An Indian, an Asian, and a Caucasion walk into the Islamic Center of Milwaukee. Is this the beginning of a joke? No, it was the beginning of my weekend.
Jake, Katie, and I went to the Open House at the Islamic Center on Saturday. However, when we got there we noticed a huge banner on the building that read "Open House: May 6th". Oops, who messed up the dates? We went inside anyway and made sure that they would welcome us the following weekend. The woman we talked to was very nice and we plan to go back next week. "Free refreshments. Bring your friends," The woman said. The Muslims are very friendly.
Even though we missed the Islamic Center, I managed to straddle many cultures this weekend. I ate Mexican food and sushi. I bought a Rush Greatest Hits album. I studied at the art deco coffee shop in town. And I was pulled over for speeding for my first time.
Sunday, April 30
Wednesday, April 26
Bad Day
Even my bad days aren't that bad.
On Monday, my office manager and the consultant for the majority of my projects came back from their vacations. That was when they checked their e-mail and voicemail and found out about my big mistake that our client caught last week. (I sent 80 letters to Union workers stating that they have a benefit that they don't really have. So, sue me. Oh wait, they could.) My bosses decided to have a meeting to discuss how we can fix our process so that these mistakes don't happen next year. (There were actually multiple mistakes this year, but I won't go into details because they're tedious. read: embarrasing) They were very polite and they used all of the PC words so that I wouldn't take the blame for my mistake. "We're not blaming you. We need to work on the process." I didn't take it personally. I know mistakes are made. We do plenty of good work for this client. I know I do good work for this client. Also, our data is very bad. And too many of the data's problems are caught just because I work with it so much. But no matter how friendly my bosses can admonish me, it was still a crappy meeting to sit through.
Then at our staff meeting we discussed how the new hire has decided not to work with us come June. Great. And this means that all of the best candidates have already taken jobs. I also took this opportunity to point out that the last candidate that they interviewed this late in the year was me. "And look where that got us." retorted a snarky coworker. I set myself up some days.
When I got back to my desk, I had a message from my friend in the Chicago office, Jison. She told me that she has decided to move back to Korea - the first weekend of May. This isn't so Earth-shattering except that we were hired together and it reminded me of how many of my peers have already quit our firm.
It's funny how events like this make my job tougher, but it also puts me in a better position. There is so much work to be done at my level, I get to choose my projects. My bosses and peers are afraid to lose me too, so everyone is very nice to me. These days, even the bad days aren't so bad.
On Monday, my office manager and the consultant for the majority of my projects came back from their vacations. That was when they checked their e-mail and voicemail and found out about my big mistake that our client caught last week. (I sent 80 letters to Union workers stating that they have a benefit that they don't really have. So, sue me. Oh wait, they could.) My bosses decided to have a meeting to discuss how we can fix our process so that these mistakes don't happen next year. (There were actually multiple mistakes this year, but I won't go into details because they're tedious. read: embarrasing) They were very polite and they used all of the PC words so that I wouldn't take the blame for my mistake. "We're not blaming you. We need to work on the process." I didn't take it personally. I know mistakes are made. We do plenty of good work for this client. I know I do good work for this client. Also, our data is very bad. And too many of the data's problems are caught just because I work with it so much. But no matter how friendly my bosses can admonish me, it was still a crappy meeting to sit through.
Then at our staff meeting we discussed how the new hire has decided not to work with us come June. Great. And this means that all of the best candidates have already taken jobs. I also took this opportunity to point out that the last candidate that they interviewed this late in the year was me. "And look where that got us." retorted a snarky coworker. I set myself up some days.
When I got back to my desk, I had a message from my friend in the Chicago office, Jison. She told me that she has decided to move back to Korea - the first weekend of May. This isn't so Earth-shattering except that we were hired together and it reminded me of how many of my peers have already quit our firm.
It's funny how events like this make my job tougher, but it also puts me in a better position. There is so much work to be done at my level, I get to choose my projects. My bosses and peers are afraid to lose me too, so everyone is very nice to me. These days, even the bad days aren't so bad.
Sunday, April 23
Sum of the Weekend
3 miles running
1 mile swimming
7 miles walking (for MS)
40 blocks walking (round-trip) for a hot dog.
One baseball game x half-price + 4 hot dogs x $1 each.
X Four guys
One blind date = nothing to report.
2 Burgers
One Book Club Meeting
Two roommates + Mr. Clean + Dirty Apartment = "CleanFest 2006"
3 times heard MJ's greatest hits - including "Man in the Mirror"
1 mile swimming
7 miles walking (for MS)
40 blocks walking (round-trip) for a hot dog.
One baseball game x half-price + 4 hot dogs x $1 each.
X Four guys
One blind date = nothing to report.
