E-mail Solved

OK...it only took 800 years, but e-mail is figured out. :-) I am thrilled.

I am also watching LOST in HD. It is the season finale! :-) Woo Hoo.

Tomorrow is my New Employee Orientation at work. Starts right at 8am. I was out sick today. Woke up this morning with an icky stomach bug. Have felt really crummy all day. Sorta worried about being able to sleep tonight.

After work tomorrow I head to Florence for the weekend. Dad's birthday is tomorrow. It will be nice to go home for the weekend. I am suppose to swing through Columbia on Sunday. John wants to take me to dinner for my birthday and I need to check my mail at the PO box in downtown Cola. I am not 100% sure that it is forwarding properly.

Virginia Excursion

My GBNL (girlfriend but not lover) - Seena - arrived in Huntersville
around midnight Friday. We chatted for awhile before going to bed and
then headed out for Norfolk, VA around 8ish Saturday morning. I think
we had to stop 15 times on the way there so I could pee, but we made
decent time and got to Chateau de Midgette around 1:30. The afternoon
was pretty relaxed and around 6:30 Seena and I headed downtown. We
took a walk through the mall, specifically H&M prior to going across
to The Norva.

Brad from Five Times August opened the show. I tend
to like hot guys that sing well and play the guitar all alone on
stage. It helped that his music was decent too. Then Wild
Sweet Orange played. Ehhh. I haven't had a chance to listen to any
of their recorded stuff, but the lead singer needs some vocal training
so he can sing on pitch when performing. Parts were a little painful.
They were also a little weird to watch. Augustana came
on about 9:45 and rocked out the first song, but Seena and I both
noticed there were an awful lot of tea cups on the stage. Just into
the second song the lead singer had to stop for a coughing fit. I
think several of the guys were quite sick, especially him. I felt
really horrible for them. I know it had to be frustrating. But, they
kept it up and played for about just over an hour. The last song -
Dust - was awesome!! You can check out pics on Flickr.
I am convinced I have to go and see them again though. I have to know
how they are when they feel 100%.

Sunday morning Matt, Owen, Seena, and I met up with Mr. Jeremy McGee
at "D'Egg" for breakfast. Service was excruciating, but it gave JM and
I plenty of time to catch up. I had a very tasty "D'Eggwich Sandwich"
that was comprised of a fried egg, bacon, tomato, and parmesan cheese
on an onion roll. JM and I also shared an order of biscuits and gravy.
Almost like the GMP actually.

After breakfast Seena and I hit the mall where we both probably spent
too much money, but I got some great work clothes and a pair of shoes
I really needed. I sooo love H&M. I also found out that they have
opened on in ATL!! Yipee. Seena and I are so there when we head down
at the end of June.

I guess we hit the road around 3:00 yesterday and stopped in
Greensboro to visit Seena's sister and baby nephew around 7:00. We had
dinner at eeZ last night and then I crashed hard. Driving, rocking
out, shopping, and driving again really wore me out. I did not want to
get up this morning.

Through...

I am so through with technology. Argh. I think I might kill people. Much of my morning (against company policy I guess) was spent tweaking gmail and blackberry settings and trying to stop my inboxes from blowing up.

Problem is that at work I can't access e-mail.secureserver.net where I check my leslieshearer.com e-mail. Gmail on the other hand can be accessed, so I thought I would be brilliant and configure the leslieshearer.com e-mail to be read through the gmail interface (using pop servers, and very easy to do).

Because I would inevitably end up with people replying to my gmail account I decided to add checking gmail to my blackberry and my Thunderbird. Well...problem 1...I get two of everything send to the leslieshearer.com account. Well, I tried removing the leslieshearer.com account from the blackberry since I figured it was just pulling it from the gmail connection. Uhhh - no. I removed leslieshearer from the blackberry and get no leslieshearer e-mail at all.

The most annoying piece of all of this is that when I send something from the gmail Web interface I get a copy sent to by blackberry. Matt and Josh both found me useful links talking about this problem, but they both refer to "BIS" (blackberry internet service I think) and I just don't know how to access that specific part and create a filter.

So, perhaps what I should do is just wipe everything out and start over again. Honestly, with the blackberry I may have to do that anyway when I get my permanent phone number attached to it this afternoon.

Ahhh. done. over. tired.

Stoked!!!

OK...Seena will be here tomorrow. I cannot wait. Seriously, I am so excited. The plan is to head out for Norfolk first thing Saturday morning. I hope that I will be able to keep the talking to a minimum on Friday night so we can get in the bed at a decent hour and hit the road pretty early. I would love to be up there around lunch time. I was smart and said something to Matt about cooking, so I get to play chef at Chez Midgette on Saturday night. My thinking is that I will do some sort of chicken breast thing. Not super sure. I guess it might depend on what looks good at the market that afternoon.

The Augustana will hopefully be a blast and I am hoping to see good ole' Mr. Jeremy McGee while I am up there. Oh, and I cannot forget about shopping at H&M Wooo Hooo! :-)

It stinks that we will have to come back on Sunday afternoon, but I already have a good number of plans shaping up for next week, so at least I will have something to look forward to.

