Real Professional | We 11/9

It was difficult falling asleep again last night. Eventually I started imagining that I was holding Sammy again instead of my pillow, which destroyed my brain and my heart.

I woke up a few hours after I properly fell asleep and considered saying that I was feeling under the weather since the flu-like symptoms escalated last night (cough, sneezing, runny nose), but I heard excited of myself telling my team that I would be there in person and get lunch together so I pushed it to get ready. Despite my best efforts I was late and missed my stand up, but I made it into the office in time for the rest of the meetings that ran back to back afterwards. At first I thought it was awkward coming in after stand up since Gonzalo saw me, but he didn't comment on it or anything.

Later I got to eat lunch with Gonzalo, Yumei, and Eric and it was a fun chat. Eric lives near the office and told me about the fancy businesses and study spots in the area along with the product he's working on, and Yumei had some beef pancakes she shared with me. Afterwards I kept reading about reactive programming when Gonzalo invited me into a debugging meeting her was going to have, saying that it would help me understand Arcus.

It was helpful seeing the organization of the product, with its 20+ microservices that call each other in sequence, particular branch organization for testing and integration, and weird reactive code on top of data streams (which are like the underscore.js methods and air functions I worked with for HR precourse). Gonzalo and Yumei were impressed that I knew about the specifics of testing and the RACI diagram for the team members saying that I'll probably start contributing sooner than Nicole took, but I tried to lower their expectations for me.

It was fun learning about all that and I got further recommendations for content to learn, but eventually the conversation came to my hobbies and I told them about volleyball. They shared about times when team members from other offices dropped in unannounced and hung out, which sounded like a great time, but they also wanted ideas for activities to do as a team. Yumei also shared about the shorts get daughter did while going through school and her philosophy on trying to play full time, which is understandable and relatable as someone who would love to play volleyball full time.

We kept talking and they answered my questions until 6 pm when they wanted to call it. I continued talking when I realized the meeting wouldn't end before rush hour, thinking that I could wait it out. It's too bad that I would've had to wait longer and had to leave to get home in time for volleyball.

They understood my situation before leaving and recommended I ask Sam to leave work early and be online at give afterwards for a bit, which I realize is a great idea. They also had me considering moving back in with Mom, but I don't think I could do it despite all the time saved.

Traffic was as long as yesterday, but strangely it felt a lot easier to deal with. Maybe getting gas after work yesterday did a number on me. Either way I don't want to get used to it. That feels life the first step in kidding my soul to adulthood.

Volleyball was busy like usual nowadays on Wednesdays, but I had some trouble hitting. I managed to get some alright passes, but I think the long day wore me down. I didn't talk much, but my team was pretty friendly apart from a few backseating moments. Afterwards Caiti restored her tire pressure and we helped Andrew out too since he needed it, which was a strange activity to be doing sober on a Wednesday night. She also asked about the Jinn situation when it was just us in the car, which I tried my best not to laugh at since it's such old news now. I also did my best not to hint at the Sammy situation, but I couldn't stop thinking "she doesn't know" and smiling to myself. She did tell me to think about lessons and take aways though, which I think would be helpful to put into writing for all the situations.

Now I'm trying to eat and get ready for a KT meeting tomorrow at 7:30, after which I'm coming into the office. I also realized I'll have to miss the pizza social for ETSE's since its late enough to get me such in traffic, but I'll probably enjoy the time saved from traffic more.

I also looked over messages with people and see Sammy's last "goodbye", which remelted me.