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Location: Work.
Listening: The screech of packing tape being pulled.

The PAS saga continues.

This morning, Satellite Systems Acquisitions and Business Operations completed their official relocation to the offices in Manhatten Beach. The row of executive offices across from The Cubicle (tm) is now utterly vacant. Once, not so long ago, brash Senior Directors frolicked in these spaces, setting up faux putting greens, eyeing secretaries and making jokes about launches in "beautiful, downtown Kazakhstan". They were last heard arguing over who would get the largest severance package. Their nameplates have been taken down and sent to Manhatten Beach where, rumor has it, they will be the only objects allowed to be displayed on office walls (the building is owned by a movie studio with very strict "personal decoration" policies). There is a Hawaiian shirt Post-It clinging to the Vice President's door: "Relocation Sale!! Everything MUST GO!!!".

As for Business Operations, they used to be part of Network Engineering, the department my team was originally part of. The Director was key in hiring me and served as something of a mentor and mother-figure to my team for the year prior to Jeff taking over. She worked in Finance for Hughes Electronics and then made the transition to PAS when they were acquired. I've been told that she's been with the company collectively for almost fifteen years. I've also been told that she and her team were recently informed that they will likely be "reduced" before next quarter. They were moved to Manhatten Beach in the interim.

So now, Hitoshi and myself remain. Three weeks ago, Jeff hired a replacement for Lucenda--an intelligent, friendly girl named Edith who had recently moved from Miami and who was a dead ringer for T'Pal on Enterprise. I trained her, and she melded immediately with the team. Wednesday, she took a half-day to help her sister with an emergency. This morning, we received a call from her agency notifying us that she had accepted another position and would not be back. Not a particular shock, considering that I noticed she took all of her personal belongings from her cubicle Wednesday afternoon.

And so it's down to two--on this side of the floor, that is. There is a smattering of others on the south-side--Information Systems, Ground Communications, the woman who is now HR--but half of them are splitting their time between Manhatten Beach and LB and the rest are holing up in their offices, making furtive phone calls and drawing pictures on white boards of Spot, our cartoon canine mascot, with his eyes X'ed out and tire marks on his back.

Our Manager in Atlanta is now pressing the team to have all of our hardware shipped by December 31. We're supposed to be moving into the C-05 Building across campus (the warehouse), yet no one can seem to give us a firm date or even a time frame. The renovations that were scheduled to take place in C-05 have been put on hold indefinitely due to budget restraints. Jeff tells us that he'll let us know the minute he hears anything, but to keep working hard in the meantime. He's currently on another two-week vacation in Germany.

To quote my sophomore-year roommate, Tomechia: "I may look like I was born yesterday, but I stayed up all last night."

So I'm putting the finishing touches on my resume and will be giving my two agents calls on Monday morning. As Peter noted in his journal, he and I have made what looks like a decision on what to do with ourselves--but we need to eat in the meantime.

So if you know anyone looking for someone with almost five years of experience coordinating everything from graduate school admissions to professional baseball players' private accounts to satellite hardware distribution...let me know.