Holy Cow, am I Eating Again??

14 Sunday Aug 2011

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Again? Already thinking about what to cook for dinner tonight?  After last night’s Seafood Fest?

I have that wonderful post-bloat feeling of fantastic food at a fantastic party.  And I feel relieved that I don’t have to wear anything snug today.  Just another lazy Sunday, where the only thing on tap is making a run to Goodwill, read and pick up a few things for dinner.  No hockey tonight.  Summer season wrapped up with a disappointing shootout loss in our playoff game.  I had a major Silpada jewelry event that same night which trumped hockey (rare, because hockey is usually on Sunday nights), so I found out about the loss through my teammates.  Bummer.  Is it October yet??

Yes, Goodwill.  A purge here in the ol’ townhouse is very, very overdue.  Sometimes I struggle getting going on a home project.  I get overwhelmed and then end up procrastinating, doing nothing.  I look at the clutter building up here in the home office.  And the guest bedroom which is still crowned the Room of Crap and Good Luck Getting to the Ironing Board.  Hmmmm.  This is NOT OK!! 

So what do I do?  I play a mental game with myself, and break down an overwhelming task into smaller pieces.  Every time I need to go downstairs to the main living room/kitchen level here, I make myself take at least one thing out of the home office or the guest room that needs to go.  And I start a pile downstairs near the dining room.  Repeat as needed!  

Voila – in about 24 hours I had a couple large garbage bags full of old computer shit, knick knacks, books, jewelry, shoes and clothes that are ready for Goodwill! The cute, stuffed polar bear I won at the Puyallup Fair a couple years ago doing Skeeball?  Sorry, dude, you’ll make a kid happy in your next home.  Remember the Left Behind book series from the 1990s?  I’d purchased the entire set over time and never cracked open a single one of them, despite numerous raves from many of my friends – even my grandfather.  Le Sigh.  If I haven’t read them after 15 years sitting in my bookcase then it’s time for someone else to.  Also in the “outta here” pile: a set of 4 glass beer mugs I maybe used once in 20 years.  THAT feels good.  I looked at the hodge podge of a dozen mismatched wine glasses currently on the floor in the guest room and considered getting rid of them too but I decided to keep them.  THOSE are good to have for larger parties.  I just need to box them up and get them out of the guest room!

Larger parties…what a segue. I’ve been looking forward to my new consulting firm’s annual Seafood Fest.  The staff has been buzzing about it ever since I joined the group in July, and I’m sure they’ve been in planning mode far earlier than that. “Are you coming?”  “Can you make it?”  “Can’t wait to see you there!”  I probably heard this every time I sent in a timesheet or collected my pay stub.  The energy was contagious!

And the party was amazing, just as I expected.  Our CEO hosted it in her home as she does every year, and just about everything on the menu was made by her and her team from scratch.  Right down to the homemade ice cream, her signature dessert!  Her home is fantastic for entertaining.  She has a front yard with enough room for a large table and chairs plus a couple of grills and a drink stand, a large kitchen and great room on the main level inside, and a huge back deck with room for multiple round tables, mingling and the incredible view looking west toward Puget Sound and across the water to the Kitsap Peninsula (and I think some of Whidbey Island too).  

I soaked in the view with a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc and enjoyed meeting other fellow consultants and chatting with our CEO, T, and her team!  What a great team.  This really didn’t feel like a work-related party…it felt like family.  Really and truly.  T LOVES to entertain…and it shows.  Party for 80 guests?  No problem, right? 

Seafood fest knocked it out of the park.  I’m kicking myself for not getting any pictures of the food with my phone but it was unbelievable.  This year the theme was Caribbean, so we had jerk chicken and beef on the grill, blackened halibut (our CEO caught the halibut herself off of Vancouver Island earlier this year – she had the video of it playing in the living room!), rice and bean side dishes, salads with papayas and mangoes, chips and wonderful salsas, and even a couple of pizzas!  Dessert was a choice of pineapple or lime-flavored cupcakes, and two kinds of homemade ice cream – pineapple and vanilla with a little cinnamon.  Simply incredible.

And the weather turned out decent too – it was a little cloudy during the day but thankfully burned off later in the evening.  This summer really hasn’t been a summer, so I was happily relieved we had a warm evening last night!

Great people and great food.  There simply is no better combination out there.  And so many reasons to celebrate!

Now it’s time to get started on dinner.  While I might not be super hungry after all that wonderful food last night, it DID inspire me to keep honing my cooking skills.  I’m pretty good at it, I must say!  Practice, practice, practice.

Tonight it’s another dish from the Primal Blueprint Cookbook I’ve posted about a few times before.  Chicken and fennel stew with, onions, garlic in a broth of beer and coconut milk, garnished with fresh parsley.  Can’t wait!             

…and the Junkie got Another Fix

07 Sunday Aug 2011

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Time for some FUN!  There’s been a lot of subconscious fun craving lurking inside me…through the job change over the past couple months, the preparation, stress, networking, the car repair a couple of weeks ago…”known unknowns,” as our instructor called them in a project management certification prep course a few years ago.  You know things are gonna happen, but you don’t know exactly how they’re all gonna unfold.  What’s the craving?  Busting out the joy, fun and free spirit that is so part of me but tends to get shoved and squashed when life stress comes to the party.

And anyway, I haven’t done any makeup-related posts in here in probably over a year.  Oh, that’s right.  I did a few around May 2010 (“My Favorite Things”).  And I remember exactly why.  I was so fucking pissed that my job start date was delayed over three weeks by stupid, basic, transactional paperwork functions that SOMEbody wasn’t doing.  Waiting and waiting after my unemployment had run out and was turning down other interviews.  So I did those posts with a sea of anger whooshing through me.  Check the May 2010 archives if you are curious. I did them to kill time and keep me from going homicidal.  Kidding…sort of. 

