I was seriously tempted to copy Will and opt out of the year in review, but, well, it's a long but healthy exercise.
January
January was odd. Huge ups, huge downs.
2nd Fridays Art Walk. Yelp at the Shedd, after-hours. Theatre group photos.
Finishing the paint on the windows of the TARDIS at PS:One. Dad stopped in to go watch Floored. Learned a lot about the environment where he worked. Started cracking walnuts with one hand for kicks.
Memphis. Great to get away, even for a few days. Rendezvous may have spoiled me for most other barbecue.
Job stuff: in a bizarre spot there at the time.
Quote of the month: "You two's business is adorable."
February
Chinese New Year. A Flickr/Explore Chicago meetup. Art Institute and Field Museum runs.
More job weirdness. Car problems. About half a month of confusion, the rest uncertainty.
Started 300 Seconds of Fame at PS:One.
Went red.
2nd Fridays again, other gallery openings.
March
Back to Penn State for a conference. Weird being back, with my life there this far in the rearview. Flattering, but strange. Select quotes: "I stopped listening to music when you moved away." At the old club gig: "People still ask for you."
Pi(e) Day. Another conference. More car problems. More gallery visits.
A potluck where I took my most popular photo ever (geeks love it).
April
First Big C Jamboree. Another potluck. C2E2. An odd traditional Good Friday parade called Via Crucis in my neighborhood.
May
A PS:One May Day BBQ. H's belly dance performance. Boom's birthday shenanigans. Site launch party for the theatre group.
Started my new job, and thus started taking pictures from my new office, which is becoming my version of Monet's haystacks. With a little less skill.
Took photos at a smashing wedding.
June
Sox game. W00tstock. A local con. Bought a new car.
July
Another shoot for the theatre group. Fourth of July in the burbs. Biking by the lake, including Northerly Island.
Quick weekend trip to Iowa. Another cooking get-together. The Stanley Cup visited Tre Kroner when we were there. Another conference happened in here somewhere.
And to close out the month, headed to Maker Faire Detroit for the Power Racing Series.
August
Flickr meetup. Sunset at Osaka Garden. Farmer's Market-ing.
Got close to site launch at work: terribly stressful near the end of the month. Also, new folks in the office meant I was their IT support, which made things worse. But also had the Air and Water Show practice right near work. Fun to watch, but a bit distracting.
September
New site went live at work, which meant I was crazy busy there.
Had a good speaker or two through PS:One over the last few months. Also had a pirate party, which was a lot of fun. Had a hit and run happen uncomfortably close to us while driving up to PS:One mid-month.
October
Hardball visited campus. Did some other shooting around campus.
Was official photographer for HighEdWeb, which I also created a poster for. Where I also petted a penguin. Long story.
Taught N some Danish for our trip the next month. Started gaming a bit again at the end of the month. Good to be creative in that fashion again.
November
More shooting for the theatre group. Aaaand then the Denmark trip happened.
So, starting with the conference, then a bit of touring around Århus, including Den Gamle By. Train over to Copenhagen for further exploring, with side trips to Køge and Roskilde. Also visited two spaces like ours over there.
When we got back, recovery mode. Interrupted by Gløggfest in Andersenville, which I won free tickets to via Twitter. :)
December
Mayoral forum at work. Another Field Museum run, for the RoboSue and Gold exhibits. A crazy-full 300 Seconds. Got a photo onto Makezine and Good.is. Plus Renegade Craft Fair, which was a lot of fun (and super-useful for gifts and sundries).
Learned how to knit. Went a little nutty with it for awhile.
And in wrap-up, lots of cooking over the course of the year. For that matter, my photos hit lots of publications: Make, Good, Chicago Tribune, Redeye, Time Out Chicago, Consumerist, Windy Citizen, Gaper's Block, etc.
Overall: good year, which got significantly better as it proceeded.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Saturday, January 01, 2011
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Reverb 10, Day 22. Travel.
Yes, I'm backdating.
prompt.
Travel? Hoo boy. Nothing topped the Denmark trip. But also had quite a few other runs: Cincinnati, Memphis, State College, etc.
Love to travel, but it's also really nice to be home afterwards.
prompt.
Monday, March 02, 2009
year in review 2008
As is tradition, my year in review. Delayed this year. Been busy. Hang tight, this'll get long.
January
Weird mid-60s weather in the beginning of January. Then wind advisories. Cool but strange.
Stressed to hell and gone at work, added to by the course I was taking one night a week (which turned into a few nights a week due to group work): Usability Engineering. On the up side, the course was totally worth it.
Hauled out to Palmyra, near Hershey, mid-month to help Shellie renovate the salon for the January BPAL East Coast Will Call. I painted the ceiling. See also: ow. That uses muscles that most people just don't. use. ever. A week and a half later or so, attended the event we were prepping for.
Big changes at the club job: a renovation and new name, which included renovations to my equipment. Serious upgrades and video capabilities. Very cool, though required learning the new system. After being one of the only people that could handle the old system, this was both good and bad.
Placed a third shot in Schmap, an online travel guide (first two were Seattle, this one from New Orleans). Discovered I'd taken over 50 gigs of photos in the year before.
Finally went to an allergist to see what the heck was up. They did the tests: I'm officially allergic to cats. Which is, of course, the first pet I'd consider owning. Then they sent me for a CAT scan. Verdict: long-running sinus infection.
February
Took a last-minute trip to Pittsburgh to see the Chihuly exhibition at the Conservatory, which was very neat. I haven't touched most of the photographs I took there, but I really, truly should. There's some stellar material in there.
On the way there, made an Amazon order in the car on my iPhone. Got en email later that day saying it had shipped. We truly live in the future.
Re-discovered live Rickrolling and song charting and was generally amused.
Cut six inches off my hair.
Again swore that on my next move, I'd move somewhere more moderate in temperature extremes. You see how that went.
Meanwhile, back in class, I was the only female other than the two TAs. Weird.
Went to BPAL East Coast Will Call, as per normal.
Late in the month, my maternal uncle passed away. I dropped everything and went to Minnesota. It was strange, as most funerals are. Not a joyous occasion, but still good to see relatives I hadn't for years.
Came back and was totally slammed at work.
Sinus infection continued unabated, despite antibiotics. Allergist started talking surgery if we couldn't whip it with two other courses of antibiotics.
March
Started prepping early for the move in May by selling some media and scents/b&b stuff I could shed on Amazon Marketplace and through BPAL venues. Oh, and by packing books.
The new antibiotics made me feel atrocious off and on. No fun. Voice started cutting out on me.
Gary Gygax passed away. Sad day. Excellent NY Times obituary here, with a fantastic chart describing virtually anyone exposed to D&D during their lifetime.
Started to get back to reading. Definitely a good thing. Though leads to oddness at the club job: "Reading Canticle for Liebowitz at the club job is surreal: 'We bury you. We are the centuries.' Then shiny happy gay boys make requests." Another choice quote: "Me, I've been lucky enough to be quicksilver; I spatter, but I run back together somehow." - Canticle, p. 233.
New guy at the club job. A CD-based DJ, which struck me as retro. Hilarity.
First draft of the user interface I'd created for our group project went over swimmingly with our main tester. It's nice getting good feedback. Which, I might add, was backed by the professor: was selected to be the only one demo'ed to the class at that stage.
Attended BPAL East Coast Will Call (hereafter referred to as ECWC) as usual.
A pseudo-work-related event happened here (TLT Symposium) and was awesome. Found new and reconnected with old colleagues, some of whom have become friends. Still chat with many of them even though I'm no longer with Penn State. Great keynote, too, by Lawrence Lessig. The hilarity? Lessig as keynote (creator of Creative Commons, which introduced new forms of copyright), yet my photos from last year's Symposium were used in the Symposium program without attribution, which was required by the Creative Commons copyright on my photos. There's irony in there somewhere.
Obama visited Penn State later this month. I only got to see the aftermath.
April
More with the Usability Engineering and some necessary pixel-pushing for our prototype. "Lesson learned from iterative prototyping: do it right the first time, or it's going to drive you crazy for the rest of the project."
ECWC, as per usual.
Tried to charge through my pasta so as not to have to pack it when moving. Got really sick of pasta.
Also, sick again. Sinus infection still/again? Allergist waffled on it. "Me: I'm getting sick a lot this year. What's going on? Doc: Lots of things make you sick. How's your stress level? Me: You're funny, doc." And later: "Antibiotics, round three. Go!" (this was my last chance before talking surgery again)
Finished the virtual tour project at work. "My kingdom for a day without meetings."
With the class group-work: a pivotal member of our group late-dropped due to a medical emergency--and took all his prototypes with him. Nuclear strike. Half our project gone. Yeah.
Walking tour podcast project got approved.
May
Showcased our prototype for IBM. Seemed to go well.
Headed back to Wisconsin in early May to see the first outing of the boats my dad captains. On the way: "Going thru Chicago @ 5:30 on a Fri w/no I-Pass may go on my life list of least brilliant moves." Took some pictures.
Also nailed down a new place about a month early, which made moving way less stressful.
Penn State professionals Tweet Meet occurred. Good stuff. Also started attending the BS breakfasts more regularly: definitely enjoyed that.
Went to an in-house but off-campus conference (for Penn State staff, but between other campuses). Presented between 3 to 5 times, depending on how you count it.
First book finished at the new place ("The Gold"): Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse. Also: "People in this neighborhood say hi, exchange pleasantries, and are genuinely friendly, as far as I can tell. It's so bizarre."
"What self-respecting mall closes at 6 during Memorial Day weekend? Wait, I think I answered my own question." Spent Memorial Day bouncing between events.
Started taking photowalks around my neighborhood.
Launched IntelliResponse on the site at work. Huge project over, thankfully.
June
The cicadas at the new place were super-loud, even louder than on campus. Started being annoyed by the lack of drawers in the new kitchen (had exactly one).
Penn State Web Conference happened in here. Had some interesting chats with the central Director of Web Services from a university in Buffalo.
Hit up ECWC, as usual.
Dax's birthday happened in here. Good times.
Yet another conference later in the month: PACAC. Had my first piece of shoofly pie, despite living in Pennsylvania for years and years. "Won a copy of Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want at the TargetX session." Hung out with colleagues and boss after sessions.
Irritation with new RAM install going sour on my desktop.
July
4th of July fun and games.
Solved the RAM issue with a new batch. "I've cracked my case open and removed drives so often it's almost second nature now. Sad."
Got our work presence in Teen Second Life up and running and linked from the homepage. Whee. Seriously, though, it was fun, mostly. People are just astonished by it, especially older staffers.
Increasing stress at work.
Arts Fest happened mid-July, over a timespan that included my birthday, as it usually does, yearly. Also hit up People's Choice.
July's ECWC.
A few more TweetMeets happened in here somewhere. I also virtually attended EduWeb, via people who were livestreaming sessions and liveblogging. Next best thing to being there. Seriously.
Started MCing a lot more at the club job. Found that I liked it and was good at it. Oh, and the new new guy was much better than the old new guy (the one that used CDs. yeah).
Cut my hair to chin-length, donated my hair. Work colleagues loved the new hairstyle.
Wandered through Jazz Fest in Bellefonte.
Spend a Summer Day open houses started at work. They're bloody exhausting. Plus the "new" application for admission went up midnight of July 31st. Stayed in late testing. "Had door closed, music on, staff assistant running interference ('She'll get back to you!'), & I still got interrupted a zillion times."
August
As if to forcibly greet me with fine August weather, the sunroof of my car got stuck open on the 1st. Pulled into Saturn right before they closed for them to at least get it shut. Which they did. And it was still under warranty, so I got whatever $1,000 thing that needed to be replaced covered.
Another amusing in-house conference-style event.
At the club job, had intermittent irritation with stupid requests. "Realizing that people making requests may object to my academic tone: 'Could you play something awesome?' 'Can you define that, please?'"
Got a new next-door neighbor who became a good friend.
ECWC.
Threat level at work continues to rise. "Everything's an emergency around here. I wish I could say 'today,' but it's been like this since Spend a Summer Day." And later this month: "Manager of our web programmers to me just now: 'I'm getting the hell out of here before anything else happens.' Yep, been that sorta week."
Trip to HersheyPark with Dax and S. Desperately needed fun.
Club job: "All-staff mtg @ club. Owner of half downtown S.C. picked me out of crowd to shake my hand & ask my name after. I was smiling during speech." Which was accurate. He quoted an author I really liked.
Anticipated Hurricane Gustav by keeping tabs on Rev, a friend in New Orleans. Less serious than anticipated.
September
L announced a big move in terms of job and geography. I was happy for him but sad for me.
Started doing some Wikipedia editing on small towns in Denmark that I knew well when I lived there.
A Victorian stone mansion burns down two blocks away: I sleep through it. Colleagues were concerned about me. I totally missed out on the whole thing.
Another ECWC. More TweetMeets.
Work-related Tweets:
Near the end of the month, had another in-house conference, this time on our campus (which is what that last one's from). Presented a lot again, though some were just demos of new tools we'd created.
October
Hosted another, bit more famous DJ at the club job.
Finished one conference, on to another. HighEdWeb, this year in Missouri. This year was . . . notable. Twitter was invaluable here for meetups and coordinating the all-important socializing.
Got back okay, but my luggage had been lost between my three flights.
And then headed to Philly for the usability testing. Hit up Penn State Abington (home of a dear colleague, who invited me to dinner with his family when I arrived in town, which was lovely) in the process.
Stayed an extra day or so, and totally enjoyed myself by exploring Philly and getting into Eastern State Penitentiary, which is an awesome, awesome place to shoot pictures. Listened to the City of Industry soundtrack virtually the whole time. "Shot more than 6 gigs of photos in the last 3 days, between 2 cameras & 3 cards. And I'm shooting .jpg, not .raw (which I should)."
"Getting really tired of '______ never happens' happening. It breaks our (new!) systems. A lot."
ECWC was fun as usual.
Halloween was an amusement at the club job, as always. Pictures from Halloween, and pictures from the costumes from my night.
Did definitely miss Dax's usual costume antics, though.
November
Voted. "My 'Peppermints we can believe in: Mints for Obama' tin is getting comments at every meeting I bring it to."
Got another sinus infection. Whee.
Yet another ECWC.
Applied for a job in Chicago that I had no connection to, but was a perfect fit in terms of qualifications for (though not sure if this was October or November). And, after a phone interview in mid-November, they brought me in for the in-person. And by the end of the month, got the job.
While in the area for the interview, stopped in on my dad. Good visit. Also stopped in at the Shedd Aquarium for the heck of it on my way out.
Started doing more photoshoots for my DJing manager and other DJs from our company. "My place is a sty that hasn't been cleaned since the first of my fall trips; just booked a shoot this weekend and one more in December. . ."
Made gløgg for Thanksgiving hosted by a couple Penn State tweetpeeps. "Also: that orange has been officially zested. TO DEATH. Or at least until it was white with rind. Then I ate it." Yes, real gløgg does require orange zest, in my humble opinion.
Everything with the job and a new place and the whole bit just fell into place, as if by magic, though some of it somewhat last-minute.
December
Announced I was leaving at work, prompting these sorts of conversations:
T: "How could you?"
Me: "What do you mean?"
T: "You're really good!"
Me: "I think you may have just answered your own question."
(this said jokingly, of course.)
When I announced it on Twitter, I was completely overwhelmed with messages of congratulations and we'll miss you-type things. Supremely flattering.
