Finally got my new bicycle built up. Very similar to my laptop last year, I'm feeling a huge wave of pride and ownership after ponying up so much personal cash to get it running. As my mom pointed out, this is the first bike in a long time that I won't have to give back at the end of the season. I hate to make it my first picture posted to this blog, but it just might happen.
A random tidbit, actually the occurence that made me finally break down and write another blog, is the chicken bone that hit me on the shoulder today. Yessir, a chicken bone. About four blocks from home, riding my bicycle, a gnawed-down chicken leg bone dropped from the sky and whacked me. I looked up to see an aggrevated squirrel, teetering on an oak branch 30 feet overhead and violently chirping accusations. That one, paired with a dozen other too-hilarious-to-ignore happenings, has cast a humorous tint on the past three weeks of stress.
The stress is paying off though, and I feel that I'm juggling things well. I fly out next week to an interview with Stryker down in San Jose, California. Funny, I don't know if I'm truly aspiring to work in California, but it's flattering to reach the fourth stage (of four total) in the interview process. The last stage was the most entertaining: a 50-minute phone interview with Gallup (as in Gallup Polls) that left me spun, wondering what my name was. Binary questions, followed by "please give me an example".... each question a slight twist on one asked six minutes previously.
My favorite:
"Do you consider yourself a funny person, Mr. Allan?"
"Sure do, I'm hilarious."
"Do you make your work companions laugh?"
"They love me, I keep the work environment light."
"Please give me an example of something you did in the last week to make them laugh."
Ouch, are you kidding? Let me explain something (and I apologize if you've already heard this from me but I must tell). Those people, the ones that actually remember what they did to make someone laugh... they are not funny people. "Honey, you'll never guess what happened today at work. It was great! I made a clever quip about the capacity of our recycling bin as compared to Mr. Collins' retirement fund. Everyone laughed, I'm a hero! I'm a funny hero. Ah, Honey, I wish you could've been there." No thanks.
Jason told me I should have answered with the intro to a blatantly inappropriate Playboy-quality joke. "Hmm... well, they all loved this one: So a nun, a Jew, and a midget are walking down the street..." To protect my honor, I do not know the rest of that one, and I apologize to all of my height-impaired Jewish Nun readers.
I also found out that my final "Hey I've my Master's Degree in Engineering" exam is April 11, a bit surreal but exciting nonetheless. Ticking down. Okay, my brain is numbing and I'll cut this off. Instead of that shiny new bicycle, I'm posting a picture of McKinley. Little bugger has grown on me over the past couple years... She still owes me for that SWIX beanie she ate the tassles off of, and I've yet to teach her to bag her own poop... but she's coming around.