Let’s lighten up now, shall we?  This post is about nothing but FUN.  Well, makeup is always a joy to me, but this post oozes celebration down to its toes.

I’ve been wearing makeup over 30 years and have tried just about everything out there.  And I have zero brand loyalty.  When my favorite Lancome (liquid) foundation was discontinued after 15+ years, well, I had to try a bunch of others before I found a few new favorites. Favorites plural, not singular.  And they’re not Lancome, although the Definicils and Hypnose mascaras are out of this world.  

Speaking of favorites, know this:  no one brand can kick ass in everything.  My opinion, of course.

I treated myself to a few goodies recently –  woohoo!  So let’s take a look, starting from the top row, right to left.  (Sorry in advance – I don’t know how to upload multiple pics in a post here for some reason).

Mascara!  Good grief I usually have about 8 or 10 in rotation at any given time.  Department store, drugstore – doesn’t matter.  There are great ones out there in just about any price range.  And you don’t need to spend $30+ on a mascara.  The more expensive ones aren’t going to last much longer than drugstore ones typically.

So here we go, left to right, top row:
MAC Zoomlash in Plum Reserve – most of MAC’s mascaras are great.  One thing I love is the price point – they run around $14 – $19, so about half the price of other department store lines.  I usually use Zoomlash in black, but this plum shade caught my eye online and I had to give it a try.  It’s nice but doesn’t have enough purple punch to wear on its own. Anyone else wear colored mascara back in the 80s like me?  I loved that trend.  Really and truly.  But it’s a little too retro nowadays, so it’s fun to just do a light coat of colored mascara over your basic black.  This mascara is perfect for that.  Department stores or maccosmetics.com.

MAC False Lashes – this is a refill I just picked up at the MAC counter at Nordstrom yesterday.  I got my hair cut and highlights touched up and had a blast doing a little shopping in person.  The MAC make up artists (MUAs) are great.  Super friendly, zero attitude.  This mascara really delivers – it’s a little ‘wetter’ than others so start lightly and gradually add more.  And it comes off great with a little cleanser and eye makeup remover.  Department stores or maccosmetics.com.

Maybelline The Falsies in Black Drama – one of the grocery stores near my house had all Maybelline marked down 20%, so I got this for something like $7 or $8.  The brush has a curvy, spoon shape which I’ve not ever seen before, and it takes some practice to get the angle just right.  When you do…WOW.  I’m very impressed!  Doesn’t flake off and washes right off too.  Nice work, Maybelline!  At drugstores.

Kat von D Tattoo eyeliner – Kat von D is a tattoo artist and has quite an impressive makeup collection!  I’ve used her mascara (should not be a surprise given my zero loyalty) but had not yet tried any liners.  I’m a sucker for a wonderful liquid or felt tip pen-type liner that doesn’t budge and washes off easily when I’m ready.  And given 99% of my liquid liners are black, I chose the “Biker” shade, which is listed as “dark smoke” on the Sephora website.  Why not mix it up with a little grey?  

Here’s where shopping online for makeup can be risky.  I like the long, thin stiff brush on this liner, but the shade is far too light grey for any oomph.  But at $18 it didn’t break the bank and I’ll probably use it on days I am not wearing much makeup.  I’ll definitely test the other shades at Sephora before purchasing again if ever.

MAC Lipglass in All of My Purple Life – *raises hand*…I SWEAR I got rid of a lot of lipgloss overload I’ve built up over the past couple years.  I still have way too many.  I promisepromisepromise this wonderful, rich purple is unlike any I have.  Know what drew me in – along with the beautiful color?  It’s part of the Bloggers’ Obsessions collection.  I know, I know, MAC has a new collection coming out about every 10 minutes, and I’ve passed on quite a few recently give it’s just re-packaging or shades I already have.  This collection is intriguing. 

MAC selected a few top beauty bloggers to create their own custom shade of lipstick, lipglass or eyeshadow at MAC’s lab in Toronto.  What a dream come true, eh?  Amazing.  All of my Purple Life is a rich, purple/magenta shade.  And it makes these thin lips look super plumpy and full.  I’m in love!  This shade is much easier for me to rock than a red lipstick.  Get this while you can because it’s super limited edition.  Only online at maccosmetics.com.  PS:  Why that name?  Find your old Prince album (cassette tape?) The Hits / The B Sides and play Erotic City.  It’s the first line in the lyrics.  Genius!  Wow, that song reminds me of frat parties in college.  But that’s another post. Everytime I comb my hair / thoughts of you get in my eyes…oh man, Prince! 

Moving on now, we have MAC Dazzleglass in Baby Sparks – MAC made the smart decision to have Dazzleglasses in their permanent line – thank you!  Love the 3-D sparklies and that signature vanilla scent.  This is sparkle that I can easily layer over a lipstick for work.  No disco ball lips here.  This shade is a pale pink with just a teeny amount of light violet twinkling within.  Love it.  Department stores or maccosmetics.com

Did someone say eyeshadow?  I won’t even try to hide my overload.  Perhaps it’s time to pair it down or just enjoy what I have but I’m only human, and, a makeup junkie who’s not ready for 12-step.  LORAC, Stila, MAC…and Urban Decay.  Urban Decay sprang up and gave me a big ol’ virtual smooch a couple of years ago and has given my trusty MAC some stiff competition!  Eeek, there goes my wallet.

