My Life circa 1995 - 2009

So... MindSpring. What can I say about that place? Everyone who worked there knows how wonderful it was, and how painful it could be. We worked hard and played hard to make up for it. I met too many fabulous people there to name here. You know who you are.

I started out as employee number 44 in the Tech Support department. That was painful for me - and quite possibly painful for some of the callers on the other end of the phone line - but I learned a ton and eventually got out of that department. I landed a gig maintaining the company website. Up 'til that point it was the job of some of the engineers to update the page whenever something of importance came up. I put my art school learnings to it and made it pretty.

I was put into Mike Strutton's department with Ty Allen, Keat Seong Chan, and Elizabeth Strickler. We had a great first year, and taught MindSpring to put a limit on the year-end bonuses (we had a 90% bonus that first year). Eventually it was decided that a Web Design department would be beneficial to the company. I told them that I was the best choice to head it up, and they agreed.

I ran that department on my own for a while. I did a passable job, I guess. Then Susan Nicholson was brought in to make the department more than a side project. We got bigger, the goals got bigger, the budget didn't. I eventually left the department, and the company after some slimey political manuvering left me in a position where I had to either swallow my pride or get out. I wasn't in the pride-swallowing mood, and I was quite burnt out after almost 5 years in the Internet business, so I opted to leave.

In the meantime, the Olympics had come and gone from Atlanta. People from all over the country, and probably the world, also came to Atlanta. Property values had skyrocketed. I had been fortunate enough to have bought the house I had rented for five years. And I had bought it at about half the going rate of the other houses in the neighborhood. So I saw my cash cow, and a way out of Atlanta. But what the hell did I want to do now?

I ended up getting a job at Cox Enterprises, along with Galen, and stuck that out for a few months. But my heart wasn't in the Internet business anymore.

I sold my house, rented an apartment, and worked at Highland Hardware for a few months. I was at work on 9/11/01. Someone pulled a tv out and we stood on the sales floor watching in disbelief. Then my boss walked by and said "we still have work to do". I knew it was time to be moving on.

I found a furniture making school in Maine that had a 3 month program. I got accepted, used some of the money from my house sale, and went up to The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. Of course, the 3 months were November, December and January. Brr. But we had a good, mild winter. And, again, I met some great people. One guy was from Atlanta - and he lived just down the street from me! I made some cool stuff, learned a lot about wood and how to work it. And at the end of the three months I went back to Atlanta and stayed with a friend. I still didn't know where I wanted to go, so Atlanta seemed the most logical place.

Pretty soon I decided to move across the country (again) to Portland, Oregon. My plan was to move out here and see if I could find work as a furniture maker, or an assistant, or maybe a cafe again if I needed to. As it turned out, I got a job as a cabinetmaker. The first company I worked at sucked. Crazy boss, asshole manager, moving deadlines - you know the type. But I stuck it out for close to two years. I put my time in on the ground level, with the goal of finding a better quality place to work.

And I did. The day I quit my first job I didn't have another job lined up. I had been interviewing, but no one had made an offer yet. I went home that day, took a shower, and walked down to the corner shop to buy a beer. My phone rang. And Mike Smith was on the line offering me a job. Perfect.

I've worked for Mike now for a total of about 4 years. Sadly, because of the crappy economy, he has had to lay off all but one of his staff, and I'm afraid he may have to close his company. I hope not.

In 2004 I changed my job, bought a house, and met my current boyfriend. The house is an old house - built in 1896 - but is in fairly good condition. We always have big plans for the place, but for the moment I will make small updates as they come along. The boyfriend is named Luis. He is from Mexico, but has been in the States since he was 16, more than half his life.

It's been an interesting relationship. He still retains some Mexican traits, which are sometimes hard to deal with, but he is nothing like your typical Mexican. In late 2005 we moved to his hometown of Tuxpan, Jalisco, Mexico. We planned to go down for 6 months to a year. We rented the house out, put our stuff in storage, and drove two cars loaded to the gills with our stuff the 3000 miles from Portland to Tuxpan.

I ended up staying there for 14 months. It was hard. And I probably would have done better to come home sooner, but we have all made choices for reasons we don't always understand. So many more details can be found about this time of my life earlier in my blog, starting here. No need to rehash it here.

Luis came back to Portland in June of 2007, about four months after I returned. Since then we have gotten back into our lives as they were before we left. And now that I have been laid off, I am back to wondering what the next phase of my life will be. Any suggestions will be happily accepted, although not necessarily followed.

And you, where have you been in the past 10 or 20 years?