Bryan Coe

Friday, Dec., 8 2006

Today I finally get to go home. Sleep in my bed. Make my own meals. Blah blah blah. I think I gained 10 pounds on this trip between not exercising enough and eating way too much. Plus, the other consultant wanted to go to McDonalds all the time. That food is bloody awful for you. Plus, this guy would drink like 6 cups of coffee a day and go smoke a cigarette every 30 minutes. Then he complained that there is no good food in North America. That’s because you always go to McDonald’s! The consultants love McD’s because it is fast and easy. The other guy that is my office once told me that he doesn’t like subway at all. I would have killed for a subway the past two weeks. At least it’s not McDonald’s.

CSB booked me on Southwestern on the return flight. I had to fly from Boise to Vegas, stop in Pittsburgh and then to Philly. It’s a terrible trip, but it was cheap. I guess I’m spoiled or something I would pay a little more just for the convenience of not having to spend an entire day just to fly across the country. I’m on the Amtrak from Philly to Lancaster now. My total travel time will be something like 14 hours. I could have flown to Germany for that amount of time.

This is my first time flying Southwestern and I’m not that impressed. I’ll have to say I’m not a big fan of having to fight for a seat. Plus, the first leg from Boise to Vegas I got stuck next to a guy that had the worst breath and kept talking to the guy on the other side of me. He also had a real issue with staying on his side of the armrest. He had his legs spread so far that he kept trying to be halfway onto me seat, I had to keep pushing him back. Then the second leg was an hour and a half late.

Thursday, Dec., 7, 2006

So we’ve made some good progress with getting things set up at the new plant. But, it is freezing. I think I’m getting sick. The office still has no heat. We have to wear our coats all day and really I wish I had a freakin’ snowmobile suite! The first day we left early because we couldn’t take it anymore, and we thought we could log in from the Hotel. Unfortunately the security on the system wouldn’t allow us to log in through a wireless connection which is all the hotel has. So, the rest of the week we had to stay there the whole day.

I had my flight booked for Friday for 2 reasons: one because the other guy from Germany said we would be doing some work on Thursday morning, his flight was in the afternoon. I would have had to fly this morning at like 9. Second because then I wouldn’t have to go to work on Friday and would have the weekend to recover. Then he decides that he isn’t going to the plant on today at all! I could have left on Thursday. But, I guess it is better anyway. I have the weekend to recover. Plus, I didn’t go back after I took him to the airport at noon. I went back to my hotel and crashed. I am feeling pretty sick from sitting in the cold all week. I mean there is really no place to get warm there. The people like the plant manager, that work there never offered to let us come in there offices where they have portable heaters, and they didn’t offer us one of course. The only thing we have is maybe the server room….

Tuesday, Dec., 5, 2006

So, I’ve made it this far without having to see anything really gruesome. I was really worried that I was going to have to go on the kill floor of one of the plants on the trip. For those of you that don’t know, most of our clients in the US are meat producers of some sort. Our software runs their full plant including production. Which in turn includes the kill floor. You can guess what that is. The client that I came out here for is setting up a new plant in Nampa, Idaho. (apparently the second largest city in Idaho.) The first day at the new plant they gave us a tour. We saw the kill floor. Thank goodness the plant is not running yet, but the guy that gave the tour gave us a detailed description of… well I won’t describe it here because I’m not sure I want to know it. But, let’s just say I know the whole process from when the cows come in the door to when they come out the other end in boxes, and a lot of that is automated. I saw the machines. They want me to go back in January and be involved with the project further. Man I just don’t know if I can see that…

Like I said the plant isn’t open yet. The place needs a lot of work before they can go, including getting heat. The office we have to work in has no heat! Don’t forget it’s only like 25 F outside!

Sunday, Dec., 3, 2006

So, after we worked a full day on Saturday, which I thought was only going to be a couple of hours. I drove down to Lincoln to a photo exhibition. One of J’s friends is a photographer and every year he takes pictures of his friends and then has a party to display them. You can take you pictures home if you want to. It’s a good way to build up a portfolio I guess.

The guy is gay so most of the subjects were men… gay men too. It is pretty strange to me that there are so many in Nebraska, but apparently they seems to be a gather place. I never would have thought. But anyway, there was only I think 5 of us there that were straight, me, J and his wife and two other girls. After the party all went to a gay club, cross dressers and all. The best part of the evening was, one of the Bar tenders thought I was cute so he served me after they had closed the bar. No one else could get served. The two straight girls were upset, because usually it’s the other way around. So, I got them drinks too. Then we left really quick so the guy didn’t think I was interested!

After the club we headed to an after hours party at one of the guys house. It was pretty much a drunk fest. Someone let J start mixing drinks. That’s something I learned not to trust years ago. Unfortunately the hard way.. I ended up crashing in Lincoln and driving back the next day. Um, a bit late too, I was supposed to check out of the hotel at 12. I didn’t get back till 3. Oops!

Saturday, Dec., 2, 2006

Friday night J came up from Lincoln and we went for some dinner and then out in Omaha. It was really good because we were able to catch up on a lot of stuff that has happened in the past year. It was definitely over due.

I was really surprised that things were so empty though. Maybe it was the cold. People were saying that it was because it was Friday night and that Saturdays were usually better. Everything closes at 1am in Nebraska, so we went to an after hours club and there were only like 4 other people there. It was pretty disappointing, but we still had fun. Unfortunately I had to work on Saturday. The guy from Germany that came over would have worked on Sunday too if we weren’t flying to Idaho. He also worked till 1am almost every night. I don’t know I guess I’m just not enough of a workaholic. I can’t do that. It would be different if it was my business, but not working for someone else. When we talked about working so much he said to me, “Well, what else am I supposed to do?” I don’t know… What is the point of traveling with business if you don’t take anytime to see the city. I mean, you might as well stay in the office. Just my opinion I guess…