So at the far left in the square pan we have Urban Decay Stardust shadow in Moon Spoon.  The Stardust shadows have 40% more glitter than their other shadows (so says their website), but promise not to have fallout or chunky glitter – both so annoying!  This is a nice, basic grey with a lot of sparkle, but it’s not over the top at all.  Be sure to use a primer so your shadow has something to stick to.  I like to pat eyeshadow on at first with a brush (rather than sweep it) to get the first layer on evenly.  This shade doesn’t have the color payoff of other Urban Decay shadows which surprised me a little. But the packaging is really unique – just squeeze the flexible outer frame and POP, the lid opens.  Sephora or urbandecay.com.

Next up is Urban Decay eyeshadow in Asphyxia – some of these names crack me up!  This is the lavender shade in the round, silver case, and traditional Urban Decay with the subway token design on the casing.  Honestly I haven’t used this shade yet, but it’s a sheer lavender with a little light blue duotone.  Why did I purchase?  Hmmm…would be great for a light, summer look or blended into a highlight above the crease.  Time to play! Sephora or urbandecay.com.

And staying with the (purely accidental) purple and grey theme in this last haul (ha), the other grey shadow here is MAC in Hocus Pocus – another piece in the Bloggers’ Obsessions collection.  “Dark sooty grey with silver pearl.”  This is exactly what it is.  My only complaint is it’s in the Satin finish, which is probably the hardest MAC shadow type for me to blend.  Online only at maccosmetics.com

And lastly, the glorious Urban Decay 15-year Anniversary Palette – after snapping up all 3 Books of Shadows AND the Naked Palette, I caved yet again.  This collection promises all-new shades – zero repeats.  Good thing as I hear and read that complaint about the Books of Shadows frequently.

After getting my hair done yesterday, I stopped at Bellevue Square.  Seems I don’t get to the mall as often as I used to given I shop online moreso.  But there’s nothing like drooling over shoes and handbags at Nordstrom.  Chatting with the sales associates too.  Love it.  

Another must-visit is the huge Sephora store on the main floor.  I was greeted by the store manager who showed me the newest Smashbox eye shadows that had just arrived.  Looked pretty, but I explained I have never tried Smashbox shadows before – even though I love the Halo loose powder and makeup primer.  She asked if I’d be interested in having my eyes done and I said sure, why not?  A few seconds later, Josh, one of their MUAs, showed up with a big smile and we sat down and played with shadow.  After hearing me explain more about what I like and don’t like, he whipped out the Urban Decay 15th anniversary palette and did a really fun look on me.  Dang, it’s been years since I had anyone do my makeup so this was a great experience!  I told him I was pretty much up for anything and to just go for it.  After all, it’s makeup – if you don’t like something, you wash it off! 

This palette is gorgeous.  There’s a great combo of neutral shades and some edgier, in-your-face shades that Urban Decay is famous for. The outer case is mirrored with a raised, purple-jeweled “UD” on the cover.  It sits in a square, purple velvet box (which is not in the picture, sorry). 

Josh did a smokey look with two of the deep brown shades and put a tiny touch of the teal green (Deep End) on my inner eye corners.  Wow!  Not what I typically do, but that’s the idea!  It was fun to see how he used it and it did give my eyes a a nice pop.  I might try doing the same technique with a more toned-down color for work.  And he did a great job touching up my concealer and powder under the eyes when I told him the products I like.  Such a fun experience! 

Fun.  FUN.  Ready for much more of that this summer and fall!  Decked out in wonderful makeup, of course!

Oh, the Power of Connections!

31 Sunday Jul 2011

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By now a lot of you who tune in here regularly (thank you!!) know I typically have a new post on Sundays.  This is one of the most relaxing things I do all week – I look forward to the combo of mental downtime AND challenge when I blog.  Sometimes I have ZERO idea what I’m going to blog about when I sit down and fire up the keyboard.

This past week was totally different.  I knew exactly what I was going to write about today, and it was crystal clear to me as of last Monday night.

When I was a lot younger, I remember hearing people around me or on TV, wherever, say things like “it’s all who ya know.”  And for some reason that would never sit well with me.  I’d bristle inside and try to not roll my eyes.  I don’t know why I felt that way; actually this is my first attempt trying to put those feelings from so many years ago into words. 

But as I’ve gotten older, I’m reminded endlessly how true this is, and I don’t wrinkle up inside or get fussy about it.  Because I know it, breathe it, love it and live it. The connections I (and all of us) have have shaped my life in too many ways to list.  Friendships. Jobs. Dating. Hockey.  Lots of the big buckets in my life.  Well, the dating bucket is a little empty right now, but she’s there and ready.  Hmmm, that’s probably fodder for another post.

Monday started out great.  It was the beginning of my second full week in this new job.  I’m feeling so energized, motivated and happy with this group.  I wonder how much of it is honeymoon and how much is because this really IS a great place for me to be right now.  

On my commute home, I noticed my gas gauge was really low, so I stopped by a Chevron station I fill up at all the time.  After filling up my car, I started up the engine, but I couldn’t get my car out of Park, even after releasing the emergency brake.  I didn’t freak out too much, because this actually happened a couple of times a few months ago.  The solution was to shut off the engine, wiggle the steering wheel a little bit and then start up the car again.  Everything then worked just fine.

Not so much on this past Monday night.  I re-started the car multiple times and no matter what I could not get my car into gear!  I was starting to get a little self-conscious.  Here I was in peak-time commuting, when gas stations are pretty busy and I couldn’t get going and on my way.  15, 20, 25 minutes went by and I’m still parked in front of the damn gas pump!  

I went inside to let the cashier know.  He was a really nice man, and even offered to sit in my car and try it himself.  No-go for him either.  He put an orange cone behind my car and said, “it’s a linkage problem.”  And he walked away.  I also called my brother who sold me this car a few years ago.  He was sure there was a manual override button somewhere to get the car out of Park.  Even after sending him a picture of my gear console via my phone, we couldn’t find it.  

