Somewhere in Philly

So I am now home. Crazy that I call New York home but I am happy to be back among my fellow city dwellers.

going down and seeing the branch in Philly was the best training I could have gotten. Policies that I didn't understand before are no longer a concern and I have plenty of ideas for getting my job done the right way. The branch there had recieved a commendable rating on the termite audits and I want that! It won't take much more than just doing the job right so I am up to the task. It will be a challange but I am game.

I didn't get to see the Rocky statue, I guess there is some discussiona as to where it should be displayed. I did get to eat a philly cheesesteak see the liberty bell and get lost. Enough for any tourist. I want to go back when i will have time to see the sites. The city is only about 2 hours from NY so there really isn't an excuse not to go back.

Now, I just want to sleep on my own bed, even if it is an inflatable mattress...

The Room

Not too shabby for a room. It had a bedroom living room and bathroom. Not to mention a fridge for my oreos.

Philly Cheesesteak

40 watts

Here's a picture of Tayson. From what I understand, he was made a deacon today. That is a neat experience and I am kind of bummed that I wasn't able to be a part of it.

Yesterday was the NJ multistake activity at the beach. Talk about a drive. From Queens to Island beach state park it is about a 90 minute drive, with no traffic. This being NJ, there was plenty of traffice the whole way down there. I made it in a little under 3 hours. It was a lot of fun though. They had some decent food but mostly it was fun to hang out with some friends. NJ really has some pretty beaches. It was a bit chilly since it was overcast and the wind was blowing but the water was nice and warm. I wasn't planning on getting in the water but since David jumped in right away, I had to step up to the challenge as well. Talk about some big waves, it took a lot of strength to stay upright.

After, I joined the Ellis 3 on a drive back down the CHiscken or the Egg resturaunt for some more of those chicken wings. MMMMMMM they were great of course.

I am off to a fireside in a few minutes here in Queens, it's for the start if a new semester of institute. I really hope that there will be some cool people attending some classes so i can get friends that live under 1 hour away from me. I don't think that is asking too much, but who knows.

I leave early tomorrow morning for Philly, I have some people that I will be riding along with to continue some training. It should be fun. All I really want to see is the Rocky statue though. Maybe the liberty bell but mostly the Rocky statue. I am going down there with Donna, she is a new scheduler we have here at the office and she has some training lined up to do down there as well. If we leave early enough, we might miss some of the Jersey traffic......

Manhattan for the night

I was able to get out of the office at a decent hour tonight and I got myself a haircut. Another butchering... I don't know what it is with the people out here, all I want is a nice smooth haircaut. I miss my barber in SLC, Greg was great, he knew how I liked it and he took his time to do it right. Oh well, I'm sure with enough time, I will find someone who can do the job out here.

I had some time to kill so I went into Manhattan to shop for a briefcase. I want something that will work for both the office and being thrown around my truck. I didn't find anything so I went to Tower Records and got season 4 of NYPD Blue and I am very excited to start watching that season. There is a new Carly Simon cd that I have been hearing on the radio and I wanted to get it too but since I don't have my system set up I will get that later. It is a really good cd though, they play it on a jazz station out here and she sings all the standards and it is really good.

Ice cream and tv rounded off my evening and it's another day in paradise for me tomorrow.

Sunday

This sign speaks for itself.

I am still in a fog from testerday. After getting some storage from NJ I came back to the apartment and got settled in. Picked up a few groceries at a nasty store, and somehow fell asleep for about 4 hours. I stumbled around the apartment for awhile before I realized that I was awake.

Today, i attended church at the Richmond Hill Branch. There are quite a few unique people in this ward and they were all very nice. They didn't have an orginist so we sung the opening hymn to a cd player that broke at the begining of the sacrament hymn. The choirester was great and just kept waving her arms until we got through it, with a smile the whole time. I met a girl named Veronica, I thought that was funny. Yes, she is single but we are not going there...

I am heading back into NJ in a little bit for a fireside but first I need to finish my dinner here in the office. Spaggetti and pizza. I know it is Sunday but I wasn't in the mood for yogurt and oreos for my dinner. Besides, they deliver, and i really like it. Pizza by the slice, what a wonderful world.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday David! He is now 27, that's old!

The Office

So, it's a Saturday morning and I figured that I would come into the office to check my email and post another pic on the blog. Why not a picture of my office. Obviously, it is not a highrise building. It's in Queens and has barred windows and graffiti, ever so peaceful. I do have to admit that Queens is really growning on me. When I first got to Jersey, everyone told me to stay away from a town called Elizabeth. I drove through it once and thought that it was a scary place. Now after living in NY, I drove through Elizabeth and think that it would be really nice town to live in. It's all about the contrast.

