Well, well, well, what's been going on...

1. Work has been rough. Dealing with the top of pyramid is stressful and chaotic. My work is demanding in general, but, when dealing with C-level, management committee personalities, it's too unpredictable at times. Also, you never know when it's okay to contact people. Their schedules are jam-packed with all sorts of people demanding attention. Everything has to be planned out weeks, and sometimes months, in advance. However, when they want something, everything must be dropped and full attention to their needs must be immediate. I understand all of this to a certain extent, but it doesn't make getting things done any easier. Plus, I never know if they're satisfied or unsatisfied with what's been accomplished. I said it before, and I say it again: This role will determine whether or not I'm staying with the company. Right now, it's too early to tell.

2. On the home front, my wife and I are settled into the updated master bedroom, and we're buying more and more furniture every week. This process is a bit stressful, too. The dollars aren't the concern because the money's all there. The concerns are shopping, making the decisions, and pulling the trigger. I guess, in a way, it's fun, especially when items arrive and get set up. Our condo is finally starting to feel like a home...after two years!

3. I haven't travelled since early January, my last week at the San Francisco client, but that will change very soon. I'm planning four trips over the next couple of months. May brings the Indy 500 and, hopefully, a trip to DC to hang out with old college buddies. Of course, I'm ready to go, but I'm waiting on two other buddies to make a decision. They're not used to planning and executing, and I think that money may be a slight problem with both guys. I'll probably go without those two because the friend who lives in DC just bought a new place and is excited for visitors. I hope it works out for all four of us to come together, but the other two just have to get their shit together.

June brings a weekend trip to Houston for an old high school friend's wedding. Houston is a decent place to visit, but it certainly isn't a favorite. Although, we won't be in Houston much more than the airport because the wedding is in Galveston. June may also bring a boondoggle trip to Tahoe. My old project was very profitable so there's talk of a free weekend in Tahoe for a select group of my old teammates and our significant others. All expense-paid trip will be nice, and I'd really like to see all of my old teammates from San Francisco who plan to fly in for the event, if it happens (cross fingers).

I also want to plan a trip to Vegas to hang out with my brother, and I hope to get to Pittsburgh this summer, too, to see family and friends. We'll have to see how it all plays out.

That's that for now. I'm getting a political itch so future blog entries will probably get back a bit to old style of ranting about something on my mind.

This weekend was big news. We finally moved into our master bedroom! Yes, after ten months of the downstairs floor being in total disarray, we now are back in our bedroom. There is still some disarry, but it's totally different than in the past. Now, I'll admit that we don't have all of our bedroom furniture yet because it's being custom built and won't be delivered until July (!). However, with the painting and floor finished, we placed the floor rug down and moved all of the old bedroom furniture into the room. We also created a tool chest in one of our closets so now all the crap is off the floor. Next steps are buying a new entertainment center so we can move the electronics out of boxes and buy bookshelves to line all of the walls. Everything looks great, and what's left is moving in the right direction. We're very excited and happy.

I'm going to be a bit lazy tonight. I sent an email to a friend this morning, and now I'm just going to C&P it right here. It's what's on my mind tonight, and the e-mail captures it just right.

Did you watch the press conference last night or read about it? I didn't watch it, but read the reports. You may be shocked to read this, but I felt sorry for the guy. Politics aside, it was clear that this man is in way over his head, and he's just not a fit leader. No shocker, I know. But as a professional who works with top leaders all the time, this guy choked hardcore and made it clear that he's not the best man for the job, the job of pulling the US out of this international Iraqi morass and rebuilding the reputation of our country. Bush cannot speak, cannot improvise, cannot think. He has to be prepared right down to the commas and periods in sentences, and that's disappointing and scary. I hope America wakes up, looks past the Administration's rhetoric, and boots this guy.

Here's what's been up:

1. My college friends and I are planning a trip to DC in May. My old roommate lives there so we're attempting to get a small group together to crash his new condo. If it comes together, it'll be a fun weekend.

2. My wife and I attended a Boys & Girls Club charity event last Saturday. We volunteered our services a bit in the beginning, but, most of the night, we ate, drank, danced, bid on auctions, etc. The normal fund-raiser activities... At the silent auction, we "won" a trip to a spa and a wine & cheese party at a women's boutique in Lincoln Park. Not much for me, of course, but my wife is happy.

