Deep Cleansing Breaths...

I’ve since had a chance to chill out a little about yesterday’s news that the house staff were talking smack about me, as they say. The thing that bothers me about it is that, whatever they chose to say, they likely said to colleagues that I respect and would like to work with again. Hopefully, however, those people will have had the chance to get to know me well enough to know what is and is not in my character. Probably best to let it go, I know.

I went downtown to scout out a place to stay the next time I’m here. I looked at another place earlier this week that was kind of…depressing. This place, however, was very much not depressing. In fact, it is gorgeous, a short walk from my office, and in the middle of lots of stuff to do. I hope that the price they end up quoting me is something I can afford. I think it will be, but I’ll soon get my official offer from the guy I met with this morning and find out. It’s hard, weighing the pros and cons of all of these things. Part of me feels like I should go with the depressing place, because it could be really good for me financially. But three months is a long time to live in a depressing place in a foreign country. So, perhaps not. If it weren’t for the distance from the office, I’d stay in the place where I am now, but it’s just a big, fat pain to be so far from everything. The fact that the mattress is lousy is another factor…

“Good Morning, Vietnam” has been on HBO lately, I’ve seen some snippets. It’s very strange to watch, because it takes place here, but when things were reeeeaaallly different. Although, I have to say that, after having spent time here, Robin Williams’ description of the weather was 100% accurate. There are t-shirt vendors on the streets who sell shirts that have “Good Morning, Vietnam!!” splashed across the front. It’s very “sunrise, sunset”, if you will… I went into this fancy-schmancy department store that recently opened across the park from our office. I have a feeling that Ho Chi Minh didn’t think of the people selling $1500 watches and $500 purses way back when. Things change, I suppose. (As the PM says “Meestah Ho Chi Minh, voht vere you fighting foh-ah?”)

The exciting news that I have is that my parents are planning on heading to Paris for Thanksgiving week, and I’m going to join them! It will be fantastic to be able to see family in the middle of my next stretch away, and it will be even better to be able to do it in Paris! I’m so excited about it, as I LOVED Paris the one time I was able to spend time there. But last time was only a day and a half – this time it’s a whole week!

For some reason, I woke up obscenely early, so I think that nap time might be coming up soon. Tomorrow is going to be another lazy day, I can feel it. I think it’s good to have a few of those every now and then. There are plenty of times when life moves so quickly that getting an hour to yourself seems like an impossible task, so I’m going to take advantage of this time while I have it. Hurrah for that!

Dang It!

I just received an e-mail from Amazon, cheerfully informing me that my copy of “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” will be on my doorstep on Saturday! Hurrah for Amazon! The only problem in that scenario is that I will be many thousands of miles away from my doorstep. So I have to wait a whole month to read it. I’m so sad… No one spoil it for me, or you’ll have to contend with the wrath of Mandy. (Like the wrath of Khan, but without that gross bug-in-the-ear thing. And no space ships. And no Ricardo Montauban with a fake chest piece. Thankfully.) As it is, I’m hoping that stupid Yahoo headlines doesn’t ruin something for me, as they are notorious for doing.

It looks as though we’re moving forward with finding a local counterpart for me in my absence, so that’s a big relief. Currently, I’m the only game in town on this project, and while it’s a great opportunity, I’ll also be leaving for about eight weeks, and we’ll need someone competent to keep things going at that time. It’s kind of fun watching things come together like this. I like being able to move things forward. What’s even funnier is that our local expert who isn’t available until October (hence the need for another guy to supplement) said that his main concern about this guy was that he is so young. He’s actually a year older than I am. Of course, he looks about 12, but that’s not the point. We’ve figured out a way to work around the communication issues, fortunately, so as long as he can do the work, I think we may have our guy. Hurrah!

My return home is getting closer, and I’m really excited. As of today, it’s officially been two months since I left, and as of Sunday, it will be exactly one month until I return. In some ways, time has gone by really quickly, and it’s very easy to fall into a normal-feeling routine. I think that will help to make the next chunk of time here easier as well – just remembering that it all starts to feel like life eventually. Because it does, much as the things that are different from home still stand out sometimes. But I also want to try to see more of the country when I’m here next time. Since my time here has slowly extended in fits and starts, it’s been difficult to plan things, and I haven’t been as proactive as I might. So it’s good that I’ll be getting another chance. I might also want to take on the daunting task of looking into learning at least a little Vietnamese. The real trick with Vietnamese, and Chinese and Thai are the same way, is that it’s a tonal language, meaning that each vowel can be pronounced differently, and each different pronunciation gives the word a different meaning. So you can say the same combination of letters six different ways, and it will mean six completely different things. This is hugely confusing. What I sometimes do is write down addresses so cab drivers can read them – saves everyone a lot of time and frustration.

