New Year's Eve

On New Year's Eve Day we went to Copper Mountain. It was actually my first day out for the season, and as you can see from the picture, it was a beautiful day. Suzanne and Eileen rented skis. Aunt Ellen drove us up and then she went hiking while we made it down one run. We then all met for lunch. Eileen and Suzanne were scoping out the next runs. Suzanne had enough for the day and Eileen and I closed out the day after a couple more runs.

Here is Ellen and me at the bottom of Copper. The next day Suzanne and Ellen took Miss Kitty for a hike.

Christmas

Despite the weekly blizzards, the whole family made it to my Aunt Joan's safely for the holiday. Here is a picture of my mom and I preparing the potatoe salad.




And a picture of Eileen and my Dad waiting to eat or just hanging around for a picture.






Miss Kitty was very spoiled over the holidays. She got plenty of turkey and ham and got to go on a lot of walks. This is a picture from Joan's neighborhood while Suzanne and I were out.

Blizzard 2006

Yup, so I think I'm going to be stuck here for awhile. I barely made it home from work yesterday around 11am. I was slipping and sliding all over the road back to my apartment.

First, my porch. This picture was taken without opening the door, or the snow might have fallen in. My porch is covered, so you can tell there was a bit of wind.

Outside my porch, looking down on the street I'm supposed to drive on. You can see the car below. Yes, they got stuck. There's another one stuck in the place where you're supposed to turn into the complex. Eileen and Joan made cookies last night. They called and asked what kind I wanted. I just joked that they should bring me some with milk. I live about 2 miles from them. Around 9pm, there's a knock on my door. Dave used his truck to drive Joan, Eileen and himself to my place. The cookies were good.

In case I was planning on going anywhere anytime soon, this is what is in front of my garage. I'm the furthest one on the left.

Here's the road off the main street to the entrance to my apartment.

These geese are just chillin' outside my window in the field between the apartment complex and a nearby office building. Click on the picture for a larger version.

Work Holiday Party

We had our department's holiday party (Happy Hour) at Senior Ric's.

Here's a picture of myself, Marty (worked with me up in Boulder when I first started), Jane (one of our trainers) and Nguyen.

Sweet Charity

I convinced Eileen's friend, Jay, to go see the musical "Sweet Charity" with me. It's touring right now with Molly Ringwald as the starring role. It was written in the 1960's. It had an Austin Powers feel to it. Generally, there was no substance to the story. There is one hilarious scene of people trapped in an elevator, that however was the highlight.

Crazy Story

My professor for my "Managing Teams and Individuals" class had a family emergency and couldn't teach the remainder of our class. He was replaced by an 80 yr old guy. His name was Charles Rice. To help us remember his name he said, "what do you do at the end of a wedding?" Answer: Chuck Rice. Nope, I won't forget his name.

Anyway, he had us do a creative assignment. He handed out a black and white picture. The picture was a man half sticking out of a US Postal service mailbox. The picture looked like it had been taken in a city and the man's legs are flaying about as his entire upper half of his body is inside the blue container. Our assignment was to write a quick creative story to explain the picture. What this has to do with Managing teams and individuals is beyond me. I think it's something he has his undergrad students do. Anyhow, I went out on a limb with this one.

My Story:

This picture of half a person’s body sticking out of a mailbox was captured today on a busy street in downtown Denver, Colorado. It will be published in the National Enquirer this week. This photo has confirmed our suspicions that there are indeed aliens roaming among us. The aliens are now using the United States Postal Service to move around the country undetected. As the aliens go through the mail slot their bodies are transformed into regular looking letters with the appropriate information and postage. It is amazing that this alien was caught on camera, and that he was performing the transformation in broad daylight. This is very alarming information. There must be some sort of emergency going on in the alien community for them to risk their exposure to the world’s people. The real question is where are they having themselves mailed to? Are they meeting for an attack on a particular city? Did they all want to take a trip to Disney World? Or is it a huge family reunion? We can only speculate what will happen in the next few days. The country is reacting quickly to this news. Postal workers are being assigned to watch the receptacles for any more incidences of alien infiltration. UPS, Federal Express and DHL do not seem to be taking this dire situation seriously and have begun advertising discount rates for aliens choosing to be transported by air express. It makes one wonder, if we could somehow harness the alien’s technology, could we be on the brink of changing transportation today as we know it?

