Plane Trips

Well I embark on my world travel tomorrow and I can’t help but think of my first time on a plane. I was a very young child and a member of a national performance team. It was 1979 and we performed a football halftime show in Miami, Florida. We performed at Disneyworld too during the trip. The trip was expensive and coincided with the detection of skin cancer on my mother’s face. Therefore she sent me another family. The performance was fabulous (I was great), I was the youngest member and super cute and received a lot of attention from the crowd. I have always liked being the center of attention. I do remember getting stranded in the Denver airport but I don’t think it was for too long.

One of my strongest memory was I felt that the other family “stole” my money. They made me pay for my portion of a taxi when we missed the bus even though it was their daughter that made us late. The taxi ride was super expensive and took a large fraction of my spending cash. I am still upset about it.

The strongest memory I have actually did involve the trip at all but the returning. When I stepped off the plane my mother was there to meet me and she looked terrible. I was so embarrassed; in fact I still have a physical response to the memory. I was very young and did not understand that I was very lucky to have a mother at all, all I knew was my mother showed up at the airport with a hamburger face. She had undergone dermabrasion to remove the skin cancer and part of her nose was removed too. I returned right at the time the bandages came off and she showed up looking like hell. I don’t have the time to explain how bad she looked and how embarrassed I was, but road rash does not give credit to the state of her face. Later through a couple plastic surgeries her nose was restored and there were no long term adverse effects from the dermabrasion.

Through my colossal effort to understand and forgive my mother, I understand that she did not intentionally embarrass me then and she doesn’t intentionally embarrass me now (even though she still does). I never told her I was embarrassed that she was there but I am sure she knew. I am not blameless in my relationship with my mother, and have done many things that hurt her too.

Well I will see you all in three weeks, or maybe sooner from an internet café in the Ukraine!

I am blushing

I just had my “mid-year” review at work and these were the comments left by my manager and I feel so special! I just had to share it with the rest of the world!

And I quote (only the names have been change to protect me)

“Spin Doc has an unusual capacity for work. It is a challenge to keep up with her. She takes pride in meeting all deadlines but has never compromised in the quality of her work. She readily identifies opportunities for improvement and sets a work output standard that no team member can come close to meeting.

Spin Doc is extremely bright and intelligent and an asset corporate wide (work for XXX and sought out be all levels of the XXX Organization). We are extremely fortunate to have Spin Doc on our team.

Spin Doc despite only a few months of exposure can be relied upon as if she had a decade’s long tenure to attack any issue and lead any team to the right decision.

Spin Doc is the "go to" team member in any crisis and has supported many activities and on short notice/emergency situations. Her work can not be matched on any metric - be it volume, technical prowess or quality. Most outstanding however are her leadership abilities”

I know it is silly but I feel so good! I want to share it with everyone.

Special Friends

I am going to the Ukraine on my trip, and I hope that is not TMI. As word of my trip has circulated around the office, I started receiving all sorts of guests at my office offering advice about my trip. These visitors also blessed me with a lot of anecdotes about staying in the Ukraine. The stories involving no heat, parasites and theft were numerous, and yet all theses visitors were super anxious to return. I could not understand. I am excited to go but the lack of heat has me a little concerned. The people here dying to return to the Ukraine has recently approached a whole new level, people have gone so far to contact people at the top of the food chain out here advertising their expertise and volunteering for the trip even if only as a back up. I could not understand what was going on.

Well guess what sport’s fans, it is the women. I just had a briefing by HR concerning the Ukrainian women problem with married American men, specifically related to our company. I think it is a riot too. Hop-Hop (a Russian man) told me about this, but I did not take him seriously. Now I can’t help but look at all the men and wonder how easily they are motivated and controlled by their other heads. I wonder if they will go so far as to ask me to deliver a trinket or keep sake to their special friend in the Ukraine!

