first day at microsoft

07:00 Alarm goes off. Grr...I haven't been awake at this time in awhile.
07:20 Finally jump in shower. Brr..it's colder at this time.
08:00 Eat breakfast, give Misha his antibiotics
08:17 Finally walk out the door to begin my commute
08:32 Crap--this traffic sucks. I haven't even reached the bridge.
08:44 Oh good, it's picking up--moving faster.
08:52 Finally arrive on campus--where's the building again?
08:59 Finally find the NEO (New Employee Orientation)--check in, get my packet.
09:30 Orientation begins.
15:37 First portion of orientation ends--I decide to jump on the shuttle for the optional portion of visiting the Company Store and Visitor Center
16:30 Get back on shuttle to go back to orientation building--meet another Amazonian that also recently left to come to MS, chat with him for the ride back
16:46 Get in car for drive back to Seattle
16:53 Run into traffic before I even cross 405--this is going to suck.
17:36 Finally get home--going to have to get used to this commute.

Man, I'm really going to miss the short commute I've had going to Amazon all these years---lasting on average about 6-7 minutes. Orientation today was interesting and overwhelming. So many people work here--today, alone, there were 115 people in my orientation! Sheesh! My first thoughts going into orientation: I felt like it was my first day of college where you're sent from one work station to another to fill out the appropriate forms and stuff. I was really impressed by how organized everything was and the wealth of information presented to me. Orientation continues tomorrow when I finally get my badge (er, cardkey...I think that's what they call it) and eventually meet the team.

Ciao and Farewell

Sent at 3:41pm---
Hi all,

Today is my last day at Amazon---it's been a real pleasure working with all of you.

If you can, please join me & Eric Franklin for a drink at Barca (1510 11th Ave) tomorrow evening, May 17th, at 6pm--would love to see you.

Keep in touch!

~ Audrey

magneto

This week, Microsoft unveiled Windows Mobile 5.0. Check out a presentation deck here for a more indepth view. How exciting since this is exactly the technology that I'll be working on when I join Microsoft. There's so much for me to read and digest and learn--that's what I'm most psyched about. I know soo little about the Windows platform when it comes to PocketPCs and Smartphones since I've been a Palm user for the last 6 years. Although I love my current phone, with it being nearly 3 years old, there are a lot of shortcomings...and reading this deck makes me realize how many features I lack currently. I can't wait to get a MS Smartphone and start playing around with it!

zumanity

After spending 1 day back in Seattle doing random errands and re-packing, I'm now in Vegas visiting my parents who decided to get a vacation home here. Within a few hours of arriving, I was already at a casino with the family and gambling at the blackjack table. Ha ha--you win some, you lose some. I think overall, I've lost $20 by now. Last minute, we decided to check out a new Cirque du Soleil show called Zumanity at the New York New York Hotel & Casino. I absolutely love Cirque du Soleil and have already seen a bunch of their shows: Alegria, Mystere, O, Saltimbanco.....there are 3 here in Vegas I have yet to see: Zumanity, La Reve and KÀ...and I'm going to see all 3 while I'm here! So last night, I saw Zumanity, which is their only adult-only show. Instead of being filled with child's fantasy, dreams and performers in colorful costumes of storybook creatures, this show focuses on the burlesque, cabaret side of eroticism. Most of the costumes in this show involved leather, thongs, feathers, jock straps and tiny pasties. Instead of seing a fantasmic, alien-like creature doing a balancing & flexibility act with hanging rope, in Zumanity you see a near-nude lady turning the act into that of self-masochism. It was definitely interesting and a different side of Cirque. There were still some amazing performances of contortionism, spinning 20 hula-hoops while being suspended in the air and even a cool act involving 2 Asian women, flexibility and a mini fishbowl-like mini-pool. With the performers being near naked, I loved seeing the muscles of these amazing athletes at work, particularly those of the contortionists. It was fascinating to see the raw performance, unhidden by the flare of the typical Cirque costume. The only thing I wasn't wowed by was that I felt like there weren't as MANY performances as there are in a typical Cirque show. What happened to the 20 people bouncing around on crazy trampolines or the 6 people bouncing up and down on bungee swings. In a way, I have a soft spot for the awe felt by the more elaborate productions.

