Then vs now

Two years ago my days consisted of working as a Senior Project Manager at Microsoft during the day and with our production team in Mumbai at night.  Deadlines were unrealistically tight, pressure was constant, and rewards were few.  My week started on Sunday evening and ended on Friday evening.  I often worked 16 hours a day managing up to 35 technical and marketing projects simultaneously.  This went on for a little over two years and by the end I was bone tired and suffocating under the pressure. 

Today, my day day looked like this:

This represents just a few moments from my not-very-stressful day, an impromptu visit from Abby and her mom.  But it really brought home how much things have changed since the days when my work life balance was so very seriously skewed and I felt like I was slowly dying.

The Crab Pot (Finally!)

We’ve lived in the Seattle area for over 15 years now and have meaning to go to The Crab Pot for about 14 of those years.  Tonight Tom, Peter, and I finally went.

No matter how hard I try to depict the experience, this post won’t be able to do it justice – which won’t prevent me from trying…

Devine scenes from a summer evening commute… and the crime scene when I arrived home

 

… and when I got home:

 

How to have the perfect flat tire

Step 1: Ignore the slightly funny, very easy-to-ignore noise as you drive home from work.

Step 2: Forget to mention said noise to your automotively gifted husband that evening.

Step 3: Head to your physical therapy appointment – which happens to be at a gym – the next morning.

Step 4: As you drive to the gym, ignore said noise again.  Also ignore the nagging, something-just-doesn’t-seem-right feeling.

Step 5: Endure the intense pressure on your aching gastrocnemius muscle.  Enjoy the ankle massage and heat therapy.  Revel in the guilty pleasure of the gossip rag.

Step 6: Say g’bye to your PT friends and appreciate a few of the brawny, built, buff ProClub employees on your way out.  Privately deny that you, a 53-year-old woman, even noticed them.

Step 7: Start your car, back out of the parking spot, and notice that something now most definitely doesn’t feel right.

Step 8: Get out of your car and notice this:

Step 9: Decide that you-are-woman, hear-you-roar, you can change a silly flat tire.  You’ve been working out lately and you have new muscles of your own, thankyouverymuch,

Step 10:

Step 11:

Step 12:

Step 13: Be glad that this is right around the corner.  Also be glad that there’s no internet access there, which means you can’t very well work, but you can prepare a blog post.

Step 14: Get to work late and appreciate your good fortune amid your bad fortune.

Step 15: Thank JJay and Josh PROFUSELY for both fixing your flat tire and brightening your day before noon. ;-)

Thank you, JJay and Josh! 

Lest you think I’ll be lazing around on my week off…

The coming Friday is my last day at my current job.  It has been a frenetic and intense two years of 12 to 16-hour days managing at least 100 Microsoft marketing projects, each with up to 50 individual components, across at least 25 different Microsoft business units for clients who ranged from reasonable and friendly to unreasonable and unfriendly and I am weary, burned-out, and bone-tired.  It is only fair to both myself and to my new employer to take a week out to clear my head, rejuvenate my spirit, and focus in a whole new direction before jumping into my first day of work later this month.

While figuratively purging the Microsoft-induced mess from my head during my week off, I will be literally purging some messes around the house.  Normally I give the garage a good cleaning about once a year, but last year both my broken ankle and my brutal job kept me from doing much maintenance around the house.

So next week I plan to be busy taking care of a few things around here:

Bills need to be paid…

…a thick file of paperwork, bills, and insurance documents related to my broken ankle need to be organized and (hallelujah!) filed away…

…and two years worth of bills and paperwork (yes, those three boxes are all filled with to-be-filed paperwork) need to be filed into the physical cabinet.  I know… it’s the German in me that makes me hold onto and file physical documents when I know quite well that I probably don’t need to hold on to 90% of this stuff.

Then of course, there’s these important things that need to be done ASAP:

(Seriously, does anyone really feel this way about taxes?!)