Ski Coat

I have adverse reactions to medicines;

If it is suppose to make you sleep it keeps me awake

If it is non-drowsy I sleep at my desk

If it is has a “euphoric” side effect I feel nothing

Right now I am struggling to stay awake at my desk after taking non-drowsy cold medicine. The Kid and I start our ski lessons this weekend. I received a beautiful coat for x-mas this year (from my mother), and I am going to try it out. My mother really did spoil me this year too. In addition to this beautiful coat, she bought me a pink telluride for spring skiing with matching accessories (hat, shirts and such). She also bought me the matching accessories for my winter coat. I have never been a ski bunny but I will look like one on the slopes now. She also bought me a bunch of other things but I mentioned my favorite items.

I ski in any weather and in the worst weather I am usually mistaken for a man on the slopes. Last year I even had a female lift operator flirt with me until I removed my face mask and she noticed I was a woman. She even said “I thought you were a guy.” I had to respond that I was probably the only woman skiing in the blizzard.

Ramblings

I am traveling again in a week and I don’t know if I will have internet access while abroad. Did I mention that I love my job? In case you have forgotten I really do love my job, I just wish it wasn’t in the middle of nowhere. Though the eternal pessimist in me can’t help but wonder if it is really this place that is so fabulous or is industry in general just that much better than academia? Granted my last academic position was the position from hell, but I can’t help but wonder if all academic positions suck. Talking with my friends still in academia it sure seems so, but the people who left my former work place are much happier now too.

I wonder if I would be this happy in any industry position and if so then I should look for one in a more metropolitan area. The company I work for treats me great and the work I do is really cool too. Granted I miss the intellectual challenge of academia on some sick and twisted level. I really miss the lab too, but not on some sick and twisted level. I am hoping to get some lab space and time here, it is in the “works”, and I can’t help but feel loyalty to a company that is willing to give me everything I ask for.

Oh the co-workers are fabulous too! The Kid turned 25 yesterday and there was cake. In fact there is still cake. I have eaten 3 pieces today. There was also cake on my birthday and pastries and lunch. The Kid and I have signed up for ski lessons, though I will only be able to attend the first week (I will be out of town for 3 weeks).

Prom Dress

I was a very beautiful child, seriously. My mother took great pains to make sure I was always primed and primped for various occasions. She enrolled me in dance lessons at the very young age and also had me competing in beauty pageants too. I am not sure why but I was born with an extremely rebellious streak and HATE people telling me what to do, this streak started very early and so I absolutely refused to dress “girly” when I had any choice in the matter. This anti-girly streak lasted well into my adult years too. However deep inside me I am a girly-girl and have always been and this hidden girly-girl desire was passivated many times in my life but today I was thinking about my senior prom.

I was estranged from my mother during most of my high school years and as a result of the estrangement I was financially cut off too. I don’t know why but my mother decided to help me pay for my prom dress. She took me to Las Vegas to shop for a dress and we found the most beautiful dress. We located it at Neiman Marcus, an original and super expensive by anyone’s standards and she bought it for me. Of course I was supposed to pay her for half of the dress but she forgave the debt later too.

I arrived at my senior prom, and I am not embellishing here I had most beautiful dress on. I had on a red carpet, Hollywood dress and I felt like I was the most beautiful women at the prom. In all honesty I think I was the most beautiful woman there too. All these years later it still is one of the best nights of my life and all because of the dress. I still have that dress though there is no physical way I will ever fit into it again.

I wrote this in an effort to repair my relationship with my mother. I have spent a vast majority of my life being angry with my mother, and though she has many faults I can no longer blame her for all my personal faults. I guess it is time for me to grow up and claim accountability for the person I am.

Confined to the Bed (and not in a good way)

I apologize for neglecting this blog for the last few weeks, but I do have a good excuse. Recall the cold I caught right before Christmas? Well it morphed into a full blown sinus infection. I had fabulous plans to ski up a storm over the holiday break and instead spent 5 days in bed. The infection sapped every last bit of energy I possessed. I was unable to stay awake for more than 5 hours in 24 hour period. I don’t think I have ever been that tired. I am still not 100% but yesterday I managed to stay awake for about 10 hours.

Every day of the break I would say to myself tomorrow I will ski and when tomorrow arrived I just could not get out of bed. I did ski before I was completely bed ridden and it was amazing!