Two Days in Philly: The Sordid Details

[hkellick]

First of all, this will probably be long and pretty windy and confusing, so bear with me :)

6:25 AM
Well, here I am, sitting in the Philly airport, about 24 hours since I was sitting in the Buffalo airport line to get my ticket. I have at least an hour to kill, I think, before I get on board my flight to Atlanta. Oh, I finally figure out why I'm going through Atlanta! Apparently Atlanta is Delta's hub, so to get the smaller plane to Buffalo, I have to go through there. Wonderful :p Ah well.
So, it's been an... interesting 24 hours. A little boring at times and a little... exciting at others, so it probably evens out.
Let me back track to Wednesday. I spent all of Wednesday doing last minute stuff and Wednesday night working, so I didn't get alot of time to relax or nap (I DID try to nap, but the phone woke me up :p ) and I was previously tired from having stayed up early Wednesday morning talking to ecwoodburn, so I knew that getting to sleep might be about as problematic (due to worrying) as waking up (due to not enough sleep.) I was right!
Woke up, stumbled into the shower, got ready etc. I had been worried about my suit jacket getting wrinkled in the process of getting TO the interview so, despite Kristen's worries, I packed it in plastic and through it in my overnight bag. (Well, not threw. Carefully placed.) Ended up having enough time to check email (of course I did! I'm still a nerd! ;) ) but I didn't post anything (there was nothing to say.). Saw Josh as he woke up at 5:30 and he wished me luck. Tried to relax and watch some crap TV until 5:40, but ended up leaving a few minutes earlier, which was good because I needed to not only brush my car off (*muttermuttersnowmuttermutter*) but get it out of the spot I'd been forced to park it (at the side of the street) so I could brush half of it off.
Got to the airport about 6:10, parked in Long Term Parking (best long term parking spot I'd ever found! Woo! :D), got a shuttle to the airport and was sitting down reading my SimCity 4 Strategy Guide for about 15 minutes before the flight was due... when.. 12 minutes in, the person at the desk announces we're running a few minutes late.. because they forgot to turn on/leave on the heat on the plane and it was cold. Dorks!
Board eventually and the plane IS cold but warming up. Plane ride was unexciting. Tried to sleep. Failed. Read the strat guide instead. Whoopee.
Got off the plane and got off to the baggage carousel. (I'll say this for the Philly airport.. it's well marked. I just followed the happy littlle arrow to bagge claim no problem.) Sadly, I must have been walking at some insane speed, because I got there and there was NO ONE at our carousel. And no baggage. So I waited... and waited... and waited some more and a couple of people come up, but NOT the number of people I expected based on the number of people on the flight. And I waited for the baggage to come.. and waited.. and waited.. and was startled by the alarm! BUT.. it wasn't the right carousel! Oh noes! So I waited SOME MORE! I must have waited 15 or 20 minutes for our carousel to go and the four or five measely bags on it to get there.
Next challenge, getting the shuttle to the Hampton Inn in Plymouth Meeting. I find the desk with relative ease and say there's a reservation for me. "Which shuttle?" "Uh.. hold on. Lemme check.". Meanwhile, I'm getting the most wonderful stare from the ultra-bored lady behind the desk, obviously annoyed with my inability to read the invisible directions located directly behind her (or anywhere on or near the desk!). "Tropiano. Howard Kellick." "Take a ticket. Dial 19 please." Take the ticket and dial. Ring. Ring. Silence. "Uh... I think I got disconnected." She rolls her eyes (Well, maybe not, but she wanted to!) and duial 19 on another phone and of COURSE it works for her. So I arrange for the shuttle, get called and I'm on my way.
The shuttle is there five minutes later and the driver seems pretty cool and friendly and he's liste4ning to a cool readio station with 70s and 80s rock on it, which is cool. So I get in, get to the Hampton Inn no problem (after being grilled about and then teased about the snow in Buffalo). Go inside, ask if I can use the bathroom and do a Quick Change out of winter jacket and into vest and suit jacket. Faster than you can say "Onomotapeia" I'm out (Well, OK, it took me 3 minutes, but I had the damnedest time getting the zipper AROUND the Winter Jacket.). I call for Leah, the administrative assistant who had arranged my travel and she comes out to get me.. so long as I wait outside for her. D'oh! So back in I go for my winter jacket and outside I wait.
Then... the interview! Keep in mind that hitherto, I had no idea what to expect. I was told the interview would take two hours and what I expected was an hour or so long interview with the big boss and maybe a tour. Boy, was I wrong!
I got there, take my jacket off and wait a few minutes and Denise (one of the engineers I'd interviewed with over the phone a month or so back) is reinterviewing me. She hands me two org charts.. one of where the Philly Office stands compared to the rest of Jacques Whitford, and one of the actual Philly Office itself, showing me who the bosses were and where my place would be. She once again explained the business and the dress code (She and pretty much everyone else talked about the dress code. This would be because they don't HAVE one and of everyone there, including the office manager, I was the best dressed! I think this made them a little self-conscious, but whatever.) I them take a look at my schedule for the day and I am scheduled for *6* seperate interviews with *6* seperate people. *6*! Wowzah!
So first there was Denise which was otherwise pretty short since I didn't have any new questions and neither did she. Then Donna again, the other engineer I'd spoken with over the phone, who DID have a couple new questions for me. Both of these interviews, in memory, seem fairly quiet and nondescript, possibly because not much new was discussed. Whichever.
My new interview is with a young engineer there named J.T. who had been hired by that office three years ago and who was willing to answer some of my questions about how you START in a company like that. What Engineer I does, dutiwise. How fast until they moved up through the chain. What sort of projects he's worked on etc. He was pretty laid back and cool and I think we talked for a full half hour.
I then met with Peter, head of one of the three "Groups" Jacques Whitford (which, btw, is apparently said as 'Jakes Whitford', not the French Jacques) has, specifically "Environmental Management." He was the most stiff and formal of all the interviewers (he even was wearing a tie! Not even the office manager wore a tie!) and he basically lectured me on what he does, environmental safety (I remember him specifically telling me how important OSHA training was for them). I may have had questions for him, but most of them got lost in the half hour lecture.
Then we (we being Donna, an environmental scientist named Paul and I, of course) went to lunch at Ruby Tuesdays. We spent most of the lunch talking about pets, lawyers and a little bit of their work, but it was pretty low key and enjoyable. Did I mention I really like the people there so far? They all seem really cool and I'm really excited about the possibility of not only working at this firm, but with these particular people! Anyways...
Got back at 1:00 and I meet with Bruce, another "Group" head, this time of Remedial Investigation (more site investigation than remediation) and we talked about what the company does, what he does and my resume. This particular interview went fairly quickly and I don't remember much about it except that he seemed like a nice, amiable sort.
Finally, the big important interview, the one I was both vaguely freaked out about, but KNEW I had to impress, the office manager, Kimm (yes, he is a guy.) Kimm is the interim office manager as well as head of the Environmental Engineer/Remediation group (the one I'd be working for). I'd gotten nervous just before meeting him, based on a few comments people had said about how he could be... well.. like me! Undiplomatic came out a lot, blunt, too. So I got in there a little nervous, but he quickly put me at ease by.. well.. he asked me where I was from. Then sat there trying to remember who he knew from Amherst. Then thought of a company in Amherst that did lab work he'd used once, then went looking for a report with that company name in it. We chatted about my resume, alot about my thesis (I even drew him a pathetic representation of Lake Ontario to explain what I was doing) plus a few side tangents. He reminds me of some of my professors, certainly more than some sort of manager and that just put me at ease. I wasn't a potential interviewee on the hotseat, I was a student talking to a professor and I KNOW that role. I THINK we got along well, at least from my end. We must have been chatting for 45 minutes to an hour. The only 'eepy' part was when my phone suddenly went off, very loudly AND vibrating about 2:00. It was Alana, I assume trying to tell me what was going on. I apologized profusely and he quipped about how it was odd having a conversation WITHOUT the cell phone going off, which I still am smiling at (since he's right, but it's never been ME before!). It never occured to me to turn my phone off. I had no idea the interview would be so long and had NO idea what the time was.
The interview itself ended about 4:15. It was a 4 hour interview with six different people. I think it went pretty well (I HOPE it went very well.), but I won't know anything for another two weeks. So... here's praying, eh?

