Well, I have started a new project. I ended my project in the Chicago area and now, I'm located down in the Virginia Beach/Newport News area. You would think, based on the location, that I would be working for a defense industry client. Shockingly enough, there is private industry in this araa of the United States. My client is a pretty big wholesaler.
Consulting is such a wild business sometimes. I left a really screwed up place and now, although these folks have issues, I'm actually enjoying myself. Of course, I have only been here three weeks. All that I've been doing here is generating Visio diagrams and developing documentation templates. That's right, I said templates. I'm not even generating documentation yet. I just have to find examples and maybe change the examples around a bit to fit this client's requirements. What a great gig!
I still miss my kid. Last week, I left the house at 8:30pm Sunday. He started to cry as I walked out the door (the kid is only one year old). It really broke my heart. When I came home around 8pm Thursday night, he had the huge smile and hugged me (he still can't talk).
In June, we had a great vacation on Hilton Head Island, SC. One of our best vacations in a very long time. Although, I doubt we'll go back there any time soon. It is really humid in South Carolina. Too humid. Next year, my wife and I are thinking of coastal Maine. Until the rugrat gets a little older, we're probably going to stay in the United States. However, once he gets to be a teenager, I want to take him overseas.
Anyway, gotta get back to work. I'm typing this as I run searches for types of documents. Once I find an example each document, I save it to my hard drive. Since typing this journal entry takes some time, it's probably better if I just get back to work.
Ah, yes, another couple of weeks, and my family and myself take a nice seven day break on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
A couple of months ago, in my journal, I talked about being kicked off of a project in Minneapolis. It only took me four weeks before my company found me a contract in Chicago. So, I've been commuting to Chicagoland for about 10 weeks or so since that time (unfortunately, the client is deep in the suburbs and NOT in downtown Chicago).
It's been a very busy contract. I have been billing about 45 hours a week AND my company has asked me to put in an additional 5 hours a week on internal crap. Add in the 10 hours I spend on air travel to and from the client a week, and I'm pretty fucking exhausted.
I really miss my wife and son. Even when I'm home, I spend alot of time on the computer, doing work. I do actually look forward to waking up with Connor at 6-ish am on Saturdays and Sundays, just to hang out with the rugrat.
The company gave me a six percent raise in May. Shocked the hell out of me. I was actually looking for other, non-traveling work. Now, I make more money. On one hand, I hate being away from my wife and son. On the other hand, a job in my hometown would probably mean a 20% cut in pay.
Decisions. Now where did I put that magic 8-ball?
My client has asked that I be removed from my project. This is the fist time this has happened in six years on the job.
In this career, this type of action is not unusual, I have seen it in nearly every project. And, I am not worried about being laid off. There is plenty of work out there. If this happened 18 months ago, I'd be worried. Today, I should be OK.
What pisses me off is how it happened. I found out that seven days before my last day, the client pulled all of their project team in a room and told them that I'd be removed from the project. Now, thanks to a "little bird", I knew I was being removed from the project, but I decided to stick around and to try to get past a few deadlines before I left. But, I had to act normal. I couldn't tell anyone that I was being removed. I couldn't act like anything was different.
By telling all of their employees a week before I was supposed to be let go, the client made me look like a fucking fool. I can't believe that they would try to make me look like a that. How fucking unprofessional! Fuck them. They are fucking assholes. I hate you (CLIENT NAME). I hope your fucking company rots away.
I feel better now. Hopefully, I'll find a job in a week or two. I could use a week at home with my family. I need a break from travel.
Not that anyone cares...but I do care, and it's my journal.
It is now 12:07am ET on January 30th, 2004. My son is now, officially, six months old. I never understood why people acted like idiots when it came to their children. Now that I have a child, I understand. Having a child is the greatest thing ever.
Tonight, I arrived home from my weekly business trip about 11pm ET (and, yes, travel for a living sucks big time). About 30 minutes after I came home, I was sitting at the computer, surfing the web and drinking a beer. My wife was sleeping in bed. I heard Connor crying (he woke up from his sleep). I ran upstairs and picked him up, so my wife could remain in bed--she spends four days a week alone with him, she needs a break. I brought him back downstairs and continued surfing. Connor just slept on my shoulder while I checked the news of the day.
Just holding my son while he sleeps makes me very, very happy. Yes, it's corny. But, I don't see my son four days a week. I must hold him as much as possible while I am home. Anyway, Happy Birthday, Connor. I love you very much.
My son was born in July, 2003. My wife was pretty amazing during the pregnancy. First (and foremost), I had a designated driver for nine months, which sort of made up for all those times my wife came up to me at various parties and said "Stop drinking, you are driving home tonight."
Second of all, not only did she not even touch a glass of wine, she held to a very strict diet and counted, every day, how much protein and vitamins her body was taking in.
The result? Connor weighed 8 lbs. 6 oz. at birth and had a full head of hair. Today, nearly six months later, he is in the 97th percentile for height and 95th percentile for weight.
What makes this amazing to me is that my wife is a vegan. She doesn't eat meat of any kind -- no beef, no chicken, no fish. And, no milk products -- no cheese, no cream sauce, etc. Oh, once every few months, she may have some mayonnaise (mainly in potato salad), but that is very limited.
She's not a *true* vegan. True vegans live in grass huts and don't drink alcohol. We live in a real house (in Pennsylvania) and, when she's not pregnant, my wife loves to have a glass or two of red wine.
I fully credit my wife for being healthy during her pregnancy. Her healthy lifestyle gave me a beautiful and healthy son. But I do miss having a permanent designated driver.
Where there's a will, there's a relative.