did i gloss over a meaningless milestone?

my dad always said i was destined for politics when i was a kid…

…but i think that was work influence.

at the time dad worked for the legislative budget board, so he was in the capital (i had my own desk in his office) and was then in his early to mid thirties. i took an unusually long time to start talking, and both my parents forever joked that i was “making up for lost time ever since” and at some point would “shatter the state’s filibuster record”. when my folks split and dad was desperately trying to maintain some modicum of parental involvement he decided teri and i needed nicknames. mine was “pistol” since i “was always shooting my mouth off”.

none of that was made up.

but i blamed that political talk for most of my jobs lasting two to four years, the typical term for political office. i did college broadcasting for four years. when combined, my two radio gigs spanned four years, as did my time at the record store AND star tickets. i was at dell for more than five, but as the first few months were technically through a temp service they always counted me as only four years and some change.

but my side piece, career-wise, was always the tattoo industry. from hustling walk-ins at gemini to making the recording that played outside notorious ed’s, to paying the rent on sharp things and spending countless weekends there, that kept up in the background forever. but could it be my main squeeze?

yes, apparently it could. because thursday made ten years i’ve been with atomic.

it was a decade ago this past week when i was sure of yet another job interview fail to the point of drinking before hand and never removing my sunglasses during. i’d already had a phone interview that seemed to go well, but i’d had plenty of those that petered out…and at this point i was about to lose my house. but that slightly buzzed sunglasses-clad charming motherfucker still wowed em, my interview lasted less than ninety seconds, and i was asked to come back to start that friday, july 31st, 2009.

in what i would later realize would be a long standing theme, i got out of the shower and was getting ready for my first day when i saw my phone blinking alerting me to the following text from my new boss:

HEY HOLMES – GOTTA DUCK OUT TONIGHT AND WANT TO BE HERE FOR YOUR FIRST DAY…START TOMORROW INSTEAD? SEE YA AT 11AM!

and my start day was moved to august 1st just like that. fuck it, i still had a start day, i kept the house, and ten years later here we are…

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