I knew it was time to call AAA and get towed to the shop.  Le Sigh.  But I tell you, that $50 annual membership fee pays for itself many times over.  As I was on the phone with the dispatcher my mind starting racing.  I knew I needed to 1) get home after getting my car to the shop and 2) get to work tomorrow morning.  By now it was around 7pm and I knew the dealership would be closed (meaning they wouldn’t be able to rent me a car that night). 

I called my neighbor A.  By some awesome luck of coincidence she was home and said she’d be able to get me home that night and would take me into work the next day, even though it was a ways from her work commute.  Wonderful!  I knew I could always get a cab home and figure out the bus to get into work, but I’m glad I didn’t need to.  My work laptop wasn’t set up yet for me to work remotely.

All I could do now was wait.  Wait for the tow truck and then wait for my neighbor to come get me. Then I remembered, oh yeah:  I have a weekly chat with L, my sponsor in my Silpada jewelry business on Monday nights.  My head was spinning with so much – when was I going to get home?  How much was this repair going to cost me?  And on and on.  I called L to tell her I was really preoccupied with this car situation and I was not going to be in any shape to talk bling. 

Here’s where it gets interesting!  She said, “oh, no worries, and I’ll call M.”  Oh my God, I’d totally forgotten her husband is a manager at a car rental company!  Within a few minutes she called me back.  M was able to get me a rental contract on the spot – at this late hour.  All I would have to do was get to the Goose (a bar in Bellevue) and he would be waiting with the car and paperwork.  WOW!  I was blown away.  If it hadn’t been Monday night, the night I typically chat with L, it never would have dawned on me to call her to have M help me out!

All of this happened while I was waiting for the tow truck driver.  I called my neighbor A back and told her once I got to the dealership to drop it off for repair, she would need to take me to the Goose to pick up my rental. 

The tow truck driver was really nice.  And before he hooked up my car to tow it, he tried nudging it very gently with his truck.  That worked!  I could now get the car out of Park and into gear!  We tried it two more times, but it failed on the 3rd try.  Yep, the car needed to go in the shop alright.

So I rode shotgun in the tow truck – it was just about a 10 minute drive to the dealership.  On the way there I called my brother back to tell him what happened and to thank him for his help troubleshooting over the phone.  We ended the call with “love you” as we always do.  After I hung up, the tow truck driver told me, “you know, we don’t tell our loved ones we love them enough. I’m glad you told your brother that when you were wrapping up your call. And take that as a compliment.”

Wow.  I was surprised but very touched.

When we arrived at the dealership I started filling out the envelope form for the after hours key drop off, and I called A to let her know I was ready for her to come get me.  The tow truck driver handed me his paperwork to sign and I thanked him for his help.  

I was still mentally reeling from everything that happened…I was feeling disoriented, overwhelmed – so many emotions all mixed up. 

What happened next totally blew me away.  The tow truck driver looked at me and said, “Ma’am, I know you aren’t very happy right now, but I want you to know how happy I am to help out someone like you tonight.” He went on to explain what he meant.  He meant someone not in any danger, uninjured and ALIVE.  We’ve had a couple of very bad accidents with fatalities these past couple of weeks.  A logging truck and semi got tangled up on one of our major freeways, slamming right into backed up commuter traffic.  About 16 cars were involved, and a 9 year old girl died a few days later.  And just a week ago, a man in his mid 40s, married with two young children was driving home from making a routine Sunday afternoon run to Costco. He was killed instantly when his car collided with a shit-faced drunk man in a road rage road race.  The driver who killed him walked away without a scratch.  And supposedly got out of the car and started beating his chest like an animal after the crash!  What the fuck?

P, the tow truck driver, explained that HE was part of the cleanup crew for both of those tragedies.  And as he told me more, his voice started to wobble and he choked up.  Suddenly, all of my inward mental bitching and moaning about my situation melted away.  I knew I had nothing to complain about that Monday night.  Sure my car had to go in the shop, but I wasn’t stranded in the middle of nowhere, I wasn’t in any danger, I wasn’t hurt…and I had great help getting through this 27-ring circus.

I’ll never forget P and his emotional reflecting on what he had to witness these past couple of weeks.  We don’t normally think about the emotional stress our rescue workers and ambulance drivers deal with as part of their jobs.  I should have hugged him.

After dropping off my car and riding with my neighbor A to the Goose to pick up my rental, I was exhausted.  But home, safe…and the proud renter of a Dodge Charger, ha!  Muscle cars are so not my style; I giggled as M pulled it up for me before signing the rental contract.  Vroom vroom!

Know what?  The next day I had my car back – and the repair was only $135!  Unbelievable!  You normally can’t walk into a dealership repair shop for that amount.  What happened?  The brake switch had failed (not the brakes themselves).  I learned that this is the switch that senses your foot is on the brake, and it then lets you take your car out of Park.  Aha! I’m such a GIRL with car repairs.  I know you’re supposed to get oil changes, check the tires and have them rotated occasionally.  Beyond that I have no clue.  

So I am relieved not only that my car got fixed but also how inexpensive the repair was!  My car is 12 years old and she’s a rockstar for sure, but I know at some point she’s gonna have to go out to pasture.

Meanwhile, I count my blessings…and connnections!

Not Sweating in the Sweater

24 Sunday Jul 2011

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I’ll let you in on a little secret.  I’ve started this funny tradition of sorts the past 3 years.  Mid July just isn’t mid July without the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale!  Yes, angels sing as I open my mailbox and find the catalogue waiting, packed with new goodies on sale for the fall/winter season!

