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Moments in the Life of J. J.

THURS
I'm sitting in the Yale Blvd (Albuquerque) Fuddruckers making website plans on a napkin... again. I just realized that I was at this very restaurant two months ago drawing Movable Type layouts for my new blog. This is a hint as to the solitary travel repetition that my job has to offer. Anyway, this post is for those (including my wife) who ask what I do on the job. For those I haven't talked to in a while, this is an answer to, "What have you been up to?" It is broken up into a typical work day, weekend, and business trip - as if typical is a good description of life's journey for a 23 year old.

A Work Day in the Life...

After dorm and apartment living for six years, 2004 has afforded me the luxury of waking up each morning next to an amazing wife in a new home. If we're lucky, 45 minutes after the alarm goes off, we're on our way to work together in Megan's car (note that I'm her chauffeur). I drop her off on her side of the complex (LifeWay probably owns the largest acreage in downtown Nashville) and make my way into our free covered parking garage (another LW perk). I grab my laptop out of the back (I'm 24/7 support for the job) and set up shop in my cube. (Yes, I do like parenthesis.) See Office Space for a depiction of 75% of my time in the office. I am, however, on the phone for several hours a day. Consequently, for convenience, I wear a phone headset (hence my "Garth" [Brooks concert mic] nickname).

For an IT "Associate Systems Engineer", my job is unique in that most of my interaction is with my customers. This makes emailing a large part of my job because I don't work on projects every day with my IT team located on the other side of the wall (or partition). My "customers" are a time zone away; they are the 100+ LW employees who work at our two conference centers (CCs), Glorieta & Ridgecrest. Another unique aspect of my position is that I basically work alone. While other IT employees help me with their area of expertise when I need it, I'm ultimately responsible for the CCs' needs. My wife will tell you that they take advantage of my support by calling me at all hours of the night, as well.

I'm also on the phone with vendors often. The CCs are both set up with very similar networks. There are three main servers on each site, and both CCs run the same software, as well. Not a week goes by that I'm not on the phone with one of these vendors. Upgrades, network problems, and setting up new users remotely take up the majority of the rest of my day. It's pretty exciting to be working in Central time and be able to connect to computers in EST and MST simultaneously.

I usually keep one of the old internet AIMs (no required download keeps the footprint smaller) open while I work, keeping in touch with the wife so she doesn't go crazy on the job. She's been applying and interviewing for a better job for many months. Anyone in Nashville want to hire a bright Vandy grad who can learn virtually anything in a week? (Okay, learn anything but what I do for a living - opposites attract.) Megan and I are lucky enough to eat our packed lunch together with her office friends. We occasionally join my former work buddies for a Friday lunch out. We stick to a 40 hour week (unless I have to work on something off hours), so we're on our way out promptly at the end of the day.

Traffic every 10 minutes on Oldies 96.3 gets us home within 20 minutes, or a little bit later if we go to the Y first. In no particular order, there are a number of things we can do for the evening. Megan will often go to a knitting class or meetup and I've been playing racquetball lately. We occasionally help with children or work in the nursery at church on Wednesdays. There's always errands to run, of course; Home Depot is a common stop now that we're approaching three months in our new home. Megan will usually fix a meal from All Recipes and I do my best to clean everything up promptly. We may watch some TV together, watch a movie, or just read the Word (the Good Book is not just for wisdom - it pierces to the heart and soul, sharper than any double-edged sword). Speaking of the Word, I will often hop on the PC and work on the website (eg. August Words) after dinner. Outlook inbox cleaning, finances in Quicken, US Bank e-billing, and truck shopping keep me in front of the monitor much longer than I should. If there's something good listed in The Rage or The Scene, we might head out for a show or performance.

We usually head to bed too late, getting seven hours of sleep if we're lucky. Mostly, we're just glad to have found our way back to the comfort of our bed and a warm embrace before drifting off to dream land. (I'll have to post one of my dreams some day; I haven't written in my dream journal in a while.)

A Weekend in the Life...

It isn't uncommon for us to be traveling on the weekend. We've been to about seven friends' weddings in the past two years! Megs had Habitat for Humanity this past weekend, so she got up way too early that morning.... Otherwise, Saturday is our day to sleep in. Every other week this summer, we have been picking up half a bushel of fresh fruit and vegetables from Delvin Farms, a CSA. We'll head to the Y again and then maybe go to the Frist art museum where we're members. Weekends are also good days to catch a matinee at Hollywood 27 where the arm rests push up for easy snuggling. Meeting up with friends for a game night is often a common weekend thang we do. Megan may go to Latin Aerobics with Mandy while I disc golf with Josh. Tennis is still "my racquet", but I don't get out to play as often as I'd like to.

A Business Trip in the Life...

