It's all about the wedding about now. I'm enjoying it, and Scott and I seem to be on top of things, so I'm not overly stressed. But there is this tense little person in the back of my head screaming "It's only THREE MONTHS AWAY!!!" Yikes...
But I had my bridal shower at Kathi's two weeks ago, and it was *awesome*! See details on the wedding blog at www.scottandlara.com.
My birthday was two days ago, and it was really nice. I tell ya there's nothing like Facebook on your birthday! I don't know how many people actually said Happy Birthday or some variant, but I felt flooded with love! Scott got me new snorkeling gear for my birthday, mom got me clothes, and my sister got me this *awesome* little kit for writing thank you notes! I'm *totally* prepared for sending wedding oriented thank you notes now!
Scott and I are about to go see a friend of ours play a concert in the cool outdoor stage shell in the city park right behind our house. It's a beautiful day in suburbia!
Friday, July 01, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Yummy Tasting at Biltmore!
We had a great time at Biltmore this weekend at our official Tasting! The food was magnificent and the service was outstanding. We had Scott's parents along and we all had a great time! This is definitely one of the highlights of wedding planning!
We're struggling a little with the registries. There's a glitch in the system at Macy's that making it difficult to sync it with the registry360.com compiler we're trying to use.
Work continues to be hard but good. My weight loss is stagnant, but I love my yoga class and Zumba class. Happiness is a good yoga mat and new sneakers. ;)
--Lara
We're struggling a little with the registries. There's a glitch in the system at Macy's that making it difficult to sync it with the registry360.com compiler we're trying to use.
Work continues to be hard but good. My weight loss is stagnant, but I love my yoga class and Zumba class. Happiness is a good yoga mat and new sneakers. ;)
--Lara
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Back from Hawaii
Well, I'm back - have been for about 10 days. The trip back was only unpleasant in that my flight from Chicago to Raleigh was canceled and I had to wait another bunch of hours for the next one.
It was a great trip in that I did a lot of good work, I bonded with my Hawaiian teammates, and I got in just enough touristing for it to be fun.
Now I'm back in the swing of things at home. This past weekend Scott and I spent the weekend in DC. We did some cleanup/rearranging of furniture in the apartment, went shopping at IKEA, and spent time with Lisa and Mona. Lisa's got a new man in her life! We got to meet him! His name is John and he's a doll. He's an academic sort, kindof soft spoken, and very sweet. Mona likes him too, which is key.
Wedding planning is going well. We're a little less ahead of the game than I'd like to be since we lost a month to me being in Hawaii. We're reading lots of books on ceremonies since we'll be writing our own from scratch with the help of our officiant, my chosen Aunt Michelle. We did get almost all of the work done on the registries, and I'm glad that's over with. It's really hard to get used to the idea of asking for *stuff*. I know the usefulness of registries, but it took some getting used to. Scott and I picked out a set of beautiful towels for each of two bathrooms we have, and for those of you who remember my issues around towels, we can safely say I now have resolution. ;)
I hope anyone who's reading this knows about our wedding web site "www.scottandlara.com"! We put all the info there about hotels and stuff that the guests would want to know. Keep watch there!
I gotta go to my Zumba class now. The Bridal Diet continues!
It was a great trip in that I did a lot of good work, I bonded with my Hawaiian teammates, and I got in just enough touristing for it to be fun.
Now I'm back in the swing of things at home. This past weekend Scott and I spent the weekend in DC. We did some cleanup/rearranging of furniture in the apartment, went shopping at IKEA, and spent time with Lisa and Mona. Lisa's got a new man in her life! We got to meet him! His name is John and he's a doll. He's an academic sort, kindof soft spoken, and very sweet. Mona likes him too, which is key.
Wedding planning is going well. We're a little less ahead of the game than I'd like to be since we lost a month to me being in Hawaii. We're reading lots of books on ceremonies since we'll be writing our own from scratch with the help of our officiant, my chosen Aunt Michelle. We did get almost all of the work done on the registries, and I'm glad that's over with. It's really hard to get used to the idea of asking for *stuff*. I know the usefulness of registries, but it took some getting used to. Scott and I picked out a set of beautiful towels for each of two bathrooms we have, and for those of you who remember my issues around towels, we can safely say I now have resolution. ;)
I hope anyone who's reading this knows about our wedding web site "www.scottandlara.com"! We put all the info there about hotels and stuff that the guests would want to know. Keep watch there!
I gotta go to my Zumba class now. The Bridal Diet continues!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Just two days left...
It's late Wednesday night, and I'm leaving on Friday afternoon. I'll miss Hawaii a lot, but I'll also be glad to get home and spend some time with my honey. Here are some kindof random things I want to remember about Hawaii:
--There seem to be an equal amount of American tourists and Japanese tourists here. Everything is printed in both English and Japanese.
--The Japanese women have a strange kind of fashion sense that includes an odd way of layering their clothes that I would never have thought of.
--There are *just* Hawaiian license plates on cars here unlike Washington DC where every state is represented. I did see ONE license plate from Arizona. I took a picture of it to remember it.
--My hotel staff is really really nice. I adore the way many of them have come to know me and call me "Miss Coutinho." Most of them even pronounce it correctly!
--I *love* the breakfast buffet here. I think I'll miss it as much as I'll miss the ocean view out my window.
--Traffic here is bad during rush hour, but it's nothing compared to DC. Their rush hour is just about two hours long and the traffic still moves just slowly. Compared to DC where the beltway can be a parking lot and stay that way for a few hours.
--I haven't been able to spend much time at the beach while the sun is up, but I've been able to walk on the beach at night. There are a lot of tiki torches all along the sidewalks here. I love the way they look, but I'm amazed no one's playing with them and causing law suits.
--I've gotten to see a lot of hula dancing, and there's a little stage on the beach that I can see from my room. I can see the hula shows from my balcony!
--Buying stamps for postcards became a real trial. At first my hotel's front desk didn't have enough for the enormous stack of post cards I had, so they sent me to the drug store near the lobby, ... lets just say it was a wild goose chase but I finally got stamps and the postcards are in the mail!
--I have eaten way too much food while I've been here. Way too much. I'm not looking forward to Weight Watchers weigh in. I have eaten a world of sushi and as much fresh fish as one could see in the Little Mermaid's chorus line. I have to say that I think Honolulu is the United States capital for sushi. Maybe it's because of the huge Japanese tourist trade here. Whyever it is, I'm grateful it is because I've had some *really* awesome sushi. I had one called "Waikiki Roll" that had pineapple and macadamia nuts in it! Where else are you going to get such a thing!?
--I haven't read much of my Hawaii tourist books. Apparently extroverts don't need them as much in Hawaii. People here are so friendly you can actually trust what they tell you!
--I'm really going to miss Hawaii.
--There seem to be an equal amount of American tourists and Japanese tourists here. Everything is printed in both English and Japanese.
--The Japanese women have a strange kind of fashion sense that includes an odd way of layering their clothes that I would never have thought of.
--There are *just* Hawaiian license plates on cars here unlike Washington DC where every state is represented. I did see ONE license plate from Arizona. I took a picture of it to remember it.
--My hotel staff is really really nice. I adore the way many of them have come to know me and call me "Miss Coutinho." Most of them even pronounce it correctly!
--I *love* the breakfast buffet here. I think I'll miss it as much as I'll miss the ocean view out my window.
--Traffic here is bad during rush hour, but it's nothing compared to DC. Their rush hour is just about two hours long and the traffic still moves just slowly. Compared to DC where the beltway can be a parking lot and stay that way for a few hours.
--I haven't been able to spend much time at the beach while the sun is up, but I've been able to walk on the beach at night. There are a lot of tiki torches all along the sidewalks here. I love the way they look, but I'm amazed no one's playing with them and causing law suits.
--I've gotten to see a lot of hula dancing, and there's a little stage on the beach that I can see from my room. I can see the hula shows from my balcony!
--Buying stamps for postcards became a real trial. At first my hotel's front desk didn't have enough for the enormous stack of post cards I had, so they sent me to the drug store near the lobby, ... lets just say it was a wild goose chase but I finally got stamps and the postcards are in the mail!
--I have eaten way too much food while I've been here. Way too much. I'm not looking forward to Weight Watchers weigh in. I have eaten a world of sushi and as much fresh fish as one could see in the Little Mermaid's chorus line. I have to say that I think Honolulu is the United States capital for sushi. Maybe it's because of the huge Japanese tourist trade here. Whyever it is, I'm grateful it is because I've had some *really* awesome sushi. I had one called "Waikiki Roll" that had pineapple and macadamia nuts in it! Where else are you going to get such a thing!?
--I haven't read much of my Hawaii tourist books. Apparently extroverts don't need them as much in Hawaii. People here are so friendly you can actually trust what they tell you!
--I'm really going to miss Hawaii.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
I have no idea what day it is...
Wow, I'm exhausted, but I'm taking some time to update this thing.
Last Tuesday I had my one day off in 10 days and I spent it at the Polynesian Cultural Center, and it was one of the best days ever! The weather was warm and not hot, the center was full of dance and music, and I ate really well! The PCC is a park, not unlike Disneyland, where there are 6 neighborhoods that display the buildings, music, art, dance, games, and any other culture they can stick in there, of 6 of the island nations in Polynesia! It's beautiful! The islands are: Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, and Tahiti! It was amazing!
The rest of the week was the same long work days and coming back to the hotel to eat and crash. I keep meaning to get online and write, but I keep choosing to sleep when I get back from dinner. I'm exhausted, but it's still going well.
This past weekend I actually had the whole weekend off! I went hiking up Diamond Head crater, did some work, went snorkling at Hanauma Bay, and spent a good part of Sunday lounging by the pool reading a book. Bliss! Ok, well, it would have been bliss if the pineapple juice I was served would have been fresh squeezed. I've become a pineapple snob.
I finally got all my post cards written and addressed, and I'm about to take them down to the front desk to mail them. If anyone reading this wants a postcard, I'm more than happy to send one! Just leave a comment on this blog and I'll email you to get your address if I don't already have it.
I wanted to mention that this area around my hotel is *beautiful*. I may complain about being tired, but the beach, coconut trees, ocean, and tiki torches on the sidewalk are a lovely thing to come "home" to at the end of a day. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. ;)
Ok, I've got to get some food. My last day here is Friday, so I'm nearly done with my adventure!
Last Tuesday I had my one day off in 10 days and I spent it at the Polynesian Cultural Center, and it was one of the best days ever! The weather was warm and not hot, the center was full of dance and music, and I ate really well! The PCC is a park, not unlike Disneyland, where there are 6 neighborhoods that display the buildings, music, art, dance, games, and any other culture they can stick in there, of 6 of the island nations in Polynesia! It's beautiful! The islands are: Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, and Tahiti! It was amazing!
The rest of the week was the same long work days and coming back to the hotel to eat and crash. I keep meaning to get online and write, but I keep choosing to sleep when I get back from dinner. I'm exhausted, but it's still going well.
This past weekend I actually had the whole weekend off! I went hiking up Diamond Head crater, did some work, went snorkling at Hanauma Bay, and spent a good part of Sunday lounging by the pool reading a book. Bliss! Ok, well, it would have been bliss if the pineapple juice I was served would have been fresh squeezed. I've become a pineapple snob.
I finally got all my post cards written and addressed, and I'm about to take them down to the front desk to mail them. If anyone reading this wants a postcard, I'm more than happy to send one! Just leave a comment on this blog and I'll email you to get your address if I don't already have it.
I wanted to mention that this area around my hotel is *beautiful*. I may complain about being tired, but the beach, coconut trees, ocean, and tiki torches on the sidewalk are a lovely thing to come "home" to at the end of a day. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. ;)
Ok, I've got to get some food. My last day here is Friday, so I'm nearly done with my adventure!
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Day 7 in Honolulu - Monday
I’m very sleepy, but I’m going to make my blog post before I fall asleep damnit. Determination. Grr.
I had a kindof hard day at work. Lots going on and not enough hours in the day to make it all happen. I do, however, have my *one* day off tomorrow! And god bless the concierge – I love that woman! She had lots of very quick and easy answers for my tourism needs. Now, I’ve been asking around what I should do with my little tourist time, and I now have a plan that will get me the best bang for my buck. First, tomorrow, I will go to the Polynesian Cultural Center. It’s a day trip where I get a bus from my hotel and it takes me and the rest of the tourists up to the North Shore of Oahu. There is a kindof living museum with interpreters showing six different kinds of Polynesian villages. Think Conner Prairie but x6 and in the tropics. Then there’s an IMAX movie, a luau, and a dance show! I decided to get the super premium package for the day that is costing me $140, but that includes all the food, transportation, and entertainment for the day. I’m very excited to see this place!
So, that’s what I’m going to do tomorrow, and I may not have energy to write a blog post when I get back – about midnight. So, y’all may have to wait another day to get the full report.
The wonderful concierge also helped me figure out what I’m doing this weekend – snorkeling! There is a really great bay nearby here, and there’s a package I can get with transportation from the hotel and snorkeling gear rental for $18! Not bad! That will be Saturday’s excursion I think. Sometime this weekend I think I’ll hike up and around Diamond Head, and then after that I’m planting my butt on the beach and forcing myself to be a slug for a day.
So, I <3 my concierge and I’m going to finally get to be a tourist while in Hawaii! Yea!
I had a kindof hard day at work. Lots going on and not enough hours in the day to make it all happen. I do, however, have my *one* day off tomorrow! And god bless the concierge – I love that woman! She had lots of very quick and easy answers for my tourism needs. Now, I’ve been asking around what I should do with my little tourist time, and I now have a plan that will get me the best bang for my buck. First, tomorrow, I will go to the Polynesian Cultural Center. It’s a day trip where I get a bus from my hotel and it takes me and the rest of the tourists up to the North Shore of Oahu. There is a kindof living museum with interpreters showing six different kinds of Polynesian villages. Think Conner Prairie but x6 and in the tropics. Then there’s an IMAX movie, a luau, and a dance show! I decided to get the super premium package for the day that is costing me $140, but that includes all the food, transportation, and entertainment for the day. I’m very excited to see this place!
So, that’s what I’m going to do tomorrow, and I may not have energy to write a blog post when I get back – about midnight. So, y’all may have to wait another day to get the full report.
The wonderful concierge also helped me figure out what I’m doing this weekend – snorkeling! There is a really great bay nearby here, and there’s a package I can get with transportation from the hotel and snorkeling gear rental for $18! Not bad! That will be Saturday’s excursion I think. Sometime this weekend I think I’ll hike up and around Diamond Head, and then after that I’m planting my butt on the beach and forcing myself to be a slug for a day.
So, I <3 my concierge and I’m going to finally get to be a tourist while in Hawaii! Yea!
Monday, April 04, 2011
Day 6 in Honolulu
Today was much easier than the rest of the week has been. I'm pretty sure the jet lag has been ebbing away and I'm getting less tired as time passes. I'm also not eating like a pig as much as I was. That breakfast buffet they have in this hotel is like *heaven* to someone who loves breakfast food like I do - or hell for a weight watcher like me. *sigh* I'm getting better about saying No to the scones, but I refuse to deny myself the amazing fresh pineapple juice! Fresh pineapple is just so damn awesome! The last time I had this kind of pineapple was in Costa Rica during my study abroad semester in 1994. So, points be damned, I'm having the pineapple juice.
Today I went to the USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor. It was amazing. It's that kind of sad sort of amazing you sense at memorials. The sheer size of the Arizona was enough to impress me, but seeing the portion that had been blown away gave it all a spooky realism. I also "enjoyed" the museum. It gave a much more detailed picture of pre-World War 2 and how the Pearl Harbor attack came to be than I'd ever heard before. A lot like my trip to Gettysburg long ago teaching me more about the Civil War than I'd gotten in any class.
So, I bought a bunch of post cards that I hope to send before leaving Hawaii. One of the cool things in the gift shop was a whole section dedicated to Rosie the Riveter! I got a magnet. I used to not like the image, but it's grown on me in recent years.
After the Pearl Harbor visit, I went to have dinner with Scott's Aunt Susan, Uncle John, and Cousin Jonathan! That was great! I have pictures up on Facebook. They took me to an amazing restaurant that's on a large deck on the beach where there are three long flat topped trees providing a little roof over the eating area! It was beautiful! The dinner was also amazing. I had the Mahimahi in something garlic with crab topping. I'm trying to eat a lot of fish while I'm here. Think global, eat local, right?
Susan was *so* damn sweet! She *made* a lei for me out of flowers from her own back yard! It was so lovely and made me feel like a queen! I doubt I'll be able to bring it back with me, so I just have to love it in the moment.
Now, I'm sleepy and about to get into bed. I think I'll sleep with the balcony door open so I can hear the ocean as I drift off to sleep. Much better than the CD recording I have of the ocean at home. The real thing is much better. Just like the pineapple juice. ;)
Today I went to the USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor. It was amazing. It's that kind of sad sort of amazing you sense at memorials. The sheer size of the Arizona was enough to impress me, but seeing the portion that had been blown away gave it all a spooky realism. I also "enjoyed" the museum. It gave a much more detailed picture of pre-World War 2 and how the Pearl Harbor attack came to be than I'd ever heard before. A lot like my trip to Gettysburg long ago teaching me more about the Civil War than I'd gotten in any class.
So, I bought a bunch of post cards that I hope to send before leaving Hawaii. One of the cool things in the gift shop was a whole section dedicated to Rosie the Riveter! I got a magnet. I used to not like the image, but it's grown on me in recent years.
After the Pearl Harbor visit, I went to have dinner with Scott's Aunt Susan, Uncle John, and Cousin Jonathan! That was great! I have pictures up on Facebook. They took me to an amazing restaurant that's on a large deck on the beach where there are three long flat topped trees providing a little roof over the eating area! It was beautiful! The dinner was also amazing. I had the Mahimahi in something garlic with crab topping. I'm trying to eat a lot of fish while I'm here. Think global, eat local, right?
Susan was *so* damn sweet! She *made* a lei for me out of flowers from her own back yard! It was so lovely and made me feel like a queen! I doubt I'll be able to bring it back with me, so I just have to love it in the moment.
Now, I'm sleepy and about to get into bed. I think I'll sleep with the balcony door open so I can hear the ocean as I drift off to sleep. Much better than the CD recording I have of the ocean at home. The real thing is much better. Just like the pineapple juice. ;)
Sunday, April 03, 2011
Days 1-5 in Honolulu
Sorry, Mom, I haven't posted til now. I've been swamped with work.
Day 1 - Tuesday: I got to the hotel safely and all's well. I got a partial-ocean view room! Had dinner with my direct boss Jason and our team boss Brandon. Brandon's the local and took us to a great little bar where we met some of his computer geek/surfer friends. Really nice guys. I had a burger that was about three times too big for me. That was the beginning of the end of my hopes for keeping on Weight Watchers while I'm here. I stayed up as long as I could and finally crashed at about 10:00. My body thought it was 4:00am. It wasn't pleased with me, but it obeyed.
Day 2 - Wednesday: First day at work - sortof. I spent my first day getting badges and secret codes and handshakes. All the stuff you need to work in a super secret squirrel location. I got very lucky and got my new CAC (military all access card) likity split without having to wait in line or wait for the guy to process it. It was just like the time I got my name and arms passed immediately that one year at Pennsic. I got back to the hotel and was too tired to go adventuring to find dinner, so I ate at the nice restaurant in the hotel. It's called "Caio Mein" and it's a combo of Italian and Chinese food. Haha!! So, I ate at the bar by myself and naturally befriended the bartender. I gave him some pointers for his dream vacation to DC. After dinner I crashed hard.
Day 3 Thursday: First day of actually doing work: It was an intense day of getting down to business after I met all my teammates in person for the first time. But I have to say I wish I could stay here - not for the weather, but for the sake of working with these people. They're just the best team I've ever had the pleasure of working with! These guys are smart, high energy, and no one has drama issues. The team works really well together, and I'm lucky to be a part of it. This was a hard day tho since it was 13 hours long. I came back to the hotel and didn't even eat dinner. I just passed out on the bed, woke up 4 hours later, got into PJs and then slept the rest of my few hours before getting up to do it again.
Day 4 Friday: This was just a regular working day of 9 hours to my great relief. By now I've made friends with another guy on my team who's staying at my hotel. He's a sys admin that's been hired to help out short term. He's from Baltimore and used to live in DC, so we have a lot in common. We went to dinner together at a cute touristy place called "The Hula Grill" and had a perfectly touristy Hawaiian evening. I drank a froufy cocktail with a pink umbrella on top, we ate the awesome fish special, there was a music act with guitar and ukulele playing during our dinner, and they also brought out a hula dancer! We ate at the bar which was near the open air deck that had burning tiki torches. It was a perfect Hawaii scene! Again, however, I got back to the hotel and crashed hard.
