I feel the earth move

Christy & Megan

Yvonne, the road warrior, and Maria, the mystery, are basking in the California sun while I’m here freezing trying to put out some fires, such as a costly water main break. Long story and it's for another entry. These ladies were off to San Bernardino to consult with the team to try and resurrect a project long gone forsaken, good ol’ facility copy. Here’s hoping that those magic, miracles, and prayers maybe could aid in the rescue. Lots of luck with that.

And then the earth rumbled! An omen.

Flashback:
Eons ago there was this team. Yvonne and Maria as the pillars of the NYC office and me as the mainstay poor gofer. On many occasions, a frantic call is placed to our good buddy Mary in San Bernardino HQ about some request not exactly outside of the realm of possibility but to which she’d have a smart-aleck response of something like:
“People in hell want ice water too!”
You see, humor is an art form with Mary and you can’t get mad at her if you need a program enhancement badly or some other silly thing the client wants yesterday. Somehow she’ll mobilize the Boys, the ones who share the office they call The Dark Side, thanks to Michael's fascination with the Force.

There’s Chet who’ll start writing codes while driving the 50-mile distance from his mountain house. Why not just telecommute you ask? Not a good idea. In his workshop is another harpsichord waiting to be built and those kids queued outside his door for music lessons? Too tempting.

Steve, the peer to peer guru and the God who can part waters, if you have any luck finding him, can whip up something in a few hours.

Tom the gorgeous smart fellow who any married woman would die to have an affair with, can give you instructions in detail – go ahead and test now and see if this or that patch works.

There is one major hurdle. 3000 miles away from NY – 3 hours time difference which leaves us with barely five decent hours for testing and that’s not taking into account the lunch break for Mary – that "quick" trip to Costco to get that package of Goldfish crackers for the girls. Oh and where’s Steve? Squeezing in an 18-hole while tweaking that fix for the issue at hand. New York? Let them wait! God have mercy.

Finally when everyone's ready to test this code which according to Mary is “put together with bubble gum and barbed wire”, it is time for the NY office and the client site to close shop! Rats! Mary DOES care, but while she’s impervious to scud missiles being fired from a site we will call by its corrupted name - “Hellvue”, I'm not. It's my neck. Don't forget I'm on the frontline here!

ChaCha who was a dear to work with and calls me Tantrum T or hunter-gatherer! She tied down Steve to his chair while in NY. So we can get some work done, you filthy-minded brats!

Then there’s Cynthia, quiet as a mouse until you hear her jokes and her tricks with her palms. She loads releases, codes and I don't know what else and tells us at what times we should not to do certain things, which we ignore anyway. How does she do all that with the demanding NY clients? She's got Arnold who is cool as a cucumber.

Of course Nurse Stacey who gave me crash courses on clinicals. Moi? Design desktop for physicians? And you're giving me how many days? Get out of my cubicle, Lorna!

Don’t forget, my “Son”, Troy the Hooker, who can crunch reports like nobody else can. Just throw him a few slices of NY pizza and lots of caffeine. And lock him in a room away from the pontificating Val.

Honestly I don’t know what role Arnold played in this whole circus, but I like him anyway.

Those where the good old days.

Fast forward:
Yvonne and Maria at dinner with the old gang, plus Megan and Christy, Mary’s girls. This I missed, when Mary goes down the list of who’s where and what and who’s still alive. You see, she had the luxury of quitting work to stay home with the girls, husband Terry does all the money raking! Lots of it I suspect!

I hear Arnold is funny as can be. What about those chickens? I heard you brought out my chicken stories.
As a child, Maria used to blow on their butts for kicks.
Country girl that I was, I used to “dress” them. No Arnold, not in spiked heels and mini skirts, but dress as in plucking their feathers, and so forth, as in preparing to cook them for dinner! Now you know why ChaCha gave me such a barbaric nickname.

On the other hand, Yvonne eats nothing but chicken and fries. I swear she won’t try anything else if you pay her. How she survived a month in Mumbai on assignment God only knows.

Megan and Christy have grown even prettier. I heard of Megan’s 6th grade science project of extracting DNA from fruits and analyzing that using electrophoresis. Excuse me! Son of a gun, that sounds like my undergrad thesis! I’m impressed. But what happened to the tutu I made for you? I thought it was ballet you're going to pursue.

Time for goodbyes and hellos to the latecomers and here it comes. RUMBLE!
The earth shook, 5.0 on the Richter scale and San Bernardino is the epicenter. Arnold said he’ll never hug Mary again after that. Excitement of seismic proportions, that must be it. Meeting with old friends can cause quakes. That must've scared the pants out of Yvonne as it was her first earthquake.

Mary, I didn’t know you still have those powers. You can still make the earth move, girlfriend. No Mary, I didn't pack up for the Old Age Sanctuary yet, so you can cut out that "Old" thing joke. And hey, isn't blogging a better brain workout than stuffing envelopes doing volunteer work? Yeah, that's what they wanted me to do, but I said no way, I'll do the annual 5K walk instead.

I promise to see you all again one of these days; if not, you come visit me while I'm still home and not at The Home. Stay in touch folks and thanks for the pictures.

PS:

Shame, shame, shame. How can I forget our good friend Jerry, the resident Lab specialist, the living bible for all Lab installs. He knows and loves New York like no full-blooded New Yorker does. He's explored all the nooks and crannies of the City and takes the train to Prospect Park fearlessly. He has accepted a job with another company since and we sure miss him too.