It's Over

Sorry fans, I realize I've been Missing In Action. As it happens so often in life, and seemingly more often in mine, there was a perfect storm of events this week:

• Deliverable due for a project that was ending after 2 months of client hand-holding
• Moving
• Friend visiting from London

Essentially I was working 14-15 hour days, which as you can imagine, left very little time for anything else. However Thursday night the movers finally showed up, packed up all my stuff and put it in the pod. There was a very uncomfortable conversation on Thursday with the rental office. Essentially I had called on Tuesday and taken permission to get this 'pod' placed outside my building based on their recommendation. On Thursday, I left work over lunch to coordinate the pod delivery- however when the pod was being delivered, there was a landscaping truck parked in that spot. It had been a long week and I was trying to retain my patience. I called the rental office and the following exchange took place:

"Well sir even before you have the pod placed, I'm telling you right now you can't leave it overnight"

"Uh that's not what I was told yesterday"

"Yes sir, but we're telling you now, you can't leave it there overnight"

As you can imagine, or maybe you can't, I wigged out. I mean I ripped them a new orifice. Net net, I got the pod placed where we agreed upon originally, and not only did I leave it overnight, I left for two nights. Wow rebel without a cause.

Anyways Friday shaped up to be a much better day, as it was the culmination of a long 2 weeks:

• Deliverable complete, reviewed, and out the door by noon
• Saved $500 on a hotel room- m new apartment complex said I can move in a week early
• Got a raise! I finished Year 1 of being Mr. Management Consultant :)

I left work early and headed into the city to meet up with my friend from London and another friend, this girl named Fajita*. We had sushi for dinner, checked out the iPhone launch at the Apple store in downtown SF**, hung out at the tony Clift Hotel and eventually headed over to the bar at the Cortez (where the windows are painted a'la Mondrian). We celebrated his recent book deal with Harvard Business School Press with a magnum of champagne and, of course, ended the night with a late night snack at a diner. All in all a great end to a hectic couple of weeks!

*Fajita has hooked me up with one of her girlfriends, I have to call her this week, more on that later

**The Apple store was like a zoo, and we waited 30 minutes before we got our hands on an iPhone...out of all the iPhones in the store I got my hands on one that had crashed! It was frozen. I turned to a helper and he's like 'uh...." so as a joke I said, "I can't believe I waited all day to see the iPhone and it crashed!". Well Mr. Helper did not take too kindly to my sardonic humor and nearly went psycho on me..."WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?" We eventually got to see one, and yes, it is very very cool. As an aside, when I walked in the store, I asked a helper, "Hey is Steve here?" and he's like, "Steve Jobs?", and I'm like "No the other one." ! WTF! Obviously Steve Jobs numbnuts.