Its been a decent amount of time since i posted last, ive been travelling almost every week for the past 6-8 weeks and when im not travelling, im swamped with work/doing things i need to do at home. There was a period of time where in 7 days i was in 6 DIFFERENT states. I left dallas on friday, flew to chicago, then to south bend, then off to columbus for a few days, then drove to pittsburgh by way of west virginia. Its been kind of nutty, let me get to the story telling.
Ive been doing some pretty neat work(of which i cannot discuss where/when/what because of new policies in our department) and been gaining some great experience. Travelling is getting pretty old. At first, it was neat to be able to see some different parts of the country. Since ive been with crowe, ive gone everywhere from small farm towns in western illinois, to dallas, texas, to my current job in the chicago area, to a little town south of houston, new york, columbus, eastern ohio and other places. Its been interesting, but living out of a suitcase gets kind of old. Its also really easy to feel like you dont accomplish anything in the line of work that i am in, seeing as we come in sunday night/monday morning, work through the week, look for any sort of findings, present our findings on thursday or friday, then head off and repeat the next week. I guess im finding out that i like to be more of a problem solver than problem finder. The long term job ive been on and off of in columbus/dallas has been pretty nice because we get to create relationships with people and work with them to solve problems. Its not a fly by night sort of thing, remediation of their issues is what is starting to be more fulfilling to me.
Consulting takes a definate mindset. You cant get frustrated easily, you cant mind living on the road 5 nights a week and you cant mind nearly living with your coworkers. Relationships at work play a HUGE part here, not only how you conduct yourself with your coworkers, but how they act towards you. Dont get me wrong, you will have politics everywhere you go, but sometimes, people take it a bit far. Its somewhat discouraging to see some people willing to do anything they can to get ahead, even say or do things to discredit people they work with.
I guess what im getting at is that i never thought id be doing what im doing today or where im at today 6-8 months ago. I guess i didnt really didnt have a good idea what i was getting into at crowe. While that is both good and bad, it is what it is, and im working with it. Trying to do my best and seeing where i can go and what i can do. If there is one thing that ive been able to find out, its that i dont know where im going in 6-8 months. Who knows what could happen from now untill january 1st. Things could change, they could stay the same. Again, it all is a matter of time and opportunity.
One thing i do know, is that I'll be in columbus. My transfer date has been approved by the powers that be at Crowe, and as of october 1, ill officially be in the Columbus office . Spending time down in columbus lately, being around the city, going to see Tom and Les, its been great. Not only do i love that city dearly, but it will be exciting to be there with Katie and be able to start getting ready for the rest of our lives. Im so excited for that.
So besides all the ranting about work, what else have I been up to? Well, its june, so i celebrated my 23rd birthday on June 8th. It came and went without much fanfare. I guess thats the difference between being 23 and being 13. 10 years really can suck the opportunities for parties with games, prizes and other festivities. Not to say that party hats are overrated, but i spend the day working from home, petting the cat and on conference calls all day. Definately not how i celebrated my birthday last year, and nowhere close to how i celebrated my 21st. However, it was nice to go home over memorial day weekend, spend some time with my family, go out to eat and just relax for a while. Getting older is no fun, i remember when i was in high school, and all i wanted to do was be on my own, working, making money, being successful, etc etc etc. Now here i am, and i guess its not the shining marvel i hoped it would be.
Katie comes home this weekend. She has been on the field camp trip she took last year, but this summer she was a teaching assistant for it. Sounds like it wasnt all she hoped for either. But i know she enjoys being out there overall, and loves doing what she does. Itll be nice to see her this weekend, spend a long weekend with her(hopefully) and hear the stories shes been trying to tell me for a while now. I cant believe its been close to 2 months since ive seen her. She left around memorial day, but due to my work schedule, other things that came up, we havent seen each other since early may. I think we are definately due for some quality time.
Also, since it is june, i had to partake in my summer vice. Dave Matthews Band tour came around, and while i couldnt go to as many shows as i normally do because of work, travel, etc, i was still able to go to 3 shows. One of them was in columbus, and i took Red. Good time was had by all. While i wasnt overly impressed with the energy of that nights show, it wasnt bad. I got to hear some of the new songs they have been working on. While i heard them for the first time after downloading them off a message board, they keep getting new twists and turns. Hearing them live is a whole different ball game. It was nice to go to Germain Ampitheatre again, but the real kicker was the 2 nights in Burgettstown, PA. I drove out and spend friday - monday morning with Sloka in Pittsburgh, had some good times, saw some sights, and went to the 2 shows out there. First night, had decent seats in the front part of the upper pavilion, and the 2nd night...4th row center. It was insane. Seeing DMB play that close to the stage is a whole different experience. Facial expressions, clarity of vocals, seeing Dave do his traditional feet dance up close...its amazing. Its going to be hard to ever top that show.
Now im in the chicagoland area, staying with my folks and working on a job out here. Its been nice to see my parents, got some new clothes, spent some time with Missy and her husband. Also, coming home means i get to mess with networking stuff for my parents, including their new wireless print server and laser printer they picked up yesterday...the print server turned out to be a complete pain in the ass for cross platform printing. There has to be an easier way...
Whats up next? Hopefully going to spend time with katie this weekend, then off to columbus next week, then spending 2 weeks in south bend for our official training. You may ask yourself, didnt you start at crowe 7 months ago? The answer to that would be yes. However, this is how they do it, so i get to spend 2 weeks in south bend doing that. Who knows, it could be a good time.
Hopefully ill post less information more often. However, travelling kind of wears me down, hell, i dont know who even reads this thing anymore.
Leave me a note, call me, IM me, whatever. Hope all is well with everyone.
BW
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Sunday, June 06, 2004
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