TFESE

I'm going to have to talk about money.  I know, it's one of those taboo subjects.  We're not suppose to want other people know how much money we make or have or how low or high your bank account balance might be.  And I don't really want to hear about how much you take home after taxes each month, or, well, maybe I do, but it's one of those subjects that usually is better left not discussed.

And that's most commonly the case because it can change the relationship dynamic if someone knows you make lots more than they do and yet you have similar jobs and experience.  Or, it can make you concerned for someone because you realize just how difficult it must be for them to pay all their bills and keep their children fed.

But in this case, I got to laughing at myself the other day because I remembered the word, "TFESE" which you can try to pronounce any way you want, but I said it like "tuh-fee-zee."  This goes way back to my days in college and my years as a co-op working for IBM.

I looked for a co-op position to get some real-world work experience when I was only half-way through college.  I interviewed many places as my Computer Science teacher and favorite in all things computer career related suggested I do.  After scores of interviews the co-op offers starting coming in and I was trying to decide which to go with .  I had forgotten about IBM because they hadn't contacted me at all when unexpectedly, someone from IBM called me and did a brief phone interview.  No in-person interview, not much detail, more description about the position and the new technology they were starting to work in called, "object-oriented programming."  And shortly afterwards I got a second call from personnel offering me the job.

What should I do?  I asked my teacher and she said that there was no question, take the IBM job because object-oriented was the way things were going.  She turned out to be right.  And with that conversation and decision, my career path was set.

I took the job, and they paid, I think $11.75 per hour.  And I was thrilled about that.  I liked working for IBM so much that I continued to work part-time through graduation, including experiential raises taking my wages up to $15.00 per hour.  And I was thrilled about that too.  And then, they offered me a full-time job.  And, well, see I've used the word "thrilled" twice already so now I need a word that means thrilled plus extra thrilled plus ecstatic.  If you know what word I should use here, let me know.  At any rate, I accepted the job.

And that's where TFESE comes in.  They offered me, in 1992, an annual salary of thirty-five thousand eight-hundred sixty-eight dollars.  And that was like printing money in a mint and carrying it off in large buckets to me.  I kept looking at the offer and the T (for thirty,) F (for five,) E (for eight hundred,) S (for sixty,) and E (for eight) popped into my head.  And it got stuck there.

I ran down the hall to talk with my friend, Delmonte P. Jefferson, I remember his name so distinctly and his funny personality and how he was proud of being named Delmonte and don't you dare shorten his name to Del.  Anyway, he was happy for me and with me.  He was older and I'm sure made many more buckets full of money per year than my little salary, but he acted like I had won the lottery which was just the kind of nice guy he was.

After taking the job, I worked through a downturn in economy in which we were just glad to have our jobs and not get a pay cut.  Later, I worked other places at other salaries, but I have no idea how much those salaries were.  It's that first job and that first salary and the silly TFESE that makes me remember that day so well.

The Big Boy Update:  Privacy, please.  He is getting so much better at going in the potty, and not in his underpants.  But...and it took us a while to figure this out...he likes his privacy.  We unexpectedly found out if you leave the room, he has a better chance of making a "deposit" in the potty.  He will happily run out and tell you, "I poop in the potty!" and then you quickly run in to do cleanup and damage control.  Overall though, the number of underpants being soiled has been decreasing steadily.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Hat and Shoes, Elmo and Moo moo moo.  This morning she told me "hat" when I put her hat on.  Then she looked at her new shoes and said "shoes."  Yesterday she talked to Elmo on the phone a lot (imagine a phone app targeted at small children who want to talk to a furry, red monster with a high, squeaky voice and you have the general idea.)  Elmo talked about Gladys, who is a cow, and asked if my daughter could moo with him.  She liked saying, "moo moo moo" back at Elmo.

Fitness Update:  Random, unexpected text from my neighbor late yesterday afternoon asking if I could run, right then, as she was getting out of clinic early.  Yes!  Daddy said he'd watch the children.  Then, three minutes later, Uncle Jonathan called and was coming over.  Would we have a three-way fun run?  Alas, he had run earlier in the day.  We'll catch him next time.  We wedged in six miles before dinner though in what turned out to be a beautiful afternoon.

Someone Once Said:  ‘Obscene’ is a null concept; it has no theological meaning. ‘To the pure all things are pure’.