I have a huge fat soft spot for the South Bay. I drove down last night- 1:10 h:m from Emeryville! – to meet up with some developers who are doing the same kind of work I’m doing for my Business Idea. So many things threw me back to being 16 again.

– That it is a totally justifiable activity on any given weekday evening to sit around talking about computers in the offices of a company.

– After the presentation, a few folks stood up, who are hiring. I had forgotten about this ritual, at the end of any software forum meet-up, that there’s a stack of job listings in the back.

– I’m one of three women who are in a room of men. One of the women came up to me desperately asking if I knew “OS” commerce. She basically had no idea what this meet-up was, and I got her free t-shirt. (Long sleeved! Men’s medium!)

What would have really cinched the nostalgia trip would be this:
– hearing the desultory tones of modem chirping a handshake
– AOL’s spinning logo on my mom’s MacPlus as her account loaded
– burned, stale coffee next to an open window with hot, dry air coming through the grape leaves

OK now I’m just waxing poetic. It was very fruitful, if abstract and way not applicable to where I am in my development, but I realized as I drove home in under 20 minutes (oh the traffic in the SF Bay) that it’s hard to discern sometimes what you’re learning, and the value of what you’re learning, when you’re in the thick of it.

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