THIS is my favorite time of year to shop.  Lots of you may know I love to invest in fall/winter clothing, shoes, boots, scarves, etc.  Around here the summer season is so short it’s just not worth it to go all out with expensive shorts, tops, sundresses, etc.  OK, I DO plunk down some cashola on sandals and flip flops…oh and nice sunglasses too. A girl’s gotta accessorize.  But for summer clothing, put me in J. Crew clearance and I’m happy.

So what’s my tradition?  No, it’s not taking the day off from work and waiting for the store to open that fabulous Friday morning at 7am.  Not this night owl! I pour over the catalogue and mark my favorites. Then I stay up late the night before, and when the clock strikes midnight, I go online and place my order!  Then I fall blissfully into bed…and get back to work the next day.

About a week later, the hot UPS man shows up with my order!  How awesome is this?  No crowds or long lines in the stores.  If you know your sizes in your favorite designers, shopping online is a great alternative.

I’m really happy with my choices this year:  black high heeled Via Spiga ankle boots (I pretty much live in black shoes and boots 3 seasons of the year) and black patent leather high heeled loafers (by Me Too, a brand I had not heard before of but these fit very nicely, whew).  High heeled loafers are very on trend this season. And I smile and remember when they also were about 15ish years ago…I had surgery on my right foot back in 1995 and I remember treating myself to a pair as a reward to myself for getting through the surgery, crutches and physical therapy.  Excruciating.  But I will never take walking without pain for granted ever again.  Thank you, Dr. S!!

I also purchased a wonderful, light knit wool wrap in a deep magenta with some charcoal grey on the trim.  Delicious!  And I found a fair isle sweater in grey and black (do we see a pattern here), cut in a loose, boxy style with a wide neckline.  Kind of an edgy take on a classic.  I like this.  Fair Isle is very pretty, but it is too preppy bordering on frumpy in a more traditional sweater style on me.

Another part of this ritual is the funny feeling of trying on new winter clothes when it’s blasting hot weather.  Oooh the feel of comfy wool or cashmere…so contradictory slipping it on when it’s 90 degrees out…I forget for a second what it feels like after all these months!

Well, except for this year.

Our weather this spring and summer has been terrible.  Much more cold and rainy than usual.  Even last Sunday I went for a walk with my neighbor, A and her dog.  It POURED rain.  Rain like cold February rain.  In freakin’ mid July.  UGH!  There was some news story going around about how we’ve only had about 80 minutes of above 80 degree temperatures this year.  Meanwhile the rest of the country is gripped in a heat wave.

I zipped home from work last week knowing my Nordstrom delivery would be waiting on my front doorstep!  Bliss!  The boots and shoes both fit great, and the wrap is gorgeous!  Next I darted upstairs to try on the sweater…very soft and comfortable.

And that night I pretty much needed to keep it on.  Brrr. Nope, no sweating!

Do we have hope for a hot, late summer?  Hello, August?? 

Plastic Access

17 Sunday Jul 2011

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What a week of transitions, waiting…and a dose of New injected into my Prior Familiar.

Just what am I talking about?  Well, I started my new job on Wednesday as best I could – I’ll get to that in a second – and also had a test in patience waiting for a new debit card from my bank.

And reflecting back on these two things, well, they both tie into a simple yet oh-so-critical object – a plastic card!  Hilarious?  Frustrating?  Yes and yes.

At work I need a cardkey to get where my new team is located.  Once inside the building our offices are in another small cluster which is secured off.  Makes total sense but is a little inconvenient.  Especially when you have to step out to use the restroom.   Ah, but this is all temporary stuff and not unusual.  It’s nice to know this so it doesn’t burn a bunch of mental cycles that I need for getting to know everyone on the team and actually learning what my new job is going to be.  Just a few more days now and I’ll be all set. Until I’m able to get my new laptop all set up, it’s old school time with a tablet of paper and a pen.  I’m actually just a 2 minute walk from the building where my last engagement just wrapped up and have already run into a few people from my former team! 

The home laptop here…well, that’s an ugly story with thankfully a happy ending.  Last week I got a virus.  No idea how exactly.  I’ve learned many things about viruses and virus removal since this episode.  One is that viruses can lie dormant in your machine for some time and then suddenly spring to life.  There’s no traceable way to determine just when you got infected.

I also learned that when you’re prompted to run the chkdsk utility (on a PC), DON’T.  Running chkdsk is perfectly fine; prompts to run it are not.  They’re ways to lure you into running the utility which then installs malicious code that you may have been exposed to.  This is me, a non-technical person, trying to explain this as plainly as I can.  I am sure there’s much more behind the scenes so techies out there bear with me.

And when you get pop up error messages that your hard disk is failing, it’s not.  I saw these messages and it’s scary how freakin’ legit they looked.  I admit I panicked a bit.  This laptop is 5 years old, which is ancient relatively speaking.  I figured, oh man, this is it…it’s crapping out!  Am I going to lose any data?  EEEEK!  In reality, when your computer hard disk is failing, you won’t get pop up warnings.  Your computer will freeze up or not boot up at all.

THEN this console dashboard-y thing pops up on my screen and proceeds to scan for errors and fix them.  I’d never seen anything like this before.  What the hell?  It then spit out a report that some errors were fixed but some were not able to be fixed.  For $85, why not upgrade to the premium version of this scanning tool?  It was called something like XP Fix.  Looking back it was eerie how authentic everything appeared.  But of course it wasn’t.  This thing even had the secure icons that you see on shopping websites all the time.

In my heat of panic, I agreed to purchase the upgrade!  How could I be such a dumbass?  You know, the minute I clicked to purchase, my stomach went into a knot.  I knew I’d make a terrible mistake.

