Au revoir encore, Santa Clara

View from the Hyatt Regency, Santa Clara, CA April 2011, a photo by suzipaw on Flickr.

Trying to keep up with the more frequent blogging, but obviously having trouble with all the travel. I've been in Santa Clara since Monday (conference is going very well btw!), and will be home briefly before taking off to see Grandma on Friday morning. Extra family fun: mother in law Arienne is visiting with M now, so it will be nice to see her when I get home tomorrow afternoon. OK, pardon me while I continue packing...

Ciao Santa Clara

View from the Hyatt, Santa Clara, CA April 2011, a photo by suzipaw on Flickr.

It was a quick three days, thank goodness. M seems to be doing just fine without me, but still it's weighed on me to be away from him right after the surgery. Two pleasant things about this visit: I had take-out South Indian food for dinner last night, which always makes me happy. And, I organized two "meet ups" of women attending the conference. Of the hundreds of people who attend this event, we got most of them, about 25, together. They seemed to enjoy the networking, and I get to feel like I've helped make them feel more welcome, which may help correct the gender imbalance at our conferences in the hopefully not too distant future.

Screws, Removed

Screws, Removed, a photo by suzipaw on Flickr.

M's home and has his knee up, engrossed in "Scrubs"; the ice water machine is doing its circulation thing; Roxy is pressed up against it, snoring, I'm guessing for comfort. The surgeon said the screw removal went well. (The photo is of his good knee, just for comparison--I don't think the incised knee will see the light of day for some time.) I have to finish packing--I'm off to a conference tomorrow and I really don't want to leave him for a few days, though he's already hobbling around. But I'm glad I was here to at least get him home and settled.

Relief of Suspense!

The last few months have been one of the busiest times of my professional life that I can recall. I just got back from a show last week, and I have two more in the next two weeks. I’m doing annual performance evaluations with my team this week. We just found out that two fall conferences we thought were off the schedule are going to happen after all and so of course we’re already late on preparing for them. And to top it all off, I’m still sick and of course but M’s having surgery on Monday, which doesn’t really impact my workload, just the whole stressful situation. Oh, and I broke a contact lens, so I’ve been wearing my glasses for the last few days and my perspective just feels…off. Particularly with a stuffy head.

But a much bigger change was revealed this week—my company is undergoing a reorg! In a good way, at least it seems so now. We’re positioning for growth, so many departments are realigning, including mine. At this point, I still have most of my team intact. As of today I have a new boss, someone I’ve worked with since I started 11 years ago, just never *for* him. I’ll be moving to another part of our office—this weekend, gulp, but because of my upcoming travel I won’t be in my new space for a couple of weeks. I won’t have an office anymore, just a desk in a big room full of other desks (not cubicles—thank FSM for that!), which I’m not happy about. But other than that, I’m pretty excited about the change. The way the company is being reorganized means that I could be doing some fun new things. One especially nice detail is that I’ll be working more closely with some people I used to when I first started and have missed.

Still--the uncertainty of how it’s all going to shake out (there’s another organizational phase coming and I may get another boss in a few months. Or, let’s face it, I may meet another employment fate) and trying to not let anything essential slip off my list of things I have to do to prepare for the two looming conferences is keeping me from really processing (is that the right shrink-y term?) this change very well. I’ve been packing up my stuff, too—going through decade-old files that have brought back some interesting memories that I don’t really have time to dwell on. Maybe that’s a good thing. I’m going to throw most of it away. If it’s not of any use to me, I don’t think the 48 inches of paper will benefit anyone else.

M was so good to me tonight—it was a very long day for me today after a series of long days and I came home to a lovely three course spaghetti feast. That soothed my fevered brow substantially.

On another bright and stress-reducing side, I do have a nice if brief visit with family in Washington and Oregon to look forward to in a couple of weeks. Just need to get through this little two week tunnel of time, and then I can breathe.

OK, time for bed. I suspect I have another long and eventful day ahead of me tomorrow.