Next weekend will be another one out of town though, Dad's birthday is the 30th and mine is the 3rd, so I will be heading to the ponderosa in Florence for the weekend. Crossing my fingers I will get a Wii for my birthday. I know, that makes me sound like a total kid (a spoiled one at that) as well as dork, but hey --- I have the right to want what I want. Worst thing that can happen is I won't get it.

No point in letting the thoughts of a Wii get in my way though, my most fab friend will be here tomorrow and I can't wait!

Best get the house all in shape though. Much to do still.

Met a Local

The drive home was brutal yesterday, so I decided to go grab a glass of wine. There a met a local village person. While I have tried to mingle or chat with people at restaurants as I am sitting alone I have not yet met anyone that actually lived there in Birkdale, so it was pretty cool. We ended up enjoying some wine and a nice dinner. All in all it was a great evening and I am very happy to now have a local friend. :-)

Guess Who + Sketchy

After work today my awesome boss and I went to grab Mexican food in Mooresville. We were sitting there when Michael Waltrip walked by. I was like - "holy crap...that was Mikey!" She didn't know who he was. It was a nice meal. I really like her a lot.

Things went down hill after dinner though. I thought it would be a smart idea to scoot into the Walmart there and grab a few things. Whoa...was I wrong. I thought the Wally World in West Columbia was bad. No...this was worse. Not going back there again, unless I really, really, REALLY, have to. I now know there is a SuperTarget on that same exit. The joys of being a newcomer.

Day 1 - New Job

Well. It's over. I survived. It really was not too bad.

My first day at the new gig was pretty good. I met a super nice girl named Sarah in HR as I was getting my badge and doing paperwork. She knew who Mr. Pink was, so I need to figure out how to hook up with her so we can go see them together next time they play. She said something about them playing occasionally at a place called "The Rutter" up in Mooresville.

My boss met me there at the main area and took me over to our building and showed me around. Then I got a pile of project documentation to start digesting. Sooo much to learn. She and I went to a place called Showmars for lunch. It is sort of Greek-ish food. Pretty tasty. Then I spent the afternoon shadowing an IBM consultant and starting to learn all whats going on.

When I got home this evening I sort of fell asleep on the sofa watching CSI, then John woke me up calling to see how the day went. He convinced me I ought to go treat myself to a glass of wine, so I changed and headed out. I also went and checked my mail box for the first time. What I didn't know was that before my box would be active I had to fill out a little form for the post man. That was sort of bad communication on the management's part if you ask me.

So, I had two glasses of a Chardonnay from Chile and a small white wine cheese plate. It was lovely. After that I browsed the clearance racks at Banana and Ann Taylor before coming home to take a long bubble bath. Making this quick post now and heading to bed. Ahhh - warm bubbly bliss. :-)

Uptown

Last night was a good time. I guess I have lost my "Uptown" virginity now.

We at at a place called Veronas. A small Italian place on the second floor overlooking the street. There were maybe 15 tables...maybe. It was really good though. I had a Seafood Risotto. It had shrimp, mussels, and clams. Very good.

After dinner we went across the street to a second floor bar called "The Attic" it was pretty neat. The place was attached to another bar that on the inside reminded me of the Haunted Mansion at Disney's Magic Kingdom. The two places were quite different. I am not sure why they were attached. I guess we hung out there for about an hour and a half then headed over a few blocks to a place called The Alley Cat.

There was a cover band called Mr. Pink playing. It was a lot of fun. We hung there for awhile and then made our way to the parking garage about 1:00 I think. Well, we got there and they were closing the darned thing up. Apparently there was some sort of power outage and it was a safety concern. So, we had to hang out and wait for about 30 minutes before we could get back in the garage. Then, because of the power issue the elevators were not working so we got to climb the stairs. It was grand. I guess I made it home a little after 2:00. Then of course was not tired, so it took me awhile to get to sleep. I think I finally rolled out of the bed about 1:00 today. It was nice.

I can't believe that I start the new gig tomorrow! AHHH! I hope it is OK, and I hope I will be able to sleep tonight.

Best get to things that are more important than blogging.

So far...

Huntersville has not been too bad. I spent much of the afternoon walking around the shops and everything. There were lots of local artists and venders out in tents down the middle of the village. Pottery, paintings, jewelry, etc. It was pretty neat. One lady had all livestock art. Mostly paintings, but some metal work. And most of it was all cows. There was a VERY cool metal piece of a Jersey Cow. If it would not have been $800 I probably would have bought it. Very cool.

It was a great day for walking around too. Gorgeous outside. I had lunch at eeZ and ordered a chicken, bacon, and avacado sammich. It had wasabi mayo and was served on Ciabata bread with sweet potatoe fries. Uber tasty!!

