Past 5-month update!

Update: Links to photos from Chicago.

My how time flies. I can't believe it's been almost 5 months since I've posted anything. Does that mean 5 months have gone by without anything postworthy going on? Hmm. Maybe. Although upon proofreading this entry, I must have needed to blog or vent for awhile, b/c this got longer than I imagined it would for as little as I feel I've been up to.

The summer is definitely flying by. And I haven't even done as much travelling as I usually do, especially in the summertime.

I started a new project at work a couple of months ago that I'm really enjoying. I had to play catch-up quite a bit at the beginning to try to remember how to use some technologies I hadn't used in awhile. Amazing how quickly you can become rusty on stuff in the technical world. I guess that enough of it must have come back to me that I'm getting by. I enjoy helping others on the team learn about the few things that I am pretty familiar with on the project. I don't enjoy helping others learn things they think I'm more familar with than I really am :) I guess I'm not as good at winging it as if I know stuff when I don't. Other people seem so good at that. So, I guess some days I feel very busy and overwhelmed, and most days I feel pretty good about my work, so overall it's a good thing. Most importantly I'm challenged and not bored, and that motivates me more than anything. I got the high compliment of being told I am smart and that I had a really good idea that solved a problem we were having today. (Maybe you're right, Dean, maybe I can admit that I do have good ideas once in awhile :) I guess I came down off that high after I broke the build. Ah, karma always has a way of putting you back in your place, doesn't it.

Other than work.... there's been at least 4 weddings to attend this summer alone, 2 cousins' weddings, and 2 friends' weddings. We made it to 3 of them, 2 in Indiana and one in Ohio. Unfortunately we couldn't be in 2 places at once and missed the friend's wedding in Vegas since my cousin's wedding was the same day. I tried to get Jeff to go represent us at the Vegas one while I represented at my cousin's wedding. I guess he didn't believe me that I was really ok with that or something b/c he didn't go to Vegas w/ our friends, but went to my cousin's wedding with me. That or maybe he just wanted to save the money he would have spent travelling. Either way! ;)

My friend Sheila and I drove up to Chicago a few weeks ago to visit my older brother Kyle. I met Sheila through Kyle b/c they were friends in college. It was a fun little road trip. I got to go see one of my favorite bands, Def Leppard, with Sheila, Kyle, and some of Kyle's friends. I could have seen them here in Columbus instead, but a road trip was more fun. Besides, I'm not sure I could have convinced anyone else around here besides Sheila to go. We had lawn seats so it was a gamble, but the weather was perfect all weekend. We got to go rollerblading, and eat breakfast at a really cool waffle restaurant, and eat lunch at a yummy Thai place, and just hang out and relax. (Except for when my finger got pinched in the door of Kyle's apartment building and it hurt and I got really mad and Kyle had to go back to his apt and get me a bandaid because I was bleeding from under my fingernail). And Sheila and I had some great conversation on the drive there and back.

I've gone to 2 technical conferences in the past several months too. Got to attend No Fluff Just Stuff in Columbus in June, which is always a great event. It's the 3rd year I've gotten to go. I think I felt pretty overwhelmed by all the new information the first year I went. I must be learning how to learn stuff without getting so drained because I felt pretty good after the conference this year. Other than a little people-overload ... nothing that a couple hours alone by the pool with a non-technical book didn't solve :) I am an introvert at heart, after all. Then in July I got to attend ERubyCon in Columbus, also a great event. This was the first year for that conference. I hope it's the first annual. I really enjoyed the charity training class held the day before the conference, too. It was very fast-paced but I learned a lot about Ruby and Rails. The conference itself was small this year, but that's not a bad thing in my opinion. It provides a more intimate setting anyway. Lots more chances to talk to everyone; there's at least 1-2 fellow attendees that I feel like I got a chance to get to know a lot better and that was really cool. And smaller means less chance of there being 3 sessions you want to attend all at the same time. I had some great conversation with some of the speakers, too. Most notable to me was talking about why I have no desire to speak at conferences. Did I mention I'm an introvert, after all? But of all the reasons anyone had about why I should speak, what I think I'll take away from it is finally someone saying "if you don't want to, then don't." Good point. You know, if I don't want to do it and I don't have a passion for it, then I'm not going to give 100% and it probably won't be very good... for anyone. I definitely will be at ERubyCon if it happens next year, and I hope it will grow too, so I'll do my best to spread the word.

I didn't get much of a chance to unwind after ERubyCon at all. I had to leave a little early from the conference for the Family Camp (church camp for families to go together) that my parents helped get started when I was little, and that I've attended every year since - 25 years now, yikes. I was in charge of leading the young adult sessions this year. How nerve wracking (remember that introvert thing?) To me that's not too unlike public speaking at a technical conference. But at least a group of 15-18 people, most of which I've known for many years, made it a little easier. Thanks to some encouraging words from a few of the folks, and the help of my brother the last day, I made it through. But I don't think I'll be doing that again unless my brother is willing and able to help me ALL 3 days. I'm definitely more of a behind-the-scenes planner and coordinator and preparer type.

Ok, people, all 2 or 3 of you who read my blog :) I will try to do better at blogging so it's not 5 more months before my next post! I did notice I had a couple of drafts saved on my account. I'll have to revisit those some other time, and see if they're really worth posting at this point. Here's to doing stuff that's blogworthy, and not being too tired to blog about it later!