I have been over to Jersey the last couple of nights to attend the institute classes and I am heading over again to get some stuff out of my storage locker. It really cracks me up how I can live in NYC and still be bored enough to want to go over into Jersey for a social life.

No matter what, I am just happy to have a place that I can call my own, even if there are roommates. Actually, the guys are upstate right now and I don't think that they are coming home until Monday which means I have the place to myself. Not bad for 500 a month. Howard Beach is really a nice neighborhood, there is a Wamu just around the cormer along with a theater and grocery store. It would be perfect if it was a more central location but that is why it was cheaper.

I did call the Branch President of the branch I will be attending and he was very nice and seemed surprised that I wasn't calling to ask for anything other than to transfer my records. They meet at 1 on Sunday so I guess I can sleep in for a little while. I really hope that there is at least one person that I can pal around with. I am in desperate need of a NY friend and I am not ready to start posting on a dating site to meet one.

PS-Send pictures, I need stuff for my walls. Megan says it will help me feel more comfortable out here.
Mailing address: 10601 101st Avenue, Ozone Park, NY 11416.
That's the office, so mail them. thanks

Cookies for me!!

Lucky me. I came back to the offoce this afternnon and found a box of cookies sent from Utah to cheer me up for my birthday. I have been sharing and everyone thinks that they are the best cookies they have ever tasted. Good job Katie, everyone is impressed.

Sunday was a great day, after church I made my way over to Jersey and took a nap over in the park in Westfield. It really is a great town. When i woke up, I went to the Ortiz house. They have Quickly become my family here in the east. Mostly because they are just a little bit crazy like me and I love being there. We has quite a group show up and we played mophia which was really stupid but I went along with it. David was a trooper and had everyone sign a card for me. I'm not much of a birthday guy but it was nice that he remembered.

I spent Monday, my birthday, here at the office. Nothing fancy just talking to family and eating some food and getting through the paperwork and phone calls. This week, we have the regional service manager here and he is great to talk to because he has a grundle of ideas and is a great communicator, so I appreciate having him around.

Today, I rode with my termite techs and we went to a couple of jobs in Brooklyn and one here in Queens to redo some of the problem areas. It is hard getting the point through to them but I think that things will work out nicely once everything settles down. I really enjoyed just getting out of the office and on the road. The customers are all happy to see us and it really isn't that hard. Long hours but that is what I came here for. I am also spending time here in the office getting my future office cleaned out. It was the file room so I moved all the files out pulled out the carpet and padding and now I will be chipping up the tiles and putting down new carpet, then i can settle in and make it a comfortable workspace. not to sound too odd but I will do some floor lighting and get some of my posters from home on the wall.

I am moving into my place tonight. I got a room in Howard Beach which is just a 5 minute drive from here and right next to the belt Parkway which will make getting to Jersey easy... sort of. The room is small but clean and cheap. Well, cheap for out here. 500 bucks a month and that includes utilities. i can use the living room and kitchen and the guys aren't home much at all because they live upstate and just use it when they are in town. A good deal for me and I get a chance to save up some money and time to look for a nice apartment. now I just need to find where the ward meets out here and that is that.

Thanks again to katie for taking away some of the pangs of being homesick with her cookies.

I need sleep

Another fun week of living here in NYC. With the audit over at work, things will slow down a little bit but there are a lot of things that we need to work on for the follow-up visit in a few months.

Thursday, I went up to the Morristown institute again and then went out with Brooke and Sara to a club called the Colorado Cafe. It was rock night and they had a band trying their best to rock out at all sorts of songs. My favorite was when they did the theme song from Cheers. Of course, I was one of the few people singing along but that is just a great song. I crashed at Brooke's house that night and went straight into Manhattan the next morning to meet up with my termite technicians at a job site. They were actually happy to have me drop by and check in on them even though I didn't do any work.

Last night, I met up with Liz and Tanya again at Pier 46 which is part of the Henry Hudson Park. They have free movies on the pier every Wednesday and Friday night until the end of summer. I had a blanket and we just chilled and watched that Lemony Snicketts movie, which is dumb but it was such a great night at the river that we hung out there until around midnight just talking and relaxing.

I am heading back into NJ tonight for Grant and Lisa's wedding after I do some more apartment shopping. I saw a decent room earlier that was clean and not very far from the office. Clean rooms are hard to come by but something will turn up soon enough. Mostly, I need to get a gym membership. With eating out a lot and not getting much of a workout, I am putting on some pounds.

