Alrighty so I am back into the third shift swing of things after a week and a half hiatus. It was great to see that giant ball of burning gas in the sky for all that time. The following will be a recap as well as I can remember it from when I took the previously stated 2 comp days up to this Sunday when I returned to the night of the living dead.
As I work nights and took 2 comp days at the end of the week, I actually got Wednesday through Friday off. I couldn’t sleep on Wednesday so I drove straight to Charleston to see my fiancée. I spent most of that day in a daze as I usually do without any sleep. The next day I went out and finalized the hotel for our wedding. It is a really cool hotel that is round and overlooks all of Charleston. The best part of the hotel is the view from the bar at the top. We got the rooms at a great deal considering what is going on in the city that weekend (2 college graduations and who knows how many other weddings!). After doing the hotels I wandered around Charleston a bit and did some window shopping (they have a great selection of stores downtown). I actually gave in to Laurens pressure and bought some seersucker pants from J.Crew on sale but a size larger than what I usually wear. When I tried them on for her later she said they looked too big so I am going to return them, they were comfortable though. I went out to lunch with Laurens dad to a great thai restaurant and had some really good curry dishes. That night we stayed at home and did nothing. The next day I met up with my buddy Will and his fiancée, who are getting married a month after Lauren and me, and had some fun in Charleston. On Saturday we were supposed to leave around noon to go to a fraternity brothers wedding. I kept waking up and not hearing any commotion and then going back to sleep (I did not have a clock/watch in the room). Lauren finally came and got me at 11! Well that was odd as I never planned on sleeping in that late, so I had to hurry and get our stuff in the car and out the door by noon. Luckily we got on the road and headed to po-dunkville SC, I mean this place was small. In fact at one point we witnessed what seemed to be a motorcycle slightly t-bone a car (it was a small dent) and 3 cop cars, 2 fire trucks, and an ambulance showed up to the scene. That settled that we were in a very small town, that and the fact that when we went to park for the wedding, the whole town was there. I also don’t think that the town believed in air conditioning as it was hot as bajeezus there. So the reception was fun and I saw a lot of the older folks from college and caught up with them, also saw an old crush and her husband…..that’s always weird. We stayed at the only hotel in town and I had to get up on Sunday at 8 to make a noon flight in Columbia to Wisconsin. I made the flight with 30 minutes to spare and 4 of my associates and I made our way to Wisconsin via Chicago.
Wisconsin was interesting and a whole week of it on expense account was too much food for me, here is a recap of what went on there:
- Weather was 85-90 and no humidity all week except Thursday which was heavy rain
- A week of class on the science of meat was brutal but worthwhile in that I made contacts in many plants, took a tour of the corporate offices and headquarters plant and met the VP of operations.
- Was assured by many comments and actions that the plant I work at is envied for its performance capabilities, people are scared of our potential and it was great to walk around knowing that people knew that.
- University of Wisconsin is a neat campus…..too bad it is under snow most of the year, it sits right on a lake too.
- Expense account paid for a feeding frenzy on Chicago style deep dish pizza, steak dinners, sushi and lots of alcohol, overall a great business trip.

Is this entry getting too long? Ok on to the weekend, we were supposed to fly out of Madison at 4 and have a layover in Chicago and end up in SC around 10:30 PM. Well that wasn’t good so we took matters into our own hands and jumped flights, all 5 of us together, and made it to SC by 7 PM. I would have driven to Charleston to see my fiancée but she was at a bachelorette party for a friend for the weekend so I drove to Clemson to help my little brother move and help out a friend with her computer. While I was up there I made it a point to try to stay up until at least 4 AM to try and get my body ready for the 3rd shift again. I successfully did that and in the process enjoyed my little brothers new girlfriends 21st birthday. It is always fun destroying people on the 21st, it’s just bad when it all comes back up. Also ran into some old friends who I got hell from for not telling them about being engaged as well as some of my old engineering buddies who work in Charleston who informed me of openings at their company (Maybe in a few years if Kraft isn’t working out). Aaaanyways, got to know the new girlfriend and harass her for dating my dumbass little bro. I headed to help out Hayes and the computer that I built, now I have built 2 of my own computers and usually can figure the problems out. Well I solved her floppy drive problem only to supposedly induce a second problem, that of no mouse in windows. I would start the computer up and the pointer wouldn’t even show, I ended up taking the computer back to my place with 14 days to try and solve what was going on or give her her money back. I read up on this and may reformat/install windows as she didn’t have anything on the comp yet anyways. I finally get back to my place and after hijacking some disks from my little bro, fix my computer. And then I come into work tonight and find out that in all my anticipation of going to 2nd shift in a week, it’s not going to happen for at least another 2 weeks as the guy who is supposed to replace me has to get his gall bladder removed this Friday and that could take him out for up to 2 weeks. Yeah Brad gets screwed again! Plus I will be working this weekend, come back from a week off and fall right back into the pile of excrement. Ok that was one long recap but at least I am back on the ball, hope everyone has been doing well.

Oh yeah also saw gas for a 1.65 in Clemson and was paying 2 bucks for a Newcastle at the bars. And people wonder why I love that place so…..

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