Today was a little better than yesterday. Partially because I knew what to expect, partially because I got more sleep. My Dad wrote me after I’d gone to bed and told me that my last entry was very depressing…and that was even before he’d gotten to my part about Erika. Well, I had every right to be lamenting that I might be in over my head. I didn’t understand half of what my coworkers and boss were talking about, I didn’t understant the network layout, and I certainly didn’t even know what the primary pieces of software the firm uses were for.

Today however, I got a quick lesson in some of the software, some more insight into the network, and I took the initiative to go on a few service calls on my own, without my boss tossing me to the wolves like it’s usually been. e.g., “Here Andrew, why don’t you answer this call?” or “Here Andrew, why don’t you work the till for awhile?” I get so sick of the immediate hands-on learning in some jobs. On my first day at my last job, I was taking tech support calls when I didn’t know how the software worked or any of the details of the products we supported. I got a pointer to the Knowledge Base and a headset and I was off, taking messages for the other techs because I didn’t know how to do anything else.

Maybe there’s something about a position that encourages you to work at your own pace. Maybe it’s getting the opportunity to observe your coworkers doing some work. Maybe it’s discovering that you have administrative rights over a 175-person network and the servers that run it. I just can’t put my finger on it.

Either way, it’s a remarkable difference compared to my last job. At CL, we were using a server that was at least three to four years old–minimum–and I was responsible for maintaining it in addition to my other duties. At my new job, I’m one of about six people who maintain the network and servers and the computer hardware–just the servers, mind you–all put together cost more that a college education at an Ivy League school. Things are set up and working pretty well already, so I’m not responsible for making policy, just maintaining it.

But I still have administrative rights. Now I know why network administrators have that smug sense of well-being all the time: we control things, and the rest of the firm knows it. You’ll print when I say you can print. I shouldn’t let the power go to my head…much.

I got my picture taken today for both the internal company picture as well as my badge that lets in me into the building and between floors in the stairwell, which is helpful since the firm spans 2 floors of the building plus a smidgen on another floor. Too bad I had to wait until after my picture was taken to get my haircut, but at least I’ll show up tomorrow looking spiffy. I went to The Rack on my lunch hour and bought some sorely-needed clothes, so I have a new pair of shoes and a couple of new button-up shirts to get me through the rest of the week. I’ll probably go back and get another pair of pants and another few shirts as needed. I feel like some brighter colors, though. I bought a dark blue and a greyish shirt, but I feel like I need some brighter colors to go along with the purple shirt I wore today. I used to wear primarily greys and dark greens and dark blues, but as it turns out, I enjoy wearing reds and bright blues and even colors like purple. I saw a…dare I say it…yellowish shirt that caught my eye today I might go back for.

It turns out that after my years in a casual environment between my last job and…well, everything else…that my dress-casual wardrobe was, shall we say, somewhat lacking in the types of things I’ll need in my current position. I can tuck any shirt into my pants, but something tells me that the partners are looking for dress other than an Old Navy t-shirt.

And why can’t I remember to clock in and out?

Erika is leaving tomorrow on a two-week practice trek with the other people in her training group, so tomorrow might be the first day in the 490 days we’ve dated that we don’t talk to each other. Every single day starting from our first date we’ve either seen each other, emailed each other, or spoken on the phone. I know that trend won’t continue over the next six months, but it seems worth mentioning. Other that feeling a little overwhelmed herself, she’s doing just fine. She seems to get along with the others so far, but she’ll have two weeks of close-quarters to really decide that.

I don’t mean to sound depressing about all this, but truth be told, this is very difficult for me. It’s not just the separation, but I haven’t had good luck with the long-distance thing in my time. Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s the women I’ve dated. Either way, I’m going into this without a whole lot of optimism so that naturally drags me down a notch or two.

I woke up at 5 this morning, got up at 6, and took a 5k jog before work. I think I might start winding down towards bedtime. I’ve already gotten two invitations to a St. Patrick’s Day happy hour with my former coworkers this Friday, though the prospect of being out drinking on Saint Paddy’s Day doesn’t excite me too much despite my love of beer. I may like beer, but I don’t really like drinking. Especially not on a day like that. I’ll probably meet them for a drink, then perhaps retire to my semi-private house with a pizza and some beer and play DVD roulette. Perhaps.

It seems like since November, I’ve been fighting a losing battle with my computer. Every time I patch something up, something else breaks or I have a problem with what I just laid a bandage over again. I sent my motherboard back twice and was out of commission for close to three months (or was it two?), and I finally got so sick of the problems that I spent the requisite $175 and bought the new components that I thought might be causing the problems. Sadly, it wasn’t even an upgrade–I can’t afford that at the moment. But I got my new motherboard and new power supply, and things seem to be working fine now for the first time in months. So far. I won’t really know for awhile, but knowing my computer it won’t show signs of problems until I’m about two days past getting everything the way I like it.

As one final note of a technological middle finger to me, I determined that one of the problems that was plaguing me may have been caused by a $3 cable. I still would have had to spend at least $110 of that $175 to fix my biggest problem, but hey, what’s $65 among friends? I made arrangements to sell my non-working motherboard to someone else–knowing full well it was malfuctioning, I assure you–so at leats I’ll recoup a small amount of that loss. I take no pleasure in the thought that my credit card would be 100% paid off in no time had I not bought those parts, but at least I’ll have my square-headed girlfriend to keep me company while Erika tools around the country for six months.

That, and buying tickets to Franz Ferdinand and Death Cab for Cutie right before Erika found out she was had been hired by Trek didn’t help. I guess if I can’t sell my ticket, I can always go. I’d prefer to back out since I was mostly going for Erika’s sake, but it wouldn’t be that bad.

In any case, all my computer stuff is working, and I’m currently downloading files I forgot to back up when I reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled Windows XP. That means that I get to spend hours downloading files…again. It also means I get to play through Half Life 2…again…just to get to the part where I was when I wiped out my saved game. Good thing I wasn’t actively playing it or I’d be mad.

Tomorrow at work I get a pizza party for lunch, which is the way my boss typically sends off employees moving on to bigger and better things, or to celebrate random events, or if he feels like dropping some money on those oh-so-rare occasions. I wish we had some variation on the pizza theme, but pizza is OK I guess. What am I saying? I shouldn’t disrespect pizza like that. Pizza is great. I went to lunch with my Dad today and he initially wanted pizza, but I convinced him otherwise since I have a “catered” pizza lunch tomorrow so we went to Good Dog, Bad Dog and I had a very, very spicy meal. My boss told me I could take off after lunch tomorrow, but my coworkers have promised they’d go to Happy Hour after work, so I might just go home and then go back downtown. I didn’t get a pass for March so that seems like a waste of bus tickets, but what am I going to do? Stay at work? My Mother brought me up better than that! I could always go and tool around downtown Portland for awhile, but I’d probably be tempted to buy something, and let’s face it: I’m broke until next paycheck.

I read today that there’s a new McMenamins opening up in a month or so. I guess it’s not really a new McMenamins, just a bar and pool tables filling unused space in the rear of the Bagdad Theater that’s been unused since sometime in the 1980′s when it was still owned by Moyer Theaters. Still, I’ll have to make a house call and knock it off the list. By my last count, I have visited 38 different McMenamins properties. I have only one in Portland left to visit, and only two in the Portland area.

Needless to say, I miss Erika. It’s awfully quiet here.