Transplanted Life
Saturday, May 22, 2004
 
Not recommended
I'm not saying that you should start your first day unemployed with a hangover, just that it's what I did. Not that I'm alone; there was a lot of drinking at the Place last night, as a bunch of people from the office who had their last day yesterday got together for one last blast. Hey, when the company's paying, that's what you do.

I thought at first that I really shouldn't be there, because if not for me, these people might still have jobs. I know this whole thing isn't actually my fault, and that I'm even more of a victim than anyone else whose memories don't match their bodies, but it's my name people heard when the announcement was made on Monday. Sure, they heard Carter's and Dmitri's, but "Carter" is dead and Dmitri will, I'm told, plead guilty to a number of charges in Federal Court this Monday. The FBI guys say I don't have to be there, but, hell, what else do I have to do with my time?

When one of the dot-coms I worked for went under, the owner was quite disappointed that the first lay-off "party" had a higher check from the kitchen than from the bar. That wasn't the case last night; we're all a little more realistic about the chances of finding new work quickly than we were then. There were also a bunch of sports fans, and it got more than a bit noisy with the Red Sox game on a whole bunch of TVs. I think the Sox won, but it was back-and-forth. I was, you might say, somewhat intoxicated. It's a good thing Maureen wasn't drinking much, since she was able to load me into a cab and send me home.

So, I felt like shit when I woke up. Carter had let me take the bed, but I had a splitting headache, dry mouth, all that stuff. Nothing like waking up, feeling like crap, and having what looks like an eighteen-year-old kid shaking her head disapprovingly. Carter said I must know my capacity by now - he's still amazed how buzzed his little body can get on a single beer, not that he can buy it any more - and I said, yeah, I do, but last night was a good excuse for overdoing it a little. He didn't agree, but he didn't argue, either. He asked if I let anything slip last night. I said, no, keeping that stuff secret is pretty much second nature by now. But... "Oh, god, there was kissing."

Who? I couldn't remember, just that it was awkward. I think Erik, Marcello, Mark, Kate, Janet, Ernie, Mr. Kraft and a couple of others were there. Hopefully it doesn't matter; we probably won't see many of those folks again.

Anyway, once he was sure I wasn't sick or anything, Carter went for a run. I took that opportunity to call the Haskinses, telling them that "Samantha" was applying for a few jobs but had lost her list of employer references. So, I was able to get information from them about Samantha's summer jobs and such; Carter was annoyed that I involved his body's parents, but didn't rip the information up. We'll be going around applying for jobs tomorrow, trying to find something to get the rent paid while we work on being able to get real IT jobs, somehow.

-Marti
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Note: This blog is a work of fantasy; all characters are either ficticious or used ficticiously. The author may be contacted at JaySeaver@comcast.net