It's Wednesday!

You know your day is off to a good start when you are in a caddy mood. This morning, for example... I was waiting to get off the train, and there was a girl in front of me who stepped off first. And down she went! She fell, and it wasn't really funny at the time, it was kind of scary, since you hear about people falling under subways and all. But she was helped up, and I ended up walking behind her for a couple of minutes out of the train station. I noticed that she was working hard to walk normally, and I figured out that the reason she had fallen was because she had was wearing these crazy heels that were difficult for her to balance on. So then her falling was kind of funny.

Fashion here is a bit different, I must say. I don't know if it is because it is winter, or if it is just European fashion, but most people her wear black. Lots of black. It is freaking sunny out there, people! Try a little color to spice it up! Now I realize some of you think I am a hypocrite right now, since I almost always wear black trousers to work. But with a colored shirt on, I stand out around here.

Now, while I am in the mood to be caddy, I figured I would throw out a couple of observations on fashion. It is entertaining to watch a large percentage of the women on the ferry each morning. It never fails - there are always at least 2 women putting on makeup during the ride across the bay. I guess it is like putting it on while driving (which I also do not understand), but it is just kind of funny to see them doing it while sitting surrounded by 50 strangers. Today I was sitting next to a girl with a binder that showed she was attending the fashion school here in town. (No, I will not be enrolling.) She was wearing this all-black outfit, with the exception of her shorts (that she wore over tights and with heeled boots), which were navy blue. I am scared as to where the fashion world is headed. But I hope you will all laugh at the biggest fashion mistake of the week: A woman met her husband/boyfriend at the ferry stop last night on the way home, greeting him with their dog. She was wearing this bright green velour sweat-suit kind of thing. The entertaining part? I hear her speaking to the guy - She was American.

So on my way into the office, I grab a little breakie to start my day. That's right - I hit up the Krispy Kreme. It was my one and only trip. A plain glazed doughnut was $2.30. Yes, I only ordered one. It was good, but I was expecting the best doughnut I have ever tasted for that price! And no, it was not Hot Now.

I got to work, and one of the directors here came over and found me. Apparently they have a client that is in kind of a messy situation, and they are struggling to hire someone to be their controller there. In the interim, the client has asked to hire someone here to be the CFO's "right hand man" and get things in order. They want someone with experience, but so not want to pay for one of the managers to come in and do the work. So apparently I am perfect for the job, since everyone here apparently knows I am a manager, but was not listed as one over here to avoid my having to pick up a client load. (No one, including me, wants me to take on clients only to leave in 3 months.) So I am "perfect for the job." Great. Assuming they can work it out (they are making absolutely sure there are no client-auditor independence issues), I will start out at this client over the next 4 weeks as a controller. It is about a 45-minute commute, so it will shave 15-30 minutes off of my travel time each day. The fun part? I have to have a car to get there, because public transport will take 2 hours. So come Monday, I will probably be out driving on the wrong side of the road. Next week's stories should be good!

At lunch, I order a hamburger. Pretty simple, right? Uh huh. The thing comes with lettuce and tomato, and you can pick the sauce (which includes ketchup). But they also throw sauteed onions and pickled beets on it. I am sure everyone on the restaurant was watching me try to get the beets off of this burger. I was able to suffer through one of the tomatoes just fine, but there was no way I was going to suffer through a beet! On the walk back from lunch, I notice that most people around here are relatively fit and in pretty good shape. Maybe it's all of the walking that you have to do. But as they walk, several of them smoke. And in their hand is either coffee or energy drinks. Or they are headed to a bar to have a few beers. I can't figure it out, but apparently Americans are wrong about healthy lifestyles and weight loss!

Later this afternoon, my friend Akke stops by. He and some friends are coming to the US in March (because it is Spring Break - wooooo!) and want to drive from San Francisco to Tijuana. I can't wait to hear those stories. I told him to stay away from the donkey show. He asked what it was, and I told him I couldn't tell him, but that all I knew was to stay away from it. I think he is going to end up going to see it. Poor guy...

I ended up staying a little late to get some stuff done and to (almost) catch upon these blog posts. As I was packing up at 5:45, the girl who has been sitting in the cube in front of me the entire day turns around and says, "Are you Jennifer?" Huh? "It's Jenny. But yes." Her name was Angela, and she was very nice. We talked a little bit about the office and where I was from, etc. I just thought it odd that it took the entire day for her to turn around and say hello. The thing that really got me was her accent. I really liked it, but it was really different! She is Asian, I believe Chinese. So she has a Chinese-Australian accent. Completely different than anything I have ever heard before! But I am gradually meeting people here, so that's cool...

Okay, quote of the day: I promised to give you the best text messages from the public transport paper I get each evening. I forgot to bring it with me, so I can only think of one that I read: "To the cute Italian guy sitting next to me on [some] train. You can wrap me in tin foil and make me your lunch any time!" WHAT???