One Night in Portland

Greetings from the Rose City! We’ve got our training on in Portland this week, and, as far as these sort of things go, it’s been pretty fun. As I have mentioned previously, the executives in this company are really in-touch with the people on the street and know how to have a good time. Wednesday night they took us to Henry’s downtown for dinner and drinks. After the meal we all headed upstairs for an impromptu pool tournament. Last night we all dined at Stanford’s – about 30 of us altogether. The VP of the West region ended up sitting across the table from me – the guy who answers directly to the CEO of this Billion dollar company. I was a little nervous about that; the evening had already taken a few strange turns – on the way to dinner my mid-40’sish female Filipino co-worker demanded a pit-stop at a convenience store for tampons and came back with some hard-core porno magazine for the three men in the car so we wouldn’t feel weird about her purchase. I suggested she not turn that receipt in for reimbursement.

Fortunately, I knew the VP enjoyed a good time, so I had ordered up a couple bottles of wine. Every time he got up to greet someone I’d refill his glass. He definitely had a god time. Another of my co-workers does, among other things, cartoon voice-overs. He does a very respectable Gipetto (sp?) impression. Apparently "the Man" is a big Pinocchio fan – he was telling us about another executive named Vito who is loveingly called Gipetto, so he asked my partner to leave this guy a voicemail in character about how he was going to get crushed in the upcoming contest. I have to admit, it was a solid impression, and a great voicemail. But then the VP forwarded it to every exec in the West. Every. Single. One. My partner spent the rest of the night on the phone looking for a new job. Good times had by most.

Oops, gotta go, there’s a breakfast buffet with my name on it.