10.26.2004

That was a week?

Well, first day on the new job...first impressions...

- Our offices (and for that matter our business at large) could be most accurately compared to a Florida trailer park after the latest storm. Its a total disaster zone and I'll be coming to work in jeans Friday just to have a cleaning/organizing day.

- All the same, I have the feeling that, once the dust settles, I'll be able to blog at a reasonable pace.

- In my limited experience in Corporate America, there are two types of management styles (forget what the books say). The first is the manager who knows what he/she is doing, understands their business, and runs a tight ship. This kind of manager is unable to teach others how to do their job, because it runs the unbearable risk of allowing someone beneath them to make a mistake, and therefore they are unable to properly train those that they manage in the finer points of the business. The second type is the manager who doesn't understand the business, isn't organized, and therefore cannot teach others how to do the job (how they got there in the first place is beyond me). This kind of manager is identifiable by 2 inherent traits: a) they take the credit for the good work done by their subordinates, and b) they blame their subordinates for anything that goes wrong. I am rapidly becoming convinced that there are no other types of management style.

- Generally speaking, if a person is older than you, they know less about computers than you do.

- You will find lazy people wherever you go.

After Monday and Tuesday off, I worked Wednesday thru Friday. Friday was the weird position-transition day, after which I booked over to the church offices to meet up with the youth group for our weekend camp at Young Life's Lake Champion resort, somewhere in New York. We left about on schedule (an hour late) and got in just in time for our meetings, as usual. I had 5 guys in my high school group, and we got the cooking assignment, which kept us out of the miserable pit. A couple of girls would be on assignment with us.

Our numbers were quickly reduced by 1 when, on the way back to the cabin, one of my guys took a spill jumping off a low rock wall, and dislocated his knee. I've seen lots of dislocated joints, but this one was bad. We got him splinted and immobilized on a backboard, then into one of the camp vans. They gave me directions to the hospital and sent J-lo and I off to find it on our own, which was a bit odd. Guess someone has to stay and run ship, though. Spent a few early-morning hours in the hospital, then back to camp with the knee in all in one place again. He got Percoset and went to sleep, I got Nyquil and about 45 minutes tossing and turning before getting up to send my guys off to the kitchen at 5 in the morn.

His dad arrived around lunch time to take him home, and I joined my guys on work crew from there on out (thanks again for covering, Kat). Spent the afternoon playing basketball, taking pictures, and winning a stellar frisbee golf match with AP, Kat, and one of my guys - Nathan. Evening was dinner work crew, then helping the sadly under-staffed dining-room crew set up for the next day. Led a woefully un-prepared cabin time with the high schoolers that actually went fairly well. Played too much dodgeball. Sprained my right hand. Crashed.

Sunday we cooked breakfast then cleaned the kitchen, packed, and hopped on the bus. After all the kids got delivered to all the parents, we mighty band of leaders went off to CPK for eats and then Spring's apartment to hang for a bit (which meant sleep for me). Evening service, still in the Proverb's series, this one was on Lust and was noticeably shortened. Probably because he's already spoke plenty on the topic. AP gave me a ride home and we had some good catching up. Ate. Crashed.

Which brings us to today. We keep ending up here, and can't figure out how.

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