Day 76 - This Past Week

I'm officially skipping days 69 - 75.  While I find the fact that I missed "Day 69" to be one of the great tragedies of our times, I'm also incredibly happy at the prospect of not feeling the pressure to do make up blogs.  


Some happy making things that have happened to me over the past week are as follows: 

There was a power outage at work on Tuesday afternoon which ended up being so bad that they sent us all home.  The reason this made me happy was that I was in strategic planning meetings from 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM on Monday and from 7:30 AM right up until the power went out at 3:00 PM on Tuesday.  I was exhausted and it was a welcome break.  The other part about this whole ordeal that was amusing was that we had some folks from India visiting.  Having brief power failures is pretty common there, so they thought it was hilarious that we were forced to evacuate the building because the power went out.  
 
I love my new manager (and by "new" I mean the manager I've had since last November).  She's incredibly supportive and understanding.  I didn't have the Annual Review I was hoping for on Wednesday, but she makes me feel confident that this is going to be a year filled with growth and learning opportunities for me.


Actually, the fact that most of the people I work with really kick ass made me happy this week as well...especially today.


Cookies.  Cookies always make me happy.


Riley, Sophie and I took a super long walk when I got home from work last night because a: it was still light enough to do so and b: I didn't have a meeting.  I downloaded a smutty book on my Kindle that I would be too embarrassed to purchase at a store, made myself a pot of fancy Teavana tea and took a bath.  I used some Lushie goodness that not only smelled amazing but also turned the water completely blue, a fact which delights me for some reason.

That's all for now.  Please join me tomorrow while I recommence my regularly scheduled blogging.

Day 68 - Karen

As many of you already know, Karen is Riley's mama.  I also sometimes like to call her, Joel's Baby Mama. While this would be reason enough for she and I to have a strained, weird, competitive, shitty and/or non-existent relationship, we are actually pretty good friends.  

Of course, this didn't come naturally.  Truth be told, we had to work our assess off to get here.  However, since Riley's happiness was more important to both of us than anything else, we had the hard conversations.  We put all of the awkwardness and the stupid, bullshit insecurities aside.  We started listening to each other.  We started trusting each other.  We ended up genuinely growing quite fond of one another.  :-)

The first time I met Karen was in October of 2004 in the Walmart parking lot.  She was moving back up to the area and we were doing a Riley hand-off.  As soon as they got out of the car, he grabbed her hand and drug her over to me, then grabbed my hand and said "Mom...this is Tiffany.  Tiffany...this is mom.  You should shake hands now."  

Since then she, Joel and I have been a unified front.  When something major comes up in Riley's life, we discuss it and come up with a plan together.  He has never gotten to pit one of us against the other, not that he would now but kids try the darndest things when they are little.  :-)  


Some of the things I love about Karen...she's got a great sense of style.  She always says that she is bad at sharing her feelings and maybe that is true in the most fundamental definition of sharing.  However, anyone that knows her can learn all they need to know by taking in the way she expresses herself through her art.  She writes beautiful prose.  She takes amazing photographs that give folks a very intimate view of how she sees the world.  She shares more than she realizes, so long as you are paying attention.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Karen!  I hope your day is filled with new shoes, no shellfish, gourmet coffee and fantastic new ink.

Here is a shot of Karen and I and the tie that binds us...or at least the reason we bonded...Christmas of 2010.  It is a comfort to know that he refuses to smile no matter which type of Mama is trying to coax it out of him. ;)

Day 67 - Morning Meetings

Last evening marked my last "evening" meeting for this quarter.*  Half of my team is in Noida, India and most of the folks that work in the office there have a pretty long commute.  After I had worked with the team for a time and gained their trust, they started talking to me about the way we ran our meetings.  Someone that I work with had not seen his kid in THREE DAYS because he had to leave the house before the family woke up and got home after they were in bed.  This was in a regular week, not even during a milestone.

Naturally, I was horrified.

I should first say that my team, in its entirety from Seattle to Noida and everywhere in between, kicks ass.  It is chock full of hard working, passionate and amazing people who love our product and are willing to go the extra mile to make it as awesome as possible.  I have personally always been a proponent of work-life balance.  When I was purely an individual contributor, I always made sure that I took care of myself because I knew if I got too burned out I would be completely worthless as an employee.


