My first Christmas back in Austin was a rather lonely affair, reminiscent of 1994. Instead of moping about it, I took the opportunity to work at Apple versus staying home, going to Katz’s for dinner or pulling a holiday shift at my part-time movie job. It was easy money, the three of us temps who volunteered didn’t receive one call from the iMac agents in Oregon. When our manager appeared later that morning, he told us the switch to contact us had been off for 90 minutes anyway. Fortunately for the people managing the routing, there were no attempts during the gap. I spent the morning watching LA Confidential in French to bone up on my foreign slang/profanity. The afternoon was probably wasted playing Escape Velocity with the sound off so the boss wouldn’t notice. I doubt he cared.
It seemed pretty sad and lame but I told myself the situation was temporary. I had only been back in Austin for several months. I knew rebuilding the life I once had was going to take a while. The bigger crises were paying off debts (moving back cost more than anticipated), getting a more permanent place to live (I liked the room I was subletting yet I wanted to be closer than north Round Rock) and trying again to get hired by Apple; the rejection letters for the latest round went out on Christmas Eve, smooth. Living in the Austin area was an achieved rationalization. Everything else would fall into place as it did five years earlier; I could do it sooner now that I had a car and more experience.
New Year’s was the bigger and better time. Ethan invited me to the get-together he and his roommate Darren held in their apartment. I remember us filling up a grocery cart at HEB with snacks and beer. It was mainly a bunch of Apple people hanging out. I recall watching Ethan playing the current Zelda game on his N64; I wouldn’t touch the console because I hated the controllers. Besides anyone else playing his Nintendo usually meant the multi-player version of Goldeneye or what Darren relabeled it, Ethan shoots everybody.
This Christmas Break was just a short time to breathe and reflect on the goals for 1999 which looked pretty exciting:
- There would be another attempt to be hired by Apple since the new iMac was a hit (it would soon be available in five other colors).
- The first new Star Wars movie in 16 years would be in theaters by mid May.
- I did have some new replies on my Match.com account, one of which panned out better than either of us expected.