I did have a fun experience yesterday while parking to go to the bank. I pulled into a spot that a car had just pulled out of when another car that was 30 feet up the road started backing up to get into. He saw me in the spot and started jumping up and down and throwing his arms every which way. He had to have been at least 50 and was acting like I took away his bottle. I started laughing and decided if he wanted the spot that bad, he could have it. I went around the corner and parked there. Turns out that this guy worked in the bank, I didn't say anything to him but I told the teller and we had a good laugh about him being on the verge of tears. Some people just really crack me up.

Grimaldi's

So this has been a crazy busy week. Very fun but very busy. I am still here in Manhattan at the Blumenfelds and I am hoping to have some time after work this week to get into an apartment. I really enjoy the people that I am working with. The techs that i will be managing are good hard working guys for the most part. The biggest problem that I see so far is just getting them to have better comunication skills with the customers. A couple of the guys are a little hard to get moving but they get their work done at the end of the day, what more can I ask for?

Yesterday, I went into Jersey first thing in the morning because I had to drop off some unforms to Viking and help a girl with moving some furniture. I met up with a girl from the Morristown institute and we went to lunch in Morristown at a cool resturaunt called The Famished Frog. I really liked the food. The service was great as well. My only complaint was that they brought our food out really fast so we were only part way through our appetizer when we were served. After that, I was tired so we went and sat on a bench on The Green, a park in the middle of town. Before we left, we stopped at Godiva's and got some chocolate to nibble on.

Last night, I hung out with David Liz and Tanya (the one in the picture) here in Manhattan. We met up with the girls outside of Macy's. We walked for a bit anf then decided to walk across the Brooklyn bridge abd get some pizza at the other side. I really had a fun evening. Next time, I will ride the subway accross the river and then walk the bridge towards the City to get a better view of everything. It was still a great view though. Truth be told, I like the pizza at Cosimo's much better than at Grimaldi's. I know that it is more of an overall experience but the pizza really wasn't that good at all.

Today was another day of sleep and church and meeting up with friends. Earlier I met up with Liz and Tanya again and we met some people in the Park and just sat and enjoyed a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I did get a parking ticket tonight, my first of many to come but I am going to contest this thing. Appearently it was a bus zone but there wasn't a buss sign anywhere on the block and I parked with other cars..... Welcome to NYC

This is going to be a crazy week at Orkin because there will be an auditor and the regional manager there at the branch. Things are all in order and I really don't have to worry at all but I will be busy all the same.

NYC at its best

So here is a pic sent to me by Scooter. I wish that I had more time to write but I am just working and sleeping. I love the job and am learning the office side of management quickly.

Dinner

I couldn't resist. For dinner, I ate the whole thing. All 18" of New York pizza took me a couple hours to eat but it was really good!

Here's Johnny!

So things have been really crazy and I don't know where to start, so i will introduce you to Johnny. Johnny is one of the Ellis' cats who is cute and friendly but also very stupid. I like Johnny as long as he doesn't get too close to me. He love garbage and sneaking into the basement.

My first day at Orkin was yesterday and I loved it. They set me up with a company vehicle, gas card and EZ pass, got my payroll squared away and uniforms ordered. I am impressed with Steve and know that he is a hard working guy that I can trust and that means a lot. He is short on office staff so I ended up working the phones for the afternoon, even though I can't work the computer system there, I was able to work with the customers on some of their problems. The biggest problem is just getting the techs to show up, I don't know what these guys are doing but it drove me crazy.

Last night Alan took me out to a great fancy Mexican resturant called Rosa Mexicana. I sat down and started to look at the menu and realized he wasn't so I put my menu down and followed his lead. Dining in Manhattan is very different but I enjoyed it. You start with an appetizer and then maybe another one and then the entree. The whole evening is filled in with conversation as well. The food was great and the presentation was awesome. Afterwards, I met his business partner Mark and Mark took us around the corner to get Tasty Delight. It is a softserve ice cream that is pretty decent, we all got sprinkles on top.

Between the dining and letting me crash in his apartment, the Blumenfelds have been more than kind to me. It is fun to come home and have the doormen greet you. Alan also showed me a trick when coming down the elevator to get a taxi ready, you just lift the phone times and when we got to the street... Presto! A taxi. It was fun. Once i find an apartment, I will be bored but for now, I'm enjoying every second.

So long Viking!