Day 5 Saturday: It's a little easier today. It's the weekend, and we need to have coverage at the office, so myself and another teammate worked a regular day today. Now, since my luck has been so good on this trip, it shouldn't surprise me that one hour before the end of my shift, my team boss called in with some immediate tasks for us to do that couldn't wait until tomorrow. So, I worked an hour later and didn't get back to the hotel in time to catch any beach time with sun. I got to walk on the beach at sunset - which was beautiful! I finally made contact with Scott's Aunt Susan, and I'll have dinner with her tomorrow after work.
I had dinner tonight at this awesome little sushi dive called Morio's. This is the coolest little shop! The owner/chef stands at his station and makes sushi for the *7* people that fit into his shop. That's it! 7! There were a few tables outside, but they only sat another 4-8 people. And the waiting list on this place was *long*! I was lucky in that I was just one person, so I took the last lonely little seat at the end of the table. It was everything it should be tho - really fresh and soft and full of flavor! It's how sushi should be, and I was thrilled. I was even more amazed when I got the bill and it was just $15! It was a great little dinner.
So, now I'm finally updating my blog and I will very soon be crashing. Tomorrow should be an easier day since I'll be working a regular shift and seeing Scott's aunt and uncle for dinner. A nice mellow day. Wish me luck!
Day 1 - Tuesday: I got to the hotel safely and all's well. I got a partial-ocean view room! Had dinner with my direct boss Jason and our team boss Brandon. Brandon's the local and took us to a great little bar where we met some of his computer geek/surfer friends. Really nice guys. I had a burger that was about three times too big for me. That was the beginning of the end of my hopes for keeping on Weight Watchers while I'm here. I stayed up as long as I could and finally crashed at about 10:00. My body thought it was 4:00am. It wasn't pleased with me, but it obeyed.
Day 2 - Wednesday: First day at work - sortof. I spent my first day getting badges and secret codes and handshakes. All the stuff you need to work in a super secret squirrel location. I got very lucky and got my new CAC (military all access card) likity split without having to wait in line or wait for the guy to process it. It was just like the time I got my name and arms passed immediately that one year at Pennsic. I got back to the hotel and was too tired to go adventuring to find dinner, so I ate at the nice restaurant in the hotel. It's called "Caio Mein" and it's a combo of Italian and Chinese food. Haha!! So, I ate at the bar by myself and naturally befriended the bartender. I gave him some pointers for his dream vacation to DC. After dinner I crashed hard.
Day 3 Thursday: First day of actually doing work: It was an intense day of getting down to business after I met all my teammates in person for the first time. But I have to say I wish I could stay here - not for the weather, but for the sake of working with these people. They're just the best team I've ever had the pleasure of working with! These guys are smart, high energy, and no one has drama issues. The team works really well together, and I'm lucky to be a part of it. This was a hard day tho since it was 13 hours long. I came back to the hotel and didn't even eat dinner. I just passed out on the bed, woke up 4 hours later, got into PJs and then slept the rest of my few hours before getting up to do it again.
Day 4 Friday: This was just a regular working day of 9 hours to my great relief. By now I've made friends with another guy on my team who's staying at my hotel. He's a sys admin that's been hired to help out short term. He's from Baltimore and used to live in DC, so we have a lot in common. We went to dinner together at a cute touristy place called "The Hula Grill" and had a perfectly touristy Hawaiian evening. I drank a froufy cocktail with a pink umbrella on top, we ate the awesome fish special, there was a music act with guitar and ukulele playing during our dinner, and they also brought out a hula dancer! We ate at the bar which was near the open air deck that had burning tiki torches. It was a perfect Hawaii scene! Again, however, I got back to the hotel and crashed hard.
Day 5 Saturday: It's a little easier today. It's the weekend, and we need to have coverage at the office, so myself and another teammate worked a regular day today. Now, since my luck has been so good on this trip, it shouldn't surprise me that one hour before the end of my shift, my team boss called in with some immediate tasks for us to do that couldn't wait until tomorrow. So, I worked an hour later and didn't get back to the hotel in time to catch any beach time with sun. I got to walk on the beach at sunset - which was beautiful! I finally made contact with Scott's Aunt Susan, and I'll have dinner with her tomorrow after work.
I had dinner tonight at this awesome little sushi dive called Morio's. This is the coolest little shop! The owner/chef stands at his station and makes sushi for the *7* people that fit into his shop. That's it! 7! There were a few tables outside, but they only sat another 4-8 people. And the waiting list on this place was *long*! I was lucky in that I was just one person, so I took the last lonely little seat at the end of the table. It was everything it should be tho - really fresh and soft and full of flavor! It's how sushi should be, and I was thrilled. I was even more amazed when I got the bill and it was just $15! It was a great little dinner.
So, now I'm finally updating my blog and I will very soon be crashing. Tomorrow should be an easier day since I'll be working a regular shift and seeing Scott's aunt and uncle for dinner. A nice mellow day. Wish me luck!
Monday, March 28, 2011
I'm going to Hawaii - for work.
Well, I'm going to Hawaii on a business trip! The project I'm on has the main team in Hawaii, and I've been asked to come out and help them at Home Base. That Home Base is Camp Smith on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor next to Honolulu. I'll most likely get to visit Scott's aunt, uncle, and cousin who live in Honolulu, and maybe do something touristy on my one day off.
I promised my mom I'd post to this here blog regularly so she could keep up with my adventures. So for mom and the rest of my beloved support network... wish me luck!
I promised my mom I'd post to this here blog regularly so she could keep up with my adventures. So for mom and the rest of my beloved support network... wish me luck!
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Work, wedding, work, wedding, drive, clean house, drive, work, repeat.
Things are going well on the home front. Scott and I are about to sign a contract for our wedding site and date, but I want to wait for the official contract signing before I publish to the world where and when it'll be. We are, however, confident that the event will be quite awesome.
I'm tired most of the time, worried about work all the time, and now I'm actually exercising some of the time. I broke down and got a gym membership at a gym that happens to sit right in between my office and my apartment in Alexandria. No excuses for not going. But I was thinking of my beloved Kelly a lot last night as I took my first yoga class at the gym. I was certainly the most fat, inflexible, unbalanced person in the room, but I tell ya I *did* do my breathing, did *not* hurt myself, and I got through the whole class! My goals now will be situated somewhere between the beautiful bending tree that was our instructor and the cream puff blob I am today. progress will be made. Damnit.
I also got to attend a dinner and conference for the Women In Defense professional association this week! It was amazing! One of the panels had 2 Admirals and one TWO star General...that were women!! There are apparently only about 30 Generals in our US Army and about the same number of Admirals... and we got three of them to come talk to us about how to be amazing! It was very inspiring.
I also got to see my beloved old boss Tamera! She's the one that believed in me and moved me from Indy out here to DC five years ago. It was so damn awesome to see her again. Very heartwarming and inspiring. Reminded me that the jerks I see every day that make me feel like I'm useless and worthless are just jerks and it's my job to just not buy into the message. What's that quote from Eleanor Roosevelt? "No one can make you feel bad about yourself without your permission." Was it ER? If anyone wants to correct me, there's a comment box at the bottom of this post.
AW, my job with APAN continues, my love for http://movebeyondgreen.com continues although I don't get to do billable work for them anymore, and my year of wedding planning has taken off like a rocket.
Wish me luck.
I'm tired most of the time, worried about work all the time, and now I'm actually exercising some of the time. I broke down and got a gym membership at a gym that happens to sit right in between my office and my apartment in Alexandria. No excuses for not going. But I was thinking of my beloved Kelly a lot last night as I took my first yoga class at the gym. I was certainly the most fat, inflexible, unbalanced person in the room, but I tell ya I *did* do my breathing, did *not* hurt myself, and I got through the whole class! My goals now will be situated somewhere between the beautiful bending tree that was our instructor and the cream puff blob I am today. progress will be made. Damnit.
I also got to attend a dinner and conference for the Women In Defense professional association this week! It was amazing! One of the panels had 2 Admirals and one TWO star General...that were women!! There are apparently only about 30 Generals in our US Army and about the same number of Admirals... and we got three of them to come talk to us about how to be amazing! It was very inspiring.
I also got to see my beloved old boss Tamera! She's the one that believed in me and moved me from Indy out here to DC five years ago. It was so damn awesome to see her again. Very heartwarming and inspiring. Reminded me that the jerks I see every day that make me feel like I'm useless and worthless are just jerks and it's my job to just not buy into the message. What's that quote from Eleanor Roosevelt? "No one can make you feel bad about yourself without your permission." Was it ER? If anyone wants to correct me, there's a comment box at the bottom of this post.
AW, my job with APAN continues, my love for http://movebeyondgreen.com continues although I don't get to do billable work for them anymore, and my year of wedding planning has taken off like a rocket.
Wish me luck.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Summer hell at work, moving, new gig at work, Alan's 5th death anniversary, and Pennsic
Life’s been hard these past few months. Remember that great web page I got to do at work, http://movebeyondgreen.com? Well, it’s still the greatest web page there ever was, but maintaining its greatness has been a lot of very hard work. Also, naturally, there’s never enough money to pay for our time in contracting, so I had to cram a lot of work into too few hours. That kind of situation creates intensity which breeds great stress. It is good work, and dear lord I still appreciate the opportunity to work on such a great project, I’m just recognizing how hard it’s been.
I’ve also had other work. MBG only paid for 20% of my time, so the rest was filled with the Great Crystal Reports Adventure and a few other small data management gigs. The Great Crystal Reports Adventure is the gig I’ve had since last summer to learn this new data reporting software, “Crystal Reports”, and somehow translate nine old reports from this antiquated version of PowerBuilder into CR. The hitch is that I was completely on my own. The folks that I was working for had just a tiny bit of time to help me, so I had to figure out a lot of problems on my own. Naturally, that kind of challenge created great self-confidence and pride, and a deep understanding of the CR program. So, I’m feeling very proud of myself on this one, but also very tired.
So, imagine if you will, a time when budgets are evaluated, time allowances are reallotted, and a new set of circumstances changes my world from comfortable and well managed to that intense stress I was talking about before. That time was the second week of May. From the second week of May until the first week of August, my life was a complete hell. Scratch that… I know what hell is, and this was not it. This was just a portion of my life that was intense stress. I keep having to remind myself of this. No one was dying, my loved ones were all perfectly healthy and disease-free, and I had enough money in my pocket to take care of myself. The hell came from work stress and from the fact that since November, Scott and I have been moving me from Fairfax to Raleigh.
This move has just now been settling down into something reasonable where we can be comfortable in the house. It’s taken nine months to move me from the Fairfax apartment, to a temporary oasis at my friend Cheri’s house, to finally moving into a cute little studio apartment 2 miles from my office *AND* into Scott’s house in Raleigh. Establishing this weekly commuter lifestyle has been hard, but boy howdy it has been worth it. Now that I’m settled, I am *loving* this weekly commute lifestyle! I get to have both my worlds – work in DC and home life in Raleigh with Scott. The drive is a pain, but it’s really just the escape from DC on Thursday evenings that’s a bitch. Anyone who’s been here will agree, the stretch of road on I95 on the south side of DC from the beltway down to past Quantico is like passing through a gauntlet of hell. There’s always an accident or hellish traffic or both. It usually adds a whole hour to my drive making it 6 hours instead of 5. Bleh!
So, for May, June, and July, moving and work have been hell, but of the death and disease free versions. My birthday was a royal *bitch,* but a reminder how much I love my friends. I had the worst day at work since I came to DC. So, I had a bad day that I just can't talk about in public on my birthday as I was trying to organize a birthday dinner for myself. Scott took me to my favorite restaurant the Saturday beforehand, but I wanted something nice for myself on the day of my birthday. (Now that I think of it, I should have just taken the day off.) The good news here is that my friends really came through for me, and eleven of them showed up at Maggiano’s for my birthday dinner! I felt really loved and supported for those few hours. I probably kept me from digging myself further into that hole of work hell.
So, my birthday was hell with a bit of bliss in the end, summer was hell but with no death or disease, and this brings us to the actual happy ending of the chapter. Remember how much I love my http://movebeyondgreen.com project? Well, I am now a happy member of a new team doing the same kind of thing, but on STEROIDS!! I am now working for APAN, the All Partners Access Network, a web page for setting up working groups with all the social media tools, blogs, wikis, forums, chat, etc. Our client is a military entity that’s *big*, so I’m pretty sure I’ll have enough funding to keep me out of that intense stress situation I’ve had all summer. Please do go check out http://community.apan.org and let me know what you think! My mission is to help them develop communities and train folks in how to use the system! How cool is that!? And it gets better…. They want to branch out into communities that will allow the military to reach out to non-military audiences…ones that are passionate about their work. Let me see… passionate communities of people who need to talk to the military… ENVIRONMENTALISTS!!! I have a massive plan to branch APAN into the world of environmental work in the military, and yes that includes the Cultural Resources community! All these folks I’ve worked with in my career supporting the military environmental world can now use this really awesome tool to communicate *across* the military and into the non-military world! “Stakeholder outreach” will have a whole new level with social media tools! I’m excited, but I’m also remembering that I was giddy with excitement when http://movebeyondgreen.com started, so I need to keep my head about me and plan carefully for time management.
I started with APAN on August 1, and I’m using August to transition out of http://movebeyondgreen.com. It’s not so bad because my main job was to design and build the web page, which I did so well I kind of worked myself out of a job. I can still create content and be a guest blogger so, keep watching http://movebeyondgreen.com for my brilliant articles!
Oh yes, and then there was Pennsic! Pennsic seems to be my own personal new year. It’s an intense physical time, and it’s an altered universe. So, this year’s Pennsic highlights include:
1) Sadly, my sister did not come, so that’s a lowlight
2) Many of my friends did come!
3) Francesca, Emil, Cerian, me, and a new friend from Oldcastle, Niccola, played Musica Subterranea music at the Casa Bardicci low-brow party on Sunday night – beautiful!!
4) At night, a friend in camp used his laser pointer to give us an astronomy lesson where I learned again where the summer triangle is (first time I learned was in college astronomy class)…
5) I chose to not to play in Who’s Line Doth It Be since I was exhausted by the heat and my brain just wasn’t in it. I auditioned, but told Midair to not put me in. I had a good time watching with Max and Gwendolyn and Noelle.
6) The Fool’s Parade was again a success, but since it was *SO* bloody hot, we were very low energy fools and I was just happy that no one passed out or got heat stroke. Another highlight was the magnificent Robyyan, beautiful Melonie, and one of their friends actually played pipe and tabor for us! Yes – we had music this year!! And Robyyan and Melonie are just wonderful people to be with in any setting.
7) Marvin helped out in Efenwalt and Aenor’s shop on Midnight Madness night – tho I think Marvin was less help than he actually could have been talking and schmoozing all night…
8) My commedia show with I Rosi Lioni was great! Remember Who’s Line Doth It Be? Well, one of the truly best people in the show was a guy named Tim who was just *HILLARIOUS*! I was lucky enough to get him to come play commedia with us as … you guessed it… Arlecchino! He’s tall, thin, juggles, and can do amazing physical comedy! How awesome is that!?! So, I had a *great* cast come play with me including Analeeda (CABBAGE!), Felice and her husband Michel, a friend of Caitlin’s who had just come off of playing *PETER PAN*!, my dear friends Celia and Erol from iScandali, my beloved Scott playing Dottore, and this amazing little girl, Rowan – the daughter of the magnificent Zof – playing the body guard! We put her in this hilarious huge bright pink gown but had her say in a deep, Italian, tough guy voice “You didn’t come to my pretty princess party!” and then proceed to break a lot of props including crushing a can upon her little head. This girl just *KILLED* me! Figuratively of course…
9) And the shining gem was Thursday night when we performed the iRosi Lioni show *3* times *PLUS* I played a Musica Subterranea gig right after! I did *FOUR* shows in one night! (Normally 2 would be a stretch.)
10) Another thing that happened on Thursday just about an hour before we had call for the show… That Thursday was August the 12th, the 5th anniversary of Alan’s death. I was handling the day just fine for most of it until one large brick smacked me in the face (figuratively)…. The Viking Boat. I’ve been hearing about this boat for *years* and yet I’ve never found it. It’s a wooden scaled down version of a Viking long ship. The folks that build it also make little wooden shields, and they let folks paint a shield and put it on the boat. The actual point of this boat is that it’s a funeral boat. Folks paint a shield for this boat in memory of a loved one who had died, and I swear I’ve been trying to find this dang boat project every year at Pennsic since Alan died, and I have not succeeded until this moment. No shit… there I was… in the marketplace giving a present to Niccola for working so hard to play with us on Sunday night… when I gave her a parting hug, I turned around, and *there* it was… the boat was on display off to the side of the main walkway. I went right up to a lady who looked like a host there, asked her if I could participate, and I proceeded to paint a shield for Alan while trying desperately to not cry my eyes out there in public. I managed to squeak out a “thanks” to the lady when I was done and I split. I walked away as fast as I could. On the walk back to camp I felt like I was so deep in grief I could just open up the earth and split the planet in half. But, naturally, when I got back to camp, Scott was there as his awesome self. I squeaked out “Viking boat” and he knew then why I was crying. Then as my friends started coming into camp to prepare for our iRosi Lioni show, I was crying but they were all right there for me. When I said that today was the 5th anniversary of Alan’s death, they were all full of hugs and love. It felt pretty damn good to go through that. Grief isn’t fun, but when you’ve got loved ones surrounding you, it’s healable.
So, now I’m working on APAN, tidying my home office a bit every weekend, and shopping for wedding venues with Scott. We’re still thinking that fall of 2011 will be the time to have the wedding. Maybe I’ll even make time to post to my blogs more than once a quarter. ;)
I’ve also had other work. MBG only paid for 20% of my time, so the rest was filled with the Great Crystal Reports Adventure and a few other small data management gigs. The Great Crystal Reports Adventure is the gig I’ve had since last summer to learn this new data reporting software, “Crystal Reports”, and somehow translate nine old reports from this antiquated version of PowerBuilder into CR. The hitch is that I was completely on my own. The folks that I was working for had just a tiny bit of time to help me, so I had to figure out a lot of problems on my own. Naturally, that kind of challenge created great self-confidence and pride, and a deep understanding of the CR program. So, I’m feeling very proud of myself on this one, but also very tired.
So, imagine if you will, a time when budgets are evaluated, time allowances are reallotted, and a new set of circumstances changes my world from comfortable and well managed to that intense stress I was talking about before. That time was the second week of May. From the second week of May until the first week of August, my life was a complete hell. Scratch that… I know what hell is, and this was not it. This was just a portion of my life that was intense stress. I keep having to remind myself of this. No one was dying, my loved ones were all perfectly healthy and disease-free, and I had enough money in my pocket to take care of myself. The hell came from work stress and from the fact that since November, Scott and I have been moving me from Fairfax to Raleigh.
This move has just now been settling down into something reasonable where we can be comfortable in the house. It’s taken nine months to move me from the Fairfax apartment, to a temporary oasis at my friend Cheri’s house, to finally moving into a cute little studio apartment 2 miles from my office *AND* into Scott’s house in Raleigh. Establishing this weekly commuter lifestyle has been hard, but boy howdy it has been worth it. Now that I’m settled, I am *loving* this weekly commute lifestyle! I get to have both my worlds – work in DC and home life in Raleigh with Scott. The drive is a pain, but it’s really just the escape from DC on Thursday evenings that’s a bitch. Anyone who’s been here will agree, the stretch of road on I95 on the south side of DC from the beltway down to past Quantico is like passing through a gauntlet of hell. There’s always an accident or hellish traffic or both. It usually adds a whole hour to my drive making it 6 hours instead of 5. Bleh!
So, for May, June, and July, moving and work have been hell, but of the death and disease free versions. My birthday was a royal *bitch,* but a reminder how much I love my friends. I had the worst day at work since I came to DC. So, I had a bad day that I just can't talk about in public on my birthday as I was trying to organize a birthday dinner for myself. Scott took me to my favorite restaurant the Saturday beforehand, but I wanted something nice for myself on the day of my birthday. (Now that I think of it, I should have just taken the day off.) The good news here is that my friends really came through for me, and eleven of them showed up at Maggiano’s for my birthday dinner! I felt really loved and supported for those few hours. I probably kept me from digging myself further into that hole of work hell.