Still Sick

And now M has it too. He’s hoping (as am I) that it doesn’t interfere with the surgery scheduled for Monday. He has a pre-surgery meeting with his doc later this week. But, better to be safe than sorry. He stayed home from work today to try to kick it.

*****

Sunday Adventure: M and I took off in the morning on the motorcycle to enjoy the beautiful weather and countryside. We rode out to the Timber Cove Inn for lunch, but as we were making to leave, the bike kept dying. Luckily Mom had nothing better to do and her neighbor had no plans for her truck, so she rescued us, driving us all the way back to Santa Rosa. It ended up being a nice unexpected visit. Mom stayed the night, M grilled, and we had a lovely time.


*****

M and I got into an interesting discussion last night: If you had to lose and eye, a hand, or a foot, which would you choose? M was firmly in the eye camp. I couldn’t decide. They all sound pretty dreadful to me.

*****

Dog update: Although all had been quiet on the canine front for months, Rex and Roxy got into it last night. I think they were both excited and hungry and eager for their walk. We thought Rex had gotten used to her constant badgering for attention, but apparently not—they were just outside the front door after I got home last night, clamoring for a walk, and suddenly I heard the dog sounds change to conflict. Luckily there was a towel near the front door, so I grabbed it and ran outside to flail it on Roxy. She stopped and let Rex up almost immediately. He ran off; later he seemed to be cowed, but not bleeding. I scolded Roxy for quite some time. It may not actually be her fault, but she’s so much bigger than he is…not sure if we’ll ever be able to train her that she can’t attack him, no matter how much of a jerk he is to her. One thing I did notice. When I scold Rex, he rolls over and shows his belly to me quickly. Roxy didn’t. She looked chastised, but not really subservient. And there it is, I think—Rex won’t back down, and neither will she. At least, not at this point. Maybe we’re not establishing ourselves as the pack leaders adequately. We took them on separate walks last night, and things seem to be OK today. I think it was a good thing M was home. It felt like a big setback in the getting-along department.

***

And just to leave you in suspense (and to provide me with a compelling reason to blog again this week): It was a very big day at work today. Check back for a full report on Thursday.

Pointy Pal Reunion

View from the Intercontinental, San Francisco, March 2011, a photo by suzipaw on Flickr.

After a long, busy, but productive week at a conference in San Francisco, I'm at the Applebox with writer pals Julia and Rebecca. It's been months since we've gotten together, so of course we didn't pull out our laptops to start writing for a few hours--we've been busy catching up. We did discuss some writing goals for the rest of the year. I committed to six poems (two down! and another one started!) and blogging three times a week, twice publicly and once just for myself. We'll see how that goes. When I was in San Antonio, Dad very kindly asked me how my novel was coming along and so I've been thinking a lot since then about it. I admit to not feeling very motivated to do long fiction. Maybe I just don't have a compelling story in me right now. The characters don't haunt me like I hear they're supposed to. Except for the house--the house I envisioned for the characters to remodel and thereby fall in love--that is still with me, for some reason. Maybe it's because I still feel a little restless with the house I currently inhabit.

It felt like the seasons changed while I was gone. I took most of the day off yesterday and cleaned up the backyard a little, loving the feel of sunshine and sight of blue sky. The peach trees are still blooming; tulips and daffodils I planted in pots are unfolding. It was quite warm, a preview of summer. I actually donned shorts and sat on the back deck for a while, til the neighbor's crappy music and other neighbor's lawnmower drove me back indoors. I like the air but not the noise open windows let in. I guess I could've blasted NPR in return, but all I really wanted was to listen to the birds (hawk, hummingbird, mockingbird, punctuated by woodpecker) and the sound of browned oak leaves crashing their way through the new green ones to the overgrown green grass below. The yards are still very wet, but M is supposed to mow today, so it may look very different when I get home. And smell heavenly.

I unfortunately caught something while I was away and a sore throat is setting in. Maybe just a hint that I need to take it easy this weekend.

P.S. I've sent a message to the Flickr people asking them if they have any idea why my photos are displaying so hugely. I hope they reply soon.