10:41 AM
Where was I? I'm in Atlanta now. The flight was... uneventful. Got on, had a row of seat to myself. They had some sort of TV program going on and I got to see an old M*A*S*H episode. Before I forget, I REALLY like the Atlanta airport. I like airports with numerous restaurants, shops and stalls inside the concourse(s) (part of why i like the Baltimore airport so much. I was stranded there for 12 hours and it was BORING, but there were enough shops and stuff that I had enough to read and eat while I was there.)
Also, the bathrooms are just cool. I'm used to the automatic sinks and toilets, but automatic soap leather? And reloading (rip one off and another appears) towels? Cools! Yes, I'm easily amused and a dork. You KNEW this. :)
So, I was just finishing up about the interview. After the interview, Leah took me back to Extended Stay America.
Ah, I have things to say about Extended Stay. I genuinely liked the room. It was big enough with a big beg, a nice TV, a kitchen, adjustable heat etc. It was a NICE hotel room. It was a bit lonely, but taking along Spots (a stuffed leopard Kristen bought me a couple months back at Build-a-Bear) helped in some respects for that. What I have to complain about was the front desk employees. I got there and nobody was paying attention to the front desk. A minute later, someone wanders in talking to.. someone else..and they continue for a couple minutes until the other guy taps him and points at me. Also.. well.. I hope my room was all taken care of, because I left the room at 5:10 (5:20 shuttle, remember?) and.. there was NO ONE at the Front Desk. No one! How the hell was I going to get out on time! I finally got a laundry employee to put the key card inside with a note that the room was all taken care of. I hope it was. :/
So anyways, I check in and call Alana back. She said Adam, Tash and her would leave soonish to pick me up. Cool. :) Called Kristen next and told her all about the interview. She was excited (if a bit tired, since she had JUST woken up from a nap.) and thouight it sounded good that I'd been there so long. I hope she's right! :) Called home next and left a message, thought about it and called my grandmother and told HER the news. All I can say at this junction is.. yay for cell phone working in Philadelphia. I may get roaming charges, but I'll deal. Yay!
Took a long hot shower and changed into REAL clothes and waited for the Scooby Gang to arribe by watching the Cosby Show (and some angel) and working on a puzzle magazine I brought with. Alana and company arrive at 5:30 and we went out to TGIFridays (conveniently right next to the local mall.) Dinner was good and we talked about all sorts of random things.
Also, quote of the day goes to Tash. Alana and I were talking about hidden talents and Tash pipes up with 'I know what your hidden talent is, mommy.'. "What" asks A. Answereth the Tash, "Being a great mommy." Brownie points to Tash for the answer. *I* wanted to reach across the table and hug her.
We talked the mall after dinner, window shopping (if I had an extra $600 I found a gold and dimaond heart necklace I loved that I bet Kristen would flip over. Ah well :) ) We wandered in and out of the toy store, the book store, the comic store, the video store, the CD store and all was good until, all of a suidden, as A put it 'It feels like someone hit my toes with a hammer.'. So between that and Tash's impending bedtime, they were ready to get into the car and head back which was fine.
We parted ways about 8:15 and I ended up watching Friends (still don't care for the program, but it was something to listen to) and doing my puzzle magazine before realizing I was exhausted and needed sleep. So I went to bed about 9:00.
Woke up at 4:45, DIDN'T officially check out (see above) and well.. to the airport I went. Exciting, neh?