So, my birthday was hell with a bit of bliss in the end, summer was hell but with no death or disease, and this brings us to the actual happy ending of the chapter. Remember how much I love my http://movebeyondgreen.com project? Well, I am now a happy member of a new team doing the same kind of thing, but on STEROIDS!! I am now working for APAN, the All Partners Access Network, a web page for setting up working groups with all the social media tools, blogs, wikis, forums, chat, etc. Our client is a military entity that’s *big*, so I’m pretty sure I’ll have enough funding to keep me out of that intense stress situation I’ve had all summer. Please do go check out http://community.apan.org and let me know what you think! My mission is to help them develop communities and train folks in how to use the system! How cool is that!? And it gets better…. They want to branch out into communities that will allow the military to reach out to non-military audiences…ones that are passionate about their work. Let me see… passionate communities of people who need to talk to the military… ENVIRONMENTALISTS!!! I have a massive plan to branch APAN into the world of environmental work in the military, and yes that includes the Cultural Resources community! All these folks I’ve worked with in my career supporting the military environmental world can now use this really awesome tool to communicate *across* the military and into the non-military world! “Stakeholder outreach” will have a whole new level with social media tools! I’m excited, but I’m also remembering that I was giddy with excitement when http://movebeyondgreen.com started, so I need to keep my head about me and plan carefully for time management.
I started with APAN on August 1, and I’m using August to transition out of http://movebeyondgreen.com. It’s not so bad because my main job was to design and build the web page, which I did so well I kind of worked myself out of a job. I can still create content and be a guest blogger so, keep watching http://movebeyondgreen.com for my brilliant articles!
Oh yes, and then there was Pennsic! Pennsic seems to be my own personal new year. It’s an intense physical time, and it’s an altered universe. So, this year’s Pennsic highlights include:
1) Sadly, my sister did not come, so that’s a lowlight
2) Many of my friends did come!
3) Francesca, Emil, Cerian, me, and a new friend from Oldcastle, Niccola, played Musica Subterranea music at the Casa Bardicci low-brow party on Sunday night – beautiful!!
4) At night, a friend in camp used his laser pointer to give us an astronomy lesson where I learned again where the summer triangle is (first time I learned was in college astronomy class)…
5) I chose to not to play in Who’s Line Doth It Be since I was exhausted by the heat and my brain just wasn’t in it. I auditioned, but told Midair to not put me in. I had a good time watching with Max and Gwendolyn and Noelle.
6) The Fool’s Parade was again a success, but since it was *SO* bloody hot, we were very low energy fools and I was just happy that no one passed out or got heat stroke. Another highlight was the magnificent Robyyan, beautiful Melonie, and one of their friends actually played pipe and tabor for us! Yes – we had music this year!! And Robyyan and Melonie are just wonderful people to be with in any setting.
7) Marvin helped out in Efenwalt and Aenor’s shop on Midnight Madness night – tho I think Marvin was less help than he actually could have been talking and schmoozing all night…
8) My commedia show with I Rosi Lioni was great! Remember Who’s Line Doth It Be? Well, one of the truly best people in the show was a guy named Tim who was just *HILLARIOUS*! I was lucky enough to get him to come play commedia with us as … you guessed it… Arlecchino! He’s tall, thin, juggles, and can do amazing physical comedy! How awesome is that!?! So, I had a *great* cast come play with me including Analeeda (CABBAGE!), Felice and her husband Michel, a friend of Caitlin’s who had just come off of playing *PETER PAN*!, my dear friends Celia and Erol from iScandali, my beloved Scott playing Dottore, and this amazing little girl, Rowan – the daughter of the magnificent Zof – playing the body guard! We put her in this hilarious huge bright pink gown but had her say in a deep, Italian, tough guy voice “You didn’t come to my pretty princess party!” and then proceed to break a lot of props including crushing a can upon her little head. This girl just *KILLED* me! Figuratively of course…
9) And the shining gem was Thursday night when we performed the iRosi Lioni show *3* times *PLUS* I played a Musica Subterranea gig right after! I did *FOUR* shows in one night! (Normally 2 would be a stretch.)
10) Another thing that happened on Thursday just about an hour before we had call for the show… That Thursday was August the 12th, the 5th anniversary of Alan’s death. I was handling the day just fine for most of it until one large brick smacked me in the face (figuratively)…. The Viking Boat. I’ve been hearing about this boat for *years* and yet I’ve never found it. It’s a wooden scaled down version of a Viking long ship. The folks that build it also make little wooden shields, and they let folks paint a shield and put it on the boat. The actual point of this boat is that it’s a funeral boat. Folks paint a shield for this boat in memory of a loved one who had died, and I swear I’ve been trying to find this dang boat project every year at Pennsic since Alan died, and I have not succeeded until this moment. No shit… there I was… in the marketplace giving a present to Niccola for working so hard to play with us on Sunday night… when I gave her a parting hug, I turned around, and *there* it was… the boat was on display off to the side of the main walkway. I went right up to a lady who looked like a host there, asked her if I could participate, and I proceeded to paint a shield for Alan while trying desperately to not cry my eyes out there in public. I managed to squeak out a “thanks” to the lady when I was done and I split. I walked away as fast as I could. On the walk back to camp I felt like I was so deep in grief I could just open up the earth and split the planet in half. But, naturally, when I got back to camp, Scott was there as his awesome self. I squeaked out “Viking boat” and he knew then why I was crying. Then as my friends started coming into camp to prepare for our iRosi Lioni show, I was crying but they were all right there for me. When I said that today was the 5th anniversary of Alan’s death, they were all full of hugs and love. It felt pretty damn good to go through that. Grief isn’t fun, but when you’ve got loved ones surrounding you, it’s healable.
So, now I’m working on APAN, tidying my home office a bit every weekend, and shopping for wedding venues with Scott. We’re still thinking that fall of 2011 will be the time to have the wedding. Maybe I’ll even make time to post to my blogs more than once a quarter. ;)
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Wrenching my life back from the jaws of work hell
1)Job
a) My job has been a roller coaster. Was hell, then heaven, then hell. It’s been real hell since May mostly because I didn’t know what new project I was going to roll onto after I finished the ones I’ve been on. The good news is that I did get a new project just in time. I bled and toiled many late hours to produce my final products on current projects, and I have to say, I’m rather impressed with myself. I created some really kick ass data bases and reports, and I helped people in really unique ways. I delivered on time and a tiny bit under budget. Everything that I could do to make my stuff great, I did, and it all turned out *really* great. I delivered by the end of the month deadline, and now I’m onto my wonderful new project.
b) “New Project?” I hear you cry? Yes, I’m about to enter the gates of occupational heaven again, but I’m wiser this time. The roller coaster of 2010 will not happen again by the hair on my chinny chin chin. Rose colored glasses are *off*, realism force fields are on, and jackass inhibitors are on full power. Want to know what this magical world-saving project is? Well, I’ll tell you…
c)The All Partners Access Network (APAN), http://community.apan.org, is a web page system built by some new friends of mine at Booz Allen. I fell in love with APAN when I first found it doing research for http://movebeyondgreen.com in February. It is a system where users can create their own online community within APAN using blogs, forums, wikis, profiles, chat rooms, and all the coolest features you can dream up! This system is an extremely robust tool for creating online communities, but not as limited as places like LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. The users have many brushes to paint with, and they create their own product. (Number 1 coolest feature is a multilingual translating chat room!)
d)The amazing thing about APAN is who created it. Naturally, the coolest programmers at Booz Allen did the heavy lifting, but who paid for it? The US Military’s Combatant Command for the Pacific Region, “PACOM”! They then extended use of it to the Southern Command, SOUTHCOM, and they used it to coordinate relief efforts for Haiti! Since the military operates on all levels of security ranging from super secret squirrels to every day public people, APAN communities can establish whatever level of security the users need. A community can be built to do public outreach or strictly Top Secret (or higher) military missions. PACOM is now exploring ways to increase their return on investment by creating partnerships with other combatant commands like SOUTHCOM. And as they spread the wings of APAN further, what kind of staff are they going to need? Well, they’re going to need people who understand the technology behind the tools, have the communication skills necessary to reach the appropriate users, be capable of delivering training to users, understand the military culture, and are passionate about building communities of people! Sound like anyone you know!? :) So, this is a dream job and a shift in career. I won’t be doing traditional environmental work anymore, but I will be working within the environmental community to spread the use of APAN.
2)Scott & Moving
a)Life has also been unadulterated hell because I have been in a state of “moving” since December. Yep, for 8 months I put my sense of “home” on hold so Scott and I could morph my lifestyle into one where I can live with him in his house in Raleigh, NC and also keep my job that’s based in DC. The final product is rather awesome, I have to say, and I am THRILLED that it’s done (mostly). I’ve moved into Scott’s house most of the way, and we both still have a lot of stuff in 2 storage garages. The amount of stuff in said garages *is* dwindling consistently, so I have faith that we’ll be down to one garage before the holidays start. I have a mostly finished home office and a lot of my own personal stuff surrounds me and is findable when I need it. Also, the key piece is the perfect little studio apartment in Alexandria, VA just 2 miles away from my Booz Allen office in Crystal City! This is the most wonderful apartment because the rent is very reasonable, the management is very considerate, and I can bike to work! Scott and I have it set up with a full size bed so he can be there too when he wants to be. We also have a tiny but full fledged grown up kitchen, TV/VCR/DVD, and a comfy chair from IKEA. The crowning glory, however, is the nest of pillows and cushions I put together for my Egroup! I have just enough space for us to sit around in a circle on the floor and be comfy! I love it!
b)The weekly commuting lifestyle is actually great for me. Lots of people think I’m nuts, but I love having a 5 hour chunk of time Thursday evenings on my drive to Raleigh to catch up on phone calls. On my Monday morning drive back to DC, I get to listen to *all* the NPR news for about 2 hours, and then I get lots of quiet time to think about the coming week. Naturally, if that gets boring, I have 6 months of “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” mp3s to keep me entertained. :)
c)The major challenge this gives me is fitting in exercise. I have gained more weight than I ever have before, and it’s extremely hard to fit in exercise time. My biking to work on Tues, Wed, & Thursdays is great, but I need more. I am succeeding at losing weight with Weight Watchers, but it’s not fast enough for a girl who needs to fit into a wedding dress.
3)Wedding
a)Oh…. Wedding? Yea…um… there is that. Remember all that hell I mentioned before? Well, it brought me to the point where I had actually forgotten that I had a fun wedding to dream about. Isn’t that killer? I did manage to purchase two whole bridal magazines in the past month and flip through most of them in an attempt to remind myself of the fun part of my life. I’m thrilled that I got that far, 2 magazines, so let’s just use this as a basis for comparison. It won’t ever get that bad again by the hair on my chinny chin… yea you know what I mean. (I do *not* need electrolysis!)
b)Scott and I are thinking in terms of having it Fall of 2011 located somewhere on the east coast, but that’s as far as we’ve developed really serious keystones. Oh, and one of the colors in the wedding will be orange. ;)
4)SCA/Pennsic
a)PENNSIC!!! PENNSIC!!!PENNSIC!!! PENNSIC!!! PENNSIC!!! PENNSIC!!!
b)Tis the season for the most wondrous Pennsic War! This is my super awesome reward for working like such a horse all year. I will reunite with friends I often only see at this event, and I will remember what the heck Sophia the Orange was doing last time I saw her. Sophie taught one commedia class this year and attended three other SCA events in the company of Manus MacDahi, but she’s been MIA for what we normally would expect of her. And don’t even talk to me about Marvin. He never calls. He never writes.
c)Sophie’s performing schedule for Pennsic War Week goes thusly:
i) Who’s Line Doth It Be Anyway – Monday evening at the Barn. (If I make the cut!)
ii)Pennsic Fool’s Parade – Tuesday 4:00 Muster at the Barn. 4:30 launch. Backup muster location is the bathhouse. Everyone’s welcome! Minors must bring parent.
iii)Musica Subterranea – Tuesday evening at the Bardicci Low Brow Party. Anyone know a violinist that can sit in for my sister? (Yes, Lucia’s skipping Pennsic this year for work and sanity’s sake.)
iv)i Rosi Lioni – Commedia dell’ Arte troupe annually created for our beloved patron Duke Dagan du Darragonne! We’ll perform privately in camp for our patron on Thursday night, then we’ll move on to the Bardicci High Brow party to do the naughty version! (I’m so proud of my casting job! We have a lovely young lady actress to do the ingénue role for the family show, then she goes to bed and her understudy does the role at Bardicci’s naughty show! Want to know who the understudy is? I’ll give you three hints: He’s hairy, fights with a big sword, and looks great in a dress!)
So now I’m wrenching my life back from the jaws of workaholism. I’m flexing my work/life balance muscles, getting enough sleep, and counting points. I’m going to set myself to send out Change of Address cards sometime in August/September, so if you want to be sure to get one, please do let me know by sending email to the address you know or leaving a comment here.
Comments here are always appreciated because that's nearly the only way I know that anyone out there is reading this. Or call me! :)
a) My job has been a roller coaster. Was hell, then heaven, then hell. It’s been real hell since May mostly because I didn’t know what new project I was going to roll onto after I finished the ones I’ve been on. The good news is that I did get a new project just in time. I bled and toiled many late hours to produce my final products on current projects, and I have to say, I’m rather impressed with myself. I created some really kick ass data bases and reports, and I helped people in really unique ways. I delivered on time and a tiny bit under budget. Everything that I could do to make my stuff great, I did, and it all turned out *really* great. I delivered by the end of the month deadline, and now I’m onto my wonderful new project.
b) “New Project?” I hear you cry? Yes, I’m about to enter the gates of occupational heaven again, but I’m wiser this time. The roller coaster of 2010 will not happen again by the hair on my chinny chin chin. Rose colored glasses are *off*, realism force fields are on, and jackass inhibitors are on full power. Want to know what this magical world-saving project is? Well, I’ll tell you…
c)The All Partners Access Network (APAN), http://community.apan.org, is a web page system built by some new friends of mine at Booz Allen. I fell in love with APAN when I first found it doing research for http://movebeyondgreen.com in February. It is a system where users can create their own online community within APAN using blogs, forums, wikis, profiles, chat rooms, and all the coolest features you can dream up! This system is an extremely robust tool for creating online communities, but not as limited as places like LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. The users have many brushes to paint with, and they create their own product. (Number 1 coolest feature is a multilingual translating chat room!)
d)The amazing thing about APAN is who created it. Naturally, the coolest programmers at Booz Allen did the heavy lifting, but who paid for it? The US Military’s Combatant Command for the Pacific Region, “PACOM”! They then extended use of it to the Southern Command, SOUTHCOM, and they used it to coordinate relief efforts for Haiti! Since the military operates on all levels of security ranging from super secret squirrels to every day public people, APAN communities can establish whatever level of security the users need. A community can be built to do public outreach or strictly Top Secret (or higher) military missions. PACOM is now exploring ways to increase their return on investment by creating partnerships with other combatant commands like SOUTHCOM. And as they spread the wings of APAN further, what kind of staff are they going to need? Well, they’re going to need people who understand the technology behind the tools, have the communication skills necessary to reach the appropriate users, be capable of delivering training to users, understand the military culture, and are passionate about building communities of people! Sound like anyone you know!? :) So, this is a dream job and a shift in career. I won’t be doing traditional environmental work anymore, but I will be working within the environmental community to spread the use of APAN.
2)Scott & Moving
a)Life has also been unadulterated hell because I have been in a state of “moving” since December. Yep, for 8 months I put my sense of “home” on hold so Scott and I could morph my lifestyle into one where I can live with him in his house in Raleigh, NC and also keep my job that’s based in DC. The final product is rather awesome, I have to say, and I am THRILLED that it’s done (mostly). I’ve moved into Scott’s house most of the way, and we both still have a lot of stuff in 2 storage garages. The amount of stuff in said garages *is* dwindling consistently, so I have faith that we’ll be down to one garage before the holidays start. I have a mostly finished home office and a lot of my own personal stuff surrounds me and is findable when I need it. Also, the key piece is the perfect little studio apartment in Alexandria, VA just 2 miles away from my Booz Allen office in Crystal City! This is the most wonderful apartment because the rent is very reasonable, the management is very considerate, and I can bike to work! Scott and I have it set up with a full size bed so he can be there too when he wants to be. We also have a tiny but full fledged grown up kitchen, TV/VCR/DVD, and a comfy chair from IKEA. The crowning glory, however, is the nest of pillows and cushions I put together for my Egroup! I have just enough space for us to sit around in a circle on the floor and be comfy! I love it!
b)The weekly commuting lifestyle is actually great for me. Lots of people think I’m nuts, but I love having a 5 hour chunk of time Thursday evenings on my drive to Raleigh to catch up on phone calls. On my Monday morning drive back to DC, I get to listen to *all* the NPR news for about 2 hours, and then I get lots of quiet time to think about the coming week. Naturally, if that gets boring, I have 6 months of “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” mp3s to keep me entertained. :)
c)The major challenge this gives me is fitting in exercise. I have gained more weight than I ever have before, and it’s extremely hard to fit in exercise time. My biking to work on Tues, Wed, & Thursdays is great, but I need more. I am succeeding at losing weight with Weight Watchers, but it’s not fast enough for a girl who needs to fit into a wedding dress.
3)Wedding
a)Oh…. Wedding? Yea…um… there is that. Remember all that hell I mentioned before? Well, it brought me to the point where I had actually forgotten that I had a fun wedding to dream about. Isn’t that killer? I did manage to purchase two whole bridal magazines in the past month and flip through most of them in an attempt to remind myself of the fun part of my life. I’m thrilled that I got that far, 2 magazines, so let’s just use this as a basis for comparison. It won’t ever get that bad again by the hair on my chinny chin… yea you know what I mean. (I do *not* need electrolysis!)
b)Scott and I are thinking in terms of having it Fall of 2011 located somewhere on the east coast, but that’s as far as we’ve developed really serious keystones. Oh, and one of the colors in the wedding will be orange. ;)
4)SCA/Pennsic
a)PENNSIC!!! PENNSIC!!!PENNSIC!!! PENNSIC!!! PENNSIC!!! PENNSIC!!!
b)Tis the season for the most wondrous Pennsic War! This is my super awesome reward for working like such a horse all year. I will reunite with friends I often only see at this event, and I will remember what the heck Sophia the Orange was doing last time I saw her. Sophie taught one commedia class this year and attended three other SCA events in the company of Manus MacDahi, but she’s been MIA for what we normally would expect of her. And don’t even talk to me about Marvin. He never calls. He never writes.
c)Sophie’s performing schedule for Pennsic War Week goes thusly:
i) Who’s Line Doth It Be Anyway – Monday evening at the Barn. (If I make the cut!)
ii)Pennsic Fool’s Parade – Tuesday 4:00 Muster at the Barn. 4:30 launch. Backup muster location is the bathhouse. Everyone’s welcome! Minors must bring parent.
iii)Musica Subterranea – Tuesday evening at the Bardicci Low Brow Party. Anyone know a violinist that can sit in for my sister? (Yes, Lucia’s skipping Pennsic this year for work and sanity’s sake.)
iv)i Rosi Lioni – Commedia dell’ Arte troupe annually created for our beloved patron Duke Dagan du Darragonne! We’ll perform privately in camp for our patron on Thursday night, then we’ll move on to the Bardicci High Brow party to do the naughty version! (I’m so proud of my casting job! We have a lovely young lady actress to do the ingénue role for the family show, then she goes to bed and her understudy does the role at Bardicci’s naughty show! Want to know who the understudy is? I’ll give you three hints: He’s hairy, fights with a big sword, and looks great in a dress!)
So now I’m wrenching my life back from the jaws of workaholism. I’m flexing my work/life balance muscles, getting enough sleep, and counting points. I’m going to set myself to send out Change of Address cards sometime in August/September, so if you want to be sure to get one, please do let me know by sending email to the address you know or leaving a comment here.
Comments here are always appreciated because that's nearly the only way I know that anyone out there is reading this. Or call me! :)
Friday, May 28, 2010
I'm alive.
I’m alive. I have no work/life balance. Scott and I moved me into my new little studio apartment near my DC (Crystal City) office a month ago. It’s been rough because I’m trying to move into this little space in the bits of “free” time I have after work. Weekends are in Raleigh with my honey and the kitty and that’s very good stuff. We’re also trying to move me into the Raleigh house, and that’s rough because we’re merging two fully loaded households of mature people who have been on their own for a long time. We’re getting rid of lots of stuff, storing lots of stuff till we can go through it, and spending most of our weekend time cleaning, moving, sorting, and trying to dig through boxes to find the crap we need.
Work is also very hard. I’m thrilled about my web page project (http://movebeyondgreen.com – please go click on it and make a comment!) but the money left on the contract for it has dwindled down to a trickle. And competition within my office for billable hours has become very difficult. Very intense. Doesn’t make for an easy time during the day that makes for a nice few hours in the evening to sort through moving boxes.
So, Scott and I are spending every free minute trying to organize our lives. This means I’m very out of contact with anyone besides him and my mother (who’s contracted for an hour phone call once a week). Even my sister has to make a phone date with me two weeks ahead of time. So, I apologize to my dear dear friends for not being in touch, and I promise I’ll reach out again as soon as Scott and I get settled in this new weekly-commuter lifestyle.
Wish us luck.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Back up! Movebeyondgreen.com repels back the forces of evil!
