Quick Review

Alright so I’m still technically a vagabond even tough I’ve been living very nice recently. On Sunday night I flew out to LA (I’ve always driven) for my first week of training in the LA office. It was great. They put me up in a “boutique” hotel that was only a couple miles away from the LA office (very important in LA for the purposes of traffic). There were many a handshake, many a power point presentation, and many a meal taken care of by the firm. Nice.
Thursday Night
Since Monday, the orientation people kept referring to Thursday night. Really got up our expectations about it, considering they wouldn’t let us know exactly what was going to happen that night. “Oh, you’ll find out.” ??? Turns out only the associates (the ones that are coming straight out of undergrad) were invited to out Thursday night event. The consultants (the ones with PhDs and MBAs) were doing something else that night, but apparently it wasn’t going to be nearly the same, whatever it in fact was. Slowly but surely more and more information was leaked about Thursday night as the time approached. “limo” and “lots of alcohol” came up multiple times.
Come Thursday day, we were let out at the very generous hour of 3pm and we were told to “go home and come back in a taxi.” Since home for the SF associates was the hotel, we did as we were told and went home. I changed, took a short nap, and returned to the office at 6:30pm. When we got up to the twenty first floor, there were many white plastic bags, and first and second year associates looking pumped. Back down on the first floor we waited around outside as a stretch Ford Expedition pulled up and we climbed in. Must have been a good twenty of us in there. Champagne was passed around and a toast to LEK was given. Then other beverages were promptly consumed. I really don’t have to good of an idea of the rest of the night. But it went something like two amazingly nice cocktail lounges on the beach of Santa Monica, yummy yummy tacos at “Tito’s Taco’s” (I’ve never seen such ravenous consultants), and some swank Hollywood club that I probably wouldn’t have been able to get into otherwise. Nice. I think even our BYU associate appreciated it.
Back and Forth
I might have been hurting a little on Friday, ain’t gonna lie. But the day was short and the food was plentiful (which my stomach greatly appreciated). At 5pm the San Franciscans boarded a flight back to the bay. It was nice to get back to our area of town. I met up with Stan, Aditi, and Fish for the first time after the whole summer and we did some mad Malibu mini-golfing. A well-deserved rest and up bright and early to go meet up with Darren for another Saturday of apartment hunting in the city. The first place I saw in Potrero was going to be a little out of our price range, so Darren didn’t come, but I went my own anyway to see the unit. It was gorgeous. I kind of fell in love with the place. Frankly none of the other three places we saw that day even came close. So I called the manager. Asked to see it again. No answer. Tried again a couple of hours later nothing. Four calls two messages, and two e-mails later I still haven’t heard from this guy. I’m worried the unit is probably gone by now. Damn, it was so nice and spacious. Fingers crossed that something like that can be worked out for us. But for now I still live homeless. Yuck.
Off again
Now I’m half-way through my flight to Boston and I’m remembering how much I hate flying eastward. Tomorrow our first meeting is at 8pm, Boston time. They must hate the west coast over here or something, cause that’s just cruel. I guess I am being flown to Boston and put up in the Hilton and I’m also writing this entry on a 12-inch Dell that actually has more than 20 minutes of battery life (imagine that!). That’s all very kind of them. But couldn’t they push things back an hour or two for us Californians? Suppose not. Here’s to a very early night tonight.