FRIDAY
I had wanted to transcribe most of this onto my computer after Fuddruckers, but I left my laptop power cord at the CC - again. Fortunately for forgetful me, I always return to the same two places month after month, so it's never a total loss. My customers usually like me enough to ship anything to me immediately anyway. I'm currently flying home from Albuquerque - this time around, I'd call this the land of curious clouds. There aren't many bad storms while I'm at Glorieta, but there is usually a daily sprinkle. Yesterday, as I made my hour drive into town, I could see a line of clouds and a thin sheet of rain coming down. It was a sunny day, but I had my windshield wipers going thirty minutes later in my Hertz Chevy Classic. (So far, a Mustang has been my luckiest rental, although the handling was nothing special.)

Let me start at the beginning. I travel to one of the CCs for a week every month. This month is Glorieta, obviously. My itinerary is always the same, which is comfortable, but can also be monotonous. I was not thrilled with the prospect of traveling as a newlywed when I took the job offer one year ago, but adjusting is a way of life.

Ridgecrest is a five hour drive, directly east on I-40. I pick up my Hertz rental at the LW lot on Monday morning and buy lunch on the road - all on the company card ($30 a day is plenty, especially since I buy groceries or eat at the campus cafe for most of my meals.) Given that I'm only on site six times a year, there is always something to install, unload, or pack up while I'm there. As a neat freak, I've been spending a lot of time trying to phase out a ship back (to Nashville) all the old Compaqs or antiques (older than five years by computer standards). Before I had this full time job, one of my tasks as a LW temp "engineer" was to find a way to get rid of all the surplus equipment. I digress.

Ridgecrest is on the side of a mountain in the nature rich Swannanoa Mountains. Nonetheless, I look forward to my Glorieta trips more. It's fun to fly, especially at the expense of a corporation. Plus, I get to keep all of my frequent flyer miles. So far, all my flights have been on American, which is nice because they have the most foot room. My trip usually requires a layover in Dallas, which isn't too bad as long as there's an hour between flights. Soaring over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains is my favorite. I always get a window seat to watch. Our pilots maneuver over the peaks and quickly make their way to or from the airport at the base of these steep mountainsides. As we left just a few minutes ago, not long after sunrise, it was incredible to see the clouds crawling up the east side of Sandia Peak, not quite high enough to make it past the king of the mountain. Megs and I are making plans for her to fly out here for a few days when I come back in October. I can't wait!

Glorieta is located among the mountaintops between Santa Fe and Las Vegas (NM, not NV). Like flying around Albuquerque, the drive is always beautiful. The view from Clines Corners (my last chance for groceries) is especially breathtaking at sunset. So far, I've been lucky to have a docking station in the Nashville Room each time I arrive to New Mexico Hall. If higher ups from Nashville happen to be there at the same time, I'll have to find a desk close to a LAN line for the week... which I've been having to do at Ridgecrest where there isn’t' an extra room. Like the weeks at Ridgecrest, I 'm gone from Monday morning through Friday afternoon (LW foots my long term parking fee at BNA, as well).

You might ask, "What necessitates week-long trips to these places?" I'm actually the only IT employee whose salary is paid by the CCs. I've got A/V specialists at each location to be my hands when I'm not there, but there are many things that only I can do. Pretty good job security! While on site these past two months, I've had two main tasks. The first is to get all of our new time clocks ready for Sep1. We've got new touch screen kiosks to replace the old modem-connected badge swipe clocks. We're also upgrading everyone to Lotus Notes 6.5.1 (our email and database application). I was on site to assuage any concerns as that was rolled out.

What else do I do while I'm there? LW CCs (I sleep on campus) don't have TVs in their rooms, so I end up reading or just surfing in my office most of the evening. Night life does not exist in these remote locations, either. I'll occasionally sneak in to a worship service or meet up with someone I happen to know attending a conference at the time. New to the CCs are some ropes courses and Glorieta actually has paint ball. When I get a chance, I'll have to take advantage of those summer thrills. By the way, one of my projects has been to help set up a "guest internet subnet" on campus so that guests can have high speed access on their personal laptops. We're going wireless in a few spots, too. Ridgecrest is currently testing and we expect to be up and running at Glorieta by spring.

To wrap up my Glorieta trips, I drive to Albuquerque on Thursday night and stay at the Hampton on Yale, across from Fuddruckers. I'm not a frequent hotel-goer, but I’ve been very impressed with Hampton's service: breakfast in a bag (or continental), HBO, and indoor pool, a mountainous vista, toiletries on hand (I ran out of toothpaste this time), and wireless internet are just a few of the all-inclusive perks I've gotten to enjoy during my stay. Hilton Honors points count for AA miles, too!

I guess it's about time to conclude this summary of my recent life. Like most of my posts, I'll likely edit it from time to time to update links or delete objectionable material at my wife's request. Unlike my youth minister, who apparently enjoys watching people's different shoes go by, I'm amused by airport pedestrians, in general. I just saw a lady walking her Chihuahua along the main Terminal C floor....

By rockofvictory | Fri 2004Aug13 15:45 CST | News | Last edited Mon 2005Mar07 23:07 CST
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