Decade in Review (Stolen without remorse from my husband's blog post)

First night 2000 was spent holed up in the apartment that I shared with my then boyfriend in Kingston, NH. This was not because we were afraid of any of the end of the world disasters that people predicted. We were, however, afraid of the nut-jobs on the street that believed in these predictions. I didn't want to chance getting in the way of someone with a rifle stockpiling food.

The beginning of the year, I was finishing up my associates degree at NH Technical College. Unlike my husband, I searched for a job immediately after graduation instead of going on to a four-year institution. This decision has haunted me somewhat to this day. I found a job in my last semester as a maintenance programmer. One of my professors recommended me. Lilly Software used Centura Team Developer (SQL Windows) as a development platform for creating software. I knew nothing about this language, but I quickly picked it up. It was arcane, and I figured out right away that if I stayed too long at Lilly, my skills would become obsolete.

I studied for the Microsoft Certification exams, and within a couple of weeks had MCP status in both NT 4.0 and VB 6.0. Sure, laugh all you want, but in 2000 that meant something.

My boyfriend at the time recommended me for a development position at his company. I was hired on the spot, and I started a long career at PenChart-turned-Amicore. I was there for around six years. I started out as a junior and ended up leaving while I was senior engineer. I left because Amicore was on shaky financial ground, and I didn't want to chance another round of layoffs. I'm proud to say that I made it through several rounds of layoffs and two acquisitions with them, though.

I learned C# and ASP at Amicore. I also learned DTS packages, become better at SQL, learned how to write an install program with InstallShield and later MSI, learned about automating builds, learned about source control, and learned about process. I went in to Amicore as an amateur developer and I emerged far more experienced.

During my time with Amicore, I got pregnant with my daughter, married my boyfriend, had another son, and divorced that husband. Since I worked with my ex-husband, and I had two kids with him, we both decided it was in the best interest of everyone if we stayed friends. It took a lot of work, and I'm sure there were some days when both of us wanted no part in the friendship, but we're still friends to this day. I'm pretty proud of that, even though most people find it odd that I'm friends with my ex-husband.

After leaving Amicore, I took a job with PC Connection. Here, I enhanced my experience and learned ASP.NET and C# 2.0. I learned the beauty of generics and master pages and CSS. I learned javascript. I learned about session management and enterprise-level computing. Again, I emerged a stronger developer.

I met someone new in 2005. I introduced him to the kids right away. My ex-husband and I had had a deal where we said we weren't going to introduce anyone new to the kids until we'd been together for at least six months. I introduced this guy at three weeks. My ex and I argued about it quite a bit, but he relented.

Ultimately, this guy ended up not being very nice and not treating me the way I deserved to be treated. He was never violent or anything like that. He was decent with the kids. He and I just didn't mesh well. In other words, my issues completely collided with his issues, and in the end, we went our separate ways. This was one of the first times in my life I did what I should have done WHEN I should have done it. Typically in the past, I'd have stayed because it was comfortable, even if the relationship wasn't good.

I learned a lot of lessons from that failed relationship. The most important lesson was that waiting six months before introducing someone to the kids just made sense. I didn't know the guy long enough or well enough to make the judgment call to introduce him.

For a while after that, I concentrated on being a better mother and being a better friend. I stopped looking for "The One" and I started to just enjoy being by myself. I started looking forward to coming home from work and reading. I started looking forward to quiet nights playing computer games. I was also working a lot at PC Connection, and I was enjoying that immensely.

In 2006, I met my husband and the love of my life. That story is too long for this blog, but rest assured, dear readers, there will be a post about it.

We were married in 2009. It's been quite an adventure, and it's only just the beginning!