Winter in New England

I have for my whole life lived in New England, as a child I skied almost every day of winter. I have played in the snow as a child and as an adult. I have been through at least 3 ice storms that I remember where we were without power or people in the area were without power for days even weeks.

I don't really mean to complain, I am, after all, healthy and able to shovel, I have oil for my furnace and a roof over my head, my car handles fairly well on the snow covered roads and I am a good winter driver.

But I ask, is it really necessary that we have a storm 2 or 3 times a week? I think we have proven time and time again that we are hearty and live in the North because we like 4 seasons, we like the snow, and the mud and the flowers when they bloom, the leaves in the fall and the summer sun.

I think we may all be nearing the edge of insanity... if not insanity, apathy... people have taken to not cleaning their cars off completely so that big chunks of snow come flying off them, people aren't wearing their boots anymore.. they just wear regular shoes. Jackets aren't buttoned up, gloves are often not worn probably because one or both of the mittens/gloves are lost in a snow bank somewhere.

The one phenomena that continues however is the mad rush to the grocery store the day before a storm. I really don't understand that one. But it happens every time.

I work with a woman who's partner is the foreman of one of the local town road crews. She never sees him, and they are all so tired... just when they think they'll get a day off another storm shows up.

I'm not really sure what Mother Nature is trying to prove... I'm pretty sure that we will continue to survive and shovel our way through the next 3 months... but really perhaps we could have a peace conference, or at least some sort of cease snow. I don't think we're going to give up.. we may be out shoveling in our swim suits in June, but we'll keep muscling through...

I suppose the only way we'll give up is if we finally reach the point when we can't put the snow any place, I know my 2 car wide driveway is now about 1 1/4 car wide and about 3 feet shorter than it used to be. I'm not throwing in the towel yet, just suggesting we explore some conflict resolution strategies... between us and mother nature.

Reached the Finish Line

So the project I've been leading for the past 4 months finally shipped on Thursday. It was an incredibly long haul. Lots of very tough decisions, long days and late nights. People giving 110% every day. By the end we were all short tempered and exhausted. But we did it. And I am so incredibly proud of the team and what we accomplished. I'm proud of how I behaved, and carried myself, I definitely see how I have grown as a person and a leader and am thrilled to see those traits in me.

I was offered tickets on Thursday to see the Bruins. It was luxury to the nth degree, a free bus ride to Boston, free food, a suite to watch the game and we got swag and got to meet 2 players. One current- Fernandez and one retired, some of you may have heard of him.. Ray Bourque. I went with 3 other people from work, 2 who were on my product team (and one member of the executive team), 1 who worked incredibly hard, just busted his butt from start to end, and the other who helped me keep my sanity throughout the project by being a sounding board for my concerns and ideas. I would have love to have brought the rest of the team, but that wasn't possible. I was glad I was given the opportunity to go and to invite some members of my team.


I love sports, I love watching them, I think watching hockey is wonderful, at times these big lumbering men in tons of padding can look as graceful as ballerinas just skating on the ice. It is amazing. So to see a professional hockey game under these circumstances... it was just about perfect in every way. Plus it was a well played game and they won!


As a humorous aside, I was the only woman on the bus of 33, and the only woman in the suite. I said to the security guard when he checked my purse- you aren't going to have to do this much today are you? He simply said no.

I'm hoping it only takes me a few days to wind down from the last few weeks of pressure, still feel like I need to be going a million miles an hour. Hopefully that will end soon.

Yummy Quotes

Yes, yes, I'm back on my quotes "thing". This time, let's talk about quotes about and around food.

I've heard several recently and for some reason I find them tremendously visual. As previously discussed- I see in pictures, so the imagery provided with the food metaphor is a good one for me.

Last week during The Jane Austen Book Club... this one was dropped... "He looks at me like I'm the ice cream (long pause) and he's the spoon."

Tell me, that you don't see a complete visual of how he looks at her, what that look means and what it means to her to be looked at that way. *sigh*

And today a classic came up at work... "Life is like a box of chocolates... you never know what you are going to get."

I think of Christmas when everyone has the boxes of assorted chocolates... some people are daring and pick up any, some study very carefully the diagram of what chocolate is where before they choose, still others poke the chocolate to see what's in the middle and afterwards take it or move on to check out the middle of a different one.

Again, tell me, you can't see different people in your life who approach life in one of those 3 fashions- dive in and take what they get; careful choose their moves after thoughtful consideration; and finally, take a little peak, dip their foot in to test the water and then either jump in or run in the other direction.

Beautification

For Christmas my Mom gave Sunshine and me gift certificates to get manicures.

This fall Sunshine was sick and spent the day with my Mom and she took her with her to get a manicure... being much more like my Mom and than me... Sunshine in her girliness thought it was the best thing EVER.

So today we went, Sunshine talked about it all day... green with Easter eggs.. that's what she wanted on her fingers.. and she told me all about the polish and how you get a massage afterwards... it was fun Mom and Sunshine girlie time...


We'll see how long my polish stays on... but she loved it!

Re-synced

The last 2 or 3 weeks at work have been exhausting. I don't know that I could tell you why or how- but I can tell you that when the cleaning guy sees you walking out and says you look like you got beat up, what happened- you know something is up.

Its not all bad, and frankly I've been very proud of how I've handled much of the stuff coming my way- its just been a lot of negative energy and difficult and tense discussion.

As I drove home from Hannah Montana in 3-D (Yes, I know- High School Musical on Ice and Hannah Montana in 3-D all within 24 hours of each other- how incredibly cool am I?) I thought... you know what.. it has been a really busy weekend- but I feel relaxed, regrouped and re-synced!

Watching Sunshine have such a good time at High School Musical on Ice and Hannah Montana in 3-D I remembered what I had forgotten... how much fun it is to be a Mom and I work as hard as I do, so we can afford to have these kind of moments... at the end of the day what is most important is that I do my best as a Mom, as a person and as a product manager/people manager- in that order. All the rest will fall into place.

Now, I just need to always remember that... when the days come where I feel like I buckle under the weight of my life... I just need to remember to do my best and the rest will work out.

Funny... a lot of the songs from HSM and HM talk about that... Gotta go My Own Way, Nobody's Perfect, Bet on It and one of my favorites right now Find Yourself in You by Everlife from one of the Hannah Montana CDs. Recommended listening for all of you out there.. don't be embarrassed.. its okay!

Priceless

Yesterday Sunshine and I drove to Boston to watch High School Musical the Ice Show.


It was actually a lot of fun. The energy level of the performers was amazing, lot of dancing and a lot of the moves from the actual movie were included. I was very impressed with the basketball scene from the first movie. (They performed basically 45 minute version of both movies).



After the show we met a friend from college and his wife and went to Regina's famous pizzeria... we waited about 20 minutes outside and then had some fantastic pizza. The woman I ran into in the bathroom informed me it was the best pizza ever- except for a close 2nd at a place called Max's someplace in NJ.

All and all it was a great day, I had been anxious about driving to Boston without a navigator, but my friend gave me great directions to a really convenient T-Stop that I'll use in the future.

I continue to enjoy these adventures that Sunshine and I undertake... there is always this point during the trip where I have that "priceless" moment like in the Visa commercials... the time together doing something that at first seemed pretty overwhelming to me and realizing that the two of us can do it together... Priceless.

Kung Fu!

Sunshine had her 2nd belt test yesterday. She did wonderfully. She was so very serious and concentrated very hard. I was very proud of her and she was very proud of herself.

Here are a couple of pictures and a video of the test.