Thanksgiving in NYC

I spent a week up in NYC over the Thanksgiving holiday. You can read all about it on Suzanne's blog. Here's a picture of myself, Suzanne's friend Julie and Suzanne in front of the buddha at Tao. The number one reserved restaurant in NYC now.

I ate at some other good restaurants, saw the Rockettes, went to a Philharmonic concert and I always enjoy the planetarium.

Here's Suzanne at the American Museum of Natural History.

GT Fall Meeting

I went to the GT Colorado Club's fall meeting. The speaker at the meeting was Dr. John Stevens, of Lockheed Martin. He spoke about the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) project that has recently been awarded by NASA. First it will be used to dock at the space station, then a trip to the moon, and they're aiming to get men to Mars by the 2030's.

This stuff has always fascinated me. It probably all started as it did for a lot of kids in the 1980's when the movie "Space Camp" came out. Compared to the filming done for Apollo 13, Space Camp is laugh out loud funny. They sort of simulate no-gravity at the beginning of the film, but it's forgotten as the film goes on. What is so surprising is the stars in the film: Joaquin Phoenix, Kelly Preston and Tate Donovan. My favorite quote from the movie...."it's just Space Camp". You really have to see it, it's all in the delivery of the line.

I think I began asking my parents to send me to Space Camp for the next couple of years after that. I finally did go the summer after 7th grade. By then I was too old for Space Camp, instead it was Space Academy. All 3 of us went. Usually you would share a room with 5 other people, but I think it was too crowded. Eileen and I shared a counselor's room. They were on the ends. There were only 12 of those rooms in the building. You can see in the picture, we had the bubble windows. During the camp, you simulated 2 trips to space. You had to take a test at the beginning of the camp, then rank your choices for roles in the simulation. Eileen and I were both payload specialists for the first trip. This meant we ran experiments in the shuttle. Technically Eileen was the doctor on board. She had to keep running "medicine" up to the pilot. Really, the medicine was Skittles. Then while Eileen was upstairs with the pilots I was instructed to come down with a stomach ache. Eileen was supposed to recognize this and diagnosis me. I must have been doing a bad acting job because Eileen just kept telling me to cut it out and stop kidding around. Geez Nins, after all...it's just Space Camp. We also rode in the multi-axis trainer, experienced 1/6 our weight, designed a space station and built and launched rockets. Ah yes, I am a dork at heart because I thought all of this was very cool.

End Scene

Kerri and I performed our second play tonight for our Health Systems class. If you don't know what I'm talking about, see the blog entry from September 10th. We got an A on the first one, not really sure why, so I'm hoping we did as well on this one. The prof did mouth "good" to me after it was over. I hope that's the word for 'A'. The class got a laugh when Kerry appeared as my "fairy godmother" to help me figure out a solution to our healthcare problem. I think it was a big shock to the class since we were so serious and conservative in our first play. She had a dark queen dress on and a wand with a bell. It was humorous. I have to say I actually did learn something by doing the plays, but I could have just as easily learned it by doing the research and writing a paper. The performances of the plays just took up 2 class periods. I'm glad they're over, and I will be happy to put my poor acting days behind me.

Happy Birthday

Suzanne,

Have a Happy Birthday!

Nike Women's Marathon

Suzanne got up at the crack of dawn to start the Nike Women's Marathon.

Jen and I tried to meet her at the 13 mile mark but barely missed her in the park. So we went to mile 17 and caught her there.

This picture with the thumb's up is just past mile 17. She was taking a "goo" break. Check out that fuel belt. Jennifer and I were joking the day prior that she kind of looked like a police office with that thing on.

Jen and I then drove to a part further down in the race. The parking around that area was terrible but after about a half hour we found a spot. We caught back up with Suzanne past the 25 mile marker. She was still doing just fine. I ran with her for about a tenth of a mile. She finished in under 5 hours and met her goal. I think it's awesome.
Drew joined us at the end of the race and just barely missed Suzanne passing by. Here's a picture after the race in front of the ocean. It was foggy by the water but sunny everywhere else in San Francisco.

Later that evening we celebrated Jennifer's birthday at a Mexican tapas restaurant. Our waiter was funny. When Suzanne asked him if they did anything special for birthdays his response was, "like a stripper?" Yeah, not what we meant. He did get it right when he brought out dessert with a candle and Happy Birthday written in chocolate on the edge of the plate.

