Finally done with training my successor(s).  The company is splitting up my job's responsibilities among two people.    Someone put up a whiteboard near the front of the office, that shows the remaining days left before most of the people in this office are getting their pinkslip (May 30th).   So much for corporate cheer.   

I bought an exercise bike a couple of weeks ago.   http://www.amazon.com/Schwinn-231-Recumbent-Exercise-Bike/dp/B000MXL5SQ  The shipping company called me to arrange a delivery.  Seeing as I work in San Francisco, and I didn't want to take another day off to wait for the delivery (I had taken a day off of work to wait for a TV to be delivered), I asked if they could deliver it to my friend Jeff's father's office in downtown Tiburon (Main Street).  They said sure, and I gave them the address.  

I check their website today, and they had confirmed they delivered it to Tiburon.  Jeff calls me yesterday, and tells me the box is at his office.  However, he then tells me that the box is 5 feet long by 2 feet high by 1 feet wide, and that it weighs 125 pounds.  I'm thinking "oh crap, this is not gonna fit in my car".  So now I have an exercise bike that's five miles away from my house, and I don't currently have any way of getting it.   Maybe I could just open the box and try to put it into my car in pieces.  I don't know.  I have to set up a meeting with Jeff to get access to the office, and I have to set up this move when it's not totally crowded in downtown Tiburon (which it usually is).  

I don't know what I would do without friends, which is probably what the case would be, if I moved to another state, since I don't make friends easily.  In fact, the last friend I've made who I still talk to, I met in 2001.   I mean, I made some Engineering friends when I was in Sacramento between 2001-2004, but aside from a couple emails regarding job status, I haven't talked to any of them since 2004, let alone hung out with them.   Distance outweighed the bonds of friendship, here. 

I haven't had any luck with making friends at work, either.  At my first job, I was working there with the owner, and my manager, who were both older people in their late 40's/early 50's.  They were old fashioned and serious - definitely not the kind of people I could make friends with.  At my second job, I was working with people closer to my age, but they seemed to be from the "clubbing and pubbing" group, which wasn't my thing either.    Plus once they found out that I liked playing World of Warcraft, they seemed to distance themselves from me even further.  I mean, when I went to the good-bye party, nobody asked me for my contact information to keep in contact with me, which I was fine with.

At my current job, I'm again working with people closer to my age, but I haven't been here that long, and people here seem too pre-occupied with the impending shutdown to expand their social circle, so I haven't tried.   I guess my problem is that I'm just too self-conscious to try and establish meaningful connections with other people.   I've gotten used to doing things by myself, but I know there are times when I really could use the help of a real friend.   Am I alone in not making friends easily (pun not intended)?