I am going to try and get some more unpacking done before I have to get ready to meet up with Tara tonight. What that means is I will probably be lazy and go take a nap. :-)

Leslie, the band

So, Leslie opened for SHooter Jennings at The Visulite Theater last night. The show was suppose to start at 9:45, but when I rolled in at 9:30 they were playing a song they generally close with. I was slightly concerned, but figured the guys had just changed it up. Unfortunately - NO - they had not. So, I got screwed out of seeing the. WEAK!! I didn't much care for Mr. Jennings either, so the night was a general bust. Booo.

I did meet a guy thats an engineer in Duke Energy's nuclear plant up there though. He was pretty nice. At least we had "utilities" in common. It made talking easier. Even though talking over the music was pretty hard.

Tara and I are suppose to go out "Uptown" tomorrow night. I am looking forward to it. It will be great to see her.

Technology Delivered

Well, the Timewarner guy has come and now I have internet and cable. This could really be a bad thing though because I will be tempted to sit and mess around on the computer instead of unpacking.

Speaking of the move...yesterday didn't exactly end up according to plan. By the time the movers made it up here evening traffic had set in and there were too many cars around, so they could not get a spot close enough to the building to unload. So, I went to Target and bought a few things and camped out for the night. I needed to get a nice blow up bed anyway.

Before going to Target though I grabbed a bite to eat at the Qudoba and got heckled walking over there. It was two guys in a truck. They said something like..."Damn, thats a nice ass." I laughed cause I really don't have one at all. Ha! I ate my steak quesidilla on the patio there and tried to make conversation with some locals about live music. All they could comprehend was Linkin' Park though. The conversation was quickly over. Oh well. At least I tried.

So, the movers came this morning and unloaded everything between 8 and 10. It was pretty quick. As they brought stuff in I went ahead and worked on unpacking stuff in order to try and get ahead of the game. I've made decent progress so far. So I am pretty pleased.

So - yes, I have internet now. Yipee! Better get back to the boxes.

Change of Plans

Well, the mover guys got here this morning and decided they wanted to pack and deliver me today. That changes a lot of plans, and is going to make me rush through some stuff, but I think I will be able to get it all figured out. Gonna be a busy day.

The worst part is that I Was going to stay with Seena tonight, and it was going to be great to hang out with her before I head out of town.

The only good thing about going up today though...is that I won't have to wake up as the ass-crack of dawn in the morning to meet the movers in Huntersville. I was going to have to roll out of Columbia about 5am in order to make it. Eek. Perhaps this is for the best.

Plan for the Week

Well, Friday after lunch I got a call and found out that the movers would be able to move me - and move me fast. They will be coming Wednesday to load stuff and then deliver it on Thursday. So, here I am today - my first day "technically" unemployed. Sitting in my house wondering what I should exactly do.

The movers are going to box and pack everything, load it on the truck, and then unload it in the new apartment. I feel like I need to do stuff to help them out though. So I am planning to group some like things and put some stuff in existing plastic tubs that I already have.

There is still work that needs to be done around the house too. Little stuff John and I never finished. I am really not looking forward to doing it, but think I have a plan. The key will be ensuring my knee cooperates, but I am not so sure I can do that.

I guess I better get to doing stuff. Going to be a busy few days. I can't belive my stay in Columbia is almost over. Wonder if I will ever be back here again...in a living capacity that is.

So long.

Last Day

Wow. This week has been chaotic. I can't believe it is over already. Its sort of weird. I feel really popular right now because everyone is trying to make plans to do stuff with me. I guess it is kind of neat, but it means I am missing out on getting important stuff knocked out. I am suppose to move next week and still have not heard from the movers yet. Eek.

So - it is my last day. We are about to head to Monterrey's for a MarCom lunch, and then Sarah Hatch is coming into town for an afternoon meeting on e-mail. She is my account manager from our e-mail service provider. It will be good to see her. The best part is that she will be staying in town this evening and going out with Carley, Seena, Stacy and me. We are going to Melting Pot for dinner and then hitting the Vista. I am very much looking forward to my last night out with the girls. It will be sad though, I'm sure.

My MarCom happy hour was last night, and an absolute blast - at least when the fuddy-duddy people got gone. At the end of the night there were 5 of us and we were all pretty toasted when it was said and done with. It sort of stinks that I am just now making friends with some of the people I work with. Funny how things happen like that.

My peeps (Seena, Stacy, Jason, and Carley) put together a neat "Magazine Cover" for me. You can see it big here on flickr.



I love those guys. They are the best.

Well, I best get off to my lunch. Lata!

Sad Day

It turned out to be a sort of sad day for me. My most wonderful boss and metor at work was "let go." I am confident the situation is much more complicated than that though. But, if anything the events this week have shown me that my timing could not be more perfect. I am very glad to be getting out of here and starting again.

I feel really bad for all my people that will be left behind to deal with the aftermath.

Got My Keys

John and I rode up to Huntersville today to get my keys for the apartment and move in my TV and such. I also went ahead and bought a stereo and we hooked that up too. It was a very long day though. I am pretty exhausted. But, I now have my keys and officially have an apartment in Huntersville. Can't believe the real move starts tomorrow. Eek!