November 12, 2012

• On Sunday, I woke up before the sun to participate in a half-marathon relay with my friends. Since the roads closed for the run, I had to be at my relay station pretty early … and wait. My leg of the race was the final one, and 5.3 miles up hill. The last mile was especially torturous, as spectators were cheering while I jogged in slow motion up the switchbacks. Er-jia, Andy, and I completed the relay in 2 hours and 10 minutes. Coworkers James C, Lisa, Jaybal, and Chris ran the whole race … and actually so did Er-jia, as he paced me and Andy during our legs of the relay. My friend Bev came to meet me at the finish line. Aw.  

    

  James took the kids to run the 1 mile fun run, and met up with Tabitha (and her group of friends). It seems borderline insane to get up so early and pay (a non-trivial amount) to run, but there’s something about participating in a race with a group of friends with spectators cheering you on. And call me a sap, but it was really touching seeing kids hold up posters as their parents ran by.

    

  In the evening, JP and my family went to Melissa’s house for Asian 5-spice pork with slaw. (Is it sad if non-Asians can cook better Asian food than me?) The kids carved pumpkins. It was the first year Zach was not completely disgusted by the ‘guts.’ He was really digging in hard, reminding me of a liposuction documentary I watched many years ago. Then I took the kids home for bed while James and JP went to see ‘The Evil Dead’ musical at a small local theatre.

   

    

  Wednesday was Halloween. Zach’s friend John, from his soccer team came over to trick-or-treat with him. Despite setting up a few tombstones and a bubble fog machine, we didn’t get much traffic. I think it’s because we’re not in the main loop of houses on the block … or maybe our reputation for recycling crappy candy* has caught up with us. Calie lasted 4 houses before she got scared and decided to call it a night. Zach and John ran all the way around the neighborhood. (I still remember when Zach was a toddler and just our street took all night.) After they traded candies, and John went home,  Zach hit another neighborhood with me. Two hours of trick-or-treating (until 8pm) equals a huge pillowcase full of candy. As he pretty much only likes M&Ms, Kit-Kats, and Hershey bars, he has to go to a  lot of houses to get enough of the kind he wants.

    

   

  *We bought 2 new bags of chocolate candies, but add cheap stuff we don’t want (like Tootsie rolls) from the kids’ loot

  On Friday, Rachel, Dana, Kathy, and I celebrated Melissa, Sandy, and Karen’s birthday with dancing and Thai food. Happy birthday(s)! What a good reason for a ladies’ night out.

   

  This weekend I got lots of exercise, which makes me happy. I ran 2 10ks (once with coworkers and once myself) and went to 2 yoga classes (one by myself, and one with Calie.) The kids also got a good workout with  dance, swim lessons, backyard badminton, and riding trikes.  Good thing, as we went to Red Robin for dinner Saturday night and splurged on some extra calories! Sunday after dinner, I headed to Redmond for work. Oh – and over the weekend, I also signed for my first ever half marathon. I have quite a few friends who both work full time and parent young children … and dance competitively or teach exercise classes. They inspire me to be a healthier, more well-rounded person! No excuses!

   

    

    

  After coming back home Monday night, I headed out again to Houston for the SWE (Society of Women Engineers) national conference. I roomed with my coworker Divya, which was super fun. We had dinner with the other women from our company, attended sessions, talked, and watched a lot of late night TV in our hotel room. 

   

  Divya was honored with the ‘Emerging Leaders Award’ (congratulations!), and I was a speaker at the conference. I was worried that no one would come to my presentation (Writing Effective Self-Evaluations) but the room was full. The presentation took 30 minutes and the rest of the hour was spent answering questions and having audience members share their before/after write ups. Based on what they shared, I’d say the presentation was a success … and I received great feedback afterwards. In fact, 12 people asked for a copy of my presentation to take back to their coworkers.  I’m not a confident public speaker as I’m a natural introvert (trained extrovert), so the question/answer and discussion section was much more comfortable for me. It was very rewarding to share my learnings from ~15 years of working in the tech industry with young professional women. Post presentation, I took advantage of some free time with some celebratory shopping. TV *and* shopping all in one day, what a rare treat! 

    

  I’m now back home … no planned work travel for the rest of the year. Whew! Went to Zach’s soccer game and took the kids to swim class and just relaxed at home the rest of the weekend.

   

   

  • 11:22 pm
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