A Whole Month

Well, let's just get right to it, shall we? It's been an interesting month, in the Chinese proverb sense of the word.

While niece Felicia was in Germany, we IM'd a bit about making "adult" decisions. I've been thinking about my various adult decisions throughout my life and the consequences that have been better or worse. Since I'm still an adult, I've made another adult decision: we're not going to buy another house. At least not any time soon. It's been a bit of a bitter pill to swallow. While our house looks a little better now with a fresh coat of paint and the interior re-do holding up well, it's still the size that it is, which is, frankly so small that I'm embarrassed by it. But I'd rather be embarrassed and disappointed than be underwater or overextended. It was also hard "breaking up" with our real estate agent (she said she'd like to think that we were just "taking a break"), but it was good lesson in trying to do the right thing face to face. It's also true that life keeps changing. Maybe I'll be in this house for the rest of my life, but hey, you never know.

On the bright side, it's a relief not to think about having to pay a substantial mortgage when I'm in my 80s. Or to move the detritus of our dozen years here. I'm grateful for what I have. These are first world problems, that's for sure. I'm spinning it as simplicity and which is also mostly true. The view from my back yard could be a lot worse and suddenly the neighbors are keeping their music and cursing to fewer decibels. I'm going to do a few more upgrades, the big one being a new roof, but other little things too that I learned from doing the interior: coordinating materials and colors, and making landscaping choices that are lower maintenance. I think we'll mostly mulch over the front lawn and half of the back, put in some raised beds. I can spend my time growing flowers and tomatoes and peas and getting back into crafting rather than looking at houses on the internets.

 In other interesting news, I've had an adult decision made for me this past month: I have a new role at my company. I didn't apply for it and in fact I didn't even know this line of work existed, but I think it will be good. I'm still doing marketing, but not so much public facing. I have more internal duties now--helping to track and map out marketing campaigns for our various products with the goal of herding things along in a timely and coordinated manner. It's a job that plays to my strengths, I don't have to manage people anymore, and I report directly to the president of the company so I'm calling it a promotion. I think it will be tricky to disentangle myself from what I've been doing and navigating the new relationships, but like so much in my life lately, it could be a whole lot worse. I could be unemployed, for instance.

I'm pretty sure I'll be able to continue my diversity activities at my job, and that's been wonderful lately.

 

At our most recent event, held in San Francisco, we had our very first lesbian/gay meetup event, and I think it went pretty well. I don't think they happen at professional technical conferences very often and it's a good feeling to be progressive and providing leadership in such an important area. I also organized an event for technical women at the conference that came off very well despite my deep seated hostess anxiety syndrome. I had to speak a little and be the MC and didn't do it perfectly, but participants sent me kind notes afterwards, so I feel pretty good about it all. I've also been continuing my resolution to exercise while at events. I think I can safely say now that hotel gyms are odd places to be.

Other Activities: Arienne came for a very short visit. It was nice to see her.



M and I rode the motorcycle to San Mateo to Maker Faire, which was quite frankly overwhelming. So much to see and think about! Steampunk was a theme, we saw a couple of guys do a stage show using Mentos to spray Diet Coke in coordinated beige fountains, people pedaled about dressed as cupcakes, there were robots and fiery art and a landscape made of masking tape, 3D printers, and soooo much more.

 



It was so crowded I couldn't take it for more than a few hours.It was also a very long ride. A woman's got to know her limitations, and I found mine.

M and I went on our first philanthropic motorcycle run over the Memorial Day weekend, raising money with several hundred other bikers for our local vets.

 

 There were a few fun things about it. My fake tattoo (a skull with top hat, gin bottle, and knife) couldn't compare with the real-deal ink and I don't have enough bling on my jeans or desire to ride in a tank top to fit in authentically either, but overall the people watching was fun. So was feeling like I was part of a parade. People came out of their homes and businesses to gape as us as we roared along the highways and through towns. Watching fellow riders drink beer before noon and before mounting expensive powerful bikes and run through red lights or pass at dangerous turns, however, was not so fun. After the second stop we hung back and completed the run on our own.

We've been doing some fun culinary projects, making pita bread on the grill and hummus one weekend, baking brownies in the waffle iron, dining alfresco at our local summer markets, trying new places for lunch as part of our motorcycle adventures. We love food and are lucky to live in a place that produces so many delectable comestibles and has so beautiful places to explore.

In canine news: Rex had a number of lumps removed all at once, so spent over a week wearing a cone of shame which drove us all crazy. He jabbed the edge of the cone into our legs and faces at every opportunity. Roxy has been perfecting her gopher-getting technique and snapped up several in the past few weeks. We've been very impressed when not grossed out.



I leave for a conference in Denver tomorrow. Not one of ours, so it will be less stressful than conferences usually are for me.