Sorry, but I’ve been out sick for several days, it was something I had been shaking for a few weeks. I am feeling somewhat better while Somara and I trying to piece together a plan; OK, she’s my personal trainer to make sure I get up, do my 30 minutes on the Wii Fit or something because it’s going in to be repaired.
I did want to celebrate this little tidbit of the past…my technical screening with Apple happened 10 years ago yesterday which put my Operation: Escape from Carolina to “phase one completed.” Moving to Cary (suburb of Raleigh) proved to be an immediate mistake soon after Grandpa died; had he lived a while longer, it would’ve been worth it. In the meantime, I was stranded there working two jobs to get by and the weekend flight to Austin to celebrate my employer’s stock going public only made me feel more regret over leaving so hastily. The gears were in motion after Christmas to go back. I sold off my TV and VCR, dropped the cable TV and really curtailed other expenses while paying off the debts I had with my credit union; I would need to borrow from it soon again. Getting a job would be my immediate task when I returned but I had paid a former co-worker named Mel in advance on rent for when I arrived.
Then I received a call from my friend Kris. She said Apple was ramping up its support teams for the upcoming iMac launch in August and they needed people who could hit the ground running. Hence, all was forgiven for us PowerComputing people. Kris didn’t think I would be interested due to it being contract work without benefits. I graciously thanked her because it is always smarter to move to a new city with a job lined up.
I scored a day off from NorTel-PSW to call the hiring manager from Apple. Initially, I didn’t think it went well at all. I only got two questions answered correctly and they were specific esoteric ones too. I still passed…the test checked for troubleshooting skills and tool usage which I did correctly. The scenarios didn’t have absolutely “right” answers, the goal was to see how I would isolate the problem to diagnose a probable solution. How relieved I was when the hiring manager said he’d see me in August.
Phase Two went into effect the following day: sorting out my belongings and canceling all the utilities in August. The Summer of 1998 was going to end on a high note but I would treat myself to a couple weeks of vacation before arriving in Austin.