It was to my great surprise that I was asked what I would like to do for my welcome party. A welcome party. I had never heard of such a thing! After agonizing over an open set of choices (I had only begun DMC’s current book club piece on decision making), I realized that I had never been to the House of Blues, but that I had heard great things about it (from family that were of blues-going age at that time), and so I thought that could be fun. When looking at the list of bands playing that week, I noticed a band named Tesla was playing that Saturday. I knew nothing of them, but surely a group with enough respect for the inventor to take him as their namesake would be promising, as I supposed may be the case for Meatloaf.
That Saturday night, after wandering Chicago and certainly not being lost, thank you very much, I made it to the House of Blues. I seem to have arrived just as Tesla was setting up, for not five minutes later, I had found the folks from DMC who had come to see the show, and the curtain lifted. What followed was an excellent concert, whose lyrics I knew not at all, but enjoyed immensely, interspersed thoroughly with conversations with my new coworkers, from stories of AC/DC shows to plans to see metal concerts to warm welcomes. With that, my consternation disappeared – this was not some forced event, a masquerade to put the new guy in the spotlight. This was what DMC was all about: a community of bright, passionate people, nurturing each other’s interests and abilities, taking on tough projects as eagerly as they take to their pastimes - and enjoying every bit of it.
