Rest of my Trip

So I realized that I never finished my story about my Atlanta trip...

For those of you who actually read the first part, the second part is definitely much better.  Given all the things that went bad during my travelling day, things started to get better on my first day at work.  It didn't magically turned all good but gradually...

The office was right behind the hotel (literarly).  Therefore, in the morning, I waiting until 8:45 to leave the hotel as it would only take me 2 minutes to get into the office.  I left the hotel from the back door, walked through the garden of the hotel - about 30 full steps and arrived to the back door of the office.  Well, the back door was only for people with a badge.  I looked around to see if there was a short cut to get to the front of the building and only path I found was through the bushes in the garden.  So I went through... Well...  First of all, I didn't realize that the ground was slightly wet so my white loafers found themselves slipping in the mud. Secondly, once I got out of the bushes, I landed right by the garbage cans with a truck collecting the garbage.  So my first 'good morning' exchange was with the garbage crew!  Then lastly, when I went through the front door, I found myself inside a fancy lobby with people gathering for a meeting...  The problem with that was my muddy white shoes on super clean floors!  Nice introduction, right?!

Anyway, once Richard - my host - walked down to meet me, I had already cleaned my shoes on the carpet and moved seats to hide the fact that all that mud and leaves were from my shoes. :)  I wonder if anyone saw it.

From the moment I met Richard and started to meet rest of the Analytics team, my day improved gradually.  I realized that I finally belong to a team who shares the same passion when it comes to numbers.  They were there too help me as opposed to object every single thing that I was trying to do - as it was in my old job.

My first day was full of meetings but in a great way...  The amount of information that I received was A LOT! So at the end of the day, I decided to treat my body and empty my mind by going to the closest YMCA for a good workout...  It was only 5-8 minutes away from the hotel (driving).  I had no problem finding it.  I even mapped out the Whole Foods from the YMCA so that I will have my place to pick up a decent dinner - just like we do every Tuesday back home. 

When I arrived to the YMCA, it totally felt like home.  I didn't realize up until then that working for the Y for the last 8 years made me a part of the whole Y family.  I was treated like family at the Alpharetta Y - wasn't even charged a fee to go in... They directed me to the locker room and there I went! "Go downstairs and the rooms will be on your right"... I followed the directions... Went downstairs, passed one door and took the second door on my right...  Fairly quiet inside...  First I try to get the lockers open.  I might have spent 5 minutes trying to open the locker door when I realized that all I needed to do was to pull it towards me.  So finally, got it open, put my stuff in, closed it but... it didn't lock!  So I picked another one... this time it locked... I was ready to leave - FINALLY.  I just wanted to run to the bathroom realy quick before my workout so I ran to the far end of the room.  And that's when I saw a gentleman combing his hair - luckily all dressed! Well, yes... I was in the men's locker room. I immediatelly turned around and ran towards the locker to pick my stuff up before anyone would see me.  I was too late.  Two men walked into the room as I was trying to pick my stuff up.  Looking at their reaction, they were as embarrassed as I was seeing a woman in their locker room - funny, huh?  Basically, the first door that I ignored was THE women's locker room.  At least, now I was an expert on picking lockers... So I picked my locker, used the ladies' room and made it to the gym floor in a split second!

My workout, my food and my sleep was great that night...  I had a huge smile on my face both because I was happy with the team that I met and also from the funny things that happened during the day.  The next day was just another good day at work!

So, yes, my week started very rough but it GRADUALLY got better...  On Friday, when I arrived to SF, I was tired but content!  I was looking forward to a weekend with Arlene.  Our timing on our flights ended up being so good that I got to see my love at the airport, as opposed to taking the bus to home.  Three of us drove home to start an awesome weekend...