I’m out here in San Fran for a few days to meet my new employer and coworkers since I work remotely from the Atlantic side of the country. Last night I was fortunate enough to meet up with some old coworkers from my first real job after college who live out here. It’s been 12.5 years since I left Touchscreen Media Group; many left shortly after that, and the company itself closed within a year or so, being a victim of both the dot-com bubble popping and being acquired by a government contract company that cooked its books rather well. My tenure there was from December 1999 to May 2001, and as short a time as that was it is still undeniably the most fun job I ever had.

Not only was it my first salaried job  post-college, but also my first job in NYC. I travelled to Manhattan on occasion before this job (Chinatown for subbed anime on VHS tapes; represet Mott Street!) but now I was exposed to its sights, sounds, and smells on a daily basis. Even moreso that was exhilarating was the character of New Yorkers and their “Come at me, bro!” attitude. This will not be an autobiography of why the job was as triumphant as I recall, but here’s a taste of what I loved about it:

• Two seasons of softball against other companies in the area with the obligatory post-game pub stop after. That was the main reason most of us played.
• A half dozen bars across the street from our offices, which many of us were always there Thursday and Friday night. Many times I would catch the last bus home from Port Authority and sleep through my stop, having to walk all the way across town at 2am.
• First, and only, encounter of dating a coworker.  I was not the only one (far from it) doing but mine ended ugly (thankfully, she quit).
• The office parties were a riot. Like, damn.

The impressions left on me are too numerous to count. And somehow, after all these years I am still in contact with a lot of these people in various forms. One of the original founders, Cheryl, I still help her out with her baby food website’s maintenance (http://freshbaby.com). Diego and Tom, one of our sysadmins and project manager, respectively, live out here and are who I met up with last night. Joe, a former direct boss, I worked for at another job in 2004; it was my first real job since being laid off with the rest of the coders in December 2001. A few others I have on Facebook, as well as having a group on there for all former employees.

Everyone has to some degree married, divorced, become parents, or moved to another part of the country. But what has not changed is the affection and cameraderie that we share with each other.