Chapter 12

tuesday

I couldn't get to sleep last night. I was restless all evening and finally went to sleep at around 2:30am. I laid in bed just not falling a sleep. Alarm goes off and I just can't get up. I try to sleep another 10 min but I shouldn't. I get up, I get my dry cleaning ready and I go outside in the cold expecting my ride to be there to take me to work.

10 min pass, nothing. No phone call or anything and its moscow and its freezing cold. Its been snowing nonstop for the last 2 weeks. Its snowing now. Its never not snowing. They are just constantly cleaning it, thats all. So I'm freezing and I have this dry cleaning bag. I figure out my ride isn't coming so I go back upstairs in a hurry (cause I'm late) and drop off the dry cleaning. I'm walking around not really prepared. I always wear my scarf but I didn't have a hat!

There is one thing left for me to do...hitch a ride. I could take the amazing subway but I just couldn't bother walking to the station. I waited and this strange man picks me up. I'm in the car with him for 15 min before I realize that he has no clue where I'm going. I finally show him on a map where my work is and he gets upset that he has to drive all the way to s. moscow.

I get to work late and no one else was there on time. Someone from trading has to be there in the morning and since they've been depending on me, they just assume they can be late. We have this conference call/meeting every morning and I have to give this 3 min speech on where the mkt is and what I think its going to do today, but not one was there to do that so they were upset. ugh I also want to eat a muffin that I had in my bag but its turned hard and I throw it away.

Ok guys, now you are wondering "what the hell happened to my life is great blog entry's by cheery farhan" sorry, not today. And of course things didn't get much better.

So then around 1pm news hits the wires that Rosneft, the countries state owned oil company (ok, for those of you who have no cares on russian stocks, I'm sorry to bore you with this part of the story), got some money from china in exchange for oil. To me it seemed like a sign that the merger b/w Rosneft and Gazprom (the world's largest natural gas supplier) was in trouble. I won't go into it. So I send this message to all our clients about the headline and how I think it was a bad sign. Thats a bit of a bold call since this merger is a really big deal. After all the news came out (cause I was only working with a headline) I was wrong...completely wrong and that is when the hate mail began. (yes...hate mail)

HERE is an example :

"R. GATI, GATKO PARTNERS LLC
At: 2/ 1 13:49

what r u saying - that gaz/ros is off just becuse they secured a 6bil loan. What
kind of idiotic covereg is this, you better back this up with some hard
evidence or I'm pulling my money from UBS. wors I'm going to have to have a word
with your supiriors - you know people acctually read this stuff and trade on
it, you are not in colouge anymore
----- Original Message -----
From: F. KAZMI, BRUNSWICK UBS
At: 2/ 1 10:05

> It seems that NOW Rosneft is rather big to be exchanged for Gazprom
"

Now Gati is just a jerk anyways but I got about 5 nasty emails from people. Even people on the desk were jokingly giving me a hard time. Things like this happen, and in the end I sorted the whole thing out, wrote anther message out to clients and we worked it out.

Then Ksenia (desk assistant who sorts out my stuff thankfully) gets a call from my ride this morning about why he was MIA. He at first said that his car wasn't working again and then said something about a funeral. I asked Ksenia what Funeral....who died? and she told me that it wasn't my business. I had an argument with her cause well, if he's driving me around, I don't want a guy with a death wish to be upset and working. Besides i'm a nice guy and if he needs time off, I'll give it to him but talk to me. So anyways that didn't get resolved and I had no ride home.

The day got crazy and the last few hours were just insane. I usually like to take the last hour of my day as personal time, to do my things and keep in touch with people. But I couldn't do that today. I was offered a ride home but had to go back to work right after I entered the car cause I forgot to enter in a trade into our systems (I'm glad I remember!) I had to walk in the snow again, in the dark and stumble home which is where I am now, where the internet is being flaky. A repairman is coming though any minute.

Another sad note is that my dad who finally came home after working in california for over 17 months is now moving to florida for a time.....I think some place called Juno beach or something. I just found out today. I just hope me and my dad are not destined to always be Odysseus from the Odyssey. It took Odysseus so many years to back home to Ithaca. He dreamed about getting back but some thing, some challenge always came up. He did eventually make it back home and to Penelope...wait..she almost married some else, but she was hoping he'd return. ! My parents are fine but I know my mom is sorta lonely. They seem like such good friends after all this time and well it sucks that as they age, they can't live with each other. I guess we all make choices, but sometimes we think we do whats best for you even if it makes your currently a bit sad. Its just that my dad's been wanting to be back home for so long. He's worked in Detroit, Korea, Benton Harbor MI, LaSalle IL, San Climente California, and now its going to be in florida. He used to call from California being all bumed out. I used to call and say like father like son. Here I am in Russia. But you know, its all going to work out....I like the story of the Oddesey cause after all that struggle, he did make it back and his story became a legend. A story each kid is bugged with reading during HS...for all time...

Its going to be Wednesday soon. Thats the beauty with things, there is another day where I can finish or try again why I couldn't figure out the day before....till tomorrow

posted by RU ETL @ 7:51 AM