Friday, January 05, 2007
Raindrops Keep Falling on These Jerks
If there’s one invariable truism about people in Chicago, it’s that when it’s raining, people slow the hell down. And I can’t for the life of me imagine why.
Today, I left work and it was raining pretty hard. I’m going to gloss over the how weird it is that it’s raining in early January for now. The first problem is that everyone is huddled outside the revolving doors, under the canopy avoiding the rain. I have no problem with people trying to avoid the rain. But they need to do us all a favor and get the hell out of the way of people coming out of the revolving doors. My favorites, though, are the people who stop RIGHT AFTER they get out of the door. It’s almost as if they forgot that the door continues to revolve after they stepped out of it.
Once I get into the rain, I keep running (literally, practically) into morons who insist on walking slow. Part of it is a physical problem. People are carrying umbrellas, so they can’t walk as close to each other. And since people are spread out more, it takes longer to get places. That’s the theory, anyway. But I left work late today. There were significantly less people on the sidewalks. And yet people are STILL walking slow.
The only answer I can think of is that they believe the urban legend that if you walk through the rain, you’ll get less wet than if you run. First of all, Mythbusters proved that it’s not true. Regardless of whether or not it’s true, the key concern is that the faster you walk, the less TIME you’re in the rain. And that’s my main concern. It’s 40 degrees out and it’s pouring rain. Get me the hell INSIDE and QUICKLY. Jerks. The whole lot of them.
Today, I left work and it was raining pretty hard. I’m going to gloss over the how weird it is that it’s raining in early January for now. The first problem is that everyone is huddled outside the revolving doors, under the canopy avoiding the rain. I have no problem with people trying to avoid the rain. But they need to do us all a favor and get the hell out of the way of people coming out of the revolving doors. My favorites, though, are the people who stop RIGHT AFTER they get out of the door. It’s almost as if they forgot that the door continues to revolve after they stepped out of it.
Once I get into the rain, I keep running (literally, practically) into morons who insist on walking slow. Part of it is a physical problem. People are carrying umbrellas, so they can’t walk as close to each other. And since people are spread out more, it takes longer to get places. That’s the theory, anyway. But I left work late today. There were significantly less people on the sidewalks. And yet people are STILL walking slow.
The only answer I can think of is that they believe the urban legend that if you walk through the rain, you’ll get less wet than if you run. First of all, Mythbusters proved that it’s not true. Regardless of whether or not it’s true, the key concern is that the faster you walk, the less TIME you’re in the rain. And that’s my main concern. It’s 40 degrees out and it’s pouring rain. Get me the hell INSIDE and QUICKLY. Jerks. The whole lot of them.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Holiday Cheer
Well, the holidays are officially over, and not a moment too soon. A lot of the people I work with travel over the holidays. The Wife and I are “fortunate” in that most of our family lives right here in Chicago, so we don’t have to travel anywhere. Unless you count about 10 different houses in 3 days.
And that’s the problem with the holidays for us. We have so many people nearby that we want to see, that it’s very difficult to make it happen. And now that we have Luke, it’s even more difficult. If he’s in a bad mood, it can be a pain in the butt to change venues. If he’s in a good mood, you don’t WANT to change venues because it might put him in a bad mood. Ah yes, kids are GREAT.
But apart from the parties, the most stressful part of the holidays for me was work. Usually, things are dead at the end of the year because everyone’s on vacation. In fact, I look forward to coming into the office on those days because it’s quiet enough that I can get work done.
So I came into the office on December 26 and I think there were about 10 other people (out of about 150) here with me. It was SO quiet that I had to go home early. It was downright creepy. Especially since I’m someone that always needs background noise. That’s why I usually have the radio and/or TV on all the time. It completely drives The Wife nuts when she comes into the office to find me sitting at the computer playing a video game, listening to music and watching a football game all at once. (To be honest, I think any one of those things would drive her nuts, but doing all three together gets her downright homicidal.)
The week between Xmas and New Year’s was absolutely nuts for me at work. And the reason was unfortunately the same reason I like to work that week: because everyone was out of the office. We had a couple of projects that were due at the end of the year, but since there was nobody else to work on them, I did them. Although I guess I’d rather be wicked busy than bored silly.
I wish I could say that things have slowed down since the New Year, but that would be a lie. In fact, now that everyone has returned, things have gotten crazier because now they’re digging their noses into what I just did. And these people with their questions! Can’t they just do us all a favor and I assume I’m right about everything? There’s no need to check my results. Who cares if we get sued for millions of dollars? Quit bugging me!
And that’s the problem with the holidays for us. We have so many people nearby that we want to see, that it’s very difficult to make it happen. And now that we have Luke, it’s even more difficult. If he’s in a bad mood, it can be a pain in the butt to change venues. If he’s in a good mood, you don’t WANT to change venues because it might put him in a bad mood. Ah yes, kids are GREAT.
But apart from the parties, the most stressful part of the holidays for me was work. Usually, things are dead at the end of the year because everyone’s on vacation. In fact, I look forward to coming into the office on those days because it’s quiet enough that I can get work done.
So I came into the office on December 26 and I think there were about 10 other people (out of about 150) here with me. It was SO quiet that I had to go home early. It was downright creepy. Especially since I’m someone that always needs background noise. That’s why I usually have the radio and/or TV on all the time. It completely drives The Wife nuts when she comes into the office to find me sitting at the computer playing a video game, listening to music and watching a football game all at once. (To be honest, I think any one of those things would drive her nuts, but doing all three together gets her downright homicidal.)
The week between Xmas and New Year’s was absolutely nuts for me at work. And the reason was unfortunately the same reason I like to work that week: because everyone was out of the office. We had a couple of projects that were due at the end of the year, but since there was nobody else to work on them, I did them. Although I guess I’d rather be wicked busy than bored silly.
I wish I could say that things have slowed down since the New Year, but that would be a lie. In fact, now that everyone has returned, things have gotten crazier because now they’re digging their noses into what I just did. And these people with their questions! Can’t they just do us all a favor and I assume I’m right about everything? There’s no need to check my results. Who cares if we get sued for millions of dollars? Quit bugging me!
