We all filed into the conference room. Two walls of the conference room on the 17th floor of the Centre City Tower are giant windows overlooking the brand-spanking-new ballyard. These two walls were lined with unsuspecting dot-commers.

Our backs were to the stunning view of downtown (pronounced "dahntahn") Pittsburgh. We had just released the software: on time, quality assured, and scalable (barely) to the limits of the contract.

We figured the Suit was going to have one of those "attaboy" meetings.

Boy, were we wrong. As some of the developers wondered aloud about possible release bonuses, everybody's computer was being disconnected from the network. HR boy was busily erasing our security codes from the front door lock.

The Suit breezed in and told us we were all fired. "Except those of you who have already been contacted," he added. H.R. Lickenschpittle stepped forward to explain what agreements we had to sign in order to get our severance.

Then we were all sent back to our offices to pack them up and get the hell out.

My office overlooked the Civic Arena. It had the standard particle-board/formica furniture, including a gigantic eight foot bookcase, containing exactly one paperback book. I stuck it in my back pocket.

The Boys from Engineering had an office two doors down. It was tricked out in uber-geek style with subdued lighting, Segovia playing quietly on the stereo, and the classic glass-block monitor bridge. There was a tasteful silkscreen hanging on the wall. The bookcase was filled with cool techie manuals. The shades were drawn, just as well because this office overlooked the side of the Koppers building, and their shades were always drawn too.

Nothing short of a moving van was going to cart this stuff home, and we were riding the trolley. We elected to bolt for the elevator and return at a later date with some kind of motor vehicle.

I was scheduled, later in the morning, to get a blood test for a life insurance policy that I was destined not to be approved for anyway. Something about "alien DNA", but that's another story.

So the Boys from Engineering and I hopped the trolley and headed for my house, intending to meet the phlebotomist and then figure out what the hell had just happened.

Riding the trolley on that beautiful spring Pennsylvania day, I realized that, for the first time in fifteen years, I had almost no plans. One minute, I was worrying about a design meeting with our increasingly unstable CTO (this should have been a warning), the next minute, I was unemployed.

Well, at least I was not going to be in that insane meeting.

Ok, so here's my entire todo list at that point:

  • Tell Mrs. Phillips I was fired.
  • Be phlebotomized.

I was just beginning to see that unemployment had it's upside. I realized I could spend a quiet day contemplating the really big issues of my life instead of all these artificial petty job-issues that had blown away like a bunch of dry leaves.

Unfortunately, fate had other plans for me that day.

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