last day in paradise

It´s our last day and Sri & I just checked out of the hotel. We don´t leave til 2pm for the airport since our flight is in the late afternoon...so we have 3 more hours to sit by the pool, get sunburnt (me), drink piña coladas and soak in the salty fresh air of the ocean. Not much new to report. We went into Playa del Carmen for dinner last night and ate at the Blue Lobster, each of us ordering the biggest lobster tail we´ve ever eaten. This was the first ever lobster tail that I couldn´t finish...it was huge! What a sad waste for such a good, expensive lobster tail. Grr. But man, it was good. We also came across a really cool hotel & bar lounge called Deseo, which had beds next to the rooftop pool with a DJ planning untz-untz music all evening. Very chill. Sri and I agree that Playa del Carmen is more our scene than Cancún, which can be overwhelming for the senses. Anyway, great vacation. Happy that the ´rents decided to invest in this place...hasta la vista!

coco bongo

Wow. Sri and I decided to live it up and check out Cancún last night since it was, afterall, Cinco de Mayo...and why not party it up in the party capital of Mexico? We first had dinner at this wonderful restaurant called The Plantation House, which specializied in Caribbean style cooking. I once again had a lobster tail which was delicious and Sri had a blackened grouper. Well satisfied after dinner, we wandered over to the clubbing area down the street in the Zona Hotelera to find chaos. It´s like Las Vegas on steroids and all over the place. There were bars and discos EVERYWHERE and people were spilling out onto the street. We eventually decided to check out this huge club called Coco Bongo, which had the longest line. Fortunately, it moved fast. After a $35 cover fee, we walked into quite the night! It was actually worth the $35 because it included all the drinks and this spectacular show. It was a dance club but every 5-10 minutes, they´d stop to put on some huge show, ranging from a Cirque du Soleil style in-the-air-with-ropes performance to a Madonna imitation to some random Beetlejuice combination.

One bargain we´ve learned is the local colectiva, or public bus. We took a bus that cost us $2 to get into Cancún from the hotel. But the taxi back cost us $22, which is considered quite a deal. The other night, when we went to Playa del Carmen, it cost us $1 by bus to go and $15 by taxi to return.

Today was quite adventurous...as we took our 1 excusion: Xtreme Adventure! It started off with some mountain biking through a Mayan Jungle, which was really beautiful, and through a tiny town called Central Vallarta. After that, we zip lined down 2 cables from the top of the jungle all the way down---so so fun! Not as scary as it looks! And lastly, we snorkled down in a Mexican cenote, or a cave, which is apparently the mouth to an underground river 125 ft below. The water was so cool and refreshing.

Unfortunately, by the time we returned to the hotel, the clouds came over again. No more sun. I hear the sun will return tomorrow and Sunday..and hopefully I can even out this horrendous sunburn! Just bought some calamine lotion---the bugs are just LOVING my legs and it sucks.

sunburn and bug bites

Man, first day and I´m already sunburnt and have enormous bug bites on my right leg, perhaps from unknown creatures of the night that jumped into bed. I swear I put sunblock all over myself but I still got burnt. Ugh. Storm clouds are hovering over the resort today, so fortunately I don´t have to face the sun again. Last night, Sri and I checked out the town of Playa del Carmen, which is only about 10-15 minutes away. We hopped on a local public autobús, which costs only $1/person and strolled around 5th Avenue, which is this crazy long street full of vendors, shops and restaurants. We ended up at a restaurant where I ate the Langosta Especial---a lobster tail, wine and salad for $14. What a deal! 5th Avenue is really amazing and just full of people. It can be overwhelming the number of places to go shopping at there...a complete overload of the senses. Today, Sri and I went to a yoga class at the Spa Gym here, which was great. I haven´t taken a yoga class in, er, 3-4 years and it was Hatha style yoga.

We´re heading into Cancún tonight for Cinco de Mayo festivities (assuming there are any) and then waking up early tomorrow for an Xtreme Adventure excursion: mountain bike trekking, snorkeling and zip lining through the jungle! Yippee!

¡Estoy en Cancún!