To get to the elevator that leads you up to our office, you have to walk through this very wide, tall hallway, through which people will drive their motorcycles – I think there’s parking in the back. The hallway is also an art gallery, so we’re surrounded by stacks and stacks of paintings as we walk down this brief corridor. Some of them are really beautiful, some qualify more as “interesting”, and some are just…well, for example, I’ve seen two copies of the Mona Lisa. One is actually not bad – I haven’t seen the real thing, but this copy looks pretty good. The other one looks like Mona Lisa With A Gland Problem. Seriously, it looks as though someone stuck an air hose in her, or she was painted by the guy who used to draw “Ziggy”, it’s remarkable. (“It was just as though she had swelled…”) There’s one painting in particular that is actually really tempting to purchase, but I’ll need to think on it. Specifically, I’d need to think about how the heck I’d get it back to the US unharmed, because I can virtually guarantee you that it’s not expensive. Like I said, I’ll think about it.

Things with work are actually getting complicated – the people in Pakistan are actually really hacked that I’m staying in Vietnam. It feels like, among other things, more internal company politics stuff. I really don’t’ want to get stuck in the middle of anything, I’ve tried to do the right thing. The problem that has arisen is that, when I’ve said things like “make sure you discuss this with so-and-so”, that hasn’t been done. I am staying here because I’ve been told to stay here by a couple of people, including a division VP. So now I feel like I’m in the middle of squabbles that I don’t want any part of, which isn’t good. And apparently the house staff in Karachi told the PM there that I didn’t behave “properly”, and apparently had unauthorized guests. I have no idea what they’re talking about, but I’m absolutely livid. Not to mention offended. Any thoughts that I might have had about wanting to return to Pakistan after this trip is over have basically been nuked by that. Not only is it completely untrue, but I’m a grown woman, and having a bunch of guys “report” on my activities to someone is both creepy and offensive. As you might have noticed, this has me a bit worked up.

So it's *not* just Pakistan

We had a meeting today with one of the agencies responsible for roads and other transportation infrastructure in this part of the country. The meeting was organized by the director, and he suggested that we all meet at his office at 9 am. No problem-o – we bundled into a taxi and got there a couple of minutes after nine. We told the receptionist who we were there to see, and a slight look of alarm flickered across his face. “He just stepped out”, he told us, his face the picture of radiant obsequiousness. He led us up to an office and told us to make ourselves comfortable, and that the gentleman that we were there to see would be back in 10 minutes. So we sat down, he poured some tea, and left us to our thoughts. By 9:30, the PM and I were exchanging some stories, wondering what, exactly, the Vietnamese version of “10 minutes” was. By 9:50, the PM got up and went to speak with some other people in the office about information we seeking, and I was getting seriously drowsy. A few minutes after 10 am, a man resembling a shorter and thinner version of Jabba the Hutt lumbered up the stairs (having just arrived at the office for the first time) and said that he was sorry to have kept us waiting. We then went into his office, and proceeded to have a largely useless 20 minute meeting. However, after that meeting, we went back to the people with whom the PM had been speaking, and had some very productive meetings that lasted another 45 minutes. And the PM tried to recruit one of the secretaries to be a translator for us – she’s very bright and speaks excellent English. Good technical translators are actually very difficult to find. Regular translation isn’t as difficult, but the technical engineering or social sciences language makes it a little more tricky.

One example of just how important it is to have good translators can be found in the following tale, relayed to me by the PM. He was working on a job in Russia, and the original contract in English had said something about how the contractor would introduce free additional labor as necessary. The translation said that the company would introduce group sex as necessary. While I’m sure that particular provision was intriguing to some, it was, perhaps, not quite the best way for the project to proceed. After three months, someone finally told him about it.