While I do not have anyone reporting to me in my current role, I am on the management team and am responsible for monitoring the overall health of the project.  One of my most critical responsibilities is identifying, understanding and working with the rest of the management team to address any and all types of problems that I observe during our product development cycle.  This said, there are obviously times in the project where work-life balance has to be sacrificed a little, but this should NEVER be "the norm".  If people have to make a habit of working overtime every week, that means we are failing them.

So, one of the big ticket items on my plate during my visit to Noida last December was to agree upon a fair approach to meetings so that we had to share the burden across geographies.  The approach we decided on was that we would switch per quarter, one with all standing meetings evening time US and morning time Noida, then vice versa.   The US took the first shift of having all evening meetings.


It has sucked.


I'm still happy we did it, I still feel as though it was the right decision.  I think it is important that this burden is shared.  However, I am ECSTATIC to have a quarter of morning meetings.  Now...next week when I have to get up at 5:00 AM to make my 7:00 AM meetings I'll probably be singing a different tune, but at least I'll be able to have a relaxing dinner with my family and not have to tell everyone they need to be quiet so that nobody on the phone can hear them when I'm not on mute.


* This is a rule for standing meetings only.  I'm sure there will be occasions when an emergency comes up and I have to dial in to an evening call...but it will not be three-four nights a week.  :-)

Day 66 - Peacocks

I wasn't lying about that whole "put a bird on it" comment in my profile.  I'm a sucker for things that are shaped like birds, are stamped with the likeness of a bird or are made with feathers.  I am fond of owls and sparrows, I have a wicked tattoo idea for a quetzal that I plan on getting around to implementing soon, but my absolute favorite are peacocks.  They are majestic, all of those iridescent jewel tones melding together perfectly to create one of the most visually stunning creatures on the planet.

Depending upon where you are in the world and what you believe, peacocks are a symbol of pride, immortality and respect.  One of my favorite things about the peacock is that it eats poisonous snakes.  I like the idea behind that, something pure and beautiful being able to devour something harmful without consequence.  

When I was a little girl my mother's friend Shirley had peacocks on her farmstead, which was located a few miles out of town.  Just far enough away that I could not SEE the peacocks whenever I wanted, but I could always HEAR them.  I'm not sure if you have ever heard a peacock's cry, but a flock crying together sounds like children screaming.  Not cool peacocks...not cool.

Anyway, whenever my mom would go out for coffee, I would come with so that I could run around the farm and collect as many peacock feathers as possible.  Each time, Shirley let me keep one.  I believe she sold the rest.  I didn't realize at the time that I was being used for child labor, but I don't think it would have made any difference because my prize of one single feather would have still been worth the time I spent trompsing around.  My collection of feathers lives in my boudoir in a vase, high in a corner, fanned out to perfection.  When I take the time to stop and notice them, they still delight me as much as they did then.

Me, face painted with peacock goodness after attending a work party at Teatro ZinZanni.  I think it was 2006 or 2007...sometime before I realized that Duck Face was not cool.

Day 65 - Girl Scout Cookies

Joel and Tiffany vs. Girl Scouts
 
Nobody can resist Girl Scout cookies, unless you are a sociopath and/or are otherwise completely devoid of human desire.  Every year around this time, Joel and I employ a basic defense when it comes to going to local destinations...like the grocery store.  The first and most important step in achieving success is that we have already purchased cookies from a co-worker or friend's kid.  If this has not happened (ergo we are suffering from an absence of Girl Scout cookies), then all bets are off.


Here are the few simple steps that we have discovered which might help you survive Girl Scout Season.

1. Avoid the entrance that the Girl Scouts have secured.
2. If Girl Scouts are present at all entrances, consider another shopping location.
3. If this is not an option due to time constraints and/or high probability that Girl Scouts have infiltrated every nearby grocery option, then adhere to the following protocols:
1. While making your way into the establishment, maintain eye contact with one another with utmost focus and self control.
2. If cute girl comes up and directly questions one of you, break eye contact momentarily only to mention that you have already purchased cookies. 
3. If cute girl persists with aggressive sales tactics, such as "You can never have enough girl scout cookies" or "Oh...okay...thank you for supporting us and have a great day.", break eye contact.  Spouse with less or no cash runs into the store immediately and leaves the other behind with no remorse.  Spouse with cash stays to negotiate.  Negotiate means "buy as many boxes as you can with the amount of cash that you have".
4. Enjoy Girl Scout Cookies with reckless abandon.

