#pair coding

“Hey, ChatGPT - you busy? I have this library I’m implementing, can you give me an example for my use case?”

“Sure! Here’s your code, with a helpful description about how right it is.”

“That code gives this error.”

“Apologies, you’re right! Here is the correct code, with a-.”

“It’s the same code with a different variable name”

“Apologies, you’re right! Here’s the corre-“

“That’s the original code.”

“Yes. That’s right”

“No, that’s wrong”

They’re going to value my scholarship!  To my benefit, they’re behind on issuing people their invoices and despite responding late, they’re still going to apply the scholarship to my account.  I am incredibly grateful...

This gave me a pep in my step...but a little too much pep.  This encouraged me to get a bit too eager in my pair-coding session, and it made the air between my partner and me a bit tense.  We clicked well for the most of it and are both coming from JavaScript, but I think I annoyed her with the tangents that I went off on to experiment.  I have to keep that in check and not be so selfish with the key board/shared time.  Just because this stuff is cool to me doesn’t mean that I have the right to sacrifice some else’s focus, even if it is briefly on some other code.  

My old old manager invited me to their celebratory happy hour.  I didn’t get a chance to say bye to them before I quit in person like I planned, so this was my opportunity.  I knew a few members on the team didn’t understand why my old old manager was still inviting me to their functions, even after leaving the company and were determined to show me that, but I try to not let it bother me.  I did want them to “kiss the ring” a bit, but with so many blessings, including the news of the scholarship, nothing stood between me and seeing the old coworkers that are now friends.

At the happy hour, one of the members invited his girlfriend and her friends.  All of which were doctors-in-training.  After leaving an all women’s environment at camp to be place in another one, especially one that was filled with such inspiring women of color, I felt really warm.  One of their boyfriends was a videographer for Streetcode Academy, an org that brings free software engineering classes to students in low-income neighborhoods.  We had a great convo about the importance of documenting and owning our narratives.  Part of me writing this is to share things from my perspective, a Black female engineer’s; one that we don’t hear from too often.

We drew the connections and he told me he hopes I can visit and present to the kids.  I couldn’t agree more. 

This, the alcohol, fried chicken, hugs and congratulatory messages were enough to have me floating.  The only kinda negative part of the night was when I realized, leaving the table of my old coworkers and going to the table of the invites meant I had to put my money up for the food they ordered lol.  I wasn’t expecting that...I REALLY have to control my spending.  I did NOT plan to spend that much...Thank God I did my homework before the happy hour though, because I went home (after another long ass cold commute) and CRASHED.

Also, I miss NYC transportation.  I should never have to walk 30 minutes in the downtown of a major metropolitan city at 9 PM to get to my train that will take me home :/...but, with San Francisco too, I must have patience despite how much I want to compare it negatively to my favorite city, NYC.