Reality Beckons

My Dear Princess and Dear Friends,

Typically about 6 weeks before the end of any contract, the agents start circling. Calling and emailing and messaging and wanting to know the plan. 

For the past 15 months it has been reasonably straightforward. Why would I ever want to leave my friends? 

But now the choice is no longer mine. The project is wrapping up and I probably won't get extended past March 31st. So the CV is out there and although I feel sad about it, I'm resigned to it. 

And anyway, it's not like I won't be seeing the team past April. To illustrate my point, El Jefe and Manda came over for dinner and TV tonight. It was good fun and we found out that Manda was named "Amanda" because of the song "Mandy" by Barry Mannilow.

"But I always hated that name," she told us. "And I've been 'Manda' ever since." 

She told us that sometimes she stuffs it up. "People ask me my name and I say, 'Uhhh Manda'," she laughed. "Dammit."

I like Manda. She comes from Gloucester Massachusetts, which means that Jefe makes fun of her accent often. "Ya naaaaab-gaaaabbler," he says. She is also a horror person which means that she and I get on. I gave her a USB stick full of gory goodness last night after finding out that she is almost unscare-able. 

I don't think any of the movies I've given her will work though. She told me she grew up near Danvers State Hospital. This is the asylum which has inspired horror stories and movies for years, including the writer HP Lovecraft, who based his Arkham Asylum on it (which in itself inspired the institution that houses the Joker in "Batman"). 

Danvers is also the setting for a very creepy horror film called Session 9 which I did a podcast episode about a couple of years ago. She told me that she and her friends used to BREAK IN to that place and run around in it at night.

"It was really creepy," she told me. "And all the fake blood from the movie just got left in there which made it even worse." She was laughing as she told me this.

There is NO WAY any of the movies I gave Manda will scare her.

We talked and talked until after midnight when Jefe finally decided he needed to get to his bed. He and Manda got back onto his BMW motorbike and waved goodbye to us after 1am. 

And as it turns out one of the projects my CV is going to, is for ANOTHER video conferencing project. So who knows? Maybe Jefe and me will end up working together for a long time to come.

S.