I am so sickeningly proud of myself... After sweating bullets yesterday evening, my beloved fiance gave me a suggestion this morning that served as the last puzzle piece to completely fixing my beloved MBG blog! No shit, there I was, a fledgling webmaster facing my first complete hack from an actual hacker attack, on a Sunday evening with no support from my Booz Allen team in sight. My normally reliable hosting service, Network Solutions, had no actual solution since it wasn't really their failing, but they were doing their best to keep us panicking users pointed to updated and applicable forums.
Fast forward to this morning, after trying everything suggested by the forums, my honey comes into my home office and says "Try looking at the password here..." and lo and behold! That was the golden key of salvation! Passwords were changed, wp-config files were updated, databases were reconnected, and peace and prosperity once again spread throughout the land.
So, go forth yee masses of intellectuals and environmentalists and budget balancers and forward thinkers to the realm of http://movebeyondgreen.com and see the glory for yourselves! And please do add a comment! Let me practice my newly minted comment monitoring skills!
Fast forward to this morning, after trying everything suggested by the forums, my honey comes into my home office and says "Try looking at the password here..." and lo and behold! That was the golden key of salvation! Passwords were changed, wp-config files were updated, databases were reconnected, and peace and prosperity once again spread throughout the land.
So, go forth yee masses of intellectuals and environmentalists and budget balancers and forward thinkers to the realm of http://movebeyondgreen.com and see the glory for yourselves! And please do add a comment! Let me practice my newly minted comment monitoring skills!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Site's down for the moment... come back later when all hackers have been put to death.
http://techcocktail.com/home/2010/04/08/wordpress-hacked-virus-cloaks-search-engines
My beloved web page is down for the moment because someone out there doesn't have enough love in their lives so they're on the mission to make the rest of us miserable. *sigh*
My beloved web page is down for the moment because someone out there doesn't have enough love in their lives so they're on the mission to make the rest of us miserable. *sigh*
Friday, April 02, 2010
A government site that will save the planet: http://movebeyondgreen.com
My current project in my professional life will save the planet. I’m not kidding. My team has created http://movebeyondgreen.com for our client, the Army Environmental Policy Institute, to create a sustainability community of interest online. If you want to offer volunteer help, you can do tthree things: 1) click on the site, 2) forward our URL to your networks, and 3) suggest URLs to online resources that help leaders of large organizations actually find solutions to balancing environmental impact with their shrinking budgets and the needs of their people. Email the project directly via info at movebeyondgreen dot com.
My company is Booz Allen Hamilton, and I’m proud of the efforts the firm is making to reduce our environmental impact. My client is the Army Environmental Policy Institute, and I’m proud to work for people who have dedicated their lives to supporting both our military and our planet. This is not a place for loud activism, but rather thoughtful, informed, long term planning. This is a place where we can do hard work and get down to business.
Forward as appropriate.
My company is Booz Allen Hamilton, and I’m proud of the efforts the firm is making to reduce our environmental impact. My client is the Army Environmental Policy Institute, and I’m proud to work for people who have dedicated their lives to supporting both our military and our planet. This is not a place for loud activism, but rather thoughtful, informed, long term planning. This is a place where we can do hard work and get down to business.
Forward as appropriate.
Monday, March 15, 2010
It is now official, public, and subject to cheering: Scott and I are engaged!
As you may have heard from other sources because I’m just pathetic about keeping my personal communications up to date…
Scott and I are officially, publicly, undeniably engaged!
Yep, the official ceremonial ritual of stating publicly that we are now engaged to be married, complete with a diamond ring being publicly stationed on my left ring finger, video recording of the event, plenty of joyful tears, and a toast with non alcoholic bubbly apple juice has occurred. On March 6, in the company of a good many of my loved ones including my sister, Scott declared his worthiness and I agreed with him. A perfectly awesome ring of white gold holding onto a fantastically orange diamond was placed onto my left ring finger and a beautiful pendant of white gold holding a blue sapphire was hung on Scott’s neck (with his own hand made lucet cord).
Yes, we’ve been planning this for months. Not the specific plan, but we’ve been figuring out between us how and when we want to publicly declare the agreement we’ve come to in very small incremental steps over a long long time. There was no single particular moment when one of us asked the other one if they wanted to get married. There were a good many deep, serious conversations (many of which took place at Panera Bread over lunch after Weight Watchers meetings), and over time we came to know that we both wanted to spend the rest of our time here on earth as partners. We started designing these two rings a few months ago, and I honestly don’t remember when. Since I’ve been moving since early November, I apparently have forgotten some details like when we first went to Goldworks Jewlers and consulted with our SCA fencer friend Charlotte who works at the store. Scott wanted to fly in the face of the traditional and defy the modern wedding industry by claiming his desire to also get an awesome piece of sacred jewelry. He didn’t want to have another ring compete with his eventual wedding band, so he went with a pendant modeled after another gold and ruby one in the store. It’s quite awesome.
So, we’ve been moving me into his house, attempting to merge two fully outfitted households, morphing me into a weekly DC commuter, and also designing rings and redefining our life management methods to work for two. Also, I’ve long owed my aunt and uncle in Cincinnati a visit, in person, with my car, to help deal with my late grandmother’s belongings. And since I’ve been working on the Annual Report to Congress which has a very *very* strict deadline schedule of final drafts due in late February, I decided to plan my trip to see my aunt and uncle immediately after those deadlines. It also just happens that early March is when my favorite SCA music and dance event in Cincinnati is usually held, so it was pretty easy to visit my aunt and uncle on either side of that event’s weekend. So, I planned to head out to Cincinnati on March 5, attend Ceilidh in the College of St. Joan of the (Questionable) Barony of Flaming Gryphon, visit my aunt and uncle, and hopefully my sister in there too.
Fast forward to the day (I honestly forget when it was) Scott and I put in the final order for our rings. We went to dinner at Scott’s favorite diner, and I said “We should do something special when we pick up the rings. It just seems so anti-climactic to just pick them up and then call our parents to say we’re officially engaged.” So, we batted around a whole bunch of ideas, and I have to say that my sweetie is a hell of a romantic. He suggested three beautiful places where we could have a special dinner and overnight away from all the normal life crap. I will likely dig up those discarded suggestions for some kind of celebration later – maybe when we finally get me unpacked? Anyway, they were beautiful, but I still felt kindof not excited. So, down I went into deep thought and consideration. After much meditation, journaling, and sweating, I managed to identify that the important thing here was that I wanted to share this ritual moment with my loved ones in *addition* to him. (Me = Hard Wired Extrovert.) Now, I never expected that Scott would want to drive the 10 hours cross-country into the boring Midwest just to hang out with my peeps. But call me lucky – my honey thought it would be just great to go on the road trip with me, hang with my people, and make our engagement announcement there!
So, Ceilidh = Musica Subterranea = evening of fun with loved ones including my sister = opportune moment to make an announcement when the band takes a break!
Now, I have to take a moment to shower praise and adoration upon my sweetie honey baby. I did ask him to think of what to say as this announcement on his own. I wanted to be surprised by one thing that we didn’t plan ahead of time. He was, as you may predict, sweating it because he’s not usually excited about solo performing outside of a bardic circle. But I tell ya… my baby is the most amazing poetical, romantical, sweetie gooshie boo boo there ever was. He made a speech that outlined why he was a worthy candidate for sharing a life with me. He listed a kind of “Hercules 12 labors” list of ways he’s supported me in the past 2.5 years, and I was crying long before he finished. I can’t remember all of it (I do have it on video tape), but the qualifications he listed included:
• hauling Musica Subterranea gear from one end of Pennsic to the other
• hauling i Marvini from one end of Pennsic to the other
• heralding the approach of the Fool’s Parade three years running (he also keeps water bottles for me and keeps me hydrated the whole way!)
• he helped me cope with the death of my kitty Bonkers as I helped him with the death of his kitty Lafayette
• he survived being snowed in with my parents and me in my tiny apartment during the blizzard of December 09 without a problem
And somewhere in there I just cried and couldn’t hear what he was saying. But there were a good many more excellent examples of how he’s been there for me like a husband should, and he “invited” me to join him in a life together. He presented the ring (which I had not seen yet), and I was actually completely speechless. I don’t remember who put the ring on my finger, but I put the pendant on him, and there were many tears and kisses.
I thank Paula/Abigail for videotaping, and my dear friend and drummer Phil for getting some good pictures. You can see Phil’s awesome work on his flikr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/master-phillip/sets/72157623504319151 and I suggest you look around at his awesome collections! Also thanks go to my dear friends Jason and Allegra for holding my cello and helping get the juice distributed. And I have to also thank my awesome sister for helping Scott set the stage. I am ridiculously blessed.
Naturally, my aunt and uncle were thrilled, and my aunt waved her magic Photoshop wand and made up some kick ass engagement announcements for us! Her Photoshop skills are quite extraordinary, and I’ll post her beautiful creation up here if I can figure out how.
So, that’s the story, I’m up way too late, and I’ve got to get this posted so I can get to sleep.
Scott and I are officially, publicly, undeniably engaged!
Yep, the official ceremonial ritual of stating publicly that we are now engaged to be married, complete with a diamond ring being publicly stationed on my left ring finger, video recording of the event, plenty of joyful tears, and a toast with non alcoholic bubbly apple juice has occurred. On March 6, in the company of a good many of my loved ones including my sister, Scott declared his worthiness and I agreed with him. A perfectly awesome ring of white gold holding onto a fantastically orange diamond was placed onto my left ring finger and a beautiful pendant of white gold holding a blue sapphire was hung on Scott’s neck (with his own hand made lucet cord).
Yes, we’ve been planning this for months. Not the specific plan, but we’ve been figuring out between us how and when we want to publicly declare the agreement we’ve come to in very small incremental steps over a long long time. There was no single particular moment when one of us asked the other one if they wanted to get married. There were a good many deep, serious conversations (many of which took place at Panera Bread over lunch after Weight Watchers meetings), and over time we came to know that we both wanted to spend the rest of our time here on earth as partners. We started designing these two rings a few months ago, and I honestly don’t remember when. Since I’ve been moving since early November, I apparently have forgotten some details like when we first went to Goldworks Jewlers and consulted with our SCA fencer friend Charlotte who works at the store. Scott wanted to fly in the face of the traditional and defy the modern wedding industry by claiming his desire to also get an awesome piece of sacred jewelry. He didn’t want to have another ring compete with his eventual wedding band, so he went with a pendant modeled after another gold and ruby one in the store. It’s quite awesome.
So, we’ve been moving me into his house, attempting to merge two fully outfitted households, morphing me into a weekly DC commuter, and also designing rings and redefining our life management methods to work for two. Also, I’ve long owed my aunt and uncle in Cincinnati a visit, in person, with my car, to help deal with my late grandmother’s belongings. And since I’ve been working on the Annual Report to Congress which has a very *very* strict deadline schedule of final drafts due in late February, I decided to plan my trip to see my aunt and uncle immediately after those deadlines. It also just happens that early March is when my favorite SCA music and dance event in Cincinnati is usually held, so it was pretty easy to visit my aunt and uncle on either side of that event’s weekend. So, I planned to head out to Cincinnati on March 5, attend Ceilidh in the College of St. Joan of the (Questionable) Barony of Flaming Gryphon, visit my aunt and uncle, and hopefully my sister in there too.
Fast forward to the day (I honestly forget when it was) Scott and I put in the final order for our rings. We went to dinner at Scott’s favorite diner, and I said “We should do something special when we pick up the rings. It just seems so anti-climactic to just pick them up and then call our parents to say we’re officially engaged.” So, we batted around a whole bunch of ideas, and I have to say that my sweetie is a hell of a romantic. He suggested three beautiful places where we could have a special dinner and overnight away from all the normal life crap. I will likely dig up those discarded suggestions for some kind of celebration later – maybe when we finally get me unpacked? Anyway, they were beautiful, but I still felt kindof not excited. So, down I went into deep thought and consideration. After much meditation, journaling, and sweating, I managed to identify that the important thing here was that I wanted to share this ritual moment with my loved ones in *addition* to him. (Me = Hard Wired Extrovert.) Now, I never expected that Scott would want to drive the 10 hours cross-country into the boring Midwest just to hang out with my peeps. But call me lucky – my honey thought it would be just great to go on the road trip with me, hang with my people, and make our engagement announcement there!
So, Ceilidh = Musica Subterranea = evening of fun with loved ones including my sister = opportune moment to make an announcement when the band takes a break!
Now, I have to take a moment to shower praise and adoration upon my sweetie honey baby. I did ask him to think of what to say as this announcement on his own. I wanted to be surprised by one thing that we didn’t plan ahead of time. He was, as you may predict, sweating it because he’s not usually excited about solo performing outside of a bardic circle. But I tell ya… my baby is the most amazing poetical, romantical, sweetie gooshie boo boo there ever was. He made a speech that outlined why he was a worthy candidate for sharing a life with me. He listed a kind of “Hercules 12 labors” list of ways he’s supported me in the past 2.5 years, and I was crying long before he finished. I can’t remember all of it (I do have it on video tape), but the qualifications he listed included:
• hauling Musica Subterranea gear from one end of Pennsic to the other
• hauling i Marvini from one end of Pennsic to the other
• heralding the approach of the Fool’s Parade three years running (he also keeps water bottles for me and keeps me hydrated the whole way!)
• he helped me cope with the death of my kitty Bonkers as I helped him with the death of his kitty Lafayette
• he survived being snowed in with my parents and me in my tiny apartment during the blizzard of December 09 without a problem
And somewhere in there I just cried and couldn’t hear what he was saying. But there were a good many more excellent examples of how he’s been there for me like a husband should, and he “invited” me to join him in a life together. He presented the ring (which I had not seen yet), and I was actually completely speechless. I don’t remember who put the ring on my finger, but I put the pendant on him, and there were many tears and kisses.
I thank Paula/Abigail for videotaping, and my dear friend and drummer Phil for getting some good pictures. You can see Phil’s awesome work on his flikr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/master-phillip/sets/72157623504319151 and I suggest you look around at his awesome collections! Also thanks go to my dear friends Jason and Allegra for holding my cello and helping get the juice distributed. And I have to also thank my awesome sister for helping Scott set the stage. I am ridiculously blessed.
Naturally, my aunt and uncle were thrilled, and my aunt waved her magic Photoshop wand and made up some kick ass engagement announcements for us! Her Photoshop skills are quite extraordinary, and I’ll post her beautiful creation up here if I can figure out how.
So, that’s the story, I’m up way too late, and I’ve got to get this posted so I can get to sleep.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Snowpocalypse in DC, Wordpress and Thesis, slow unpacking, Ymir, visit to Cincinatti
Snow in DC
I escaped the snowpocalypse by a hair. I drove down to DC on Friday the 5th, and I did actually stay at the office later than I should have. That's my workaholic monkey making trouble again. It took 9 hours to make the normally 5 hour drive from DC to Raleigh, but that's because I and the other nuts on the road were traveling at 25 mph all the way down I95. Safe but slow. And wet. But Scott was waiting for me when I got home, and I enjoyed by beautiful new bed.
I worked from home all last week and yesterday too. I learned that I have a really hard time balancing work and life when I'm working at home. Every day last week I would sit down at the computer and obsess over my work until late at night. Galahad the cat got more physical activity than I did. I got a lot done, but my body didn't appreciate the treatment. I forced myself to take a walk in the evening on Friday, but I've got to do better when working from home in the future.
I came back to DC this morning, and there are still mountains of snow on the sides of the road. Parking is an even more precious commodity now. I'm going back to Raleigh on Thursday night, and I'll pray that more of this stuff melts over the weekend.
Professional Blogging:
I'm loving Wordpress! And Wordpress THEMES! I picked "Thesis" as my theme because it's the most flexible one I could find. I'm loving this gig!
Unpacking in Raleigh:
The moving in and unpacking part is still slow as molasses. Between working a full time job, trying to invest some time in taking care of my body with rest and exercise, and driving, the energy I have for unpacking is minimal. I really didn't accomplish anything the whole week I was down there. *sigh*
Ymir!
Scott and I went to our first SCA event since September! It was a viking event called Ymir, I think after a Norse god of snow or something. I really thought it was going to be snowed out completely since most of Atlantia was genuinely under many feet of snow, but a good 300+ people came! It was a great site with heated cabins and flush toilets and a great kitchen. I ran the dancing, and had a lovely time. Just like riding a bike. And I met some really fun young people from college groups just trying to get dancing going. It felt really good to be able to give them advice and feel like I knew what I was talking about.
I also actually competed in a performing arts competition! I arrived on site about half an hour before it started, and Rose (the organizer) asked me to come. I had brought *nothing* with me, so I grabbed a pair of socks. A little brainstorming and searching the wooded environment for props later, I performed a recreation of what it could be like to be a viking snowed in with your family and your kids need entertainment. One of my big white socks became Sven the Viking who told tall tales about how he fought off enemy hordes - played by two other bards in the audience. A good time was had by all, and I patted myself on the back for having enough improv to pull something out of my ass at a moment's notice.
Visit to Cincinnati:
Yes - I'm coming out that way on March 5th for a week, and Scott's coming with me for the first half. I haven't got a schedule yet. Stay tuned.
I escaped the snowpocalypse by a hair. I drove down to DC on Friday the 5th, and I did actually stay at the office later than I should have. That's my workaholic monkey making trouble again. It took 9 hours to make the normally 5 hour drive from DC to Raleigh, but that's because I and the other nuts on the road were traveling at 25 mph all the way down I95. Safe but slow. And wet. But Scott was waiting for me when I got home, and I enjoyed by beautiful new bed.
I worked from home all last week and yesterday too. I learned that I have a really hard time balancing work and life when I'm working at home. Every day last week I would sit down at the computer and obsess over my work until late at night. Galahad the cat got more physical activity than I did. I got a lot done, but my body didn't appreciate the treatment. I forced myself to take a walk in the evening on Friday, but I've got to do better when working from home in the future.
I came back to DC this morning, and there are still mountains of snow on the sides of the road. Parking is an even more precious commodity now. I'm going back to Raleigh on Thursday night, and I'll pray that more of this stuff melts over the weekend.
Professional Blogging:
I'm loving Wordpress! And Wordpress THEMES! I picked "Thesis" as my theme because it's the most flexible one I could find. I'm loving this gig!
Unpacking in Raleigh:
The moving in and unpacking part is still slow as molasses. Between working a full time job, trying to invest some time in taking care of my body with rest and exercise, and driving, the energy I have for unpacking is minimal. I really didn't accomplish anything the whole week I was down there. *sigh*
Ymir!
Scott and I went to our first SCA event since September! It was a viking event called Ymir, I think after a Norse god of snow or something. I really thought it was going to be snowed out completely since most of Atlantia was genuinely under many feet of snow, but a good 300+ people came! It was a great site with heated cabins and flush toilets and a great kitchen. I ran the dancing, and had a lovely time. Just like riding a bike. And I met some really fun young people from college groups just trying to get dancing going. It felt really good to be able to give them advice and feel like I knew what I was talking about.
I also actually competed in a performing arts competition! I arrived on site about half an hour before it started, and Rose (the organizer) asked me to come. I had brought *nothing* with me, so I grabbed a pair of socks. A little brainstorming and searching the wooded environment for props later, I performed a recreation of what it could be like to be a viking snowed in with your family and your kids need entertainment. One of my big white socks became Sven the Viking who told tall tales about how he fought off enemy hordes - played by two other bards in the audience. A good time was had by all, and I patted myself on the back for having enough improv to pull something out of my ass at a moment's notice.
Visit to Cincinnati:
Yes - I'm coming out that way on March 5th for a week, and Scott's coming with me for the first half. I haven't got a schedule yet. Stay tuned.
Monday, February 01, 2010
Moving in, beautiful new bed, professional blogging, going back to Midwest for a visit
Moving In
Moving in with Scott is a slow, painful process, but I can tell it's getting better. We've made at least some progress every weekend. We both suffer from bad habits around keeping too much *stuff*, and it's dramatically obvious right now. Scott's been in his house for 14 years, and no matter who you are there will be accumulation of stuff over 14 years. I've had the &&$&^*&)_(%$&^ blessing of two major moves in the past 4 years to "help" me cull out the unnecessary *stuff*, but I tell ya it's still hellishly hard. As hard as I tried, I still couldn't avoid labeling a box "Misc Stuff" this time. I found that box again this weekend. I still can't come up with a name for it.
This reminds me of a lesson I got on the subject of being a "victim" once while camping with my egroup. (Stay with me now... it will become relevant I promise.) This was my first egroup, lo these many years ago. We went on a camping trip for a weekend in lovely southern Indiana to bond and relax. As we sat and talked that night, we got to the subject of being a "victim." It was the opinion of everyone in the group but me that being a victim was actually a choice. I asked, "But what about people that are victims of...umm.. like... a hurricane?" (This was long before Katrina.) No one can control a hurricane! Anyone who gets hit by a hurricane is a victim! Tell me they're not!
