Foam Monster in Emotional Reunion

Let’s see how this entry turns out. I have from last Monday (6th) to Sunday (12th) to go over. It seems like so much longer than that has gone by, but then when I write about what has happened, I realize that for the amount of nothing I did, it’s surprising that it feels that way.

Monday (6th): I honestly cannot remember anything from this day. This is the exact reason why I said I should update more often, daily even, like I used to when I started this blog. *sigh* It’s funny to look back and think “How many days have gone by, forgotten and lost forever”.

Tuesday (7th): We did the usual BT rush to Mother. Wanted to get some Council shots in so we’d have less to worry about on Thursday, but we sucked it up on Mother for some god awful reason. It was going really well too, 1 shotted everything up to her. Ah well, we’ll get a 1 night clear of BT some day.

Wednesday (8th): The guild thought it would be fun to go do Vashj and Kael to get vials for those who didn’t finish the quest 800 years ago when we were still doing tier 5 content. So, we headed into SSC and smashed our way to Vashj easily and pretty quickly. Then we proceeded to wipe about 6 billion times, finally downing the stupid bitch close to the end of our normal raid time. It was really sad and ridiculous, but what do you expect when everyone wants to bring their alts. The only reason we finally downed her was because most of the people who WERE on alts (me included) hopped on their mains. Soon as that atrocity was finished, I went to bed.

Thursday (9th): Going to talk about what happened at work first. Because I do not wish to really go over it again (due to the fact that I explained it to everybody a billion times), I’m just going to post the letter that I had to type up after everything happened:

To Whom It May Concern,

I was recently asked to deliver an envelope containing a bid for land surveying services to Mr. Mark Bowcock at Ocean County College. Liz Brady had given the request to me between 10 and 11AM on October 7th 2008 and the bid opening was to be held at 2 PM. When I say that she had given the request to me, I mean to say that she informed me thusly:

“John, has Art told you about the fun trip you will be going on today?” I replied “No”. She stated, “Well, I’ll let him explain it to you then”. Then after a few minutes of her being up in the print room, I asked her what was going on. She said, “Someone, it doesn’t have to be you, will be going to Ocean County College today. They will be dropping off a package and sitting in a bid opening, writing down bids from other companies that will be there” and she began listing off different companies. She then gave me the envelope with trip slip and said “Whoever is going should get there around 1:30, giving them 30 minutes just in case”. I then walked the package into Art’s office and asked him where I should leave everything for the trip. He told me to leave it on the stool, immediately to the left when you walk into his office.

Around 12:55PM, Art brought the package out of his office and placed it on the table next to his door. He told me not to forget about it and walked out of the room. Raou was already leaving for another delivery, so I took the envelope, grabbed some keys, went downstairs to get a notebook and pen (to write down information from the bid opening as stated by Liz), and headed out. I left the LGA office around 1:10PM as to arrive on the campus with sufficient time left. I arrived on campus around 1:30PM.

After pulling into the campus and finding a parking spot (which isn’t the easiest thing to do during school hours), I made my way to the Administration building as per the transmittal letter attached to the envelope (I mention this because there was no room number or anything else on the transmittal letter except the name of the man I was looking for and the department in which he works [Mark Bowcock, Purchasing; Administration Building]). Upon entering the Administration building, I immediately entered the room ahead and to the left of me marked Academic Planning & Advising, hoping I would be able to ask someone for their help in locating Mr. Bowcock. The young lady available informed me, after confirming with another woman who she called in, that Mr. Bowcock could be found in the Kean Office in the Library, Room 110. I left the office around 1:45PM.

I thanked both women and quickly headed off to the Library, finding the room they had mentioned and asking the gentleman at the desk if he could help me find Mark Bowcock. He told me that Mr. Bowcock would be in the Purchasing department in the Administration building (as stated on the transmittal) for Kean-Ocean, located across the street. So, I walked back to the car and drove around the campus to where I was directed. Once there, the help behind the desk (a man came to the front and two women were working at their computers) informed me that Mr. Bowcock was in a bid opening in the Administration building, where I had gone to in the first place. I left this office around 1:55PM.

On my way back, I had called Art Sorian to explain what was already going on and that I would most likely be late for the bid opening. I again had to find a parking space and make my way to the Administration building I went to the first time. By the time I made it back to the Administration building and up the stairs to the office I was pointed to this time, it was around 2:05PM. I asked the secretary, who asked another secretary, if I was able to go into the meeting or at least give the envelope to Mark Bowcock. Both secretaries discussed this for a few minutes and then called for another woman named Joyce Ann Lamparello. Joyce took the envelope from me and after a minute or two of reading it and thinking, she finally knocked on the door, said a few words to the people inside, closed the door, looked at me and shook her head.

She began telling me that I was too late and that the bid was denied. I immediately called Art to explain what was happening. He asked me what the woman’s name was (whose name at the time I did not know). She rudely told me that she would write it down, which I told Art. He asked if there was anyone he could speak to. I asked Joyce, who finished the note stating that I had arrived late (2:11PM) and that the bid was denied. She said, “No, they are all in the meeting right now” and immediately started walking away. I asked if he could speak with her, but she exclaimed that she was too busy at the moment.

