We’re Going In The Wrong Direction . .

 “One must not lose desires. They are might stimulants to creativeness, to love, and to long life.” ~Alexander A. Bobomoletz

Well, today was good so far. The table man is coming in two and a half hours to pick up my table. He is suppose to fix the scratches in it that the movers caused. I hope he can fix it. Either that or the moving company needs to buy me a new dining room table. We’ll see what he can do.

Played racquetball with Dad this morning. It’s funny. He used to play in college so he knows all of the rules. He hasn’t played in ages. He’s a lot better than me and has a lot of patience because I suck. We are planning on playing again on Sunday morning. That should be fun. Hopefully this can become something we do with regularity.

Another excerpt from my time in Ysleta:

My boss called me on Monday telling me either he or Lenin would be coming down this week to help out with something. He was planning on sending Lenin because he had an important meeting this week that he couldn’t miss.

Tuesday came and the email came down from my boss. Joe would be heading down that afternoon. I was disappointed. Lenin called me that morning when he got in to talk to me about something, “I’ll be there around 4 this afternoon.”
“Really? I thought Joe was coming.”
“As of yesterday they said it was me.”
“As of 6:30 this morning it is Joe.”
“Oh.” says Lenin, surprised. We continue our discussion on the problem I encountered. After that is said and done, we hang up and I get back to work. An hour doesn’t pass and I get an email from Joe, Lenin is cc’ed on it, and it is Lenin who is leaving for Ysleta. I send a note to Lenin, “Before you leave, can you get in my filing cabinet and grab my pashmina. They moved me to a different room and it is freezing cold.”
Lenin’s responses:
“I’m not a very good personal assistant. What is a pashmina? English, por favor.”

I call him and inform him it is the red wrap that is in my filing cabinet. I also inform him that it isn’t Spanish, it’s Indian. He lets me know he is headed my way and I’ll see him around 4:30. He’s going to drive to the office that I’m working in.

I work through the day absolutely ecstatic. I’ve traveled with Lenin once before in the past and it was a blast. We get along really well and we have similar senses of humor. I work through the day and it comes up to my supervisor in Ysleta that Joe is sending his senior buyer down to help with something I am working on.

However, as the day had progressed, it turned out The Genius (the kid I was working with) and I were going to have to go to a supplier’s office for the next three days. That would be a 5 hour drive. I didn’t see the point of Lenin coming, if he wasn’t even going to be able to help us because of the fact that we weren’t in town. They were considering sending Lenin and myself to the supplier’s place and leave The Genius at the office to fix all the problems that he got them into, but we didn’t think that was a good idea. To make a long story short, it was decided that Lenin would accompany The Genius and myself to the supplier.

Lenin hits town around 4:30. We go down to the office of my supervisor in Ysleta and they meet and she tries to wrap her head around our game plan. Then she runs off to a meeting, while Lenin and I go to a meeting.

After the meeting, it’s 5:15 and we head back to my cube area. He needs to get onto the computer to do a few things quickly and I tell him he can use my computer. As he works, he picks my brain on the situation in Ysleta and I eat a banana because I’m absolutely starving.

After he is done with my computer, we decide to call it a day. He is staying at the Radisson and I am a different hotel. We decide to have dinner together. He decides we should meet at 7 and I tell him I’ll pick him up because I know Ysleta better than him. That was a mistake.

We part ways and I head to my hotel. About 6:40 I go out to my car to go pick up Lenin. I had searched the GPS unit for the address to his hotel earlier and it didn’t register, so I told it to take me to the address closest to it. I drive and follow the directions and end up in the mall parking lot. Great, just great.

As I fiddle with the GPS unit my work phone rings, it’s Lenin, “Where are you? I’m hungry and there is a weird woman staring at me.”
“Well, I followed the GPS unit directions and it dumped me off in the parking lot of a mall.”
“Did you put in the correct address?”
“Yes.” as I read it back to him.
“Look it up by the hotel name.” I type in Raddisson and it doesn’t show it being there. Frustrated I tell him, “It’s not in there.”
“How did you spell it?”
“R-A-D-D-I-S-O-N.”
“It has two S’s.”
“Oh, wait a minute.” sure enough, it is in there under the correct spelling, “Okay, I’m headed your way. I’ll see you in twenty minutes.”
“Twenty minutes?” he asks, defeated.
“Yep. See you soon.” I drive to his hotel, which is out in the boonies. I drive past it, so as I turn around I call his work cell, “Two minutes. I just drove past it.”
“I just ordered a Long Island Iced Tea.”
“I would suggest you drink quickly then.” he laughs at me. Then I think about it, “Did you really order a Long Island?”
“No.”
“That makes more sense. I’ll see you in a minute.” I pull up to the hotel and he walks out. As he reaches for the passenger side door, he turns around and walks away. He goes to his rental and grabs something from the backseat, my pashmina.

He gets in the car and hands me my pashmina. I look at him, “Thanks. Sorry about being late. Where do you want to go to dinner?”
“What’s good?” I rattle off restaurants and tell him that my hotel is on restaurant row. We could head that way and if he finds something he wants to try, he could yell out. We decide that to be the best case scenario. I get back on the highway and we start talking about trivial things. We’re on the highway about thirty seconds and I realize something, "Oh crap.”
“What’s wrong.”
“We’re going the wrong way.” I said as I take the next exit. He seems pretty laid back about the whole thing and I get back on the highway going in the right direction. The discussion starts up again and that’s when I realize that this time, we really are going the wrong way. I tell him that we are actually going the wrong way this time and he gives a dramatic groan. I exit the highway. When we’re finally going the right way, we continue our discussion.

As we’re driving to my area of town, we see emergency vehicles drive past with their sirens blaring. Lenin tells me to take the next exit, I ask why and he points to the upcoming traffic jam. I take the next exit and tell him to get out the GPS unit. I don’t know this part of town and I would need the GPS unit to tell me how to get to Restaurant Row without the highway. We end up going in circles three times because of construction and Lenin not knowing how to read my personal GPS unit. As frustrating as the whole thing is, we’re laughing our asses off and having a really good time.

As we get onto a road, I recognize where we are at. However, it’s in mid-turn across oncoming traffic that I notice this. Lenin tells me to drive as I’m pointing and telling him I know where we are at. He informs me that the woman driving towards us is speeding up. He thinks I’m trying to kill him. I’m laughing so hard my eyes are watering and Lenin is the same way. We finally get on a different highway and make it to Restaurant Row. We make it to the restaurant at 8:00, one hour after I was to pick him up.

We eat dinner, talk about the situation in Ysleta, talk about The Genius and his lack of knowledge and desire to learn. After dinner, we drive him back to his hotel. On the way back we talk about someone we both know that might have gotten caught stealing from his previous job. We talked about people who steal and I tell him that I think young women go through a stealing phase. I knew a lot of girls growing up that stole just for the rush, but I also think they stole for the attention. He tells me that he would believe that. He phrased it comically, but he said that his ex-wife stole half of everything from him. He laughed about it and I giggled with him, but it’s weird. During that whole time that night, I think he mentioned his ex-wife twice. I think they have been divorced between 7-10 years. He opens up a lot more when it is just the two of us, because later in the trip he mentions her again.

There is more to this story, but I need to go get some things done. I’m not sure what to think on Lenin. He is such a good guy and I really dig him.