I interviewed a guy today for a position on this project. His English was so-so, and I found it a little difficult to communicate with him (could be a problem later), and I’ve noticed another thing here that I saw in Pakistan. Anything you ask, the answer is always “no problem”. This doesn’t necessarily have any bearing, however, on the outcome of the issue in question. I needed to know if he had experience doing specific tasks, which was tricky to communicate. So I went to the simpler method and tried clearly telling him what would be expected, and each time he smiled and said “of course, no problem!” I still have no better idea of whether or not he can really do the work than I did before we sat down together, much like with the guy I interviewed yesterday. The selection process should be interesting…

The one thing that I definitely won’t miss about Vietnam is the awful mattress that I have to sleep on here. If it were just “firm” that would be fine, but not only is it hard as a rock, it’s also lumpy. I was reminded of this as I (apparently) rolled over onto my left side this morning, and felt those few springs that stick up above the others surrounding them stick into my left kidney. I rolled the other way and tried to ignore the fact that I was now, technically “awake”. After 45 minutes, I decided to just get up and head to the gym, where I upped my pace on the treadmill today. But now it’s the afternoon and I am seriously dragging for lack of the extra hour of sleep I had been counting on. I know, I know – my life is so hard.

And *today's* story is...

I spoke again to the PM about my schedule, and whether or not I should expect to come back here, and whose approval I was waiting for. He said “Vell, he hass alrready said he vood like you to stay now sroo Decembah, yah? So I sink you book za ticket.” So I guess I book za ticket. (His English really is excellent, but the accent still cracks me up.)

This is good, because it gives me a little finality on these things (although my time between here and Pakistan is still changing, so that’s kind of fuzzy), and I know the experience is going to be really great. It’s a great professional opportunity for me, and it gives me more of a chance to explore the country and see different places. There’s tons to see here, so I’m excited to have that opportunity. I may even look into a weekend or two in Bangkok – it’s so close, the flights there are both cheap and frequent, and Thailand is a place I’ve wanted to see for a long time. I also think that my mother’s cousin’s daughter is working in Vietnam, but she’s in a different part of the country. If I’m here for a few months and she’s still here, I’d like to see if we could possibly meet up, as I’ve never met her. It could be a really fun opportunity to connect more with my mom’s side of the family, since geography has always been an obstacle to that in the past.

The big downside is that three of my close friends are going to be having babies in the time that I’m gone, so I’m really sad to miss out on that. Not that I expected to necessarily be present at the big event, but now I have to wait months to see the new additions! No one else is allowed to give birth or have any other major life events while I’m gone – I’ve decided. I’ll let these three be grandfathered in because I’m an understanding sort of girl and they’ve all promised to send pictures, but let’s not let this happen again, okay? Sheesh.

It has occurred to me over the past few days that the folks at Heathrow Airport might take an extra minute or two with my passport, seeing as how it looks as though the bombings in London were suicide bombings carried out by British citizens of Pakistani origin. So someone coming from Pakistan might give them pause, even a US citizen coming from Pakistan. It might not be any kind of a problem, but you never know. Argh – what a horrible situation. I am so thankful that my family and friends in London are all safe and sound. Talk about echoes of September 11^th – it’s awful to see the people on the news looking for any sign of their loved ones. Well, here’s hoping that I have no problems getting into the country, I’m really looking forward to being there.

After some more thought, I’ve come to realize that, although the place where we’re located now is perfectly adequate, it’s just too dang far away from the office. I’d prefer somewhere within a mile, so I could walk to and from work, or at least not have to take a cab every day. Technically, I could walk the 3 ½ miles to the office from the place we’re staying now, but that would take a while. It’s not that the cab is expensive – it usually runs around 35,000 – 40,000 dong, which is less than $3, it’s just that needing the cab every day gets old. So we’ll see what shakes out – I’m going to check out a place tonight that sounds promising so far. It was described favorably in one of our travel books, so it can’t be that bad…right? Let’s hope so, because the price is great.

It's Official?

