Nekkid, Clueless and Feelin' Good: January 15, 2001

Monday,
January 15, 2001

Well, hey, I was busy

Yes, I know -- I've been a very bad girl. Mea culpa.

A quick recap of the week's events:

Tuesday -- it turned out that I didn't have to spend two days in Orientation after all, despite what HR told me. So instead, I spent the day submitting a sample of urine for my mandatory drug screen (not a problem, since I don't take drugs -- my normal brain chemistry is psychedelic enough for me, thank you very much), then exploring the wonders of Dallas public transportation on my way to Collin Creek Mall to purchase some reading material and some badly-needed gymshoes. The boots are great if it's wet or slippery out there, but otherwise I really prefer gymmies. Besides, there's a great fitness room here and I want to start using the treadmill every night.

Wednesday -- The Day I Got My License Back. Joyslin Molpus, The Kind and Good, was sweet enough to haul my butt down to the DPS at oh dark thirty and wait around while I sweated out the procedure. It turned out to be a heck of a lot easier than I'd assumed -- I gave them my old Indiana license, and since I didn't have an SS card and the old license was in my maiden name, my new license would also be in my maiden name. As soon as I had my new SS card with my married name on it, I could get the new license, I was told.

THAT was the biggest hurdle. The written test was a doddle -- I took it on computer and only missed one question (and that was due to dubious language. I also noticed that some of the correct answers on the test were actually outdated according to the Texas Driver's Manual, but when it comes to things like legal intoxiation level and the lowest level is .10, you know to pick it even if the correct answer is really .08. The driving test was equally as smooth -- the officer said I needed to work on my cornering, but as I hadn't driven in two and a half years it wasn't really surprising. "Let's put it this way -- I'd ride with you," she said as she handed me my passing mark.

And I was the happy possessor of a Texas temporary license, while my actual card was being processed. It was enough to take possession of a rental car (a spandy new Toyota Corolla), which is all that counted.

I'm back on the roads. It felt weird, to be bluntly honest, but also very good. Now if I can just get the reflexes back on line. . .

Thursday -- my actual first day at work. Met and had lunch with one of my new office mates (who is an absolute doll -- I think I'm going to like her a lot), sat in on a meeting that was completely in English, got my new userid and password so that I could actually log onto the computer, and learned how to download any TBS program I liked without having to go through the tiresome process of requesting them from the Help Desk. Hot damn.

Friday -- received my first minor project (adjusting a graphic and adding popup windows to an imagemap), finished it in the same day, and realized that I was in no shape whatsoever to drive down to Houston and stay with Julia. Went home, watched MTV Celebrity Deathmatch and crocheted.

Saturday/Sunday -- Headed down to Houston in the middle of a nasty rainstorm, and discovered that Dallas highways have crap drainage. Can you say, "Hydroplaning?" Can you say, "Slow it down to 35 MPH or so?" Now can you say this to the other Dallas drivers who were merrily spinning out of control on the highway?

Sheesh, people -- there's such a thing as appropriate driving conditions, you know.

But the rest of the weekend was lovely: Saturday afternoon was spent indulging in Popeye's chicken with Julia, exploring the wonders of Music-Go-Round (where I bought a used 12-string and a new electric guitar, after playing with a full range of pedals and pretending I was Melissa Etheridge for a couple of minutes), wandering through the Galleria going "Oooh!" at the pretty dresses and watching a bunch of kids skate on the indoor skating rink, then returning to Julia's place for pizza, ice cream/eggnog/amaretto and Fantasia.

The next day, we hit IKEA (there is only one IKEA in the state of Texas, and it's down in Houston. Talk about criminal) and another furniture place to price furniture, before stopping off at Toys 'R' Us for a scooter (my present to Julia's daughter Ellan for letting me sleep in her room) and a lovely lunch at a local Mexican joint. Then back in the Corolla for the 4-hour drive north, and an hour with the electric learning the opening riff to "Round Here" by Counting Crows. My fingertips hurt like a bitch, but I'm starting to sound kinda good again.

Monday -- and today? Back to work (at 8:00 am, no less. The Big Kahuna would be choking in shock if he could see me now), to work on an annoying problem with rollover images that simply wouldn't rollover until I figured out I was using the wrong dynamic IMG SRCs. Oopsie. Cleaned that up, handed it to the happy analyst who needed it and headed out the door at 5:00 pm for dinner and a video. Or at least an attempt at a video -- much to my annoyance, there seems to be something weird with the VCR that came along with the apartment and the screen just shows static when you pop a tape in the machine (and then it's hell to get everything set back up so that you can watch TV. I pulled out the manuals and I'm going to see how everything's wired up -- I think something's wrong somewhere).

So how was your week?

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