And this, times three:

Once I finish all that paperwork and filing, there’s a garage that desperately needs attention – especially after three kids came home from college for the summer and left furniture and household items here after moving to the Greek system or moving into houses with friends.  Oh lordy, lordy – look what awaits me:

My blood pressure rises just looking at that mess… and then falls again at the thought of it cleaned, purged, and organized (and no, I do not want the kids’ “help” doing this stuff!)!

Then there are a few closets in the house that need attention…

…and some bedrooms that, with a little consolidating and spiffing, could pretty easily be made guest-ready:

Then there’s a deck that needs replacing…

…and a roof that I might as well just say is one of those “green” roofs because -- well, it is!  Ah, life in the Pacific Northwest…

Actually, just kidding on those last two, which are definitely out of my realm and into Tom’s.  Or maybe they’re into the realm of we-pay-someone-to-do-it-and-thereby-get-it-done-in-a-fraction-of-the-time.  Yeah, I think that’s the ticket on the deck and the roof!

Tom’s plenty busy doing stuff like this, replacing the track lighting in the living room with fraction-of-the-cost LED lights that I like a fraction-of-the-amount that I like the “normal” lights that were there.

 

So that’s my to-do list for next week.  Do me a favor and keep after me, because you know what I’ll want to do all week? 

THIS:

A new leash on life

Shasta got a new leash yesterday and today is a work-at-home day for me, so while I waited for my dear artist friend Ravi to send a file from Mumbai, Shasta and I took a walk around the block.

Come join us!

This is Shasta’s new leash. (Rave for PetSmart: they exchanged her $50 leash for a new one when the cord frayed – no questions asked and no receipt needed!)

And this is Shasta’s “oh, goody gumdrops!” look when she realizes that a walk is a possibility:

That blur is a wagging tail.

“Shasta! Sit! Calm down so you don’t pull me and make me… oh, break my ankle or something!”

Good girl.

One of the main reasons we chose our house back in ‘95 is that the elementary school is literally a stone’s throw from our house. This was great when all the kids were little!

The weather has been so unseasonably warm this winter that, instead of being reduced to dry, twiggy brambles, the blackberry bushes are still green!

And look at this – a holly bush! I have never noticed this before. Isn’t it “berrying” a bit late? Isn’t this supposed to happen around, oh… Christmas? What IS it with the weather this year?!

Excuse Shasta, please!

Look over there! One of my favorite houses on the street. It’s amazing what they’ve done to this house! The wrap-around porch adds so much charm and the revised roofline – and shingles -- around the garage changes the whole character of the house.

Next stop? Stop! Turn right, Shasta.

It might not look steep to you, but this hill can be a killer on the knees (and ankle):

This place is much prettier in any season but winter, but some beauty is still to be seen in February.

These guys even seem to have an amphitheatre set up in their front yard! See the rows of chairs?

On the steep hill is the nicest – and most out-of-place – house in the neighborhood. I want it!

No wait – actually I want one of the adorable doll houses in the neighborhood! Look!

Or maybe it’s the DOLL I want! I found this German Götz doll at Tuesday Morning yesterday and came so close to buying it – and what a deal it was, down to $40 from $170!

Should I? Should I go back and get it? Look at those lederhosen… and even an edelweiss! Look at the similarity to Kat when she was little (always daddy’s little girl):

…and maybe a slight similarity to Elisabeth too (except for the hair color):

But I digress. Let’s keep walking!

This little boy loves Shasta and insisted on holding the leash to take her for his own walk…

…but he feared her too, as he apparently only has teeny-tiny dogs at home.

Just as we rounded the next corner, we came upon a house that one of my faithful readers will recognize:

…and then we were beckoned toward the short-cut to our house! (I love Photoshop!)

Who was in our forest to greet us once we climbed the hill by the neighbor’s fence? Bailey!

We romped around the forest a bit…

…until we came upon our house!

Boo had apparently been busy while we took our walk, and all this warm weather is making him think it’s spring… which is all fine and good, except this part – the gift he left by the back door:

Bad cat.

But good Ravi… who went above and beyond the call of duty, making a critical fix for us when he should have been sleeping, sent a file from Mumbai, then waited patiently for me to get back online. This post is dedicated to you, Ravi! Pleeease come visit us in Seattle someday!