Yup, I’m definitely going to be here for a few months in the fall, as far as I know. (As always, these things are subject to change.) I’m going to see in the next few days if I should buy my plane tickets, which will make it that much closer to being real. Once they shell out the cash, they usually want to use it. So it looks like I’ll be here from the end of September through the middle of December – but there is no possible way that I’m staying here for Christmas, so I’m guessing that I’ll be home a few days before, jetlagged like crazy. (The eleven hour time difference is probably going to make me something of a zombie for Christmas Day – but a midnight Christmas Eve service sure would be easy to stay up for.) Well, that’s okay, at least I’ll be home for Christmas. As I mentioned before, I have some mixed feelings about it. Career-wise, it’s really good for me. Plus, I’ll have more time to explore the country and all that stuff, which is an opportunity that I wouldn’t have otherwise, and I’m very grateful for it. But it means being away from friends and family for a few more months, which I’m not as keen on, to be honest. Maybe when I come back here, and I know it’s for a while, life won’t feel quite so surreal. I have to say, though, all this being away from home has finally beaten my restless streak into submission. I’ve had nothing but a change of scene for the last few months, so I don’t think I’ll be whining about that any time soon.

We have a cleaning woman for the office now, a very sweet woman named Lin Nam who speaks virtually no English. She worked her tail off yesterday, from 7:30 in the morning until 6 or so at night. One of the guys in the office who speaks Vietnamese was leaving around 5ish, and asked if it was okay if she left when she had finished whatever she was working on at the time. I said, of course it was okay, she’d had a very long day, and he said that she was a little unsure of things, particularly because it was her first day. I said, really don’t worry about it, she’d done a very good job and could leave whenever she was done. Once he left, she was here for at least another hour, and the PM and I tried to mime to her that she could leave whatever she still wanted to do for the next day, but she mimed back that, no, she’d finish up what she’d started. It was quite impressive, and she was here this morning when the PM and I got in a little before 8. Whatever it is that we’re paying her, I think she deserves more.

It’s funny, but now that I’m actually here and doing work, it doesn’t feel as intimidating. I finally heard from my boss that he’s reviewing my work, so that’s good. Although, so far his input hasn’t been all that helpful. Makes me wish I hadn’t waited four days to get it. There are so many e-mails flying around about project staffing these days, and some people have the dreaded “reply to all” disease, so it’s resulting in information overload. That, and the fact that some people will not only reply to all, but they’ll throw in a few more people just for good measure. It drives me insane. The only thing that results from all that is the involvement of more people than necessary to address the same basic issues – people who probably wouldn’t care if you’d never asked their opinion in the first place, but are fine with throwing in their two cents if asked. There’s a good Demotivators saying that comes to mind – it’s about meetings, but it’s still true here: None of us is as dumb as all of us.

While I’m on the topic of the staffing round robin that is continuing and continuing, I just need to take a moment to talk about the major downside of e-mail. People expect that e-mail will solve all communication issues, when sometimes it really just worsens them. I said to someone today “well, you need to discuss this with so-and-so”, he said “but he hasn’t been responding to my e-mails.” I said “have you tried calling him?” “No.” So often, a 10 minute phone call will clear up an issue that will take at least 10 e-mails. For sheer efficiency, I’d say the phone call is your best bet, particularly when e-mail just isn’t doing the trick. And yet, so rarely does it shake out that way. Instead the “reply to all” festival continues. It’s very frustrating. And now it looks like I'll be here in Vietnam through the end of the month.

So, maybe nothing is certain after all.

This is really starting to give me a headache. I wish that people could just be a little more decisive about these things, I honestly don’t think it’s that hard – the problem is that everyone thinks (or hopes) that it should be someone else’s decision.

I am clearly too type-A to spend the rest of my life doing this. I can practically feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it. That can’t be a good sign.

Good news...?

So, it looks as though I’ll be back here in the fall for a few months, starting at the end of September. Wow…talking about getting what you wish for! I’m excited about the opportunity and all that – those are definitely good things. Besides, getting more experience with this kind of stuff means that it will be easier for me to get more work in the future. But the thought of being away from home for a few more months is somewhat daunting. I think I’m going to stroll by a hotel this evening and see if they might be able to accommodate a long-term guest. It’s a place that caters to business travelers, it’s an all-suite hotel, they’ve got a gym, etc. It’s not far from the office (I think – that’s why I’m going to walk over tonight, to get a feel for the distance), but it’s slightly outside of tourist land. I think, though, that coming here knowing I’ll be here for a few months will be a little different from how it’s been now – the incentive to go out and meet people will be a little higher, because three months is a long time to have trying to make it home by 7 pm for “Alias” re-runs on AXN be the only thing on your social calendar.

But that’s still a little nuts to think about. Gah!!

