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What did you do this week?
As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!
Sold a house! Now just gotta prep for a move in a month or so.
I had my train ride back from Salem, Oregon to LA! It went a bit better than the trip up because I managed to sleep in the middle of it and I had a travel pillow to get comfy with. I wanted another look at Mt. Shasta, but we went through there at night. The train was 40 minutes late to Salem, 1:20 late overnight, but they managed to get into the station only 47 minutes late, when my brother's wife picked me up and brought me home. She came by Friday (today) to grab me so I can get my car, and we hung out for a few hours. While waiting for the train my dad's GF said, in response to my nervousness about a trip that long in a new car, "You should've! It's a great way to get experience!" I sort of hate her for that, because I may visit them by car next time. 14 hours of driving (estimated) vs 29 hours by train. Probably 26 hours if I account for a short motel stay + stops for fuel, etc. I basically saw California via the 101 (the lines follow it) and the industrial backbone of California, so the 5 would be an interesting perspective.
It's been a crazy week at work. We have big convention in about two weeks, and need to ship everything by end of next week, so this is crunch time. One of my responsibilities -- even though I'm the IT guy -- is to arrange shipping. We send 4-5 pallets of electronic and office equipment, marketing materials and signs, giveaway swag, and even our pressed, dry cleaned clothes, plus whatever else.
Normally not a huge deal, but last year, we had all sorts of issues, with stuff almost not arriving on time. It was a nightmare. After asking friends who work with the logistics industry regularly and talking to people online who work in it, it seems like it's even worse this year. It's not unusual for pick-ups to be days late and for deliveries to be days or even weeks late these days. That's not going to work for something like an event where we require everything on time to host it successfully.
So I've been looking to avoid that. People recommended dedicated and expedited service via sprinter vans or box trucks. After going back and forth with different brokers, we finally figured out the price. And it was 3x as much as we paid last year. We knew we'd pay more because of high fuel prices, and because this is dedicated service, but didn't think it'd be this high. Even the broker was surprised.
As a last ditch effort, I was mentally prepping my boss, the 2IC, to get ready to rent a U-Haul truck and drive across the country! We would've saved over a thousand dollars if he drove, though he'd lose at least 16hrs of his life on the road. We're trying to be budget-conscious because we stand to lose a lot of money on this event; expected attendance is lower than anticipated. Some of our customers are still wary of large gatherings, some companies have no travel budget, and for those that do, flight and hotel prices are insane. For an event of this size, doesn't matter if you get 100 people or 1000 people; the fixed costs are roughly the same. And you can't tell what the attendance numbers will be when signing contracts (which was done years ago for this event) and arranging everything.
Luckily, after presenting the options to my CEO this morning, he said, forget about the money, just do what we need to do to ensure everything gets there on time. So I informed our broker to start arranging everything. That's one less huge worry.
But I won't be completely relieved until a) they actually pick up our pallets and b) it arrives at the convention center on time!
I am currently recovering from my best friends wedding! I was one of two Best Men, and one of four Speakers for the Bride and Groom. My speech was last, and I had to follow an absolute TEARJERKER of a Bridesmaid speech from the Brides Twin. Speech went well, and I got many compliments about how well I did, so I'm thankful I practiced as much as I did and hopefully made it special for both of them.
I was surprisingly sober at the end of the night at 2am, but I'm definitely feeling it today. Glad I took today off, and spent it catching up on tasks I missed out on over the weekend. Got both my parents tickets to a Coldplay concert happening soon for both my Mom's birthday and Fathers Day for my Dad. Fell asleep on the couch watching YT vids today, and waffling about buying tickets for my high schools 10 year anniversary. Already bought a TON of things the previous six months of this year, so I'm waiting for the obligations to stop so that I can start saving again 😅