It’s that time of year with the change of seasons, the coolness of the weather (hello sweaters, I have missed you!), the end of the fiscal year 2010 that reminds me that there are only 3 months left in 2010. The real 2010. Not this fake business of starting 2011 three months early.
Fall is my favorite season. I used to write “by far” on the end of that sentence. But I have to admit that living in this region has altered my perception of the seasons. I have blogged about this before, somewhere, some long past day. I am less fond of winter here than anywhere I have lived previously. I love winter, I love snow. We don’t get that much here. We get grey, dreary, foggy, rainy crud with cold. Living in Colorado it wasn’t unusual to have a foot of snow one day and a sunny 60 degree day the following. Here it is the same old all the time. Grey, dreary, so foggy I am hoping I am walking the right way to my building fog, and cold. Not to mention a serious lack of understanding regarding driving on ice or snow (on the occasion that it does snow).
Ok, you get it. Winter leaves a bit to be desired here aside from the fact that I get to wear sweaters.
Spring. I never really cared about spring before, but now I love it because it means an end to the dreary, grey foggy crud. Then summer… what’s not to love about summer when you live in a major agricultural area?
Anyways. Fall. It’s the last hurrah, the last full season of 2010 before the rainy, dreary grey crud sets in. Inevitably I look towards the next three months and start planning the countdown to the holidays, the activities, the travel… the last hurrah of 2010.
Showing posts with label 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2010. Show all posts
Saturday, October 02, 2010
On 2010 travel remaining
I am headed to DC for a week at the end of October for a major project review. I always enjoy traveling to DC and am hoping for some good food while there. I have a layover in Minneapolis. Last time I did this route I was running to the next gate. I am hoping we land with time for me to stop and grab a Minnesota Vikings jersey at some random vendor in the airport for Leif. I told him I would try my best. Then he asked for a Minnesota Vikings helmet. Umm no. I am not hauling a Vikings helmet to DC and through my maze of flights home (DC to Atlanta to Salt Lake City to PSC) four days later. Though I am sure that my coworkers would enable to do this… and that I could count on them to never ever let me forget about it…
I am headed to a conference in Orlando the week before Thanksgiving. Well of course you have to take advantage of this and include personal travel. So AB and the kids are flying down on my last day of the conference, we are switching over to a Disney hotel and are looking forward to 5 days in the wonder that is Disneyworld. The free vacation planning DVD arrived the other day and has instilled loads of excitement and anticipation into my kids. We are doing the official countdown. Since we return the night before Thanksgiving the logical next step here is to talk about holidays…
I am headed to a conference in Orlando the week before Thanksgiving. Well of course you have to take advantage of this and include personal travel. So AB and the kids are flying down on my last day of the conference, we are switching over to a Disney hotel and are looking forward to 5 days in the wonder that is Disneyworld. The free vacation planning DVD arrived the other day and has instilled loads of excitement and anticipation into my kids. We are doing the official countdown. Since we return the night before Thanksgiving the logical next step here is to talk about holidays…
On the 2010 Holiday Season
Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. It is about food and friends and family and bringing everyone together to be thankful for what we have. One of my most favorite memories of Thanksgiving was the one when I was about 8 years old, in the kitchen helping my mom cook. I loved that she baked homemade bread for Thanksgiving and I loved having my own little ball of dough to shape and bake. Thanksgiving… I expect won’t be an easy time for me because I have so many memories of the holiday as spent with my mom. This will be my first without her.
I am normally the go all out person for Thanksgiving. This year it will be truly impossible since I won’t even have been at home for the 11 days prior to prepare. AB’s sister and mom will be here and aren’t expecting much. We have prepared them for the fact that there will be no cooking at the Thanksgiving magnitude done on Thursday. I am not sure what we will do. However, we WILL cook our Thanksgiving meal on either Friday or Saturday. This is going to be good for me this year to do something completely different for the holiday that will likely remind me the most of my mom.
Christmas will be in our house! AB and I have agreed that we have no intentions of traveling for the holidays potentially ever again. At least until our kids are grown and we travel to them. We have traveled for so many holidays and have done our share of it. I don’t really expect anyone to come to us, it would be nice, but I won’t be disappointed to host Christmas for my family here in town. I am thinking I will be taking nearly two weeks off and keeping the kids home with me. Yes, my sanity may be called into question at the end of this. I am looking forward to a real Christmas tree, lights on the house, Mina the elf making her appearance the day after Thanksgiving, shopping, planning our Christmas meal, the Living Nativity, Christmas Eve service and teaching what the holiday means to my kids.
Skadi has asked for a “big doll” and I haven’t started looking for one yet, but I have ideas. Leif asked for Wii games and I might have made a mistake in redirecting him. AB rolled his eyes at me when I suggested that maybe he should consider something other than Wii games since he has a lot. Something like maybe a Nintendo DS, for example.
