Mmmmmmm... Lobster. Yes, I know that every day is lobster day in Maine, but does every grad school program sponsor a trip and a lobster feast for it's class? Ummm..no. The food has been awesome here, and if it would just stop raining life would be the best today. I guess this is why they call it the muddy season.
My belly is full, I've had 3 glasses of wine, danced with my friends, get to sleep in a little tomorrow as we start at 9am instead of 8:30am, and I'm just feeling good. I just need a man to snuggle up with and a king size bed.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Day 3 Updates
So I noticed that when I update via email, it doesn't put the paragraph breaks in, which is kinda annoying. I'll have to work on that, or leave that for limited updates.
Today was stressful as part of the activity was identifying a defining moment in our lives before the age of 18. Then answer the question of what value did that bring to us. Mine was about the day my father left. I cried, as we had the tell the story from the perspective as if we were that age and still in that moment. Everyone was emotionally wrung after that experience.
I've been keeping a written journal that I capture during class, which just isn't the same as being able to type everything for me. But it's good keeping grounded. Emotions have a habit of bubbling inside of me, and I ignore them or rationalize them. Sometimes I think I've done my "work" so well, as not to get bothered anymore.
I keep waking up early, as I think I'm going to miss the alarm clock. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep fully tonight, but I just want to get up early in order to take my shower. I like being able to take a shower first thing in the morning - as it wakes me up. The night before thing doesn't work for me.
I'm sitting in the basement of the house alone, and it's amazing that with 19 women in the house I can still find space to do this. This house is truly HUGE.
I think I'm going to turn in early, or do some yoga. I haven't decided which yet.
Today was stressful as part of the activity was identifying a defining moment in our lives before the age of 18. Then answer the question of what value did that bring to us. Mine was about the day my father left. I cried, as we had the tell the story from the perspective as if we were that age and still in that moment. Everyone was emotionally wrung after that experience.
I've been keeping a written journal that I capture during class, which just isn't the same as being able to type everything for me. But it's good keeping grounded. Emotions have a habit of bubbling inside of me, and I ignore them or rationalize them. Sometimes I think I've done my "work" so well, as not to get bothered anymore.
I keep waking up early, as I think I'm going to miss the alarm clock. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep fully tonight, but I just want to get up early in order to take my shower. I like being able to take a shower first thing in the morning - as it wakes me up. The night before thing doesn't work for me.
I'm sitting in the basement of the house alone, and it's amazing that with 19 women in the house I can still find space to do this. This house is truly HUGE.
I think I'm going to turn in early, or do some yoga. I haven't decided which yet.
days1-3
I got to go to an Alpaca farm on Saturday! Actually I spent a lot of money buying alpaca wool at the farm. The lady met us at the car door and gave us a tour! It was great to drive around and see the country side. Class started at 2pm on Saturday. We had a devil of a time trying to get into groups ourseleves. But it forced us to talk about the hidden elephants in the room. We have one person in our cohort who stresses us all out and no one wanted her in the group. We have a person on the faculty who does massage and body work. We do movement exercises every morning to get us energized before starting our day. Its pretty awesome! Class has been ending at 4pm, and yesterday my small group decided to take a walk for our meeting. It was an amazing view at the top. I didn't have my camera with me, but will have it today! We moved into Glen House last night, after my great 2 night stay at Rivendell House. The Inn keepers treated us like family and piled on wine and amazing breakfast every morning. This is the muddy season, which means the locals all leave for their vacations before the summer season starts here. The Inn keepers left on Saturday and we had an Inn sitter. She was a sweet woman who catered to us as well. We went up the mountain to Glen House yesterday. The place is Amazing! We are pretending we are rich for the week as this house is AWESOME! I will be posting pictures soon. I woke early this morning to enjoy the quiet with breakfast. We now have a house mascot - Annabell. She's the neighbor's Laberdoodle who came to visit. It was cute as she guarded our back door and protected us from that wild and crazy squirrle in the tree. What a great time so far!
Friday, April 17, 2009
at the airport
I really like this new feature, but I don't have spell check... Great! I'm sitting in the terminal with April, waiting for Veronica to arrive, and our plane too. Its going to be a beautiful day for a flight!!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Clean-up day
Today was the day that I got to finish up some open-ends at work, and run some errands before my trip tomorrow.
I completely re-designed our department's website on the intranet. It looks great! If I do so say so myself! hehehe :) I was speaking with one of our intranet gurus and asked what she used to create her good looking pages... oddly enough, Word! So I guess I didn't need the Macromedia suite that they bought me a few years ago, but it's still nice to have.