6:51 PM
Last minute thought, as I finish transcribing. I REALLY prefer big Jets to small ones. I got a small one back to Buffalo which was crowded (I ended up sitting next to a slight overweight woman. She was polite and nice, but there was NO elbow/arm room. Nar.)
Back safe and sound and posted.

So.. that's it.
And.. now I go up to wait for dinner and head off to spend a quiet and dork-filled weekend with my dork (including RP at Geneseo. Woot!)

Comments

[dustkitten.livejournal.com]

You forgot the part where you got married.

-A-

[lite.livejournal.com]

Who to the what now?

[dustkitten.livejournal.com]

Tasha..her rings and proclamation that she was married to both you and Adam? :)

Altho she told me yesterday it's okay, she doesn't want to be married to you anymore, because she doesn't want to hurt Kristen's feelings, or something like that.

-A-

[phoenixsong]

Hee s:) Silly Tash.

(Have I mentioned that I have 13 cousins, all younger, so pretty much anything kidlet-related makes me go "Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!"?)

[kareila]

This is why I don't fly Delta to Birmingham any more. Can't avoid Atlanta if you do. Yes, it has lots of restaurants, but it's insanely crowded on busy travel days and if your luggage doesn't get lost even when you're just passing through it's a miracle.

Also, I hate automatic toilets. I appreciate that people often forget to flush but there's nothing I hate more than sitting down to do my business and suddenly getting a nice cold ass bath because the stupid toilet flushed early.

[lite.livejournal.com]

Automatic urinals are better like that, but yeah.. at school the automatic toilets flush too early sometimes, don't flush others. Blah :p
Nothing worse than going into the stall to see someone else's mess :p

[zorkian]

That is perhaps the funniest thing I've seen all week. *rolling around laughing* I mean, not that I think it's funny that it's happened to you, but just the way you phrased it.

I don't mind automatic urinals, and I have no experience with automatic toilets, as I avoid sitting down in public restrooms with every fiber of my being.

lite, congratulations on the interviews! That sounds like how Amazon.com does it, though. It's pretty intense, and I especially hate having lunch during an interview thing. (What do I eat? What will they think of that? Are they psychologically analyzing my food choices? What if I spill pizza on my tie? etc.)

I will keep my fingers, toes, knees, and noses crossed.

[lite.livejournal.com]

Thanks :) I aim to please :)

... noses?