Last Friday, I attended an IBM reunion set up by my old team lead at a local restaurant. It was a reunion of people who had worked at the IBM Education Center and the support staff including those who are still in support now for lab systems for IBM customer education. This included people who had worked there from the mid 90s until the present date. The hardware Education Center was moved to Boulder five years ago and many of the instructors chose to quit or retire rather than move. A few were able to find other jobs at IBM. The rest were out of luck. About 30 people showed up.
In the truth that time heals all wounds a sort of ex-girlfriend of mine who used to despise me was really happy to see me and gave me a big hug. She and her husband ate with me. She was an instructor who didn’t want to move to Boulder and caught on with a project manager gig that she’s still working at. She’s prolly making real good money. Her husband, on the other hand, who was also an instructor wasn’t so lucky and is now working at an auto parts store stocking shelves for slightly higher than minimum wage. All of his kids from his first marriage are grown and she didn’t have any kids so they’re doing fine.
My now retired CDSM© showed up and in proof that ass kissing doesn’t end with retirement, his two retired project manager buttboys sat next to him still kissing up. I rolled over to see my buddy Marco and my sweetheart Deepal and pointed that out. Marco remarked, “Big asshole and the two little assholes.” Marco and I used to sit next to each other at the Wednesday Inquisition Meeting and I used to try to make him laugh by making gestures under the table as editorial comments. We both hated the meeting. WE both hated the CDSM©
Long time readers may remember stories about me and my CDSM© back when I called IBM TCIDNN (The Company I Dare Not Name). We came to despise each other with a passion. My team lead told me the reason he hated me was because every time we butted heads in the end it would turn out that I was always right and he was always wrong. He was really happy when I retired until he remembered why he had hired me over from the hardware group in the first place, software currency. When I left, no one had time for that. Also, the contractor who replaced me couldn’t do in 40 hours what I did in 30. I also did the network, which he didn’t know. He was a shitty manager. A year after I left, he had my team lead take me out to lunch and offer me my job back as a contractor. Nope. A year later, the same thing. Nope. I was able to avoid him until right before I left and we ran into each other. We smiled at each other and shook hands. Asshole!
After almost 13 years it was really nice seeing all of these people again. We’re all a lot grayer but we’re still around and still surviving. I’m hoping my team lead sets up another one of these events in the future. It was a lot of fun.