What else happened from the virus?  Well, I lost all of my icons, like things you see in your start menu and all.  Turns out they weren’t deleted, just hidden.  Weird.  After the 2nd troubleshooting session my icons were visible again, but I still wasn’t completely free from the virus(es).  My online search results would get hijacked and redirected toward strange spammy looking websites advertising cheap flights to Beijing or whatever.  Ummmm, yeah right.  This thing was so intense it even attacked my anti-virus software, but made it appear to be running normally.  Only after some deep troubleshooting were the techs and I able to see the real story and fix it.  Yikes.

So after 3 very long troubleshooting sessions with Dell over 3 days, I’m all cleaned up.  None of the error fixing stuff from the console pop up was legit.  And believe me, after the 1st session was done (I thought it would be the last but it wasn’t), I called my bank and had them cancel my debit card.  Thankfully there were no unauthorized charges on it; still it was good peace of mind to cancel it.  I had to wait a week for the new one to arrive, so it was a little inconvenient doing errands old school with my checkbook, but it was worth the wait. 

Just yet another tiny rectangle of plastic.  How much we come to depend upon it.

Hittin’ the Reset Button

10 Sunday Jul 2011

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So much has happened in the couple weeks since I last wrote.  I feel like I’ve busted through a wall (in a good way) or have gone through a massive kind of human car wash.  I feel great – refreshed, renewed and happy.  Even lighter too, but I’m not stepping on the scale just yet.

My last day of work was Thursday the 30th.  I knew this day was coming, and it was nice having nearly a full month’s notice that I’d be wrapping up then for sure.  When you do consulting/contract work like I have for nearly five years, you learn quickly how fluid and unpredictable work assignments can be.  You don’t always get as much notice as a month.  Hell, I’ve had two weeks, one week another time…and even another time got a phone call driving home one night that I didn’t need to come back to work the next day.  Never knew why.  It was the end of the quarter and maybe they’d forgotten that they needed to trim their contingent workforce.  Who knows.  

Why do I do this type of work, you may wonder?  Well, I consider it a big advantage, as I get the opportunity to zoom in and out of very disparate work environments and see what’s out there.  I do the work they need me to do and then I move on.  I don’t have to insert myself in politics or bullshit that every work environment has.  I learn different ways of solving problems and can apply them in other work engagements.

The flip side is I’m pretty much networking and job hunting year ’round.  Time goes quickly and most of my engagements are a year or less in length.  This one happened to be just over a year.  Felt like the blink of an eye, really.  So while there’s a part of me that gets a little drained having to keep an eye out for my next job pretty much constantly, the advantage is I’ve built up a much stronger network than I would have if I’d stayed in the same job for years and years.  I know how to rock an interview, network and land a job.  I always land on my feet.  Sure, I feel a little envious when I see people around my age who have been at their same jobs for 10-15 years or longer, but I’ve also heard them tell me things like, “Wow, I haven’t been on an interview in years.  I wouldn’t know how to do what you’re doing, fivenineteen.  I don’t know what I’d do if I ever got laid off.”  Guess the grass is always greener.  I’m happy in my patch ‘o green right now.

The job market has improved immensely out there, at least in my little world of perspective.  Once I updated my resume and started getting the word out, lots of calls and emails came pouring in.  That feels pretty damn good, no doubt there.

I’m starting a new position later this week!  It’s at the same company I was at prior, but in a completely different business unit.  Everything about this has felt good and right from the minute I got called to interview.  Including the speed of business and sense of urgency in getting this all put together (paperwork, etc).  Remember how my start date for the position I just wrapped up got delayed some two or three weeks?  And when I did show up for Day One, my manager was out sick and didn’t tell anyone (so I sat in the lobby for two hours with a peer of mine and a sales rep)?  Yeah, I don’t like to remember that either because it sucked royally.  Glad that is all far, far in the rear view mirror.  And it makes for great storytelling too.

So I have had just about a week of downtime between gigs.  Just enough to really “reset,” but not so long that my brain would start going to mush. 

I had an incredible 4th of July weekend with family. I’ve posted about Ocean Park and the Long Beach Peninsula out on the Washington coast before.  It’s truly magical, beautiful and deeply steeped in family history. And it’s fun seeing my nephews and niece discover it too and get to know their other cousins – on both sides of the family!  We had incredible warm and sunny weather – it’s a crapshoot on the coast even in early summer like now.  Polar fleece?  Shorts?  Yes and yes.

Even the drive there and back is relaxing and cleansing.  Once you get off the main freeways and onto the two-lane highways the scenery is amazing.  I’ve driven that route hundreds of times and I never get tired of it.

Know that feeling when you’re on a roll…things just happen in your favor?  Right down to a rockstar parking spot when you’re running late for an appointment…and parallel park correctly on the first try?  That’s how it’s been lately, and frankly I deserve it.  It’s been a real grinding haul these past 13-14 months.  

Just the other day I got an “escrow overage” check in the mail from my bank.  Wuhh?  $212 – works for me.  And within two days I received two very generous jewelry orders from my side business.  One was a guest who couldn’t make my last hostess’ party and the other was a friend who called me when I posted something on Facebook about the new jewelry that’s coming out later this month for the new season! Earlier this week I looked at my post-coast trip feet.  Yuck…I need a pedicure!  My favorite spa had an opening just two hours later.  I splurged and got the pedi with the extra foot and leg massage time.  Ahhh.  I also met with a couple of recruiters I’d not met with before over lunch.  Like I’ve said, you always keep networking.  They know I’ve got something new lined up already, but time goes quickly.

Now…how can I bottle up this great Feeling of Reset? 

From the Neck Up

26 Sunday Jun 2011

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Sometimes a little vanity is exactly what I need for a lift.  This time, it started at the dentist.

