Googlelicious!

So, my darling husband works for Google, as viewed by many to be the #1 company to work for, and here are some reasons why that might be a valid claim.

1. FREE FOOD! Yes, that's right. All of the food is FREE- breakfast, lunch, dinner, and any snacks and drinks you might want. Let me expound a bit upon this to let you know just how truly amazing this really is. All of their food is gourmet- and they have 19 different cafes around their campuses for their employees to eat during lunch time. These cafes range from Charlies- which has 5 different stations with things from asian, mexican, salad, burgers, and other ethnic food with such a wide range of different varieties in each to try (eg. at the mexican, you can have carne asada, veggie, chicken, pork, beef in either a burrito, quesedilla, nachos, or enchiladas) to Pacific (different types of Asian) to No Name (has very healthy options). For breakfast, you can go to Charlies and have a waffle or bacon, eggs, etc. but if you just want cereal, toast, yogurt, fruit, chips, m&ms, you can go to your building where they have a kitchen fully loaded and stocked with different kinds of cereal, milk, all kinds of beverages- from Odwalla, Coke, Pepsi, Smart Water, juices- popcorn, coffee, premade sandwiches, and make your own pbj. For dinner, its mostly Charlies thats open (or at least the best one to go to). Needless to say, you will never go hungry at Google. And William can have visitors a few times a month!!! And I am very happy to capitalize on that. This free food has greatly diminished our monthly food bill so I'm a fan and very happy that I don't work there or else I would definitely be morbidly obese.

2. Free bikes- while you are on Google main campus, they have free bikes and helmets you can ride around. The bikes are easily distinguishable by being the old school kind of light blue with a laptop basket on the front as well as a bright orange flag on the back. They also have free motorized scooters, but William and the co-workers in his office still can't figure out how to get them to work. I've also seen the security people riding around on Segways- the epitome of neridness (according to Weird Al's song of "White and Nerdy")

3. The Google Colors- everything is in the Google colors of red, yellow, green and blue. From the signs around the campus to their cubicle name plates (which are contained inside of an empty cd disc case)

4. The terminology and lingo- they call new members to Google "nooglers", in your interview one of the factors they look for is "googleliness"- seeing how well you fit within their mantra, and many other ones that William will need to list for you.

5. Toilet Seats- these are the fanciest toilet seats I have ever seen and used in my entire life! They are HEATED- and have special rinsers for the front and back, as well as a dryer (doesn't work that well). I just think it is hilarious because this is California- there's no way that it gets cold enough to need one! This would be a great feature for the bitter Boston winters though . . .

6. Massage chair and free massages every quarter- they have a massage chair that is open and available (first come, first serve) in every building and then in each office section, they have a room reserved especially for the full on massage table, complete with mood lighting. Each employee gets one a period or something like that- William has one but isn't excited about using it.

7. Free Stuff- such as T shirts, tickets to go see Transformers on opening day, conferences at the Ritz Carton hotel in Half moon bay (I unfortunately couldn't go to this one), frisbees, mugs, bags, getting the picture?

8. The PARTIES! I have to say, Google sure does know how to throw a party! It truly is incredible and unlike anything I've ever seen! Let me describe in grand detail the two that I have been to
Google Picnic: This was held out at Shoreline Amphitheater near Google that is basically a little version of an amusement park. They have multiple stages- one large one- as well as multiple vendor booths for food and drink. You had to have a neon yellow wrist band to get in, but once there, everything was FREE. Free waffle fries, frozen lemonade, rootbeer floats, ice cream sandwiches, candy, cookies, fruit, burgers, hot dogs, satay, cotton candy, popcorn, and the list continues. Additionally, they had people not only putting on temporary tatoos, but airbrush tatoos! And a ferris wheel and photos of you. But, the best part- in my opinion- was the shows. They had performers come from the San Francisco circus who did Cirque du Solei-esque tricks, like twisting in the ribbon, acrobats, strength), and flexibility. It was pretty neat- especially being for free. Then, was Google Idol. Now, this isn't exactly like American Idol- no, it didn't just focus on singing, but on a whole WIDE range of talents, all from Google employees. Here are just a few of the 10 finalists- 2 women doing Indian Hindi dancing, 2 piano players, a guy screaming and headbanging to a rock song, girls dancing to "Googlelicious", and my personal favorites- the parodies of Google- people who made up songs about life at Google. The winning number was the "Googley Blues" (see, yet another lingo aspect :-) indicating some of the downsides to working at the number 1 company (no ones perfect). It definitely was unlike any company picnic I've ever been to before.

Google Dance- This event just happened last night and was a party to bring together all of the different search engines who have been engaging in a "dance" to try to out do Google when it comes to searches. They again had all this bbq food including corn on the cob, strawberry shortcake, cornbread, milkshakes (chocolate mint- yummy, vanilla- gross), and my personal favorite- the Candy Bar. This was a station of all these plastic bulk food bins FULL of different candies corresponding to the google colors. Most were gummies (and many know my passion also for gummies) and so I loaded my bag complete with the Google sticker (not letting you forget) with swedish fish, haribo frogs, green apple gummy bears, hot tamales- and then William got me a bag since he didn't want them. What a good husband :-)
Then, they had all of these different entertainment options- karaoke, the giant arcade video games, and . . . . the best of all . . . a Wii wall. This was where we spent our time because William is FASCINATED by the Wii. Whenever we are at a toy store, or Target, he watches people play- including the demos on the t.v. screens. But, he has never played. But that changed last night.
William was able to use the Wii to have an intense game of tennis against another co-worker. William held his own, extending to 5 sets and even a long game of deuce, but unfortunately lost. But, he was just overjoyed. I couldn't get a good shot of his face (didn't want to distract his game) so here is a side view. These photos aren't the best cuz I didn't want to use flash to disturb the ambiance.

It truly was yet another incredible party and I can't WAIT to see what other nice benefits they have!
But for all this free stuff, they do make you work- this is the 2nd night in a row that William has been at work until midnight- they have created an environment where you can nearly live at work! kind of reminds me of the days when I was livin at the Harold B. Lee library at BYU . . .