November 18, 2007

• Company Trip

  If you read down far enough, there is video.

  This past Saturday, my company sponsored a trip to NYC for the Salaried employees.  Now, I had just been there for the past two weekends, but the chance to not have to drive was too good to pass up.  I had originally hoped to go to Philly, but a friend of mine wouldn’t ANSWER HER PHONE, so it’s a good thing I had the backup.  Ironically, she’s the same person that keeps bugging me to come down and visit.  The trip was also supposed to include tickets to see “Hair Spray”. but that was canceled, due to the strike.

  That morning, we loaded up two buses, and headed to the city.  I took the time to break out the Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS, which I am finding to be a fun game, with interesting controls.  Meanwhile, the husband of one of my coworkers was across the aisle trying to show his wife how to play a game on a PSP that she had purchased for him.  Behind me, was another coworker, who unfortunately did not have a game system, causing him to awe at us, and forcing me to tell his wife (also a coworker, and my “buddy”, as in the person assigned to me to help me integrate into the area and company) that she was a bad spouse.

  Some gaming and a short nap later, and we arrived in NYC and broke into groups.  I hung out with Joe (one of the few people younger than me, and also a cat owner), Shayla, and Brooke (whom I will eventually be working with when I swap to third shift), and we went to grab breakfast.  Afterward, we walked from 49th Street to 34th Street (they refused to take the subway), and somehow got sucked into Macy’s During it’s one day sale.

  Some people may wonder what makes this store special, as there are Macy’s everywhere.  Well, this one is made up of about 2 million square feet of shopping floor, and spans an entire NYC block.  It’s at least 7 floors, with 8 places to get food inside (including a McDonald’s and a Starbucks), and yet the men’s department takes up maybe half of the first floor.  The rest is for women, with one floor for kids, showing that men don’t like to hassle when they shop.

  Brook and Shayla managed to drag Joe and I in there for 2 hours.  Fortunately, there were places to sit, so we were able to people-watch and make jokes.  We can’t figure out why women wear skirts in the middle of winter, when it became fashionable to have boots that look like two shaggy dogs, and we believe that girls under 18 should have to wear something that identifies them as such.  Furthermore, some of the mannequins has less plastic than some of the ladies.  At one point, Joe asked Brooke what type of boot she was looking for.  “I don’t know,” was her response.

  This leads to the fundamental difference between men and  women.  Women just go in and grab crap.  No idea what they want, and designers have made all levels of stuff with logos, designed to show off how much money you spent.  Meanwhile, a guy goes into a store and knows he has three choices: black, dark brown, and light brown.  Furthermore, most could not tell you who made their shoes, and they couldn’t be bothered to take them off and look.  If the store didn’t have that brand, he’s not leaving, anyway.  I just look at what I have, know that I like the style, and decide that I want a pair just like it.

  After the torture was complete, we walked back up to 42nd Street, where I took them into the Toys R Us store, so that I could show them the Alphabet Pals Caterpillar.  It’s a toy that has 26 legs, each with a letter, and has a mode where it will pronounce the letter sound,  meaning that you can make it say stuff.  So, if you press “D-A-D” it will say “duh-ah-duh”, which done quickly sounds like dad.  Now, if you do what I do and press “D-I-K” you get “Duh-i-tee hee hee, that tickles.”  Yes, the toy is censored, and trust me, we tried a couple of things.  I also learned that Joe has this thing where if he sees something that says “Try Me”, he has too, and he will set an entire display in motion at lightning speed.

  From there, we went over to the Naked Cowboy, on Times Square.  Yeah, the guy has a Wikipedia entry, as well as a website.  He’s also recording an album, and he has sponsorship.  Later, I would joke that our company should sponsor him, also.  There are 4 videos, but before I get to that, here’s what we figure.  If people only gave him a dollar, and he can do at least a picture a minute, this guy is pulling $60 an hour, basically tax free.  And all he has to do is stand there, and stay in shape.  Ok, now videos.  Brooke is the girl in the last one, and Joe is the guy in the white hat that I pan over to.  Here are the videos:

       

  We grabbed lunch and Dave & Busters, and a phone call would reveal that some of our coworkers had already started drinking by at least 2 PM.  Most of us had a drink with lunch, but the other groups were having drinks with their drinks.  After this, I split from my group to help a friend of mine look for a computer.  I would return to the company trip later at a restaurant, where we would be having drinks, followed by dinner.

  I get back about 30 minutes into the cocktails, and find that a number of people have really been hitting it.  Ironically, one of them was our safety guys.  However, although his actions ding thee night may have been unny, they were never unsafe.  Dinner went well, and aside from getting roped into the occasional drunk conversation, things went well.  We then had to herd everyone back to the bus, with obvious hilarity. 

  While we were shopping in NYC, someone had decided to pick up a bootleg of “Fred Claus” and although that played, I decided to spread out on two chairs and sleep.

  I was woken up by Brooke hitting me (I think on the ass) when we got to the parking lot.  Only to see that it was snowing.  I expect to see this a lot while I am in PA.

  Black 6, out.

  • 11:58 pm
  • 4 Comments