I am normally the go all out person for Thanksgiving. This year it will be truly impossible since I won’t even have been at home for the 11 days prior to prepare. AB’s sister and mom will be here and aren’t expecting much. We have prepared them for the fact that there will be no cooking at the Thanksgiving magnitude done on Thursday. I am not sure what we will do. However, we WILL cook our Thanksgiving meal on either Friday or Saturday. This is going to be good for me this year to do something completely different for the holiday that will likely remind me the most of my mom.
Christmas will be in our house! AB and I have agreed that we have no intentions of traveling for the holidays potentially ever again. At least until our kids are grown and we travel to them. We have traveled for so many holidays and have done our share of it. I don’t really expect anyone to come to us, it would be nice, but I won’t be disappointed to host Christmas for my family here in town. I am thinking I will be taking nearly two weeks off and keeping the kids home with me. Yes, my sanity may be called into question at the end of this. I am looking forward to a real Christmas tree, lights on the house, Mina the elf making her appearance the day after Thanksgiving, shopping, planning our Christmas meal, the Living Nativity, Christmas Eve service and teaching what the holiday means to my kids.
Skadi has asked for a “big doll” and I haven’t started looking for one yet, but I have ideas. Leif asked for Wii games and I might have made a mistake in redirecting him. AB rolled his eyes at me when I suggested that maybe he should consider something other than Wii games since he has a lot. Something like maybe a Nintendo DS, for example.
Onto FY11
I have had a few really good years in a row. I am successfully managing a high risk, high visibility (within the community) multi-million dollar project. There are down sides, like I have never seen so much drama among grown men. But all that aside, I love it. I love the project, I adore my team, I feel a part of something important and it is just awesome all around. Except for the occasional bickering. Women, don’t be fooled, men can be every bit as petty and snippy as they claim we are!
I hosted a student this past summer on that project and it was a lot of fun to get her perspective of the project as a wide eyed, naïve, “going to be senior” at one of the top engineering departments in the nation. Nothing like hosting a college student to really, really make you feel old.
I will never forget sitting at coffee with her after her first exposure to a team meeting where she said, “I have never been involved in anything like that, it was really eye opening”. After a little while she also went on to say, “it is apparent that there IS really a gender bias in the workforce, I didn’t think it was real.” She explained further that all her classes in chemical engineering are 50-50 women and men. “Where have all the girls gone who have been in these programs?” She asked me. I told her that at my age… sigh, nearly 20 years ago when *I* was in college, that wasn’t the case. We also talked about the potential difference between being an undergraduate and the fact that most of my guys have either a Masters or Ph.D., like me. Ten years ago when I was finishing grad school (yes, that old thing again), I was the only female Ph.D. graduate from my department. My class didn’t start that way, we started almost 50-50.
Anyways… enough about gender disparity and feeling old, back to work stuff.
I have been trying to figure out a career path forward the last few years. I walk this line between managing and leading technically. I have struggled with knowing that in order to push through the next barrier I have to surrender an aspect of my career that I really enjoy. Which would it be? So I just continued to walk the line, maintaining the status quo, denying the path forward in my head that I kept gravitating to.
Last week on a whim, I picked up the phone and within minutes found myself sitting down in a high up manager’s office talking about career options. A few e-mails on the topic later per his request, I had an appointment with another manager. I got a few good ego strokes from the both of them, a few new things to write on my FY11 goals and most importantly an interesting new path forward. I am reminding myself of my mantra as a grad student, “I can only trust my career to myself”. It is easy to rely on your managers/team leads to push your career, to expect that they will recognize your every good move (and ignore your boneheaded ones), that they can read your mind and see what makes you truly happy in your day’s work. Easy. But wrong.
If you want something new, take that bull by the horns. Rely only on yourself.
I hosted a student this past summer on that project and it was a lot of fun to get her perspective of the project as a wide eyed, naïve, “going to be senior” at one of the top engineering departments in the nation. Nothing like hosting a college student to really, really make you feel old.
I will never forget sitting at coffee with her after her first exposure to a team meeting where she said, “I have never been involved in anything like that, it was really eye opening”. After a little while she also went on to say, “it is apparent that there IS really a gender bias in the workforce, I didn’t think it was real.” She explained further that all her classes in chemical engineering are 50-50 women and men. “Where have all the girls gone who have been in these programs?” She asked me. I told her that at my age… sigh, nearly 20 years ago when *I* was in college, that wasn’t the case. We also talked about the potential difference between being an undergraduate and the fact that most of my guys have either a Masters or Ph.D., like me. Ten years ago when I was finishing grad school (yes, that old thing again), I was the only female Ph.D. graduate from my department. My class didn’t start that way, we started almost 50-50.
