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A Prompt Response
Today’s Prompt
Describe a random encounter with a stranger that stuck out positively to you.
I’m a fairly introverted person. I don’t often end up in conversations with strangers, would almost never speak to a stranger unless spoken to, and don’t like mingling with crowds of people I don’t know. The only time I even voluntarily end up in situations like that are either playing in front of crowds when I was a musician, or the poker room. And in both of those cases, I have a reason for doing the thing I’m doing. And luckily, neither require recreational conversation.
In March of 2017 I was a few weeks away from starting at Amazon. I’d already accepted the offer and was waiting for my official start date. I was coming off of a six month break after leaving my previous company, CoStar, and hadn’t really pursued Amazon specifically, but when the chance came to interview I prepared and was able to nail it. Regardless, I was still nervous about the idea of working for a FAANG company after 17 years of sustained success in a fairly stable, predictable environment at LoopNet and CoStar.
My uncle and I went to Las Vegas for one of our patented annual getaways. We’d spend four to five days playing poker tournaments at Caesar’s Palace. I often did well; of the 15 or so tournaments we would play I’d place quite a few times, and win a couple. The fields weren’t super deep, maybe 100 or so, and it was a good way to get away, relax, see one of my favorite people in the whole world, and play some poker.
The last night of our stay I hit a bit of bad luck and busted out of a tournament early. I wasn’t too sad; earlier that night I’d managed to win one and I felt like I was playing pretty well. So I took my tournament winnings and requested a seat at one of the $2-$5 no limit cash games.
I ended up sitting next to trio of friends at one of the tables, with a woman in her late 20s immediately to my right. To her right was one of her friends, a tall man about the same age. As I mentioned, I don’t talk much socially, not even at (or maybe especially at) a poker table, but during a slow run of cards the man asked me what I did for work. I told him I was about to start at Amazon as an engineering manager.
The woman’s eyes lit up and she told me she was a software engineer at Zappos, a company that Amazon had acquired the year before.
We spent the next hour or so chatting about engineering, software, Amazon culture, Zappos, and anything else that mattered, and in doing so, the woman slowly eased my concerns about my new role and new adventure. We may have even played a pot or two. To this day it remains one of the few social moments where I didn’t care about what I was saying or how I was being viewed or anything else that would set off my internal introvert…just two software engineers talking shop at the poker table.
Eventually, my uncle was also knocked out of the tournament, and came over to let me know it was time to head out. I turned to the woman and thanked her for the conversation and the information and the enjoyable company, before getting up to cash in my chips.
The shock on my uncle’s face was blatantly obvious, and in many ways, almost as rewarding as the reassurance provided by the hour of shop talk.
This post is one of many in my responses to random prompts surfaced by the application that tracks my website statistics, as well as any others I encounter.
A Prompt Response
Today’s Prompt
What three objects could you not live without?
I will assume objects do not mean people as I answer this….
Let’s start with the obvious. Right now I’m at home, mere feet from this:
That acoustic in the middle is coming with me no matter what. As Lou Graham once so eloquently sang, that one guitar felt good in his hands.
Since there’s no clear description of where I am when I’m trying to live with three specific items, I suppose the next one is going to be some sort of tool, perhaps a Swiss Army knife, that has a flint or similar item so fires can be started.
And lastly, a flashlight with batteries, on the off chance I need to send a signal to anything flying overhead.
But then, maybe I’m not stranded on a desert island after all…and really the guitar is the thing.
This post is one of many in my responses to random prompts surfaced by the application that tracks my website statistics, as well as any others I encounter.
A Prompt Response
Today’s Prompt
What is your favorite drink?
So, ordinarily I would say Diet Coke. In fact, one of my old peers used to tell me they often judged how well my day was going by how much (or how little) Diet Coke I had consumed that day.
I don’t like coffee, I don’t like tea, so my caffeine intake comes from Diet Coke. And I don’t even like the aroma of either coffee or tea. One of my early memories is getting up one night as a child, seeing a pitcher of grape Kool-Aid in the fridge, pouring a glass, taking a drink, and realizing way too late that it was actually Iced Tea. Haven’t had any since.
But I’m not sure that’s really the question here.
I’m not a big drinker, not by any stretch. I’ve got health issues that sort of encourage me (require me?) to avoid alcohol. I don’t like the taste of most alcohols, especially beer, which I find just awful. Even the non-alcoholic beers just don’t do it for me, although I did try Zima a bit here and there back in the day. And more often than not, I’m the one driving. Add it all up and I rarely if ever have a drink.
Many of my friends and colleagues are aware of this. Many more tried over the years to get me to have one here or there. But it remains rare: the last time I had one was a failed attempt in New Orleans earlier this year to order a beverage that the bartender got completely wrong, and was simply not tolerable.
That was a Fuzzy Navel.
Somehow, they left out the orange juice when they made the drink. Which is most of the goodness of the drink. I actually like the taste of a Fuzzy Navel. When I do drink, it’s for the taste more than the experience.
About 12 years ago, there was an engineering wide company meeting in Santa Barbara. My manager, who lived in Irvine, and I were good friends but rarely saw each other. After dinner, I made the mistake of letting him buy me a Fuzzy Navel…because everyone I knew there saw me with the drink, and then proceeded to repeatedly buy me ones for the remainder of the night, even occasionally upgrading to my second favorite drink, Double Kamikaze Shots. Then they followed me around the rest of the night to see what happened, including my mild-mannered QA tester who insisted they would outlast me.
Sadly for them, I don’t really get affected much by the alcohol personality-wise, I just get chill. As long as you ignore the 1am ping pong game where I told my QA tester I was going to unequivocally kick their butt.
So, yeah. Fuzzy Navels. Once about every 6-8 years.
This post is one of many in my responses to random prompts surfaced by the application that tracks my website statistics, as well as any others I encounter.
Be welcome and true.
Rob Hope 