Misadventures of Andi’s first week of work

My husband and I are still trying to figure out how the commute is going to work, today he dropped me off at Bart at 6, I got into the city at 6h35, and got the first shuttle to work at 6h50, turned on my computer at 6h55. Problem is, just about everyone else starts at 8/8h30 :-D! So I figured I had time this morning to share how my first week is going.

Monday was my first day, so it was set up to be Orientation all day. I wore a black suit (skirt/jacket combo) with a white shirt – I had to do this because I gained so much weight on vacation etc that I cannot fit into my business pants or skirts – something I didn't really figure out until Sunday night!

So there I am in a suit, black shoes, black skirt, white shirt, black jacket, totally overdressed for my first day, particularly when I was going to be in a conference room all day.

Around 10 when I had our first break, I bent down from my chair to grab something out of my bag when I suddenly realized that the Spanx I put on in an attempt to stay into my skirt were NAVY BLUE!

I was mortified.

At noon, I had to have lunch with my department which meant going outside in the sunlight – which made the color of my nylons very apparent! Then at 3, we went on a tour of 2 of the buildings and I had to walk around and continue the mortification. Not one person said anything to me, but I am sure people noticed – what a first impression I made!

But before even arriving to work that first day, I had “fun”. I followed the instructions for the Bart/Shuttle program. I rode Bart to the Civic Center Station (not the best area) and walked up to the street level to find Market Street. According to the instructions, I was to catch the shuttle in front of the Starbucks and Ramada hotel.

Of course, when I got to street level I walked in the wrong direction first.

I walked looking for Starbucks and crossed more and more homeless guys sleeping on the street, after 2 blocks I figured I was going in the wrong direction. I turned around, walked the 2 blocks back to where I started and started looking for Starbucks, after half a block (of course) I started seeing people with Starbucks cups and quickly found the location.

The only problem was – there was no Ramada Hotel! There was a hotel, but not the Ramada. With the amount of Starbucks, I figured I went to the wrong one. I went inside and asked if there was a Ramada nearby – someone told me it was around the corner a block. So I grabbed a drink and walked around the corner..to a Best Western!

I went back to the original Starbucks and went into the hotel next door and ask the front desk people if the hotel was ever a Ramada…they said “yes” up until 6 months ago! Viola! I found the shuttle location. Cool..all this happened before 7h00 and I had made it in time to catch the 7h12 to the office.

So when the shuttle arrived, there were other people standing waiting for it, so I turned and asked, “Is this the shuttle for Dolby?” and the lady said “yes”. So I got on board and was content that I was safe and on my way until we passed Dolby.

The shuttle went to a street further and stopped at Adobe! Apparently, I really need to annunciate the “D”. [The only thing worse at this point would have been if the hiring manager for the Adobe job I was offered (and didn't take) had been on the shuttle too!].

When everyone else got off, I told the guy what had happened and asked if he minded dropping me off at Dolby, which he happily did. Which he promptly did and I was there by 7h30…with my Orientation starting at 8h30 🙂 So I had an hour to kill and was happy that I had left early after all the things that happened 🙂

After that, Day 2 was much less stressful…now I am on to Day 3.