I was actually ready at 7:30 on the dot this morning, I was kind of pleased about that. Of course, I had to wait around a little for the PM, as he’ll often say “I want to leave by such-and-such a time”, and I’m ready at that time. Then I wait. Sometimes 15 minutes. Sometimes 30 minutes. I usually give it about 15 minutes before I call and ask if he’s ready. I’m not trying to be irritating, but if I’m up and ready at a certain time because he told me to be, and I’d much rather have an extra 15 or 30 minutes of sleep…well, then I think it’s only fair that he be ready when he told me to be ready.

I’m being bratty, aren’t I?

I have heard very little about the project in Pakistan, and I’m not quite sure what I’m actually going to be doing when I get back there. Kind of makes me wonder why I’m going back, when I could probably stay here longer and do more good. Internal company stuff, I suppose. I told my boss that I know I need to get over my penchant for making long-range plans, but old habits die hard. I should, however, be able to plan to have more time at home in the spring. There’s a professional certification exam I want to sit for in May (?), and there’s no point in me taking the exam, and having my company pay for it, if I don’t have adequate time to study and prepare. Makes sense, no? Well, that’s what I told my boss, and he seems to agree for the time being. (Again, I save all these e-mails, because you never know when someone will have a momentary memory lapse.)

I don’t know if I remarked upon it yesterday, but I was quite pleased that my excursion didn’t coincide with the daily rainstorm, as it usually does. I don’t know how I do it, but it seems that within 15 minutes of me stepping outside to do or see something, the skies will open up and the rains will start. It’s quite clever of me, actually, if only I were doing it on purpose. Instead, I tend to guess as to when the rains won’t come and hope that I’ve guessed well. I’ve learned to cope with the disappointment that so often accompanies that hope. It’s odd to live in a country with two seasons, “wet” and “dry”. The temperature doesn’t change much year-round, from what I understand, it’s just that half of the year is punctuated with heavy rains, and the other half of the year isn’t. Again – not just a clever name.

Heh. One of the other guys here is trying to unwrap his chair now. So far, he’s doing pretty well…

I also have finally gotten a cell phone number for use here in Vietnam. Since I’m leaving in a week (for the first time), it’s not necessarily of major consequence, but I’m going to hang onto the SIM card and use it when I get back. In any event, the number is (84) 90-954-0907. Also, and again, this is for future reference, the office address here is 26 Ly Tu Trong Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Since I’m likely to be staying in a hotel of some sort, any mail should be sent to the office address. I don’t know if customs here will be quite as…er, thorough, as they are in Pakistan, but still, I think avoiding sending me bags of diamonds is probably still a good idea.

I know, you’re thinking “But Mandy, when can we send you these bags of diamonds???” Well, we’ll figure something out when I’m home. We’ll find a time, I promise.

The guy from the phone company is here and working on figuring out what the deal is with our phone lines here. Apparently, he has “Auld Lang Syne” as his ring tone. I know this, because it broke the silence here as he was testing the line. Not really what I would expect to hear in the middle of summer in Vietnam. Festive, but still not what I would expect to hear. Well, many things are often not what I would expect.

Part of the project here involves conducting a social assessment of the areas in which we’ll be working. This basically involves lots of surveys and data gathering. I’m currently reading the Mekong Delta Poverty Assessment, written by the Australian Agency for International Development, and it looks as though there have been many, many surveys conducted in this region over the past years. However, since we don’t know who conducted the surveys or how they asked the questions, we still have to do more surveys. If you were someone living in a poor area and constantly being surveyed about why you were poor, wouldn’t you grow tired of people descending on your home to “help”, when little ever changed, necessitating the arrival of even more people to ask you why you were poor? I think that, after a while, I’d be tempted to mess with people. Tell them I was poor because of the rice gnomes or something. (“Step 1 – Steal rice crop, Step 3 – Profit!”) Well, poverty is always a complex problem, wherever and however you try to address it, so it’s not surprising that people have been working to alleviate it for years, and are likely to do so for years to come. I suppose that’s why I have a job.

I guess I hadn’t really thought about doing this kind of work until I stumbled into it, I always had more of an environmental inclination. It’s fortunate, then, that I like it. But as I’ve said, I know there are many other things I could also like to do for a living, like writing, photography, or psychological counseling. I can’t tell if this means that I’m indecisive, that I have multiple personality disorder, or that I’m just versatile.