I had to run out and get a new hair-dryer, as mine died earlier this week. And while I was in the store, I decided to be adventurous and get my eyebrows waxed. I've never had them waxed before, and I was really nervous, but they were in desperate need of maintenance. I'm fortunate enough to have very light eyebrow hair, but they still needed it. It didn't hurt at all! I'll be making regular appointments, instead of trying to pluck without glasses on.... doesn't really work!
I can't wait for Maine tomorrow! It's going to be an awesome trip!
I completely re-designed our department's website on the intranet. It looks great! If I do so say so myself! hehehe :) I was speaking with one of our intranet gurus and asked what she used to create her good looking pages... oddly enough, Word! So I guess I didn't need the Macromedia suite that they bought me a few years ago, but it's still nice to have.
I had to run out and get a new hair-dryer, as mine died earlier this week. And while I was in the store, I decided to be adventurous and get my eyebrows waxed. I've never had them waxed before, and I was really nervous, but they were in desperate need of maintenance. I'm fortunate enough to have very light eyebrow hair, but they still needed it. It didn't hurt at all! I'll be making regular appointments, instead of trying to pluck without glasses on.... doesn't really work!
I can't wait for Maine tomorrow! It's going to be an awesome trip!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Neat!
Neat! So now I have a new technology to play with, where I can just email a blog to be updated. I can just blog from my blackberry while I'm on the move!
I'm getting excited about my trip to Maine on Friday. I'm actually going for class, but we are staying in an awesome place! I'll share pictures when I get back. I don't want to give any crazy people who may follow my blog any ideas of where I'll be! hehe :)
I'm really frustrated this week, and no it isn't that time of the month. I'm constantly running into people who are not willing to see things in a different way, and are very aggressive in their resistance to change. My coworkers are having the same problem, and I'm not sure what could be causing it. The first step is understanding our involvement in the resistance, the second is their understanding of the change, and the third obviously their barriers to change. My coworker and I got into a great discussion today around what I call a cognitive shift.
Pardon me for being high-brow for a second, but I think my thinking is pretty sophisticated around self-awareness. I'm open and willing to discuss other ways of doing things, and willing to entertain the possibility of changing myself to do something another way. But how do you get people to that point. I'm thinking of a group of people who see work as a J.O.B. and not as an impactful career. We have a lot of those types in our front line workers. Heck, I sit in a building filled with them. How do I get them to try something different in their work, when they see no reason to change, or any reason to entertain a difference. And... see any conversation or workshop around a change as an interruption to their busy day, and not as a professional development opportunity. Who's fault is that?
I'm a firm believer in setting a safe environment where people can explore learning around something new, and I understand the importance of having a manager educate the employee around the importance of a change. But how do you get someone to be open?
You can't really... they will do what they are told to keep the J.O.B., but never really buy into something that they don't think of themselves. You can share the ROI, but it's really a shift to asking yourself the question, "what does the company need from me, in order for the company to be successful?" I don't think the J.O.B.ers would even think to ask that question.
More pondering needs to be done...
I'm getting excited about my trip to Maine on Friday. I'm actually going for class, but we are staying in an awesome place! I'll share pictures when I get back. I don't want to give any crazy people who may follow my blog any ideas of where I'll be! hehe :)
I'm really frustrated this week, and no it isn't that time of the month. I'm constantly running into people who are not willing to see things in a different way, and are very aggressive in their resistance to change. My coworkers are having the same problem, and I'm not sure what could be causing it. The first step is understanding our involvement in the resistance, the second is their understanding of the change, and the third obviously their barriers to change. My coworker and I got into a great discussion today around what I call a cognitive shift.
Pardon me for being high-brow for a second, but I think my thinking is pretty sophisticated around self-awareness. I'm open and willing to discuss other ways of doing things, and willing to entertain the possibility of changing myself to do something another way. But how do you get people to that point. I'm thinking of a group of people who see work as a J.O.B. and not as an impactful career. We have a lot of those types in our front line workers. Heck, I sit in a building filled with them. How do I get them to try something different in their work, when they see no reason to change, or any reason to entertain a difference. And... see any conversation or workshop around a change as an interruption to their busy day, and not as a professional development opportunity. Who's fault is that?
I'm a firm believer in setting a safe environment where people can explore learning around something new, and I understand the importance of having a manager educate the employee around the importance of a change. But how do you get someone to be open?
You can't really... they will do what they are told to keep the J.O.B., but never really buy into something that they don't think of themselves. You can share the ROI, but it's really a shift to asking yourself the question, "what does the company need from me, in order for the company to be successful?" I don't think the J.O.B.ers would even think to ask that question.
More pondering needs to be done...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