The perspective I learned that night was that even if a person experiences some horrible, life altering, horror that takes away every physical thing they own, it is absolutely possible for that person to see their situation as an opportunity to learn. If you loose every earthly possession in a hurricane, you now get to experience what it's like to completely start over again from scratch. Maybe that person can learn to value beloved people more. Or maybe that person can see deeper into their own spirit after being freed from all physical possessions. That person certainly does have the opportunity to now choose objects to bring into their life that are of a higher quality or are more useful. Or choose to have fewer objects in their life...
I think about the trade offs as I stare at my Rubbermaid bin labeled "Misc Stuff." I'm attached enough to this stuff that I don't want to throw it away, but I have a hard time assigning a purpose to all that stuff. Maybe it could call it "Occasionally Useful Tools" or "Mildly Nostalgic Mementos."
Whatever that bin of stuff is, it is exactly what I would be freed of if I got hit by a hurricane.
AW...
Scott and I made a dent in the trailer that held the "Last Load" of stuff from my Fairfax apartment. We pulled out stuff I wanted in the near term and left in the stuff that I wouldn't need or want in the next few months. I pulled out my dumbeck drum, a huge box of December Holiday gifts I didn't get sent during all the moving hell, my computer printer, a box of books for Jewish class, and of course the box of "Misc Stuff." My study (formerly Scott's guest room) is now full of *stuff*, but some of it resembles computer parts and a table. There is order buried deep in their somewhere.
The big accomplishment of the weekend was settling the issue of our new bed. I'm thrilled beyond words that we have achieved this blessed milestone! This is the first honest to god new bed I have owned since my parents set me up with a new twin bed when we moved to Indiana when I was 8 years old. During college, I slept in whatever dorm room bed Barnard College saw fit to supply me with. After college, I used the super old queen bed that my parents changed out for a pretty new King bed.
That there old queen bed has only just now been retired to life in a landfill. It broke my heart to do it, but I did everything I could to reuse it. It was just too stained and old for anyone else to want it. So, it's history.
Also, my dear sweetie Scott finally let go of the bed he's been sleeping on for many long years. This one, however, I judged to be of the petrified variety of sleeping materials. Over I don't know how many many many long years he's been sleeping on that fouton mattress, it has slowly morphed into a hardened quality seen only in archeology labs. I just had too many mornings waking with horrible pain in my back, shoulders, and arms. So, between the two of us, we let go of our old beds and started anew.
This new start to better sleeping included a great search of mattresses that ended two weeks ago at the Mattress Factory in Cary, NC: http://www.originalmattress.com. They have a factory in Raleigh, so they can reduce the price some. They also had lots to say about the high quality construction and materials and blah and blah blah blah. All I cared about was the sweet heavenly cloud that was supporting my back as I test flopped my hundredth mattress. I was in love. Scott was too. And we would all sleep together in blissful harmony.
Funny thing was that the high bed Scott had built himself to house the painfully thin rock of a futon mattress was not a good match for the blissful cloud of love that got delivered two weeks ago. Scott The Woodworking Master had built himself a bed that would allow big Rubbermaid bins to slide underneath for efficient storage. Brilliant, yes, and functional if you're a hardened manly man who likes sleeping on rocks.
So, fast forward to this weekend when Scott and I cleared out the storage bins, cleaned up all the evidence of kitty cats finding cute little hidey-holes in between said bins, and exchanging Scott's woodworking masterpiece for the metal frame that until recently held my ancient queen mattress and boxspring a mere 6 inches off the floor. Short frame + new half size box spring + blessed new cloud mattress = happy Lara!!! Scott is now planning his next bed frame masterpiece. It will still store Rubbermaid bins underneath, but they'll be the half size ones.
And now onto other topics...
My job has given me a shining light of joy like I have not seen in years! I am, henceforth, spending half my professional billable hours doing that which I never thought I'd get paid to do in my life! Blogging!! (No, not puppets. I know. *sigh*)
But Blogging! I am venturing forth into the world of Wordpress and respectable social media professionals worldwide! I don't want to go into it in detail here until I'm ready to present something, but I'll say that the topic is "Sustainability" and the client is the caliber of client that I came to DC to find. Many pieces of my professional dreams are coming together, and I can sense greatness in the air. I don't want to jinx it, so I'll stop here. Just wish me luck and send me any URLs of good Wordpress support communities.
For a grand finale, I'll announce that I'm coming back to the Midwest for a visit! I owe my aunt and uncle in Cincinnati some quality time, so I'll be headed out there the second week of March. Email me if you want details.
PS: In two weeks, I'll be leading dancing at Ymir! Anyone in Atlantia who is willing to be a gentle audience for my first time back in the saddle of Dance Mistressing in over 4 years should come!
Moving in with Scott is a slow, painful process, but I can tell it's getting better. We've made at least some progress every weekend. We both suffer from bad habits around keeping too much *stuff*, and it's dramatically obvious right now. Scott's been in his house for 14 years, and no matter who you are there will be accumulation of stuff over 14 years. I've had the &&$&^*&)_(%$&^ blessing of two major moves in the past 4 years to "help" me cull out the unnecessary *stuff*, but I tell ya it's still hellishly hard. As hard as I tried, I still couldn't avoid labeling a box "Misc Stuff" this time. I found that box again this weekend. I still can't come up with a name for it.
This reminds me of a lesson I got on the subject of being a "victim" once while camping with my egroup. (Stay with me now... it will become relevant I promise.) This was my first egroup, lo these many years ago. We went on a camping trip for a weekend in lovely southern Indiana to bond and relax. As we sat and talked that night, we got to the subject of being a "victim." It was the opinion of everyone in the group but me that being a victim was actually a choice. I asked, "But what about people that are victims of...umm.. like... a hurricane?" (This was long before Katrina.) No one can control a hurricane! Anyone who gets hit by a hurricane is a victim! Tell me they're not!
The perspective I learned that night was that even if a person experiences some horrible, life altering, horror that takes away every physical thing they own, it is absolutely possible for that person to see their situation as an opportunity to learn. If you loose every earthly possession in a hurricane, you now get to experience what it's like to completely start over again from scratch. Maybe that person can learn to value beloved people more. Or maybe that person can see deeper into their own spirit after being freed from all physical possessions. That person certainly does have the opportunity to now choose objects to bring into their life that are of a higher quality or are more useful. Or choose to have fewer objects in their life...
I think about the trade offs as I stare at my Rubbermaid bin labeled "Misc Stuff." I'm attached enough to this stuff that I don't want to throw it away, but I have a hard time assigning a purpose to all that stuff. Maybe it could call it "Occasionally Useful Tools" or "Mildly Nostalgic Mementos."
Whatever that bin of stuff is, it is exactly what I would be freed of if I got hit by a hurricane.
AW...
Scott and I made a dent in the trailer that held the "Last Load" of stuff from my Fairfax apartment. We pulled out stuff I wanted in the near term and left in the stuff that I wouldn't need or want in the next few months. I pulled out my dumbeck drum, a huge box of December Holiday gifts I didn't get sent during all the moving hell, my computer printer, a box of books for Jewish class, and of course the box of "Misc Stuff." My study (formerly Scott's guest room) is now full of *stuff*, but some of it resembles computer parts and a table. There is order buried deep in their somewhere.
The big accomplishment of the weekend was settling the issue of our new bed. I'm thrilled beyond words that we have achieved this blessed milestone! This is the first honest to god new bed I have owned since my parents set me up with a new twin bed when we moved to Indiana when I was 8 years old. During college, I slept in whatever dorm room bed Barnard College saw fit to supply me with. After college, I used the super old queen bed that my parents changed out for a pretty new King bed.
That there old queen bed has only just now been retired to life in a landfill. It broke my heart to do it, but I did everything I could to reuse it. It was just too stained and old for anyone else to want it. So, it's history.
Also, my dear sweetie Scott finally let go of the bed he's been sleeping on for many long years. This one, however, I judged to be of the petrified variety of sleeping materials. Over I don't know how many many many long years he's been sleeping on that fouton mattress, it has slowly morphed into a hardened quality seen only in archeology labs. I just had too many mornings waking with horrible pain in my back, shoulders, and arms. So, between the two of us, we let go of our old beds and started anew.
This new start to better sleeping included a great search of mattresses that ended two weeks ago at the Mattress Factory in Cary, NC: http://www.originalmattress.com. They have a factory in Raleigh, so they can reduce the price some. They also had lots to say about the high quality construction and materials and blah and blah blah blah. All I cared about was the sweet heavenly cloud that was supporting my back as I test flopped my hundredth mattress. I was in love. Scott was too. And we would all sleep together in blissful harmony.
Funny thing was that the high bed Scott had built himself to house the painfully thin rock of a futon mattress was not a good match for the blissful cloud of love that got delivered two weeks ago. Scott The Woodworking Master had built himself a bed that would allow big Rubbermaid bins to slide underneath for efficient storage. Brilliant, yes, and functional if you're a hardened manly man who likes sleeping on rocks.
So, fast forward to this weekend when Scott and I cleared out the storage bins, cleaned up all the evidence of kitty cats finding cute little hidey-holes in between said bins, and exchanging Scott's woodworking masterpiece for the metal frame that until recently held my ancient queen mattress and boxspring a mere 6 inches off the floor. Short frame + new half size box spring + blessed new cloud mattress = happy Lara!!! Scott is now planning his next bed frame masterpiece. It will still store Rubbermaid bins underneath, but they'll be the half size ones.
And now onto other topics...
My job has given me a shining light of joy like I have not seen in years! I am, henceforth, spending half my professional billable hours doing that which I never thought I'd get paid to do in my life! Blogging!! (No, not puppets. I know. *sigh*)
But Blogging! I am venturing forth into the world of Wordpress and respectable social media professionals worldwide! I don't want to go into it in detail here until I'm ready to present something, but I'll say that the topic is "Sustainability" and the client is the caliber of client that I came to DC to find. Many pieces of my professional dreams are coming together, and I can sense greatness in the air. I don't want to jinx it, so I'll stop here. Just wish me luck and send me any URLs of good Wordpress support communities.
For a grand finale, I'll announce that I'm coming back to the Midwest for a visit! I owe my aunt and uncle in Cincinnati some quality time, so I'll be headed out there the second week of March. Email me if you want details.
PS: In two weeks, I'll be leading dancing at Ymir! Anyone in Atlantia who is willing to be a gentle audience for my first time back in the saddle of Dance Mistressing in over 4 years should come!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
October 2009 - January 2010
October 2009 through January 2010
October 1: I start a class called “Intro to Judaism!” I’ve been wanting to take this class since I came here and got involved with Cantor Steinberg at Beth El Hebrew Congregation. She’s the one that ran Alan’s memorial service with Rabbi Aft and did the Sh ‘loshim service on her own for us. I’m seriously considering converting to Judaism officially, and this class is a commonly accepted requirement. I’ve been loving it although it’s a heckuvalot of reading. The teacher is Rabbi Stephanie Bernstein, and I have the greatest respect for her. She was a psychotherapist before becoming a rabbi, so she has a perspective I value a great deal. More on this subject later for sure.
October 5: I had surgery for two things that were very unpleasant. One was life-inhibiting and the other was occasionally activity-inhibiting. I’ll share the details with those who wants to know, but my more squeamish friends have sometimes regretted asking. These aren’t unusual or even horrible things, and some people could go so far as to call my squeamish friends total wimps who should just grow up, but I’ve had enough pushback to just say on my publicly accessible blog that they were simply “unpleasant.” I was ill for about 6 months, sluggish, sleepy, and crabby, but it’s over now. October and November were still slow going and extremely low on the activity scale, but I got back on my feet just in time for the holiday insanity.
Mid October: At work, I dove with two feet first into the adventure of the Annual Report to Congress (ARC) at work. Our client, one of the Department of Defense’s many offices that handles environmental issues, produces their own report to Congress every year, and my Booz Allen team creates it! It’s actually a thrilling project because I used this document a lot when I was farmed out to the Corps of Engineers for three years. Now I get to work on the team that produces the document! It’s like getting the backstage tour of a favorite show and getting hired to be on the theater staff!
Now, when I say “document,” keep in mind that the final product barely fits into a huge 4” three-ring binder. The best way to view it is online. I’ll post a link here to the finished product when it’s all done.
October 17: I got to be a mentor again in the Booz Allen & Girl Scouts “Make The Connection” program! This is an awesome program that brings together volunteers from Booz (usually young women who remember being Girl Scouts) and the Girl Scouts National Capital Council to produce a mentoring program. This isn’t mentoring where we get matched up one on one for deep philosophical teachings. The program is 4 events where about 150 Girl Scouts come to a Booz Allen office on a weekend day to go through presentations and exercises about career exploration. The Booz Allen mentors (about a dozen of us) split up and lead groups of the girls through the exercises. The goal is to allow the girls to see us in our grown up glory, ask us whatever questions they want, and get thinking about their careers outside the environment of their parents or school. I really wish I’d had something like this when I was a kid.
We work out of some Girl Scout sources, but a lot comes from the book “Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens” by Sean Covey, Stephen Covey’s son. I cannot recommend this book enough! It covers all sorts of issues that teenagers struggle with and helps quantify and focus their skills and desires to career paths. Again, a book I wish I’d had twenty years ago.
I deeply love this program, and I have dreams of spinning it off to the Booz Allen office in Indianapolis. Having my sister work for the Central Indiana Girl Scout Council has to have a perk in there somewhere. (No I don’t get free cookies.)
October 22 & 23: Crystal Reports class! One of the big new challenges I have at work is to learn this new (to me) software, Crystal Reports, and create more tools for us to perform QA and data mining on our ARC client’s database. This is very cool because I love data and the mining thereof, but it is extremely challenging because I’m the only one doing this. There are only three people on my team with *any* experience on our client’s database, and none of them have any experience with the Crystal Reports software. So, even getting the thing connected was hell. Many thanks again to my sweet and supportive boyfriend who helped me get through that one! Dating a computer geek has a few perks. I highly recommend it.
October 24: Fundraising Walk for the American Diabetes Association. This was a sad day really. Every year I do this fundraiser, and my friends and family are very generous to the cause. I raise a few hundred dollars in honor of Alan and my SCA friend Gyrth Oldcastle (who died 10 months before Alan from diabetes complications). But every year I dream that I’m going to get a whole lot of people together to show up en masse to the walk and create a physical presence to honor Alan and Gyrth – and it never happens. Part of it is that I’m just a very busy person, but so far, I just haven’t been able to engage the Sophie Super Energy Powers that have served me so well in event planning before. I can’t break through the depression muck to inspire other people enough to take a couple hours on a Saturday to travel to some place in downtown DC and walk a mile with other fundraising people. The whole experience is deeply depressing.
The good news is that my dear friend Randy and my extremely supportive boyfriend Scott both came out with me! I was determined to make something happen this year, and I had dreamed of getting my SCA friends to come out in garb to create something like a procession even if no one showed up. So, we were a procession of three, and I was just grateful that it was the week before Thanksgiving so that we didn’t look totally insane being in costumes. We did have one guy who liked what we were doing take our picture and say he was going to caption it: “We hate diabetes in any era!”
So, it was another year of half-hearted foot dragging for the ADA walk, but I’ll still keep doing it every year. Watch out for my donation request next September!
Somewhere in here at the end of October, I had an interesting turn of life events with a friend of mine from Judaism class. This friend of mine got a job in New York and needed someone to housesit for 6 months. I happened to be giving up my apartment on January 4th, so I offered to go housesit. We had 2 months of overlap, but I considered that time to adjust and get used to living at her house.
To summarize: She quit the job in New York, came back to her house, and now I’m living with her as a guest/roommate. She’s a sweetie, and we just decided to keep to the original plan, I’ll keep her company as I search for the perfect little studio apartment near my office in Crystal City, and I’ll move into this perfect-yet-to-be-found apartment in April. We are having a lovely time, and I’m sincerely enjoying the 15 minute commute from her house to my office. (Big improvement over the 1 hour metro commute.) She’s also a great cook, and the daughter of a professional chef, so I’m seeing more creative ways to cook healthy from her! This morning she made oatmeal-ricotta-chocolate-chip pancakes for us! YUM!!
More to come on the big picture of where the hell I’m physically living, but for now, let’s stick to chronological order of events…
October 31 – HALLOWEEN!!! This is one of my favorite holidays and since I’ve been in DC I’ve been lucky enough to share it every year with Lisa and Mona. They love the holiday too, and this year we got to party with some of Mona’s friends! It was awesome! Scott came up and we had an equal number of adults as kids walking around a really nice DC neighborhood trick or treating! Scott wore his great kilt, I wore my American Colonial period dress, Lisa went dolled up in a cool black dress with sparkles and orange fishnets (AWESOME!), and one of the dads went as a pirate! Mona was a purple and black witch, one of her friends was a goth princess (in a dress custom made that was won at a school auction), and the big surprise for me of the evening was one of the girls as Yoman Rand! Yes! The old school Star Trek blonde in the tiny red dress! (Not the nurse, that was Magel Barrett, Gene Roddenberry’s wife.) This girl’s parents were doing their sacred duty (as all parents should) in educating her by watching all the old school Star Trek episodes with her! So this kid actually knew who she was dressing up as! It was awesome! Ok, awesome for a geek like me. The rest of you can go back to watching House, or Garage, or whatever.
November 3: I voted; did you?
November 7: I had the pleasure of watching Mona play soccer! She’s joined a soccer league, and I got to watch the last game of the season. It was great! I got to hang out with the parents and learn all the new etiquette. Apparently parents are not allowed to shout from the sidelines. Parents, and fans like me, are allowed to yell only generic encouragement from the sidelines that can be encouraging to both sides. Things like “Go girls go!” and “Way to go!” are allowed. Things like “Get your ass over there for defense!” or “Go!” are not allowed. I’m betting anything concerning the referee is not allowed either, but the moms in attendance didn’t cover that.
This is one of the things I love about being an aunt! I get to be involved with kid stuff, support the kid I love, and do things completely unrelated to earning my paycheck.
I think this was the weekend when Lisa, Mona, and I went out to see the movie Where The Wild Things Are. It was awesome! It was amazing to me how different a movie it was. I heard that they tried to capture what it’s like to be a nine year old boy, and they achieved it! The movie was confusing and had an awkward, exploring, desperate feel to it in places. It was definitely “inspired by” the book and did the book honor, but they built a whole new story on top of the book’s foundation. Anyone who has ever been a nine year old boy, been close to a nine year old boy, or been the parent of a nine year old boy will enjoy this film.
November 26: Thanksgiving! I spent Thanksgiving with Scott and his parents in Raleigh. Last year, Scott gave up his Thanksgiving with his parents to come to Indianapolis to have a big Thanksgiving hoopla with my parents, my sister, her fiancé, and his family. At the time, it was a nice thing. Events have progressed since then. This year, to balance it out, I gave up my Thanksgiving with my parents and sister to have it with Scott. It was sweet and quiet. The best part was having Scott, his mom, and me all pitch in to make the dinner. The group effort was very rewarding in that no one was beat and tired at the end of the day.
December 4: My women’s circle (“Egroup” for the cognoscenti) did a big work night lead by one of the very wise women in our community, Teresita Fawcett. She’s amazing in her ability to lead women’s groups and facilitate emotional work. She helped me a lot in my healing work after Alan died and in a number of other issues since then. We hired her to teach our group some advanced facilitation techniques, and it was *awesome*! The more I do this work, the more I think this is the path to world peace.
December 8 & 9: “Leadership With Presence” class: Now, I had a very awkward annual assessment in Mid October for work. The final result was a pretty normal raise and a rating of “Meets Expectations” which was satisfactory for me. There was, however, a “development action” that required me to take a class in leadership, although I don’t really know why this class was chosen for this particular issue. This awkwardness isn’t blog material, so if you’re interested in more detail, ask me next time you see me. The interesting thing is that regardless of *why* I ended up going to this class, this class was an AMAZING AWESOME EXPERIENCE!
I’ll tell you why…
Set the way back machine for fall of 1994. I’m in New York City attending Barnard College and enjoying my opportunities to get student rate tickets to Broadway shows. That year, none other than the legendary “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast” opens and sends me into Disney geek heaven. I saw the show three times before graduating in spring of ’95.
Remember the villain “Gaston?” (“I use antlers in all of my decorating…”)
Remember his sidekick “Le Fu?” (“No one spits like Gaston…”)
Well, in the movie, Le Fu was just another amusing Disney sidekick. Nothing to write home about. Certainly nothing like Figaro, Meeko, or Iago. Now I’m telling you… the Broadway show was a *whole new world!*
Not only was the stage show a whole new bunch of wonderfulness for Disney geeks like me, but the character Le Fu was absolutely MEZMORIZING to me! The actor playing him *flew* across the stage! Fought and flipped with the servant-turned-rug! He leapt and flipped and prat-fell ALL OVER THE PLACE! This guy was a modern day Arlecchino of the HIGHEST CALIBER! Not even Danny Kaye could out-jester this guy! So, me being the big jester fan that I am… I was enthralled!