Sloth

I have been tremendously lazy today. Since I’ve never been able to sleep late (I think it’s genetic), I only slept until about 8 am, but then got up and did…nothing. Not a darn thing. I watched a little tv, checked a little e-mail, and that was about it. I didn’t think that it could get more pathetic than watching “Justice League” on the Cartoon Network while munching on my corn flakes yesterday, but then I saw “Rocky IV” was on this morning, and decided that everyone has her limits, and I had reached mine. It looked nice outside, and I started to feel guilty about being such a slug. The nature of my time here, largely spent in a 9 – 5, Monday through Friday schedule, means that I have to be very proactive if I want to take advantage of seeing the city. I’m thankful that our office is located downtown, because it makes it easier to see things there, but I still spend my days in an office, so my exploring time is a little more limited. In that spirit, I decided to set out down the street to check out this pagoda that I’ve driven past a bunch of times, but have never stopped to check out. It’s not one of the big ones you see in guidebooks, so I have to admit that I know absolutely nothing about it. But I walked down to see it, since it’s only about a kilometer away.

The cool thing for me about walking around in big cities is just the sensory experience of being there – the sights, the smells, the sounds. There’s the roar of motorcycle engines, the nasal sing-song of people speaking Vietnamese, the smell of food cooking in restaurants and roadside stands, the sharp, musky smell of incense burning, the blare of Vietnamese pop music from the bootleg CD store, the mass of people crowded onto their scooters and motorcycles, the girls wearing face masks, hats, and long gloves to protect their skin from the sun and protect their lungs from air pollution, the old women crouched by their fresh coconut juice carts, the sidewalks that are almost completely taken over by parked scooters and people selling things like t-shirts that say “Punky Girl”. The one other ubiquitous sight is the motorcycle “taxis” – men who are constantly asking if you want to pay for them to take you somewhere on their motorcycle. It’s an officially-sanctioned activity, although I don’t know how many people who offer are actually licensed. In my two kilometer walk from my place to the pagoda and back I had at least eleven offers, and I didn’t start counting until halfway through. They wave their arms around, as if they’re trying to communicate with you in semaphore code, and say “motorbike, Miss?” ingratiatingly. The thing that’s puzzling is that you could have just told someone you weren’t interested, and a guy perched on his bike two feet away from him will leap into your path, frantically waving his arms, as if he knows that you really did want a ride, you just didn’t like the look of the other guy. I suppose that happens, but I don’t know if it’s really the reason behind the majority of rejections. I’m guessing that “self preservation” is probably the reason, more often than not.

I made it down to the pagoda fairly quickly, and took some pictures. It was really pretty, and surprisingly quiet for being on such a major road. There were people inside praying, so I mostly stuck to the outside so as not to disturb them. I do, however, think I got some nice pictures. It wasn’t a really long excursion, but I was glad to have made it outside!

I walked by a bunch of places yesterday that sell luggage and things like that – in light of the shopping that I’ve been doing, I think I may need to stop by there. I don’t know how reliable the merchandise is, and if “Samsonite” really means that you’re buying a piece of Samsonite luggage, but I suppose that, as long as it stays in one piece for the rest of my journey, I don’t much care. Besides, I think it’s my best option at the moment, since the reality is that I’m coming back with lots more than I left with! I packed the things that I’ve bought today, and it almost filled my suitcase (just a carry-on), so I think that getting another bag is inevitable.

I went running earlier today which prevented me from feeling like a complete slug, since I fell asleep for a few hours this afternoon after my only excursion for the day, which lasted for maybe 30 minutes. I’ve noticed that my running has really improved, and it’s easier for me – although don’t ask me about it during the first 10 minutes, when I probably wouldn’t mind quitting. I accidentally hit the “emergency stop” button the other day, which sent me lurching over the treadmill, but apart from that, it’s been good. This is the definite good thing about traveling for work – my social life isn’t exactly hopping, so I have nothing to keep me from working out, making time for it is really easy, and as a result, I don’t think I’ve ever been in better shape.

It’s back to the office for me tomorrow, and the PM wants to be in at 7:30. Oy. He mentioned that I could come in later if I wanted, and I might… I’ve made a few changes since I’ve been away, but becoming a morning person is not one of them.