That being said, what I've been working on lately has taken me into the world of 2007. I wanted to write a story loosely based on my time working for a certain tech company which shall remain nameless. I worked at this place between 2007 and 2011. It was a job. I didn't enjoy it, but it paid the bills and nearly killed me. While at this place I was working six days a week, ten hours a day. The pay was very good, but I didn't get to do normal people things like watch TV, go on dates regularly, or even watch a movie. Seriously, looking at a list and the only movies I saw in 2007 were American Gangster, Spider-Man 3, and The Kingdom. I had some catching up to do.
One of the first things I watched on this journey was the NBC show Chuck. It was a very popular series that could best be described as if The Big Bang Theory and Mission Impossible had a demented baby.On the on set, most nerdy guys' self-insert in this show is Chuck Bartowski, the titular character. He's charming, witty, has a bit of a self deprecating manner, somehow manages to get the girl and talk himself out of awful situations. He is what every dork wants to be. However, I don't see myself as Chuck. I was, in fact, Morgan Grimes.
Why was I Morgan Grimes? Well, Morgan, although on the surface he is a bit of an odd duck, he has heart. He is loyal and looks out for his best friend. Sure, he is awkward, doesn't take social cues very well, and has very little backbone, but when push comes to shove he is there. And I like to think I represent the good and the bad parts of Morgan.
In 2007, I was strange and awkward. Heck, I still am in a lot of ways. After going on a bit of a work sabbatical between 2006 and 2007, and then suddenly being around people every day, I wasn't the biggest social butterfly. There was a young lady at the job that I was into. It had been awhile for me, so reading the room wasn't my strongest point. I don't mean that I was just completely oblivious, but I didn't pick up on my own awkwardness enough to know when I was making situations uncomfortable for others. That was a total Morgan move!
I worked alone for the most part at that job, but often when I had to interact with people around me it just wasn't a good situation for me. At 26 I hadn't had a lot of life experiences, so ways that I could relate to others was via movie or TV references. Like, "Oh, I saw this situation play out on an episode of Martin years ago." If that wasn't bad enough the fact that I verbalized this made things weird. Here are grown ups with adult problems, and my only frame of reference to empathize came from a television sitcom.
This all came to a head in 2009 when I took my vacation time on August 25th. Yes, that's correct, the release of Rocksteady's Arkham Asylum. While that on its own was a total Morgan move, it was compounded when I told people about it, and one co-worker got into an absolute tizzy. The gentleman was so disturbed by my declaration that he went all the way to whoever was in charge of the company. am not lying. His gripe was that I was wasting my vacation days. Meanwhile, he had used all of his to take care of his sick children. And when I told him I was using my vacation to sit home and play a video game he just about went ballistic. The man petitioned for my vacation days to be given to him. I can see Morgan going through a situation like this.
While Morgan eventually grew out of being Morgan, I also grew out of being the odd, awkward guy. The one who kept making weird movie references and using vacation days to play video games. Although, I will not apologize for taking the rest of my vacation days that year when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II came out. And yes, I'll still very much have those doh! moments, but I at now recognize when I make a mistake like that. As the kids say today, "my bad." But, Morgan stopped being Morgan, and it took me a few years, but I did too. It took college and a few awkward relationships to happen, but I still did it!
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