the BK baguette, and trouble with doors

I did have the BK chicken baguette for lunch today. It wasn't bad...the peppers were a little mushier than I'd like (but not any more than I expected), the sauce was less like salsa and more like marinara, and it was quite salty. Though overall it was pretty tasty, I'm not sure if I'd order it again. Oh, and the BK side salad? Pretty nasty. I'm not sure how they managed to screw up some lettuce and a couple tomato slices, but it just didn't taste right at all.

The biggest adventure of the day, though, was trying to get into the locker rooms for our company fitness center. I didn't actually want to use the fitness center, since I was planning on walking on the gravel track on the grounds. However, I did need to change clothes and to shower afterward, so I had to get to the locker room, at least.

The problem is, the fitness center is in another building, and both it and the locker rooms can only be accessed through a card-key controlled door. I think this is probably to keep the lowly contractors (kidding) from using it, since it's a benefit for the full-timers. Anyway, after I schlepped across the parking lot to the other building with my big heavy workout bag, my has-been-fulltime-for-over-2-years card-key wouldn't work in the door.

I walked back to the other building, carrying all my gear, and told the security guard that my card didn't work in this other door. He looked at his log and essentially said, "Yeah it does." He gave me some suggestions for running it through the card slot, clicked a checkbox on his little computer screen, and told me to try again.

I tried again. Still didn't work. By this time, I'm 10 minutes into my lunch hour, and have gotten absolutely nothing accomplished (unless you count carrying my workout bag across the parking lot and back in a sweater and trousers, which I guess can be considered a workout). I went back to the security guard, he looked at his records, and said to try one more time, and he would see me trying to get in the door on his logs, and fix it if it wasn't working. Back across the parking lot I go...FOR NOTHING. Still doesn't work, he apparently isn't fixing shit.

So now I've been walking back and forth across the parking lot for going on 20 minutes, and my patience was gone. I slammed my hand against the wall in frustration. Fortunately for me, there was a woman behind me who offered to let me in with her. I gratefully accepted, got to the locker room, and changed my clothes. I headed out to the track, defective card in hand.

I stopped by the office building on the way to the track, and the security guard was no longer at the desk...the maintenance guy was filling in (ours is not a business that requires super tight security). He couldn't help me with the card, so I just dropped it on the desk and told him that when the guard got back, to please have him look at it. I also mentioned that all my work clothes were now locked behind that door that I couldn't open, and if they couldn't fix it, I was working in these gym clothes for the rest of the day. No one wants that. :)

I walked about 2 miles on the track, which was nice and worked up a light sweat, then cut through the office lobby to see if they worked their magic. He told me the card worked...he had tested it on the stairwell in the office building, which was coded the same as the workout door--if I could get into one, I should be able to get into the other. I asked him what I was doing wrong, then, because I've always been able to get into the stairwell, but always had trouble with the fitness center. He gave me several "wiggle the handle" type suggestions, and told me that if it didn't work this time, that he would program me a new card. *sigh*

Well, it didn't work. Thankfully, someone I knew had just come out of the fitness center, and I asked him to let me in if my card didn't work. I got in, got showered, got changed. It was only 30 minutes after I had originally planned to be done with the workout. It did mean that I had to run through the drive-thru and eat lunch at my desk, though.

The bright spot in all this is that I now have a new card, and it works flawlessly in both doors. It took about 20 minutes. Why he couldn't have just done that in the first place is beyond me. Protocol, I guess.