{"id":2448,"date":"2012-02-08T00:13:56","date_gmt":"2012-02-08T00:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/?p=2448"},"modified":"2012-02-08T00:18:52","modified_gmt":"2012-02-08T00:18:52","slug":"russians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/russians\/","title":{"rendered":"Russians"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"(Katia, the almost former Willow bartender. Photo Socotra.)
\n<\/strong>The office was quiet, with the exception of that Maxim the Russian who is desperate to build his business and who came to talk to me with his eerie pale blue eyes. He looked a little like Vladimir Putin, and I told him I missed the old Soviet Union a little bit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were a great and worth adversary,\u201d I said, buying some time and trying to figure out if I could use his company in the team we have assembled to work the new huge contract that hasn\u2019t been awarded yet. \u201cNot the regime, of course, but the people of the of the Soviet Union were indomitable in adversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contract is a topic of periodic unease- I mean, I think we are going to win. There is no indication that we won\u2019t win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have Top Secret clearance,\u201d Maxim said. \u201cYou can check in JPAS.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no reason you wouldn\u2019t qualify, if they conducted the background investigation properly\u201d I said. \u201cThat<\/em> war is over. I like Russians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, talking about plans for the future is a little strange, since the long wait for the award has combined with everything else to make life a little surreal. The Russian eventually beat everything to death, and I assured him I would be happy to have the non-disclosure and Teaming Agreement paperwork sent to him.<\/p>\n

He went away after a while, and naturally I thought of Svetlana, the dark-eyed lady who used to handle our subcontracting. She was from Crimea, and left the Soviet Union from Moscow, as Maxim did when the getting was good after the Wall fell. She had a Top Secret clearance as well, which was useful, but I never completely got over her rich smoky accent on the phone talking about contractual nuances with the Agency we support.<\/p>\n

I was sad when she left. We need more Russians in the business, at least on our side.<\/p>\n

I was thinking about that as I glanced at the clock and saw there wasn\u2019t enough time to start anything else new. The sun is staying up until six, and it seemed like a decent idea to wander over to Willow and see who might be there on a Monday.<\/p>\n

Old Jim was there, naturally, anchoring the Amen Corner. I saw lovely Liz-with-an-S and Katia in the back. I remembered her family was from Byelorussia- we could never quite figure out how her grandfather had escaped the Kommissars after doing some hard time in the Gulag, but her family came here not long after the war. Her mother is a big-wig at the Federal Aviation Administration, and she has been hoping to get her life started and get out from behind the bar.<\/p>\n

Jim took his earbuds out and carefully wrapped the cord around his little MP3 player. \u201cGood news and bad news,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou mean about the Superbowl?\u201d I was disappointed there was no wardrobe failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liz topped up my glass with an impertinent Chardonnay. \u201cM.I.A. flipped off the camera, though,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd dropped the S-bomb.\u201d
\n\u201cI watched it but did not catch anything inappropriate. I thought Madonna was hot,\u201d I said. \u201cI can\u2019t believe how athletic she was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"(Robert, Willow\u2019s Sous-chef in a rare idle moment. Photo Socotra.)
\n<\/strong>
\nRobert the sous-chef made an appearance to press the flesh with the regulars. \u201cI thought the Manningham catch on Eli\u2019s second half drive was the most amazing thing I have ever seen,\u201d he said. \u201cAwesome. Purely awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you know more people watched the half-time show than the game?\u201d asked Jim.\u201d I don\u2019t know how that works. But no, that wasn\u2019t the big news.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWas it about the commercials? My favorite was Clint Eastwood and that thing about America starting the Second Half. He could have been Ronald Reagan and morning-in- America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite was the Grandma and the flying baby grabbing the Cheetos from that little jerk in the tree house.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about the post-attack Chevy truck?\u201d said Liz.<\/p>\n

\u201cOr the dog that buried the cat,\u201d said Jim. \u201cBut no, that isn\u2019t it either.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why I had the blahs all day,\u201d I said. \u201cI never really got into the day. Except for that Russian guy who came to talk to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot surprising,\u201d said Liz brightly. \u201cThis is the day of the year that has the most people call in sick. It is going to be a slow night, and we have nineteen people on staff. I am betting they send a bunch of us home. It will be a tomb.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI may only have another couple and call it a night myself,\u201d I said. Liz glided away to talk to Deborah the Ops Boss, and the next thing I knew, Katia was sitting next to Jim on the civilian side of the bar in a brilliant crimson dress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHoly socks,\u201d I exclaimed. \u201cDid they send you home?\u201d<\/p>\n

She shrugged. \u201cNot enough people to serve tonight. I don\u2019t mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look great,\u201d I said. \u201cA Byelorussian lady in a red frock. Life doesn\u2019t get any better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim took a long pull on his Budweiser. When he was done, he put the bottle back on the bar and said: \u201cThat is what I was trying to tell you. The good-news bad news thing?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah? So I thought we covered all that.\u201d
\n\u201cNo, you wouldn\u2019t shut up long enough. Katia is leaving. She got her job with the FAA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katia smiled demurely. \u201cI have a contingent offer to go to work with them,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is what I have always wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is good news,\u201d I said. \u201cBut we are going to miss you.\u201d<\/p>\n

She smiled. \u201cIt only means I get to sit over here, she said.<\/p>\n

Jim smiled broadly and ordered her a glass of Happy Hour White. \u201cThat is good news indeed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"(Katia as civilian. Photo Socotra.)
\n<\/strong>
\nCopyright 2012 Vic Socotra
\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Katia, the almost former Willow bartender. Photo Socotra.) The office was quiet, with the exception of that Maxim the Russian who is desperate to build his business and who came to talk to me with his eerie pale blue eyes. He looked a little like Vladimir Putin, and I told him I missed the old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-socotra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2451,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448\/revisions\/2451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}