Eventually, similarly: "Wow. Just got a round of applause from the huge Admissions college & campus reps meeting when it was announced that I'm leaving. . . . Good applause! The 'you've done a lot for the office, sorry to see you go' type."
Pulled a 12-hour Saturday in order to finish the usability report. Then shared the results of testing, which was way more info than they probably thought they'd get. I hope they use it.
"Usability: 4,000+ words, 11 solid pages. 15 when formatted for each case to begin on a new page. I'm exhausted. And I'm going home. /grump"
The aforementioned "new new DJ" quit the week after I left. Left me with the "hmm"s.
Got to attend the company's holiday party, though, which is always a good time, surprisingly enough. Which again, surprisingly, led to some actually decent shots of me by the bar's manager. They're on Facebook if you're over there.
"This week is an oncoming train, and I seem to be tied to the tracks."
"Never a good sign when you have to decide between finishing work or documenting it for your successor. Only a few days left here."
Got sick, with stupendous timing. Another sinus infection. Fun times.
Last steady ECWC. Sad to be missing them now. No one else is taking photos as exhaustively or as well as I did. ;)
And notes from the very end: "There are so many times when I really want to interrupt people saying they're amazed at my work with: 'but it's what I do.'"
Stupidly lucky to find a subletter for my apartment: first guy I showed it to. Also stupidly lucky that my neighbor-friend decided to come with me for Christmas to see Chicago, hang out at my family Christmas celebration, and to help me move.
The Facebook Class of 2013 debacle occurred. I was finished working by that point, so had a bit of a unique view on the whole thing. Got pinged by a journalist from Inside Higher Ed, and thereafter quoted. Terribly.
Though I was later quoted well about something else: Penn State's use of Twitter, in University Business. Made me feel a bit better.
Packing, packing. Packing burnout. Running out of boxes. Taking down my curtains, which was what was making my place so toasty. Froze without them.
Underestimated my belongings: truck was too small. Ended up making two runs: one with a truck, one with a van. Which was fine, since I needed to bring my neighbor back and wrap some things up anyway. Had help hauling stuff in from an old college friend and his girlfriend, which was immensely helpful.
There was a Christmas. I was mostly distracted with the moving. And then, in the payback for my neighbor-friend's help, played tour guide as much as possible. We hit the Shedd Aquarium, the Art Institute, Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin, Woodstock (where Groundhog Day was filmed), the Sears Tower, the Chicago Board of Trade, Chinatown (where he was an immense help since he knew some Mandarin), various other street/Loop photo ops, and a lot of restaurants. "I'm resigning myself to feeling like a tourist for the first year or so I live here."
Setting up utilities was a kick. "Unbelievable. Got an automated informational call from my new gas company at 8:08 Christmas morning. Guess computers don't observe holidays."
Comcast technician: "'Are you a designer?' looking at my desktop. 'What's it mean?' indicating the picture of the Experience Music Project in Seattle." It's abstract, I understand. But man.
Landlord so far has been stellar: offered to, and then did, leave a matching couch (fold-out, even) for me to use. And some decor, and a rug, which was appreciated. Perfect in terms of timing, and immensely flexible, even when it came to rent. "I now have an actual couch. It is comfortable. Let's see if I can pry myself out of it."
My uncle got a new TV and passed me his old one. Got that into my place as well as the stuff from the van (at different times) with the help of H.
Last van stuff was brought in on New Year's Day. And that concludes 2008's year in review.
January
Weird mid-60s weather in the beginning of January. Then wind advisories. Cool but strange.
Stressed to hell and gone at work, added to by the course I was taking one night a week (which turned into a few nights a week due to group work): Usability Engineering. On the up side, the course was totally worth it.
Hauled out to Palmyra, near Hershey, mid-month to help Shellie renovate the salon for the January BPAL East Coast Will Call. I painted the ceiling. See also: ow. That uses muscles that most people just don't. use. ever. A week and a half later or so, attended the event we were prepping for.
Big changes at the club job: a renovation and new name, which included renovations to my equipment. Serious upgrades and video capabilities. Very cool, though required learning the new system. After being one of the only people that could handle the old system, this was both good and bad.
Placed a third shot in Schmap, an online travel guide (first two were Seattle, this one from New Orleans). Discovered I'd taken over 50 gigs of photos in the year before.
Finally went to an allergist to see what the heck was up. They did the tests: I'm officially allergic to cats. Which is, of course, the first pet I'd consider owning. Then they sent me for a CAT scan. Verdict: long-running sinus infection.
February
Took a last-minute trip to Pittsburgh to see the Chihuly exhibition at the Conservatory, which was very neat. I haven't touched most of the photographs I took there, but I really, truly should. There's some stellar material in there.
On the way there, made an Amazon order in the car on my iPhone. Got en email later that day saying it had shipped. We truly live in the future.
Re-discovered live Rickrolling and song charting and was generally amused.
Cut six inches off my hair.
Again swore that on my next move, I'd move somewhere more moderate in temperature extremes. You see how that went.
Meanwhile, back in class, I was the only female other than the two TAs. Weird.
Went to BPAL East Coast Will Call, as per normal.
Late in the month, my maternal uncle passed away. I dropped everything and went to Minnesota. It was strange, as most funerals are. Not a joyous occasion, but still good to see relatives I hadn't for years.
Came back and was totally slammed at work.
Sinus infection continued unabated, despite antibiotics. Allergist started talking surgery if we couldn't whip it with two other courses of antibiotics.
March
Started prepping early for the move in May by selling some media and scents/b&b stuff I could shed on Amazon Marketplace and through BPAL venues. Oh, and by packing books.
The new antibiotics made me feel atrocious off and on. No fun. Voice started cutting out on me.
Gary Gygax passed away. Sad day. Excellent NY Times obituary here, with a fantastic chart describing virtually anyone exposed to D&D during their lifetime.
Started to get back to reading. Definitely a good thing. Though leads to oddness at the club job: "Reading Canticle for Liebowitz at the club job is surreal: 'We bury you. We are the centuries.' Then shiny happy gay boys make requests." Another choice quote: "Me, I've been lucky enough to be quicksilver; I spatter, but I run back together somehow." - Canticle, p. 233.
New guy at the club job. A CD-based DJ, which struck me as retro. Hilarity.
First draft of the user interface I'd created for our group project went over swimmingly with our main tester. It's nice getting good feedback. Which, I might add, was backed by the professor: was selected to be the only one demo'ed to the class at that stage.
Attended BPAL East Coast Will Call (hereafter referred to as ECWC) as usual.
A pseudo-work-related event happened here (TLT Symposium) and was awesome. Found new and reconnected with old colleagues, some of whom have become friends. Still chat with many of them even though I'm no longer with Penn State. Great keynote, too, by Lawrence Lessig. The hilarity? Lessig as keynote (creator of Creative Commons, which introduced new forms of copyright), yet my photos from last year's Symposium were used in the Symposium program without attribution, which was required by the Creative Commons copyright on my photos. There's irony in there somewhere.
Obama visited Penn State later this month. I only got to see the aftermath.
April
More with the Usability Engineering and some necessary pixel-pushing for our prototype. "Lesson learned from iterative prototyping: do it right the first time, or it's going to drive you crazy for the rest of the project."
ECWC, as per usual.
Tried to charge through my pasta so as not to have to pack it when moving. Got really sick of pasta.
Also, sick again. Sinus infection still/again? Allergist waffled on it. "Me: I'm getting sick a lot this year. What's going on? Doc: Lots of things make you sick. How's your stress level? Me: You're funny, doc." And later: "Antibiotics, round three. Go!" (this was my last chance before talking surgery again)
Finished the virtual tour project at work. "My kingdom for a day without meetings."
With the class group-work: a pivotal member of our group late-dropped due to a medical emergency--and took all his prototypes with him. Nuclear strike. Half our project gone. Yeah.
Walking tour podcast project got approved.
May
Showcased our prototype for IBM. Seemed to go well.
Headed back to Wisconsin in early May to see the first outing of the boats my dad captains. On the way: "Going thru Chicago @ 5:30 on a Fri w/no I-Pass may go on my life list of least brilliant moves." Took some pictures.
Also nailed down a new place about a month early, which made moving way less stressful.
Penn State professionals Tweet Meet occurred. Good stuff. Also started attending the BS breakfasts more regularly: definitely enjoyed that.
Went to an in-house but off-campus conference (for Penn State staff, but between other campuses). Presented between 3 to 5 times, depending on how you count it.
First book finished at the new place ("The Gold"): Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse. Also: "People in this neighborhood say hi, exchange pleasantries, and are genuinely friendly, as far as I can tell. It's so bizarre."
"What self-respecting mall closes at 6 during Memorial Day weekend? Wait, I think I answered my own question." Spent Memorial Day bouncing between events.
Started taking photowalks around my neighborhood.
Launched IntelliResponse on the site at work. Huge project over, thankfully.
June
The cicadas at the new place were super-loud, even louder than on campus. Started being annoyed by the lack of drawers in the new kitchen (had exactly one).
Penn State Web Conference happened in here. Had some interesting chats with the central Director of Web Services from a university in Buffalo.
Hit up ECWC, as usual.
Dax's birthday happened in here. Good times.
Yet another conference later in the month: PACAC. Had my first piece of shoofly pie, despite living in Pennsylvania for years and years. "Won a copy of Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want at the TargetX session." Hung out with colleagues and boss after sessions.
Irritation with new RAM install going sour on my desktop.
July
4th of July fun and games.
Solved the RAM issue with a new batch. "I've cracked my case open and removed drives so often it's almost second nature now. Sad."
Got our work presence in Teen Second Life up and running and linked from the homepage. Whee. Seriously, though, it was fun, mostly. People are just astonished by it, especially older staffers.
Increasing stress at work.
Arts Fest happened mid-July, over a timespan that included my birthday, as it usually does, yearly. Also hit up People's Choice.
July's ECWC.
A few more TweetMeets happened in here somewhere. I also virtually attended EduWeb, via people who were livestreaming sessions and liveblogging. Next best thing to being there. Seriously.
Started MCing a lot more at the club job. Found that I liked it and was good at it. Oh, and the new new guy was much better than the old new guy (the one that used CDs. yeah).
Cut my hair to chin-length, donated my hair. Work colleagues loved the new hairstyle.
Wandered through Jazz Fest in Bellefonte.
Spend a Summer Day open houses started at work. They're bloody exhausting. Plus the "new" application for admission went up midnight of July 31st. Stayed in late testing. "Had door closed, music on, staff assistant running interference ('She'll get back to you!'), & I still got interrupted a zillion times."
August
As if to forcibly greet me with fine August weather, the sunroof of my car got stuck open on the 1st. Pulled into Saturn right before they closed for them to at least get it shut. Which they did. And it was still under warranty, so I got whatever $1,000 thing that needed to be replaced covered.
Another amusing in-house conference-style event.
At the club job, had intermittent irritation with stupid requests. "Realizing that people making requests may object to my academic tone: 'Could you play something awesome?' 'Can you define that, please?'"
Got a new next-door neighbor who became a good friend.
ECWC.
Threat level at work continues to rise. "Everything's an emergency around here. I wish I could say 'today,' but it's been like this since Spend a Summer Day." And later this month: "Manager of our web programmers to me just now: 'I'm getting the hell out of here before anything else happens.' Yep, been that sorta week."
Trip to HersheyPark with Dax and S. Desperately needed fun.
Club job: "All-staff mtg @ club. Owner of half downtown S.C. picked me out of crowd to shake my hand & ask my name after. I was smiling during speech." Which was accurate. He quoted an author I really liked.
Anticipated Hurricane Gustav by keeping tabs on Rev, a friend in New Orleans. Less serious than anticipated.
September
L announced a big move in terms of job and geography. I was happy for him but sad for me.
Started doing some Wikipedia editing on small towns in Denmark that I knew well when I lived there.
A Victorian stone mansion burns down two blocks away: I sleep through it. Colleagues were concerned about me. I totally missed out on the whole thing.
Another ECWC. More TweetMeets.
Work-related Tweets:
- Running comedy of the day when testing a marketing email that looks different on-screen than printed. Quote: 'But who prints their email?'
- Just got funding to do usability testing on the application for admission to Penn State in Philly as well as UP. Now to schedule.
- Alpha-testing our new app for displaying admissions decisions online via MyPennState. How many test cases can we come up with? Ha.
- Had to repeat a sentence I've heard out of my mouth too much this week: "Let me run the numbers and get back to you."
- I ask for a list of 25 email addresses, & get them old-school. Hard copy. Hand written. Wow.
- So nice to be able to close a ticket with "finished that the day before it was announced."
- Sometimes I <3 my boss. "Tell them to go jump in a lake" re: people pestering me about a problem he wanted to handle.
- VP's son says he only got 1 brochure from PSU, but that's okay because we've "got a great website." #EMA08
Near the end of the month, had another in-house conference, this time on our campus (which is what that last one's from). Presented a lot again, though some were just demos of new tools we'd created.
October
Hosted another, bit more famous DJ at the club job.
Finished one conference, on to another. HighEdWeb, this year in Missouri. This year was . . . notable. Twitter was invaluable here for meetups and coordinating the all-important socializing.
Got back okay, but my luggage had been lost between my three flights.
And then headed to Philly for the usability testing. Hit up Penn State Abington (home of a dear colleague, who invited me to dinner with his family when I arrived in town, which was lovely) in the process.
Stayed an extra day or so, and totally enjoyed myself by exploring Philly and getting into Eastern State Penitentiary, which is an awesome, awesome place to shoot pictures. Listened to the City of Industry soundtrack virtually the whole time. "Shot more than 6 gigs of photos in the last 3 days, between 2 cameras & 3 cards. And I'm shooting .jpg, not .raw (which I should)."
"Getting really tired of '______ never happens' happening. It breaks our (new!) systems. A lot."
ECWC was fun as usual.
Halloween was an amusement at the club job, as always. Pictures from Halloween, and pictures from the costumes from my night.
Did definitely miss Dax's usual costume antics, though.
November
Voted. "My 'Peppermints we can believe in: Mints for Obama' tin is getting comments at every meeting I bring it to."
Got another sinus infection. Whee.
Yet another ECWC.
Applied for a job in Chicago that I had no connection to, but was a perfect fit in terms of qualifications for (though not sure if this was October or November). And, after a phone interview in mid-November, they brought me in for the in-person. And by the end of the month, got the job.
While in the area for the interview, stopped in on my dad. Good visit. Also stopped in at the Shedd Aquarium for the heck of it on my way out.
Started doing more photoshoots for my DJing manager and other DJs from our company. "My place is a sty that hasn't been cleaned since the first of my fall trips; just booked a shoot this weekend and one more in December. . ."
Made gløgg for Thanksgiving hosted by a couple Penn State tweetpeeps. "Also: that orange has been officially zested. TO DEATH. Or at least until it was white with rind. Then I ate it." Yes, real gløgg does require orange zest, in my humble opinion.
Everything with the job and a new place and the whole bit just fell into place, as if by magic, though some of it somewhat last-minute.
December
Announced I was leaving at work, prompting these sorts of conversations:
T: "How could you?"
Me: "What do you mean?"
T: "You're really good!"
Me: "I think you may have just answered your own question."
(this said jokingly, of course.)
When I announced it on Twitter, I was completely overwhelmed with messages of congratulations and we'll miss you-type things. Supremely flattering.
