I awoke the next morning to loud banging noises. As per usual, me being paranoid, I thought of the worst things, people robbing my house or maybe someone crashed their car into my garage, but thankfully it wasn’t any of that. I hadn’t realized, but apparently Monday is my garbage day, and I was hearing the noisy garbage trucks. I was annoyed but then I pushed it aside seeing as my alarm clock went off 5 minutes later.
Stoked would have been an understatement to describe my emotions this morning. Overjoyed, thrilled, and ecstatic were a few adjectives that came to my mind, but even those were still understatements. I saw that I had gotten a few texts from my parents and sister wishing me luck on my first day on the job, and after responding to them, I began getting ready.
After showering, eating, and preparing myself, I headed out to my car and drove off to the train station. I had bought a train pass that allows me to take the train various times a day, every day, for 6 months. This would save me a lot of money to spend on other things.
I sat right across from the doors when I got on the train because I liked the little bursts of air every time we would have to stop at another station. On the way to work I was on my laptop listening to music and reading another email I had gotten from Pete.
Just about a half hour later, I got off at my station, and walked the quick 10 minute walk to the studio. My heart was beating rapidly and basically out of my chest as I entered the building and into the lobby. I was surprised with everyone standing there facing me with warm smiles on their faces with cookies and a cake on a table to the side.
“Hi there Ms. Garcia! I’m Rick Jennings, current owner of the internationally known Marshall and Jett Studios. On the behalf of the entire crew here, we welcome you. We’ve heard the albums that you have produced so far and we know you’re capable of amazing things.”
I couldn’t believe that the owner, the head of the well-known business that I was now a part of, was already talking to me and giving me compliments on my previous work.
“Thank you so much Mr. Jennings, it means a lot coming from you. I hope to show everyone my best abilities and continue to grow while I’m here.” I said shaking his hand.
“I have no doubts that you’ll be anything less than amazing. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get to a few meetings, carry on meeting your new co-workers.” He said to me, and then excited out of the front door.
There were about 40 employees standing in front of me, containing secretaries, major producers, live crew members, agents, and assistant engineers, and I had introduced myself to every single one of them. I had learned all of their names, maybe forgotten a couple of them along the way, but hey meeting a lot of new people at once is a little nerve-wracking.
“It’s good to finally meet with you in person Ms. Garcia.” Pete said approaching me.
I shook his hand, “it’s a pleasure, and just call me by my first name, Rachel,” I said back.
“Got it. Now would you like to grab a piece of your welcoming cake, and take a tour around the building with me?”
“Sure, I’d love to see all of it!”
We both grabbed plates and pieces of cake, and at this point, most of my new co-workers were getting to their stations for the day.
Pete took me on a tour throughout every single section of the building, I was mostly gawking over how each studio was built and designed. Not to mention, all the signed posters of bands that had worked there before, were drawing me in even more.
“Oh my god, did Bon Jovi actually record It’s My Life here?!”
“Yeah, that was before I was here but one of our secretary's Brent was, and he’s told me many times about that experience.” Pete laughed at the memory.
I continued along the hallway never taking my eyes off the posters on the wall, and I’m pretty sure Pete saw the obvious excitement in my eyes.
“Hey! All Time Low, I’ve heard of them! I listened to this album on the drive from Lincoln!” I said pointing to the poster of the So Wrong, It’s Right album cover.
“Yeah, they’re just kinda starting out as a band, just got a bit of a break recently by releasing this album and getting signed. I sat in with them for a few days when Paul was recording with them. They’re nice guys, really hilarious.”
“I’m a fan of this album, it’s really grown on me fast. It would be so cool to work with them.”
“Well if they’re ever in here and you’re not, I’ll put out a good word for you to them.”
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It was the end of the day and I had an insanely chill day, which I always love. After Pete took me on the tour of the building, I sat in on an editing session with Paul, one of the major engineers here. I got really lost in the music while I was with him. He was editing an EP for La Dispute. I was a fan of their music and it sounded extremely beautiful, even in the demo stages. After a few hours of listening to the edits, Pete took me out to lunch at a small restaurant across the road, and then we hung around in the lobby filling out paper work and talking about my work for the remainder of the day with some of my other workers.
It was 5:30 once I left work and headed for the train station. On the way there I saw a lot of traffic and mentally gave myself a pat on the back for not driving there or else I’d be stuck in that. The trip home seemed to fly by, but I was glad to get home and unwind. I made myself some chicken and put it into a salad as a light and quick dinner and watched tv for the rest of the evening. I was falling asleep to The Voice when I felt my phone vibrate in my hoodie pocket.
