Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Birds

Last week it was hot. It was so hot, I said I wouldn't come home Thursday after work. My office is air conditioned, and our house, it was not. It was like 95+ at night.

I have plenty of things I should be doing, but instead, I opted to go for a walk with Paul to the Shoreline waterfront area, to see the sunset. Paul met me at work and we walked out to the Bay.





On the way, we saw jackrabbits and squirrels, and I stopped to drink (I cannot drink while walking)









We had a snack and headed out to the shoreline, where we found a little inlet where the birds were gathering at twilight. We watched as the 15 or so pelicans were joined by more pelicans, which would fly in in small groups. They are master aerialists, flying wing to wing in wide circles as they come in for landing. When there were a good 40 or so pelicans, they all started to swim off together.

Also there were about 15 egrets, maybe 20 night herons, and some avocets, all gathered in the same bay for dinner. It was a scene of incredible beauty, and we are thrilled to have it so nearby.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

You asked for it

You asked for updates, here they are. Now you know the true nature of my boringness.

Yesterday, it was Christmas at our house! the mailman brought motorcycle batteries! (how sad is it that my DRZ sat so long the battery died? sniff sniff)

And he brought a blood pressure monitor! As I suspected, my blood pressure appears in the low range. Apparently, there isn't really a low blood pressure range, only a high one. Mine is definitely not high. Sometimes I used to black out a little in the mornings, and I always wondered if it was from low blood pressure.

And! The mailman brought fabric! Which I haven't opened yet! So I can't tell you how great it is(n't?) yet! But it should be the fabric I need to start cutting my wedding dress. Having this will actually help me figure out if the pattern I planned will really "work" with this fabric. It may be too stiff.

Also, Paul had a nasty allergy attack. The cat yelled, and I read some of my PMP book. That will be every night. Oh boy!

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

My job sux.

It is so terrible here. We suffer so much, and my boss is so mean.

Look how miserable everyone is:

















Monday, May 05, 2008

Why you won't see me in the coming months

Saturday morning we went to the Road Rider parking lot sale, which was a huge waste of time. But, now we now. Unfortunately, time s something I have very little of these days, so that kind of ticked me off.

Where does the time go?

Oh, right, I am getting married. I was not one of those girls who dreamed about her fairytale wedding all her life. In fact, I didn't plan much of anything, and no here we are, with a lot of decisions to be made and work to be done. I got really excited about lot of crafty projects. I was a Girl Scout, and my mom is super crafty, and, um, yeah, I know how to sew, so I feel pretty strongly about wanting to do all these fun crafty things. Plus, art school and all, right? I spent the past few weeks gathering up ideas and starting to formulate ideas. I have a whole schedule of tasks, their dependencies, and a color-coded, sortable, sheer fabulosity, chart for tracking their status.

I got a lot done in the first month or two, and started to feel pretty good about it. I got a lot done on the dress (still lots to go there, but it's something). We made decisions and signed contracts. We were moving and shaking.

Hooray!

Last week I noticed my boss had commited me to earn my PMP by Q3, in a presentation we are making to the muckity-mucks. Yikes! I had an idea that it needed to be done, but seeing the date like that was a little alarming. Plus? When does Q3 end? 3 days after my wedding?

In a way, that is OK because partly I was thinking I should finish before we go on a honeymoon so I do not study on my honeymoon (lame, super lame, and totally something I would do) But there is waaaaay to much preparation that needs to be one to earn this stupid thing. Goodbye to the handmade crafty projects I had envisioned.

The first problem is that I don't even feel that I qualify to take the test. I need to do some serious brainstorming to recall 36 months of non-overlapping projects. (more, if...)

Second problem? I do not know if they will accept my BFA. If not, 36 months turns into a lot more. Then I will definitely not make it.

If I can clear that hurdle, it is just a matter of a few trainings (one is already on the docket, June in Atlanta for three days, but I'll be required to do at least one more) and then a WHOLE LOT of studying. Pages of charts, formulas, the kinds of things I have not been historically good at memorizing. But? I could do it. If I focused on it.

So last week I powered through reading a crash course project management book, recommended to me to read a high-level overview without the PMI jargon and dry reading. This took up a lot of my weekend, though I did find time to work Saturday night at the 80's club and finish up one of the patterns for my wedding dress.

I'm signed up for a three day PMP class in Atlanta the second week of June, and last week they sent me two books to read before the class. One is the Guide to the PMBOK (NOT a fun read, I have tried before) and one is PMP test study tome. I'm supposed to read both of these before June 9th. Thanks, guys! My plan is to read the study guide, as I already know I won't make it through the Guide to the PMBOK. I'll reference the guide during my reading of the study guide. I need to read four chapters a week. When? I have no clue. While I'm sleeping?

I do want to earn the certification. If I do not, it will be bad. If I do it, it will be good. That's easy math. I want to do it, I am just not sure I can do it right now. But I must, and so I guess, it follows I will find a way that I can.

Paul has been amazingly supportive. I had little time to help around the house before. Now, I have none. Zero. He is totally supportive. If we did not live together, this would be impossible, because we would never see each other. At least since we live together I can still see him sitting in the window watching the birdies and squirrels while I study. Getting this done will benefit both of us in the long run, and he knows this. But it hurts to have the days slipping away, saying "no" to hikes and adventures that used to be so fun.