Contract notes

The new gig is in downtown Saint Crisco. I've never worked in San Francisco before. It's quite exciting. I'm down at the very end of Bank Building Row, the far end of the financial district. Where the banks peter out, North Beach (the Italian neighborhood) and Chinatown begin, albeit intermixed these days.

In fact, I'm working in one of the city's most historic buildings. These days it's dwarfed on all sides, but in its day, I'm sure it was something! The lobby, facade and elevators all retain their period charm, as do the internal stairwells. However, the individual floors of offices are all drywall and fluorescent lighting. It's no different than the set for Office Space. On the up side - due to the building's age, we have windows that open, unlike those poor schmucks over in the TransAmerica building. At any rate, the building has security and I have a badge.

Although I have a very boring job title, something like project manager or program coordinator, for now it's been Jill of All Trades. For the last two days I've been IT Director, trying to figure out how to connect a switch, a hub, and a modem, all without disconnecting the phones and data lines for 17 megaglobal financial institutions while I plug in our DSL. I may recommend that we hire a professional to tackle the connections in the phone closet. I also have to figure out how to make our phone system work with the after-hours voicemail. Yeppers, borrowed $150K to steal a job from some guy in dockers and a blue button down.

I also went on The Great Printed Materials Hunt of 2008, and used the yield to put together eleventy-hundred info packets for a presentation on Monday. So it's also fair to say that I borrowed $150K to rob some Independent Living candidate of a decent engagement.

Things I'm not used to (and not liking) are getting up early, dress shoes, trying to coordinate a professional look, laying out at least $7 for lunch and another $7 for transit.

Somehow I gave away several pairs of dress pants without replacing them. Two pair of black pants and one of navy do not a wardrobe make. Meanwhile all my shoes seem to be as comfortable as concrete-lined cardboard slippers. Insole arch supports didn't help. (I can't even imagine the pain I'd be in if I wore a skirt with hose and the more excruciating of the dress shoes. Why do clothes have to be painful??) Hopefully, issues of immediate debt will subside by my 3rd paycheck, at which point I can get some real shoes. I hope I can find something that doesn't look like orthopedic footwear for the geriatric set.

Hopefully they'll keep me on for a bit. Long enough to get some stylish yet comfortable shoes, I hope.