On the way in, it happened. It actually happened. I saw snow, falling, from the sky, on its own. It was my first time, and my, was it a magical little moment. By the time we arrived at the office, we were in a nice little shower, and by lunchtime a blower/shovel/sweeper crew was making rounds nonstop around the buildings as the weather condition escalated to a "snow flurry."
In the morning we each spent about 2 hours 1-on-1 with agents working on account-level user issues. However, after lunch with our little traveling group plus one Omaha PM, we had a full 3 hours free. I took the time to "relax" a bit while responding to emails and working on my project from California.
As I looked around the office, I realized that ettiquite is a big thing out there. Eating (other than hard candy), drinking from open cups, and taking cel phone calls is not allowed at desks. People are reminded to keep their voices down around workers. Hand sanitation stations are located around the facility, and every desk gets a bottle of desanitizer. Signs are posted reminding people to cover their nose/mouth when coughing or sneezing. The rules are enforced by peers, but feeling is not oppressive, at least to a casual observer. It may seem like there are more rules than normal, but they're all there to help people be productive as well as safe. People personalize their work areas freely, dress is very, very casual, and people seem to get along well.
Nebraska folks seemed to me to be exceptionally personable, both in the office and out. When you pass a total stranger, eye contact is made and both people greet eachother. In contrast, in California there seems to be this inherent air of suspicion or alienation with many people. I don't know what it is.
Ok, in the later afternoon, to keep from being left all by my lonesome, I crashed a meeting my California colleagues were attending with an Omaha PM regarding a project they'd be working on this season. I liked the meeting room. Had it been a little larger and brighter, I think I would have loved it. There were huge whiteboards, practically floor to ceiling, and wall to wall on two sides of the room. The table was non-symmetrical, moderately organic in shape. Nice digs.
After work we went to a reknown steakhouse called "Mahogany" out West, on the other side of the expressway from the original Boys Town. To my surprise, the restaurant was decorated with what appeared to my eyes & fingernails to be real, hard mahogany as opposed to the cheaper "Philippine Mahogany," which is actually a Cedar (and also used as a substitute for teak -- as if you cared). Now, I'm not going to pull punches. This joint was entirely too proper & refined, so much so that it really started to piss me off. There were, for each of us, eight pieces of silverware brought out at various times, that the waiter or any of the 3 other individuals tending to us would come by & adjust anytime we would leave them out of place for more than 6 seconds. I swear, a guy would practically throw himself across the table, saying, "Oh, excuse me, excuse me, thank you, excuse me, thank you" as he adjusted the angle of a fork or moved a butter knife to the correct side of an appetizer plate. Annoying as ****! After all dishes were cleared, they even carefully scraped crumbs from the tablecloth around our glasses & such with what looked like a dull straightedge razor. Not cool, man. Thankfully, as true professionals, my colleagues & I made endless fun of the situation, and I made sure to keep my pinky finger straight & high while eating my french fries. Oh, yes, the food. The food was good, thankfully (though not good enough to endure the humilation of the service ever again). I had a 12 oz. filet mignon and shared a 10 oz. portion of Chilean sea bass with pineapple salsa and jumbo shrimp with one of my distinguished peers.
The entire dinner affair took 2 1/2 hours, leaving us behind schedule to catch the season premiere of Lost. Drat! To the Batmobile! Er, I mean, to the Suzuki! All the same. As we headed out I had my first loss of traction on the trip, sliding a few feet out on black ice under control in a wide turn at an empty intersection. Fun fun; I wish I could have done it again! Well, it wasn't too painfully long before we were back at the hotel, watching the last ~25 minutes of our show on the "big" screen downstairs in the lounge area near the bar. When it was over, we all scattered & took refuge back in our suites to relax a just bit more before hitting the hay.
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