I read his bio in the program, and it said he’d had training with Cirque du Soleil among other cool stuff. I thought to myself “Ok – that explains why he could do that flip and land on his ass perfectly at Belle’s feet.” I left the theater, and college, being inspired to be as cool a jester as that guy.
Fast forward to my days building i Scandali and reveling in as much commedia dell arte as I could get my hands on…
Fast forward again to this class in leadership I was sent to for unusual and awkward reasons…
You’ll never guess who was teaching this freaking class…
LE FU!!!!! YES – the man who was the actor that was LeFu in the original cast of Beauty and the Beast who’d inspired my idea of the perfect jester WAS TEACHING THIS CLASS!!! I ask you… how in the name of God do you explain this one? You don’t. You just sit back and enjoy the ride. At least that’s what I did.
So, I chat this guy up, we have a great time in the class, I learn all about what a great leader I already am (ok, some ups and downs and places for improvement), and I have the time of my life actually *learning* from one of the actual inspirations of my life.
His name is Kenny Raskin, and I actually found my old Playbills from B&B in 1994 that have his name in the cast list. He went out to have beer and wings with me after the class, and we had a good old time yakking about performing arts and careers therein. Apparently, this cool company he works for, The Ariel Group, (nothing to do with Disney’s Little Mermaid) was contracted by Booz Allen to teach this leadership course. Kenny moved from acting to teaching for a variety of reasons, but essentially, this company hires actors to teach leadership because of the incredible skills overlap! So, Kenny is my new official Hero ™ and I encourage you to look at his web site: http://www.kennyraskin.com and hire him if you can at all afford it.
December 11: Hanukkah, Jewish class, and The Princess and the Frog! What do these three things have in common, I hear you cry? Well, they all happened on Friday, December 11. My Intro to Judaism class had a nice Shabbat dinner (that I had to be late for because they started at an ungodly early hour for anyone who’s working for a living) that was a nice thing. Lisa and Mona joined me for that and got to meet Rabbi Bernstein and my classmates.
Lisa and Mona, not being complete Disney fans like me but being very supportive of me and not entirely against the idea of a Disney movie, joined me for the long awaited premier of The Princess and The Frog!!! Now, if I’d had my wish, I’d have attended this event dolled up in an old bridesmaid’s dress and tiara with a dozen friends and my sister equally dressed up to welcome in our new sister princess. Mona would have killed me, tho, so I left the tiara and dress at home and attended the movie like a normal person. I didn’t have the time or energy to organize a fully dressed Princess Invasion anyway. I did, however, *LOVE* the movie! Mona and Lisa did too! I’m thrilled to see a Prince and a Princess get to their happily ever after through hard work. And the support of a large alligator.
Ok, this is where the easy part of life ended. Princesses, Kenny, leadership, Mona, holidays, and all the rest of it fell completely to the wayside starting December 12. Not that having surgery, keeping up at work, and living through my life’s adventure was *easy* before December 12, but that’s when there became no time for games. Or sleep.
Christmas did happen in there somewhere. My folks, my sister, and I spent it in beautiful Hilton Head at an RCI trade-in condo from my parents’ RCI membership. Scott came to join us on December 26th, and his parents came for lunch on December 27th. Yes, this was the first official meeting of the parental units. Everything went fine. *whew* This was a nice week long break from the moving hell, but the moment the ball dropped after midnight January 1st, the hell started up again.
Remember how I said before that I was giving up my apartment on January 4th? Well, I did.
THE MASTER PLAN:
Scott and I have been driving back and forth between DC and Raleigh for 2.5 years. In order to move our relationship further, the fishing part of the “Fish or Cut Bait” philosophy, we decided to move in together finally. We also decided that it was better for me to move to Raleigh rather than him move to DC. Many variables in that decision: his job is with the State of NC and mine is with a contracting firm, he has a house in Raleigh, and he has a lot of friends in Raleigh and I have a few too. He has no friends in DC, and mine are a small elite group.
So, I moved 95% of my stuff to Raleigh. The movers came on December 21st to move my piano and furniture and any other boxes that Scott and I didn’t manage to move before then. We have been packing up my belongings into boxes for many weeks already and Scott has been bringing them down to Raleigh in his Pennsic trailer. We now have 2 garage sized storage units in Raleigh with most of my stuff and some of his stuff that he moved out of his house to make room for me.
The remaining 5% of my stuff (possibly more like 1-2%) is at my friend’s house here in DC until April. Come April, I’ll move into a small studio apartment near my office. That will be my “Satellite Home.” I will live there Monday – Thursday and drive back to Raleigh for Friday – Sunday. This is the weekly commuting lifestyle that a lot of DC workers live – including a lot of Congress. I’ll telecommute on Fridays, and I may expand that if my work allows it over time.
I’ll drive to DC Monday mornings and be in the office by noon. I’ll drive to Raleigh Thursday nights and get in by midnight. I did this schedule once this past week, and it worked out pretty well. The Thursday night drive to Raleigh was *HELL* because I had hell to deal with at work and I didn’t get to leave the office until 9:30pm. That part sucked big time. But the drive back to DC monday morning was great! It was beautifully sunny, I got up and out on time, I listened to NPR for about 2.5 hours and talked to my sister for the other 2.5 hours. She had the day off work since it was MLK Day. So far, I am liking this schedule. I’m not liking the lack of being completely moved in anywhere, but that will change with time.
Many people have poo-pooed me on this plan. I acknowledge that this is a tough lifestyle, but it is honestly better than what Scott and I have been living with for the past 2.5 years. I also believe strongly that “Life Is Change” and this lifestyle choice is good for now. So, don’t tell me “You’ll only last a year!” Attitude is Everything! I plan to keep my positive attitude about this and rely on my sweet man to keep reminding me of why I’m doing this.
So, at the moment, I’m feeling the first hints of being able to breathe. I’m doing a hell of a lot of emotional work *and* physical work, but the worst is now over. Now, Scott and I have to try to merge our two households into one and figure out how to really live with each other. After 16 years of serious independence, this merge is a lot of work for me. But he’s worth it. :)
October 1: I start a class called “Intro to Judaism!” I’ve been wanting to take this class since I came here and got involved with Cantor Steinberg at Beth El Hebrew Congregation. She’s the one that ran Alan’s memorial service with Rabbi Aft and did the Sh ‘loshim service on her own for us. I’m seriously considering converting to Judaism officially, and this class is a commonly accepted requirement. I’ve been loving it although it’s a heckuvalot of reading. The teacher is Rabbi Stephanie Bernstein, and I have the greatest respect for her. She was a psychotherapist before becoming a rabbi, so she has a perspective I value a great deal. More on this subject later for sure.
October 5: I had surgery for two things that were very unpleasant. One was life-inhibiting and the other was occasionally activity-inhibiting. I’ll share the details with those who wants to know, but my more squeamish friends have sometimes regretted asking. These aren’t unusual or even horrible things, and some people could go so far as to call my squeamish friends total wimps who should just grow up, but I’ve had enough pushback to just say on my publicly accessible blog that they were simply “unpleasant.” I was ill for about 6 months, sluggish, sleepy, and crabby, but it’s over now. October and November were still slow going and extremely low on the activity scale, but I got back on my feet just in time for the holiday insanity.
Mid October: At work, I dove with two feet first into the adventure of the Annual Report to Congress (ARC) at work. Our client, one of the Department of Defense’s many offices that handles environmental issues, produces their own report to Congress every year, and my Booz Allen team creates it! It’s actually a thrilling project because I used this document a lot when I was farmed out to the Corps of Engineers for three years. Now I get to work on the team that produces the document! It’s like getting the backstage tour of a favorite show and getting hired to be on the theater staff!
Now, when I say “document,” keep in mind that the final product barely fits into a huge 4” three-ring binder. The best way to view it is online. I’ll post a link here to the finished product when it’s all done.
October 17: I got to be a mentor again in the Booz Allen & Girl Scouts “Make The Connection” program! This is an awesome program that brings together volunteers from Booz (usually young women who remember being Girl Scouts) and the Girl Scouts National Capital Council to produce a mentoring program. This isn’t mentoring where we get matched up one on one for deep philosophical teachings. The program is 4 events where about 150 Girl Scouts come to a Booz Allen office on a weekend day to go through presentations and exercises about career exploration. The Booz Allen mentors (about a dozen of us) split up and lead groups of the girls through the exercises. The goal is to allow the girls to see us in our grown up glory, ask us whatever questions they want, and get thinking about their careers outside the environment of their parents or school. I really wish I’d had something like this when I was a kid.
We work out of some Girl Scout sources, but a lot comes from the book “Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens” by Sean Covey, Stephen Covey’s son. I cannot recommend this book enough! It covers all sorts of issues that teenagers struggle with and helps quantify and focus their skills and desires to career paths. Again, a book I wish I’d had twenty years ago.
I deeply love this program, and I have dreams of spinning it off to the Booz Allen office in Indianapolis. Having my sister work for the Central Indiana Girl Scout Council has to have a perk in there somewhere. (No I don’t get free cookies.)
October 22 & 23: Crystal Reports class! One of the big new challenges I have at work is to learn this new (to me) software, Crystal Reports, and create more tools for us to perform QA and data mining on our ARC client’s database. This is very cool because I love data and the mining thereof, but it is extremely challenging because I’m the only one doing this. There are only three people on my team with *any* experience on our client’s database, and none of them have any experience with the Crystal Reports software. So, even getting the thing connected was hell. Many thanks again to my sweet and supportive boyfriend who helped me get through that one! Dating a computer geek has a few perks. I highly recommend it.
October 24: Fundraising Walk for the American Diabetes Association. This was a sad day really. Every year I do this fundraiser, and my friends and family are very generous to the cause. I raise a few hundred dollars in honor of Alan and my SCA friend Gyrth Oldcastle (who died 10 months before Alan from diabetes complications). But every year I dream that I’m going to get a whole lot of people together to show up en masse to the walk and create a physical presence to honor Alan and Gyrth – and it never happens. Part of it is that I’m just a very busy person, but so far, I just haven’t been able to engage the Sophie Super Energy Powers that have served me so well in event planning before. I can’t break through the depression muck to inspire other people enough to take a couple hours on a Saturday to travel to some place in downtown DC and walk a mile with other fundraising people. The whole experience is deeply depressing.
The good news is that my dear friend Randy and my extremely supportive boyfriend Scott both came out with me! I was determined to make something happen this year, and I had dreamed of getting my SCA friends to come out in garb to create something like a procession even if no one showed up. So, we were a procession of three, and I was just grateful that it was the week before Thanksgiving so that we didn’t look totally insane being in costumes. We did have one guy who liked what we were doing take our picture and say he was going to caption it: “We hate diabetes in any era!”
So, it was another year of half-hearted foot dragging for the ADA walk, but I’ll still keep doing it every year. Watch out for my donation request next September!
Somewhere in here at the end of October, I had an interesting turn of life events with a friend of mine from Judaism class. This friend of mine got a job in New York and needed someone to housesit for 6 months. I happened to be giving up my apartment on January 4th, so I offered to go housesit. We had 2 months of overlap, but I considered that time to adjust and get used to living at her house.
To summarize: She quit the job in New York, came back to her house, and now I’m living with her as a guest/roommate. She’s a sweetie, and we just decided to keep to the original plan, I’ll keep her company as I search for the perfect little studio apartment near my office in Crystal City, and I’ll move into this perfect-yet-to-be-found apartment in April. We are having a lovely time, and I’m sincerely enjoying the 15 minute commute from her house to my office. (Big improvement over the 1 hour metro commute.) She’s also a great cook, and the daughter of a professional chef, so I’m seeing more creative ways to cook healthy from her! This morning she made oatmeal-ricotta-chocolate-chip pancakes for us! YUM!!
More to come on the big picture of where the hell I’m physically living, but for now, let’s stick to chronological order of events…
October 31 – HALLOWEEN!!! This is one of my favorite holidays and since I’ve been in DC I’ve been lucky enough to share it every year with Lisa and Mona. They love the holiday too, and this year we got to party with some of Mona’s friends! It was awesome! Scott came up and we had an equal number of adults as kids walking around a really nice DC neighborhood trick or treating! Scott wore his great kilt, I wore my American Colonial period dress, Lisa went dolled up in a cool black dress with sparkles and orange fishnets (AWESOME!), and one of the dads went as a pirate! Mona was a purple and black witch, one of her friends was a goth princess (in a dress custom made that was won at a school auction), and the big surprise for me of the evening was one of the girls as Yoman Rand! Yes! The old school Star Trek blonde in the tiny red dress! (Not the nurse, that was Magel Barrett, Gene Roddenberry’s wife.) This girl’s parents were doing their sacred duty (as all parents should) in educating her by watching all the old school Star Trek episodes with her! So this kid actually knew who she was dressing up as! It was awesome! Ok, awesome for a geek like me. The rest of you can go back to watching House, or Garage, or whatever.
November 3: I voted; did you?
November 7: I had the pleasure of watching Mona play soccer! She’s joined a soccer league, and I got to watch the last game of the season. It was great! I got to hang out with the parents and learn all the new etiquette. Apparently parents are not allowed to shout from the sidelines. Parents, and fans like me, are allowed to yell only generic encouragement from the sidelines that can be encouraging to both sides. Things like “Go girls go!” and “Way to go!” are allowed. Things like “Get your ass over there for defense!” or “Go
This is one of the things I love about being an aunt! I get to be involved with kid stuff, support the kid I love, and do things completely unrelated to earning my paycheck.
I think this was the weekend when Lisa, Mona, and I went out to see the movie Where The Wild Things Are. It was awesome! It was amazing to me how different a movie it was. I heard that they tried to capture what it’s like to be a nine year old boy, and they achieved it! The movie was confusing and had an awkward, exploring, desperate feel to it in places. It was definitely “inspired by” the book and did the book honor, but they built a whole new story on top of the book’s foundation. Anyone who has ever been a nine year old boy, been close to a nine year old boy, or been the parent of a nine year old boy will enjoy this film.
November 26: Thanksgiving! I spent Thanksgiving with Scott and his parents in Raleigh. Last year, Scott gave up his Thanksgiving with his parents to come to Indianapolis to have a big Thanksgiving hoopla with my parents, my sister, her fiancé, and his family. At the time, it was a nice thing. Events have progressed since then. This year, to balance it out, I gave up my Thanksgiving with my parents and sister to have it with Scott. It was sweet and quiet. The best part was having Scott, his mom, and me all pitch in to make the dinner. The group effort was very rewarding in that no one was beat and tired at the end of the day.
December 4: My women’s circle (“Egroup” for the cognoscenti) did a big work night lead by one of the very wise women in our community, Teresita Fawcett. She’s amazing in her ability to lead women’s groups and facilitate emotional work. She helped me a lot in my healing work after Alan died and in a number of other issues since then. We hired her to teach our group some advanced facilitation techniques, and it was *awesome*! The more I do this work, the more I think this is the path to world peace.
December 8 & 9: “Leadership With Presence” class: Now, I had a very awkward annual assessment in Mid October for work. The final result was a pretty normal raise and a rating of “Meets Expectations” which was satisfactory for me. There was, however, a “development action” that required me to take a class in leadership, although I don’t really know why this class was chosen for this particular issue. This awkwardness isn’t blog material, so if you’re interested in more detail, ask me next time you see me. The interesting thing is that regardless of *why* I ended up going to this class, this class was an AMAZING AWESOME EXPERIENCE!
I’ll tell you why…
Set the way back machine for fall of 1994. I’m in New York City attending Barnard College and enjoying my opportunities to get student rate tickets to Broadway shows. That year, none other than the legendary “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast” opens and sends me into Disney geek heaven. I saw the show three times before graduating in spring of ’95.
Remember the villain “Gaston?” (“I use antlers in all of my decorating…”)
Remember his sidekick “Le Fu?” (“No one spits like Gaston…”)
Well, in the movie, Le Fu was just another amusing Disney sidekick. Nothing to write home about. Certainly nothing like Figaro, Meeko, or Iago. Now I’m telling you… the Broadway show was a *whole new world!*
Not only was the stage show a whole new bunch of wonderfulness for Disney geeks like me, but the character Le Fu was absolutely MEZMORIZING to me! The actor playing him *flew* across the stage! Fought and flipped with the servant-turned-rug! He leapt and flipped and prat-fell ALL OVER THE PLACE! This guy was a modern day Arlecchino of the HIGHEST CALIBER! Not even Danny Kaye could out-jester this guy! So, me being the big jester fan that I am… I was enthralled!
I read his bio in the program, and it said he’d had training with Cirque du Soleil among other cool stuff. I thought to myself “Ok – that explains why he could do that flip and land on his ass perfectly at Belle’s feet.” I left the theater, and college, being inspired to be as cool a jester as that guy.
Fast forward to my days building i Scandali and reveling in as much commedia dell arte as I could get my hands on…
Fast forward again to this class in leadership I was sent to for unusual and awkward reasons…
You’ll never guess who was teaching this freaking class…
LE FU!!!!! YES – the man who was the actor that was LeFu in the original cast of Beauty and the Beast who’d inspired my idea of the perfect jester WAS TEACHING THIS CLASS!!! I ask you… how in the name of God do you explain this one? You don’t. You just sit back and enjoy the ride. At least that’s what I did.
So, I chat this guy up, we have a great time in the class, I learn all about what a great leader I already am (ok, some ups and downs and places for improvement), and I have the time of my life actually *learning* from one of the actual inspirations of my life.
His name is Kenny Raskin, and I actually found my old Playbills from B&B in 1994 that have his name in the cast list. He went out to have beer and wings with me after the class, and we had a good old time yakking about performing arts and careers therein. Apparently, this cool company he works for, The Ariel Group, (nothing to do with Disney’s Little Mermaid) was contracted by Booz Allen to teach this leadership course. Kenny moved from acting to teaching for a variety of reasons, but essentially, this company hires actors to teach leadership because of the incredible skills overlap! So, Kenny is my new official Hero ™ and I encourage you to look at his web site: http://www.kennyraskin.com and hire him if you can at all afford it.
December 11: Hanukkah, Jewish class, and The Princess and the Frog! What do these three things have in common, I hear you cry? Well, they all happened on Friday, December 11. My Intro to Judaism class had a nice Shabbat dinner (that I had to be late for because they started at an ungodly early hour for anyone who’s working for a living) that was a nice thing. Lisa and Mona joined me for that and got to meet Rabbi Bernstein and my classmates.
Lisa and Mona, not being complete Disney fans like me but being very supportive of me and not entirely against the idea of a Disney movie, joined me for the long awaited premier of The Princess and The Frog!!! Now, if I’d had my wish, I’d have attended this event dolled up in an old bridesmaid’s dress and tiara with a dozen friends and my sister equally dressed up to welcome in our new sister princess. Mona would have killed me, tho, so I left the tiara and dress at home and attended the movie like a normal person. I didn’t have the time or energy to organize a fully dressed Princess Invasion anyway. I did, however, *LOVE* the movie! Mona and Lisa did too! I’m thrilled to see a Prince and a Princess get to their happily ever after through hard work. And the support of a large alligator.
Ok, this is where the easy part of life ended. Princesses, Kenny, leadership, Mona, holidays, and all the rest of it fell completely to the wayside starting December 12. Not that having surgery, keeping up at work, and living through my life’s adventure was *easy* before December 12, but that’s when there became no time for games. Or sleep.
Christmas did happen in there somewhere. My folks, my sister, and I spent it in beautiful Hilton Head at an RCI trade-in condo from my parents’ RCI membership. Scott came to join us on December 26th, and his parents came for lunch on December 27th. Yes, this was the first official meeting of the parental units. Everything went fine. *whew* This was a nice week long break from the moving hell, but the moment the ball dropped after midnight January 1st, the hell started up again.
Remember how I said before that I was giving up my apartment on January 4th? Well, I did.
THE MASTER PLAN:
Scott and I have been driving back and forth between DC and Raleigh for 2.5 years. In order to move our relationship further, the fishing part of the “Fish or Cut Bait” philosophy, we decided to move in together finally. We also decided that it was better for me to move to Raleigh rather than him move to DC. Many variables in that decision: his job is with the State of NC and mine is with a contracting firm, he has a house in Raleigh, and he has a lot of friends in Raleigh and I have a few too. He has no friends in DC, and mine are a small elite group.
So, I moved 95% of my stuff to Raleigh. The movers came on December 21st to move my piano and furniture and any other boxes that Scott and I didn’t manage to move before then. We have been packing up my belongings into boxes for many weeks already and Scott has been bringing them down to Raleigh in his Pennsic trailer. We now have 2 garage sized storage units in Raleigh with most of my stuff and some of his stuff that he moved out of his house to make room for me.
