It’s been a stressful 3 or so months for me. And, although I didn’t think it would actually happen, I’m no longer an employee of First Data. This whole thing was a very frustrating development, especially after I found out a few weeks ago, with my final day coming this past Thursday. I’m going to leave details about my frustration out of this post. I’d hate for First Data to come back and take away the sweet severance package offered to kick me out the door. Even though it’s hard to come to grips with it, I’m trying hard to understand that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get a long paid vacation. So what am I going to do with this paid vacation? Well, I have some ideas, but nothing concrete. The only thing I know for sure is I plan to take a road trip to LA to visit my brother. While there, I’ll probably head over to Vegas for a few days. In all, I’m thinking of staying in LA for about 3 weeks, maybe more. After that, things are somewhat up in the air. Some vacation ideas for January include Hawaii, Greece, Australia, or New Zealand. I wouldn’t complain about any one of them. Then, in February, I’m thinking of heading out to NY, Philly, and DC to visit friends I haven’t seen for some time. I’m still debating on whether to make that a road trip or fly out there and get a rental car to get around. In March I’m looking at two different ideas. One includes a trip to Port St. Lucie, Florida to see the Mets during spring training. Another option is to find a place to watch college basketball during March Madness. I have a lot of time to think about February and March plans, but I’ll need to make reservations for January pretty soon. Even though I’ll still have a couple of months of vacation time left come April, I’m hoping at that point I’ll know what my employment future looks like.
One question people seem to ask me a lot is, do you plan to stay in Denver? Well, that would be my first option. At this point I have a house in Denver and a condo in Keystone making it hard for me to get up and leave. But I’m not stuck on staying in Denver if the right opportunity comes along. Some other options include LA, NY, or DC. Each of them comes with some positives and negatives. The weather in LA would be nice and being closer to friends from my college years would make NY or DC a plus. All of them suffer from bad traffic. I guess we’ll see. I have plenty of time to figure it all out.
In the meantime, I’ll blog a little more often than I have lately, mostly about my vacations. And I’ll post pictures from each of the vacations spots. Right now I’m up in Keystone spending some time away from everything thinking about what just happened and what I’m going to do. Although, as I’ve said in the past, thinking isn’t my best trait. It usually gets me in trouble. I guess that’s it for now.
Where’s the new blog post, Denny? Nothing for three days? Get busy typing, man…you have plenty of time being out of a job.
I see how it is Plover, a man loses his job and all of a sudden he has all the time in the world to putz around with the computer. Considering I’ve been posting to the blog about once a month recently, I was thinking once a week would actually be an improvement. But I guess that’s just not enough.
Hope all is well out in Philly. I’ll see what I can do about getting out there sometime in February when I hit the East coast.
K – I’m gonna miss working with you buddy. Many memories going (way) back to April ’01….
It’s because of you that I can whistle the Greek national anthem on a second’s notice……hey, did VM ever find his shoes?…….Playoffs: Jets 41, Colts 0……Nachos at Jackson’s (man those were the best ever!)…….the balk rule truly is the dumbest rule in sports (isn’t the essence of sports to TRY and deceive your opponent??)…..you’re still the only one who ever really get that golf ball on the tee with regularity….. the best catch I’ve ever seen, Endy Chavez (maybe it WAS our fault the Mets lost to StL)…..I’ll never forget your summarization of the movie ‘Mask’…….and of course, your general knowledge on things you know nothing about…..and many many more….
One last thing….when you get back to Greece, you really gotta check out the Parking Lot….I’ve heard it’s huge!
Thanks Joker. I’m going to miss working with you too. Even after moving to Denver, I missed the camaraderie we had out there in Melville with CW and VM. Did VM ever take that drug test? I hear Peyton Manning just got called for a balk after calling “hut” caused the defensive line to go offsides. How long has it been since you went to Empire Szechuan? I could really go for their broccoli beef. And I expect the preseason package for the MFL to be sent to me every year going forward.
I was wondering if the ban against blogging about work will now be lifted. I will miss knowing you are a sametime away. But hey, now we have iChat!!! (Of course that will mean I will need to actually wear make up at home-may never happen!)
VM never did take that drug test, but he still wants to know ‘who’s your daddy?’.
Enjoy your wanderings! Check in and let us know how it’s going. Hope to see you soon!
c-
so much to plan
xo
Great post K, I will miss seeing you in the Denver office when I come to visit. This week was pretty rough in the island office of FD: JW consultants, crazy pills and monkeys were all running rampant. I will miss all my friends and coworkers.