Shad

Slack’s recent posting about something funny his son did reminded me of a story my wife told me that I wanted to get down, so I wouldn’t forget.

When Sarah was much, much younger and learning her words, her mommy and she were reading a book on animals and the different noises they make. Gail would read the page, which went something along the lines of “See the cow? The cow says…” and Sarah would fill in the sound. She was doing a great job of supplying the “moos” and “meows” and “oinks” where needed. The Gail got to a page and read “See the gold fish? The gold fish says…”

And Sarah started to cry, because she didn’t know the sound. But she made an effort. Through big tears and half sobs she said “bloop?”, and then cried even harder.

I laughed so hard when Gail told me that…is that wrong of me?

Sitting at work yesterday, one of the marketing managers leans over my pod wall and says “So what’s going on? First I hear you’re working with us, now I hear you’re not?” This manager works in the group I’ve been hoping to work with for the past 6 weeks. So for him to hear I wouldn’t be working with them was a bit disconcerting to say the least. Especially since I myself hadn’t heard a thing. I looked at him and said “First I’ve heard of it…” He stammered something about not sure if that’s what he heard for certain and quickly made his exit.

Enough with the not knowing, I figured. If I don’t get this job, I have no severance, no leads, nothing to fall back on. After I finish moving banks off our servers, it was going to be “Thanks, don’t let the door hit you on the way out” if I didn’t have a job here. So I figured I’d go straight to the source and emailed my would-be boss. I told her a not-so-little birdy told me I wasn’t going to be working with her group at all, and, to be blunt, what the hell is going on. Naturally, I didn’t frame it like that but I did layout my concerns and told her in no uncertain terms, I needed to know *now*.

I sent her that at about 2pm, and didn’t hear from her at all. Whereas the old saying is “No news is good news”, I knew this wasn’t the case, and because she was so long in replying, I prepared for the worst. This morning when I got in, there was mail from her saying to come see her.

The short of it is, I got the job. 100% have the job, according to her. The delay stemmed from her boss’s end. She was trying to get budget stuff finalized and what not, and he apparently just kept putting it off. When I sent her that email, she realized how stressed I was becoming. She forwarded that email to not only her boss, but the SVP of the department, basically saying “do you see what kind of position you’re putting him in?” That got them to approve whatever it was that needed approving and I am 100% still going to be employed when all is said and done.

All I can say to that is “Hallelujah and amen, holy shit do I need a drink” For damn near two months it’s been uncertain.

On an un-related side note, because I don’t have a sidebar up yet, I wanted to give a little shout-out love to Heidi. I used to work with her back in the old AOL-Tucson days and her husband and I still chat. So head over to Sweetmunkies to read about Heidi’s adventures in parenting, gardening and vegetarianism, along with other topics. Oh, and she’s a hot redhead. That’s aces in my book.

Don’t kill me Slack!

It’s nice for a change to be voting for someone I actually like, rather than the lesser of two evils. If you’re in Maryland, D.C., or Virginia, get out and vote in the primary. If you have a primary coming to your neck of the woods soon, get out and make your voice heard. I did.