Pfffffth!

I have accomplishments -- interesting things that were of my doing in a corporate setting -- from the early 80's through to the early 90's.   

In those years, being tapped to write a press release, or escorting a NASA astronaut to her room by the service halls to avoid the press, were all exciting shots of energy.   I believed in those times that I was doing important things and contributing to changing the world just a little bit.   Silly me.

In the late 80s, there was this crazy 72-hour thingy, when my boss at an engineering consultant firm, ¨Tom,¨ was trapped in a hotel in San Francisco during and after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.  

That was the earthquake that had one of the sportscasters at the '89 Baseball World Series, Al Michaels, become an accidental primary anchor for whatever the hell was going on immediately after the earthquake.  

Terrible things happened to people during and immediately after that quake.   My boss returned safely to our old East Syracuse office, 3 days later,  after some understandable hassles with airlines.   

¨Tom¨ was -- I later learned -- ordered by a custodian of a San Francisco hotel to ¨get the hell in here¨ and stand in a doorway to a hotel supply truck delivery platform. Windows were smashing on the sidewalk and street just a few feet from where Tom had stood. Tom told me later that the custodian was rude, and ¨talked to me like I was a total idiot and he was correct."  

Tom was very accurate about nearly everything. I believe, from him, I learned to not be offended when people are unemotional in emergencies.

It was for Tom's well being that the world worked out such a smooth solution to get him home. HIS boss, the President of a now long since sold-off engineering firm, had a daughter who was a travel agent. Remember, children, this was long before cell phones and email in everyone's hands.   There were no smart phones, and there were no laptops.

Kim, the owner's daughter, spoke to me twice on the phone about the problems associated with getting Tom home post -earthquake.  She collected information that Tom had left with me -- his credit card number, for example.

Then, Kim, her sweet and friendly voice something I always enjoyed hearing, in order to get Tom on a flight out of a huge city devastated by an earthquake, turned into plotting murderess Lucilla of Rome with her punk nephew screaming ¨“Here is the dagger the senate sends you!”

I was a still a general secretary for my boss's engineering services department. With Kim becoming an alien life force as she yelled orders to other people on her office phone, and with me running around the company offices ripping phones out of dithering receptionists' hands, we brought Tom home.   

He walked into the office 3 mornings after the earthquake, threw a pile of notes at me to edit, and lit up a cigarette. (Back then, you could still smoke in a lot of offices.)

I was so proud. I had learned how to kick ass on the phone using an earthquake as an excuse. Any phone.

Those years of white collar accomplishment, office politics, and discovering all my serial bosses' extra-marital affairs ended a long time go.  I do not miss them.

Tom disappeared from my daily life years ago after a near-fatal car accident almost killed him. I babysat his children 2 nights, rotating with other employees of our company, so that Tom's wife could spend more time with him at the hospital. Looking at him in the hospital bed with his entire body wrapped up in either casts or bandaging was startling, but 3 months later, I grabbed data analysis reports from his hands as he lumbered through his house in a wheelchair. I know he still works as an engineer but nears retirement.  

I also know that I do not miss life in an office filled with several men who once told me that my liberal arts courses in a local college were a waste of tuition money.

I could discuss French military strategy from 1912. They could not. I had a big ego back then. But, they could build shit.

Anyway, I think I will continue to write. I do not think I care if I write about cute puppies, or The Dardanelles.

I miss, sometimes, the office adrenaline, but I do not miss the accomplishments.   They were not important after all.   They were not human, and they were not eternal, and other people would do cool things without me.