The remaining 5% of my stuff (possibly more like 1-2%) is at my friend’s house here in DC until April. Come April, I’ll move into a small studio apartment near my office. That will be my “Satellite Home.” I will live there Monday – Thursday and drive back to Raleigh for Friday – Sunday. This is the weekly commuting lifestyle that a lot of DC workers live – including a lot of Congress. I’ll telecommute on Fridays, and I may expand that if my work allows it over time.
I’ll drive to DC Monday mornings and be in the office by noon. I’ll drive to Raleigh Thursday nights and get in by midnight. I did this schedule once this past week, and it worked out pretty well. The Thursday night drive to Raleigh was *HELL* because I had hell to deal with at work and I didn’t get to leave the office until 9:30pm. That part sucked big time. But the drive back to DC monday morning was great! It was beautifully sunny, I got up and out on time, I listened to NPR for about 2.5 hours and talked to my sister for the other 2.5 hours. She had the day off work since it was MLK Day. So far, I am liking this schedule. I’m not liking the lack of being completely moved in anywhere, but that will change with time.
Many people have poo-pooed me on this plan. I acknowledge that this is a tough lifestyle, but it is honestly better than what Scott and I have been living with for the past 2.5 years. I also believe strongly that “Life Is Change” and this lifestyle choice is good for now. So, don’t tell me “You’ll only last a year!” Attitude is Everything! I plan to keep my positive attitude about this and rely on my sweet man to keep reminding me of why I’m doing this.
So, at the moment, I’m feeling the first hints of being able to breathe. I’m doing a hell of a lot of emotional work *and* physical work, but the worst is now over. Now, Scott and I have to try to merge our two households into one and figure out how to really live with each other. After 16 years of serious independence, this merge is a lot of work for me. But he’s worth it. :)
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Surgery, finishing a project at work, and looking for a new apartment
I'm having surgery tomorrow. Removal of uterine fibroids. I'm actually very excited about it, tho I'm also managing some anxiety at the moment. I strongly believe that once I've healed from this, I'll have control of my body again! I'll no longer be losing blood in huge amounts at random times, and I'll get back the ability to exercise, ride my bike, and walk up a flight of stairs without wheezing! Woo Hoo! Balance that with the first ever total knockout anesthesia experience of my life, and you have the kind of anxiety that I'm grumbling about tonight. Thankfully, my sweetie brought me a prescription of Chocolate from Dr. Haagen Dazs, so I feel like I'm handling it.
Scott is being a completely awesome Primary Caregiver, and my dear friend Randy (who's living in my extra room while he's job hunting) will take over after Wednesday when Scott has to go back home. I'm hoping that I'll be healing quickly enough to put in a few hours of work on the later half of this week although I'm clear that that's a goal, not a requirement.
My co-workers have been pretty darn supportive, and they're ready to deal with my unpredictability this week. Work's been hell the past few weeks, but I kicked ass this past week, especially on Friday, and I got all the ahead work done I could do. I also wrapped up a very difficult project that included a number of difficult people, politics, and databases. I did my best, and I'm satisfied with my work, and I was able to let go with grace when I finished up at about midnight on Friday. I had dreams of rescuing various people and projects, but I had to accept only a portion of dream realization. Some people really don't want to be rescued even when they're steering the Titanic. I waved my red flags, sent up my red star clusters, and talked sincerely to all the mentors I had. So, I did my best and I'm moving on.
And speaking about moving... I will be moving out of my current apartment this December. My lease is up on January 4th, and I'll be moving into a "satellite home" in time for that. I was going to move in with my buddy Caitlin, but her situation at home and my situation at work changed and now it won't be an advantage for both of us to room together again. *sigh* I was looking forward to it, but it's not meant to be this time. So, I'm on the hunt again for a new place to live. I'm looking for a room with a private bath, but roommates and shared common areas are fine. Must be near Crystal City, preferably near a metro or VRE station, and absolutely no more than $800 per month including utilities. I really want to move in before Christmas. Let me know if you have a lead for me.
Wish me luck in surgery, managing my utilization at work, and finding a new apartment. And Happy New Federal Fiscal Year to you all! ;)
Scott is being a completely awesome Primary Caregiver, and my dear friend Randy (who's living in my extra room while he's job hunting) will take over after Wednesday when Scott has to go back home. I'm hoping that I'll be healing quickly enough to put in a few hours of work on the later half of this week although I'm clear that that's a goal, not a requirement.
My co-workers have been pretty darn supportive, and they're ready to deal with my unpredictability this week. Work's been hell the past few weeks, but I kicked ass this past week, especially on Friday, and I got all the ahead work done I could do. I also wrapped up a very difficult project that included a number of difficult people, politics, and databases. I did my best, and I'm satisfied with my work, and I was able to let go with grace when I finished up at about midnight on Friday. I had dreams of rescuing various people and projects, but I had to accept only a portion of dream realization. Some people really don't want to be rescued even when they're steering the Titanic. I waved my red flags, sent up my red star clusters, and talked sincerely to all the mentors I had. So, I did my best and I'm moving on.
And speaking about moving... I will be moving out of my current apartment this December. My lease is up on January 4th, and I'll be moving into a "satellite home" in time for that. I was going to move in with my buddy Caitlin, but her situation at home and my situation at work changed and now it won't be an advantage for both of us to room together again. *sigh* I was looking forward to it, but it's not meant to be this time. So, I'm on the hunt again for a new place to live. I'm looking for a room with a private bath, but roommates and shared common areas are fine. Must be near Crystal City, preferably near a metro or VRE station, and absolutely no more than $800 per month including utilities. I really want to move in before Christmas. Let me know if you have a lead for me.
Wish me luck in surgery, managing my utilization at work, and finding a new apartment. And Happy New Federal Fiscal Year to you all! ;)
Sunday, September 20, 2009
catch up weekend
I won't tell you how many emails I had in my inbox today when I dived in to try to catch up... but let's say I was at 99% of the capacity that Earthlink allows for storage before downloading to my hard drive. *ugh*
I did catch up on the really critical/time sensitive ones tho, so if you're waiting for an email response from me and you didn't get one today, please be reassured that it will come soon. It does mean that I'm getting back into a swing that's healthier. I don't want to jinx it by talking about how my health has been better in the last two weeks, but I will say that everything looks good so far for my October 5th surgery.
Work is hell right now. I'm working with a lot of different people, different projects, and different personalities. Deadlines abound, and where we don't have deadlines, we have amorphous blobs of uncertainty. I will be changing projects at the end of this month - just in time to cope with it at the same time as surgery. *ugh* Again I say *ugh*.
I am, however, deeply grateful to God and all his helpers that I have a job and it pays me enough to pay my bills, keep me out of debt, and still visit my beloved support network people every so often. I have health insurance, a body that's free of horrible cureless diseases, and I live in a land of plenty.
Scott and I are about to move a lot of stuff from one storage facility to another, so wish us luck and healthy back movements.
I'm still planning on moving *most* of my stuff into Scott's house sometime in November. The remaining stuff will establish a satellite home for me in DC that will allow me to keep my beloved job. Come January 2010, I will be working in DC Monday - Thursday, tellecommuting Fridays, and commuting to and from Raleigh on Monday mornings and Thursday evening. My first satellite home will be with my dear friend Caitlin. She's returning the favor of my putting her up for about six months when she was transitioning *from* Raleigh to DC last year at this time. She's giving me the spot formerly occupied by her former boyfriend (who is now getting a job as a pest control operator which I think is rather cool since I nudged him towards it as a good fit for his brain and prior experience in construction). He's moving on, I'm moving in, and Caitlin and I will be roommates again for 6 months. After that, I will move into a small apartment somewhere in Alexandria, VA near my office. If you know of good places to look for people renting out a small room with a private bathroom near Crystal City, please let me know. :)
Other bits:
-- Happy new baby thrills to my beloved Cat and Preston!
-- Happy Birthday to my Uncle!
-- Happy Birthday to my new first cousin once removed!
-- Happy Anniversary to my beloved Kirsten and Dylan!
And still prayers are requested for supporting Scott's ex-wife Muir who is still with her father in New Orleans. He made it through his surgery, is now home, and I believe is receiving hospice care at home with his family around him. This is the worst of times for this family, so all prayers of strength and support are appreciated.
I did catch up on the really critical/time sensitive ones tho, so if you're waiting for an email response from me and you didn't get one today, please be reassured that it will come soon. It does mean that I'm getting back into a swing that's healthier. I don't want to jinx it by talking about how my health has been better in the last two weeks, but I will say that everything looks good so far for my October 5th surgery.
Work is hell right now. I'm working with a lot of different people, different projects, and different personalities. Deadlines abound, and where we don't have deadlines, we have amorphous blobs of uncertainty. I will be changing projects at the end of this month - just in time to cope with it at the same time as surgery. *ugh* Again I say *ugh*.
I am, however, deeply grateful to God and all his helpers that I have a job and it pays me enough to pay my bills, keep me out of debt, and still visit my beloved support network people every so often. I have health insurance, a body that's free of horrible cureless diseases, and I live in a land of plenty.
Scott and I are about to move a lot of stuff from one storage facility to another, so wish us luck and healthy back movements.
I'm still planning on moving *most* of my stuff into Scott's house sometime in November. The remaining stuff will establish a satellite home for me in DC that will allow me to keep my beloved job. Come January 2010, I will be working in DC Monday - Thursday, tellecommuting Fridays, and commuting to and from Raleigh on Monday mornings and Thursday evening. My first satellite home will be with my dear friend Caitlin. She's returning the favor of my putting her up for about six months when she was transitioning *from* Raleigh to DC last year at this time. She's giving me the spot formerly occupied by her former boyfriend (who is now getting a job as a pest control operator which I think is rather cool since I nudged him towards it as a good fit for his brain and prior experience in construction). He's moving on, I'm moving in, and Caitlin and I will be roommates again for 6 months. After that, I will move into a small apartment somewhere in Alexandria, VA near my office. If you know of good places to look for people renting out a small room with a private bathroom near Crystal City, please let me know. :)
Other bits:
-- Happy new baby thrills to my beloved Cat and Preston!
-- Happy Birthday to my Uncle!
-- Happy Birthday to my new first cousin once removed!
-- Happy Anniversary to my beloved Kirsten and Dylan!
And still prayers are requested for supporting Scott's ex-wife Muir who is still with her father in New Orleans. He made it through his surgery, is now home, and I believe is receiving hospice care at home with his family around him. This is the worst of times for this family, so all prayers of strength and support are appreciated.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
My surgery is on October 5; I hate faux little girls
I'm having surgery to fix my malfunctioning uterus on October 5! Yea!!! I'm actually extremely thrilled about this because I've been waiting for the secretaries and doctors to do their thing and tell me when my damn date is. I will *finally* have the surgery which will eliminate the extreme blood loss, the suprises of said blood loss events, and the associated mega cramps. I'm thrilled and excited, and I can't wait to get into that OR!
I'm feeling cranky at the moment because of my growing hatred for little girls - not actual little girls (there are a great many littel girls that I adore), but rather young adult women who are actually little girls inside but they're going around masquerading as grown ups who are responsible, reliable, and deserve the paycheck they get every month. I'm so god damned sick of working with people who have a poorer work ethic than I do, and so many of them are young Generation Y women who don't understand the extent of their responsibilities and *I* HAVE TO FREAKING MAKE UP FOR IT!!! If they were just screwing up their own lives, I wouldn't care so much. It's when their lack of work ethic makes my job harder is when I get pissed. When I rely on them because I'm supposed to and they slack off or just go around thinking that they're doing just fine and I *DON'T* have the position or power to counsel them, I just get stuck with an idiot on my team that drags me down and causes me more late hours at the office! ARGH!!!!
I know... I know... we've all been there. Ever since our first group project in Junior High School we've all had idiots and slackers on our team. I just hate it and today it's annoying me a great deal.
So, to throw some funny on an annoying situation, I will link to a page where you can see the magnificent song from the musical "Annie" entitled "Little Girls!"
If I do this right, this text will hold the link.
I'm feeling cranky at the moment because of my growing hatred for little girls - not actual little girls (there are a great many littel girls that I adore), but rather young adult women who are actually little girls inside but they're going around masquerading as grown ups who are responsible, reliable, and deserve the paycheck they get every month. I'm so god damned sick of working with people who have a poorer work ethic than I do, and so many of them are young Generation Y women who don't understand the extent of their responsibilities and *I* HAVE TO FREAKING MAKE UP FOR IT!!! If they were just screwing up their own lives, I wouldn't care so much. It's when their lack of work ethic makes my job harder is when I get pissed. When I rely on them because I'm supposed to and they slack off or just go around thinking that they're doing just fine and I *DON'T* have the position or power to counsel them, I just get stuck with an idiot on my team that drags me down and causes me more late hours at the office! ARGH!!!!
I know... I know... we've all been there. Ever since our first group project in Junior High School we've all had idiots and slackers on our team. I just hate it and today it's annoying me a great deal.
So, to throw some funny on an annoying situation, I will link to a page where you can see the magnificent song from the musical "Annie" entitled "Little Girls!"
If I do this right, this text will hold the link.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Alan's 53rd birthday is today
Alan's birthday is today, and he would have been 53 years old. He's been gone for four years now, and I'm constantly amazed at how the passage of time seems different depending on my mood. Sometimes it feels like it was just a few days ago that I was in the ICU feeling my brain twist into a pretzel shape, and sometimes it feels like there's a whole huge world of time, history, events, aches and pains inbetween his death four years ago and now.
Welcome to life on earth.
Welcome to life on earth.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Prayer Request
Scott's ex-wife, Muir (SCA: Mistress Francesca) , is currently on an all night vigil with her father in New Orleans in the cardiac ICU. He had major surgery today that did not go very well. I don't know any details other than that, but now's the time for prayers if you're in that business.
Muir is a gem of a woman. She's been in a very positive, healing relationship with Scott since their divorce in 2004, and I've rarely seen a couple so dedicated to building a friendship of sincere mutual support after a break up. Muir has welcomed me lovingly into her life, and I have genuinely enjoyed my growing friendship with her. She is a strong woman with a lion's heart, and now she is facing a major challenge in watching her father go through this process. No one knows what the next few hours or days will bring.
I pray for her to feel strength and know that there are many people sending strength to her from far away. I pray for her to feel not alone even in the midst of some dysfunctional people who may react to this stress in ways that make Muir's coping more difficult. I pray that she may know in her soul and foundation that she is loved, she is worthy, and she is just fine the way she is.
If you're a praying person, please pray for Muir Dean, her father Donald Bradburn, and the rest of their family and friends.
Muir is a gem of a woman. She's been in a very positive, healing relationship with Scott since their divorce in 2004, and I've rarely seen a couple so dedicated to building a friendship of sincere mutual support after a break up. Muir has welcomed me lovingly into her life, and I have genuinely enjoyed my growing friendship with her. She is a strong woman with a lion's heart, and now she is facing a major challenge in watching her father go through this process. No one knows what the next few hours or days will bring.
I pray for her to feel strength and know that there are many people sending strength to her from far away. I pray for her to feel not alone even in the midst of some dysfunctional people who may react to this stress in ways that make Muir's coping more difficult. I pray that she may know in her soul and foundation that she is loved, she is worthy, and she is just fine the way she is.
If you're a praying person, please pray for Muir Dean, her father Donald Bradburn, and the rest of their family and friends.
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
IT'S A BOY!!!!!!
FINALLY!!!!! My dear dear dear beloved friends Cat and Preston have finally had their baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'M SOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!
Most births are happy times that I applaud for my loved ones who decide to become parents, but this one is super particularly special. This is a baby who has been many many years in coming. This is a baby who has come to parents that are very particularly in need of becoming parents. The world needs these people to be parents, and now that they are, I feel like my faith in God and all that's good in the universe is reinvigorated!
Cat has had more than her fair share of physical challenges and heartbreaks on this journey, and Preston has been right there along with her. Their marriage has been tested and strengthened by every new mountain to get over, and it has been a roller coaster of successes and failures amazing to witness. These two people have shown extraordinary commitment to each other and to their goal of creating a family like few people are required to show. Other words I can use to describe them include but are not limited to: endurance, passion, resilience, determination, doggedness, and sticktoitiveness! They now have the most powerful and precious reward they could ever want, and my heart is bursting with thanks to the universe!
Cat and Preston were mourning one of their own losses when they joined me for the memorial ceremony I held at Pennsic the year after Alan died. I was amazed at how they kept going, putting one foot in front of the other, even to come join me in my horrible grief. I remember that it rained like hell that night, and it was the only rain we had that Pennsic. Cat sat on the ground in the little tent we had, and I felt so powerless to do anything other than hate the universe for all the unfair losses it caused me and my loved ones.
This new birth is undeniably a huge piece of the balancing act the universe is giving us after that horrible time. It touches me in that place way deep down where my grief for Alan is. It’s a piece of light brought into the black cavern of pain in me that was created when Alan died. Very few things bring light down there, and this new baby is one of them.
Welcome to the world little baby!!! We have SOOOOOOO been waiting for you! :)
I'M SOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!
Most births are happy times that I applaud for my loved ones who decide to become parents, but this one is super particularly special. This is a baby who has been many many years in coming. This is a baby who has come to parents that are very particularly in need of becoming parents. The world needs these people to be parents, and now that they are, I feel like my faith in God and all that's good in the universe is reinvigorated!
Cat has had more than her fair share of physical challenges and heartbreaks on this journey, and Preston has been right there along with her. Their marriage has been tested and strengthened by every new mountain to get over, and it has been a roller coaster of successes and failures amazing to witness. These two people have shown extraordinary commitment to each other and to their goal of creating a family like few people are required to show. Other words I can use to describe them include but are not limited to: endurance, passion, resilience, determination, doggedness, and sticktoitiveness! They now have the most powerful and precious reward they could ever want, and my heart is bursting with thanks to the universe!
Cat and Preston were mourning one of their own losses when they joined me for the memorial ceremony I held at Pennsic the year after Alan died. I was amazed at how they kept going, putting one foot in front of the other, even to come join me in my horrible grief. I remember that it rained like hell that night, and it was the only rain we had that Pennsic. Cat sat on the ground in the little tent we had, and I felt so powerless to do anything other than hate the universe for all the unfair losses it caused me and my loved ones.
This new birth is undeniably a huge piece of the balancing act the universe is giving us after that horrible time. It touches me in that place way deep down where my grief for Alan is. It’s a piece of light brought into the black cavern of pain in me that was created when Alan died. Very few things bring light down there, and this new baby is one of them.
Welcome to the world little baby!!! We have SOOOOOOO been waiting for you! :)
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Uterus, weekly commuting, Pennsic, pet sitting, work, Woman Within, Scott's family
Quick update:
I’m having health problems. My uterus is malfunctioning. I have one big problematic fibroid and two polyps. There are other fibroids that aren’t causing trouble at the moment, but I’m wondering what they will do in the future. My GYN office is scheduling the surgery, and as soon as I get word on when that surgery is, I’ll be a much happier camper. I’ve lost a lot of blood and I’m feeling tired all the time. I get painful cramps on and off, but so far Aleve has been able to keep them from putting me in bed. What’s really bugging me is the unpredictable nature of the huge blood losses that surprise me at various and random moments. I’d really love it if I could just stop bleeding. I’d love to go back to the days of relatively predictable bleeding that I haven’t seen since early spring. I will someday soon, I just have to wait for the doctor’s secretaries to do their job. Apparently the two business days we’ve had since my last appointment weren’t enough. *sigh*
I’m moving in with Scott and adopting a lifestyle of a Washington DC weekly commuter. This is apparently a relatively popular lifestyle in DC where people want to work here but live somewhere else. I love DC – even with the tourists and traffic – but Scott and I want to move our relationship along in a forward direction. That means taking some action to move one of us closer to the other one. Scott owns a house in Raleigh (specifically Cary, NC), and his job is 100% tied to his location at the University of North Carolina. I do not own a house and selling a house nowadays is just stupid if you have another option. My job is a little more flexible than his, so I’m going to take on the stress of commuting, and he’d going to take on the stress of more laundry and food shopping. I’m going to keep a “satellite home” in Washington DC, the first of which will be sharing some space in my friend Caitlin’s apartment. Caitlin stayed with me for about 6 months last year, so now she’s going to put me up as I try out this new lifestyle. Next summer when her lease is up, I’ll find another tiny studio apartment or roommate situation close to my office. When my current lease is up on January 4, I’ll start commuting from Scott’s. I’ll drive into DC on Monday mornings, missing the regular rush hour traffic, work long days Monday through Thursday, drive back Thursday night, and telecommute Friday. This means I also get to keep meeting with my egroup on Tuesdays and stay connected with all my Washington DC loved ones. November is the month of moving, so I’ll be able to take my time and not have to move in one horrible, painful weekend.
