Life Six Months Later

It's that time of year. Six months after graduation. Not only is it a time of eating turkey and trimmings, but the time when the student loan bills start coming in. Fortunately, I won't have to defer any payments. I'm grateful that I was able to find a job that required more than just walking in the door (even though I never had to show my transcripts to Consolidated Container, you get the idea though).

The Thomas Estate is just about perfect. I only need Property Management to give me keys that fit all the locks. Currently, only the deadbolts will open with my keys. The garage door has been correctly installed and now I can enjoy getting in my nice, warm car on a cold rainy day. No more iced windshields!!!

All that is left on my end is to get a master bedroom suit. I've been eyeing a mattress and bed set in the Hemnes collection for quite some time. I'm just holding off because I'm waiting on my first round of bills to come in. The cable already had a nice $60 up-charge for installation. I'm sure that the power and gas will have similar. I still have to get my tags and I have no idea how much that will cost.

However, I did spring to get an eye exam and new contacts. Going on a year with my 30 day set has been a pain. Now that I have insurance and monies, I could finally get some.

I get 100% paid preventative dental, too. I'll be getting my grill cleaned next week. One thing I never got was people would brush and floss like crazy before going in for a teeth cleaning. That's like weeding your garden before the landscaper comes. I mean you paying him to do a service. Might as well get your money's worth...

Next week my boss will be in town and we are heading to the two plants close to the Atlanta area to evaluate the lighting situation. Thursday I may take a trip to Pittsburgh to determine if the current air compressor capacity is adequate to add new machines to (OMG a calculation!!), but this request came from another Project Engineer in another group. Since my boss is keeping me under his wing for the first bit I'm there I may not go. We'll see.

Today I'm going to try my hand at making cornbread. I will also make a side of kielbasa and mac n cheez to go with it (:

New house dramaz

Finally moved into my new pad. I can say I've found a property management worse than 21. The number one on my list is the lack of a gas meter. Yeah, the meter has been pulled, and it won't be until next Tuesday when they will have another one put in. That means no heat or hot water. FML.

My agent has been nagging the guy to get me free rent until the gas is working because the house wasn't ready to move in. The property manager thinks that since it wasn't there the lack of gas utility isn't his problem...

The kicker? The lease states that I am not allowed to disconnect any utility or I'll pay a fee. Also, there's a rule that states homes must be equipped with heat in order to make it habitable. Lots of crap going on

I was able to get blazing fast internet and awesome cable from Comcast. It hasn't turned into a Comcatastrophe, but I'll be on the lookout.

As far as my travels in A-town go, Ikea is killer awesome. It has a cafeteria!

The job is going super sweet. I'm allowed to take time off to go downtown to transfer my water over, go home to wait on maintenance (who don't show up), and chat with the people in other departments. It also has come to my attention that my official title is Utility Engineer. The title was created special for me. Everyone else is a Project or Process Engineer. I personally liked Project Engineer better, but then I saw my Name and Title on my business card, and I liked seeing the specialized title ^_^

Next week I will be traveling to Cincy and have hot water. It's gonna be fabulous!

Chicago > Houston

Chicago is my town. Pizza and hot dog joints everywhere. Not like roach coaches in Houston. Real establishments.

I was able to tour a couple facilities here. It's like I'm in an episode of How It's Made. I loved watching the Nestle Qwik bottles fly by me (:

I also sat in on an energy savings group conference. THAT was serious. They make you turn your phone OFF and put it on the table, so if it even vibrates, you're busted. The fine is $20. I'm serious.

I'll fly back home tomorrow and take a "personal day" Friday to load up my U-Haul truck. Saturday I'm driving up to my new place. 

I was able to find a couch, love seat, chair and footrest sitting on the side of the road. A little soap and steam and it's good as new!

My next assignment has me in the Engineering and Development Center all next week and I'll be heading to Cincinnati the week after that!

One Week Down

Today was my Friday. I'm not working tomorrow, just traveling home. My time at the Houston Plant, codename Work Camp, was fun. I was able to interact with the demo crew (read: joke around), and learn about heavy machinery (read: drive a Bobcat and observe 80,000lb an forklift that transforms).

An interesting fact was the upper level management was working and getting dirty right alongside the workers. The manager of the project works 5 doors down from the CEO and he was working with me loading gaylords (palette boxes) and dumping trash hoppers. My boss and I were even cleaning up the bathroom at one point. It was awesome to see everyone working together to get that place cleaned up.

I also disclosed my feelings about how I felt about the entire onboarding process. My boss wanted to assure me that they didn't want to just "throw me under the bus, as my manager did when I started".

He said he would "selfishly shield me from the rest of the company". That means he will pretty much engineer vicariously through me. I'll do all the stuff that he wants done but doesn't have time to do it. This way I'll be able to "set some roots and get a feel about how the company operates". I received it as "I can focus on just doing what he needs instead of what the entire company needs". 

The week went great. Next week I'll be off to Chicago for plant tours and an energy savings meeting.