Yesterday, was all about politics.
I got to work as late as I could, still very tired from the long day before. I gave a status update when I arrived. Then another on a call to my boss and her director. Then another, to a team full of directors from across the nation. Then another to a team of my peers. Apparently, our crisis made the evening news in Texas. I had no idea.
I was also officially presented yesterday to my team back home. I announced myself and my project and made a plea for cooperatioin amongst my peers. In addition, thanks to my action on the crisis calls on Monday, most of the Directors and VPs involved in this line of business are at least somewhat aware of who I am and what I do. In fact, on Monday I got an internal Instant Message from one of our VPs. That was pretty strange, actually.
I’ve also been offically announced in Syracuse. Now that people expect to find a new guy running around the building, when they see me they put two and two together and stop me with a barrage of questions. This is good. This is what we want. But, with this position being an equal mix of technical know-how, strong analytical skills, and a mind for diplomacy and politics, these first few days of exposure are critical. So, my list of “to do” itms that I’ve been building and working toward for greater than two weeks nearly doubled in a single day. Each of these things, no matter how trivial the may seem in the grand scheme of things, is incredibly important to the person posing the question. It would be a turn in the wrong direction to let any of these go unanswered in a timely fashion. So, this means my work load just got a lot heavier until the newness wears off.
Amidst all of that madness, I did manage to have two fantastic meals yesterday.
For lunch I went to “Munjed’s Middle Eastern Cafe”. It’s located in a really cute part of Syracuse that I’d like to explore a bit more the next time I’m here. The food was incredibly good. Really, really, really good. The price was about average.
The service, however, was incredibly slow. Well, kind of. When I asked for something, it was brought out almost immediately. However, I wasn’t checked up on very often. I waited almost 10 minutes to get my check. When I finally went to look for someone, I could only find the cook who called my waitress. It still took her 5 minutes to make it out. Then, I waited almost another 10 minutes for her to come pick up my card before I finally walked up to the cook again and convinced him to run it through. I think the problem was that she was preoccupied with something else and I was her only customer at the time. When she was around, she was very friendly and attentive. I’ll give the service another shot here.
For dinner, I ended up at an Italian place called Joey’s that was also quite good. The place is situated in the hotel district, North East of downtown. It appears as though they tend to cater to a business crowd so the whole place has the polish and shine you’d expect from a nice restaurant or a popular chain. Regardless of that, the food was great, moderately prices, and the service was fantastic. It’s certainly worth another visit.
I finished “The Chrysalids”. It was quite good. I think most book stores would probably place it in the teen reading section but, like many “teen” novels, it has an appeal for adults as well and provokes thoughts worthy of consideration from anyone, adult and teen alike. So now I’m back to reading “The Lazarus Vendetta”. It really is a terrible book. I need to find a bookstore. Maybe I’ll hit the mall tonight if I don’t end up at a basketball game with a guy from the office.
The only downside of yesterday is that I seem to have lost my glasses. I don’t know where they are or where I might have left them. I only wear them just before bed. Over night, they sit on the night stand, and in the morning I stuff them back in my laptop bag. I’ve searched everywhere. Jess even called the restaurant to see if they fell out of my bag there with no luck. I just got a new pair last year, so insurance wont cover another set until next year. Shelling out cash for new glasses isn’t exactly what I’d like to do with my money. For what it’ll cost, I could almost get that new camera lens I’ve been pining for. Oh well.