Dreaming of Work

I have officially made it through the first week of work - make that exactly 6 days of work. Despite the whole cubicle and laptop situation, I have been trying to absorb as much information as I can. I’ve been attending meetings, getting trained, shadowing. Up until Thursday however, the big problem with all of this is it was putting me to sleep. Literally. It’s not that it was boring, it’s just…I guess a combination of too much new information, but no real stimulation. I began standing up in meetings to avoid falling asleep. Even talking one–on–one to people in their cubes I would have to stand, eat chocolate, hold my eyes real wide, and have the constant intravenous coffee drip going. I felt like I was in college all over again, - because I fell asleep in almost every single class I took at Davis. Regardless of if I was tired walking in – there always came a point when no matter how much caffeine I had, how many crosswords I brought with me, or snacks, I would drop off to sleep, literally while taking notes. If you were to look at my college notebooks it would look something like this – AND I QUOTE – “In 1945 the political theory of.. flowers…(fell asleep here).” Because not only did I fall asleep in class – and keep record of it in my notes - on occasion I actually wrote something from a dream rather then what the professor said. Oh, but I digress…

My total tiredness came to a head on Wednesday when I had to sit in on a two hour conference call with the Russian Woman*. The Russian Woman was talking into a polycom and walking the customer on the other end through a configuration document. I really needed to pay attention to this because it is what I will do very soon. I was avidly listening and taking notes for the first hour, when the doze potential started kicking in. I stood up, I sat down, I stood up, I paced around, I sat down. I got cold – left the room to get my jacket and shook my head to try to clear the cobwebs as I left the room. I came back, sat down. Stood up, paced around… you can see where this is going. Fortunately the Russian Woman seemed non-plussed by my movement, and also did not notice when finally 10 minutes before the meeting ended I could not control it any longer and… closed..my…eyes.. Huh? What?

It was after this, that I sent an email to my friend JP and said that I needed to ask my boss some burning questions before she left on vacation:
1) When will I get my laptop?
2) When will I get my cubicle?
3) When will they start putting me to work?
4) Can I have a cot?

JP suggested that I switch the approach and say, “Listen, either you give me a cot, or you put me to work, I’ll leave it up to you.”

I thought that was excellent advice, but fortunately it didn’t come to that. On Thursday before I left for the day my boss and the project manager guru whom I’ve been shadowing met to discuss what to do with me for the next few weeks. They decided that I’m picking up stuff quickly and that it might be good to give me my own client. Which they did! They came to tell me that my first client will be in Oregon. Hooray!!! At that point, I don’t know if I was happier about the fact that I get to go to work, or that I get to go to Oregon. I did keep my wits about me enough not to exclaim to the boss, “that’s great news, because I have friends up there!” Instead, I thanked her, and eagerly came to work on Friday refreshed. And not once, did I doze.

*In regards to the Russian Woman… when I first met her I knew that she was either from Russia or somewhere else in Eastern Europe but I wasn’t exactly sure. However I figured it out yesterday when I saw her cube. She had 3 still-life photos hanging on her cube walls, which had one prominent thing in common: Vodka. It was right then when I knew – she’s Russian.