Well, it is now official. I received a call from Steve this afternoon around 1 asking me if I wanted to work with him and I took it. I am very very glad to have the chance to work with a great company with some very nice benefits. The only down side is that I had to call someone to quit my current job and since the chain of command is all screwed up over at Viking I called the man who bugged me the most. He didn't answer his cell phone but I told him i was quitting on his voicemail and he should get it sooner or later. I really don't need them for a job reference ever so I wasn't nice but I didn't burn any bridges either. Part of me wonders if he has gotten the message because I haven't heard back from him. I thought for sure that he would call just to cures me out but nothing yet.

I talked to Dano and Moo this afternoon too. I called over to Dad's house and Katie was baby-sitting. Dano went on about some food on the table and then I got him to laugh over my guess what? pizza hut routine. When I talked to Moo, she just said milk a few times and I think that is a great conversation.

After work I dropped by Cosimo's for another slice of the best pizza in the world. I know that when I am gone, I am still coming to Jersey for that pizza. Pizza David is happy that Judo David is coming home, he has been getting some moves together to catch him off guard. What is going to happen is that he will bug Judo David and then get hurt because he was trying to show off. David doesn't like that.

I am happy that David will be home soon. I miss my friend. Even if he is kind of a geek around the ladies and can kill a conversation in one sentence.... he is still a good man and it will be fun to have him around again to hang out with.

Saturday is a busy day of moving women helping out at a singles activity and moving into Manhattan. I'm lovin' it.

The Angie and The Willie

This picture was sent to me the other day. Angie and Bret were enjoying the Kamas Demolition Derby and she saw this Willie Nelson look a like, I am jealous that she got the pic and not me.

Things are looking very good on the job front. Tuesday I took the day off from Viking and met up with Steve and Vinny over at the Orkin office in Queens. Long story made short, they still like me and and I went to take my drug test and physical. Once the results are final and corporate has a chance to review them, I am a full employee of the company with all the benefits. I am just excited about walking away from this job I have now!!

I am very lucky because I called Alan Blumenfeld, a friend of my dad's, and asked him about some of the neighborhoods in Queens that it would be safe to rent a room in until I found out what area I want to live in and he offered to let me stay at his place in Manhattan until I found a room. That is a very kind offer and I am very very lucky to have kind people around to help me in this transition.

Other than that things are still fun here. On monday, I went into Manhattan with Carol to attend a stake FHE at the stake center. It was a mix of comedy and music. The comedy was by this lds girl who I thought was smart and funny and CUTE! A great combination. The music was very generic but.... what are you gunna do? We drove into the city that night and it wasn't bad at all, a lot faster than the train and we had AC.

On a sad note, Fifi the chicken did not make it home last night and I am worried about her. I am hoping that she got lost and will soon find her way back home.

Tonight, after dropping off some laundry to get done, I went to Cosimo's for a slice and found that all of downtown West field was having a party of some kind. It was cool, there was a band and a lot of runners. I got my slice to go and walked through the crowds and listened to the band. They were the Michael Craig Band and were really funny. Kind of like the Smothers Brothers but not as good. I love this town. If I ever some back to Jersey, I really want to live in downtown Westfield.

So that's the scoop. Miss the family. Miss the mountains and those nice cold summer nights but I love being here in the East!

Fat Cat

So this is one of those crazy good sandwiches from the "grease trucks" at Rutgers University. This one was a cheeseburger with fries on it. Nothing too dramatic but still a man's best friend.

I can't say that much has changed on the job front. I will be calling Steve from Orkin to get this next ride and physical set up ASAP! This week at Viking, I am in for another round of tech training.... My 6 years just wasn't good enough.

Yesterday, I left early to make it to the ward in Queens and saw the President Newbold and his family there. It threw me for a loop because Julie came right in and sat next to me it really took a couple minutes to process the information. They came to town to see the sites and head upstate for some church history stuff. After that I met up with the Jersey girls at the Manhattan singles ward for another session of church, don't ask me what I was thinking!

On saturday, I made the mistake of going to the movies to see Superman. I don't know why I forget that I hate theaters. With a few dozen open seats, some idiot sits next to me who is coughing and talking to his wife the whole movie. To add to it, there is some 6 year old brat behind me that is kicking my seat every couple of minutes. I just should have waited for it to come out on video.

I might be heading into Manhattan again Monday night just because there is some big pioneer thing going on with the stale and it just might be fun. I will let you know.

Pirates

Last night, I met up with some Ladies and went to downtown Westfield. They have and old movie theater there and we watched the new Pirates movie. Other than the girls showing up 10 minutes late and missing the first 5 minutes of the show, it was a great film. The theater is cool but not very comfortable for someone like myself with a large rear end. I kept on sliding off the front of my seat and there wasn't any side to side room. I could have walked down to Cosimos's pizza from there to get a quick slice but I really want to lose a few more pounds.