Eventually, similarly: "Wow. Just got a round of applause from the huge Admissions college & campus reps meeting when it was announced that I'm leaving. . . . Good applause! The 'you've done a lot for the office, sorry to see you go' type."
Pulled a 12-hour Saturday in order to finish the usability report. Then shared the results of testing, which was way more info than they probably thought they'd get. I hope they use it.
"Usability: 4,000+ words, 11 solid pages. 15 when formatted for each case to begin on a new page. I'm exhausted. And I'm going home. /grump"
The aforementioned "new new DJ" quit the week after I left. Left me with the "hmm"s.
Got to attend the company's holiday party, though, which is always a good time, surprisingly enough. Which again, surprisingly, led to some actually decent shots of me by the bar's manager. They're on Facebook if you're over there.
"This week is an oncoming train, and I seem to be tied to the tracks."
"Never a good sign when you have to decide between finishing work or documenting it for your successor. Only a few days left here."
Got sick, with stupendous timing. Another sinus infection. Fun times.
Last steady ECWC. Sad to be missing them now. No one else is taking photos as exhaustively or as well as I did. ;)
And notes from the very end: "There are so many times when I really want to interrupt people saying they're amazed at my work with: 'but it's what I do.'"
Stupidly lucky to find a subletter for my apartment: first guy I showed it to. Also stupidly lucky that my neighbor-friend decided to come with me for Christmas to see Chicago, hang out at my family Christmas celebration, and to help me move.
The Facebook Class of 2013 debacle occurred. I was finished working by that point, so had a bit of a unique view on the whole thing. Got pinged by a journalist from Inside Higher Ed, and thereafter quoted. Terribly.
Though I was later quoted well about something else: Penn State's use of Twitter, in University Business. Made me feel a bit better.
Packing, packing. Packing burnout. Running out of boxes. Taking down my curtains, which was what was making my place so toasty. Froze without them.
Underestimated my belongings: truck was too small. Ended up making two runs: one with a truck, one with a van. Which was fine, since I needed to bring my neighbor back and wrap some things up anyway. Had help hauling stuff in from an old college friend and his girlfriend, which was immensely helpful.
There was a Christmas. I was mostly distracted with the moving. And then, in the payback for my neighbor-friend's help, played tour guide as much as possible. We hit the Shedd Aquarium, the Art Institute, Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin, Woodstock (where Groundhog Day was filmed), the Sears Tower, the Chicago Board of Trade, Chinatown (where he was an immense help since he knew some Mandarin), various other street/Loop photo ops, and a lot of restaurants. "I'm resigning myself to feeling like a tourist for the first year or so I live here."
Setting up utilities was a kick. "Unbelievable. Got an automated informational call from my new gas company at 8:08 Christmas morning. Guess computers don't observe holidays."
Comcast technician: "'Are you a designer?' looking at my desktop. 'What's it mean?' indicating the picture of the Experience Music Project in Seattle." It's abstract, I understand. But man.
Landlord so far has been stellar: offered to, and then did, leave a matching couch (fold-out, even) for me to use. And some decor, and a rug, which was appreciated. Perfect in terms of timing, and immensely flexible, even when it came to rent. "I now have an actual couch. It is comfortable. Let's see if I can pry myself out of it."
My uncle got a new TV and passed me his old one. Got that into my place as well as the stuff from the van (at different times) with the help of H.
Last van stuff was brought in on New Year's Day. And that concludes 2008's year in review.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
in transit
Glaedig jul, all. It's Christmas morning, and I'm up way too early, woken by my new gas company with an automated message welcoming me as a customer. Sure, great message, but 8:08 a.m. on Christmas? Sounds like somebody didn't think things through.
Back up. A lot's happened since my last official update. A lot of that material I had to keep under my hat until it was all said and done, but most of that necessity's past now as well. And then I started lacking time. But now, with a few hours on my hands until the household rouses: well, update time it is. Helps that Dad reminded me to update last night, of course.
So! Since last we heard from our insipid adventurer . . . ahem. I mean.
Start over. I obviously need some tea or coffee or something. But I'm also not going to risk waking Dad or our guest further than I've risked it already. So this may be rambly. Fair warning.
In any case. I got a new job and am in the process of relocating to Chicago. Right now I'm between the two jobs, but the timing's right. The break between semesters always gives people a fresh start and is an ideal time to start (it's when I started with Penn State Admissions as well, I might mention). Great opportunity, great staff to be working with: I feel like I'll mesh there well. Plus the upgrade in terms of title and pay, of course. Never hurt anyone, and is especially welcome given the current state of the economy.
And it's all been remarkably smooth. The biggest hiccup has been underestimating how much stuff I've got to move. But even that isn't a huge deal. Everything else has been going remarkably well: found someone to take over my old place almost immediately, found a great new place with the help of a very old friend and his partner in crime, got moved despite extreme temperatures and getting the truck stuck in the snow on my old street (virtually inevitable, I might add, due to snow conditions and the way my old street's not level and the street parking is never plowed), had some lovely long-haul help and company from my neighbor-turned-friend, ran out of a bunch of things at exactly the right time, was immensely surprised and thankful that all my close old local friends showed up and pitched in to get me out of my old place (some I knew I could count on--thank you, other J--but others I simply didn't expect to see) and then had a great traditional meal and hang-out at old haunts with them, wrapped the photoshoots I intended to before leaving the area of a few DJs from my old company (though I still have to edit and post more shots from both shoots), wrapped up work best I could in the time I had; just generally, all's working out well.
I'm too Danish (read: cynical/pragmatic, depending on who you ask) to say everything's coming up roses, but for the upheaval I'm undertaking currently, the smoothness is astonishing. And I also have to thank family and friends for bearing with me during this time: people have been thankfully understanding when it comes to me being out of contact and/or rushed, etc.
Though I will admit that some of the time-out just now is half-obligation, half-vacation/break. G.S., the aforementioned neighbor-turned-friend, is with me on this move/holiday trip from Pennsylvania, and some time is being spent exploring my neighborhood, local cuisine, plus Chicago tourist attractions for his sake. Not that I don't enjoy them too. We hit the Shedd Aquarium for a quick stop, but still need to get to the Sears Tower and Art Institute, if nothing else. Oh! and Chinatown.
Christmas Eve went pretty swimmingly, and today should be an adventure. Guests in the holiday family craziness is always a bit of a wild card scenario, but all involved are easygoing enough that everything should be fine.
Looking ahead, the new job starts January 5th, and I have plenty to keep me occupied until then. The touristy stuff, setting up the new apartment, getting G.S. back to Pennsylvania and picking up the rest of my belongings, wrapping up accounts and such in PA, cleaning up the old apartment and handing over my lease, etc.
I hear people up and about, and I think that covers the state of things, so it looks like it's time to sign off and get moving. I would also note that I suspect my usual year-in-review will be significantly delayed due to all this. So: best wishes for the new year, kids.
Back up. A lot's happened since my last official update. A lot of that material I had to keep under my hat until it was all said and done, but most of that necessity's past now as well. And then I started lacking time. But now, with a few hours on my hands until the household rouses: well, update time it is. Helps that Dad reminded me to update last night, of course.
So! Since last we heard from our insipid adventurer . . . ahem. I mean.
Start over. I obviously need some tea or coffee or something. But I'm also not going to risk waking Dad or our guest further than I've risked it already. So this may be rambly. Fair warning.
In any case. I got a new job and am in the process of relocating to Chicago. Right now I'm between the two jobs, but the timing's right. The break between semesters always gives people a fresh start and is an ideal time to start (it's when I started with Penn State Admissions as well, I might mention). Great opportunity, great staff to be working with: I feel like I'll mesh there well. Plus the upgrade in terms of title and pay, of course. Never hurt anyone, and is especially welcome given the current state of the economy.
And it's all been remarkably smooth. The biggest hiccup has been underestimating how much stuff I've got to move. But even that isn't a huge deal. Everything else has been going remarkably well: found someone to take over my old place almost immediately, found a great new place with the help of a very old friend and his partner in crime, got moved despite extreme temperatures and getting the truck stuck in the snow on my old street (virtually inevitable, I might add, due to snow conditions and the way my old street's not level and the street parking is never plowed), had some lovely long-haul help and company from my neighbor-turned-friend, ran out of a bunch of things at exactly the right time, was immensely surprised and thankful that all my close old local friends showed up and pitched in to get me out of my old place (some I knew I could count on--thank you, other J--but others I simply didn't expect to see) and then had a great traditional meal and hang-out at old haunts with them, wrapped the photoshoots I intended to before leaving the area of a few DJs from my old company (though I still have to edit and post more shots from both shoots), wrapped up work best I could in the time I had; just generally, all's working out well.
I'm too Danish (read: cynical/pragmatic, depending on who you ask) to say everything's coming up roses, but for the upheaval I'm undertaking currently, the smoothness is astonishing. And I also have to thank family and friends for bearing with me during this time: people have been thankfully understanding when it comes to me being out of contact and/or rushed, etc.
Though I will admit that some of the time-out just now is half-obligation, half-vacation/break. G.S., the aforementioned neighbor-turned-friend, is with me on this move/holiday trip from Pennsylvania, and some time is being spent exploring my neighborhood, local cuisine, plus Chicago tourist attractions for his sake. Not that I don't enjoy them too. We hit the Shedd Aquarium for a quick stop, but still need to get to the Sears Tower and Art Institute, if nothing else. Oh! and Chinatown.
Christmas Eve went pretty swimmingly, and today should be an adventure. Guests in the holiday family craziness is always a bit of a wild card scenario, but all involved are easygoing enough that everything should be fine.
Looking ahead, the new job starts January 5th, and I have plenty to keep me occupied until then. The touristy stuff, setting up the new apartment, getting G.S. back to Pennsylvania and picking up the rest of my belongings, wrapping up accounts and such in PA, cleaning up the old apartment and handing over my lease, etc.
I hear people up and about, and I think that covers the state of things, so it looks like it's time to sign off and get moving. I would also note that I suspect my usual year-in-review will be significantly delayed due to all this. So: best wishes for the new year, kids.
Friday, November 07, 2008
trips and new developments
Again with the whole been 'too busy living life to blog about it' thing.
Took three trips in two weeks a bit ago. Missouri for a conference (excellent conference, by the way), the usual Palmyra run plus some shopping, and then Philly for some usability studies for work, which went pretty well.
In Philly, went out to dinner with the Director of Admissions of one of our campuses there and his family. He lives in Center City, in what's nicknamed the "Gayborhood," which is an amazing part of Philly.
I'd never really been to Philly proper: before only once, on an in-and-out run to a Garbage concert, which doesn't really count. But this time, I was able to take my time and look around. It's really gorgeous in some areas: very European, very historic.
I took a ton of pictures, one entire memory card full of pictures from Eastern State Penitentiary: a former state prison, since abandoned, but more recently reclaimed and stabilized as a preserved ruin. Amazing material. Slowly going through those photos now. Here are the sets thus far from Eastern State Penitentiary, Penn State Abington (the aforementioned campus), and around Philadelphia.
But all those trips in succession ended up making me way too crammed--ran myself a bit into the ground. Especially with Halloween right on their heels, which involved three get-togethers over the weekend, plus oatmeal-raisin cookie making with my neighbor. Thank goodness one of my costumes was multiple-use-friendly, or one of the three would have been out of luck.
Been hanging out quite a bit with my neighbor, a grad in the film department. We've never yet run out of things to talk about. My Netflix list of DVDs to watch is growing faster than I can keep up with it.
Got officially hooked on Fringe thanks to Hulu. Who needs cable TV? Everything I watch is online these days.
More trips to come. Next week's another Palmyra run, then Chicago/Wisconsin. Connecting up with a bunch of old friends and family, among other things.
Have another sinus infection. And strangely enough, as I was picking up my antibiotics, the pharmacist stopped me to ask about my last name. His is the same, and it's an unusual spelling. We started talking about our Danish relatives. And we might be related somehow. The immigration stories are the same--Ellis Island to Wisconsin--and the changed spelling too. The first name of his father wasn't familiar to me, and the initial was wrong (that side of my family has consistent initials), but it might've been a different branch.
I gave him my email address: he'll email me to get the link to the Geni family tree I've been working on. Which I'm going to add to once I pick up the more complete paper version that my uncle has.
Serendipity, you know? Odd little coincidences that seem to have been happening a lot lately. It's a pretty neat feeling. And there may be more to come.
Took three trips in two weeks a bit ago. Missouri for a conference (excellent conference, by the way), the usual Palmyra run plus some shopping, and then Philly for some usability studies for work, which went pretty well.
In Philly, went out to dinner with the Director of Admissions of one of our campuses there and his family. He lives in Center City, in what's nicknamed the "Gayborhood," which is an amazing part of Philly.
I'd never really been to Philly proper: before only once, on an in-and-out run to a Garbage concert, which doesn't really count. But this time, I was able to take my time and look around. It's really gorgeous in some areas: very European, very historic.
I took a ton of pictures, one entire memory card full of pictures from Eastern State Penitentiary: a former state prison, since abandoned, but more recently reclaimed and stabilized as a preserved ruin. Amazing material. Slowly going through those photos now. Here are the sets thus far from Eastern State Penitentiary, Penn State Abington (the aforementioned campus), and around Philadelphia.
But all those trips in succession ended up making me way too crammed--ran myself a bit into the ground. Especially with Halloween right on their heels, which involved three get-togethers over the weekend, plus oatmeal-raisin cookie making with my neighbor. Thank goodness one of my costumes was multiple-use-friendly, or one of the three would have been out of luck.
Been hanging out quite a bit with my neighbor, a grad in the film department. We've never yet run out of things to talk about. My Netflix list of DVDs to watch is growing faster than I can keep up with it.
Got officially hooked on Fringe thanks to Hulu. Who needs cable TV? Everything I watch is online these days.
More trips to come. Next week's another Palmyra run, then Chicago/Wisconsin. Connecting up with a bunch of old friends and family, among other things.
Have another sinus infection. And strangely enough, as I was picking up my antibiotics, the pharmacist stopped me to ask about my last name. His is the same, and it's an unusual spelling. We started talking about our Danish relatives. And we might be related somehow. The immigration stories are the same--Ellis Island to Wisconsin--and the changed spelling too. The first name of his father wasn't familiar to me, and the initial was wrong (that side of my family has consistent initials), but it might've been a different branch.
I gave him my email address: he'll email me to get the link to the Geni family tree I've been working on. Which I'm going to add to once I pick up the more complete paper version that my uncle has.
Serendipity, you know? Odd little coincidences that seem to have been happening a lot lately. It's a pretty neat feeling. And there may be more to come.
Monday, September 15, 2008
this night.
I live in a ghost town. This is temporary. It's the night tonight: Bellefonte will resurrect itself by morning.
It's a charmed night, in a not-so-charming way.
Let me preface this. This story needs a context.
Let me also state for the record that it's been a weird, weird, weird, weird night. The style of this post will probably reflect that.
I started out today unable to turn over and go back to sleep, despite having granted myself permission to sleep in. Eight hours after I went to sleep, almost on the dot. It's been this way for awhile. Can't get more than eight. Often get less, but that's due to my weekday alarm.
So today, unlike most, I was horribly unable to focus. I had a to-do list as long as my leg, but managed to get all of one thing on it done, and that not even properly so.
As interruptus, in the present there's something in here with me that's whistling, and I don't know what it is. I'm strangely not unnerved by this. The rest of the night has reassured me that nothing else out of the ordinary can happen.