3. On Saturday, I hit "refresh" a dozen times on Ticketmaster.com, attempting to buy tickets to see the Pixies in Chicago. In the end, I was able to buy six tickets for the show in November. It sold out in less than 30 minutes. I haven't been this excited to see a show in a long time, and my bro in Vegas plans to fly out for it. I never saw Pixies back in the day (that I can remember, at least) so I'm glad they got back together to do a tour.

More to come later on...

This week has been rough. I've had long conference calls, some that started at 730am and others that started at 6pm, going on all week. Each of these is relentless blabbing and, then, pounding on people for what they haven't done. Quite stressful, quite tiresome. It makes me think of things I've done recently that were fun. For example:

1. My wife's 31st birthday was March 27th. I bought her diamond earrings, and we went to one of her favorite restaurants in Chicago, Spring on North Ave. Then later, we went to the movies to see The Coen Bros. new one, The Ladykillers. The meal was excellent, and the movie was good.

2. Diminishing (Note: I didn't write quitting) my smoking has not been that bad, even under the recent couple of weeks of work stress. We now only smoke outside, and I don't carry them around. Since my wife's birthday, I've only had about one a day, and that does it. I'm thinking that soon I won't want any at all. These are good times, and I'm excited that I'm getting the monkey off my back.

3. April 3rd was National Trading Card Day. I went to two card shops in Chicago, and the owners handed out free stuff, reduced their prices, etc. It was fun. I met some other Chicago collectors, put in some orders for future releases, and bought a lot of vintage Pirates cards from the 50's, 60's, and 70's. I had a good time. I'm heading back to one of the shops this Saturday because a dealer found some 03UD Play Ball I need to complete my set, and he's holding a few boxes of 04 Topps Cracker Jacks for me. Topps CJ will be a fun retro set to break and complete.

The trip to Dallas was fine. The weather was nice most of the time, but, by Thursday, when I went to the airport, it was 84 degrees. Too hot for early April, if you ask me.

I did a lot of work prior to my arrival and prepared as much as possible for the working session. This was a brain-storming cum decision-making exercise with some of the top people (Treasurer, Controller, Global Fin Ops Lead, Euro Fin Ops Lead, CIO, CRO) from my company so I wanted to be totally ready. It really didn't make a difference though because no one really looked at anything I put together. Everyone had his or her own agenda, and it was fairly chaotic at times. Trying to facilitate this meeting was a chore, to say the least.

We did accomplish most of what we wanted to do, but certainly not in the most orderly or productive fashion. "Top dogs" from a global, multi-billion dollar company are not used to listening, waiting or cooperating. Everyone likes to talk, talk, talk and, then, hand out orders. It was interesting to watch the pecking order in action. You could tell very quickly who had respect for whom and, conversely, who had very little respect for whom. Power, surely, is intoxicating, and I guess not everyone can wield it gracefully or tactfully. Shit really does roll downhill, and, during these days, waiting at the bottom of the hill was yours truly. Therefore, I received the least amount of polite exchange and, basically, all of the to-do's. What fun.

I did see some cool stuff, in a nerdy way, while working in Dallas. The bulk of our C-suite is located in Dallas so this office is, by far, one of our best. It's a great place to work, and it still has some of the amentities that have been removed from other offices. Also, while walking the halls, I bumped into our CFO, which is rare, and I saw our boardroom and the new CEO office space. I also saw the official listing certificate from the NYSE hanging on the boardroom wall and a bunch of awards that we received from this and that. Our CEO was around on Thursday, but huddled in his office after globe-trotting all week so didn't see him. It was cool to come across people or see things that, prior, I only saw or heard about on websites.

With all that, I did get to go out one night, but it was by myself and only for a couple of hours. I went to the Deep Ellum neighborhood in Dallas to decompress and get some food. I ate at Cafe Brazil and had a Brazilian breakfast for dinner (empanada, eggs, potatoes, jalapeno peppers, etc.). After that, I walked around for a bit and, then, stopped at Insomnia to have a cup of espresso and read my book (still chipping away at The Man with the Golden Arm). I'm very glad that I went to the city one night. It made the trip worth it, to a small degree.