Anyways… enough about gender disparity and feeling old, back to work stuff.
I have been trying to figure out a career path forward the last few years. I walk this line between managing and leading technically. I have struggled with knowing that in order to push through the next barrier I have to surrender an aspect of my career that I really enjoy. Which would it be? So I just continued to walk the line, maintaining the status quo, denying the path forward in my head that I kept gravitating to.
Last week on a whim, I picked up the phone and within minutes found myself sitting down in a high up manager’s office talking about career options. A few e-mails on the topic later per his request, I had an appointment with another manager. I got a few good ego strokes from the both of them, a few new things to write on my FY11 goals and most importantly an interesting new path forward. I am reminding myself of my mantra as a grad student, “I can only trust my career to myself”. It is easy to rely on your managers/team leads to push your career, to expect that they will recognize your every good move (and ignore your boneheaded ones), that they can read your mind and see what makes you truly happy in your day’s work. Easy. But wrong.
If you want something new, take that bull by the horns. Rely only on yourself.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Emerging from a fog
Ever feel like a dense fog lifts? Like all of a sudden there just seems to be more clarity? Ok, so we have had dense fog around here lately and the last few days HAVE been relatively clear. But I mean in a less literal term. Maybe more motivation? Like things just become a touch (not a ton) easier?
It’s hard to explain and I am trying to figure out the root cause, but things have just felt easier, clearer, less vague the past few weeks.
I am trying to figure out if it is just 2010 and 2009 just had some bad juju associated with it.
Or maybe it’s hitting 38… my lucky number is 8, so maybe my age having an “8” in my age has added a spark.
And I don’t want to rule out the value of sleep. We are embarking on nearly two weeks whereby Skadi has decided to sleep through the night!
Or maybe it is all three.
Last year I felt like it was a struggle to stay on top of anything. It was frustrating and disheartening. My work life was fine, but with a little girl full on into her terrible two’s and moving, I just never felt like a sank into a routine. My blogs were uninspiring and often forced. Nearly daily I forgot things. Ok, so I DID forget my coffee this morning, but I had a backup plan. Plus, after a night where I slept nearly 9 hours and then got up and exercised for 45 minutes, who needs coffee?? (Ok, so I do a bit…)
I walloped my monthly goal to clean my closet and main linen closet out before half the month was over and then I hit it out of the park by cleaning out the boxes in the Master bedroom (ok, so some stuff just went into a pile, but at least there is no more cardboard and nothing on the floor by the windows) AND cleaned out the deep freeze and made a list of food in there.
AB tackled the garage the garage Sunday while the kids and I were at a birthday party. While we still have a ways to go there, I feel as though things are finally coming together out there as well.
I look around my house and see possibilities, where last year I saw... well I am not sure what I saw... probably just a long to do list with no end in sight.
This coming weekend I am vowing to help my husband out in the garage. Then my dresser could use clearing off and Leif's closet needs some attention. We will see how far I get!
I am not sure the end is anywhere in sight, but the scale isn't seeming quite so immense.
Just hoping now this continues for the rest of the year!
It’s hard to explain and I am trying to figure out the root cause, but things have just felt easier, clearer, less vague the past few weeks.
I am trying to figure out if it is just 2010 and 2009 just had some bad juju associated with it.
Or maybe it’s hitting 38… my lucky number is 8, so maybe my age having an “8” in my age has added a spark.
And I don’t want to rule out the value of sleep. We are embarking on nearly two weeks whereby Skadi has decided to sleep through the night!
Or maybe it is all three.
Last year I felt like it was a struggle to stay on top of anything. It was frustrating and disheartening. My work life was fine, but with a little girl full on into her terrible two’s and moving, I just never felt like a sank into a routine. My blogs were uninspiring and often forced. Nearly daily I forgot things. Ok, so I DID forget my coffee this morning, but I had a backup plan. Plus, after a night where I slept nearly 9 hours and then got up and exercised for 45 minutes, who needs coffee?? (Ok, so I do a bit…)
I walloped my monthly goal to clean my closet and main linen closet out before half the month was over and then I hit it out of the park by cleaning out the boxes in the Master bedroom (ok, so some stuff just went into a pile, but at least there is no more cardboard and nothing on the floor by the windows) AND cleaned out the deep freeze and made a list of food in there.
AB tackled the garage the garage Sunday while the kids and I were at a birthday party. While we still have a ways to go there, I feel as though things are finally coming together out there as well.
I look around my house and see possibilities, where last year I saw... well I am not sure what I saw... probably just a long to do list with no end in sight.
This coming weekend I am vowing to help my husband out in the garage. Then my dresser could use clearing off and Leif's closet needs some attention. We will see how far I get!
I am not sure the end is anywhere in sight, but the scale isn't seeming quite so immense.
Just hoping now this continues for the rest of the year!
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