, where the vending machines apply heat! (Is true! Think about that, the ice cold cokes from outside Wal Mart, were heated up just for you!)

In Williston when talking about the weather, it is common to drop the "minus". A typical conversation might go, "Yeah, 30 today is pretty cold, but by the end of the week it should warm up to the teens." If it gets above 0, then you add the "plus", "Yeah, down in South Dakota this morning, they were at plus 12 degrees!"

Electric cars should be strong in North Dakota, where people are already accustomed to plugging in their vehicles (you need an engine block heater to start up your car in the morning).

There were a few others, but these are the ones that come to mind right now. So much has been going on that I have not had a chance to update my blog. I apologize. To make matters worse, I'm probably going to give such a big update now, that you won't read it all. To those of you who persevere, however, I promise rewards of water cooler conversations, and smirks that turn just loud enough that you have to avert your eyes when you see your coworkers look over at you.

to be continued...

Jan 17 2005

Soon you all will be getting an update that will make you laugh, make you cry, make you hold each other and wait for a better tomorrow....but that is yet to be. This is just a small update to describe the temperature this morning. This is only the 3rd time in 2 weeks that it has gone above 0 for any length of time at all. The previous two occasions were in the single digits for a couple of hours in the afternoon. This morning, it was 40 F!!! I cannot describe how nice and warm it feels outside right now. I would have guessed it's about 70-75 degrees. My two coldest days yet both bottomed out at -37 F, most recently 5 days ago. That is a change of 77 degrees over 5 days. Just think about that for a second. 77 degrees. 5 days. 77. 5. 775. crazy...

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Jan 23 2005

I don't practice Santeria, I ain't got no crystal ball...

Ok, I have recently discovered some new "favorite products" that I feel obliged as an American consumer to tell you guys about. Before you start with your suspicions, rest assured that I am in NO WAY endorsed by any of these companies.

Hardee's new thickburgers. Ok I know that this will be a stretch for some of you. I too, had almost eliminated fast food from my diet until I started work with Schlumberger, but I did not have a kitchen for 6 months, so I was forced back into the cycle. And for those of you who happen to be fast-food connoisseurs, you generally disdain Hardees. Well let me tell you: I had their 1/3 thickburger, which is grilled angus. It was easily the best "fast food" burger I have ever had, and better than most cookout burgers that I have ever tasted. It was really good. I wouldn't even call it fast food, it was like a cookout from a guy who selects good meat and can cook well.

Hanes new brand of "tagless" clothes. I recently bought some t-shirts, and noticed that the tag was just different colored cotton (no paper stitched in tag). This made me very happy. It was pretty cool and different, and more comfortable. But then this week I had to buy new underwear. Now I know that the debate of boxers vs briefs has all but been concluded in favor of briefs, but I see the inherent beauty of briefs, especially when doing sports. So my underwear of choice is a strong compromise -- boxer-briefs. Well I picked up some democratically decided upon boxer-briefs earlier this week. These two are tagless! Now we're talking! I even feel a little sexy in them! whoo ho ho! I guess I'm just another redneck woman, who can buy the same darn thing at wal mart half-price. Ok, I'm starting to lose the humor in this post over the shock value. Signing out.... (oh, and incase anyone is randomly reading this in cyberspace, I'm not a girl, and I don't buy underwear to look sexy)

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