Sam's Blog

Friday!!!!....zzzzzzzzzz

Bus rides in the morning are fun because the bus from Renton is usually packed. By the time we hit the freeway, there are usually several people standing up for the ride into Seattle. Luckily, my stop is one of the first ones so I not only get a seat but usually the same one (in the accordian). The funny thing is that there are usually a number of people who put their belongings on the seat next to them and go to sleep (or pretend) which makes things interesting as the bus gets packed - usually around the South Renton Park & Ride.

Yesterday was no different - well...a little different. As people were piling on at the Park & Ride, one gentleman (a regular rider) in a business suit sits down next to a lady in one of the front seats. The lady immediately yells out for the bus driver. I can't hear exactly what she's saying but it caused the bus driver to pull over. The man says a few things and we're off again. There's some banter going on and next thing I know, we're back at the P&R. There's some yelling going back and forth so I take off my earphones to try to listen in. By this time, several of the other passengers are yelling because they're going to be late for work. Three-fourths of the bus hops off and get's on another bus right away. I stay to catch the action....of course.

The police came a couple of minutes later. The gist of it was that the lady was hogging both seats, the man asked if he could sit there, she made half an attempt to move some of her stuff so that she's only taking up 1-1/2 seats, he sits down, and starts nudging her and her stuff - which, apparently, she didn't appreciate. I thought the man was perfectly in the right but apparently some of the other passengers who were sitting nearby didn't think so and stayed around to let the police know.... interesting start for a Friday.

When I got to work it was non-stop. My phones were ringing off the hook, I was getting twice as many emails as usual, and people were escalating issues on instant messenger. At one point, I was on a meeting call, Lisa was calling to get some information from me, and I had 15 - FIFTEEN - instant messenger conversations going on. It was nuts. And...I started my rotation as manager on-call. The afternoon was pretty quiet allowing me to return some phone calls and emails and get on top of a few issues. I was just about to leave a little early when another escalation came in. I had to round up a few engineers and get right on the issue. We stayed on a conference bridge until 5:25. So not only did I miss the early bus but the next 3. The bus was pulling up just as I reached the bus stop. I continued my calls on the bus. After all that, turns out the issue wasn't as hot an item as was originally reported either...

I crashed before 9:00...

posted by Sam @ 7:37 AM