And this won't be all of it. As another interruptus, something in the sink shifted: knife sliding off a plate and clinking against the aluminum sink wall, I imagine, but again, strangely not startling to me.
If this shifting of scene seems like a dream, you're with me. Yes. Stay with me.
I have the day off tomorrow, giving me leeway to get this all down. Thankfully. I'd hate to lose it. Despite being weird, weird, weird, this ending is strange and beautiful. I love it. I want to go outside and drink it. And bottle some to save for later.
Back to this afternoon. No focus, constant interruptions (don't apologize, dear other J--I was thankful for yours, short as they were), frustration of each and every thing I started or wished to have started. I got some photos uploaded and laundry started. That's about the limit of my productivity.
Wait. Untrue. I did take care of L's kitties, last-minute. And a guest cat, who was a real handful. But! that was my limit.
And it was this way--knowing I was wasting time, but unable to do anything about it--until I had to leave for the club job.
Or thought I did. I ended up on the road early and got there a good twenty minutes before I needed to be. And realized this nearing town, but it wasn't worth the time to turn back.
I knew this. I knew this, I knew this. And this entire night, almost everything was full of this crystal awareness of the situation, but complete giving-over of myself to it, unable to struggle against its tides. And it was frustrating to watch, but impossible to fight.
So I got into town. My usual lot was full. I moved to the next-handiest street and parked comfortably. I got out to greet the night air, oppressive with humidity and frustrated potential. I shook my head even then, with the premonition of the weird wyrd ahead. (That may sound redundant, but it's not. Trust.)
I spent the twenty or so picking up some coffee for my late evening, sitting down with it on a big leather couch there, taking the time to squeeze in some reading. Reading was a perfect task for today, but I hadn't managed to tear myself away from trying to get things done, despite the futility.
And the realization of the futility. That's what kills me. The awareness tonight. I knew it all. I just couldn't do anything about it.
[For those who understand the reference, this night is so House of Leaves, minus the terror. There's no fear here, only mazes and knowing and realizations.]
{And maybe I should blame my perfume. Wearing Lune Noire on a full moon, the brightest I've seen in months, perhaps was not the best of plans. But it did start before that, this day.}
So it was that I was ducking in and out between the humidity of outside to air conditioning in my car to humid to coffee shop AC to outside oppression to coolness of the club when empty. And my allergies had been set off by L's cats.
And as soon as I arrived, total tragedy. We couldn't get the Steelers game on any of the monitors, no matter how many of us tried. Manager of the club? No luck. And this was tragic to the folks who needed (needed!) to see it (mostly staff).
The club opened with the majority of the monitors black, and us still struggling to fix the issue. Nothing I did had any effect. I tried every trick I had. All had turned against me.
Eventually, my manager (of our company, not the club's staff) managed to get it worked out, by manually switching every monitor in the place, almost. And this a temporary fix.
Tonight was the first night I'd worked after the recent change-over to being smoke-free. And I was asked to remind folks, and I did. And next had an assistant manager of the club rush over to add an addendum: folks could only smoke out the front of the club, not the back. They'd be locked out. Again, announced.
From the previous week, we'd had some issues with two of the speakers on the dancefloor, so we had turned down the highs in such a fashion that we were having trouble hearing the microphone inside the booth, so I stepped outside it to make the announcement. My co-pilot stayed in the booth.
Later, he stepped out for a cigarette. It was only after he'd made it out of eyeshot (and let's not even talk about earshot) that I realized he'd headed to the back, not having heard my announcement (though I had mentioned the fact to him).
I ran out to prop the door for him. He rushed to join me at the door, thinking something was wrong. I kicked the prop down and he misunderstood me. And then couldn't hear me due to the exhaust fans. And so forth.
The whole night, I'd been feeling strange. Off. I kept stretching, trying to work out odd sensations in my limbs and joints. Wondering if my co-pilot would take the movements amiss. Never occurred to me to address them with him.
We've had an odd relationship, he and I. On-again, off-again friendship-slash-something-else. Undefined, of course. But there's static there somewhere. Nothing enough to put a finger on, mind. We discussed it once, both at the time not entirely ourselves, and managed to leave the conversation entirely in the same place we'd started it, other than the fact that it occurred, and fallen back to amicability as a default, no deeper on any level. Which is fine, and may not change. Also fine. Though change would likely also be fine. I'm too flexible for my own good sometimes.
I've been having several online conversations in the past few days. One handles on masculinity and what it means, calling to mind my old Men's Studies class and conversations for that class with my father. The other about images of me online and my resistance to them, calling to mind my divorce and the aftermath of that initial split, as well as a ton of self-esteem garbage. Both had turned terribly unpleasant for me, and distasteful, though only in the very last exchange before I'd gone to work.
While at the club, I received the most recent responses from both. One was entirely more open than I'd expected of a response, which made me smile as I was perusing it on my iPhone during the breakdown of a song. And the other--the other was magic. The person I'm chatting with about it is a terrible, wonderful person for sending me the exact right response to my concerns. Exact. I love her and hate her for it, because she's going to get exactly what she wanted, and I know I'm being manipulated, but damn is she good at it. And I can't not respect that. And I almost resent it. But it is beautiful in its execution.
beautiful.
And I know me. And I know I wasn't shuttering my face, my response. I had no reason to, there. And I know he probably saw me bite my lip, smile in that bemused half-way that I have when I'm being viciously charmed, turn my head to consider, and put down my phone. And stare at it. And pick it up. And read her message again. And smile and bite my lip again. And put the phone down. And look at it. And try to open my book. And shut it. And distract myself with the music change and changing the video and lights. And stare unseeing at the dancefloor. And look at the phone again.
Or he may have missed it. Also fine.
But I wonder what he thought if he caught it. Though not enough to ask.
So stretching. Simple standing yoga poses. And then he complained of a headache. And joint pain. Which, along with the minor power flickers (and worry about more major outages, of course) and reminder of the arms of Ike passing through with wind and stormage and pressure changes, finally brought me to what today's whole problem may have been.
Major storm front. Full moon. Winds. Celestials whirling.
I had my answer. My two and two finally didn't add up to 3.78 billion. They became four and an eighth, roundabout. Not too badly off.
And because I have tomorrow off, and the buses don't run on Sundays and he didn't have his usual ride and doesn't drive himself, I drove him home. With a pause outside my car so he could have a cigarette.
And we talked about the moon. His experience seeing it rise brilliant over the ocean in the northeast, my experience seeing it rise huge over the desert in the southwest. Lying under it, thinking it was pre-dawn and wondering why my camp-mates weren't stirring. Watching it rise, taking up a good eighth of the horizon, every pockmark on its surface etched as if in crystal. Like the bowl on the dining room table at home that my grandmother had brought over from Denmark. The bowl round, its surface grooved.
I didn't draw that comparison then. I'm glad I didn't: he might've thought me entirely moon-mad.
And maybe I am. It'll be short-lived. It's just the night tonight.
So I drove him home, and we made plans that I half-expect to fall through just like so many other times we've tried to make plans. Something comes up, and it ends up just as well for both of us in the end. No skin off anyone's nose. And really, I'm pretty ligeglad (literally "like glad" in Danish--ambivalence in the way people abuse it in English, basically) about it each time. Which may say something. May not.
And then I drove home, leaving him to corral the trash that had been blown halfway down their yard.
I'd seen debris on the road as we drove, mostly branches and bunches of leaves. Saw more as I headed to the bypass towards Bellefonte. But upon arriving in Bellefonte, I saw things were much worse there.
Two intersections with lights out and police actually directing traffic with lights like those landing guys at airports. A truck in the middle of the second intersection, headlights beaming into my eyes, as they tried to fix things. Propped-up stop signs by other lights-out intersections. A bewildering sense of things-not-right-here. But also an innate reassurance that all will be right by morning.
My car, gliding through downtown Bellefonte like the only thing alive, like some dark ghost, saw no other movement than those men. Even the trees were silent. No waving in the breeze. Just their detritus on the ground. Unanswering.
What happened here? I wondered, but knew the answer. Darkened windows yawned at me from every building surrounding me, and I was reminded of my visit to New Orleans after Katrina. The ghost-town suburbs we slid through to catch my early-morning flight home. Desolate due to low population, doubly so due to the hour, and then the mist rising from the low-lying areas. Which was everywhere, there.
The space was potential, but also ghostly. I waited for the rise of the supernatural.
And so it was on my way home tonight. But I turned onto my street and found, to my surprise, that my side of the street had power. The other side had none.
I parked, got out, gathered my things, locked my doors. Turned to face the lit side of the street. And turned my back to it to face the unlit houses, to drink in the moonlight for a moment. The oppressive humidity had broken, granting us the clear night sky, the crickets and night-insects of a dying summer. I listened, and felt the night connect to me. Then I trudged inside to survey the damage.
I found my usually-touchy stove clock un-reset, not flashing, and had a hope for my computer, which I'd foolishly left on. I found that it, though, had restarted. And worse, my keyboard was disabled. I restarted properly, super-sensitive for any bad signs, and checked and re-checked that it was on a surge protector. Yes. No problem. Should be unharmed, right?
And interruptus: my computer, as I'm typing this into my blog platform, informs me I have an IP conflict with another computer. There should be nothing else on this network: I'm password-protected and don't broadcast my network name, at the very least. But there it is. Might be my iPhone. I'll investigate later: it seems to not be doing me harm.
So I restarted, and was concerned by my boot time, and I started to remember all I'd done, created, saved but not backed up since my last big back-up project. Half of my Hawaii photo originals could go poof, I realized. But I was being over-sensitive. It was fine, and all was in order when it restarted.
And that leads us to--well, right about now.
And a way-fuller understanding of this evening of mine than you probably wanted. And it's tl;dr to most of you, I'm sure.
Mercury retro? Full moon antics? Storm blowing through, causing associated discomfort? A combination? That's where I've settled. I'm going to sleep now, and I'll drift off half-wishing the universe into righting itself by the time I wake, and half-hoping some of the disjointed madness can stay with me, so I can keep this out-of-time-and-reality pseudo-madness in a back pocket, to pull out when my life gets too normal.
And leave you wishing you'd had a taste of your own tonight. Perhaps.
It's a charmed night, in a not-so-charming way.
Let me preface this. This story needs a context.
Let me also state for the record that it's been a weird, weird, weird, weird night. The style of this post will probably reflect that.
I started out today unable to turn over and go back to sleep, despite having granted myself permission to sleep in. Eight hours after I went to sleep, almost on the dot. It's been this way for awhile. Can't get more than eight. Often get less, but that's due to my weekday alarm.
So today, unlike most, I was horribly unable to focus. I had a to-do list as long as my leg, but managed to get all of one thing on it done, and that not even properly so.
As interruptus, in the present there's something in here with me that's whistling, and I don't know what it is. I'm strangely not unnerved by this. The rest of the night has reassured me that nothing else out of the ordinary can happen.
And this won't be all of it. As another interruptus, something in the sink shifted: knife sliding off a plate and clinking against the aluminum sink wall, I imagine, but again, strangely not startling to me.
If this shifting of scene seems like a dream, you're with me. Yes. Stay with me.
I have the day off tomorrow, giving me leeway to get this all down. Thankfully. I'd hate to lose it. Despite being weird, weird, weird, this ending is strange and beautiful. I love it. I want to go outside and drink it. And bottle some to save for later.
Back to this afternoon. No focus, constant interruptions (don't apologize, dear other J--I was thankful for yours, short as they were), frustration of each and every thing I started or wished to have started. I got some photos uploaded and laundry started. That's about the limit of my productivity.
Wait. Untrue. I did take care of L's kitties, last-minute. And a guest cat, who was a real handful. But! that was my limit.
And it was this way--knowing I was wasting time, but unable to do anything about it--until I had to leave for the club job.
Or thought I did. I ended up on the road early and got there a good twenty minutes before I needed to be. And realized this nearing town, but it wasn't worth the time to turn back.
I knew this. I knew this, I knew this. And this entire night, almost everything was full of this crystal awareness of the situation, but complete giving-over of myself to it, unable to struggle against its tides. And it was frustrating to watch, but impossible to fight.
So I got into town. My usual lot was full. I moved to the next-handiest street and parked comfortably. I got out to greet the night air, oppressive with humidity and frustrated potential. I shook my head even then, with the premonition of the weird wyrd ahead. (That may sound redundant, but it's not. Trust.)
I spent the twenty or so picking up some coffee for my late evening, sitting down with it on a big leather couch there, taking the time to squeeze in some reading. Reading was a perfect task for today, but I hadn't managed to tear myself away from trying to get things done, despite the futility.
And the realization of the futility. That's what kills me. The awareness tonight. I knew it all. I just couldn't do anything about it.
[For those who understand the reference, this night is so House of Leaves, minus the terror. There's no fear here, only mazes and knowing and realizations.]
{And maybe I should blame my perfume. Wearing Lune Noire on a full moon, the brightest I've seen in months, perhaps was not the best of plans. But it did start before that, this day.}
So it was that I was ducking in and out between the humidity of outside to air conditioning in my car to humid to coffee shop AC to outside oppression to coolness of the club when empty. And my allergies had been set off by L's cats.
And as soon as I arrived, total tragedy. We couldn't get the Steelers game on any of the monitors, no matter how many of us tried. Manager of the club? No luck. And this was tragic to the folks who needed (needed!) to see it (mostly staff).
The club opened with the majority of the monitors black, and us still struggling to fix the issue. Nothing I did had any effect. I tried every trick I had. All had turned against me.
Eventually, my manager (of our company, not the club's staff) managed to get it worked out, by manually switching every monitor in the place, almost. And this a temporary fix.
Tonight was the first night I'd worked after the recent change-over to being smoke-free. And I was asked to remind folks, and I did. And next had an assistant manager of the club rush over to add an addendum: folks could only smoke out the front of the club, not the back. They'd be locked out. Again, announced.
From the previous week, we'd had some issues with two of the speakers on the dancefloor, so we had turned down the highs in such a fashion that we were having trouble hearing the microphone inside the booth, so I stepped outside it to make the announcement. My co-pilot stayed in the booth.
Later, he stepped out for a cigarette. It was only after he'd made it out of eyeshot (and let's not even talk about earshot) that I realized he'd headed to the back, not having heard my announcement (though I had mentioned the fact to him).
I ran out to prop the door for him. He rushed to join me at the door, thinking something was wrong. I kicked the prop down and he misunderstood me. And then couldn't hear me due to the exhaust fans. And so forth.
The whole night, I'd been feeling strange. Off. I kept stretching, trying to work out odd sensations in my limbs and joints. Wondering if my co-pilot would take the movements amiss. Never occurred to me to address them with him.
We've had an odd relationship, he and I. On-again, off-again friendship-slash-something-else. Undefined, of course. But there's static there somewhere. Nothing enough to put a finger on, mind. We discussed it once, both at the time not entirely ourselves, and managed to leave the conversation entirely in the same place we'd started it, other than the fact that it occurred, and fallen back to amicability as a default, no deeper on any level. Which is fine, and may not change. Also fine. Though change would likely also be fine. I'm too flexible for my own good sometimes.
I've been having several online conversations in the past few days. One handles on masculinity and what it means, calling to mind my old Men's Studies class and conversations for that class with my father. The other about images of me online and my resistance to them, calling to mind my divorce and the aftermath of that initial split, as well as a ton of self-esteem garbage. Both had turned terribly unpleasant for me, and distasteful, though only in the very last exchange before I'd gone to work.
