Edit/possible spoiler: It has come to my attention that this story may be confusing for people who aren't familiar with (apparently) obscure parts of fey lore. Similar legends exist in many cultures, but I learned about it in a book of faeries, so here it is.
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Work today had been more frustrating than usual. One of my regular clients had referred a friend to me for some basic home networking: set up multiple computers in a new house, establish parental controls for kids old enough to have their own systems, and build a home server for them to store and share music and videos on. Our meeting today was supposed to be going over the specs, the budget, and the timeline to get the project done; what actually happened was that the potential client handed me a list of parts and informed me that his brother – who doesn’t have a steady job, but is ‘really good with computers’ – told him that was all they would need, and he would not pay for anything except what was on the list.
As a woman
in the technology field, I am used to dealing with male attitude; I put on a
professional face and do my best to ignore it. As a worker of any stripe in
technology, I am also used to dealing with ignorance as to what is required to
meet expectations, but this was a new level of stupidity, even for me. One of
the four computers on the list was built like a beast: high-end everything,
multiple hard drives, a fancy gaming mouse and keyboard and dual
high-resolution monitors. The other three, presumably for the wife and
children, were bottom-of-the-line setups; they would be able to get online and
go to basic websites, but they were clearly intended to discourage anything
resource-heavy, i.e., fun. I tried pointing out that, unless anyone in the
family was trying to become a professional gamer, I could get them four decent
computers and a storage system to back everything up for half the price. The
man icily informed me that he would not take any attitude from “some consultant
who thinks she knows computers better than my own brother,” grabbed the list
out of my hands, and walked out. I mean, good riddance to bad rubbish, but it
left me more than a little annoyed.
I realized
as I was driving home that it was still bothering me, despite the glorious fall
weather and light traffic. After the third time of intentionally unclenching my
jaw, I decided I’d go on a walk when I got home, despite it not being a
scheduled exercise day. Over the past month, a couple of my coworkers at the
agency had told me stories about surveillance cases where the target noticed
they were being followed and got aggressive, followed by advice that being in
shape enough to hightail it out of somewhere was a good idea. My apartment was
in a neighborhood that was city enough to have sidewalks, but residential
enough to have green areas and trees along the way. I resolved to walk more
slowly and enjoy the scenery this time, instead of the usual “get the heart
pumping” pace.
