The Move In

by Bo.

Friday, Dec. 8th was the day we packed up and left the cubicle corridors of the Embarcadero Center for our permanent office. Most of the team was moving computers and monitors up to the new office, but a couple slackers were across the street having beers (Bo and Rob). No matter, because the next day was what we had waited months for: the actual move in.

Saturday morning, we started coagulating in an alley called "Maiden Lane," named after the famous streetwalkers that used to patron this stretch of road before it became a small niche for a bunch of expensive stores.

A couple of us stood sipping coffee when our in-house dog-lover skateboarded up the road with grass stains on his pants (he had fallen) and the Colombian drove up with the moving truck.

Call it what you will (our bosses conned us with phrases like "team-building" and "bonding"), but I'll call it working on a weekend. The boys lugged enormous boxes up the stairs, and after the fun of cutting open the packages was done, all we could see was a mess, sheets of glass, metal pipe-like doohickeys, and a sheet of instructions laid out in pictures, not words (thanks Ikea). It was build your own desk day. Put your little brother to work day. Find out your sofa is ripped (and glass table top is broken) day. Bring the truck back (Diana, why didn't you bring a dolly because seven grown men can't move things) day. Pizza and beer with your coworkers day. That last one is probably the best kind of day.

We were all sort of quiet when it was done for the day (possibly because everyone was guzzling beer). There was still a lot left to do that would have to come later, like putting glass around the fishbowl for Jon and David (to box them in), and we still needed a countertop and TVs. Heck, we still need a Nintendo Wii. But all our empty walls and empty spaces remind us of is that this move wasn't really supposed to be a finished work after all. It's a huge and open space to work on and grow into -- a beginning.

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