Friday, November 18, 2011

Running for the elevator

To the best of my admittedly poor memory, this was only second time I’ve ever had a service call that lasted two weeks. I packed plenty of stuff, hoping against hope that I would end up with plenty of time to play, but no such luck. In all honesty, I really did have plenty of opportunity but I was just too damned worn out and tired.

This service call was a lesson in patience – a throw back to my old Army days of “Hurry up and wait”. They are building a new semiconductor factory in Malta NY (near Albany) and the factory has purchased several million dollars in relatively complex systems from my company. The thing is, there are three players involved here – my company who makes widget A, another company that makes widget B that our widget gets installed on, and then the new factory that bought widgets A and B. The problem is that in order for me to set up, test, and certify my widget, I need the help and cooperation of Company B, who is of course also busy trying to get their equipment set up and certified and doesn’t necessarily consider my needs to be their priority. To further complicate things, the factory was largely unable to provide me with the assorted gasses and liquids that my tool requires in order to operate. Suffice it to say that for me, the hardest part of the last two weeks has been to remain calm and to not come unglued while others wasted my time.

Saturday I just spent unwinding and literally did nothing but surf the internet, watch TV, and sleep. With all of that rest, I have to wonder why I still felt tired when Sunday rolled around?! Feeling tired or not, I wasn’t about to spend another entire day cooped up in my room, and so I decided it was time to go see a movie and maybe do some window shopping!

Albany NY 2011 11 13 005

You know, it’s very rarely these days when I actually feel pretty, but this was one of those days. Sometimes I go through all of the effort just to look in the mirror and think that I look like hell. On the other hand, sometimes I just throw something together and end up thinking that I look great.

I went to the “Crossgates Mall” where I started off by walking through the same “Burlington Coat Factory” where I found a killer dress on my last visit to Albany . The good news is that I found one quite a bit like that one, but in black and white! The bad news is that it does not have it’s own lining and is a bit to see through for my comfort, so it will have to wait for another trip when I bring a slip with me to wear with it!
The movie I saw was “Immortals” and it was pretty fair. It was very much in the style of the “300”m which has both its good points and its bad ones, but over all I it was worth the seeing.
My next stop was into a shoe store, where a mother and her young daughter (maybe 10 years old?) momentarily blocked my way to the sales rack, but as I got closer, the mother looked up and asked her daughter to move over and allow me to walk by them. I couldn’t help but notice that the young girl kept staring at me as I was looking at the shoes on the sales rack, and so I gave her my best smile. She briefly returned the smile but continued to stare at me, so I’m guessing that she had a clue.
After I finished my window shopping through the mall, I headed back to the hotel where I got my last laugh for the day. As I walked by the front desk on my way to the elevator, the young man behind the counter looked up and smiled at me as he greeted me. The funny thing was that just before the elevator door closed, he jetted into the elevator, clearly flushed and out of breath. I had been about to press the button for the fifth floor when he startled me, and so I asked him what floor he wanted.
“The third floor please.” He said after a long pause that sort of gave me the impression he didn’t really have a floor he needed to go to at all. Then it struck me – there was no easy way for him to get from behind the counter and to the elevator in a hurry as he had done. He must have literally sprinted from the counter, through the offices behind it, into the hall, and then to the elevator, and he had done this in the same amount of time it had taken me just to walk there from the front door. Since I walk pretty fast myself, I figure he must have really busted his ass to get to the elevator in time to ride it with me.
“So how are you today?” I asked him with a grin as I was thinking of all of this.
“I’m well thank you, how are you?” he asked, face still red from his little run to the elevator.
“I just couldn’t be gooder!” I said with a laugh as we reached the third floor and he exited.



7 comments:

  1. Hi Kimberly. I used to read your blog when you were on Yahoo360 and just now caught up with you here on blogger. I think the first post I read of yours on Y360 was you writing about the second time you flew as Kim. (Quite a while ago!) I'll be keeping up with you here now. Nice to see you again!

    Stephanie

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  2. Even a boring day for you is so much fun to read about. :):)

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  3. Hmmm So why did he need that elevator. I wonder...

    ;)

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  4. Look Pretty = feel pretty = feel good = look pretty = attract positive attention.

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  5. himmmmm i wonder what the ending of the elevator story will be.... *giggle giggle*

    i loooove those shoes and the skirt and belt. that is a great outfit!

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  6. Are you sure he did not just Vault over the counter? Might be faster. ;-D

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