While at the club, I received the most recent responses from both. One was entirely more open than I'd expected of a response, which made me smile as I was perusing it on my iPhone during the breakdown of a song. And the other--the other was magic. The person I'm chatting with about it is a terrible, wonderful person for sending me the exact right response to my concerns. Exact. I love her and hate her for it, because she's going to get exactly what she wanted, and I know I'm being manipulated, but damn is she good at it. And I can't not respect that. And I almost resent it. But it is beautiful in its execution.
beautiful.
And I know me. And I know I wasn't shuttering my face, my response. I had no reason to, there. And I know he probably saw me bite my lip, smile in that bemused half-way that I have when I'm being viciously charmed, turn my head to consider, and put down my phone. And stare at it. And pick it up. And read her message again. And smile and bite my lip again. And put the phone down. And look at it. And try to open my book. And shut it. And distract myself with the music change and changing the video and lights. And stare unseeing at the dancefloor. And look at the phone again.
Or he may have missed it. Also fine.
But I wonder what he thought if he caught it. Though not enough to ask.
So stretching. Simple standing yoga poses. And then he complained of a headache. And joint pain. Which, along with the minor power flickers (and worry about more major outages, of course) and reminder of the arms of Ike passing through with wind and stormage and pressure changes, finally brought me to what today's whole problem may have been.
Major storm front. Full moon. Winds. Celestials whirling.
I had my answer. My two and two finally didn't add up to 3.78 billion. They became four and an eighth, roundabout. Not too badly off.
And because I have tomorrow off, and the buses don't run on Sundays and he didn't have his usual ride and doesn't drive himself, I drove him home. With a pause outside my car so he could have a cigarette.
And we talked about the moon. His experience seeing it rise brilliant over the ocean in the northeast, my experience seeing it rise huge over the desert in the southwest. Lying under it, thinking it was pre-dawn and wondering why my camp-mates weren't stirring. Watching it rise, taking up a good eighth of the horizon, every pockmark on its surface etched as if in crystal. Like the bowl on the dining room table at home that my grandmother had brought over from Denmark. The bowl round, its surface grooved.
I didn't draw that comparison then. I'm glad I didn't: he might've thought me entirely moon-mad.
And maybe I am. It'll be short-lived. It's just the night tonight.
So I drove him home, and we made plans that I half-expect to fall through just like so many other times we've tried to make plans. Something comes up, and it ends up just as well for both of us in the end. No skin off anyone's nose. And really, I'm pretty ligeglad (literally "like glad" in Danish--ambivalence in the way people abuse it in English, basically) about it each time. Which may say something. May not.
And then I drove home, leaving him to corral the trash that had been blown halfway down their yard.
I'd seen debris on the road as we drove, mostly branches and bunches of leaves. Saw more as I headed to the bypass towards Bellefonte. But upon arriving in Bellefonte, I saw things were much worse there.
Two intersections with lights out and police actually directing traffic with lights like those landing guys at airports. A truck in the middle of the second intersection, headlights beaming into my eyes, as they tried to fix things. Propped-up stop signs by other lights-out intersections. A bewildering sense of things-not-right-here. But also an innate reassurance that all will be right by morning.
My car, gliding through downtown Bellefonte like the only thing alive, like some dark ghost, saw no other movement than those men. Even the trees were silent. No waving in the breeze. Just their detritus on the ground. Unanswering.
What happened here? I wondered, but knew the answer. Darkened windows yawned at me from every building surrounding me, and I was reminded of my visit to New Orleans after Katrina. The ghost-town suburbs we slid through to catch my early-morning flight home. Desolate due to low population, doubly so due to the hour, and then the mist rising from the low-lying areas. Which was everywhere, there.
The space was potential, but also ghostly. I waited for the rise of the supernatural.
And so it was on my way home tonight. But I turned onto my street and found, to my surprise, that my side of the street had power. The other side had none.
I parked, got out, gathered my things, locked my doors. Turned to face the lit side of the street. And turned my back to it to face the unlit houses, to drink in the moonlight for a moment. The oppressive humidity had broken, granting us the clear night sky, the crickets and night-insects of a dying summer. I listened, and felt the night connect to me. Then I trudged inside to survey the damage.
I found my usually-touchy stove clock un-reset, not flashing, and had a hope for my computer, which I'd foolishly left on. I found that it, though, had restarted. And worse, my keyboard was disabled. I restarted properly, super-sensitive for any bad signs, and checked and re-checked that it was on a surge protector. Yes. No problem. Should be unharmed, right?
And interruptus: my computer, as I'm typing this into my blog platform, informs me I have an IP conflict with another computer. There should be nothing else on this network: I'm password-protected and don't broadcast my network name, at the very least. But there it is. Might be my iPhone. I'll investigate later: it seems to not be doing me harm.
So I restarted, and was concerned by my boot time, and I started to remember all I'd done, created, saved but not backed up since my last big back-up project. Half of my Hawaii photo originals could go poof, I realized. But I was being over-sensitive. It was fine, and all was in order when it restarted.
And that leads us to--well, right about now.
And a way-fuller understanding of this evening of mine than you probably wanted. And it's tl;dr to most of you, I'm sure.
Mercury retro? Full moon antics? Storm blowing through, causing associated discomfort? A combination? That's where I've settled. I'm going to sleep now, and I'll drift off half-wishing the universe into righting itself by the time I wake, and half-hoping some of the disjointed madness can stay with me, so I can keep this out-of-time-and-reality pseudo-madness in a back pocket, to pull out when my life gets too normal.
And leave you wishing you'd had a taste of your own tonight. Perhaps.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
conference season
Long time no update: apologies. We're well into conference season, which is always a whirlwind, plus I've had other trips here and there to throw into the mix as well. Oh, and moving.
As always, Twitter's the best way to keep track of me: check out the running commentary on the right.
So in advance of moving, I whipped back to Wisconsin for a brief visit. I have many photos, audio, and fond memories of that quick trip, as well as some fantastic curtains. Long story. I intend to get to crunching and uploading those photos soon, hopefully.
Then there was the moving, which went about as well as a move can. Surprisingly well. There was an issue with my bed and the size of our generously-lent van, but other than that, I really can't complain. And complaining's what I do best when it comes to moving. I kid. I do know how to go about it, after so many moves in my past and such, but it's never fun.
There was one quick symposium which opened the run of conferences: the TLT Symposium, which was simply amazing. The community really came together and evolved online for this one, which was a fantastic experience. I really can't say enough about how relationships were created and strengthened and we continued to help and inform each other even afterwards.
Memorial Day got stuck in here somewhere, during which I ran from one event to another (three in all) and got terribly sunburned. Good times, though.
We started conference season proper with the Penn State Undergraduate Admissions Spring Conference, during which we traveled between Penn State DuBois and Penn State Altoona. Great to see both campuses. The one session I thought I was doing there turned into three--all went well enough, I think, and I hope I spread some of the social networking word in the original. I don't think it's news to any of them--at least I hope not--but I hope it provided some practical advice for starting/managing one.
A few weeks later was the Penn State Web Conference, which was potentially game-changing. More, perhaps, on that later. But there were excellent sessions by Steve Krug demonstrating the need for usability testing in our own backyard, by Mark Greenfield showing the hows and whys of social networking, and many others.
After that was a quick trip to Buffalo and one to the Hershey area. Both excellent visits. Yesterday was Dax's birthday party which, as always, was a trip and a half and left us all sleeping quite well. Dax likes to hold his birthday at a park, and there's always fun mucking about on the playground equipment, with gymnastics and jumping around and fake parkour and generally wearing ourselves out. Because that's what Daxes do, and we're obviously obliged to help on his birthday.
Today--in about an hour, in fact--I'm leaving for another conference, this one for all the admissions counselors and high school counselors that deal with the college search process in Pennsylvania. It'll be good to connect with folks I haven't seen in awhile--and heck, even those I haven't seen since our Spring Conference.
There's been talk about other trips: Hershey again for the usual monthly event, as well as other trips to visit the spa and Hersheypark. Possibly a visit to H. and K. in the fall, which is a longer endeavor. But I'm loath to schedule things right now: I'm experiencing a kind of limbo which I'll clarify later, but is making things difficult right now.
So that's the current state of things. More later.
As always, Twitter's the best way to keep track of me: check out the running commentary on the right.
So in advance of moving, I whipped back to Wisconsin for a brief visit. I have many photos, audio, and fond memories of that quick trip, as well as some fantastic curtains. Long story. I intend to get to crunching and uploading those photos soon, hopefully.
Then there was the moving, which went about as well as a move can. Surprisingly well. There was an issue with my bed and the size of our generously-lent van, but other than that, I really can't complain. And complaining's what I do best when it comes to moving. I kid. I do know how to go about it, after so many moves in my past and such, but it's never fun.
There was one quick symposium which opened the run of conferences: the TLT Symposium, which was simply amazing. The community really came together and evolved online for this one, which was a fantastic experience. I really can't say enough about how relationships were created and strengthened and we continued to help and inform each other even afterwards.
Memorial Day got stuck in here somewhere, during which I ran from one event to another (three in all) and got terribly sunburned. Good times, though.
We started conference season proper with the Penn State Undergraduate Admissions Spring Conference, during which we traveled between Penn State DuBois and Penn State Altoona. Great to see both campuses. The one session I thought I was doing there turned into three--all went well enough, I think, and I hope I spread some of the social networking word in the original. I don't think it's news to any of them--at least I hope not--but I hope it provided some practical advice for starting/managing one.
A few weeks later was the Penn State Web Conference, which was potentially game-changing. More, perhaps, on that later. But there were excellent sessions by Steve Krug demonstrating the need for usability testing in our own backyard, by Mark Greenfield showing the hows and whys of social networking, and many others.
After that was a quick trip to Buffalo and one to the Hershey area. Both excellent visits. Yesterday was Dax's birthday party which, as always, was a trip and a half and left us all sleeping quite well. Dax likes to hold his birthday at a park, and there's always fun mucking about on the playground equipment, with gymnastics and jumping around and fake parkour and generally wearing ourselves out. Because that's what Daxes do, and we're obviously obliged to help on his birthday.
Today--in about an hour, in fact--I'm leaving for another conference, this one for all the admissions counselors and high school counselors that deal with the college search process in Pennsylvania. It'll be good to connect with folks I haven't seen in awhile--and heck, even those I haven't seen since our Spring Conference.
There's been talk about other trips: Hershey again for the usual monthly event, as well as other trips to visit the spa and Hersheypark. Possibly a visit to H. and K. in the fall, which is a longer endeavor. But I'm loath to schedule things right now: I'm experiencing a kind of limbo which I'll clarify later, but is making things difficult right now.
So that's the current state of things. More later.
Monday, December 31, 2007
year in review 2007
As is tradition, my year in review. Hang tight, this'll get long. I'm also doing this really quickly, so it's not terribly edited, just to warn you.
January
Started off with a bang since I worked New Year's Eve at the club job. Fell on a Sunday, after all. Took a few photos.
Pink had crept back into my wardrobe by this point. That's notable for some reason, trust me.
At work, we started planning and eventually got permission to do the site redesign, which was desperately needed. Despite that project, I still had days entirely booked with meetings.
It was a month of busy, as per normal, and enjoying squash, and appreciating that I knew how to drive in snow. Also started yoga twice a week rather than once during this semester. Oh, and there was a birthday and associated celebration.
February
Thankful for my warm down coat. Got a ton of songs (that I seriously dislike) from the club job stuck in my head throughout the month. I eventually made a mix CD of those I could tolerate and those I couldn't, hoping to rid them all from my brain-pan. It worked, eventually.
This month at work we got the weirdest inquiry letter I've ever seen, which became a short running joke: short because the source was so bloody uncomfortable. Obviously a mentally disturbed individual reaching out, but it was so uncomfortable you couldn't help but laugh about it. My grandboss brought it to me while I was in the office of another colleague who has since left the office.
Some choice lines we would spout at each other as we passed in the hallways:
"Conditions are not good."
"I will need fed because I eat and am active."
"I have a felony but it should be removed."
"I do not like female/male integration."
Or our summary, which boiled down to: "I need food."
We also had a call asking if the football coach had any sway in admissions decisions, who was very insistent and kept calling back to try different angles. It seemed to be the month for weird at work.
Developments in yoga: starting to love inverted poses, appreciating Pigeon pose.
March
Grandboss left the office. Sad, sad day. This caused a ton of upset at work, and with me in general. He was absolutely the person I most looked forward to seeing every day.
As a horrible up side, I got a promotion possibly/probably in part due to his leaving. His brother (who also works in the office), also a bit of a cut-up, asked if he needed to address me as Assistant Director all the time now. I told him nothing had changed except actually getting recognition of the things I was doing already. :P
Before my grandboss actually left the office but after the position was posted (because I went for a position, it wasn't just an automatic promotion-type-thing), I went into his office and asked him "do you think I'm qualified for this?" and he laughed at me. Made me feel oddly better.
Found one of the houses I lived in when I lived in Denmark via the satellite view of Google Maps. Also found the church Dad was baptized in. Signed up for Twitter. Ha.
April
80 degrees to snow. Inches of it on Easter, which I took pictures of coming down. Weird weather this month.
Moved offices and had incredible trouble with the new office's desk (which was eventually replaced, thankfully). Had to trot out suits even more often due to even more important meetings: scored a subtle coral-pinstriped one that looks pretty cool, if I do say so myself. Meetings and more meetings and training.
Experimented with beet casseroles. Played with a new hairdo: a French twist kind of thing.
Got the scanned version of my aunt's album from L (thank you!) and uploaded it to flickr.
Attended the Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium, which was generally excellent.
Events at Virginia Tech caused a bunch of conversation at work.
Kept having to take days off at work or lose them, having bumped into the limit of stored vacation days.
My cell phone battery life continued to die, which caused some problems (though much of that was in February).
May
I think this month could best be summed up as OMG WTF BBQ WORK. The last cram of work on the redesign was just overwhelming. I had a ton of codewrangling this month for the redesign and launch of one of our mini-sites: the one for Spend a Summer Day (SASD, as I more commonly refer to it).
The Big Ten Admissions Conference that we hosted happened this month. A few photos here. Quickly thereafter, our Penn State Admissions conference: a few photos of that here.
Listened to a lot of jazz this month as we wrapped up the launch of the redesign, which happened the morning of the second day of the latter conference.
Got new glasses: from pretty severe black secretary glasses to a pair that are a bit more cat eye-shaped, with filigree-type stuff on the edges. I've gotten a ton of compliments on them. :)
Still doing decant circles for the scent community I'm part of this month: I do quit that somewhere along the way, though, and regain the time I dedicated to it, thankfully.
Stormed a lot at the end of this month and the beginning of the next.
June
Penn State Web Conference was excellent this month: some pictures.
There were also a ton of caterpillars out, which of course I took pictures of. Oh, and there was a birthday party in here somewhere.
Started reading a bit more, which was a nice return. Experimented with cooking wilted greens, which ended up really well.
The big event was the visit to Seattle. The conference was incredible there: easily the best I've attended. I'll be looking for it again this coming year, though I don't think it will be in Seattle again (nor could I attend it there again, I don't think, just given how tight budgets are becoming).
