Napalm poet
Took the journal entry title before dragoncrescent … Love you! ^_^
… anyway. We made the trip to Denver on Thursday afternoon, arriving by 9:30pm. It seemed like my heart has been going non-stop since I was offered the chance to interview a week before. I wasn't sure what to expect. What I did know is that the place I was going to interview was huge. They had equipment with which I was not familiar. Halfway through the drive, I wondered to myself whether or not the trip was actually worth it. I mean, this is Denver after all. Surely there must be a horde of local candidates to choose from. But we pressed on anyway...
We stayed with some friends that I had made while doing work for RMFC to save on hotel costs. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep, as someone seemed to be playing dubstep through most of the night. Even if it was totally silent, I'm not sure if I'd have been able to sleep. The air mattress that we slept on was surprisingly comfortable, and didn't deflate completely by the time I woke up. I got ready for the morning. It felt like I was on autopilot. Sooner than later, we were both in the car, following Siri's droning voice to the location of this printing plant. We found it without much trouble. I'm actually pretty amazed at how much Apple's maps app has improved since its first release. The only trouble of course was that I was an hour early, so we went to go have breakfast at Subway, which I had never had before. It was alright. Bunny said he had the most disappointing cup of coffee ever.
I poured over my application again and again, making sure everything was accurate, and spelled correctly. He said I was too honest on some of my interview questions. It's probably true, but I've always been honest about it. I've been honest that I wasn't the greatest in school, and honest that I had once been fired from a job for not hitting a deadline. It hasn't seemed to affect me in the past. I just don't see any use in lying. Anyway, time flew faster than I had ever perceived it before. Sooner than later, It was 7:50am, and I walked in the doors. Or tried, anyway. I had beat the receptionist by a minute, so she let me in. Immediately when i walked in the doors, printing ink and solvents were heavy in the air. I walked upstairs to the waiting lounge, and read some of their literature. They paged the prepress manager, who I guess was running a little bit late after dealing with an issue. But he did show up, and the meeting commenced.
It was clear from the beginning that they were operating on much newer software than what I had experience in, as I knew the software, but not some of the terminology. I had wondered if maybe it was also because CW isn't using the full scope of it. After we danced around those a little bit, he took me on a quick tour of the place. The first doors he threw open revealed the press room. If my jaw could physically drop to the floor, it would have. There were six presses. All of them, except for one, were two stories high. All of them operating at near full speed. It was loud. It was smelly. From that point on, we both had to yell at one another as we walked through the plant.
After that, he took me through the digital press and prepress departments. There are 15 computer workstations, almost all of them completely full. They still use chemistry to process their plates, but said that they were in the process of changing that over. We hit up the rest of the warehouse after that, and I never ceased to be astounded. There were rolls of paper stacked to the ceiling. There were people racing around in forklifts, honking their horns as they delivered paper, and finished products to their respective departments. The scale of the place was truly awesome.
We eventually returned to the conference room, and he asked me, "Are you overwhelmed?" I acknowledged as much, to which he replied, "Good, I'm trying to overwhelm you. This operation is huge, and the place only closes twice per year. Christmas, and the company picnic." We went through a few more details, and then I met with one of the HR reps to finish off the interview. They told me that they would make a decision by next Friday. After about an hour, I was out the doors, and met bunny in the car. No matter how much I try to explain it, I could never accurately capture the full scale of this place, or my level of excitement as we weaved between all of the presses.
We left to scout the region. I also dropped by IKEA because I needed some LED lights that had burned out in the kitchen. We toyed with the idea of seeing a movie before we left, but ultimately I just wanted to head back to ABQ, especially since bunny had to work the next day. We left soon after, and of course we ran into a traffic jam just outside of Colorado Springs.
We were listening to "Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?" When the music suddenly cut out. The phone was ringing. It had a Denver area code. I thought "shit, we left something over at the house." I picked it up, and ... wouldn't you know it? It was the printer I had just interviewed for.
...
They offered me the job. I accepted it. I'm moving to Denver. Away from Albuquerque. To the largest print shop in Colorado.
...
I was dumbfounded. I wasn't expecting it, and I stumbled over my words as I explained that I needed the weekend to do some preparations, and ultimately couldn't submit my two weeks notice until Tuesday. It all happened so fast, I forget just exactly how the exchange went. But once I hung up, I looked sideways at bunny, and just gave him a blank stare. "Did that really just happen?" I asked. Earlier in the day, I had ribbed him jokingly when he was speculating about what the move would entail. I told him not to think about it too much, to just let me get the job first, THEN we would worry about things like this. Well... that changed very very quickly, and became overwhelming in the span of an entire minute.
I have a lot of decisions to make, and a lot to prepare for. I start my job on June 19th. I will be leaving sometime before then, very likely the weekend before. I'm going to miss everyone terribly, my friends especially. The silver lining in this of course is that I'm not moving too far away. I will be making regular trips back to Albuquerque, and who knows, if opportunity opens up here, I may be back. The future is always uncertain, and always unpredictable. My experience Friday has definitely proved that much to me.
I don't know what else to say. I'm sure there will be more as time goes on.