Pennsic was great, and I can’t believe I didn’t post anything about it yet. The most significant thing for me was that I decided to *not* produce my own commedia dell’ arte show. My malfunctioning uterus was giving me enough stress that I knew I couldn’t keep up a normal “Sophie At Pennsic” energy level all week. The truly lucky thing was that iSebastiani was doing a show for the Casa Bardicci low brow party on Sunday night, and Anton wrote a whole new show for that event that I got to play in. I then reworked the show a bit for a slightly different cast and redid the show for the Thursday night high brow party! It was wonderful and a fraction of the work producing my own commedia show at Pennsic usually is. I was so happy to roll with the punches and just work with what I had. I had a ton of fun playing with Anton and the iSeb gang, and my sweetie Scott also joined in! He played Flavio and was absolutely hilarious in his attempts to woo Isabella. I was the lusty Columbina, so I was flirting with Arlecchino instead of Flavio. Actually I was flirting with anyone I could – it’s commedia!
Pennsic was also a wonderful time to reconnect with friends. I cherish the annual “family reunion” feel I get at Pennsic.
I also got to play great music with my beloved Musica Subterranea! My favorite gig was playing Casa Bardicci, but it was really crowded with performers and this one “band” that played for belly dancers was trying to kick us out of our spot after we played just one tune! We played for about 45 minutes, and a bunch of the dancers from the regular dance tent came to give us a really authentic feeling to the actual practice of playing for dancers at a big party. It was crowded, full of rude people and high ranking people, but also full of people who loved what we were doing! It was a beautiful environment and loads of fun!
We also played the Knowne World Crown Heads dinner at Midrealm Royal encampment, and that was ok, but less fun. We played because our beloved friend Zof (who was on Royal staff this year) asked us to come and make the Midrealm King and Queen look good by having their kingdom’s coolest music group provide dinner music for all twenty-some royalty pairs from all the kingdoms attending Pennsic. But as Pennsic luck would have it, the light was bad, they didn’t feed us, and we ended up playing for 2.5 hours instead of 1. I had just run the Fools’ Parade (over an hour on stilts corralling 20+ crazy Pennsic Fools) just before hand and only had time to scarf down a sandwich before dressing and prepping for the royalty gig. And I had to completely miss the iSebastiani ICOD performance. So it goes at Pennsic – there’s always too much fun to be had and too little time to take care of oneself. The King and Queen of Calontir were absolutely wonderful, tho, because after we’d played a few tunes, they sent over to the band their own glasses of mead! I credit my beloved sister, Scott, and Francesca with taking care of me after I crashed hard when we were done playing that gig. They took me back to camp, fed me, and put me to bed. They were awesome!
Other wonderful things include but are not limited to: Midair’s annual improv comedy fest called “Who’s Line Doth It Be Anyway?” where I got to play with many good old friends including Paul Hudert (Paulo Garbonzo) who taught me by example much of what I know about performing as a professional, meeting Accolon’s sweet new wife, helping to launch the new Club Cunradus in camp Spartii, seeing many of my friends including Kat Kinney and Accolon in Zof’s production of Much Ado About Nothing, and ending up the week with a proper Peeps Sacrifice on the campfire with my sister and the rest of the Red Winged Lion gang.
Going back to work wasn’t bad at all because I was happy to get back to air conditioning, flush toilets, and I do love my job. For the week and a half after Pennsic I housesat/petsat for Lisa and Mona – actually for Cobber and Rambo! Cobber is a sweet doggie of medium size and very puppy like temperament. He does really well with the walking and peeing only in places he should, and he likes to jump up on people and pretend he’s small enough to sit in one’s lap or cuddle in one’s bed. He’s only slightly too big for such activities, but I didn’t mind. His eternal sweetness and doggie love easily overcame the awkwardness of his size. I did, however, learn really quickly to quit with the cute baby talk voice when he jumped up on me. I discovered a new voice for animal discipline. I think it surprised me more than it surprised him! But it got the job done.
And Rambo is the coolest cat there ever was! He is *huge* as cats go, and completely mello – even when the dog is trying to eat his head. He defends himself from Cobber’s attempts to play very effectively, but I still feel sorry for him when he looks like he just wants to cat nap and Cobber’s jumping all around him and trying to eat his head. I rescued the kitty as much as I could, and it was really wonderful having kitty loving around again.
Work has been good, and busy as all heck. I’ve had to take some time off here and there to cope with my uterus problems, and I’m now juggling three projects! My favorite new one is the Annual Report to Congress for the Defense Department’s Environmental Programs! I get to lead the chapter on FUDS (Formerly Used Defense Sites) since I worked in the HQ for that program for the past three years. I also get to just be part of this incredible team that’s actually pulling together the data and narratives for *THE* *BOOK* that congress uses to learn what all’s going on in the environmental programs for the Department of Defense! This book is available in a searchable format to the public, and I’ll post the link here as soon as I can, but the coolest part is that I just get to work on this project!! Woo hoo!! It makes me feel like I really can make a difference in this world. I’m a key part of a team that feeds data to the people who make the decisions for our whole country! I’m a tiny cog in the great machine, but I know that what I do makes a difference in the vast mechanism that runs our lives. This is exactly why I love Booz Allen!
I also happen to have gotten into a really wild tiny gig at work supporting the Systems Resource Center – an internal Booz Allen group that focuses on technology trends of the moment – and I’m doing voice recordings for their podcasts! I’m actually standing in a sound booth reading/performing scripts about what Booz Allen is doing in current technology for the internal Booz Allen communication structure. It’s only about 1-2 hours of work per month, but it’s cool!!! I’m actually getting *paid* to do performing work! It’s a tiny tiny tiny amount of my work, but it’s wonderfully fun to be able to say that I am actually doing voice performing for real money!
In other news, Scott went with me to a really awesome workshop done by one of my favorite wise women in the world, Judith Pauly! Judith held a one day, Saturday, workshop about how to actually connect with one’s soul and make changes that really heal and improve a person’s life. Judith is one of my favorite people in the whole world and one of the best leaders and workshop creators I’ve ever met through the Woman Within program. Scott earned Boyfriend of the Year again by just agreeing to go with me, but as we went through it, I was enheartened beyond belief to see him understanding the exercises and actually getting some good stuff out of it! It was wonderful to see him enjoying this work that means so much to me and makes up so much of my life. I got a lot out of the workshop too, but just sharing it with Scott was the most significant piece for me.
I’ve been wanting to blog a lot about “What is this Woman Within thing anyway?” I really don’t have time to do it right now, but I do want to write something here to remind myself to make time to do more of this. Woman Within is just one program out of many that has been created by people involved in the mental & emotional health industry to do something for personal growth that’s different than regular talk-therapy. There is plenty that a person can do with a professional therapist to heal the emotional crap in one’s life and get through emotional challenges in life. This program, however, does different things along the same line. It’s based on many of the same theories, but provides a more experiential learning experience than sitting on someone’s couch and talking to them for an hour a week. It’s no better or worse than talk therapy, and I’ve found that it provides a different method of learning how to cope that works well for lots of people. Ya know how people learn in different ways? Some people are more visual and like PowerPoint slides with graphics a lot? Some people prefer to read a book and think about it for a few weeks? This is an experiential method of learning that has really worked amazingly well for me. I’m going to write more about this concept here on my blog, but I wanted to at least get that thought down. More to come soon.
I just spent the Labor Day weekend with Scott’s family, dad’s side, at a family reunion in Madison, Wisconsin. This completes the summer of getting to meet each other’s families. Scott met my whole family at my grandma El’s funeral this March, I met his mom’s family at their family reunion on the outer banks this June, and then I met his dad’s family this Labor Day weekend. It’s truly amazing how our families are different in size. My mom is an only child and my dad had just one brother. I have just the one uncle who married my wonderful aunt and they had three kids, so my extended family that I grew up with – excluding the marriages and babies that ensued after adulthood – is a grand total of 5 people. If you include my parents and my sister, my blood related family is a total of 8 people. (I’m excluding grandparents since all of ours are dead by now and we had the same number growing up.) Scott’s mom is one of 6 siblings, and his dad is ALSO one of 6 siblings! Scott has 10, count em *TEN* aunts and uncles!!! Each one of them got married at least once – some more than once – and each of them had kids!!! That’s 20, count em *TWENTY* people who all have professions and lives and other families and kids – and now some of those kids have kids!!! It’s HUGE!!! Scott’s family tree makes mine look like a twig! I have, however, worked very hard this summer to memorize everyone’s names, and I’ve done a good job. I can recognize all of them by face now, except for the one uncle/aunt couple from Scott’s mom’s side that didn’t make it to the reunion in June.
Scott has is *SOOOOOOOO* easy! He has ONE aunt/uncle pair to memorize. *ONE*! And just three cousins! I swear to you that I cannot, seriously and honestly, at this point even *count* all of Scott’s cousins! I can rattle off all the aunts and uncles, and for the most part I can name off their kids names, but I know I’m still missing a few in my memory files. Naturally, those are the ones that couldn’t come to the reunions this summer so I didn’t actually meet them in person.
So, it’s been loads of fun to meet Scott’s *HUGE* family, and I do like them. They’ve been very sweet and welcoming to me, and everyone is impressed that I’ve managed to memorize the aunts and uncles! They all took time to chat with me and ask about my life and how Scott and I came together. I felt like they were genuinely interested in me and how I am affecting their beloved Scott. I really appreciated how they reached out to me and consciously connected with me on a sincerely genuine level. Our families are very different in size, but I feel very much at home with both of them.
I’m having health problems. My uterus is malfunctioning. I have one big problematic fibroid and two polyps. There are other fibroids that aren’t causing trouble at the moment, but I’m wondering what they will do in the future. My GYN office is scheduling the surgery, and as soon as I get word on when that surgery is, I’ll be a much happier camper. I’ve lost a lot of blood and I’m feeling tired all the time. I get painful cramps on and off, but so far Aleve has been able to keep them from putting me in bed. What’s really bugging me is the unpredictable nature of the huge blood losses that surprise me at various and random moments. I’d really love it if I could just stop bleeding. I’d love to go back to the days of relatively predictable bleeding that I haven’t seen since early spring. I will someday soon, I just have to wait for the doctor’s secretaries to do their job. Apparently the two business days we’ve had since my last appointment weren’t enough. *sigh*
I’m moving in with Scott and adopting a lifestyle of a Washington DC weekly commuter. This is apparently a relatively popular lifestyle in DC where people want to work here but live somewhere else. I love DC – even with the tourists and traffic – but Scott and I want to move our relationship along in a forward direction. That means taking some action to move one of us closer to the other one. Scott owns a house in Raleigh (specifically Cary, NC), and his job is 100% tied to his location at the University of North Carolina. I do not own a house and selling a house nowadays is just stupid if you have another option. My job is a little more flexible than his, so I’m going to take on the stress of commuting, and he’d going to take on the stress of more laundry and food shopping. I’m going to keep a “satellite home” in Washington DC, the first of which will be sharing some space in my friend Caitlin’s apartment. Caitlin stayed with me for about 6 months last year, so now she’s going to put me up as I try out this new lifestyle. Next summer when her lease is up, I’ll find another tiny studio apartment or roommate situation close to my office. When my current lease is up on January 4, I’ll start commuting from Scott’s. I’ll drive into DC on Monday mornings, missing the regular rush hour traffic, work long days Monday through Thursday, drive back Thursday night, and telecommute Friday. This means I also get to keep meeting with my egroup on Tuesdays and stay connected with all my Washington DC loved ones. November is the month of moving, so I’ll be able to take my time and not have to move in one horrible, painful weekend.
Pennsic was great, and I can’t believe I didn’t post anything about it yet. The most significant thing for me was that I decided to *not* produce my own commedia dell’ arte show. My malfunctioning uterus was giving me enough stress that I knew I couldn’t keep up a normal “Sophie At Pennsic” energy level all week. The truly lucky thing was that iSebastiani was doing a show for the Casa Bardicci low brow party on Sunday night, and Anton wrote a whole new show for that event that I got to play in. I then reworked the show a bit for a slightly different cast and redid the show for the Thursday night high brow party! It was wonderful and a fraction of the work producing my own commedia show at Pennsic usually is. I was so happy to roll with the punches and just work with what I had. I had a ton of fun playing with Anton and the iSeb gang, and my sweetie Scott also joined in! He played Flavio and was absolutely hilarious in his attempts to woo Isabella. I was the lusty Columbina, so I was flirting with Arlecchino instead of Flavio. Actually I was flirting with anyone I could – it’s commedia!
Pennsic was also a wonderful time to reconnect with friends. I cherish the annual “family reunion” feel I get at Pennsic.
I also got to play great music with my beloved Musica Subterranea! My favorite gig was playing Casa Bardicci, but it was really crowded with performers and this one “band” that played for belly dancers was trying to kick us out of our spot after we played just one tune! We played for about 45 minutes, and a bunch of the dancers from the regular dance tent came to give us a really authentic feeling to the actual practice of playing for dancers at a big party. It was crowded, full of rude people and high ranking people, but also full of people who loved what we were doing! It was a beautiful environment and loads of fun!
We also played the Knowne World Crown Heads dinner at Midrealm Royal encampment, and that was ok, but less fun. We played because our beloved friend Zof (who was on Royal staff this year) asked us to come and make the Midrealm King and Queen look good by having their kingdom’s coolest music group provide dinner music for all twenty-some royalty pairs from all the kingdoms attending Pennsic. But as Pennsic luck would have it, the light was bad, they didn’t feed us, and we ended up playing for 2.5 hours instead of 1. I had just run the Fools’ Parade (over an hour on stilts corralling 20+ crazy Pennsic Fools) just before hand and only had time to scarf down a sandwich before dressing and prepping for the royalty gig. And I had to completely miss the iSebastiani ICOD performance. So it goes at Pennsic – there’s always too much fun to be had and too little time to take care of oneself. The King and Queen of Calontir were absolutely wonderful, tho, because after we’d played a few tunes, they sent over to the band their own glasses of mead! I credit my beloved sister, Scott, and Francesca with taking care of me after I crashed hard when we were done playing that gig. They took me back to camp, fed me, and put me to bed. They were awesome!
Other wonderful things include but are not limited to: Midair’s annual improv comedy fest called “Who’s Line Doth It Be Anyway?” where I got to play with many good old friends including Paul Hudert (Paulo Garbonzo) who taught me by example much of what I know about performing as a professional, meeting Accolon’s sweet new wife, helping to launch the new Club Cunradus in camp Spartii, seeing many of my friends including Kat Kinney and Accolon in Zof’s production of Much Ado About Nothing, and ending up the week with a proper Peeps Sacrifice on the campfire with my sister and the rest of the Red Winged Lion gang.
Going back to work wasn’t bad at all because I was happy to get back to air conditioning, flush toilets, and I do love my job. For the week and a half after Pennsic I housesat/petsat for Lisa and Mona – actually for Cobber and Rambo! Cobber is a sweet doggie of medium size and very puppy like temperament. He does really well with the walking and peeing only in places he should, and he likes to jump up on people and pretend he’s small enough to sit in one’s lap or cuddle in one’s bed. He’s only slightly too big for such activities, but I didn’t mind. His eternal sweetness and doggie love easily overcame the awkwardness of his size. I did, however, learn really quickly to quit with the cute baby talk voice when he jumped up on me. I discovered a new voice for animal discipline. I think it surprised me more than it surprised him! But it got the job done.
And Rambo is the coolest cat there ever was! He is *huge* as cats go, and completely mello – even when the dog is trying to eat his head. He defends himself from Cobber’s attempts to play very effectively, but I still feel sorry for him when he looks like he just wants to cat nap and Cobber’s jumping all around him and trying to eat his head. I rescued the kitty as much as I could, and it was really wonderful having kitty loving around again.
Work has been good, and busy as all heck. I’ve had to take some time off here and there to cope with my uterus problems, and I’m now juggling three projects! My favorite new one is the Annual Report to Congress for the Defense Department’s Environmental Programs! I get to lead the chapter on FUDS (Formerly Used Defense Sites) since I worked in the HQ for that program for the past three years. I also get to just be part of this incredible team that’s actually pulling together the data and narratives for *THE* *BOOK* that congress uses to learn what all’s going on in the environmental programs for the Department of Defense! This book is available in a searchable format to the public, and I’ll post the link here as soon as I can, but the coolest part is that I just get to work on this project!! Woo hoo!! It makes me feel like I really can make a difference in this world. I’m a key part of a team that feeds data to the people who make the decisions for our whole country! I’m a tiny cog in the great machine, but I know that what I do makes a difference in the vast mechanism that runs our lives. This is exactly why I love Booz Allen!
I also happen to have gotten into a really wild tiny gig at work supporting the Systems Resource Center – an internal Booz Allen group that focuses on technology trends of the moment – and I’m doing voice recordings for their podcasts! I’m actually standing in a sound booth reading/performing scripts about what Booz Allen is doing in current technology for the internal Booz Allen communication structure. It’s only about 1-2 hours of work per month, but it’s cool!!! I’m actually getting *paid* to do performing work! It’s a tiny tiny tiny amount of my work, but it’s wonderfully fun to be able to say that I am actually doing voice performing for real money!
In other news, Scott went with me to a really awesome workshop done by one of my favorite wise women in the world, Judith Pauly! Judith held a one day, Saturday, workshop about how to actually connect with one’s soul and make changes that really heal and improve a person’s life. Judith is one of my favorite people in the whole world and one of the best leaders and workshop creators I’ve ever met through the Woman Within program. Scott earned Boyfriend of the Year again by just agreeing to go with me, but as we went through it, I was enheartened beyond belief to see him understanding the exercises and actually getting some good stuff out of it! It was wonderful to see him enjoying this work that means so much to me and makes up so much of my life. I got a lot out of the workshop too, but just sharing it with Scott was the most significant piece for me.
I’ve been wanting to blog a lot about “What is this Woman Within thing anyway?” I really don’t have time to do it right now, but I do want to write something here to remind myself to make time to do more of this. Woman Within is just one program out of many that has been created by people involved in the mental & emotional health industry to do something for personal growth that’s different than regular talk-therapy. There is plenty that a person can do with a professional therapist to heal the emotional crap in one’s life and get through emotional challenges in life. This program, however, does different things along the same line. It’s based on many of the same theories, but provides a more experiential learning experience than sitting on someone’s couch and talking to them for an hour a week. It’s no better or worse than talk therapy, and I’ve found that it provides a different method of learning how to cope that works well for lots of people. Ya know how people learn in different ways? Some people are more visual and like PowerPoint slides with graphics a lot? Some people prefer to read a book and think about it for a few weeks? This is an experiential method of learning that has really worked amazingly well for me. I’m going to write more about this concept here on my blog, but I wanted to at least get that thought down. More to come soon.
I just spent the Labor Day weekend with Scott’s family, dad’s side, at a family reunion in Madison, Wisconsin. This completes the summer of getting to meet each other’s families. Scott met my whole family at my grandma El’s funeral this March, I met his mom’s family at their family reunion on the outer banks this June, and then I met his dad’s family this Labor Day weekend. It’s truly amazing how our families are different in size. My mom is an only child and my dad had just one brother. I have just the one uncle who married my wonderful aunt and they had three kids, so my extended family that I grew up with – excluding the marriages and babies that ensued after adulthood – is a grand total of 5 people. If you include my parents and my sister, my blood related family is a total of 8 people. (I’m excluding grandparents since all of ours are dead by now and we had the same number growing up.) Scott’s mom is one of 6 siblings, and his dad is ALSO one of 6 siblings! Scott has 10, count em *TEN* aunts and uncles!!! Each one of them got married at least once – some more than once – and each of them had kids!!! That’s 20, count em *TWENTY* people who all have professions and lives and other families and kids – and now some of those kids have kids!!! It’s HUGE!!! Scott’s family tree makes mine look like a twig! I have, however, worked very hard this summer to memorize everyone’s names, and I’ve done a good job. I can recognize all of them by face now, except for the one uncle/aunt couple from Scott’s mom’s side that didn’t make it to the reunion in June.
Scott has is *SOOOOOOOO* easy! He has ONE aunt/uncle pair to memorize. *ONE*! And just three cousins! I swear to you that I cannot, seriously and honestly, at this point even *count* all of Scott’s cousins! I can rattle off all the aunts and uncles, and for the most part I can name off their kids names, but I know I’m still missing a few in my memory files. Naturally, those are the ones that couldn’t come to the reunions this summer so I didn’t actually meet them in person.
So, it’s been loads of fun to meet Scott’s *HUGE* family, and I do like them. They’ve been very sweet and welcoming to me, and everyone is impressed that I’ve managed to memorize the aunts and uncles! They all took time to chat with me and ask about my life and how Scott and I came together. I felt like they were genuinely interested in me and how I am affecting their beloved Scott. I really appreciated how they reached out to me and consciously connected with me on a sincerely genuine level. Our families are very different in size, but I feel very much at home with both of them.
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