2 Burgers
One Book Club Meeting
Two roommates + Mr. Clean + Dirty Apartment = "CleanFest 2006"
3 times heard MJ's greatest hits - including "Man in the Mirror"
Tuesday, April 18
Summertime Goals
With only two-thirds of spring remaining, I have begun a list of goals to accomplish during summer 2006. Please feel free to suggest any other activities that I should try while "the livin' is easy and the fish are jumpin.'"
Read Proust.
See a Rush Tribute band (in addtion to Light Up, the Styx tribute band).
Visit California.
Visit the Wisconsin Dells.
Have a drunken party and not remember part (most) of it.
Run in the Sausage Race. Beat 3 sausages.
Open an IRA.
Ride with the Ditty Bops on their Bike across America tour.
Read Proust.
See a Rush Tribute band (in addtion to Light Up, the Styx tribute band).
Visit California.
Visit the Wisconsin Dells.
Have a drunken party and not remember part (most) of it.
Run in the Sausage Race. Beat 3 sausages.
Open an IRA.
Ride with the Ditty Bops on their Bike across America tour.
Monday, April 17
Self-Improvement
Today while walking home, I decided that it's about time that I learn to pronounce "milk" correctly. I have always pronounced it like "melk", which was never corrected until I went away to college. Then the university-educated snobs in my company began to laugh at me. Specifically, Cory, but I remember a few people making remarks about my pronounciation and then asking me to repeat the words again so that everyone could hear my distortion. Of course, finding out how different parts of the country pronounce things was one of the ways we kept ourselves amused during meal times. It especially helped that Jackie was studying linguistics, and she would explain why our sounds were different anatomically. Our fun was multiplied when John joined our group and brought along his slight Southern accent. I remember we spent most of our dinner at the House of Blues analyzing how he says "pink." Somehow, he gets an aitch (h) in there. I know how to spell "aitch" because that was a word on the National Spelling Bee when it was broadcast on ESPN a few years back. The kid actually asked them for alternative definitions of "aitch"! It's the eighth letter of the alphabet, kid, what more do you want?
But back to my walk home. I have decided to start my lessons by repeating the phrase "mint milkshake." I think that both i's are to sound the same, but currently they do not. To emphasize the difference in how I currently pronounce "milk" to the proper way, I will repeat "do not melt the milkshake." I'm not sure if I feel more like Henry Higgins or Eliza Doolittle.
But back to my walk home. I have decided to start my lessons by repeating the phrase "mint milkshake." I think that both i's are to sound the same, but currently they do not. To emphasize the difference in how I currently pronounce "milk" to the proper way, I will repeat "do not melt the milkshake." I'm not sure if I feel more like Henry Higgins or Eliza Doolittle.
Sunday, April 16
Easter
Christie, Justin, and I spent Easter together. Christie made turkey and stuffing. And a yam. We used old napkins that had the message "Happy New Year!" on them. It was a confusing holiday. After dinner, we read the newspaper and napped.
Wednesday, April 5
work
I'm at work at 10:30 p.m. because I'm trying to get some stuff done without any interuptions. And my boss comes up to me and gives me something to do! It 11 o'clock. Do you really think I'm sitting here because I'm looking for work? I have sixteen hours remaining in this week to send 3,500 benefit statements, prepare 6 calculations, prepare a valuation's data (which took me 20 hours last year), and conduct my normal weekly activities. And he gives me something more to do.
My mentor wants to meet with me to discuss how to get junior staff more engaged in the office. Sometimes his questions are hilarious.
My mentor wants to meet with me to discuss how to get junior staff more engaged in the office. Sometimes his questions are hilarious.
Tuesday, April 4
Tyrone Tuesdays
Tyrone and I go to the library together each Tuesday night to study. He's my mentee through a YMCA program. He's a high school sophomore. His grades are dropping. So we study together. Well, he does his homework and I study for my next exam. We meet at the library once each week. We spend about 90 minutes there and then we go out for dinner.
Tonight, I had him make flashcards for Spanish. We talked a good deal about his studies tonight. He's smarter than I thought he was. Of course, his education is very poor, but at least I'm learning that he's clever and I think he's enjoying the silly word and number games that I've been messing around with. I'm not doing anything ground-breaking and to most of us that came from good high schools, we would think of these drills as tedious, but they're new to Tyrone and I think he appreciates working on "adult-type" of work.
For example, tonight we conjugated words like "to go" and "to be." First in Spanish, and then in English. Sadly, he was better at the Spanish. Slowly, I'm going to break him of his "I be" and "he be" speech patterns. We thought of funny ways to remember the genders of his vocabulary. And we talked about parts of speech. And I really mean we did. It wasn't just me talking about articles. Once he had the concept, he wanted to know how articles worked in English too.
Then I started to quiz him on acronyms, and I don't know how we got there. We talked about SCUBA, HIV/AIDS, etc. I then told him that Ford stood for Fixed or Repaired Daily. He thought that was funny and then tried to come up with one for Dodge. Those are the types of word games I'm trying to encourage.
