A month ago, I had been working on my online portfolio but hadn't done much job searching yet. Koji used his Wall Street mentality to kick my ass and encourage me to send aggressive emails to everyone I knew in user interface, usability, and games at Microsoft (10) and a couple to people at EA. Paolo at Microsoft needed to fill a contract position immediately, and he sent me a test of game design questions and a level design task. I spent over thirty hours of the next week researching and writing, including renting real-time strategy games for the Xbox, downloading flying demos, and brainstorming with a lot of people.

Paolo liked what I had to say, and since he was at Carnegie Mellon recruiting (good timing) he met and interviewed me. He still liked what I had to say, so the next day I had a phone conversation with his boss while drinking at a karaoke charity event at work. Bill also liked what I had to say, so Monday I had an offer and on Tuesday I gave my two weeks' notice.

My last day at FreeMarkets was Friday, November 8th. On Sunday I left Pittsburgh in my mom's car loaded with hastily packed boxes for storage, with my furniture left behind for Molly to sell. About 60 miles from town I was stuck behind a car towing a hearse when my clutch died. AAA towed me back to the Pep Boys two blocks from my apartment in Pittsburgh. After finding Molly we borrowed Eric's truck and unloaded my car back into the apartment.

On Monday my parents decided to donate the car to the Heritage for the Blind rather than have it fixed and retrieved. I repacked my essentials and got a ride from Greg to the Amtrak station, to catch a flight in Newark the next morning. Most of the train was mail freight; there were only two passenger cars. We were only in Harrisburg when we were supposed to be in Philadelphia, and they decided to unload the mail cars. By the time we arrived in Philly—three hours late—it was midnight and all the trains to Trenton were done for the night.

There was a friendly tattooed woman whose sister came from East Windsor to pick her up. I hitched a ride back with them to West Windsor but told my parents I was splitting a cab—remember, these are the same people who tell me to avoid bars because "people get drunk and attack each other." Fortunately I was not kidnapped or mugged, but rather got home around 3 am. (If you ever show up at your parents' in the middle of the night, make sure to hide your new nose ring.) After some food and a nap, my parents drove me to Newark for a 7:45 am flight.

The flight was delightfully uneventful. We had a stopover in Vegas, which has slot machines in identical terminals—Taco Bell and TCBY on the left, souvenir shop on the right. I slept for most of the trip but got many pictures of the Rockies, or some other mountain ridge in the Midwest.

At the airport, people from ArtSource picked me up and took me to Microsoft for paperwork. Since I was staying with Paolo and his wife for the week, I didn't have a hotel to check into so instead went straight to work, meeting my new team and setting up my desk. Any job that starts with "Here's your desk, TV, and Xbox" can't be all bad. So far, it was worth the hell of my trip out here.