Puppet Memories

01.18.2022

I got married this summer, and in thinking about what it means to spend your life with someone I've been thinking a lot about how much just being there matters. I think at startups especially, and Puppet in particular which has so many long-time employees, reminiscing and reinforcing those experiences we were there for is so subconcious and common it's a conversation we easily fall into at lunches. This blog post is more of a 'journal entry', with myself as the primary audience, but I wanted to publish it because I know some people shared these experiences with me and I think recounting them here may have some value for them too. I tried to make the post somewhat navigable and chronological so you can try to find the things that are meaningful to you.

## 2014

I remember going to the OSCON after party in 2014, people crushed into the RiverTec office. Everything seemed so Silicon Valley, so bright and expensive. I remember there were cupcakes in every room (remember when cupcakes were A Thing?), and by 9 PM it was like the pit at a concert, crammed with people. I remember my friends and I spilling out the front door around midnight, sober because we weren't 21 but reveling in the Gatsby of that party.

## 2015

I remember Maggie Dreyer and I started our internships on the same day, and got to meet with Luke at the end of the first week. We each got to ask a question, and I asked what the one thing he could change would be. "I wouldn't make Puppet Open Source" he said, and my Linux heart sank. To be honest I don't remember what Maggie asked, but maybe she does?

I remember Hambone.

I remember going out for lunch every Friday, usually to E-San Thai, and sometimes to the DC Vegetarian Cart. I forget whose last day it was, but when someone left there were like 24 of us who wanted to go out, and we basically had the whole top floor of E-San to ourselves.

To be continued...