Suzanne was fine that evening after the race. Although once again Jen and I were joking as she walked around the hotel room that she wasn't exactly bending her legs, and it was more of a waddle walk.

Race Prep

Suzanne picked up her race info, and we visited the race expo. We also met a friend of Suzanne's, Kevin, for lunch at the Daily Grill. It was excellent food. Kevin was an interesting guy who told us about the book "Let My People Go Surfing" about the founder of the Patagonia company. He's investigating a career in CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility. I wasn't familiar with the career prior to that.

Suzanne then went to her pasta party and Jen and I went shopping at one of my favorite stores, H&M! Usually I have to wait until I'm in NYC to go to H&M but San Fran had several.

We went to dinner in the North Beach area so Suzanne could do some more carb loading. We had a great table at Trattoria Pinocchio that was quiet and right by the window. Their food was also excellent italian.

Scenic 17-Mile Drive

I started my Friday morning with a massage at our hotel the Monterey Plaza. It was the first time I've gotten a massage, and I highly recommend it! Suzanne and I then sat out in the hot tub on the roof overlooking the ocean. Yup, it was pretty awesome. Since it was early in the morning we had the place to ourselves. We had brunch delivered to us outside also. It was a very relaxing morning. I was wearing my spa robe drinking my stawberry banana smoothie soaking up the rays. Not too cold, not too hot, just perfect. If only every day could start that way...well, then you would just take it for granted.

We then drove down scenic 17-mile drive in Pebble Beach. Here's a picture of us in front of the famous lone cypress.

We drove back to San Francisco to pick up Jennifer at the airport and check in to our hotel so Suzanne could prepare for her race.

We had dinner that night in the restaurant Cityscape; it was on the 46th floor of our hotel. It has a great view of the city.

Monterey Aquarium

Suzanne and I drove down from San Francisco to Monterey on Thursday. We visited the Monterey Aquarium. If you click on the link you can see a live cam of the sea otters. We got there just in time to see all the afternoon feedings including the sea otters. They are so fun to watch. We also watched the feeding in the kelp forest tank. The diver wears a mask that has a microphone attached so he can answer questions about the feeding. The leopard sharks and wolf eels got a little aggressive for food. The diver had to be quick to release the food to keep them from accidently biting his fingers.

In Memory Of My Grandpa

It's taken me a long time to write this entry because I wasn't quite sure what to say.

I am grateful I was able to spend some time with my grandpa before he passed away. I'll remember the conversation we had the evening when I was "charming him awake". He had taken a pill to help him sleep. I was talking to him for a half-hour or so waiting for it to take effect. My aunt came by and asked if he was feeling tired yet, and he joked not at all and that I must be charming him awake.

He's the man that named his dog "good-boy" which I think is mighty clever.
He taught me how to fish. I also remember the time he took me and Suzanne out in the smaller row boat. Then Suzanne and I decided we were going to walk on this inlet on the lake. We both came back with stickers all over our sneakers. I believe "stickers" may be a Texas thing.
I remember the power boat rides on Lake Granbury. And the time when he was visiting Atlanta and Michelob Ultra had just come out. We tried it and both determined it was "no good". And he was a man who liked a good deli sandwich like the kind he used to get in New York.

Estes Park - Elk Bugling

My cousins, uncle, aunts, mom and grandfather took a trip up to Estes Park to see the elk. It's mating season and the male elk duke it out for the women. The males "bugle" which is a funny noise they make to attract the females or scare off other males. Later in the afternoon around 20 or more were gathered in the meadow. We watched as one male was trying to figure out how to cross the street and get past the cars and people to try and steal some of the females from another group. Here's a pic of one of them bugling. They stretch their necks out. Check out his antlers. (He should be able to keep the other males away.)

And here's a picture of me and my mom.

John Mayer at Red Rocks

So I finally got to see John Mayer at Red Rocks. He's the only musician I heard for myself first and decided to go buy the CD. All other CDs I own someone else got me interested in the group/musician. I remember dragging Eileen to a free "On the Bricks" concert in Atlanta back in 2002 so I could hear him. Eileen didn't understand why I was so persistant. I think she finally got it in 2003 while watching the grammys. She called me from St. Louis, "Shelley, it's that guy and he won." Yup, no surprise, he's good.

