Darren Holloway

One of the perks of Corporate housing is the weekly maid service. A maid is one of those things that either you’re rich and you have, or you’re not rich and you wish you could justify.

Having a maid means two things:

1. Once a week, you come home and the bed is made.
2. You never know where anything is.

When you move into a new apartment, you make decisions like “dishes should go in this cabinet” and “I’ll keep my battery rechargers all here so they’re easy to find.” Generally, you’ll never change these decisions (Hey, have you honestly ever removed everything from two cupboards to swap their contents? I didn’t think so.)

Unfortunately, the maid wasn’t around for those decisions, and I think deep down they get a bit of revenge upon those who use their services – They put stuff away.

Somewhere…

In a different place every week…

For example, last week, my box of rechargers moved from the living room table to inside the TV stand. My roll of holiday wrapping paper moved from the kitchen table to behind the sofa. My sanity moved from my head to Sweden.

No wait, I lost my sanity years ago. Not their fault. :)

I went to Fry’s Electronics yesterday to pick up some blank DVDs and some snacks for my flight to Victoria today.

While waiting in the fast-moving line, I counted how many checkout tills they had open…

They had 33 tills open.

They have 84 tills.

It makes me wonder – If three days before christmas is not a busy enough day to open more than half the checkouts, when is?

I had no Internet connectivity at my apartment from Friday until late yesterday (Tuesday.)

Things I learnt:

• You can get a lot done on the weekend when you don’t have Internet
• Morning television sucks

In my (temporary) apartment complex, instead of getting Internet service directly from a major provider, the complex has contracted with a re-seller. This means I had to (a) find out who the reseller was, and (b) contact them for service.

The reseller has a technical support line that puts you on hold for 3 minutes (“your call is very important”) and then drops you to voicemail and asks you to leave your name and telephone number.  Unfortunately, they must work with the CIA or something to ensure they call you back at the least convinient time possible.

• Saturday: Call back 4 hours later while I’m out shopping.
• Sunday: Call back 3 hours later when I’m out jogging.
• Monday: Call back 6 hours later when I’m at work giving a presentation.

At least now I’m fixed… four days later.

My friend Larry just got a new digital camera. He brought it to the dance at Stepping Out last week, and as a result, I have a few new photos of myself dancing :)

Hey nerd, take off the badge from work!

For my first few months here in California, I have “corporate housing,” which really means a mediocre apartment where everything is paid for by the company.

The best part of it is that the apartment is a five minute walk from the office.

Twice before I’ve working within “walking distance” of work, but both those times were 45 minute walks, and in Calgary, where half the year it’s too cold to want to be outside, let alone walk for 45 minutes. Yes, I’m a wimp, but I hate the cold.

One week in, it’s amazing how much living close to the office lowers your stress level. I don’t have to deal with driving in traffic at all -my only concern is the 30-60 second wait for a gap in traffic to jaywalk across Middlefield road.

I’m a big fan of things that reduce my stress level. When this apartment expires in a few months, and I have to find a place of my own to live, I think I want it close to work.