December 1999: On Top of the World

Ever have a really great month? I mean a really great month? December 1999 was one of those for me.

It started when I filed for graduation in the upcoming spring semester. When they added up everything in my transcript it turns out I had enough to graduate at the end of the month. I was looking forward to a final, complete blow off, semester but was even happier to skip it.

Upon hearing that news I stopped in my boss' office to ask about being hired as a "real" employee. This whole time I was still a junior/student programmer which meant I was paid by the hour. He agreed and offered a salary that was great for someone whose diploma wasn't even printed yet.

That evening I bought an engagement ring for my girlfriend of several years. I didn't want to get married until I was done with school and had a stable job, obviously I didn't want to wait long once those were checked-off. I picked the turn of the millennium to propose.

Ah, the turn of the millennium. Since I mostly associate with smart people I didn't personally know anyone who thought all the computers were going to crash, or thought Jesus was going to return, or thought the world was going to end, or thought anything remotely interesting was going to happen at all. All the programmers at our office were given the OK to go out and celebrate but "be available in case anything goes wrong".

We had little to no Y2K concerns though. We had one legacy product that still ran on Windows 3.11. It was specific to the health care industry and our two biggest clients never upgraded. For all I know they're still running Windows 3.11. I didn't support that product but the guy who did sure didn't receive any panicked phone calls at midnight.

I took the "be available" request to mean "be able to get to the office within 24 hours". My soon-to-be-fiance and I hopped in the car and drove down to New Orleans to celebrate the occasion. If a massive computer crash really did cripple the country then at least we'd be somewhere warm.

Midnight passed without a single hitch. The air was filled with optimism for what the new century would bring, an optimism that would fade far too soon...