Once that was over, hit vacation, staying with college friends in Seattle. Very easy to slip back into old rhythms, though of course things were different: a pair of them had a little girl, for one thing. Played tourist throughout Seattle both alone and with said friends, though easily started eyeing it from the point of view of moving there someday. Both the Ballard and Fremont neighborhoods started looking extremely appealing, though it's far more likely I'd be in the suburbs somewhere, depending on where I got a job, of course. If I eventually moved there, which is still obviously extremely theoretical.
The other big event was the first Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab East Coast Will-Call (this is the scent/perfume community I may have mentioned once or twice) in Hershey. I had also met up with a couple of folks from that community (I say community in the broadest sense of the word, really) in Seattle, who were awesome. But the ECWC at the end of this month was a fantastic event, with people dressing up in the theme and all. These started monthly after this point and I've only missed one so far.
July
Got some awesome shots of the 4th of the July fireworks.
Took a couple days off in July for my birthday and Arts Fest/People's Choice. Good times, though mildly sunburnt. Got a new lens for my DSLR, which I'm still adoring (and using more frequently than the kit lens, I might add).
Got contacted about a company that wanted to use a picture of mine in a documentary.
I think this is the month the replacement for me (writer/editor position) started, and she came on board really quickly. Not a whole lot of training time needed there: she picked things up quickly, and blew through projects quickly, which was awesome and very much needed. The balance of having to manage two people started becoming a bit precarious in here somewhere, though, given that I had my own projects as well.
Concluded the month with another BPAL ECWC, where again, I took some pictures. Oh, and Spend a Summer Day (SASD) started, which were just exhausting.
August
SASD continued. Just no time to do anything in here: too wiped out. Also did a bunch of web application revisions for the College of Arts and Architecture.
Stardust came out, and I went to see it far too many times, which still wasn't enough.
Went to Hersheypark mid-month with a couple friends: definitely an enjoyable time.
Finished the month with yet another awesome ECWC.
September
Kicked off with a great Labor Day eve Sunday night crowd. Got totally backlogged on photo-taking--not all I took that night are up since I've just had more important photos (to me) to crunch and upload than that.
Fall Conference for us, Student Aid, and the Registrar. I took some pictures, but haven't messed with them yet. Had to do double work somewhere in here when revising visit emails. Irritating, but welcome to work. Then again, made headway on various very cool projects as well, so I shouldn't complain.
"Talk Like a Pirate Day" passed again with little fanfare, unfortunately. Though the Libraries did a pirate-themed open house, which was cool.
Finally gave in to the iPhone temptation after the price dropped and my old phone just wouldn't hold a charge.
Ended the month, once again, with a great ECWC, one during which I dragged along S to get our nails done beforehand.
October
Started with Cirque du Soleil with L, which was an excellent performance/experience.
Had a touch of asthma problems this month: a rarity. Resolved in the next month somewhere.
Finally figured out that the noise made during rainstorms right near my head was because the roof hadn't been entirely sealed. They got it fixed, finally.
The HighEdWebDev conference happened this month. Good sessions, good people.
One more very cool ECWC: pirate-themed this time. Dax and S both came with, which was very neat.
Wrapped up with Halloween at the club job, which I only have one shot up of as of yet. Started getting stressed about finishing things before the Hawaii trip in November.
November
Cut my hair back by about seven inches in preparation for being in the water a lot in Hawaii (which didn't really happen, but that's beside the point).
Completely undid a corner of my room so they could fix the water damage while I was away. And by fix, I mean paint over, but whatever.
The Hawaii trip was a mixed bag: mom is doing far worse than I'd thought, but then again, I was in Hawaii. What right did I have to complain? And it was a great experience: I learned to surf, went on a bus tour on one island and a helicopter tour on the other, etc, etc. But seeing mom liked that made me keenly aware of my own health and future. And, of course, concern for her, some of which I'm working on, but we'll see how that plays out.
Still working on the photos from that trip. I'm only about halfway through, but had enough to take with me to show people during the holidays.
When I got back, had to re-do that corner of my room, including taking my bed out of the bathroom, where I'd wedged it for the interim. Changed my comforter cover in the process, from a green to a deep red. I like it; might be changing the sheets and pillow cover to match in the near future.
The rest of November was a scramble to catch up again, pretty much. My maternal uncle was put in the hospital near the end of it, which was another big concern for awhile. Thankfully, all turned out all right. Oh, and yet another ECWC, as per normal.
December
Ended the CSA experience, unfortunately. Still trying to figure out how to replace it.
Divided up my Twitter presences into personal and professional: a necessity after awhile, really. I kind of regret leaving some personal stuff on the supposedly professional version, but not much to be done about it.
Underwent a few all-day meetings of one stripe or another. Again. Major work drama happened this month, drama that I'd rather forget about, frankly. One outcome, though, is the new great staff member leaving--not because of drama. Drama just ensued. There may be major changes on the horizon, and I'm not entirely convinced this is a good thing for me. But it should be an improvement for the office as a whole, and I did volunteer it. We'll see.
Started trying to figure out how to afford a class next semester. Still in that process, to some extent, though I'm signed up and ready to go.
Got a couple pictures from Seattle published in a travel guide. Got a Wii. Left for Wisconsin.
Long visit in the Midwest: saw Dad, B, my paternal uncle (not the one who was in the hospital), and a few friends: H and H, actually. One from my sorority and one from college (yes, those are different. it's complicated). Missed C, though, which I was sad about.
Dad and I sat down and went through my aunt's album to fill in the details, inasmuch as he could remember.
Had a great French-themed Christmas dinner with B's family, as well as our usual Danish-tinged Christmas Eve dinner. I still love fliskesteg. I should really learn how to do it myself.
Did some tech help with Dad's new laptop and GPS unit. Hopefully, got him set up for the marine maps he wanted. (Let me know if you have problems, okay Dad?)
Got some fantastic presents, including new shoes and suits, many of which were very much needed. I felt very much spoiled once I got home and started unloading the car, which was pretty well packed. True, some of it was my own purchases since they've got better shopping out there, but still.
And now, back and trying to catch up again, as well as trying to integrate everything. Space is very much at a premium and I need to get things out of the hallway. To do that, though, I need to make some space. It's a Tetris challenge: I used to be very good at this, back when I worked for the Symphony, but I haven't needed to do so for a decently long time. I'll make it work, though, somehow.
My only regret for December is missing this month's ECWC, but it just couldn't be managed. Can't be two places at once yet, unfortunately. Hopefully they'll invent that soon. Ha.
January
Started off with a bang since I worked New Year's Eve at the club job. Fell on a Sunday, after all. Took a few photos.
Pink had crept back into my wardrobe by this point. That's notable for some reason, trust me.
At work, we started planning and eventually got permission to do the site redesign, which was desperately needed. Despite that project, I still had days entirely booked with meetings.
It was a month of busy, as per normal, and enjoying squash, and appreciating that I knew how to drive in snow. Also started yoga twice a week rather than once during this semester. Oh, and there was a birthday and associated celebration.
February
Thankful for my warm down coat. Got a ton of songs (that I seriously dislike) from the club job stuck in my head throughout the month. I eventually made a mix CD of those I could tolerate and those I couldn't, hoping to rid them all from my brain-pan. It worked, eventually.
This month at work we got the weirdest inquiry letter I've ever seen, which became a short running joke: short because the source was so bloody uncomfortable. Obviously a mentally disturbed individual reaching out, but it was so uncomfortable you couldn't help but laugh about it. My grandboss brought it to me while I was in the office of another colleague who has since left the office.
Some choice lines we would spout at each other as we passed in the hallways:
"Conditions are not good."
"I will need fed because I eat and am active."
"I have a felony but it should be removed."
"I do not like female/male integration."
Or our summary, which boiled down to: "I need food."
We also had a call asking if the football coach had any sway in admissions decisions, who was very insistent and kept calling back to try different angles. It seemed to be the month for weird at work.
Developments in yoga: starting to love inverted poses, appreciating Pigeon pose.
March
Grandboss left the office. Sad, sad day. This caused a ton of upset at work, and with me in general. He was absolutely the person I most looked forward to seeing every day.
As a horrible up side, I got a promotion possibly/probably in part due to his leaving. His brother (who also works in the office), also a bit of a cut-up, asked if he needed to address me as Assistant Director all the time now. I told him nothing had changed except actually getting recognition of the things I was doing already. :P
Before my grandboss actually left the office but after the position was posted (because I went for a position, it wasn't just an automatic promotion-type-thing), I went into his office and asked him "do you think I'm qualified for this?" and he laughed at me. Made me feel oddly better.
Found one of the houses I lived in when I lived in Denmark via the satellite view of Google Maps. Also found the church Dad was baptized in. Signed up for Twitter. Ha.
April
80 degrees to snow. Inches of it on Easter, which I took pictures of coming down. Weird weather this month.
Moved offices and had incredible trouble with the new office's desk (which was eventually replaced, thankfully). Had to trot out suits even more often due to even more important meetings: scored a subtle coral-pinstriped one that looks pretty cool, if I do say so myself. Meetings and more meetings and training.
Experimented with beet casseroles. Played with a new hairdo: a French twist kind of thing.
Got the scanned version of my aunt's album from L (thank you!) and uploaded it to flickr.
Attended the Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium, which was generally excellent.
Events at Virginia Tech caused a bunch of conversation at work.
Kept having to take days off at work or lose them, having bumped into the limit of stored vacation days.
My cell phone battery life continued to die, which caused some problems (though much of that was in February).
May
I think this month could best be summed up as OMG WTF BBQ WORK. The last cram of work on the redesign was just overwhelming. I had a ton of codewrangling this month for the redesign and launch of one of our mini-sites: the one for Spend a Summer Day (SASD, as I more commonly refer to it).
The Big Ten Admissions Conference that we hosted happened this month. A few photos here. Quickly thereafter, our Penn State Admissions conference: a few photos of that here.
Listened to a lot of jazz this month as we wrapped up the launch of the redesign, which happened the morning of the second day of the latter conference.
Got new glasses: from pretty severe black secretary glasses to a pair that are a bit more cat eye-shaped, with filigree-type stuff on the edges. I've gotten a ton of compliments on them. :)
Still doing decant circles for the scent community I'm part of this month: I do quit that somewhere along the way, though, and regain the time I dedicated to it, thankfully.
Stormed a lot at the end of this month and the beginning of the next.
June
Penn State Web Conference was excellent this month: some pictures.
There were also a ton of caterpillars out, which of course I took pictures of. Oh, and there was a birthday party in here somewhere.
Started reading a bit more, which was a nice return. Experimented with cooking wilted greens, which ended up really well.
The big event was the visit to Seattle. The conference was incredible there: easily the best I've attended. I'll be looking for it again this coming year, though I don't think it will be in Seattle again (nor could I attend it there again, I don't think, just given how tight budgets are becoming).
Once that was over, hit vacation, staying with college friends in Seattle. Very easy to slip back into old rhythms, though of course things were different: a pair of them had a little girl, for one thing. Played tourist throughout Seattle both alone and with said friends, though easily started eyeing it from the point of view of moving there someday. Both the Ballard and Fremont neighborhoods started looking extremely appealing, though it's far more likely I'd be in the suburbs somewhere, depending on where I got a job, of course. If I eventually moved there, which is still obviously extremely theoretical.
The other big event was the first Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab East Coast Will-Call (this is the scent/perfume community I may have mentioned once or twice) in Hershey. I had also met up with a couple of folks from that community (I say community in the broadest sense of the word, really) in Seattle, who were awesome. But the ECWC at the end of this month was a fantastic event, with people dressing up in the theme and all. These started monthly after this point and I've only missed one so far.
July
Got some awesome shots of the 4th of the July fireworks.
Took a couple days off in July for my birthday and Arts Fest/People's Choice. Good times, though mildly sunburnt. Got a new lens for my DSLR, which I'm still adoring (and using more frequently than the kit lens, I might add).
Got contacted about a company that wanted to use a picture of mine in a documentary.
I think this is the month the replacement for me (writer/editor position) started, and she came on board really quickly. Not a whole lot of training time needed there: she picked things up quickly, and blew through projects quickly, which was awesome and very much needed. The balance of having to manage two people started becoming a bit precarious in here somewhere, though, given that I had my own projects as well.
Concluded the month with another BPAL ECWC, where again, I took some pictures. Oh, and Spend a Summer Day (SASD) started, which were just exhausting.
August
SASD continued. Just no time to do anything in here: too wiped out. Also did a bunch of web application revisions for the College of Arts and Architecture.
Stardust came out, and I went to see it far too many times, which still wasn't enough.
Went to Hersheypark mid-month with a couple friends: definitely an enjoyable time.
Finished the month with yet another awesome ECWC.
September
Kicked off with a great Labor Day eve Sunday night crowd. Got totally backlogged on photo-taking--not all I took that night are up since I've just had more important photos (to me) to crunch and upload than that.
Fall Conference for us, Student Aid, and the Registrar. I took some pictures, but haven't messed with them yet. Had to do double work somewhere in here when revising visit emails. Irritating, but welcome to work. Then again, made headway on various very cool projects as well, so I shouldn't complain.
"Talk Like a Pirate Day" passed again with little fanfare, unfortunately. Though the Libraries did a pirate-themed open house, which was cool.
Finally gave in to the iPhone temptation after the price dropped and my old phone just wouldn't hold a charge.
Ended the month, once again, with a great ECWC, one during which I dragged along S to get our nails done beforehand.
October
Started with Cirque du Soleil with L, which was an excellent performance/experience.
Had a touch of asthma problems this month: a rarity. Resolved in the next month somewhere.
Finally figured out that the noise made during rainstorms right near my head was because the roof hadn't been entirely sealed. They got it fixed, finally.
The HighEdWebDev conference happened this month. Good sessions, good people.
One more very cool ECWC: pirate-themed this time. Dax and S both came with, which was very neat.
Wrapped up with Halloween at the club job, which I only have one shot up of as of yet. Started getting stressed about finishing things before the Hawaii trip in November.
November
Cut my hair back by about seven inches in preparation for being in the water a lot in Hawaii (which didn't really happen, but that's beside the point).
Completely undid a corner of my room so they could fix the water damage while I was away. And by fix, I mean paint over, but whatever.
The Hawaii trip was a mixed bag: mom is doing far worse than I'd thought, but then again, I was in Hawaii. What right did I have to complain? And it was a great experience: I learned to surf, went on a bus tour on one island and a helicopter tour on the other, etc, etc. But seeing mom liked that made me keenly aware of my own health and future. And, of course, concern for her, some of which I'm working on, but we'll see how that plays out.
Still working on the photos from that trip. I'm only about halfway through, but had enough to take with me to show people during the holidays.
When I got back, had to re-do that corner of my room, including taking my bed out of the bathroom, where I'd wedged it for the interim. Changed my comforter cover in the process, from a green to a deep red. I like it; might be changing the sheets and pillow cover to match in the near future.
The rest of November was a scramble to catch up again, pretty much. My maternal uncle was put in the hospital near the end of it, which was another big concern for awhile. Thankfully, all turned out all right. Oh, and yet another ECWC, as per normal.
December
Ended the CSA experience, unfortunately. Still trying to figure out how to replace it.
Divided up my Twitter presences into personal and professional: a necessity after awhile, really. I kind of regret leaving some personal stuff on the supposedly professional version, but not much to be done about it.
