Life Outside My Rearview Window: A Decade in Retrospect, 1999

1999 is not as immediately memorable to me. Not sure why other than I didn't have the landmark events of Graduation or First Job. Thankfully I keep old copies of resumes, so that has helped spark my noggin' a bit.

Living:

Zoe the cat showed up hungry and pitiful. We fed her, of course, but NEVER let her in the house. You know, boundaries and such. Mary and I were at a retreat one weekend and the other Carrie got to feeling sorry for her and let her in. Zoe never left and somehow I ended up being the primary caretaker.

Mary, Zoe, and I stayed on in the duplex while the other Carrie moved on to greener pastures. The duplex was homey, but between the ultra-thin wood doors, slanted ceilings, and green carpet, it always reminded me of a lake house. Bamboo grew prolifically in our back yard.

Twice we had rodents keel over in our walls. The first time, I remember having just vacuumed and thinking that Mary must have immediately gone and spilled rice in a corner of the living room. I freaked out when I noticed the grains were squirming; it was our neighbor who gently informed us that it was not, in fact, rice on the floor. De. Scusting. It is a smell I will never forget.

Job:

I freelanced my way into 1999. I did work for several downtown web-outfits, including NixHilton and VirtuallyThere. The former employed my best friend from school, Kasey. Through her I got to be friends with several others in the office including Rick, Scot, and Robert. We would all grab lunch together from time to time.

On one outing, the gang was enjoying burgers in the back of Billy Miner's; it was in the alleyway behind that I discovered the offices of Brainpower Technologies. When I got home I looked up their website, sent an email, and scheduled an interview.

A few projects for Brainpower eventually turned into a full-time contract for the summer. There were only three of us in the office: The Boss, The Systems Admin Chick, and Me. I quickly bonded with my IT counterpart (who happened to have the same last name as me) and we dubbed ourselves "The Viking Sistahs." Perhaps I'll explain the name another time.

Anyhow, we were fond of instant-messaging each other despite our desks being less than two feet apart. We were also fond of standing in chairs and dancing when The Boss stepped out for client meetings (our favorite dance hit was I Will Survive a la Gloria Gaynor and the Alien). Make no mistake, we were productive employees, too. Rick was eventually recruited from his company and came to join the party. Good times.

Travels:

• I went on a mission trip to Belize with a great group of friends from Axis, the young-adult community at my church.
• I attended SXSW in Austin with Yimay. We saw premiers for Book of Stars and Standing on Fishes starring Mary Stuart Masterson and Jason Priestly, respectively. Both actors were much shorter in person and neither movie was ever a major release. I don't think this was related.
  

Random tidbits:

• I launched the initial version of thebiscuit.net. It is clear to me now that I had a lot of time on my hands.
• I used ICQ as my primary instant-messaging tool. I still pride myself on having a six digit id number.
• I'm not certain, but I think my first tattoo occurred this year. My friend Aimee went for moral support and ended up getting a tattoo herself. Or maybe it was the other way around. At any rate, I'm sure we went and got a Slurpee afterward.
• I bought a huge Wacom Tablet to use in lieu of a mouse. Those things were cool.
  
• I was surfing sites like Tour de Butt and the Bumper Dumper. Age has never cured me of certain types of humor.