This started out as a post about all the things that are in my life now that weren’t there in 2004 when I left the DMV to move to Silly Con Valley. \u00a0Things like iOS devices, or my Levis 501s, or my VW Rabbit, or the number-two crop where hair used to be, or Virgin Radio-turned-Absolute Radio, or actual steel toes in my DMs. Or the fact that I would consider running a 5K\u2026for fun.<\/p>\n
But after the past week, and realizing just how long I’ve been gone from DC, I started to think about how long I was in DC. \u00a0And there’s actually a fall line there too – you could make it between girlfriends, or you could make it Y2K, or the transition from OS 9 to Mac OS X, or even the rollover from Clinton to Bush II – \u00a0but there’s an early age and a later age and almost everything falls fairly simply into one or the other. \u00a0Even the 4Ps itself is a later-age phenomenon, for the most part – our first visit was sending off our redundant Y2K contractors. \u00a0The old EUS itself, the original band of brothers, were of the early age, along with lunches at Burger King or the Meeting Place, and after-work drinks meant Sign of the Whale or chasing Channels girls. Things like Norv Turner coaching the Redskins. \u00a0Or being in the same building with our end-users. \u00a0Or staying until 8 to play Quake and Unreal – the old video games went by the boards by the later era, except for the use of Unreal Tournament to demonstrate the power of the G5. In the early era, it was still very important to me to be able to telnet in and get at my personal email via the command line. \u00a0The early era was a swirl of different browsers and email clients and attempts to tune just a little more performance out of the computer.<\/p>\n
The later years? \u00a0Surprisingly, the cigar-shop hangouts were of that age only. \u00a0Wi-Fi, too. \u00a0Actual MP3 players instead of literally plugging a tape adapter into the laptop for a drive. \u00a0Doc Martens with Hawaiian shirts and khakis. \u00a0JetBlue. GSM mobile phones. \u00a0The MVP year and the accompanying ego rush could only have happened in the later era. The second apartment, with the blue chair and the BBC World Service to fall asleep to – all part of the later era. \u00a0The Indiana Jones jacket was absolutely the later era, even if I got it toward the end of the early one. So was my late lamented Timbuk2 bag. \u00a0Guinness was a part of the later era – before that, it was all assorted weird cocktails or just Sam Adams and maybe the odd black and tan.<\/p>\n
I left DC in 2004 as a very different person than the one who arrived in 1997, and that was a very different person than the one who first walked through the doors of Ireland’s Four Provinces in January 2000. \u00a0In a lot of ways, turning 40 means you’re finally old enough to see all these eras stretching out behind, and maybe I needed to have eight years out here to get perspective on how long seven years in the capital really lasted.<\/p>\n
The night out itself? Well, I managed to stave off the realization that I might have just buried an old friend – that is, until I was back in bed at 2 AM. \u00a0At which point a lot of emotion came pouring out, for a lot of reasons (not limited to but probably including nine drinks). \u00a0Not the first time I’d cried over a night at the 4Ps, certainly, because that’s where all the important stuff went down for a very long time – and sure, there were tears because this might be all, but there were plenty of tears of joy because it all happened. \u00a0It was all real. \u00a0I have pictures, and video, and my ears are still ringing a little and my voice is shot to hell, because we were there.<\/em> Against all the odds, I got the 40th birthday party I wanted, for one more night in Valhalla, and I will treasure it for always. \u00a0So for those of you who were there, in person and in spirit alike – thank you, one and all.<\/p>\n Totally<\/em> worth it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This started out as a post about all the things that are in my life now that weren’t there in 2004 when I left the DMV to move to Silly Con Valley. \u00a0Things like iOS devices, or my Levis 501s, or my VW Rabbit, or the number-two crop where hair used to be, or Virgin … <\/p>\n