August, STC, and blessings

August. Summer is finally here in San Diego. Temperatures up to high 70s/low 80s near the coast…around 85-90 at my house, and approaching triple digits in the east-county valley communities. Not hot compared to the rest of the country, but keep in mind that most of us who live in older homes in San Diego have NO CENTRAL A/C! So, each morning I close all the windows and shades in my little 1100-square-foot house and leave the ceiling fans on low. I have a window-box mini-air-conditioner in my dining room, and I keep it set at 80 during the day on the energy-saver setting. That way, when I get home, all I have to do is open all the windows, and start all the fans (ceiling and floor). Within an hour or two, the house is cool, the outside temp is down into the 70s, and the breeze coming in through my bedroom windows at 10 pm feels cool enough for me to need a sheet as a cover. Ahhh, living in San Diego is truly a dream. I am blessed.

Since I’m talking about blessings, let me continue: In my previous post, I shared with you that STC volunteer work helped me land my current job as a Strategic Analyst. Well, the job is almost a month old and I love it. I’m still on a steep learning curve, but the climb isn’t too bumpy and I have a lot of new colleagues helping me climb. I think the stress of my former job helped me make excuses to back off from STC volunteering these last couple of years. But, the stress must be diminishing because over the past month or two, I’ve picked up the pace and have a begun a few things for me and the Society.

When I saw the news about submitting a proposal for the 2011 STC Summit, I did something different: I used Facebook and Twitter to ask for volunteers to serve on a panel I had thought up. Within less than a day, I had several responses and now I have a panel! It was so easy. In years past, I would send emails to folks I knew and ask for their help. That would engender a slurry of emails and phone calls and well, you get the idea. I much prefer the new way.

I also helped my local chapter the other day and sent a "Welcome to 2010/2011" email to everyone on the STC San Diego membership list. We have 84 members. I think we had about 300+ back in the days when I was the chapter president. Oh well. Everything ebbs and flows. I’m confident that the current members will keep the chapter running. The admin council is making some tough decisions to save money, but the members are supportive: they understand that changes are needed and they are ready to help get us through these tough times.

I have other STC projects in mind…as they develop, I’ll let you know about them. And, for those of you coming to San Diego for LavaCon, keep a lookout for me! I have no jobs to do, so I can actually attend sessions and learn things! What a concept.

It's ME time (part one)

As many of you know, I've been cleaning up my act. My backyard no longer has the unused, difficult-to-use hot tub that came with the house; the stack of old wood, empty plastic plant holders, and broken patio furniture has been moved to the local dump and no longer attracts spiders and termites at the side of my garage; and my home office has had a transformation from a dumping ground to a relatively organized, pleasant library/workroom.

I think I'm working up to something. I no longer have any STC duties and although work responsibilities are growing and taking more time (my work weeks are closer to 50 hours than 40 these days), I still have a desire to do something more. Yesterday, my dear friend Jean-Marie Cercley (he calls himself J.M. these days) called me to say that he was "stuck" in San Diego (poor boy). He was finishing up a road trip to Sturgis on his Vulcan and decided to stop to see his daughter Emily (who lives about 8 miles from me). Anyway, he managed to drop his bike in a move that he's quite embarrassed and pissed at himself about, and had to wait for it to be repaired before he could return home to Santa Rosa. I took it as a blessing! If he hadn't done that, he would have come and gone without time to call me for a visit. So, even though I had planned to do something practical at home last night, instead I left work a little early, picked up J.M., and brought him over here to look at some pix of our parents from their days in Morocco in the 50s.

Then, the two of us went to Lido's, the local Italian joint, for dinner and chianti. In the above picture, his parents are at the left, mine are at the right (his aunt and uncle are the couple in the middle). He is the little boy at the very left front, and, of course, I am the only little girl in the picture. His twin, Claude, has his head down, and his older brother, Guy is in the middle. Some of you might remember that I stayed with Guy and Noelle, his wife, when I visited Paris in 2007.

ANYWAY, our conversation was all over the place. We spoke of our parents, our siblings, our children, and our work. We discussed the amazing fact that we were still friends after more than 50 years and across continents. And we discussed the future. J.M. asked me what I had planned. And, at first, I had nothing. I have toyed with returning to teaching or with once again taking music lessons. I've considered going back to school and completing a master's in something.

But, after tossing around a few ideas, I realized that I know exactly what I want.

I want ME time. I want to quit complaining about my weight and my inactivity and do something about it. I want, basically, to focus on me. I want to put me first in a way that will actually do me good. And, if it takes me another year of saying it before I do it, so be it. All I know for sure is that I am my new project. Not my siblings, not STC, not my friends, not my kid, and not my job. All of those things are important to me in varying amounts. All of them will continue to be in my life in some manner and will require varying levels of attention. And, all of them are part of what make me me, so I will certainly continue to interact and share life with them. BUT, they will not bubble up to consume me. Nothing will consume me but me. And, maybe, if I say it often enough and write about it long enough, I'll actually take action and DO something about it!

It's ME time. J.M. and I toasted to it often last night. He to his; me to mine. What better way to christen a new journey?

It's About Time!

I'm finally blogging! Got lots of things going on, not sure how prolific I'll be, but I'm gonna give it a try. For those who know me, you'll probably see the connection between my vanity plate, home email, and blog site name. I thought about calling it LO Knows, but the older I get, the less I know, so that would limit my blogging.

I like titling this Blog "LO Writing," because it doesn't set up any expectations. All I have to do is write! To begin, I thought I'd tell you a little about me.

I'm 60. My Myers-Briggs is ENFP (but I was barely an E), and my DISC is ISCD. I am a mom, although my daughter is as old as my mom was when I made her a grandmother (Egad!). So far, I'm not a grandmother, although I do claim my best friend's granddaughters from time to time.

I have a dog, Karma, and a cat, Charley. They're both girls, even though Charley's a bit of a tomboy. They give me love, keep me sane, and make me laugh. (Pretty good return on my investment.)

I grew up in and now live in San Diego. I lived in Houston for all of the 1990s plus some and although it was fun and I met many lovely people who will always be in my life, I am glad to be home. Someday, I'll blog the story of that life journey--to Texas and back!

I write for a living. Well, actually, I manage people who write. I used to write for money. Now I write for fun.

I love Paris. Not Paris, TX, but Paris Paris. I'm convinced that I lived a past life there. Oh yeah, that tells you something else about me. I believe in lots of new agey stuff. Not all of it, but a lot of it. It makes sense to me and helps me make sense of the world we're in.

I am a technical communicator. I've been active in STC (Society for Technical Communication) for many, many years--in fact, I am the Immediate Past President of the Society. My final year on the Board of Directors. Time to move over and make room for new ideas and new processes to match the evolving world!

So, that's the first installment. Glad you stuck it out! See you next time.

LindaO