Well, Sri and I arrived in Cancún safely this evening, after being in flight for nearly 7 hours. We fortunately avoided the crowd of time-share selling folks and got a decently priced taxi over to our hotel, the Mayan Palace, located in the Riviera Maya. We were lucky and got upgraded to the Grand Mayan, which is the fancier part of this complex (and when I mean complex, I mean complex---we needed transportation from the lobby to our room)...and WOW! Sri and I are in complete awe of how beautiful this place is (and keep in mind, this is a time share of my parents which we lucked out on). The suite we have has a kitchen with granite countertop, a huge living room, in-suite jacuzzi and we even have a mini wading pool in our balcony. This is a gigantic resort with a crazy interconnected pool. You could vacation here and never leave. Seriously. We can´t wait to check out this place during the daytime and finally get a sense of how grandiose it is. Wahoo!

Reading Eugene's recent post about his Shure E3c earphones reminded to post about some new headphones that my brother bought me for Christmas---the Etymotic 6i Isolater Earphones. These earphones have made a huge difference in noise isolation. It almost completely blocks out outside noise. I often wear them to work out at the gym and I don't have to compete with the cheesy dance music piping through the gym's speakers (so that I can listen to my own cheesy dance music..heh heh). The sound is so isolated that my own heartbeat is quite clear through these headphones. I've been very impressed by these headphones so far and am eager to test it out on the airplane to see how it compares to my Bose QuietComfort 2 Noise Cancelling Headphones.

I've been really enjoying my time off. This past week has just been wonderful, sleeping in and doing random errands and organizing around the house. I finally got the bridesmaid dress for my friend Anna's wedding next month at the end of the week---and to my sheer horror, I couldn't fit into it. I was a dumbass and just ordered my regular retail size...when, in reality, I should've ordered a dress size bigger. Ack. I ran to a local seamstress freaking out and they're going to be able to bring it out a few inches, making enough room for my waist to get through, which is really the only issue. My hips are fine and I think my chest will fit as well. [sigh] How horrifying as this dress is custom made and took 3 months to make after ordering. I immediately sent an email out to the other bridesmaids telling them of my ordeal and letting them know about the extra fabric in the inseams in the case they made the same mistake as I did. So far, Christine and Francesca have confirmed their dresses fit..and Julia hasn't seen hers yet but believes it should fit since she ordered a size bigger. I was the only stupid one. [sigh] I'm just praying that when I get the dress back from the seamstress that it fits. I think the extra 2-3 inches the seamstress is going to give me plus some cinching corset and some dieting over the next month will make me fit into this thing. What was I thinking? Ack. (Barbara, if you're reading this, no worries--I'll make this work!!) Of course, this episode prompted me to check my weight---I jumped on the scale and have realized that I've gained a few more pounds. What happened?! I am now the heaviest I have ever been in my life. Depression sinks in. Good thing I've had this time off--I've actually been going to the gym (been 3 times this week) and squeezing some cardio in. This is no good.

I recently checked out a new pizzeria up the street from me called Via Tribunali. Seattle folks, if you haven't tried this out yet, you should. It's only been around since last November and is barely noticeable with its garage-door-like entrance--I've walked by it several times in the past few months and never realized that there was a restaurant there. This isn't just any pizzeria--this is *good* Neopolitan thin-crusted pizza with the freshest of ingredients. Pizza is made in a hot wood-burning oven that literally spits out a pizza in 1 minute. I swear--I watched the pizza guy put a pizza in, watch for a minute, take it out, place it on a plate to be whisked off by the waiter and served fresh. Amazing. Also to note for Seattle folks--the prosciutto, salami and other cured meats used in the appetizers and pizza are from none other than the local Salumi's, another favorite of mine. I've tried 2 pizzas--the Funghi and the Quattro Stagioni, both wonderful tasting. Also to note is the decor inside: tall ceilings, brick walls, neon-quasi-light-fixtures on the wall the emanate cathedral stained glass scenes, candlelight--very Capitol Hill hip. Did I mention that the price isn't bad either? Pizzas are around $10-$15 and can easily be shared. Do that with a yummy prosciutto appetizer and 2 glasses of wine and you've got yourself a decently priced delicious dinner meal.

I leave for Mexico tomorrow to bask in the sun at the Riviera Maya with Sri. I can't wait to just lay around, soaking in the sun, sipping on strawberry daquiris. My plan today: pack, get cat food for Misha, watch 24 and get some sleep in before my 8am flight. Ciao!