Oh, and at dinner, he almost got the tip right. At least now, he knows what percentage to give. If only I could get his math correct.
Tonight, I had him make flashcards for Spanish. We talked a good deal about his studies tonight. He's smarter than I thought he was. Of course, his education is very poor, but at least I'm learning that he's clever and I think he's enjoying the silly word and number games that I've been messing around with. I'm not doing anything ground-breaking and to most of us that came from good high schools, we would think of these drills as tedious, but they're new to Tyrone and I think he appreciates working on "adult-type" of work.
For example, tonight we conjugated words like "to go" and "to be." First in Spanish, and then in English. Sadly, he was better at the Spanish. Slowly, I'm going to break him of his "I be" and "he be" speech patterns. We thought of funny ways to remember the genders of his vocabulary. And we talked about parts of speech. And I really mean we did. It wasn't just me talking about articles. Once he had the concept, he wanted to know how articles worked in English too.
Then I started to quiz him on acronyms, and I don't know how we got there. We talked about SCUBA, HIV/AIDS, etc. I then told him that Ford stood for Fixed or Repaired Daily. He thought that was funny and then tried to come up with one for Dodge. Those are the types of word games I'm trying to encourage.
Oh, and at dinner, he almost got the tip right. At least now, he knows what percentage to give. If only I could get his math correct.
Sunday, April 2
When in Milwaukee...
"I did the Polka at Art's Concertina Bar" reads the sign I received last night at said Concertina Bar. Art claims that his is "the only Concertina Bar in the U.S.A." I find this difficult to believe given the crowd at Art's. Doesn't every American city have a mature (read: geriatric) Polish subculture that needs to polka? That needs to drink beer from 8 ounce glasses? That needs to sing along with such classics as "Who stole the kieshka?" or "She's too fat for me"?
Art also gave us a copy of the band schedule for April, which includes concertina artists all the way from Shawano and Stevens Point, Wisconsin. As much as Mick, Christie, and I made fun of the little bar with a lot of spirit, I think we may go back. It reminded me so much of the bars back in Scranton, especially the ones that my Grampa goes to. The music was good and the people were friendly, well, the ones that were awake. I think we're planning to go to the Polka lessons that are offered every Wednesday evening. We'll make a night of it. Art advertises that he's open until 3 a.m. even though I would guess that the majority of his patrons last night were home in time to see the weather report on the 10 o'clock news.
On Friday night, I went out for Fish Fry. Fish Fry Fridays are big in Milwaukee, and not just during Lent. Every restuartant has fish specials on Fridays here. Even the Greek counter down the street has one. They come in all types, from the huge beer halls to the trendy little night clubs. I went to one of the trendy ones. I was not dissappointed.
Tomorrow I am not going to work. It's Opening Day and I'm taking a vacation day. Opening Day is big in Milwaukee. It's one of the few days that Miller Park sells out. So much of a Brewers game is unique to Milwaukee. I know that baseball (and all sports) is usually related to beer. But I think that relationship is a little stonger at Miller Park when one is watching the Brewers. Tailgating is such a central part to the game. We watch giant sausages race around the infield. We do a polka during the seventh inning stretch. And this year, there's some extra excitement about the Brewers. They're young and talented. We're going to the play-offs. Hope springs eternal.
Art also gave us a copy of the band schedule for April, which includes concertina artists all the way from Shawano and Stevens Point, Wisconsin. As much as Mick, Christie, and I made fun of the little bar with a lot of spirit, I think we may go back. It reminded me so much of the bars back in Scranton, especially the ones that my Grampa goes to. The music was good and the people were friendly, well, the ones that were awake. I think we're planning to go to the Polka lessons that are offered every Wednesday evening. We'll make a night of it. Art advertises that he's open until 3 a.m. even though I would guess that the majority of his patrons last night were home in time to see the weather report on the 10 o'clock news.
On Friday night, I went out for Fish Fry. Fish Fry Fridays are big in Milwaukee, and not just during Lent. Every restuartant has fish specials on Fridays here. Even the Greek counter down the street has one. They come in all types, from the huge beer halls to the trendy little night clubs. I went to one of the trendy ones. I was not dissappointed.
Tomorrow I am not going to work. It's Opening Day and I'm taking a vacation day. Opening Day is big in Milwaukee. It's one of the few days that Miller Park sells out. So much of a Brewers game is unique to Milwaukee. I know that baseball (and all sports) is usually related to beer. But I think that relationship is a little stonger at Miller Park when one is watching the Brewers. Tailgating is such a central part to the game. We watch giant sausages race around the infield. We do a polka during the seventh inning stretch. And this year, there's some extra excitement about the Brewers. They're young and talented. We're going to the play-offs. Hope springs eternal.
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