“Hello?”
“Hi Rach! How’s it going? How was the first day at work?” My mom said to me.
“Hi mom, it was fantastic actually! Everything I had imagined”
“That’s good to hear. Your father and I thought that you’d adapt and enjoy things there rapidly, it’s good knowing that we were right about that”
“Yeah I’m really loving it here and although I didn’t even really do much today, I’m pretty tired already.”
Okay hun, I’ll let you relax until you go to bed. Goodnight!”
“Night, mom. Say hey to dad too.”
We both hung up and I watched tv for another 25 minutes until The Voice ended, and then I headed to bed.
Monday January 20 2014
Dear diary, Well, today was the first day at work and it couldn’t have gone any better. I already adore my co-workers and I’m excited to start getting clients to work with, hopefully they’d be coming to me soon. Tomorrow is already day two on the job, who knows what tomorrow will hold :)
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*The Next Day*
Tuesday morning came quickly and before I knew it I was all prepared for work and heading out my front door. I grabbed what I now claimed as “my usual” seat on the train when I arrived at the station. It took a while for everyone to get on at the next station over, but the car that I was in was still fairly empty as most of the people went to the other cars. The last man that boarded was the one person that really caught my attention. He was dressed in all black. Black jeans, black shirt, black hoodie, black shoes, black backpack, and dark black sunglasses. His hood was up and pulled all the way over his head hiding most of his forehead so you could barely see his brown hair. The guy sat diagonally across from me and a few seats down. He looked like the epitome of a bad day. He put his head in his hands and balanced his elbows on his knees and taking deep breaths. I got a look at his left hand as it was on the side where I could see and there was a beautiful rose tattoo there. I admired it for a few minutes, mentally comparing it to my own rose tattoo that I had on my thigh that was very similar to his.
A few minutes later the stranger lifted his head up and relaxed into his seat, staring out the window across from him. He had removed the sunglasses he was wearing and held them in his hands, and I caught a glimpse of his face. Wow. That was all I thought of. Wow. He had beautiful…like insanely beautiful chocolate brown eyes, long brown hair, and stubble around his chin and neck. Once again I was falling for a stranger in a new place. Typical me.
He was still noticeably frustrated and sad about something. He wasn’t like those strangers that you wanted to move away from and hope to never see again. In fact, he was the exact opposite of that. He seemed to have a pretty nice vibe to him, and I almost wanted to go over and comfort him. I stayed back in my seat, deciding not to approach him as of right now, but I know for sure that that isn’t a face I’d forget and I secretly hoped to see him again.
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The day went by fast at work and I was now walking from the studio to the train station. As I was walking, I was looking at an email that Pete had sent over to me just before I left. He had already booked a few local artists for me to work with and I was over the moon about it. When I reached the station, my train was there and left within a few minutes. I put my phone away in my purse and relaxed into my seat. I looked over at where the handsome stranger sat this morning, and to my surprise, he was sitting there once again, this time, looking a less sad, but keeping to himself. I smiled to myself thinking how I might be seeing more of him now. Once again I thought of going over and speaking to him, but I stopped myself again. I couldn’t let my feelings of infatuation over a stranger who I’ve seen only twice take over. During the ride, he just looked out the window again, looking a little lost in his thoughts, and he still had his hood pulled up all the way like he did this morning. He got off the train at the same stop where he got on this morning, the one before my exit. As he passed by my seat I secretly prayed he would look at me even just for a second, but nothing, he just left, just like that. The next stop, I got off and drove back home.
My evening was fairly quiet. All I really did was eat dinner and then take a shower. I couldn’t find anything good on tv and I didn’t want to work on anything else, so I sat in the window frame on my steps grabbed my ipod and bluetooth speaker and wrote in my notebook.
Tuesday January 21 2014
Dear diary, Today was another great day, I’m starting to think that nothing will bring me down. I met…well no, never mind, I admired from afar yet another stranger today. He had gorgeous facial features and seemed like a harmless and nice guy. I felt bad for him because he was clearly really upset about something when I first saw him this morning, but when I saw him again after work he seemed to be doing better. I really am hoping that I get a chance to see him again. Who knows, maybe he takes the train to and from his job too just like me and this could turn into a daily thing.