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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Deal is Done - Good-Bye Bond

The deal was officially closed today. Here are Travis and Don shaking hands by the Bond Medical Group sign.



Don got a cake to celebrate the event. The Icing (or Frosting if from Iowa) was sugary and delicious.


The Bond crew enjoying a beautiful Tampa sunny day.

March 14th would have been my 3 year anniversary with Bond Technologies. Today, I have had so many memories flooding through me. I can't even imagine what it is like for Travis and Lisa who have lived this for 5 years. Some of the thoughts...



  • Sending my resume to Bond after seeing them in the AC Group results

  • Getting a call the next day from Sharon and flying to Tampa for an interview

  • Talking to Mike about actually living in the same city as the kids and how exciting it would be to work for someone who "got it" after beating my head against the wall for so many years

  • Turning in my notice at Misys after asking to work remotely and being told that Jason didn't like remote employees and then having Misys offer me a remote position

  • Having one hell of a good-bye party at Michael Dean's in Raleigh

  • Having so much stuff that it took 2 moving trucks to get to Tampa

  • The movers got stuck in Atlanta and then couldn't drive becuase it had been too long or something. Then, when they got to our house, they couldn't find any of the hardware to put together the bunk beds. (We later found them taped to the inside of a small trash can that was in the garage - this was many months later)

  • When I dropped Morgan in her new class, she whispered in my ear, "Mom, please don't leave me here." I left in tears. That afternoon, I waited at the bus stop. She never came. I called Mike in a panic, and he said the school had just called him. Morgan had gotten off at the wrong bus stop at the other end of the neighborhood. I frantically go try to find her. What I found out later is the bus stop they gave me didn't exist yet. It was going into effect the next Monday, and they gave it out to me early. So, the bus driver told Morgan that she had to get off because it was the last stop (we had a nice chat about that later). Morgan just started walking through the neighborhood looking for our house. Thankfully, there was a little girl who told her Mom that Morgan was lost and was new. She called the school who called Mike.

  • My first day at Bond, I have a mild panic attack. After working in a larger company for a while, it was quite a shock to sit in this room with two Indians and a young guy. Hmm.... where is development? I knew that the software was mostly offshore, but I didn't know it was ALL offshore. :) I got a login to the software and started to figure it out. By the end of the day, I was feeling a little better. I came up with a plan, and Travis was all excited. I knew then that it would be a great fit.

  • The project manager who was there was let go shortly after.

  • The marketing graphics guy got moved to development (huh?).

  • The only developer on staff had no access to the code and didn't want to be a developer. :)

  • The young guy kept falling asleep at his desk.

  • The Indian who was the offshore company's representative kept telling me that nurses couldn't do anything. (That went over really well as you can imagine). :)

  • We had a great time creating processes, creating demo databases (up all night cramming the data in before TEPR), Courtney getting engaged at TEPR, Yusuff, What the Hell?

  • Many, many walks around the building

  • Designing most things at the outside table while smoking a pack of Malboro reds

  • Getting dinged on my review for safety (I had tripped in the dev lab while wearing a dress!!)
  • "Let me be frank with you" coming from my bff Vinayak
  • My buddy Mohit coming here and taking 10 years off my life

  • Me screaming at too many offshore developers to count

  • Morgan helping with QA

  • Falling asleep with my laptop on my lap and it shattering on the tile floor

  • Mark coming to manage support (me telling Mark that he shouldn't move here while mildly intoxicated after he had already turned in his notice)

  • Tony coming to manage the developers. Travis talking to Tony over the phone and allowing me to hire him without meeting him

  • Sarathy coming to do design work and then us realizing he was a great developer. We learned about hotfixes in our environment. HOT
  • Banu coming on as our first QA - and as a volunteer!!!!

  • Brian and Tom with their pages and pages of Questions prior to accepting the job

  • Interviewing at the Marriott

  • Hiring Bill and Steve at Pri-med in Boston over drinks and an all meat meal - PM in 6 months? NO PROBLEM!
  • Phil accepting the job while his wife was in surgery

  • Shaheen finally starting after 9,001 emails and phone calls :)

  • Michael going to "NextGen" when he moved to Philly

  • Millie realizing how big Clinician was as she started testing
  • Amanda coming for QA - Amanda starting with immunization entry.

  • Peanut butter and jelly Clyde
  • Luke joining the group and adding his style to the mix

  • Diane coming for templates and learning about reading email more than once a day

  • Lee and ScubaMark being desk co-joined twins for a while
  • Pete, Warren, Jerry, Mike coming on at different times but each bringing their unique skills

  • Liz coming to work because of David and then David leaving...:)

  • Abhijeet coming because he tried to put his mark on the software by trying drag and drop which was pretty hot in ASP.NET at the time

  • Me agreeing to take on Implementation over jack and coke on the plane (remind me not to drink around Travis)

  • Hiring Heather C while getting a massage

  • Julie in Atlanta telling me how she felt and me knowing at that time that she would make it

  • ScubaMark brought in Kim by bringing her to the Bond movie. We knew she was a good fit when she ordered the company against the wall :)

  • Fiesta party and team building

  • Amanda and her marshmallows

  • Bill and Steve riding the kids jeeps around Travis and Lisa's driveway

  • Poor Shaheen being the driver for Bill and Steve

  • Mad Dog finishing the scotch

  • Phil and his trainwreck screens

  • Rock Solid

  • That's HOT

  • Jeff City, Missouri

  • Lisa and her wonderful rhymes
  • How hard can it be?
  • The Christmas Parties at Cheval - and the after party of each one (hint, don't leave your purse next to Josh and don't let Steve pick the after party spot)

  • demouser - who can remember that?

  • I'm an internalist

  • No, really, there was a wreck involving a Bond employee? Flying aligators?
Of course, I could go on and on and on. The past three years have been some of the greatest memories in my life. We have certainly poured our lives into this company, product, and each other. I am proud to be a part of it.

Of course, the end of the Bond era is a little sad. However, as one door closes, another one opens. Here's to the next three years being as great as the last. Thanks for the nice welcome to MediNotes Don. CLINICIAN ROCKS!!! That's HOT. :) Don, thanks for trying so hard to make the transition smooth and for making such an effort to make us all feel wanted. :)

5 comments:

  1. Change is never easy but is always to be expected...

    Thanks for including me in the list of notables - sounds like I fit right in. Can't wait to see what the future holds...

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  2. This is really sweet. I was just talking about demouser the other day. That still makes me chuckle every time!

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  3. Man.... Demouser....i almost forgot about it......and "Let me be frank with you"...... Amy loves it.....

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  4. Yes all are really sweet memories.

    I used to bug Amy and Krishan with lots of Questions.Me and diane used to do popcors (Burnt once) :)
    Decorating christmas tree.......So on.....I really have to start working from office :)

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  5. ahhh Bond memories....these are so fun to read! Add some more add some more!!

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