To The Tardis We're Going To 2001a

I have been meaning to write about snap shots in my life for a long time. Thinking about time and years as they passed makes me feel like I missed many moments of importance and would give anything to get those moments back. Hence my tardis.

I don't promise to write about these in order or even to write about them at all. The Doctor doesn't travel in only one direction in time and neither will I.

Here are the important years: 1977, 1978, 1981, 1982, 1983 , 1986, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007
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2001 - Stalked by the State of Minnesota.

I have a lot of questions about many topics and I don't have answers for most of them. During my retail years I noticed what I always referred to as the sheep herd affect. You could be waiting around for hours and no customers to would come inside the store but when one person arrived then fifty show up. These sheep would generally all move together and the stragglers would stick around when you tried to close the store.

On a larger scale I have the number 444 chasing me down. And on even larger scale I believe that the State of Minnesota is also exerting pressure on me and has been since Fargo came out and Dcup traveled there on a regular basis in the mid '90s. That state really caught up to me in 2001.

In 2001 I worked for The Actuate, fucking software, Corporation. It started off great. The yearly sales kick off meeting was held on Nassau featuring white-sand beach volleyball (Bob Marley songs playing in the back ground), seemly infinite casino time (with Victoria's Secret models in the bar), and the beautiful blue-green Caribbean Sea. On January 7, 2001, my first day onf the job, I flew to the Bahamas.

The position however, had a vague job description. It was so new they never gave me a commission plan but the $60,000 per year salary was twice what I made at my previous job (I didn't balk) and still more than I make now. Doesn't that suck? I was suppose to support the Sales Executives by finding sales opportunities within companies that were already customers and or technical partners. My territory was huge and my office was a small closet in the 3 First National Building (I wonder who owns it now.) in Chicago. I traveled from Chicago to Dallas to Detroit to Milwaukee to Minneapolis. Minneapolis is in Minnesota by the way.

The last week of March 2001 was a busy one for me. I had meetings in Dallas, Milwaukee, Chicago and Minneapolis. I flew to Minnesota on March 30, 2001 for a day trip to visit a customer. Upon my arrival in the airport I realized I had just landed in the middle of the Final Four weekend. As it turned out it was my final four, too my boss called me to tell I was getting laid-off the next Friday.

Now, hop into the tardis to the near present. Tequila mockingbird my friend and work buddy and school conspirator lived in Minnesota, went to college there and found her fiancee there. Remember that teacher Mathman H.S hired last October? She was a recent grad and an immigrant from the University of Minnesota. And there is also the Tequila Mockingbird who lives and writes in Minnesota.

^ {Insert update here: I left off one our of other favorite famous Minnesota bloggers - Whiskey Marie. Sorry of the oversite.}

Last Tuesday, we interviewed a fantastic teacher candidate who's originally from my second favorite state Indiana. She only has two problems- no teaching experience and she's a Purdue University grad which is only a problem for an Indiana grad that will be sharing a classroom with her. Our candidate's current sales position includes the Minnesota territory.

On Thursday, I called her references and was allowed to make her the job offer. She accepted immediately. I put this Minnesota thing to rest. What a relief. When I arrived home I turned on ESPN; Indiana was playing Minnesota.