Tuesday starts just after 5 am with a 4 mile run - I need to get in some exercise and stress relief on this day.
The day at Northrop Grumman is taken up with an (almost) all day review. I skip the first hour because I've seen it before and because it features the guy who likes to hear himself talk. (And he'll be doing most of the talking for the next 5 hours anyway.) We proceed through a number of disciplines, but mine is skipped over each time that it seems appropriate to start it. I patiently wait my turn.
Lunch comes along and I bypass the pizza that is provided because today is a "no cheese" day. Instead I go to the vending machine and decide on a Snapple fruit punch. The $1.25 is put in and the large fruit punch container starts to tip just before it gets to the end of the slot. It makes it out of it's own slot but gets stuck one row down. I give the machine a push and a shove from a few different angles but, not wanting to become a Darwin award winner when I knock the vending machine over onto myself and die, I give up. A coworker in the review comes by and says, "You tried for a fruit punch. Why don't you try for the smaller other brand fruit punch behind the Snapple and see if it might knock the large bottle free?" I take his suggestion and pump in $0.60 for the smaller container. It gets to the end of it's slot but doesn't have enough velocity or mass to a) knock the Snapple bottle loose, and b) drop to the bottom where I can get it. Instead it just remains at the end of the slot. After seeing the coworker put in multiple dollars and successfully receive various flavors of soda, I give up and go to the next machine and get a $0.60 Sprite. (Which is really a $2.45 Sprite if you count all of the money that I'm out.)
The review continues and it is obvious that the talker is going to punish me for being late by doing my section last. Except that he gets to the next to last section and starts putting things away as if he's ready to leave. When he starts to stand up I have to remind him that he has forgotten my section. He gives the surprised, "Oops, I forgot about it" statement and proceeds with my section. My section is finished after 10 minutes. And 5 hours of waiting through other sections.
After work I grab an old bicycle and head to K-Town to donate the bicycle to the Bike Kitchen. I pick up Person M_P along the way and we find the place. The Bike Kitchen takes old bicycles and fixes them up and gives them to people who need them for their jobs. The kitchen is located in a "collective-type" place. I catch the guy on the way in and, after seeing the bike that I want to donate, he says, "That's a really nice bike".
"Yes, it has been over the French side of the Alps, over the Swiss side of the Alps, across Italy, and through Monte Carlo. It has served me well but I don't use it anymore." After a pause, I continue with, "I have a mountain bike with a broken frame that I would like to bring in also."
Person M_P and I have dinner and we go looking for something for his apartment. In the store I am interupted by a Brandon phone call. In response to his inquiry, I say, "We're in the Walgreens at Pico and Robertson trying to buy condoms. But we can't make up our minds because there are so many choices." At this, Person M_P starts laughing, I start laughing, Brandon starts laughing, the people around us in the store start laughing, and Joe (via Brandon's phone) starts laughing. Joe is taking Brandon to the airport and even though Joe lives about 2 miles from Long Beach airport, he comes on the phone and asks for directions. "Around the traffic circle, North on Lakewood, it'll be on your left."
A minute later I hear Brandon say to Joe, "There it is. That was quick. How come it took forever the last time that you brought me here?" Brandon and Joe driving together and trying to find something is always an adventure.
I drop Person M_P off at his work and I am in bed at an almost reasonable hour on this long January Tuesday.