Entries this day: new_job skate_late

new job

20 August 1999

Awesome!

Some days ago, my friend Brian called me to see if I was interested, or if I knew of anyone who might be interested, in replacing him in his current job.

He described the requirements and stuff, and at first I was like, um um.. maybe but probably not. In continuing to talk with him, that thinking shifted to more like, maybe yes!

I went to visit the place (5 minutes from my house) on Wednesday afternoon for a preliminary interview. I enjoyed the whole atmosphere of the place: friendly people wearing casual clothing in a homey environment. Posters on the walls, pictures of kids, a bucket of Super Bubble gum on the table.. Definitely my kind of place! I met Carla the president of the company who queried me about my background and interests and everything. We were both enthusiastic at the end of that interview. I still needed to meet with Kevin, who wasn't there at the time.

Met with Kevin and Carla today and everything is super double plus good, but from their point of view, almost too good. They haven't interviewed anyone else, or even looked for anyone else. Brian gave his one month notice, called me and I was there the next day.

So Kevin and Carla will talk about it over lunch, and I'm here chillin' at home happily expecting the best. permalink

skate late

20 August 1999

Last night was Thursday, so I went skating. No one else was in our designated parking lot at 8pm, so I sat in Scott's open trunk writing in my diary for a few moments. I was literally ready to leave at 8:09 when two people arrived at the same moment.

We got our skates on and we headed toward downtown. I love skating through downtown. The construction, the traffic, the unlimited space, steps, curbs; all the things that are unlike a skating rink, I love.

One big thing we were unlikely to find in a skating rink is the new baseball stadium. It spans 4 city blocks and resembles an enormous Erector Set construction (I'm showing my age) with bold uncovered metal girders and beams. The most amazing thing about it: the roof is like a sunroof! The whole huge thing is on wheels and can be retracted! I guess it's more like a convertable because the entire top half of the stadium can roll to one side. Unlike a convertable, it doesn't fold up and hide underneath a fabric or leather cover, but it's still super impressive. When I exclaimed, "holy shit are those wheels???" Kim and David were like, "yeah; where have you been?"

Toward George R. Brown Convention Center we skated, and oh-my-gosh those are grandstands - giant sets of bleachers have been set up for the race car thing. Is it Stock Car? Nascar? Obviously I don't pay much attention to it, but I certainly enjoyed skating along the super smooth asphalt in front of thousands of cheering ghost spectators.

Then to some biker bar with hundreds of sparkling hogs and cycles out front and hundreds of boistrous bearded tattooed bikers inside. Just like in the movies, except right in my downtown! We spent several minutes ogling the bikes; Kim and David had much more apparent knowledge about them than I.

Then we embarked on the trek toward the museum district (a tad over 1 mile I'm guessing) and I showed them my footprint in the concrete at the Children's Museum! They, properly impressed, and I, pleased as punch, skated on and noticed a pile of well dressed people in the new(?) Health Museum. We paused to people watch for a bit and then got kicked off the property by a cop.

Toward home we skated, until I saw two skaters up ahead. "Bye!" to Kim and David and caught up with two people who turned out to be named Mike and Mike, respectively.

To the hill at Miller Outdoor Theater we skated. I trudged up and flew down the hill and then joined them chilling on a wall. Mike was waxing up an edge of the wall to do some grinds.

I didn't feel too super comfortable being around them grinding (it marks up the walls and is certainly frowned upon by many people, especially those who own the wall) so I announced my departure and they ended up going with me. We trudged up and zipped down the hill and then toward headed toward the zoo.

The trek toward the zoo is short and dark and rather dangerous as the sidewalk crosses the miniature park railroad tracks twice, and may (or may not) be strewn with random sticks or pine cones. Plus it twists and turns through the trees and I found it difficult to always see which way I needed to turn at a given moment. Oh, and there are park benches occassionally along the edge, which would certainly inflict bodily damage if encountered at 15 miles per hour.

Speeding through this twisty path, I made it successfully through the first grove of trees, including across the tracks twice. Then surprised a couple smooching on a park bench as I hauled by with a friendly "hi," and then gone again into the second set of trees. Again no problem and then up and over the wooden foot-bridge over a tiny portion of the lake.

Ahh... yes! made it without crashing! I paused for a second to let them catch up. Mike got there first, and then Mike was close behind.

We skated around to the other side of the lake in search of a water fountain. Found it, slurped water, rested and talked.

Turns out Mike is a traveler; he's moved about a million times in the past several years of his life. Part of me is envious, but I asked my higher self what would fit in my life in this arena. The answer came back something like, "I can take little road trips with my skates and frisbee and digital camera and laptop computer and travel and skate and meet people and see cool things or whatever and archive them here on my website."

Nice.

I gave Mike and Mike my cards (I often carry them when I skate) and we began a trek toward home.

Along McGregor we skated on the sidewalk and whoah deja-vu as we quickly reached where the sidewalk ends and I barely slowed enough to not crash when I hit the sand. Mike and Mike were a tad behind me; they also didn't crash.

Then to Main Street, we turned right and skated facing traffic in the far left lane (left according to us; right lane according to the oncoming traffic) so we could see any cars before they squished us.

Mike and Mike turned left onto Sunset Blvd to go wherever they went, and I continued my trek home. Got honked at once, but didn't come close to crashing at all. Zipped across Westheimer at Montrose as the light had just turned perfectly green for me, I jumped onto the sidewalk, down the curb into the intersection, right in front of cars waiting for their green light, up the next curb and gone. I love that.

I was glad to find my car at Texas Art Supply where I had left it; I was tired and that shaved 200 yards off the distance I had to skate.

Home at about 11:30pm. permalink