I like his lyrics. Part of it is that many of the early ones reference Atlanta, and I know what he's talking about. The other is that he's about a month older then me so he's pretty much at the same point in his life. His latest album was just released and he's going for more blues/jazz sound. I liked the single that was released early "Waiting on the World to Change". Some of the songs at the concert makes me think he was a little depressed. I admire musicians that perform. I believe song-writing, if you're serious about it, is extremely personal. Then you just get on stage and tell thousands of people what's going on in your life and inside of you. I recently learned that he's a middle child...why is that not surprising.

Let's Do Tea

I went to Megan's house in Longmont; she was holding a "Let's Do Tea" event for a friend. It's similar to the Pampered Chef idea. We tried several different types of tea. I bought a mug that can be used to make one serving of tea. After that I got a tour of her house. Megan's favorite color is blue, so she has it throughout the house. I finally got to meet her dog Beatrice (a beagle). Very cute and well behaved, one of the guests brought two guinea pigs and Bea was falling into hunting mode. She wouldn't take her eyes off them.

Fall

Whew. I took a long break from the blog. I was a bit distracted by figuring out if I was continuing the MBA program. The first week back was a bit disappointing. I considered dropping out and applying to a higher ranked program (CU-Denver is 25th), but instead I just added another class to my schedule. I didn't realize at the time that 9 hours in graduate school is considered full-time versus the 12 hours for undergraduate. So I suppose I am a full-time student right now. Although one of my classes only counts for 1/2 of a real class. It's the one that almost made me drop out of the program. Let's just say 70% of my grade is the performance of 2 plays. Not kidding on this one, costumes and props encouraged. Yup. The prof is extremely well educated - Yale, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern and a law school - she's just a bit dramatic. She's a dancer and enjoys ending her phrases with the extension of an arm or a dramatic sweep across the room...everything just short of a plie. The other two classes are Managing Teams & Individuals and Management of Operations. The latter is almost a repeat of all IE stuff only applied to healthcare (for those IE's that read the blog - remember the Monte Carlo simulation)? The Mgmt of Ops professor balances out the dancer. He teaches the class exactly as someone as analytical as I would want it. The syllabus was about 10 pages long. He already has all his slides binded into a book so you don't waste time copying stuff off the board, and he incorporates recently published articles. Much more my speed.

I went to a Happy Hour for the Health Admin students. There are some interesting students in the program. I sometimes feel that I might be missing out on some of the fun of going back to school full-time as Suzanne did, but right now I like the idea that I'm not racking up debt and continuing to get work experience in healthcare.

The Pathways small group I visited a few times this summer has actively started for fall. I think I will be much more consistent in my attendance. I go straight from class, which makes it easier then convincing myself to leave home.

Oh, and the blog entry from July about Sarah heading off to GT - she preffed Zeta and AXO, but Zeta won out in the end. She is enjoying Tech so far.

Colorado Assoc of Healthcare Executives

I took the day off from work on Friday, left at 5am to drive to Glenwood Springs for a Colorado Association of Healthcare Executives (CAHE) conference.

One of the topics was "Using Lean Principles to Optimize Workflow and Quality in Cardiology Care". The speaker mentioned Deming (same guy that my statistics teacher had us read a book about). Basically, the talk was regarding applying Industrial Engineering concepts to healthcare (without calling them that). I spoke with him afterwards because I am still trying to figure out why the healthcare industry hasn't caught on to the basic concepts that most businesses have been doing for 20 years. I suggested my theory that even though there are plenty of people with their MBAs in the hospital, most of them have medical undergrad degrees or backgrounds. They get their MBAs but never leave healthcare, so they don't see it implemented in the real world and have a hard time doing it themselves. He agreed with me and encouraged me that my educational background and prior work experience could be very valuable if I continue in the field.

