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1/3/2006 2005 in review: 2005 was a year of a great change. Everything started out pretty bleak, but things turned out just fine… more than fine, actually, things are fantastic in my life right now. I’m sitting in front of one of the best views a guy could ask for… the night skyline of Seattle provides some great inspiration to write. The year started out pretty crappily. I knew I wanted to get out of Utah, but I needed a job offer to precede me so I could afford to move. Despite the fact that my resume was posted on my site, monster, and the other online job services for many months, I didn’t receive any job leads. I was beginning to give up hope when I was contacted about a position at WebMD in Portland. I skipped out on work to interview there for a day. If memory serves, the interview actually lasted about three or four hours. I actually gave one of the best interviews of my life… I was really knowledgeable about everything that was asked of me, but when it came down to it, I was the #2 choice for the job. In most cases, being #2 gets you nothing. After this, I was feeling pretty low. I did the best I could, but I still wasn’t good enough. My hope for escaping Utah anytime soon was almost gone. Then, I received a call for a position at Microsoft. It wasn’t an actual employee spot, but a contractor position. Good enough. I passed the phone interview easily, then scheduled a flight for the next week. Now, after visiting Portland the previous summer, I knew I wanted to move there… anywhere in the Pacific Northwest would have been fantastic. When I scheduled my next interview, I made sure the interview was on a day adjacent to a weekend so I could spend some time getting to know the Seattle area. I believe the interview was on a Monday… I arrived in the city on Saturday morning. My hotel was in Bellevue, but the accommodations were nice and it was a short enough drive into Seattle proper to get to know the city. I went to Pike Place Market for the first time in ages, drove around, slept at the hotel for a while, then went to some Italian restaurant in Pioneer Square. The next day, I met up with some friends (Erik & Dasha) who happened to be up in the area on vacation. We had a grand time driving around and exploring the area. We met up with some of their friends, had a meal on the seafront, and had a grand time together. At this point, I knew I wanted to live here. Monday swung around and I interviewed at Microsoft. This turned out to be one of the most painful interviews of my life. I swear, the group I interviewed with was on crack and centered the interview questions around some very non-best-practice orientated issues (cursors, to those who speak T-SQL). I choked… I spent a good chuck of my career avoiding cursors whenever possible (and everyone else should do the same). Even if I had gotten an offer at that point, I knew I wasn’t the guy for this job. After flying back, I don’t recall being discouraged this time. A little while later, I ended up in Seattle again for another job interview at Microsoft. This time, the interview was on a Friday. I had very little sleep the night before, and kids prevented me from sleeping on my flight out. Despite the adversity, I so completely nailed this next interview. Microsoft is infamous for giving nasty puzzles during an interview and I not only solved the puzzle in less time than the average candidate, but I managed to solve the problem in a way none of the other candidates did. I found out I had the job less than a couple of hours later, signed my paperwork with my new consulting firm, and I was officially going to move. On to Saturday: my friend Kelly was in town this weekend and she wanted me to do a photo shoot with both her and her friend, DeeAnn. The photo shoot didn’t quite click for me (I wasn’t used to posing two people, especially people who were modeling for me for the first time), but we all had fun anyway. I ended up going to dinner with Kelly and DeeAnn afterward, and then we went out for drinks at a nice bar / restaurant called Brasa. There, we were joined by DeeAnn’s husband (now ex), a guy named Trey, and a girl named Roxanne. We drank, had a wonderful time, and all went our separate ways. The next day, I flew back to Utah. I had a couple of farewells, tried to say my goodbyes to everyone as best as possible, and sold most of my possessions. My last night in town, a group of us went out for coffee, then sushi, then Erik hosted a small goodbye party for me at his place. After all of that fun, a meltdown ensued, and the party ended. I remember that evening as being rainy… like in the movies when there’s a great tragedy and the rain just starts pouring. I sobbed on my drive back home. I’ll never forget the white knuckle drive the next night… packing my car up took way too long and I ended up driving the first leg of my trip, to Boise, after the sun was down. The drive through most of Idaho was quite scary… white knuckle driving and some terrible wind gusts on the freeway. Thanks to a Stephen King audio book (The Green Mile) some Pepto Bismol, and a Starbucks Doubleshot, I made it. The drive through the parts of Oregon and Washington were stunning. The weather was perfect for the drive up, and I felt reborn. Everything was great until I got near Seattle. Cold and rainy through the mountain pass, then cold and rainy when I arrived… could my arrival been more Seattle-like? I arrived on a Sunday and started work the next day. I was in the corporate apartment for less than two weeks. I found an amazing condo near downtown Seattle owned by a fellow Microsoft minion. About a month later, Roxanne held a party to try to snag me… which didn’t go as she had planned. I’ll skip that story for now, but we ended up going out shortly after… and have been together ever since (almost at 7 months now). During the last half of the year, I worked a crazy amount of hours on my project at work. It was one of the worst-scheduled projects I had been on, which left a lot of us burnt out. After the project was over, we were moved into a cramped office in Issaquah. Imagine being shoved in like sardines, two to a cubicle. That, and a lot of other conditions spawned a serious desire to leave. December came around and I interviewed for a new company. I landed the job with flying colors and I’ll start in less than 2 weeks from now. It’ll be a good change, and I’m getting a big raise on this jump… not bad, eh? The year ended pretty well. Roxanne and I had a small party at my condo… only two others ended up showing up for various reasons, but we had a very good time. We had a lot of champagne, cheese, and good company. The fireworks on the space needle were a huge disappointment, but at least we all got to laugh at the people who were stuck in traffic down below for hours after the event. The year was a year of change for me… mostly good change. I wouldn’t take it back for anything in the world. I wish some of my friends from Utah would move out here… despite all that’s going well for me in life, I miss a lot of you terribly. Life just isn’t the same without you. Now, it’s resolutions time, isn’t it? · Get back to the gym · Make more time for photography · Buy a Nikon d200 · Maybe rent some studio space downtown (hey, maybe it’ll make more girls pose naked for me) · Take a trip to France · Pay off my car · Give Roxanne a big kiss next time I see her · Make it up to Canada · Strengthen and build more friendships here Well, that’s it. I miss a lot of you and hope to hear from you and see more of you up here this year. |