Hurdling, hurtling into the weekend
October 26, 2013
There’s perhaps nothing as exhilarating as being DONE with a major professional thing. You’d think that after being in management for a good while, after dealing with as many bad and difficult people-problems as I have, after running things and being a decision maker, talking in front of people wouldn’t be so nerve-wracking but I hate it. Hate hate hate hate it.
I’ll get better at it with practice but I hate that too. I hate the practice, I hate knowing that I have to practice and I hate being bad at it until I’m better at it.
Pretty sure I stopped being an overachiever a while back but I didn’t stop hating being bad at things.
It shouldn’t be any wonder that after I discharged my responsibilities, the entire world seemed a shinier, brighter, happier, wonderfuller place.
Traveling Solo
I discovered:
A) Flying was a lot harder on me than I expected this past week. My back had already been hurting for days and I was tired from preparing for my gig, so despite getting to fly a “nice” airline (still coach class) both departing and returning flights were a torment. I’m praying that this doesn’t mark the beginning of the end of my ability to travel alone. (Every time something gets significantly worse, I worry about this: is it permanent? Can I get better? Will I come back from this? A lot of the time, the answer is no.)
B) Eating almost every meal alone for a few days, in public, is kinda fun. Lots of thinking and reading. And talking to folks on Twitter.
C) I can be remarkably dense. (At least I know it?) For example: walking to a strange destination? Guaranteed that I will take at least 3 wrong turns. Absolutely guaranteed. I stared at the Hubway map up there for at least 4 minutes before it occurred to me that it wasn’t a map for the subway, it was for the bike rentals. *eyeroll*
D) Logan Airport has its drawbacks but all are forgiven because they have ROCKING CHAIRS.
E) I tried Uber for the first time, thanks to ExtraPetite’s referral, and while it took slow-brain about 2 days to figure out the app (also it kept quitting on me), I loved it. They texted me as soon as I booked my ride w/a driver ETA, my driver called me immediately to double check directions, and the app shows you the driver’s photo and the car’s license plate. It was not creepy, as I might have thought riding w/a stranger would be, though the cabs in that area were uniformly alright. Not weird, a bit chatty, but cool.
F) NO street harassment. I walked near an hour through strange streets and construction zones etc., and I wasn’t harassed even once. You may not realize how amazing that is but it really is. I always feel like I’m going through a war zone, on full alert, ready to fight off harassers or call the police if someone tries to pulls something, as they usually do.
Catching up-ness
Catching up on work was a bit of a slog but not terrible so I’m nearly there. With the rare exception of one project that was so bad it took more than 6 times the usual number of hours to fix. *shakes fist at incompetence*
I missed FinCon and I hear a lot of people had a great time. Stephanie and Deena and I had MiniFinCon though, and learned that “Medford, MA” is pronounced “Meh-for” in rough approximation of Bostonian.
Then I got to meet up with eemusings!
I also missed GeekGirlCon and that sounded like loads of fun. Perhaps next year …
PiC replaced our guest room bed set-up, and gave away our lumpy old mattress and box set: $300 for a new mattress, bed frame and really plush mattress topper. Craigslist score! Just in time for visitors, too. 🙂
File Under: Things I Want
(always leaving aside the obvious: a return to old fit and healthy self)
A very cushy rocking chair recliner w/foot rest.
A cushy bean bagA Fabulous TARDIS bookshelf (or a set of…)
Other interesting stuff I caught up on
Nicole and Maggie on missing (or not) high school
A HufflePup is NOSY. And Vicki is going to bring home another corgi pup! PiC just discovered how absolutely adorable Corgi pups are and was nearly ready to bend on his No Small Dogs rule.
Luke crowdsourced his question on what you do if you get a duplicate shipment of an online order.
A lovely Marian call video with a favorite song:
Ha ha! Thanks for the link! I hope the Concept of Corgi doesn’t sow marital discord. 😉
Oh not at all 🙂 I think corgis are adorable so if he’s coming around, that’s fine by me.
There were rocking chairs at Charlotte Airport when I was there earlier this year. So, maybe it’s a trend 🙂
I don’t mind public speaking (I couldn’t do my job if it was an issue) and can get really energized from giving a short presentation and I don’t practice apart from going through my slides and just thinking about what I’ll say at each one beforehand. But still I find teaching (our lectures are like 2 hours + with a break in the middle) really exhausting. I’m sure there are some people find teaching easy (how could they teach 4 classes a semester otherwise), but I’m definitely not one of them. I think it is mostly emotional/psychological.
Someone else mentioned the Charlotte Airport rocking chairs too 🙂 This is a trend of which I would heartily approve.
I always felt like I couldn’t handle professorial teaching b/c as you say, that’s an awful lot of talking. I recall professors who were so animated by their subject, though, they made it look like a snap!
Tim keeps talking about wanting to make a TARDIS floor lamp. Basically, just build a TARDIS shell and let the windows glow, I think. Maybe put a light up top. I’d have to actually buy the saws and wood though, so of course nothing has been started. Allegedly, he’s pretty good at this kind of thing, as long as he has a good saw and router. We’ll see if it ever gets started.
FinCon was a lot of fun, so hopefully you go next year. No idea where it’ll be yet. I pointed out to Mom that Phoenix is nice and cheap. She pointed out that weather here can be pretty cruel. But if we had it in mid October, it’d be down to 80-90. Then I realized that’s probably unpleasant for normal people.
I’m just ever so warped from living here.
Oh goodness, I love that idea too!
I would be totally fine w/80-90 degree weather … but yes, I think normal people find that uncomfortable. <3
I’m so glad we got to meet! And that I could teach you about the proper pronunciation of my city 🙂
Yeah, the rocking chairs at Logan are such a fun surprise! Definitely nice if you’ve got some time and you just want to relax and stare out the window or read a book.
VERY comfy bed. 😀 So happy we could meet, SF will always be a place we’ll look back on with fond memories.