So, like, I was in Toronto last week on a business trip. Two divisions of the company I work for are aligning their software, a process that will have taken over a year and a half by the time it’s completed, a very aggressive timeline (really, it is, I’m not being ironic), and I am a SME, a Subject Matter Expert. Hence the visit to the head office to attend a week of meetings.
Ok, so here I was, waking up in a downtown hotel, putting on a suit, asking the doorman to get me a cab, asking the taxi driver to write me a receipt so I could put the trip on my expense account, then walking into a tall glass tower with a laptop gripped firmly in one hand.
This is not how I envisioned my future when I was in college. Not that it’s bad or anything. But… bemusement.
[originally transmitted by e-mail July 16, 2006]