Memory Lane

From: tschibasch <tschibasch_at_yahoo.com_at_hypermail.org>
Date: Thu, 01 May 2003 17:12:18 -0000

Yesterday as I left the Pasadena office in the late afternoon, I noted
that the date was April 30th. A special day: It was my last day at
SyVox in 2002.

One year had gone by!

At least for 2003, I am seemingly better off career-wise. I was
leaving work at a more reasonable hour, and doing the usual routine of
heading towards Santa Monica College. I got into Santa Monica a little
early, and decided to get off the freeway at the 5th street offramp,
where SyVox was located: 1640 5th Street.

I parked in front of the building, which eerily looked the same. Was
it really a whole year? There must be changes - by now the building
security code would have to be different! I typed the sequence into
the keypad, and to my surprise, I heard the familiar buzz of the front
door.

I went inside. How many familiar companies were still there? According
to the mailboxes, almost all of them. Maybe some employees had come
and gone, but the companies remained.

I climbed the familiar stairs to the second floor and went to see
Suite #204. On the front of the door, I saw in bold letters: SyVox Corp.

Nobody has moved in yet after all this time. The office has stood
here, empty and locked. Or at least, I assume it is locked. I turned
the door knob, and opened the door!

I went into the empty office space. Clean and empty everywhere. I
visited my small office, which looked larger since it was empty. The
sound room was still there, but some of the special paneling was
missing. The place had been vacuumed.

There were some wall cabinets, and when I opened them I found that
they still contained company stuff! Some old folders, a modem, a
notebook with Mark's handwriting all over it. I took the notebook out
and looked at it: Testing which we did in the Summer of 1999, the
results all carefully jotted down. Questions about further research.
Meticulous graphs and charts, all written by hand.

I had spent so many hours in this office, and seen so many ocean
sunsets from my window. Now tt was 6:30 PM, and the sunlight was
streaming into the windows, and for a few moments, it felt like I had
never left.

John
Received on 2003-05-01 10:12:29