Friday, November 12, 2010

Chapter 11

***Little bit of writers block right now, trying to figure out where to go with this and how to write it too...but I figured I would post a little filter chapter :)

After the last minute packing up in Albuquerque, we had all started the drive on Monday morning. Keeping pretty good timing, we got into Chicago early Thursday morning. Jon had made arrangements for a storage unit to be ready for me when we got out there which made everything easier. And thankfully we had arranged most of the stuff in the U-haul to where the storage stuff was in the front, and some boxes that were coming up were in the back of my brand new Xterra that I had gotten as a graduation present.

Jon’s condo had turned into a maze of boxes. Some in the living room, a couple in one of the spare bedrooms, and the rest in his…um our room and closet. I was glad to have a few days to organize all my things before I had to meet with Stan. My parents stayed for a few days to help unpack and to check out the city before they headed back home. I had filled up 2 picture frames with pictures of me and Jon or me and the girls and hung them up around the house as well as the famous “Kissing the War Goodbye” poster. Needlessly to say, the walls were pretty plain, so he was glad to see the pictures and a little more color in the house. And thankfully, the closet was huge; because I had taken up all of the space he had made for me.

Once all my stuff had been moved in, Jon and I decided to cook dinner and invite some of the guys and their wives/girlfriends over. Although I was still waiting for Laura to move out here next month, I had gotten closer with Abby and Elina.

“Oh, hey I meant to ask you, did you bring your passport?” Jon asks me
“Yeah actually, I think I did. Why?”
“Well Duncs and Kelly are getting married in a few weeks. I already RSVPd, but I wanted to ask you if you would join me”
“Oh, yeah I would love to! Where is it?”
“Somewhere in Winnipeg”
“Ok cool”
“Ok, we will tell them tonight”

Duncan and Kelly are the first to arrive, so we talk to them and Jon tells them that he will be a plus one at the wedding, which made them happy; I'm excited too because it will be my first trip to Canada. Soon after, Pat and Abby arrived, then Nik and Elina and lastly Seabs and Dayna. My mom had packed green chile from home, so I made enchiladas, which turned out to be a hit; which I wasn’t sure about because I was positive that the only chile out here was the gross Tex mex. Duncan, Kelly, Nik and Elina left while the 6 of us decided to play rock band and Wii bowling for about 3 hours until the rest of them decided to go home.

I took advantage of the weekend that I had before meeting Stan to go shopping for some more professional looking outfits, and before I knew it, it was Monday morning and Jon and I were heading over to the United Center, he wanted to get some skating time in while the arena was vacant. We pull into the parking lot and walk down the hallway towards the locker room and the offices. Jordan Hendry and Brian Campbell were there also to get some skating time in, so they all headed out to the ice as I walked towards Stan’s office and knocked on the door

“Hello Jamie, come on in” he says as I sit down
“Hi, how are you?”
“I’m well, thanks, how are you?”
“Good, thanks”
“How are you liking Chicago so far?”
“So far I’m really liking it a lot”
“That’s good! So a couple little things right now, I am aware that you will be joining Jonathan and some of the other guys to Duncan’s wedding, which is fine because since it’s an early off-season, things are pretty quiet right now. “
“Ok, yeah I meant to talk to you about that, Jon asked me the other night and I hadn’t had a chance to call you”
“Oh, it’s completely ok. So with free agency coming up, I will have you help me with that, probably writing press releases for the Hawks website. And I’m going to tell you this now, when you are involved in a meeting that has to do with free agency, whether it’s a player coming or going, the information needs to be kept confidential until Coach Q or I address the team and we are ready to announce it on the website.”
“Yes sir,”
“Also, I know some of the guys will have public appearances in the coming months and I know a few of the guys will be having their usual golf or bowling tournaments for their foundations or charities, so I may send you out to those. None of them, however, will be attending the draft this year,”
“Ok, and will you need me to be at the draft as well?”
“As of right now no, but I will need to have you on call or near a computer to receive emails to update information on the website”
“Ok”
“Now, since it’s off-season and not much is going on right now, I will probably call you a couple days before I need you to come in for the day. And then once it comes close to time for the convention, I will need you on a daily basis, and then that will be when you start the actual internship”
“Ok, great”
“Besides you, there is only 5 other interns with the Hawks right now, 3 of them being with the athletic trainers and the other one with the equipment team. I don’t know if Jonathan told you and I might have forgotten to mention, but this is a paid internship. And if you show great improvement throughout the internship we will bring you on board for a permenant position with the team.”
“Oh wow, that sounds amazing!”
“Yes, and it is. I have good faith in you Jamie, Jon spoke very highly of you and I believe you will be a good addition to this organization.”
“Thank you so much”
“Ok, and I think one last thing is, we will be introducing you, as well as the rest of the interns, to everyone publicly, and obviously you know that people will talk about you, may be good and it may be bad;”
“Ok”
“Reporters will be coming up to you and asking questions as well. If it is business related, answer it. If they are just trying to get details on your personal life, I advise you not to say anything,”
“Yes sir, I never open up about that stuff if I don’t know the person”
“Ok good, and I’m sure you know that the guys have reputations to keep up as to how they act and their behavior around here or in their hometown. I would hope that you could do the same as well.”
“Yes sir,”
“There’s not a lot of paparazzi out here, but I don’t want to see you on the cover of any of those ridiculous gossip magazines. If an issue comes up that you think may cause a problem, come talk to me and it can be worked out”
“Yes sir,”
“Ok, great, and like I said, I have faith in you, I think you will be a good asset to this company. I don’t think I have anything to worry about with the last few things that we just discussed, so don’t let me down.”
“I won’t”
“Great. So I think that is it for today. I’m going to call Lauren Campbell in here and see if there’s anything with the Better Halves that you could help her with”

“Hi Jamie, how are you?” Lauren says as she walks in
“Hi, good how are you?”
“Good! So I hear you will be working around the offices this summer”
“Yes”
“Great! Now with the Better Halves, we do most of the events during the season. The next one coming up will happen about a week before preseason, when we organize a night on a riverboat for dinner and a night of dancing. It’s kind of an annual thing that us girls started planning, to let the guys have one more night to let loose before the season is back in full swing.”
“Ok great, that sounds fun!”
“Yeah, it’s always fun and the guys love it. We will stay in touch throughout the summer and more during the season. It’s always nice to have a new face in the WAGS association, especially after we lost so many last season due to trades.”
“Yeah, well I’m happy to be a part of all of this”
“Well great, I look forward to working with you! I have to get going and get the kids so I will talk to you soon, it was good meeting you!”
“You too!” as she walks out the door

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the new chapter! can't wait until the next one!

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  2. Love the direction the story is going. Keep up the good work! Cant wait to read more.

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  3. keep it up! writers block will pass!! look forward to more!

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