Underwent a few all-day meetings of one stripe or another. Again. Major work drama happened this month, drama that I'd rather forget about, frankly. One outcome, though, is the new great staff member leaving--not because of drama. Drama just ensued. There may be major changes on the horizon, and I'm not entirely convinced this is a good thing for me. But it should be an improvement for the office as a whole, and I did volunteer it. We'll see.
Started trying to figure out how to afford a class next semester. Still in that process, to some extent, though I'm signed up and ready to go.
Got a couple pictures from Seattle published in a travel guide. Got a Wii. Left for Wisconsin.
Long visit in the Midwest: saw Dad, B, my paternal uncle (not the one who was in the hospital), and a few friends: H and H, actually. One from my sorority and one from college (yes, those are different. it's complicated). Missed C, though, which I was sad about.
Dad and I sat down and went through my aunt's album to fill in the details, inasmuch as he could remember.
Had a great French-themed Christmas dinner with B's family, as well as our usual Danish-tinged Christmas Eve dinner. I still love fliskesteg. I should really learn how to do it myself.
Did some tech help with Dad's new laptop and GPS unit. Hopefully, got him set up for the marine maps he wanted. (Let me know if you have problems, okay Dad?)
Got some fantastic presents, including new shoes and suits, many of which were very much needed. I felt very much spoiled once I got home and started unloading the car, which was pretty well packed. True, some of it was my own purchases since they've got better shopping out there, but still.
And now, back and trying to catch up again, as well as trying to integrate everything. Space is very much at a premium and I need to get things out of the hallway. To do that, though, I need to make some space. It's a Tetris challenge: I used to be very good at this, back when I worked for the Symphony, but I haven't needed to do so for a decently long time. I'll make it work, though, somehow.
My only regret for December is missing this month's ECWC, but it just couldn't be managed. Can't be two places at once yet, unfortunately. Hopefully they'll invent that soon. Ha.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
my mother's current state/Hawaii
I'm still processing the trip.
My colleagues have done really well with asking me extra-specific questions like "what was your favorite part?" and "did you go swimming?" But they probably remember that I have a possibly bad habit of being perfectly honest when they ask me social questions: those questions that mostly just fill space like "how are you?" or "how are you feeling?" if you've been sick.
"Well, you know, Bob, it feels like I've been gargling razor blades and salt, but other than that I'm great!" (I don't have a colleague named Bob, nor do I think I've ever felt like that: this was purely for illustrative comedic value.)
My answer to a general question like "how was the trip?" would probably be something like "a bit of a mixed bag, actually. Some great parts and some not-so-great parts." And they'd probably ask further, which would result in a conversation about my mother and how she's doing. Which is to say, not well.
She has Parkinson's, and various other problems, which really add up (if not grow exponentially). And there are some very basic things that we're just diametrically opposed on. Not having seen her for years amplified these greatly. Some of them were minor differences of opinion: she'd continuously buy two Snickers bars in case we were hungry. To me, a Snickers is not a snack, it's a dessert. I started packing nuts instead. She mused one day around lunchtime that "a burger sounds really good." I threw up my hands (even though I was driving at the time) and said "we're in Hawaii! No!"
The health problems, though, and the very basic things she can't do anymore, well: there are very few things that invoke abject terror in me anymore. I left most of those things in childhood, including a fear of bugs and spiders, a fear of heights, and a fear of the dark when I was very young. Seeing my mother in this condition--and thus, myself in a similar situation forty years down the line--did it for me.
I could go so far as to call this a phobia, because there's no real grounding for it. Lots of people have Parkinson's, lots of older folks have trouble getting around. It will probably happen to me as well, if I don't die early. But the totally unreasonable, fight-or-flight instinct in my brain is left screaming at me that I'd rather die early than have that happen. That if I ever get to the point that I need someone to open a water bottle for me, I need to just shove off and leave the world to the younger and fitter.
Totally unreasonable, as I said. But watching my mother struggle to stand multiple times a day was heartbreaking. She used to be taller than me. She's now 5'2". We requested a wheelchair every time through an airport. Just. Heartbreaking.
That aside (and it's a big thing to put aside), I had some great times there. L asked me what my favorite place there was, and I couldn't answer that. The whole place is great--though far too warm for my tastes--but it's the stuff I did that I loved.
I went surfing for the first time--and did actually get up on the board, I might add, because people keep asking. I went on a helicopter tour of Maui, and a bus tour of Oahu that was really quite excellent (reminder to self: write a letter to the tour company about how good guide/driver--nicknamed "Cousin Good-Looking," by the by--was). Lit incense in a Buddhist temple. Found some beautiful, locally handmade crafts. Toured behind-the-scenes at a jewelry factory specializing in rare corals and pearls. Woke to the sound of waves crashing every morning and went out on the balcony of both hotels to watch dawn break. Drove the approximately 620 curves over 59 bridges (46 of them one-lane-only) across the north shore of Maui. Hiked around the rainforest on that side, getting totally bugbitten.
Did not get a tan.
On the up side, that means I didn't get burned, either, and that's a real danger with me.
Now that I'm back, though, still processing. The experience gave me one of those "this means something" kind of feelings, and I'd find it hard to shake, even if I wanted to. But I don't, because it means a happier, healthier me if follow through on it. More on that later.
Also still processing photos. It's a bit of a slog just because there are so many of them. But I'll get through them all. What I've got so far (mostly of the various plane rides, though a couple sneak peeks from hotel balconies) is up here. Stay tuned for the rest.
My colleagues have done really well with asking me extra-specific questions like "what was your favorite part?" and "did you go swimming?" But they probably remember that I have a possibly bad habit of being perfectly honest when they ask me social questions: those questions that mostly just fill space like "how are you?" or "how are you feeling?" if you've been sick.
"Well, you know, Bob, it feels like I've been gargling razor blades and salt, but other than that I'm great!" (I don't have a colleague named Bob, nor do I think I've ever felt like that: this was purely for illustrative comedic value.)
My answer to a general question like "how was the trip?" would probably be something like "a bit of a mixed bag, actually. Some great parts and some not-so-great parts." And they'd probably ask further, which would result in a conversation about my mother and how she's doing. Which is to say, not well.
She has Parkinson's, and various other problems, which really add up (if not grow exponentially). And there are some very basic things that we're just diametrically opposed on. Not having seen her for years amplified these greatly. Some of them were minor differences of opinion: she'd continuously buy two Snickers bars in case we were hungry. To me, a Snickers is not a snack, it's a dessert. I started packing nuts instead. She mused one day around lunchtime that "a burger sounds really good." I threw up my hands (even though I was driving at the time) and said "we're in Hawaii! No!"
The health problems, though, and the very basic things she can't do anymore, well: there are very few things that invoke abject terror in me anymore. I left most of those things in childhood, including a fear of bugs and spiders, a fear of heights, and a fear of the dark when I was very young. Seeing my mother in this condition--and thus, myself in a similar situation forty years down the line--did it for me.
I could go so far as to call this a phobia, because there's no real grounding for it. Lots of people have Parkinson's, lots of older folks have trouble getting around. It will probably happen to me as well, if I don't die early. But the totally unreasonable, fight-or-flight instinct in my brain is left screaming at me that I'd rather die early than have that happen. That if I ever get to the point that I need someone to open a water bottle for me, I need to just shove off and leave the world to the younger and fitter.
Totally unreasonable, as I said. But watching my mother struggle to stand multiple times a day was heartbreaking. She used to be taller than me. She's now 5'2". We requested a wheelchair every time through an airport. Just. Heartbreaking.
That aside (and it's a big thing to put aside), I had some great times there. L asked me what my favorite place there was, and I couldn't answer that. The whole place is great--though far too warm for my tastes--but it's the stuff I did that I loved.
I went surfing for the first time--and did actually get up on the board, I might add, because people keep asking. I went on a helicopter tour of Maui, and a bus tour of Oahu that was really quite excellent (reminder to self: write a letter to the tour company about how good guide/driver--nicknamed "Cousin Good-Looking," by the by--was). Lit incense in a Buddhist temple. Found some beautiful, locally handmade crafts. Toured behind-the-scenes at a jewelry factory specializing in rare corals and pearls. Woke to the sound of waves crashing every morning and went out on the balcony of both hotels to watch dawn break. Drove the approximately 620 curves over 59 bridges (46 of them one-lane-only) across the north shore of Maui. Hiked around the rainforest on that side, getting totally bugbitten.
Did not get a tan.
On the up side, that means I didn't get burned, either, and that's a real danger with me.
Now that I'm back, though, still processing. The experience gave me one of those "this means something" kind of feelings, and I'd find it hard to shake, even if I wanted to. But I don't, because it means a happier, healthier me if follow through on it. More on that later.
Also still processing photos. It's a bit of a slog just because there are so many of them. But I'll get through them all. What I've got so far (mostly of the various plane rides, though a couple sneak peeks from hotel balconies) is up here. Stay tuned for the rest.
Friday, October 12, 2007
drainage
Today, morning greeted me clear and cold, far more like fall than the rest of the weather we've been having lately. The sky was gorgeous, clear sun shining into the landscape with a backdrop of storm clouds that undoubtedly dumped on us overnight--which I, mercifully, did not hear.
If you remember me complaining about not being able to sleep due to the noise of the rain, well, we found out the cause when the paint in the corner of my room closest that noise started bubbling, and the paint on the metal rib of the stud in the corner created a gap from the rest of the wall. I called it into the management, and they found that the contractors hadn't finished sealing the roof. Let me reiterate: they left part of the roof completely unsealed. Therefore, the noise I heard was the rush of water being funneled between the roof and the drainspout and down the wall next to my head.
We've been there two years, and yeah, I could've spoken up earlier, but you'd think they'd have noticed the washed-out spot? But then again, that happens in lots of places where it seems to be sealed just fine: I'm of the opinion that they really screwed up the drainage plan for this place.
In any case. It's fixed, the noise no longer happens, but in order for them to repair the damage in the wall, I'd have to completely dismantle most of my bedroom and move it out of my room. Erg.
Then again, maybe there's an opportunity for them to do that while I'm away. This upcoming trip is too soon: I leave Sunday, return Wednesday. Conference time: headed to Rochester for it. The following one's a possibility, though. Though I'm still not confident in it happening, even though I've got ticket confirmations and such.
Unfortunately, there are a few fires to put out at work before I leave, so I should get to those. Like now.
If you remember me complaining about not being able to sleep due to the noise of the rain, well, we found out the cause when the paint in the corner of my room closest that noise started bubbling, and the paint on the metal rib of the stud in the corner created a gap from the rest of the wall. I called it into the management, and they found that the contractors hadn't finished sealing the roof. Let me reiterate: they left part of the roof completely unsealed. Therefore, the noise I heard was the rush of water being funneled between the roof and the drainspout and down the wall next to my head.
We've been there two years, and yeah, I could've spoken up earlier, but you'd think they'd have noticed the washed-out spot? But then again, that happens in lots of places where it seems to be sealed just fine: I'm of the opinion that they really screwed up the drainage plan for this place.
In any case. It's fixed, the noise no longer happens, but in order for them to repair the damage in the wall, I'd have to completely dismantle most of my bedroom and move it out of my room. Erg.
Then again, maybe there's an opportunity for them to do that while I'm away. This upcoming trip is too soon: I leave Sunday, return Wednesday. Conference time: headed to Rochester for it. The following one's a possibility, though. Though I'm still not confident in it happening, even though I've got ticket confirmations and such.
Unfortunately, there are a few fires to put out at work before I leave, so I should get to those. Like now.
Friday, September 21, 2007
too busy to blog
As a good (online) friend of mine recently stated (hope you don't mind the paraphrase, B): the ironic bit about blogs is that when you've got the stuff going on to blog about, you don't have time to blog about it.
And so it is over here. Keeping myself busy with three yoga classes a week, for starters. And just in the near-ish future, my usual (monthly) trip to Hershey, then HighEdWebDev (a conference which I thoroughly enjoy) in October, then a supposedly-booked-but-I'll-believe-it-when-I-land-there trip to Hawaii in November.
And with that statement, I've got to run. S just came to drop off CSA veggies and invited me over (after a two-hour-long conversation, but that's normal for us).
And so it is over here. Keeping myself busy with three yoga classes a week, for starters. And just in the near-ish future, my usual (monthly) trip to Hershey, then HighEdWebDev (a conference which I thoroughly enjoy) in October, then a supposedly-booked-but-I'll-believe-it-when-I-land-there trip to Hawaii in November.
And with that statement, I've got to run. S just came to drop off CSA veggies and invited me over (after a two-hour-long conversation, but that's normal for us).
Monday, August 20, 2007
photos and Stardust
Finally finished with the Seattle photos. As a bonus, I also finished with my Fourth of July photos (see how far behind I am?). I'm for the most part extraordinarily satisfied with them, which is somewhat unusual for me.
If you haven't seen Stardust yet, go do so. Highly recommended. I'm seeing it again tomorrow night.
If you haven't seen Stardust yet, go do so. Highly recommended. I'm seeing it again tomorrow night.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
yoga, summers, water, mountains, Seattle, work. in (not-so) brief.
I headed out of yoga last night, chatting with S. all the way, after she kindly waited while I talked to our teacher for a bit. She's refreshing: we should talk more, hang out more, but neither of us seem to be able to find the time.
The first bits of a thunderstorm were letting loose: I offered to drive her over to her car, parked about a block away, but she declined since she likes having the walk after yoga. Wish I could think like that, but for me, it's all I can do to get there on time. Stupid work getting in the way of my yoga. ;)
While driving home, I watched the rain evaporate off the blacktop as mist from the heat of the day, and when safely ensconced at home, enjoyed the thunder accompaniment. I love summer thunderstorms. It's foggy this morning, and cool, following the storm. I'm enjoying it very much.
There's a summer dish I've been craving since Monday that Dad used to make every once in awhile: a (from memory) really simple cucumber-and-vinegar dish. I meant to call and ask him about it on Monday, but got sidetracked with mom and planning for a trip we've just scheduled for November. Very exciting stuff, but I'm not going to trust that it's real until I'm on the plane. It's that surreal.
The Google (ha) isn't helping me with the recipe either: all of them have either mayo and sour cream, and I don't remember that at all. Dad, check me on this: it's just thinly sliced cucumber in white vinegar with sugar stirred in, right? And then chilled? Is it that simple, or is my memory just failing me?
Summers are always more than a bit nuts for me: you'd think it would be our down time here in Admissions, but it's not. It's cleanup time for some things, plus Spend a Summer Day prep and the six days themselves, plus the new web app going up each year.
That said, I wish I could get some time away to go see the boats my Dad's captaining these days. Take the new Black Point tour, perhaps. That's one thing this area is lacking: I love the mountains, but the lack of large bodies of water is something I miss pretty regularly. We've got streams, occasional rivers, but no convenient ponds or lakes. But maybe I just got spoiled with that big pond at the last place mom and I lived in Woodstock, then the Mississippi in St. Paul, then of course Lake Geneva.
Water's calming, stilling. The soft grandeur of the mountains here have a similar effect, but it's entirely different in feel. Seattle's were much more imposing, but distant. But their water was much more immediate. The Sound, Lake Washington, Lake Union, Green Lake: I saw almost every one of these regularly while I was there, most of them daily. They're spoiled with water and mountains.
