— पांच हजार आठ सौ इकसठ —
Yesterday was quite the full day, first and foremost due to the all-day training, which proved surprisingly useful. Most of it had to do with finding ways to achieve an empty inbox in Outlook by using a ton of tools most of us were no aware of, most notably turning emails into Tasks, and turning Tasks into calendar events. For me, the jury is still out on that part—I have long desired for "Inbox Zero," which gives me a deep sense of satisfaction, but the trade-off with these particular tools may not be worth it, we'll see. Part of my issue is my need to work entirely in a remote desktop just so that HQ, our item maintenance system, will work properly, and IT keeps the version of Outlook in the remote desktop a much older version. This means a lot of the tools I learned about yesterday don't work as well. I do have the option of using the web version of Outlook, but I really prefer using the Outlook application itself, as it has greater layout flexibility.
Anyway! This training ran from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. It was going to start at 9:00, but we also had a mandatory fire drill for the entire building at 10:00 so we had to adjust for that.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ इकसठ —
— पांच हजार आठ सौ इकसठ —
At the end of the training, Merchandising also had what Dave (our department VP) called "Optional Merch Connection Time"—basically the last social event for our department before the office move. (There will be one more office-wide potluck the week after next.) Hot dogs, veggie hot dogs, side dishes, and desserts were provided, for people to enjoy either in the kitchen or out on the patio.
I feel like maybe half the team stayed for that, and a good number of those left after a short while. I feel like only ten or 15 stayed for the entire allotted time, two hours between 4:00 and 6:00.
In terms of food, though: I ate
way too much yesterday. They had already supplied lunch for us in the training, and I typically just stick to a protein bar for lunch. But, I got a half-caprese sandwich, in a lunch box that also included a snack bag of Kettle potato chips
and a Cougar Mountain cookie. Of course I ate it all.
And then, at the social gathering at the end of the day: I had a veggie hot dog; some PCC Smoked Mozzarella Pasta (my favorite dish in the PCC Deli); some PCC Vegan Potato Salad; and some PCC Coleslaw. I had two glasses of wine, because as I said to a couple of people yesterday, day drinking at work is one of my favorite things. And most notably, Robin had a giant bowl full of the new PCC Deli Banana Pudding for people to try, which had bits of cookies in it, and holy fuckballs was it delicious. I even took a container full home for Shobhit, along with an extra bag of hot dog buns that no one had consumed.
I sort of almost didn't get my veggie dog. Apparently Erik, the Meat Nerchandiser, had prepared several hot dogs in the air fryer, but left right after doing that; he never got around to veggie dogs. So when I asked around after veggie dogs, Dave and Tracy went on a bit of an in-office scavenger hunt to find some. Eventually they did, and Dave fried up two of them, although I only ate one.
I still need to look around the office to see if the other packages of veggie hot dogs are still around. No one else will be using them, I want to take them home!
Anyway, I wound up hanging out at first inside the kichen, chatting a surprising lot with Beth. Later, once I got my veggie dog, I went out on the patio and sat on the cushioned patio furniture near Justine, Steven, Adrienne, Mackenzie, Leon, and Tristan. Later Robin sat with us, as did Benny. For a little while a group of others sat at a nearby table, which eventually included Tracy, Dave, and Amanda (and earlier, Benny, before he moved over to the patio furniture).
Gabby was around for a little bit, but never came out on the patio, at least that I saw. A few others hung out for a while inside in the kitchen, but I can't remember who all did. I know Cathryn left pretty much as soon as the training ended, and Amanda went to do some work for a bit before joining the party. At that point though, I was like, fuck it: I've been away from my desk all day, I'm not going to sit down at 4 p.m. Luckily I had almost no emails yesterday anyway, which was kind of a miracle.
At about 6:00, I gathered the food needed to take home, packed my backpack, and rode my bike home. Shobhit and I spent the rest of the evening finishing up the season of
Stick on Apple TV, which was quite good. Then, because he needed 500 more steps to reach his daily goal, I went for a short walk with Shobhit, to the middle of Cal Anderson and back. It was still a walk for its own sake, so he gets a Social Review point! As will a bunch of people from work for that social gathering yesterday.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ इकसठ —
[posted 12:36pm]
