Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Last days in Boston. Part Two: Last day at the office
The view from the office is so wonderful, I will really miss it. As I will miss, Kelly, Pete, Matt, Samantha (a fellow Brit) and others. I wrote my report, had my hand-over meeting, said my goodbyes and was about to sign off the computer for the final time when I received my last email.
It was from Business Edge, who laid me off in January. Did I have an assignment starting (what was then) next week and would I be interested in an assignment downtown? I informed them that I was about to leave and yes, I am very interested.
I had two conversations in the next hour. The one before I descended into Government Center Station seemed quite hopeful that I would be working this week and the one when I got back to my room and saw no email so called again, was rather less so. It turns out that the client was “going to decide whether to proceed on ‘Monday or Tuesday’.” Now I’m not saying that this couldn’t happen, but in my experience, that makes Wednesday the earliest they will decide. But then someone in the decision making process will not be around and then they will reconsider and get back to Business Edge in 2 weeks, by which point it will be decided that they don’t need to proceed right now or the funding will be pulled. I hope I’m wrong.
Back to Friday. I left my room at 7pm to meet Heidi at Wagamama (near Harvard Square). I love that place and will miss it. They have restaurants in quite a few countries but the only two in America are in the Boston area.. We went from there to Middle East, which is a restaurant and music venue near Central Square. They were having a ska night, with 3 bands. It was a clear night, on the cusp of warm enough to not wear a jacket and not quite so – perfect for a walk.
We missed the beginning of the first band, who were decent. I really liked the second band, Code 21. I also enjoyed watching the kids doing their ska moves. It was actually funny. A couple of the younger guys wore check vests, like The Specials and they were really doing the Skinhead Moonstomp dance popularized in England during the Reggae explosion in the late 60s. They just got the whole ska thing wrong! It’s supposed to be fun, so many of the kids took their dancing extremely seriously, confining themselves to one or two moves that they apparently thought were the entire scope of ska dancing. But some got it right!
And there I was in this dance club, 11 days shy of my 51st birthday, and until near the end, the next oldest person I saw after Heidi, who is 48, was probably less than half my age. With about 20 minutes to go, I did see an old geezer who was probably in his late 30s – poor old thing probably needed to go home to his bed!
The main act have been around for 14 years – The New York Ska Jazz Ensemble put jazz music, including Take Five by Dave Brubeck and a Charles Mingus standard, to Ska or Reggae and for one song, Rocksteady. At first it seemed that they played regular ska music just extra loud, and I didn’t feel it added anything. But I warmed to them. Definitely a good day!
It was from Business Edge, who laid me off in January. Did I have an assignment starting (what was then) next week and would I be interested in an assignment downtown? I informed them that I was about to leave and yes, I am very interested.
I had two conversations in the next hour. The one before I descended into Government Center Station seemed quite hopeful that I would be working this week and the one when I got back to my room and saw no email so called again, was rather less so. It turns out that the client was “going to decide whether to proceed on ‘Monday or Tuesday’.” Now I’m not saying that this couldn’t happen, but in my experience, that makes Wednesday the earliest they will decide. But then someone in the decision making process will not be around and then they will reconsider and get back to Business Edge in 2 weeks, by which point it will be decided that they don’t need to proceed right now or the funding will be pulled. I hope I’m wrong.
Back to Friday. I left my room at 7pm to meet Heidi at Wagamama (near Harvard Square). I love that place and will miss it. They have restaurants in quite a few countries but the only two in America are in the Boston area.. We went from there to Middle East, which is a restaurant and music venue near Central Square. They were having a ska night, with 3 bands. It was a clear night, on the cusp of warm enough to not wear a jacket and not quite so – perfect for a walk.
We missed the beginning of the first band, who were decent. I really liked the second band, Code 21. I also enjoyed watching the kids doing their ska moves. It was actually funny. A couple of the younger guys wore check vests, like The Specials and they were really doing the Skinhead Moonstomp dance popularized in England during the Reggae explosion in the late 60s. They just got the whole ska thing wrong! It’s supposed to be fun, so many of the kids took their dancing extremely seriously, confining themselves to one or two moves that they apparently thought were the entire scope of ska dancing. But some got it right!
And there I was in this dance club, 11 days shy of my 51st birthday, and until near the end, the next oldest person I saw after Heidi, who is 48, was probably less than half my age. With about 20 minutes to go, I did see an old geezer who was probably in his late 30s – poor old thing probably needed to go home to his bed!
The main act have been around for 14 years – The New York Ska Jazz Ensemble put jazz music, including Take Five by Dave Brubeck and a Charles Mingus standard, to Ska or Reggae and for one song, Rocksteady. At first it seemed that they played regular ska music just extra loud, and I didn’t feel it added anything. But I warmed to them. Definitely a good day!