I don’t particularly enjoy going to the dentist, but I sure love how great my teeth look and feel when they’re done cleaning.  Thankfully I don’t have any major teeth issues save for a few fillings from my early teens and a crown about 10 years ago.  Pretty typical.

So after that recent checkup I went home, smiled in the mirror and then ran my fingers through my hair.  Dark roots, split ends. It’s time.  Time for a color touch up and haircut!

I broke up with my hairdresser earlier this year.  That’s the only way I can describe it and while it’s sad it’s a story that needed to end.  After over 20 years, everything went poof and fizzled out with unreturned phone calls when I needed to make an appointment.  She left her salon many years ago – I’m guessing around 10 or 12 – and started going to her clients’ houses to cut their hair, bringing all her equipment with her.  This was fine by me as I’d known her a long time and trusted her, but it put a more intimate spin on our relationship into a sort of almost-friendship, even though we didn’t seek out eachother’s company otherwise if that makes sense. And no, it wasn’t a true salon experience getting my hair cut sitting in my kitchen (she would use a spray bottle to wet my hair and dry it when she was done – no shampooing) but she hadn’t raised her rates in years so I mentally justified it that way.  And I got used to it.

But I got tired of hearing her drama every time she came over to cut my hair. From restraining orders with her boyfriend, losing her home to foreclosure, her father’s death, bankruptcy, it was surreal. And it’s too bad, because she’s very talented and precise with her craft.  Through late 80s big hair to an attempt at the Jennifer Aniston shag from the Friends years in the 90s, my experiment with bangs in late 2008 and everything onward, she did it all well.

Now I have H, a bubbly late 20-something who cracks me up. She’s at the salon where I get my highlights done.  And her chair is just a couple down from another H, my colorist of probably 20 years.  You might think I’d be nervous having someone else cut my hair after so many years, but it actually was refreshing and fun!

H and H got me all cleaned up.  Stress seems to manifest itself in my hair, and the greys are coming in fast.  Wiry little fuckers. Looking back on the past year, stress has definitely been right at my head table, leering at me and poking, prodding…so I fight back with a great cut and a little more blonde!

Have I bitched about peach fuzz in here before?  If I have, it’s time to again.  I get it waxed off my jawline area a few times a year and while my skin is a little irritated for a day it’s so worth it.  That awful, colorless fuzz is extremely aging so away with it!  And once it’s gone, makeup goes on so much more smoothly.

Why am I doing this?  Well, a girl’s gotta look her best, especially when it’s time to pound the pavement again and job hunt.  Let’s face it – age discrimination is out there…although I’m told I look a lot younger than my 44 years.  I’m proud of my experience and talents, for it’s a story that’s uniquely, wonderfully mine.

I worked at home on Friday.  And when I got back upstairs after making a quick lunch I looked in the mirror again.  

Help!  I need eyebrows!

So I called my favorite spa and sure enough, they had a late afternoon slot open with M, my awesome aesthetician.  Now, I’m no chicken when it comes to waxing.  But the eyebrows are a different story.  ‘Cause I puff up quite a bit afterwards and it takes a couple days for the redness and puffiness to go away.  Although my hair is naturally ashy brown (shot through with a few greys now), for some reason my eyebrows have always been super light. I swear by MAC Browset – it’s like mascara for your brows and just adds a little nice color.  But on a day like Friday, working at home, sans makeup, the brows are pretty much invisible.

NOW I feel better.  Blonde, brows done, shiny teeth…somebody hire me, dammit!      

A Chilly Solstice?

19 Sunday Jun 2011

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I’m sitting here surrounded by flat, grey silence.  And I’ve written about this before…how different Sunday mornings feel.  Quiet with hardly any cars on the road.  Thick clouds and drizzle today.  Yes, this is our typical mid June-ish weather…we joke that summer officially starts after the 4th of July.  We’ve had a couple of recent, sunny teaser days but of course during the workweek.  Yes, a chilly Summer Solstice it may be!

Workweek.  Hmmmm…in 10 days THAT will vanish from my personal rhythms.  How the hell did 13 months go by in the blink of an eye?  What’s next for me?  I feel free and yet a little terrified too.  I remember this roller coaster ride.  And I hope this ride is far shorter than the last one.

Connections, connections.  Networknetworknetwork.  One of my favorite learnings from my side jewelry business is “the fortune is in the follow up.”  I love this and embrace it.  Whenever I feel I might be too pushy calling or emailing someone back about a job opening, for general networking or just asking for help, I whisper this to myself before I pick up the phone or fire up the keyboard.  And it works!

I love Six Degrees connections.  And I made a new one Friday over a fabulous Thai food lunch over in Seattle.  The Lower Queen Anne neighborhood is amazing, and you can’t walk 20 feet without running into a Thai restaurant.  Ahhh. Remember that group of women I meet up with a few times a year for dinner…friends who go clear back to the elementary school years?  Well, the husband of one of them forwarded my resume to a colleague of his, and a couple hops later, whammo, I met P.  Things always work out as they’re supposed to…I was a little worried lunch plus a long drive into the city and back would make me late for an afternoon meeting, but turns out it got rescheduled.  Phew.  So this was a nice excuse to get a little more cleaned up and polished, rather than that uber-casual I’ve been immersed in in my current job.

The universe smiled down on me in so many ways, for the bridge I planned to take over the lake into Seattle was to be closed all weekend, but not till later in the evening.  And the tolls have not started either (reminding myself to purchase a Pass soon!).  And did I mention the rockstar (free) street parking I found right near the Seattle Center?  Yep, I’ve still got mad parallel parking skillz.  Which I hardly get to use in the suburbs.  Nailed it.  