I'm just trying to figure out who's really running the show and what leadership position I would need to be in to make a difference. Plenty of hospitals have Process Improvement or Quality teams/departments. Even the hospital I'm at has one. They make departments choose a Performance Improvement project. I even get solicited from RNs that want to use the EMR to help them on a improvement project, so they can get a certification. To me, it is just like Bob Nardelli trying to bring Six Sigma to Home Depot. There is a group dedicated to Six Sigma. They all have their black-belts and guide those working on Six Sigma projects throughout the company; however, from my perspective few of the projects seemed to be completed. I'm guessing perhaps people got a little busy working until 4am on a Sunday preparing for a quarterly earnings call. There is a similarity in these examples, and it's that the leadership perhaps likes the idea and thinks it should be happening, but ultimately it is not a priority. The speaker made a comment that followed the information in "If Disney Ran your Hospital, 9 1/2 Things You Would Do Differently." The comment was that the culture change has to come from the top and not just mandated, but the top leadership has to really believe in it. Of course, you balance that with every other issue going on (just check out Eileen's blog), and it becomes difficult to manage. Ahh...then it just becomes like politics to me. Everyone has their one area they care the most about and they fight for that one. So the person at the top trying to make everything balanced and fair doesn't really stand a chance. I care about efficiency and processes because it's what I know. The only difference I see is the topic I care about most, if applied, could probably help in all the areas others care about. Streamlining and making processes efficient should save you time or money that you can apply to other areas. It just takes a lot of effort upfront, which what I've learned from trying to implement an EMR, no one has the time to give. I questioned how the speaker was able to make changes in the Cardiology department. He's the administrator and the key was he made changes to staff issues and left the doctors alone. They benefited from the change but didn't have to put in any significant effort to make it happen. Honestly, I wouldn't tell him this but the changes he made could have been done by an Industrial Engineering Senior Design project team.

He also mentioned to me that he thought healthcare was about 5 years behind getting traction on these ideas. He made a distinction between "lean" concepts and something like "Six Sigma". He said most companies implementing Six Sigma have already gone through the lean process. They are starting out with somewhat trimmed down, lean processes. The Six Sigma method then improves these. The lean concept focuses on "Plan, Do, Check, Act" (the Deming cycle). He thought most hospitals had problems with the "check" and "act" part of the process. He had to get help from an outside source when trying to implement changes in his own hospital because he didn't have the experience or education to do it himself. I've seen at my current work that people are asked to do things they have no experience in and are given no guidance. Often, there are good ideas but they get lost in poor execution. That's an interesting topic "poor execution". I saw it demonstrated at Home Depot and now the hospital. There is a book on the topic, perhaps my next read.

Where are they now?

My 10-year high school reunion is coming up in October, although I'm not sure I'll make it back to Atlanta. It's fun to see how much people have changed or what they're doing with their lives. Here's a few people I've tracked down in this little entry I like to call "where are they now?"

We knew him in highschool to be a phenomenal trumpet player, and Suzanne took him to prom twice. He went to Brevard, Baylor and Yale. I believe he married a clarinet player from Texas, currently conducts the Greater Erie Youth Symphony in PA and perhaps will become the new conductor of the Amarillo Symphony.
Yup, it's Eduardo Espinel.
Nice tux - looks very professional. I hope he beats out the other candidates for the symphony position.


Next, another high school friend; this one played the french horn. We were roomies on a trip to Savannah where we ordered room service of chocolate shakes and buffalo wings. We spent two summers at Brevard Music camp together. The first time I was in a small plane was when her father flew us from NC to GA. She went off to college at Florida State and now is a Special Education teacher at our old high school. It's Allison.

Now going a bit further back...
She was my best friend in elementary school. She wanted to trade me her little brother for Eileen (I wasn't trying to get rid of you Nins, she just always wanted a little sister). Our teacher in the 3rd grade let you take the day off on your birthday and hang-out in "the booth". It was a little room setup in the corner separated from the classroom with cubicle partitions. You got to invite one student in the class to hang out with you in the booth. There were movies, games and snacks. She was my guest on my birthday, and we got in trouble for laughing too loud.

You guessed it; it's Kimbree.
Last time I emailed her in 2001 she had just gotten married. She has own business, The Invitation Chicks. She also had a daughter! Above is a picture of us from the 4th grade (please ignore my bangs, it was the 80's in Texas). And here is an updated picture of her with her family; she lives in Texas.

Whale Done!

I borrowed the book "Whale Done!" by Ken Blanchard from a co-worker this past weekend. It's a quick read regarding "the power of positive relationships". It basically teaches you how to manage people and relationships based on how the trainers at Sea World manage their relationships with the killer whales. I enjoy reading on the subject of rewards in the workplace and evaluations. I have never agreed with most companies methods of evaluations. I'm always intrigued to read new ideas on the subject. The Sea World question: how do they teach the whales and get them to do what they want? Obviously they don't lecture the whales or hurt them if they don't follow instructions. The whales aren't just performing for the fish treats either or else they'd have to starve the whales before shows so the whales would be hungry enough to want to perform the tricks. So what do the trainers do?

