Roll Tide, Alabama

I have the pleasure of traveling around most of the state of Alabama for work.  Here are some of the interesting things I've done during the few weeks I've traveled here:

• Ate at Sonic
• Drove through a town called Front Porch City (they did have enviable front porches)
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• Survived a historic tornado outbreak
• Went home

Benchwarming

In consulting, any time between projects is known as being on the bench. Typically most consultants are 'virtual' employees so there is no office to go into during these project hiatuses. So I'm currently doing some benchwarming, in other words I'm getting paid to sit around at home and do nothing. It's pretty wonderful for a few days but then the full time lazy bum that lives inside of me comes out in full force. I haven't left the house in days. Actually that's not entirely true since I have a cute dog named Mac that needs to go out regularly. Since I do not live in a house with a yard that means I actually have to go take him up and down the block waiting to pick up poop with a thin plastic baggie.

Getting back to that bench, when you're not on it life goes a million miles an hour. It involves lots of commuting to airports, occupying my time on long plane rides, commuting again, trying to make my hotel feel like a home (for me that involves Lysol-ing most everything in the room), trying to find a restaurant I haven't eaten at 3 times in the last week, and finally the most important part of actually working and putting in those hours.   Once I foresee a potential time where I will be on the bench I get all these grand ideas of creating a rigorous work out schedule, cleaning everything in the house, gutting that back room collecting junk, and things of that nature.  What have I accomplished so far??? Not much.

The place is fairly clean as long as your ignore the pile of laundry (why do I have so much laundry when I didn't go anywhere?).  I did actually go running yesterday and I'm super proud I went except that gave me a reason to do nothing today.  I love actually getting to spend time in Chicago and in my home I pay mortgages for but I need to get back to being busy so I can start being productive again.  Am I the only one with this problem?  It's seems like it takes me a while to reach my 'stir crazy' threshold.  I would like to look at it as appreciating my time at home because it could end tomorrow and back to the string of Marriott chains I go!

Go Live!

I'm in the business of "going live," typically referring to new computer systems within physician offices. The most difficult part about a go live is that you are changing the way day to day tasks look to the employees that have been doing the same thing for years. It's "flipping the switch," no gradual weaning involved. Obviously that is occasionally met with some resistance. Even when people hated jumping through hoops to do their job and here I am on my white horse to remove those hoops (or at least dress them up), people are still unhappy. They are attached to their habits, good or bad. Eventually by the end of a go live, I have convinced the diligent employees to see the light and recognize the positive out of all the chaos and cHaNgE (ahh!). Based on my last blog post of my 5th life re-start, I'm obviously equipped to help people through change! The best part is that it's never as bad as people expect it to be. The world has not ended.

As qualified and experienced as I am with change, I still find myself resisting moving to my next life stage so I really can't blame anyone else for having some attitude. Graduation: One day you're a dependent college student and BAM! Real world in your face, no going back. Wedding: young one day, old the next day, you 'wife'. Babies: one day no babies, next day babies everywhere!

Life involves a lot of switch flipping and honestly it all comes down to attitude. The changes are as good or bad as you make them. Those who know me, know I generally have a very positive attitude and somehow I still imagine the worst in every scenario (I just try to keep it to myself, no need to bring everyone else down). Most of the changes I mentioned above are actually quite positive and yet they are still scary. I don't want to go back any steps, I'm happy where I am, not that I had a guarantee I would be before I took those steps. The great unknown is terrifying but it doesn't have to be.

With so many important 'life' things going on, how do people still get so upset over a new computer system??

GO LIVE, and do it!

Life start #5

The title of this blog is a bit of an inside joke from a recent trip to Pittsburgh and a crazy shuttle driver, but it got me thinking. This man was in his 50s/60s and he claimed to be on his 6th life restart to which we all found a very odd announcement but managed to keep the laughs to ourselves (temporarily). I am 27. I have been out of college for 5 years. I am on my 5th job change (but only the 4th company- if that makes it sound any better?). I don't think that's normal. Maybe the shuttle driver should have been laughing at me.

I have been lured back to the lucrative consultant route: road warrior, suits, and suitcases. My life is back on the road. Perhaps my blog should no longer be devoted to the boring things going on in my life but instead my version of "Up in the Air" and life on the road as a hotel and airline point whore. It's an interesting lifestyle although many people I know have also experienced it.

It's been 9 months since I've last traveled and as anyone with status knows... it doesn't last. Status expires after one year which means I have 3 months to log enough travel to maintain status or I get demoted. Not a fan of that happening. It's hard to leave the good life once you've got it.. I need my free water bottles!

Time to book some flights...

Who Likes Work?

I feel like life is flying by and I'm not sure where it's going. I am no longer traveling for work so my weeks are now more 'routine' which I thought would be better but it seems like the weeks go faster now. Everyday I'm bored out of my mind at work but even traveling that was an issue. I really want to know what kind of jobs people have where they are truly excited to be there and happy about what their doing. And how did they start the process of figuring out what they wanted to do? I feel like I've always thought that once I was 'grown up' I would be what I had always wanted to be and do what I wanted to do... except what have I always wanted to do??? Who do I want to be? I certainly didn't grow up saying 'I hope one day to have a prosperous career in the healthcare technology field' or 'Gee I hope one day I can be a cube monkey at a big company'. I don't have any other ideas and this is the role I fell into so now that's my life. I wish I could take one of those tests they give you in school that tell you what kind of jobs you are cut out for when you grow up. Except I am grown up... when did that happen?

A lot has happened in a year..

So I forgot I started a blog.. so much for good intentions. I'm going to try to make my posts less then a year apart even though no one is yet reading this blog.

I have been happily married since September 25, 2009 and it was a really great wedding. However, wedding planning was still the worst and I wouldn't imagine it on my worst enemies. I wish I would have kept up the blogging during that time because it would have made for some interesting rants (the invitation fiasco, the button fiasco, the cork fiasco, and many more). I would have offended every family member with my rants but they all offended me and we were all about to disown each other at the time so it's probably better I didn't have an outlet to document any of those frustrations. I never knew weddings could be so dividing since the point of them is to unite.

I did have my fairly small destination wedding that I always wanted with 75 people in attendance (which was really the perfect amount). It was in beautiful California wine country at Viansa Winery in Sonoma. Everyone says it was one of the most fun weddings they've been to and, although I'm biased, I tend to agree. Everything was perfect, the weather was absolutely beautiful and the end result of the months of planning was amazing.

My First Blog Ever

So I decided to start a blog and I'm not really sure what my intentions are with it. I'm not sure how good I'll be at keeping at it and how open I will be to sharing my thoughts with everyone. Obviously I've decided to send it to you so we must be good friends and I apologize if you get bored.

Currently I am reading Eric Clapton's autobiography and in it he references diary entries from early in his life. It really got me thinking that as pointless as diaries seem in the moment, in 10 or 20 years from now, I'll have no idea what I was thinking or doing back when I was a young squirt of 25. I have a hard time remembering what I did last week. I believe this kind of thing will help me when I have a twenty something year old child and I honestly can't remember what it was like to be in my twenties. I can say "Yes, yes did act just as stupid as you, if not more so" instead of "What the hell are you thinking!" College was a bit of a haze... enough said.

I'm beginning to think this blog may become my place to babble so I will hopefully learn to keep them short and to the point. If not, I won't even read these posts again!