So far this year, this flawless strategy has kept us at six boxes and going strong.  Until we run out of Do-si-dos...

Day 64 - Family Time

Joel and I stayed in a hotel in Chelan, WA over the weekend.  We traveled for the purpose of going to his uncle's funeral and I must say that it was one of the most inspiring I've ever attended.  I had only ever met Joel's uncle Larry once, so I think it is a testament to the man he was that the ceremony ended with me feeling loss over the fact that I did not have the opportunity to know him better.  


While a funeral is obviously not a joyous occasion, I did get to meet a group that quickly became my favorite McCousins.  All things considered, we had a wonderful time with the family and I look forward to spending more time with them under less distressing circumstances.  (Come to Seattle to visit, we have meatballs!  You know who you are!)


I also got to spend a lot of quality time with Joel.  Up until around this time last year, we had put "our" time on the back burner and with dire consequences I might add.  We had both forgotten why it was important to make time for being a couple.  I can write more about why it is so happy making that we remembered in another blog, but for now I'll just say that we had a spectacular time connecting with each other and remembering why we decided to do that whole lifetime commitment thing.


And...the view from our hotel room kicked ass.  We are plotting to go back soon, but in the case that you are stopping through, we both recommend the Best Western in Chelan.

Day 63 - Winter Wonderland

Joely and I had to drive to Eastern Washington on Friday.  We left at approximately A:SS AM.  One would be inclined to think that no good could come of this, and one would usually be correct.  However, we happened to be driving over Steven's Pass after a snowfall which meant that ALL of the trees were covered with snow.

It was like driving through magic.

In my half-conscious stupor, I stared out the windows and imagined that I could be impervious to the cold.  I would lie down underneath the web that the tree branches created and stare up through them for hours.  I wish we could have stopped for a photo shoot, but we were going to a funeral so we were on a schedule and I didn't bring my camera...because we were going to a funeral.  I did manage to take a few shots out the window with my phone while we were driving.

They didn't do the scene justice...but they are better than nothing.

 

Day 62 - Oden Maxwell

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY to one of my favorite boys on the planet.  I don't even know how to express the awesomeness that is Oden.  He is one of the most amazing kids I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.  He turned 5 on March 3rd and all I can say is that it is high time his parents graced us with a sibling so that there can be TWO most amazing kids I have ever had the pleasure of meeting in this universe.

I have so many funny stories about him that are too long for me to type, a lot of them happened while we were camping.  That kid has some hilarious antics that you must experience for yourself in the woods.  Some of my favorite Oden quotes are:
"See you 'round like a doughnut"
"Tiffany...those are the biggest earrings I have ever seen."
(After Joel said "Smell ya later Oden") "I SMELL YOU RIGHT NOW JOEL!"
"I've wanted one of those my whole life!"
"Tiffany...I LOVE YOU!"

While camping, one of the best sounds ever when doing the sleepy walk from your tent to the bathroom in the morning is when you pass "Oden's" campsite and he screams "GOOD MORNING TIFFANY!  MY FRIEND DADDY MADE ME BREAKFAST!"  Also, on a completely different camping morning, I woke up to hear Oden singing to the tune of Yellow Submarine "There's a Mommy...in the tent...and she's sleeping...in the morning".


Seriously, this kid is irresistible.  He can throw down and sing just about any Beastie Boys or Beatles song you can imagine with eerie accuracy, he loves Transformers, he's a good snuggler and he is a diabolical genius when it comes to negotiating the amount of broccoli he actually has to eat at dinner.  One look into those baby blues and I guarantee you'll be gonzo.

This is an action shot of Ri and I playing with Oden in October of 2011.

A shot of Oden and his supreme cuteness:

This is Oden giving me a kiss while I lounged at the beach @ Deception Pass, summer of 2011.  June seems suspicious.  

Day 61 - Worldtimeserver.com

If you have international meetings as much as I do, or if you even care what the local time is in Zimbabwe, this site is AWESOME: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/index.aspx

The "Meeting Planner" alone saves my bacon at least once a week, in particular when I have to set up a meeting between the US, Scotland and India.  (If that combination is ever US, China and India...forgettaboutit.)

Perhaps a lame attempt at a blog, but a really valuable tool so your ass should be thanking me even if I failed to entertain you.