For the time being, I'm going to do what I can to make this transition as easy as possible.
… anyway. We made the trip to Denver on Thursday afternoon, arriving by 9:30pm. It seemed like my heart has been going non-stop since I was offered the chance to interview a week before. I wasn't sure what to expect. What I did know is that the place I was going to interview was huge. They had equipment with which I was not familiar. Halfway through the drive, I wondered to myself whether or not the trip was actually worth it. I mean, this is Denver after all. Surely there must be a horde of local candidates to choose from. But we pressed on anyway...
We stayed with some friends that I had made while doing work for RMFC to save on hotel costs. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep, as someone seemed to be playing dubstep through most of the night. Even if it was totally silent, I'm not sure if I'd have been able to sleep. The air mattress that we slept on was surprisingly comfortable, and didn't deflate completely by the time I woke up. I got ready for the morning. It felt like I was on autopilot. Sooner than later, we were both in the car, following Siri's droning voice to the location of this printing plant. We found it without much trouble. I'm actually pretty amazed at how much Apple's maps app has improved since its first release. The only trouble of course was that I was an hour early, so we went to go have breakfast at Subway, which I had never had before. It was alright. Bunny said he had the most disappointing cup of coffee ever.
I poured over my application again and again, making sure everything was accurate, and spelled correctly. He said I was too honest on some of my interview questions. It's probably true, but I've always been honest about it. I've been honest that I wasn't the greatest in school, and honest that I had once been fired from a job for not hitting a deadline. It hasn't seemed to affect me in the past. I just don't see any use in lying. Anyway, time flew faster than I had ever perceived it before. Sooner than later, It was 7:50am, and I walked in the doors. Or tried, anyway. I had beat the receptionist by a minute, so she let me in. Immediately when i walked in the doors, printing ink and solvents were heavy in the air. I walked upstairs to the waiting lounge, and read some of their literature. They paged the prepress manager, who I guess was running a little bit late after dealing with an issue. But he did show up, and the meeting commenced.
It was clear from the beginning that they were operating on much newer software than what I had experience in, as I knew the software, but not some of the terminology. I had wondered if maybe it was also because CW isn't using the full scope of it. After we danced around those a little bit, he took me on a quick tour of the place. The first doors he threw open revealed the press room. If my jaw could physically drop to the floor, it would have. There were six presses. All of them, except for one, were two stories high. All of them operating at near full speed. It was loud. It was smelly. From that point on, we both had to yell at one another as we walked through the plant.
After that, he took me through the digital press and prepress departments. There are 15 computer workstations, almost all of them completely full. They still use chemistry to process their plates, but said that they were in the process of changing that over. We hit up the rest of the warehouse after that, and I never ceased to be astounded. There were rolls of paper stacked to the ceiling. There were people racing around in forklifts, honking their horns as they delivered paper, and finished products to their respective departments. The scale of the place was truly awesome.
We eventually returned to the conference room, and he asked me, "Are you overwhelmed?" I acknowledged as much, to which he replied, "Good, I'm trying to overwhelm you. This operation is huge, and the place only closes twice per year. Christmas, and the company picnic." We went through a few more details, and then I met with one of the HR reps to finish off the interview. They told me that they would make a decision by next Friday. After about an hour, I was out the doors, and met bunny in the car. No matter how much I try to explain it, I could never accurately capture the full scale of this place, or my level of excitement as we weaved between all of the presses.
We left to scout the region. I also dropped by IKEA because I needed some LED lights that had burned out in the kitchen. We toyed with the idea of seeing a movie before we left, but ultimately I just wanted to head back to ABQ, especially since bunny had to work the next day. We left soon after, and of course we ran into a traffic jam just outside of Colorado Springs.
We were listening to "Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?" When the music suddenly cut out. The phone was ringing. It had a Denver area code. I thought "shit, we left something over at the house." I picked it up, and ... wouldn't you know it? It was the printer I had just interviewed for.
...
They offered me the job. I accepted it. I'm moving to Denver. Away from Albuquerque. To the largest print shop in Colorado.
...
I was dumbfounded. I wasn't expecting it, and I stumbled over my words as I explained that I needed the weekend to do some preparations, and ultimately couldn't submit my two weeks notice until Tuesday. It all happened so fast, I forget just exactly how the exchange went. But once I hung up, I looked sideways at bunny, and just gave him a blank stare. "Did that really just happen?" I asked. Earlier in the day, I had ribbed him jokingly when he was speculating about what the move would entail. I told him not to think about it too much, to just let me get the job first, THEN we would worry about things like this. Well... that changed very very quickly, and became overwhelming in the span of an entire minute.
I have a lot of decisions to make, and a lot to prepare for. I start my job on June 19th. I will be leaving sometime before then, very likely the weekend before. I'm going to miss everyone terribly, my friends especially. The silver lining in this of course is that I'm not moving too far away. I will be making regular trips back to Albuquerque, and who knows, if opportunity opens up here, I may be back. The future is always uncertain, and always unpredictable. My experience Friday has definitely proved that much to me.
I don't know what else to say. I'm sure there will be more as time goes on.
For the time being, I'm going to do what I can to make this transition as easy as possible.