I walked a few blocks up 5th Avenue North to meet P at Crow up on Aloha Street.  A nice handshake and smile.  But whoops!  They’re not open for lunch.  So the easy Plan B was a couple blocks back downhill…to Bahn Thai.  We’re not sure this position he’s trying to fill is the best fit for my experience, but he will follow up and keep an eye out for something else.  

And in the meantime, my current firm found a few leads as well.  Staffing and recruiting is SO incredibly fluid and fickle.  Things change all the time.  Job postings close for no clear reason.  I’m glad for a brief work engagement in that industry for it just underscores for me that how that’s how it is and it’s nothing personal.  My current firm does a wonderful gathering for all its consultants once a month.  Third Thursday.  Food, drinks and unwinding conversation and lots of laughs.  Always a fantastic event to look forward to!

Kinda funny or weird how I do all this ‘work’ to find work…and yet I also firmly believe that what’s supposed to happen will happen. But I can’t just sit idle and wait around meanwhile, however.  Fuck, what an emotional tangle this could be.  I remind myself to breathe, relax…they did me a favor wrapping up my engagement this month.  Nowhere I’d want to put down roots permanently anyway.  

Yes, it’s the Solstice on Tuesday.  A deep rhythm in our seasons outside and internal ones too.  And it’s Father’s Day today.  I smile and know my Dad is my biggest career cheerleader out there.  

I’ve got tons of support…I know this and am beyond grateful.        

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Transition Preparations

12 Sunday Jun 2011

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Last week I wrote about the wave that washed over me, forcing me to sit in my chair here and finish updating my resume.  I’ve learned to not question these super duper strong instincts when they hit – they mean it, dammit!  It meant canceling on my hockey game rather last minute, and I don’t like doing that at ALL, but the wave won out.

Good thing too:  the resume got updated that night.  And distributed.

And just a day or two later, guess what happened? Not one but THREE great job leads appeared from the consulting firm who found my current job.  What a difference a year and a half makes!  The job market is improving, and my phone and email are rumbling even harder back to life.  I’m realizing how much more mentally prepared I will be going into my next job assignment, as it shouldn’t be nearly as long between gigs as last time around…I hope.  Last year I went from mental 0 to 100 literally overnight – an abrupt shock back after feeling like my brain was turning to mush with nothing going on for months and months.  Now, while I feel a bit weary and ready for this current engagement to finish up, I feel more ‘on’.  That’s hard to put into words, but it’s how it came out.

My friend D’s husband also forwarded my resume to a few of his connections, and I’ll be meeting up with a Director at a consulting firm later this week for lunch.  We had a great chat late on Friday afternoon!  I’d prefer to have the firm who I’m currently affiliated with get me reassigned, but I’ve gotta look out for Numero Uno here.  And who knows – new connections made now could sprout even further down the road for me or for another colleague.

In the meantime, I’ve got a job to do through the end of the month, and, well, I’m only human and it would be incredibly easy to flip the mental switch and stop caring.  Sure I take pride in my work and will do whatever it takes for a strong finish.  But for some stuff, frankly, I’ll need to fake it.  Before I knew I would be wrapping up this month, I got assigned some brand new stuff to do – and the milestones were plotted all the way into January.  Why would I get assigned something new if I was going to be cut loose just a few weeks later?  Anyway, the reasons don’t matter, and I’m just chalking it up to even more opportunity to gain more experience in a very short timeframe.  Plus, it’s a small world out there and I might end up back with this team or something similar down the road.  

How you finish is just as important as how you start.  Don’t burn bridges.  Go for the Graceful Exit.

I had lunch with S, a friend I’ve known for years who I met through hockey. She and I really bonded a couple of years ago when I was first getting used to being unemployed.  She has her own business as an aside from her full-time work, and I came with her to several events as a guest to learn more about it.  It was great to get out of the house, meet new people and clean up/dress up on those days I had no interviews when the temptation was to just be a slob and mope.  And I am dumbfounded that all started two years ago.

It was wonderful to reconnect over lunch again – how had it been a year or so since we last met up?

So, I’m just keeping busy and connected while preparing for whatever the next plunge might be.  I’m excited, relieved, nervous, curious…the list goes on.  Notice that ‘angry’ is not in that list of feelings.  ‘Cause I’m not in the slightest.  This gig was designed to be purely consultative, not permanent.  And while I don’t like to call out specific details in here when it comes to jobs and companies, let me just say I’m perfectly happy with that arrangement.  Great experience, but not anywhere to hang my hat right now.

T and I met up for dinner at Palomino last night…she is such an amazing friend.  We’ve each gone through some bumps this year – my very brief relationship, and she and her boyfriend split up a couple of months ago…he had been living with her and so it was a rough ride with all of that and him moving out.  We’re both happy and strong women and always land on our feet, but we also appreciate the friendships and support out there too.  So much to be grateful for.

We split a wonderful bottle of wine (the name escapes me now but trust me, a mighty fine white something), while T chose the Seafood Louie – a beautiful salad – and I the fusilli picatta, a delicious combo of marinated chicken, shallots, capers and a few chili flakes for kick in a white wine sauce.

And when you’re steps away from fabulous shopping at Bellevue Square, of COURSE you gotta hop over there too.  T picked out a gorgeous pair of black Tod’s loafers, and I, knowing I am soon to be on a budget again, merely drooled over shoes.

T and I are brainstorming ideas for a meetup group we’re planning to launch later this summer.  We’re super excited! 

And I think “excited” is the right way to describe things for me right now.  One door is slowly closing, and something new, unknown, magical is going to pop and set me on an entirely new journey this summer and beyond.

Let’s just hope it’s sooner than later!
    

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