L - What's Her Story...

This is just an introduction for L.

L. What can be said about L? If I was asked to describe my environment on this project before L became my neighbor, I would say peaceful and quiet. L and her teammate and dear friend S like to talk. All day long. Loudly. They can talk weather, intolerable coworkers, cars, food, and volumes on the amount of time they work per week, day, hour, or take for lunch. One key problem is that, while L and I are in separate cubicles and have a fabric-lined partition separating us, our faces are angled towards each other and are about 4 feet apart. Now, L has to project her voice forcefully to speak to S who sits comparatively far from L and I. Bottomline - L yells in my general direction while talking to S. At times, I can hear them chatting from great distances. Imagine, the volume that you would need to project your voice while attending a NASCAR event...that is their Inside Voice.

One other interesting fact that seems to not fit with the loud talking characteristic. Have you ever walked passed a dog that has had a rough life? A dog that was, maybe, mistreated as a puppy... The poor little guy sticks to walking right beside the walls because it feels safer. Eye contact is out because the pup is just too shy and timid to even look at a passer-by. In fact, L will walk past you and apologize. Why? I don't know. She would apologize for holding the door open for you.

This is just scratching the surface of the complexity of L.

T's Acquaintance With "Issues"

A little background on T. He has had a rough year. I cannot even count how often I have heard him say, "Hey brother. Yeah, I am going through a divorce. Thanks, but I should have seen it coming - I mean she has been married seven times. She said I have a drinking problem...Alright, talk to you later. You are a gentleman and a scholar!"

It was the day after Christmas, T was taking a personal call at his desk which is not unusual. Normally, the conversation turns wildly inappropriate for a phone call at work, especially within earshot of 7 other people. This one was pretty normal compared to a normal call. "Yeah, it was a good Christmas. We had some family stuff - all my daughters except one were around. [I speculate it was there was meth rehab involved for the missing daughter...or related to the blackmail.] Then, I had a lady friend come over earlier in the day, then another friend later. Well, then we had a gathering with the people from the hafshouse...[I think he said halfway house but I might be wrong]. I just walked over to get some coffee and this guy from the meeting ask if he could ask me a question. Man, we ended up talking for about an hour and a half. This guy has some serious issues."

Really? That guy has issues? He must have some serious sh*t going down.

T's Blackmailed Acquaintance

T answered the phone this morning with a "Hello Sweetie" and proceeded to have a very interesting call. Sounds like this person is involved in some very shady practices at her company (assuming it's a 'her' since T said "sweetie", but you can never be too sure with that guy). This person has paid $5,000 to some guy she works with just to keep his mouth shut about whatever she's done at work, but he's still threatening to blackmail her. T sympathized and said that he's been in this situation before, as both the blackmailer and blackmailee. I'm guessing the person on the call was T's meth addict daughter, but he knows a lot of other shady characters, so who knows.

-Kent

G's Relocation Fiasco

G has had quite a day on the phone with the AT&T relocation folks. It seems that since it was a company sponsored relocation, he was told that if after 5 months his house in Venice, FL, didn't sell, he'd be assisted somehow by the company. Maybe they'd help out with his mortgage, or take over trying to sell his house. Who knows. But he is pissed! He's currently handling two mortgages: the one in Florida and the one he just bought in Cumming (with a 1500 square foot basement with exterior entrance). With all of this, G is "flat broke". I don't know which tactic he's going to use to get out of this mess, but he left a message for the relocation specialist that he is "pissed off" and to call him back immediately.

Update: The company only gave G $6,700 to cover the relocation expenses, but since his move to Atlanta, he's spent $50,000 of his own money, including borrowing from his 401k, to make ends meet on both mortgages. He's going to escalate this to his director to get it handled.

-Kent