I really need to make a fuller entry and notes about my visit there: I've just been so pushed for time lately, and I keep pushing off commitments, which is a problem. I'm not even finished with crunching the photos from the trip. But I took 3,700 shots, so that's kind of understandable. What I've put up so far you can see here. Oh, and Dad? Check out the Ballard and Nordic Heritage Museum sets. Ballard was originally settled by Scandinavian immigrants, so they have events like "Tivoli Viking Days" (I'm not making this up), and they have an actual, honest-to-goodness and still owned by the family Danish bakery and a bunch of Scandinavian foodstuff grocers, plus a bunch of retirement homes that are named for the groups they were either founded by, or primarily serve--all Scandinavian-based names. And you'll see some familiar items in the museum set. ;)
It's really as if Seattle was making a serious play for my attention: the seafood was exquisite, the sushi was the best I've ever had in my life, plus all this Danish heritage stuff? Sold. Y'know? That's another thing I've missed here: there's a lot of Dutch, a lot of German, a lot of miscellaneous Eastern European, in terms of original settlers, but not much Scandinavian stuff at all. Minor complaints, it might sound, but for someone who wants to keep connected to that community, keep the language I learned in good speaking shape, that's a powerful lack. And a powerful selling point for a place that has it.
Now, I'm not going anywhere for a year at least (I'm in a lease, if nothing else), but I have given it some thought, though not anywhere approaching serious, "how would I do this"-type thought. I've got time enough for that. But even aside from all the college friends who moved out there, I also know a couple that recently moved out there from Madison, so I should have all the practical advice on how to do it right and well if I should need it.
And I have friends there. Not only the college clan, but folks I'd known before only online, who I met when I went and spent two pretty full days with and became almost immediate fast friends. They're some of the most immediately awesome people I've ever met. You know how you start liking people more the more you get to know them? Not these folks. Right off the bat, they were far too cool to be true. But enough raving about them. The point is that making new friends is one of the most scary parts about moving. With Seattle, at least, it wouldn't be as much of a concern for me.
Done raving about Seattle. Dax and L. keep teasing me that everything's better in Seattle, since I keep naming things that are. I've had to chastise them that no, not everything is (I can name a couple things off the top of my head that are distinctly better here: traffic being a big one), it's just that the things I remember best and thus talk about are.
Back to the here and now. I smell like peaches this morning, due to my peachy BPAL Chaos Theory I got last year at this time. I'm really glad I put it on this morning. I tossed on my off-white cardigan, and the danger of leaving cardigans in my office for when I need them is that they start to smell like my office. But that's been the case with every office building I've ever known: they have a building smell, and after all day in it, that building smell will cling. But maybe I just have a sensitive nose.
Yesterday was a day-long meeting about this year's budget proposal. Let me repeat: Day. Long. Meeting. Wasn't as painful as I thought it would be, though. Though I drank far more coffee than I usually do (the usual amount being zero).
I was also by far the youngest one there. I noted it and thought it was weird, but I don't think anyone else noticed. Except for at lunch, where I had mentioned yoga, and then everyone at my table leapt in to describe their various back problems, sciatica, neck injuries, etc. One guy's back had seized and he had collapsed while walking up his block, just laying there until some stranger helped him. Carried him to his truck, drove him to his house, deposited him in his bed. When he still couldn't move, he eventually called 911. Bizarre. Makes me none too keen to get older. ;) But I guess that's a good reason to be starting yoga before I need it for physical therapy or some such.
I'm debating going to classes three times a week rather than my current two. I love it, it makes me feel awesome and I can tell I'm making progress. I'm still amazed at a few things I can do that I certainly wouldn't have been able to before starting (or when I was in that down time before I picked it back up again). It's just a time issue. As is everything, it seems.
Speaking of which, I should really get to it.
The first bits of a thunderstorm were letting loose: I offered to drive her over to her car, parked about a block away, but she declined since she likes having the walk after yoga. Wish I could think like that, but for me, it's all I can do to get there on time. Stupid work getting in the way of my yoga. ;)
While driving home, I watched the rain evaporate off the blacktop as mist from the heat of the day, and when safely ensconced at home, enjoyed the thunder accompaniment. I love summer thunderstorms. It's foggy this morning, and cool, following the storm. I'm enjoying it very much.
There's a summer dish I've been craving since Monday that Dad used to make every once in awhile: a (from memory) really simple cucumber-and-vinegar dish. I meant to call and ask him about it on Monday, but got sidetracked with mom and planning for a trip we've just scheduled for November. Very exciting stuff, but I'm not going to trust that it's real until I'm on the plane. It's that surreal.
The Google (ha) isn't helping me with the recipe either: all of them have either mayo and sour cream, and I don't remember that at all. Dad, check me on this: it's just thinly sliced cucumber in white vinegar with sugar stirred in, right? And then chilled? Is it that simple, or is my memory just failing me?
Summers are always more than a bit nuts for me: you'd think it would be our down time here in Admissions, but it's not. It's cleanup time for some things, plus Spend a Summer Day prep and the six days themselves, plus the new web app going up each year.
That said, I wish I could get some time away to go see the boats my Dad's captaining these days. Take the new Black Point tour, perhaps. That's one thing this area is lacking: I love the mountains, but the lack of large bodies of water is something I miss pretty regularly. We've got streams, occasional rivers, but no convenient ponds or lakes. But maybe I just got spoiled with that big pond at the last place mom and I lived in Woodstock, then the Mississippi in St. Paul, then of course Lake Geneva.
Water's calming, stilling. The soft grandeur of the mountains here have a similar effect, but it's entirely different in feel. Seattle's were much more imposing, but distant. But their water was much more immediate. The Sound, Lake Washington, Lake Union, Green Lake: I saw almost every one of these regularly while I was there, most of them daily. They're spoiled with water and mountains.
I really need to make a fuller entry and notes about my visit there: I've just been so pushed for time lately, and I keep pushing off commitments, which is a problem. I'm not even finished with crunching the photos from the trip. But I took 3,700 shots, so that's kind of understandable. What I've put up so far you can see here. Oh, and Dad? Check out the Ballard and Nordic Heritage Museum sets. Ballard was originally settled by Scandinavian immigrants, so they have events like "Tivoli Viking Days" (I'm not making this up), and they have an actual, honest-to-goodness and still owned by the family Danish bakery and a bunch of Scandinavian foodstuff grocers, plus a bunch of retirement homes that are named for the groups they were either founded by, or primarily serve--all Scandinavian-based names. And you'll see some familiar items in the museum set. ;)
It's really as if Seattle was making a serious play for my attention: the seafood was exquisite, the sushi was the best I've ever had in my life, plus all this Danish heritage stuff? Sold. Y'know? That's another thing I've missed here: there's a lot of Dutch, a lot of German, a lot of miscellaneous Eastern European, in terms of original settlers, but not much Scandinavian stuff at all. Minor complaints, it might sound, but for someone who wants to keep connected to that community, keep the language I learned in good speaking shape, that's a powerful lack. And a powerful selling point for a place that has it.
Now, I'm not going anywhere for a year at least (I'm in a lease, if nothing else), but I have given it some thought, though not anywhere approaching serious, "how would I do this"-type thought. I've got time enough for that. But even aside from all the college friends who moved out there, I also know a couple that recently moved out there from Madison, so I should have all the practical advice on how to do it right and well if I should need it.
And I have friends there. Not only the college clan, but folks I'd known before only online, who I met when I went and spent two pretty full days with and became almost immediate fast friends. They're some of the most immediately awesome people I've ever met. You know how you start liking people more the more you get to know them? Not these folks. Right off the bat, they were far too cool to be true. But enough raving about them. The point is that making new friends is one of the most scary parts about moving. With Seattle, at least, it wouldn't be as much of a concern for me.
Done raving about Seattle. Dax and L. keep teasing me that everything's better in Seattle, since I keep naming things that are. I've had to chastise them that no, not everything is (I can name a couple things off the top of my head that are distinctly better here: traffic being a big one), it's just that the things I remember best and thus talk about are.
Back to the here and now. I smell like peaches this morning, due to my peachy BPAL Chaos Theory I got last year at this time. I'm really glad I put it on this morning. I tossed on my off-white cardigan, and the danger of leaving cardigans in my office for when I need them is that they start to smell like my office. But that's been the case with every office building I've ever known: they have a building smell, and after all day in it, that building smell will cling. But maybe I just have a sensitive nose.
Yesterday was a day-long meeting about this year's budget proposal. Let me repeat: Day. Long. Meeting. Wasn't as painful as I thought it would be, though. Though I drank far more coffee than I usually do (the usual amount being zero).
I was also by far the youngest one there. I noted it and thought it was weird, but I don't think anyone else noticed. Except for at lunch, where I had mentioned yoga, and then everyone at my table leapt in to describe their various back problems, sciatica, neck injuries, etc. One guy's back had seized and he had collapsed while walking up his block, just laying there until some stranger helped him. Carried him to his truck, drove him to his house, deposited him in his bed. When he still couldn't move, he eventually called 911. Bizarre. Makes me none too keen to get older. ;) But I guess that's a good reason to be starting yoga before I need it for physical therapy or some such.
I'm debating going to classes three times a week rather than my current two. I love it, it makes me feel awesome and I can tell I'm making progress. I'm still amazed at a few things I can do that I certainly wouldn't have been able to before starting (or when I was in that down time before I picked it back up again). It's just a time issue. As is everything, it seems.
Speaking of which, I should really get to it.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
yoga as practice, yoga as technology
I just got back from yoga, and am enjoying that stage where I can feel every muscle that worked, which provides me with an odd sort of loose-limbed grace. Combine that with one of two mental states that usually occurs thereafter--either so fully open and relaxed that I'm taking in everything all at once and feeling no need to process it, or so completely focused and energized that I often go back to work and bang out half of the day's tasks in an hour or two--and it makes for a very fluid drive home. I'm experiencing the former state today, though this time I was able to free myself from the urge that often accompanies it--that of not wanting to break that state and focus on anything. But at the moment, I have a keyboard at hand, and everything's fine. This focus is an easy one for me--though of course, I'm not entirely sure if it's an appropriate state for clear writing. We'll see, I suppose.
This semester I decided to change to taking this class twice a week, and I'm glad I did.
Tonight, after finishing savasana and wrapping class with a "namaste" given and returned, I did an impromptu sarvangasana--a shoulderstand. Since I was already warmed up, I didn't even hesitate: I pretty much rolled back and went straight up, no prop, no nothing. After my teacher realized what I was doing, she called out a couple of tips, to which I adjusted immediately.
I feel the need to mention here that when I first started, I hated inverted poses like this. The first class where we were to try them, I asked the forthright question of "do we have to do these?" Not being impertinent at all: it was an honest question of if they're integral to a yoga practice. I wanted a good reason before I subjected myself to them. I was afraid of tipping over and hurting myself--and not unreasonably so, I might add. But now I love these poses. They change your viewpoint, and not just at the time.
I've also been remembering the changed viewpoint of when I practiced on the roof of a building in Indianapolis at sunset. Very dramatic, very memorable. Loved it. On that trip as well as others, I had brought along my Yoga Paws--mitts and sock bits that simulate a yoga mat without having one with you--intending to practice wherever I went: rest stops and hotel rooms and parks and mountains and streams. I only remember actually practicing at one rest stop, and both that and the rooftop bit were done without the Yoga Paws. So while helpful, they're probably unnecessary. I'd rather do the yoga than take the time to hunt down the accessory, because if the hunt takes too long, I might not do yoga at all. At that time.
But as some teachers and publications might tell you, while you might be "doing" yoga during a class or a session, it does become a way of life. Your practice extends to the rest of your time, to one extent or another. Just on the way home, I found myself adjusting my shoulders and arms to drive optimally without constricting muscles that I tend to coil too much. I've found myself unconsciously doing yoga adjustments while drying my hair, doing the Down-Dog tilt with my head upside down. After a long trip, Dad and others have seen me go into Tree Pose, Cobbler's Pose, Mountain Pose.
I sat down and made a list of all the poses I knew off the top of my head one day. It was impressively long, and rather amusing to read. Just some of the animalistically-named poses are fun: Fish, Camel, Cat/Cow, Sphinx, Cobra, Pigeon. I love Pigeon. Some people hate Pigeon. But to be fair, there's a lot of poses I find challenging that others don't, and vice versa. But I digress.
For the last six days, my voice has come in and out. No reason that I can discern. Grand-boss says I sound like Lauren Bacall. We tried to figure out a modern equivalent that prospective students might understand and came up short. But my point is that I asked Christine for any tips she might have for such. She gave a few and told me to try one. I did, and instantly felt things clear. While it's not magic, as Arthur C. Clarke said: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Working with the loosest definition of the term, yoga (and jin shin-jitsu, which is also a bit of what she showed me) is then technology.
From a simple expression about returning home from class to yoga as technology in less than 800 words, even allowing for meandering. Welcome to my brain.
This semester I decided to change to taking this class twice a week, and I'm glad I did.
Tonight, after finishing savasana and wrapping class with a "namaste" given and returned, I did an impromptu sarvangasana--a shoulderstand. Since I was already warmed up, I didn't even hesitate: I pretty much rolled back and went straight up, no prop, no nothing. After my teacher realized what I was doing, she called out a couple of tips, to which I adjusted immediately.
I feel the need to mention here that when I first started, I hated inverted poses like this. The first class where we were to try them, I asked the forthright question of "do we have to do these?" Not being impertinent at all: it was an honest question of if they're integral to a yoga practice. I wanted a good reason before I subjected myself to them. I was afraid of tipping over and hurting myself--and not unreasonably so, I might add. But now I love these poses. They change your viewpoint, and not just at the time.
I've also been remembering the changed viewpoint of when I practiced on the roof of a building in Indianapolis at sunset. Very dramatic, very memorable. Loved it. On that trip as well as others, I had brought along my Yoga Paws--mitts and sock bits that simulate a yoga mat without having one with you--intending to practice wherever I went: rest stops and hotel rooms and parks and mountains and streams. I only remember actually practicing at one rest stop, and both that and the rooftop bit were done without the Yoga Paws. So while helpful, they're probably unnecessary. I'd rather do the yoga than take the time to hunt down the accessory, because if the hunt takes too long, I might not do yoga at all. At that time.
But as some teachers and publications might tell you, while you might be "doing" yoga during a class or a session, it does become a way of life. Your practice extends to the rest of your time, to one extent or another. Just on the way home, I found myself adjusting my shoulders and arms to drive optimally without constricting muscles that I tend to coil too much. I've found myself unconsciously doing yoga adjustments while drying my hair, doing the Down-Dog tilt with my head upside down. After a long trip, Dad and others have seen me go into Tree Pose, Cobbler's Pose, Mountain Pose.
I sat down and made a list of all the poses I knew off the top of my head one day. It was impressively long, and rather amusing to read. Just some of the animalistically-named poses are fun: Fish, Camel, Cat/Cow, Sphinx, Cobra, Pigeon. I love Pigeon. Some people hate Pigeon. But to be fair, there's a lot of poses I find challenging that others don't, and vice versa. But I digress.
For the last six days, my voice has come in and out. No reason that I can discern. Grand-boss says I sound like Lauren Bacall. We tried to figure out a modern equivalent that prospective students might understand and came up short. But my point is that I asked Christine for any tips she might have for such. She gave a few and told me to try one. I did, and instantly felt things clear. While it's not magic, as Arthur C. Clarke said: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Working with the loosest definition of the term, yoga (and jin shin-jitsu, which is also a bit of what she showed me) is then technology.
From a simple expression about returning home from class to yoga as technology in less than 800 words, even allowing for meandering. Welcome to my brain.
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