An analogy used in the book is a toddler learning to walk. When a toddler stands up and takes a few steps, parents cheer, clap and smile. When the toddler falls down, the parents don't discipline him or her, they just wait for them to be successful again by standing up and the parents cheer again. It keeps the toddler focused on the positive...and you get better results. Interesting concept.

The other idea is regarding annual reviews where managers are forced to put their employees into categories of poor to above average performance. Somebody has to be a poor performer. The book points out that companies don't hire employees based on these categories - you hire winners or potentials winners. So if you don't hire people on a performance review curve, why grade them on one? In most companies I've worked in, there have been a few employees that just don't get it or are slacking off. But it's usually an exception and that person leaves the company anyhow. Forcing a few people to be put in the poor/low performer category just because you have to have a bell-curve is ridiculous. Many books I've read suggest categorizing people is ineffective, yet they don't offer other options.

And yes..."Whale Done" is a play on words of "Well Done".

Saki and Miss Kitty

I'm dog-sitting for Joan for the next few days. Miss Kitty has been at my side every minute. At night she sleeps on the floor right next to the bed. You'll notice in the picture that Saki (laying in the grass) has a bandage on her leg. Joan left me the materials to re-bandage it if it came off. The other choice was just to leave it unbandaged, but it looked pretty bad to me, so I redressed it this morning. It was a little difficult since she wouldn't stand up for me. If I were graded on my wound dressing skills - I'd definitely fail. I was surprised when I got home this evening that it hadn't fallen off yet.

Endoscopy

For work this week we were certifying the Gastroenterology clinic. When talking with the clinic we learned they were short a few faculty members and were having a difficult time finding gastroenterologists to hire. When I thought about it, I figured not too many med students would want to go into the field. It didn't sound like one of the most thrilling areas of the body to focus on. Later in the week, the clinic manager took us on a tour of the Endoscopy procedure area. We saw the room where they keep all the scopes and one of the RNs described each of them to us. I have to say, the technology that's been developed for the practice is amazing. Here's a pic of a scope. Each of the tubes inside the scope has a different purpose: camera, water, air, and something that can be used to take a biopsy. They also have ones with tiny ultrasound pieces on the end and cost about $50,000. It's amazing where technology has taken medicine. Some procedures that occur in the Endoscopy lab keep patients from having to get surgery.

Macy's in Denver

I went to the mall and walked through Foley's. I was excited to see the buyout by Macy's was finally happening. They got one of my favorite brands, International Concepts (INC) a couple of weeks ago.

Small Group

** Happy 28th Birthday to Billy and Matt **

I went to the bible study small group tonight that I've missed out on the past couple of months. I really enjoyed it back in May but got very distracted by school this summer. It's nice how easy it is to show up, and it doesn't matter that you don't know anyone, they are just welcoming. After the study, a group of us went to Wash Park Grill to grab a drink. The one girl actually works at the same hospital I do; she's applying to medschool right now. The other two guys I hadn't met before. Same story as last night, it was fun to hang out with a different group of people.

Dinner with the 20 somethings

I found an internet site, Denver Linkup, for events a couple of months ago. The events were always planned on nights when I had class. But tonight I was able to make the 20 something girls night out. We had dinner at Il Fornaio, the same place I went for my birthday. It was a good group of 10 of us. It's always fun to get together with a group from a variety of backgrounds. The most entertaining was the girl who is having a birthday next week. She was speaking about how she wasn't going to do anything special. She didn't feel bad about not celebrating because she said she celebrates everyday. And her example of something special was having strawberries in her cereal. It's nice when you can be grateful and value the simple things.

On a side note, I happened to be reading through an old journal tonight and came across an entry from exactly 2 years ago where I wrote, "The Denver trip was good. I think I'm going to move there." It's interesting to me to reflect back on that decision and how it came to be.

At the time, I was also working through the book, "The Path" by Laurie Beth Jones. One of the exercises was to describe your dream job. I wrote:
1) Help people - I get extreme sense of satisfaction delivering completed work to people and it helps them in some way
2) Not always at a desk
3) Performing calculations / working with data
4) Being creative/fun, design something
5) 1-on-1 interactions
6) Feel like part of team
7) Being the expert or "go-to" person

Technically, my job has all of those qualities. I get to help people use the software, I'm not at a desk all the time but in clinics, I work with lots of data and information, I get to design processes and tools, I have many 1-on-1 meetings with clinic staff, I work with a team daily and I definitely am the "go-to" person for all the things I've designed or areas of the software I've specialized in. It amazes me that I did find my "dream" job. Of course now that I've met those 7 and have more work experience I could add several more to the list.

