Foo: !

Bar: Hi! I have been meaning to tell you I enjoyed 'trapped in a house party' ... been there ... done that! Hopefully it wasn't in your own house!!

Foo: Well, it was an imaginary party.

Bar: I'm not much of a party person myself ... was I always that way? I just don't like to chit chat and blah blah blah ...

Foo: We aren't much for parties either.

Foo: I recall being at a few parties long ago that were rather chaotic. Fun to be at, but I'd hate to be the homeowner! Can you imagine finding empty bottles in the most unlikely places months later? :-)

Bar: Unless of course I dive into the alcohol (been there done that I think).

Foo: But that's not what it's really about. You can read it literally, but it's also a metaphor.

Bar: ?

Foo: The poem is actually my trying to imagine what it was like for this guy I worked with to decide to quit.

Bar: k... you mentioned him last week... he quit to go back to college?

Foo: Yeah, him. I found that writing the poem disturbed me, since I managed to place my own state of mind pretty strongly into it.

Bar: So it's not really about you at a party?

Foo: Not really. The analogies are fairly vague, so I hope that anyone that has ever been in the state of mind of "I need to leave now" will be able to identify with it.

Bar: I hate that feeling that it is time to move on. Years ago before I got laid off I was in the same place. One of those times where you battle constantly with yourself.

Foo: yup

Bar: All I could think about day in and day out was that I needed to move on. I needed to be somewhere else. Anywhere else.

Foo: The kitchen is me and all the engineering teams at work and how there seem to be more and more crazy ideas floating around. There is also a bit of the notion of playing along because disagreeing at times can be career limiting.

Bar: Been there!

Foo: The study with the strangers with a new plan are the latest round of new upper level managers with all their visions of how to turn the company around (yet again). I just don't understand that stuff I guess. Give me a good engineering problem any day.

Foo: But these things could represent many other situations for other people.

Bar: politicians...

Foo: LOL

Foo: The driveway represents the condition where you are on the edge of deciding to actually leave. This again could mean many things to many people...

Foo: The pounding music is simply the relentless reminders of all the things that are making you think it's time to go.

Bar: I went through a similar experience last year regarding the church we had attended for years. Knowing that it was time to move on but at the same time not wanting to jump ship.

Foo: kinda like being in limbo?

Bar: Exactly.

Foo: The final stanza is about why it's always so hard to decide to actually cut it off and move on because there are still lots of good things happening. And although the headache might just be a hangover, it could also mean the consequences of not taking having taken action now.

Foo: Anyway... there it is, FWIW.

Bar: It's not about a party at all!

Bar: I guess I liked your poem even though I missed the point altogether!!

Bar: The 'party' is in your house isn't it? Your analogies are wonderful (now that you have explained them to me).

Foo: I think it's pretty funny to try to draw a parallel between a job and a party - mixing work and play - it's a recurring weirdness about having a career you really love.

Bar: LOL that's great. Imagine how great the world would be if everyone loved their job so much it was like going to a party every day?

Foo: Well, I think I still prefer partying to working you know.

Bar: GREAT analogies. I like 'trapped in a house party' even better now!

Foo: Of course, this could all be a crock you know.

Bar: I love that I was able to make a simple comment about your poem that let you vocalize all those thoughts that have been buzzing around in your head. I don't know if saying something in writing is as effective as hearing yourself say something, but I hope this will help you make a decision.

Foo: It's not my party (not yet any how). I'm not thinking about leaving any time soon. It was an exploration using metaphors of trying to understand why other people having been leaving lately.

Foo: I do know I found it personally upsetting putting myself in that frame of mind in order to write the poem. It seemed to flow easily as if a lot of it might actually be true for me too, but I'm not sure yet.

Bar: brb

Foo: But it let me write another poem that I'm rather pleased with.

Foo: k

Bar: I guess I meant metaphor, not analogy... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor

Foo: me brb

Foo: A very odd co-inky-dink... that page says consideration is a metaphor meaning "take the stars into account"

Bar: phone... TTFN

Foo: Without quite knowing why, I had mentioned Venus in my poem (you know I like astronomy) which is not really a star, but anyway... it seemed to fit in just right in that place - but I couldn't have said why... and now I know why: thanks to you!

Bar is no longer logged on.

Foo: rats.