The Beast is Back

“The Beast Is Back” is the title of the latest Fortune Magazine, with a huge picture of Bill Gates. The mag has been at my house for 2 weeks. Several friends have picked up the magazine to show me, to ask me my thoughts on the latest and greatest Microsoft. I just shrug, trying not to sound arrogant that my interests are limited. The magazine is in my bathroom when I turn on the tub and so I finally pick it up. Big pictures of grinning familiar faces, of charts that go in an upward direction, of discussions about new operating systems, new global strategies, new stuff which seems to mean nothing to me.

I don’t read the article because I am sure it will bore me. Another operating system. Faster, better, but probably not cheaper. More gizmos … another way to continue to manufacture not software, but money. A friend of mine once suggested that Microsoft just be licensed with their own money printing machines, just to save everyone the hassle. That joke always made me smile.

I think about my last day, I was in marketing in this large organization that I seemed to be at war with. These were not people of my breed. They wore fancy clothes and drove very expensive cars. They spoke in terms that I somewhat understood… that I had been trained to use as well, but that were not part of my basic vocabulary.

I remember that day well. I was driving to Oregon, my final move to my new life. I went and picked up my new dog from a guy at Microsoft who could not afford the time to spend with her. She was fat, ten pounds heavier than she is today. On my way back, I stopped by Building 22 just to say one last goodbye. I let the dog out of the car, nervous because I wasn’t sure what she would do. And right in front of all the windows, right there in front of a VPs office (who later became the almighty president of Microsoft Europe) she took the most amazing dump. My girlfriend was absolutely hysterical, making the dreaded decision for me, “Don’t even think of cleaning that one up. Don’t you dare. It just fits.” I am not exactly sure about the fitting part, but I did leave the mess.

It makes me laugh on days like today. My bath is almost full so I put down the magazine and crawl into the warm water. I have been in running clothes all day, which is not unusual for me. My skin is just filthy from the layers and layers of sunscreen. (I start my day with a soft sunscreen moisturizer, migrate to a spray-on oily mess, and then late in the afternoon, I go for a cool mixture that feels like jelly. I should apply for a job testing this stuff.) My body is just exhausted from a three and a half hour walk I did through a new housing complex, marketing research for my husband’s business.

I think about his business. I am in marketing, although I certainly don’t act the part. No nice clothes. No expensive car. Sometimes I do the strategic stuff I really know how to do, like create a suite of services to sell to customers. Other times it’s about stuff I am not used to doing. Like snapping pictures for his web site or customer portfolio with a digital camera. Or jogging ten miles through a housing complex and writing down all the builders names so we can figure out how to get the jobs. Or surfing the web to find out more about a specific client or builder.

I look down into the bath water to check the color. Today is a moderate mud color so I think it was a good one. I sink down into the water and I think, “The beast maybe back. Back in Seattle. Back in 72 countries in the world, dominating every market. Creating new operating systems. New versions of Office and BackOffice. But he is not back in Bend. In Bend, he’s just another guy on another edition of Fortune, with a smiling face, with charts that go in the right direction, and a device that prints money.”

By Linda English