Off to GT

Megan and I had dinner with Sarah tonight at PF Chang's in Lodo. Sarah is heading off to Georgia Tech in about 2 weeks. She was a winner of the Colorado Club's scholarship. Megan and I had fun giving her tips of what to expect her freshman year. It was fun to reminisce about the college days. It's such a shame that you don't realize how good you have it until you're out in the real world.

Now so others that attended Tech can reminisce, here's a document that floated around campus for awhile. I think it originated during Greek Week, a parody of a popular graduation speech at the time:

Ladies and Gentleman, Get Out.
If I could offer you one piece of advice, one goal for the future, getting out would be it. The social, psychological, and physical benefits of leaving this place have been documented by employers, doctors, counselors, psychologists, therapists, nutritionists and personal trainers. I can't give you detailed advice about getting out, I can only advise you about making the best of your time here. I shall dispense that advice now.

Realize the overworked student's need for relaxation. Meet this need. Party long, party hard, party often. Learn the difference between a pilsner and a lager, regardless of whether or not you drink them. Tear down a goal post. Tear up hedges. Keep parts of both. Don't wait for the Stinger, but know that the arrival of the Stinger is as likely as an A in Emag. The real Stinger is that bus that just pulled away as you walked up. It will be by again tomorrow. Wear your RAT cap. When you say BUDWEISER, you've said it all.

Learn that Brittain Dining Hall only serves twenty different foods. Learn to love these twenty foods. And when that isn't possible, learn to mix them together to make new entrees. Discuss strategies for stealing the T, even if you don't really plan on doing it. Scream at midnight during finals week.

Try not to berate people who forward emails. But let them know you don't appreciate it. Let them know that the Cancer Society isn't going to donate 3 cents to anybody. Let them know Disney World isn't going to send anyone on a free trip. Let them know that you deleted the last chain letter and you weren't mauled by pigeons like it said you'd be.

Drop a class. Join SGA. If you figure out exactly what it is that SGA does, please tell me. Climb the coliseum. Climb to the top of the EE building. Climb the fence around the Aquatic Center. Read the syllabus....even if you promptly forget what was on it. Rush.

Learn that SAC fields gives one mother of a rug-burn. Do not read the Dean's List; it will only make you feel stupid. Switch to semesters. Change your major to Computer Science once, but leave before your social life disappears. Change your major to Management once, but leave before your intellect disappears.

Maybe you'll get parking, maybe you won't, maybe you'll get housing, maybe you won't, maybe your class will be taught by a good professor, maybe your class will be taught by STAFF. Whatever happens, know that the faculty is out to get you. Order Junior's French Toast Special after an all-nighter. Visit Athens. Count the ways that we're better than UGA.

Accept certain inalienable truths, you will spend long nights on CS1502, and the ratio will become a reality, and you'll never find the word that you need, but you'll move towards graduation anyway, and when you reach your final year, you'll fantasize that during your first years you aced 1502, you had to beat the women off with a stick, and there was always someone willing to share their word. Share you word.

Realize that you probably can't dance very well. But realize that most other people can't dance very well either, so, comparatively, you're doing okay.

But trust me about getting out.

New Furniture

My new furniture from Kasey arrived today. I bought a cover for the sofa until I can buy a new one. I also found a pillow that matches the rug perfectly. I will probably buy one more now that I know it matches. I am also going to buy a colored throw for over the couch. The curtains will probably be a light shade - similar to the walls.

Concert in the Park

I met up with Megan and Stephen for a CSO concert in Cheesman Park. Megan packed another one of her awesome picnics.

The CSO performed the following:
Dvorák - Overture Carnival
J. Strauss - Music of the Spheres
Handel - Royal Fireworks Suite
Brahms - Symphony No. 2 in D major

Pirates of the Caribbean

I took my final exam on Tuesday. After the exam, I treated myself to a movie and saw Pirates of the Caribbean. I hadn't read much about it, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It's amazing what they can do with special effects now. The only frustrating thing is that they basically wrote the 2nd movie as the first half of the third one. It leaves you wanting to see the third one right away.