I was never one to keep track of how many sorts I did but suffice it say, I did a lot of them in the several years I was a trainer and then as Retail Coordinator (later Sort & Remodel Manager). Most were pretty good projects though many were several steps beyond "challenging". In the summer of 2003 I went to Kansas City to open a new Borders on the north side of town - one of the less challenging openings in which I played a part. In addition to the trainer group (an overall set of awesome people) that I was supervising I was also tasked with training four interim SRMs (with lots of help from Dee Ellis!).
Of the four interims, I only knew one going in (hey there, Yasuaki!) but Marla had worked with one of the other three when he was a trainer on one of her sorts. She predicted we would get along just fine.
That one trainer was, of course, the one and only David Taffner. Do you believe in love at first site? I do.
Here's what he looked like back then:
Pretty handsome, huh?
A good sort has many things that make it good: great staff, great managers, great trainer group, good construction conditions, deliveries arrive as scheduled (etc.). We had most of that going on in KC so when I say it was a good sort it has more to do with just meeting the love of my life. The trainers and interims (and me) bonded pretty quickly (with one exception; can't win 'em all, I guess) and had lots of fun outside of work. For instance, we taught Lynda Lawrie how to drink martinis:
Step one, clink glasses and say a toast.
Step two, sip and...aahhhhh.
That's us with Lynda and Ed Krien (already an established martini lover, he). Ignore the glasses, I was pretending to be emo (but not Phillips).
And we went to World of Fun, or something to that effect and rode lots of rides. Here's me with Lynda and Dee getting strapped into a crazy harness so we can go flying through the air:
Dave and I rode the ride that I call The Enterprise because that's what they called it at Valley Fair where I grew up. It's basically a super fast, psychotic Ferris wheel where you spin upside down.
This is one of my favorite pic of us.
Nearly all of the trainers and interim sort managers (and even our TNC, Jenny Weed) bought some Chucks. It was almost cult-like.
After the sort, Dave and spent about a year living apart, he in Providence, me traveling while based in Austin, though our paths crossed a few times that summer and fall (Hello Louisville, Keene and New York) while on official Borders' projects and also during some down time; we went to see Belle & Sebastian in NYC as well as Boston and I spent Thanksgiving in Rhode Island.
During that time we spoke every day except for one (no big story we just didn't connect that day) and naturally talked about the future. We were both ready to make a sacrifice to be with the other. If necessary, I would move to Rhode Island, even though my career options would be more limited. He was ready to move to Austin if it turned out I had to stay. In the end we both moved to Michigan because I had an opportunity to get off the road but still be a part of Store Planning and he had several options for stores in which to work or even a home office gig (as long as it wasn't my department!).
So we moved to Michigan. We spent about a year in a rental before buying our current abode which we really love. Which brings us to now.
Borders may be gone but friendships survive and my relationship with Dave has never been stronger.
We do not celebrate an anniversary, in fact most of the time when people ask us how long we've been together we have to stop and think about it. We just live our lives and the anniversaries come and go like all the other calendar dates. Sometimes in July it will occur to me that we're at that time of year again and I might mention something to Dave if he's around when the thought comes into my head. Or I forget entirely, which is what Dave also usually does and is one of the reasons why we are so compatible. Not that we take each other for granted it's just that...well, we're on the same apathetic wavelength in this matter.
