Two days, three events, one Tug.

[tugrik]

Why is it that the night before a trip, even if it's a very simple/easy trip, it's so darn hard to fall asleep? I think part of it is being grumpy at today's soap-opera called Work. Two very high-strung engineers, both non-native english speakers, got into the Blame Game over some programming code checked in wrong, and spent about an hour screaming at each other until their frustrations made both of their accents unintelligable. I could feel both of them getting that burning-anger going way beyond how trivial the issue really was, as months of hostility for each other started coming out. I took my leave of the office early as a result (as did most of the others), only to be called back in at 8pm to finish up what got abandoned. It's both sad and hard to believe that 45+ yr old 'professionals' with extremely high levels of education can be reduced to the behavior of bullheaded highschool jocks. I've got a long-winded rant about remaining professioanl while in the workplace that I'll spare this entry from; it should be common sense. Aaaanyways....

Tomorrow morning I get up at PleaseHelpMe:30 in the morning, to follow Dusty up to the Sears Point raceway to take in my first motorcycle race. Sure, it's a bunch of crotch-rocketeers (aka, 'supersport bike riders'), but it's still quite fun to watch on TV... so I should enjoy it face to face. It's only 80-100 miles or so, no huge deal. Still, there's a problem:

A very good friend who calls herself Dancer online has spent the last two months trying to get me to make the trip out to see her an' the rest of the family out at their ponyfarm in Cool, CA. She's free this Sunday, and has informed me she'd love it if I could drive over there Saturday night after the races. I really do owe her a trip, and the raceway is nearly 1/3d the way to her house already. I've had to bow out of her previous invites. Be it work, weather, tires or tiredness, each time I was about to leave something halted me, and I feel terribly guilty about that. The conflict? Easy: earlier in the week, my sister asked me to go to the Norwegian Festival over in San Mateo, and from the sound of it she's really looking forwards to having me come along.

I'm torn, here. For one, I've recently missed some obligations to my sister -- not as many as I've missed to Dancer, but still, I've been remiss. For two, a part of me does really want to see this festival, as I've got about 0% familiarity with my own genetic heritage. I'd hope to find something cool to hold on to from it, much like my ex-roomie Farix found and proudly owns his family tartan (and full kilt thereof!) and such. But if I don't go visit Dancer and friends this weekend, it'll be a while before I can. Next weekend is work-travel, and the next two after that are the Big Trip, then another weekend/part-of-a-week on the road for work. I do really miss seeing her and the rest of the gang out there on the farm. There's also a good chance that this festival will just be yet another set of tables with more people selling kitchy stuff that generically fits a theme -- only this time, Norwegian instead of sci-fi, gelology, or any of the other 'shows' I've been to in the last few years. It may be a bit far-fetched to hope I'd find something special to acquire to give me the first foot-in-the-door towards my ethnicity.

It doesn't matter which one I choose to do... I'll feel like I'm snubbing the one that I don't, and missing out on something. Oh, to be two places at once, or have 3 days in a weekend! Not the kind of decision I want to have to make at 1AM when I should be sleeping before heading out on a trip. Thank goodness for cel-phones... I can punt this choice until after the races. A phonecall to either party Saturday night can make for a polite cancellation, and I can use the day's ride to think about it. Good rides have the wonderful side effect of helping clear the mind.

I'll have my laptop and cel with me on the bike (as always -- part of being the only network guy for a company means Always On Remote Support), so if any of my friends have suggestions on which to pick, I'll be reading them after the races are over. As one of the not-terribly-socially-skilled geek crowd, I could really use the advice.

Now to crawl back in bed and see if sleep-mode functions again.

Comments

Go visit Dancer

[sassinak.livejournal.com]

I hereby absolve you of all guilt in this matter. Go forth and have a nice time in Cool. *snugs* It's all good!

Re: Go visit Dancer

[tugrik.livejournal.com]

Many thanks! I'll head up to dancer's after the race. Right now, I'm in the pits with one of the race crews that Dusty's the friend of (Dale Palmer is the racer, #416) using my celphone to log on. I've got 868 pictures downloading to the laptop right now, a slow process over USB (forgot the CF adaptor... d'oh!). When I get a good pic or two processed i'll see how evil it'll be to send a few thumbnails over 14.4kbit cel.

From grown men, no less...

[badjahsensei.livejournal.com]

I don't discuss the specifics of my job, but we support wireless cel service for various PDAs. By definition, our client base is either educated, loaded, or both.

It never fails to amaze me, when grown men call me, screaming and shouting like children (exactly like my younger brother used to when he was eight), insisting on global conspiracies to complicate their lives (one "gentleman" this past week actually asked me "do you all sit in a room, trying to think of new ways to complicate this software so it makes my life miserable?" "No sir, if I was doing that, I couldn't work the phones.") and otherwise make things difficult for them.

And what's scarier still, these people aren't just blowing smoke. I see in their customer accounts where they work. They're legit. It's sad to see "leaders" in the business world acting like that. The more I stay in this job, the more I'm realizing that the business world is just high school, playing "dressup."

Oh, the tales I could tell...

[tugrik.livejournal.com]

My positions over the last decade have put me pretty constantly in touch with the CEO/COO levels of the companies I've worked for. Amazingly, as the responsibility goes up, the handling of interpersonal issues goes way down. I've seen halfmillion-dollar-salary power CEOs throw tantrums that would makea 5 year old brat proud. I try not to go into details, though. The frustration is handleable, and there's no way a few words from a network guy are going to make any difference. :)