I am still here in NJ mostly because Orklin has yet another hoop to jump through. Now I need to ride along with a service manager from that office I will be working in..... Why I didn't ride with this guy from the start??? I give up. Steve told just to be patient and good things come to those who wait. after that there is a physical and hopefully, HOPEFULLY, that is the last move in getting this job.

I just about went nuts over at Viking the other day. The sales manager likes to control every little detail in a salesman life and he told me I needed to change the voicemail on my phone!!! What an idiot. I just ignored him. I'm gone in a few days so I will just save the ammo and that can be one of the reasons I'm quitting. The nice thing about training with this company is that I have seen a large part of NJ and gotten familiar with the roads and towns. A very valuable skill out in this neck of the woods.

A home in Queens

In anticipation of finally getting hired by Orkin (cross my fingers), I decided to check out a ward over in Queens this morning and I loved it! Babies were crying, old women were talking, speakers were boring and I felt right at home. This ward was friendly and everyone was wanting to know if I had moved in already and where I was at. A couple of people gave me some great suggestions and the elders quorum pres. gave me his contact info so I can get in touch if I had any problems. The ward was full of filipinos too! I could just tell that I would settle in nicely with this group. Now I just need to find a place in the ward and still make some occasional visits to a few singles wards.

Yesterday morning I met up with another Service Manager at the Orkin branch and I just followed him around while he did his thing and felt sure that it is within my capabilities to do this job. Where I go from here??? That is the question. It has been a very busy week and I am just wanting to get this over and done with so I can start living a life again. I am sure though that my patience will pay off, after all, there are perks to being a manager with a large company. Sure there will be some hard work but the rewards are there.

This evening, I spent with the Ortiz family. They had some guests over and after dinner, we played some cards and watched a movie. We watched the Mormon version of Pride and Prejudice and it is funny enough to keep the laughs going. Up until watching that movie, I haven't been homesick at all but seeing the mountains and the aspen trees just made me miss those nice summer evenings that we get in Utah. Still love being in the East, just miss some of the comforts of home.

A few of us in the institute class have decided that come this Friday, we will be keeping a tally of how many times Grat (David's brother) will be kissing his fiance. My money is around 55-65 and I think that may be a little low after all, the class is almost 2 hours. I will let you know and maybe if I am sneaky enough, I can get a pic of them smooching. (I'm just jealous!!)

This is Fifi the chicken!

Sorry for the delay, due to some user error, the mouse was broken and without a mouse, using a computer can be very difficult.

Where to start? Well, Saturday night I met up with some friends to watch the Ortiz-Shamrock fight. I have to admit that it was very disappointing. While we all knew that Shamrock was going to get pummeled, none of thought it would happen in under 2 minutes. He was on the ground and Ortiz just started throwing those elbows and got in 5 straight hits witout a response so the ref called the fight on a TKO. I think the old man deserved a fair chance but the rules are the rules.

Sunday was another painful day at the singles ward. Again, the only friendly people were the interns everyone else was just in a different zone. To finish the evening I went over to Carol's house and had some dinner with her family and the missionaries. They are really young! That is where I met Fifi the chicken. She is the family pet and lays eggs for everyone to find. For Fifi, everyday is Easter. After that I met up with my friend Jay and hung out at his place while some people played cards. He then told me about the Greasy Trucks. On Rutgers campus there are some trucks that are open 24-7 that serve some really cool sandwiches. I really don't like sandwiches but when mine came with Philly cheese steak,chicken tenders, mozzarella sticks, and french fries all rolled into one bun for only $4.75, I couldn't resist. It was great and we decided that we would try a different one each time until we had them all!

Monday at Viking I was paired up with another salesman and this one is really cool. He has a laid back approach to sales and really focuses on gaining trust and then presenting the service options. So the last couple days with the company have actually been enjoyable. And since the office ladies like him, we don't have to work until 8pm every night.

After leaving work tonight I decided to get a haircut for my interview tomorrow and the lady found a way to butcher my scalp. So much for looking nice to make a great impression. Maybe the guy will feel bad for me and hire me because my haircut is crappy. Earlier this afternoon Steve, my future boss, called to wish me luck and ask me if I had any questions before my interview tomorrow. That is impressive that he would take the time to keep in touch. I really think that this is a much better move. I just need to find an affordable apartment in a somewhat safe neighborhood to make the final leap.

On a side note, it appears that David is making great strides of improvement while in Japan.... Wink, Wink. The man is becoming more aware of the crafty women that surround him. Congratulations!