PARTY AT AT&T

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

What can I say, it’s that time of the year again, time for the Big Christmas Dinner, provided by AT&T and our boss Mr. Randy Ainsworth who Matt I agree is a very handsome man with leadership abilities far above the average man. We have four groups of engineers coming to the party. Two are from Natchez, two are from (Meridian) McComb, three are from Brookhaven and seven from Hattiesburg (I think I got that right). Sorry, I don’t have the brain power of my boss, his mind is like a high dollar loaded computer working at top speed all the time.

The day started out as usual, Matt and myself knocking out orders one by one at lightning speed. We were working double time to make up for the three hours that will be lost due to the drive time to the party…Matt and I are always thinking of ways to save the company money. Go AT&T!!!

Before I get into more about the party, there are few SIGNS that have been hung around the Hattiesburg office worth noting; I guess it all started a few months ago when the Boss and I rode to one of my RT sites. The Boss man was going to share with me his knowledge of the internal working of a AT&T RT site. He was hoping that I might be able to pick up on maybe as little as ten percent of his knowledge, just ten percent of his knowledge would make me have almost unlimited knowledge. I swear I think the man is a genius, his intellect is far, far more advance than the average man. Did I mention he is a very handsome man? Any way while we were looking at the RT site, I stirred up an angry bee that started to attack us; the boss with his cat like reflexes gently pushed me out of the way, jumped in between the bee and me and in doing so took a sting right in the eye. I’m telling you the man is a hero. Once we got back to the office the bosses eye closed and he had to use a sick day, so I made a sign in his honor and posted it to his door to explain his absences. Once he returned to work the next day (note: a lesser man like myself would had to take at least a week off to recover from such a sting), he gave the sign a good laugh, but did something unexpected, he left the sign on the door to this day. This baffled Matt and I, it took us almost a month to understand why he left it on the door to remind everyone to BEE careful out there, I’m telling you the man is genius…Genius.

I was off last Monday but came in Tuesday to see more words of wisdom posted to the bosses door. You see the boss had a bad head cold (again this would have hospitalized the average man or woman) but the boss being a company man was hard at work, but placed the sign (below) to prevent spreading the cold. The boss is always looking after us, what a guy.

Of course, the boss being Matt’s mentor, Matt tried to copy the great one and make a sign of his own (see below). I did not have the heart to tell him it paled in comparison but it was a nice try anyway.

Then there were more by other people

Then more

Then more

……when will the madness end!!!

Ok back to the party, it was time to go, so Matt and I took trusty AT&T truck 91. Of course we did the circle of safety check before entering the truck and heading to (Meridian) McComb.

We decided to get some extra work in along the way; so as I drove with my hands at 10 and 2 on the steering wheel scanning the horizon for potential danger, Matt took notes along the way for damaged cable, low hanging cable or new subdivisions that needed cable in them. Hattiesburg was all clear (this just happens to be the turf Matt and I handle). The existing cable all looked great (I would say perfect, but that would sound like I bragging). Well until we entered Columbia and Tylertown, this place was a disgrace low hanging cable, slicker on all the splices AT&T really needs to get an engineer to handle this area…..oh wait, we do have one….David is this your area????

After about an hour and a half of note taking we reached downtown (Meridian) McComb.

Matt got out and safely guided me as I backed the truck into its parking space at the Dinner Bell, and as usual we put an orange cone in front and back of the truck according to AT&T regulations (these regulation Matt and I hold dear to our hearts).

Once in the Dinner Bell, we had a seat on some long benches and waited for the rest of the crew to show up. It was not long and we were all seated at a huge round table with a spin top, that large amounts of food was placed on (all you can eat) fried chicken, lima bean, black eyed peas, corn bread, fried egg plant, meatloaf, rice and gravy, beats, mashed potatoes and much more not counting the desserts and sweet and unsweetened tea. Not sure what it cost, AT&T and the Boss picked up the bill, thanks Boss and AT&T you’re the greatest!!!!

I snapped a few photos so that the two ladies that could not make the trip from Natchez, Donna and Linda, could blow up the photos and place them around their office so they would not feel left out, sorry you could not make the trip, maybe next time.

(below)From right to left...Randy, Mike, Scott

(below)From right to left... Scott (again) Eric, Danny

(below)From right to left... Danny (again), Steve, Jimmy, Larry

(below)From right to left... Ann, Billy

(below)From right to left... Terry, David

I really feel bad that I don’t have photos of the two girls from Natchez so I picked two girls off the web that closely resemble them….just so you would get and idea what you were missing.

Then I noticed I did not have a photo of Matt and myself at dinner (bad camera angle,hard to take a photo of myself) so I picked two guys that most resembled us too…the photos are pretty much dead on, if I have to say so myself.

The dinner went off without a hitch, we all had a great time, and after the meal was over Mike presented the Boss with a Visa gift card for 5,000 dollars that Mike personally collected from the fourteen of us, that came out to $ 357.14 a piece (I admit that sounded kind of steep at first) but once everyone found out it was for the Boss, it was no problem. Three cheers for the Boss!!!!

After dinner Randy requested that we have a short meeting at the Meridian central office…everyone was so excited to hear what the Boss had to say….his speech kept everyone sitting on the edge of their seats just waiting on his next word, his words are like gold I tell you, like gold. It’s sad I can’t let you non-AT&T readers in on what was said, or inside photos for that matter. It was all highly classified. What happens at the central office stays at the central office, and that’s all I’m going to say about that…

Then it was time to go, Matt and I did the circle of safety around the truck and ever so carefully pulled out of the parking lot and headed back to the office to get in a least another six hours of work before we went home to our loving families.

Ok on a serious note, I did notice something we need to talk about before the story ends and it would be DRUGS IN THE WORK PLACE. After looking over the photos I notice some tell, tell signs we might have a drug addict in our group. I admit I find it hard to believe but the signs are all there…note the beaded necklace around his neck (i'm sure it is made out of hemp) the hooded sweatshirt, unable to stay awake even while eating, and the most telling sign of all…look what he is eating!!!…beats, lemons and hot sauce!!! Don’t worry Eric we are all here for you, we'll get in touch with a……..RINGGGG, RINGGGGGG

My alarm clock rang and woke me up, to another gloriest day with AT&T, TIME FOR THE BIG PARTY!!!! It was all a dream, but we did have a great time at the party, and no Eric is not a drug addict (I don’t think). No, David's area is not a mess and Randy please don’t fire Mike for stealing your money; we really did NOT give you $ 5,000 dollars, it was only 3,000 dollars, just my little joke. Ha-ha. Ok, ok I admit it I may have stretched the truth a few times during the story but everything I said about the Boss is all true…wink, wink.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE AND HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
BIG AL

PS: Also the parts about Matt and me…all true. Especially the photos, it just like looking into a mirror.