Yesterday afternoon I was (can you guess?) hanging out at the Saucer, playing The Window Game. The recruiter I’ve been talking to called and said, “I’m going to make your day.” And she did. She had a job offer for me. I hadn’t even interviewed in person (just over the phone) with the CTO, but I had gone in and talked to other people in the office, and the CTO was comfortable extending the offer based on what he had heard about me.
Now that the offer is in place, I can tell you a little bit more. This is the job I really wanted out of the ones for which I’d been interviewing. A few reasons why I think this job is going to be awesome:
- It’s in an office building located one block from where I live. No rush hour commute!
- When I went in to interview, everyone had jeans on.
- The day I came in, they were preparing for a pumpkin carving party with pizza and beer.
- Several of my future co-workers already knew me, mostly from the Saucer and one from my past membership in Bravo. Everyone I met seemed SUPER nice and laid-back.
- A couple of my future co-workers were in the Saucer on Halloween night and saw me in the Beer Goddess costume. “You’re going to fit right in!” one of them said.
- I get to learn C#, a language I haven’t worked with much.
- It’s a small start-up company, and part of my compensation will be stock options. They tell me they’re about 5 years away from doing an IPO.
- I’ll be one of the first programmers in the Memphis office, which means I’ll have to travel to the other office from time to time to meet with the rest of the team. The other office is located at 38th and Broadway, in Manhattan.
Does this not sound like a job that is custom-made for me? I’m taking a week to wrap up a few loose ends, and then I’ll start on Monday, November 12.
Unfortunately this means I won’t be able to hit the Saucer at 3 in the afternoon and play The Window Game anymore. Several of us sat in the window from 3 to about 7 yesterday and played. The “bums” category had the others beat by a mile, which is further evidence that the Handling-Panhandling group needs to kick back into high gear.
At 7 Mikey, Otto, John D and I walked over to EP’s for their 1st birthday celebration. Chef Michael Patrick put out a lavish buffet, and he also personally delivered a tray full of goodies to our table. We stuffed ourselves then turned our attention to beer. Thanks Michael for everything and a happy 1st birthday to EP’s. It’s remarkable what they have been able to do with that place. Not only has it become one of the best restaurants Downtown, but it’s also turned into the only dance club on Beale worth going to.
And, it will soon have something new, a neighborhood bar which all the former Sleep Out Louie’s regulars are WAY excited about. It’s called Hoop’s Bar and it will be open in about a week. We got to take a pre-opening look at it last night. Here’s a pic of bartender Tony who will be working there, with John D and me at Hoop’s Bar:
It’s going to have its own private entrance from Second and will cater to locals. The former Sleep Out’s crowd has been calling each other asking, “Is it open yet? When will it be open?” This is the first place to open up Downtown in a long time that has the chance to knock the Saucer out of the #1 spot in my pecking order.
Otto and John D took off, and Mikey and I hung out at the upstairs bar at EP’s for hours. It was kind of nice to have a really long drinking-and-hanging-out session somewhere other than the Saucer. The nightclub crowd started rolling in about 10 and we people-watched. Mikey lasted until about 12:30, and I made it about a half hour past that.
Just downloaded the Halloween pics from the camera. I’ll probably take the laptop to the Second Street branch office once it opens up, and sort out the pics and then post a photo album at some point this afternoon.