My first encounters with Brian at work
I first met Brian when I started working for the former Ontario Realty Corporation (now Infrastructure Ontario) in April 2007. Of course, when I was first introduced to him, he was loudly talking on the phone and thoroughly engaged in his conversation. Back then, we each had tall cubicle walls, so hardly any natural light came through the office and it was difficult to see if people were at their desks or not unless you went right into their cubicle space. Brian sat next to a window and I sat adjacent to his cubicle, but it felt like I was in a separate room away from him...except for the fact that I could hear his voice quite distinctly, especially when he was on the phone, which was many times throughout the day. My manager at the time spoke very well of him, describing him as being "full of life". It didn't take long before I understood what he meant. He had a charismatic type of personality with a dramatic flair. He had a great voice that could easily be on the...