Sunday, January 07, 2007

Friends and Networking

A while ago, I got a call from a friend. She woke me up. Only a few people are welcome to do it, so don't feel free to call me late at night. In any case, she once worked as a Legislative Aide and she called to tell me how excited she is for me. In the same breath, she tells me that, if I survive, things will be great afterward. She suggested I visit a friend of hers who is working this session.

Friday, a High School friend dropped by the office to say hi. He is working the session at a Senator's office. I was going to go with him for a drink, but I failed to write down the name of the place and to get his mobile number. I drove around 1st street searching for a place whose name I could not remember. I'll have to call him up on Monday and apologize for not showing (and get his number).

I also began making calls to people to let them know that I'm in Austin now. In business, this is called maintaining your network. This is a major reason why I got a phone plan with a ridiculous amount of minutes. Since this is a work function, I could use the office phone to make calls. The drawback to that is that nobody likes talking to "the office". Most people like knowing somebody. This way, they have a direct line to somebody, me.

Of course, I'm always glad to meet new people. Except for Tuesday, when I'll be glued to the feed from House Chamber, feel free to stop by and say a quick hello. I'm at Rep. Peña's office at E1.512. I'm neither powerful nor charismatic. I'm just worried about the unknown that is coming up in the next five months as many of you are. I figure we can lend support to each other in a sea of strangers. Hopefully, when this is all over, we will be working in a sea of friends.

3 comments:

Jaime Kenedeño said...

Shaine,

Will you explain that feed you will be glued to?

Why on Tuesday?

Are there certain days etc...etc....?

Do you listen for just your Reps subject matter or.....?

Can we get the feed on our PC?

Thanks for the tour. Pretty cool place.

Shaine Mata said...

Certainly,

anybody can view the house of reps and committee meetings by going to http://www.house.state.tx.us/media/welcome.php and clicking on one of the live streams. These will change daily.

Tuesday is the first day that the Legislature convenes for the session. EVERYBODY will be watching to see who will be the next speaker of the house.

Thanks for reading.

Jaime Kenedeño said...

Thank U!