On Why I Spent $15,500 For A Date With Fabio

---- I confused so many men at work! A few women too!

Last Edit October12, 1998

I am the Sr. Developer/webmaster for Synopsys Internal Technical Training. Also, I am still tethered as the instructor for the CBA Design System Training class (see below).
........Donnamaie E. White, Ph.D.

People at work are vibrating with confusion. You see, I just started a new position with the parent company, Synopsys, Inc. It's an EDA firm - a high-tech state-of-the-art company that supplies software to those who need to design chips. ASICs. ASSPs. Etc. And I have a relatively senior position. They expect a lot out of me.

It's all very high-tech. And I am an engineer by training (Master's in EE, Ph.D. in Computer Science - computer architecture and fault detection) with over 20 years experience at developing and teaching high-tech state-of-the-art classes for various companies and a few universities. I just also happen to have a degree in Marketing (sort of an MBA plus MarCom - enough classes to be a PhD on its own if I had ever done a thesis). I can do desk-top publishing. Websites. I understand Adobe software.

And I am a MacIntosh computer fanatic. I hate the NT at work. (Boo! Hiss!) I despise UNIX.

To top this all off, I am a woman. Horrors! A woman engineer!

So I am controversial.

Things really got out of hand when I went to Little Rock. "Who is this crazy person we just hired?" they ask. "What was she thinking?" they queried. "Is she a professional or a nut?" they mumbled. My new boss says they were clustered in the hallways. Ooooops!

Actually, I am a very well off older woman who still believes in the Cinderella story. Prince charming shall carry me off. At least to dinner. (I guess I should tell Make-A-Wish that the limo must be white. And I did.)

To calm them down, I put the following on my website at work:

        For those of you who are confused and lost as to why on earth I would spend $15,500.00 for a date with Fabio, you must not get out much. He was the celebrity draw for a Make-A-Wish fundraiser which grants wishes to dying children. A bachelor auction is one of their fundraising activities. You go and "bid" on a bachelor (they each have a little "date" package -- where they "escort" you to dinner, a ballgame, a play, etc. -- that you know about ahead of the bidding) and the money goes to the charity.
        I can afford it. My CPA said so. She even recommended that I do it. It's a tax deduction. And I just sold a lot of stock. I owe a lot of taxes.
        Fabio himself does not get the money - the children do. I am amazed at how many people thought that this was a real date (no, it's dinner, a limo ride around LA and I get to fly first-class and stay in a posh hotel to pamper myself), at how many people thought I paid him (no, it's for the dying kids). I know this man, he is a charmer, I have met him 9 times before (I am a budding romance novelist and he is the perfect role-model "hero") and I am his official fan club webmaster. Now do you get it?

Whether they do or not remains to be seen.

I am also to have a day of pampering - a facial (no, that part I will skip, don't touch my face), message, etc. - sounds great to me. I should be in great shape for my "date" with Prince Charming. Score one for Cinderella.

Someone told me a long time ago that I would be a very eccentric old lady. I am determined to live up to that remark.

I like the comedian who said, "If the plane is going to crash and you know you only have a few minutes to live, treat it as a roller-coaster ride. Enjoy it all the way down."

I intend to do just that.