Afterwards, Art told me to try and get the names of the people who I had spoken with, those who had given me false directions throughout the campus. I returned to the Planning & Advising room downstairs, but the woman whom I had first talked to was not around. They did give me the main campus phone number to call if I had any questions: 732-255-0400, and said that I could contact the office at a later time. They also gave me the extension of Mark Bowcock (Ext. 2046). I proceeded to make my way to the Library to ask the name of the man who had tried to help me earlier, but there was no one in the office. I spoke to the receptionist in the front of the Library and she gave me the extension for his office (Ext. 356 or dial direct 732-255-0356).

Finally, I gave Art all the information I had received. He told me to head back to the Administration office where they were having the bid opening and to wait until Mr. Bowcock had finished, to try and see if I could get a word with him. When I got back to the office, the door where the meeting was being held was open. I asked the secretaries if I could speak with Mr. Bowcock, but they didn’t know where he went, just that the meeting had ended. I sat around for a few minutes before he showed up. He was a very nice gentleman and greeted me immediately, listening to my story of how I had traversed around the campus looking for him. However, he told me that, “Once the door is closed to a bid opening, it’s against New Jersey state law to let anyone else in. I’m sorry”. I shook his hand and left, calling Art and telling him the details of what took place.

After checking Ocean County College’s website, I found Joyce Ann Lamparello’s extension (Ext. 2383). I gave the note she had written and transmittal to Mike Giuliano upon returning to the LGA office. Looking back, the only person who gave me any problems was Joyce Lamparello. She was very rude while I was there and I felt as though she thought I was wasting her time being there. I tried to explain that I had arrived half an hour earlier than the bid opening, but she just kept shaking her head and saying “Too late, too late”. Everyone else was helpful, although they gave me incorrect information, which led me to be late.

Very ridiculous all in all. Funny thing, this was 2 1/2 pages originally, until I was asked to revise it and include more details. I had the new stuff in bold, but then I just figured I would keep it all normal and not pretend like I was asked to do more than needed.

After the fun day at the office, it was time to finish off Council and Illidan in BT. We didn’t have the best makeup for Council (a lot of healers missing), so like the day before, we had a lot of alts. After a few wipes, some healers started getting on finally and we were able to normalize the fight once again and continue on. Illidan went down after one or two attempts and I was able to call it a night after that.

Friday (10th): Still on edge at work, figuring I’d get fired at any moment. My boss felt it necessary to tell me that he was getting his ass chewed out (multiple times) by the higher-ups. Fun stuff.

After work I headed over mom’s for Terry’s birthday. I picked him up a card and gift certificate for Home Depot on the way ($25, mom already picked up the $40 heater, so with the card and whatnot, it was about $70 total). We had dinner (Joan was there), then played cards afterwards. Terry enjoyed his gifts, and in the end, mom realized we never sang “Happy Birthday”. No political discussion (amazingly), so it was a good night

Came home, hopped on WoW. We did some arenas (3s – my paly, jace’s warrior, carl’s lock). Wasn’t too bad, though I really hope that when WotLK comes out, I can work some arenas with people where we’re getting points every week and actually trying to be decent. I hate being stuck in the 1500 – 1650 bracket.

Saturday (11th): Planned on going to Gavino’s early today, but I wasn’t feeling well. I got up around noon-ish and got ready finally. When I got to his house, we watched some stuff on the computer and then headed out to Collingswood auction to see our asian media friends from the Rt. 18 mall (recently moved down here). After hanging out there for a bit and buying 2 dvds a piece (gotta love $10 movies), we headed to the mall for some bubble tea. I got delicious coconut and Gavino picked up whatever for him and April. We headed back to his place, he got a phone call to do some maintainence work (of course the day we hang out he’s got the phone, when is that different from normal) and headed out to take care of it. I played some Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and April came home. After a little more playing, I said we should play Castle Crashers…so we did. Gavino came back finally and after hours of trying to decide on where to eat, we picked Panera Bread.

Now, usually when you go out to eat, you go out to fucking eat. Well, when we got there, I was told I should order first since I already decided what I wanted. Should I have asked if we were eating there? I figured, since they both said they WANTED TO EAT OUT that we’d be EATING OUT. Many times we brought up the idea of ordering in, but it came down to going out to eat…UGH…not that I mind, I love to eat out…but okay ==> So, I go up to order, move to the left to get my drink, and then they go up. I hear them say “to go”, and I say “what the fuck?” (not exactly, but I give them the look and say “Um, we’re not eating here?”). They both start laughing and tell me to quickly say I want it to go to the woman putting my food together. After all that nonsense (there’s more, but I really don’t feel like going into it), we head back to their place? Of course not. April wanted to go to Toys R Us. So we went there, checked out the board games (which is cool, she probably wanted to buy one since Gavino told her how we were checking out the sweet board game store in the mall). Of course, we didn’t buy one, and they proceeded to walk around for another 6 hours.

Finally we headed back to their place. I started to eat my soup (which was all kinds of delicious – cheese and broccoli) and noticed I didn’t have any extra bread to eat it with (besides my sandwich). So I asked if they had any bread, went in the kitchen to get some, came back and proceeded to smash my soup to the floor by accident (obviously). After cleaning it up and deciding we had time to watch a movie, I started eating my 1/8th of a soup and sandwich (still amazingly good). We tried watching 2 movies, but Gavino’s had no subtitles and my first selection had LITERAL TRANSLATION (worst thing ever…”WE ARE ESCAPE!”). So, it’s time to take those back. But before that (and not until some other day), we watched my other choice: “I’m a Cyborg, but that’s OK”. I really enjoyed it, and they did as well, so it was all good.

Gonna do Sunday another time, gotta leave work!