Gettin' Busy

The entire week feels compressed.  Between the Holiday on Monday and flying out to Atlanta on Thursday morning there's only a couple of days to get quite a bit done.

SCC is early this year.  I'm typically used to it being at the end of the month.  I'll be interested to see how well attended it is - the economy being what it is and some of the other established conferences have suffered as a result.

Every year I wonder if it will be my last SCC.  Who knows what the future holds, and I'll admit that at some point something will probably prevent me from attending.  In years past there have often been schedule conflicts on SCC weekend so I've had to do some crazy planning to be there.  Just last year I introduced Jamison Green for his keynote during the Saturday lunch and then had to bolt to catch a flight to Washington DC because I had a talk to give at a Conference there later that afternoon.  But, as I admitted that this will be the first year I miss the Out and Equal Workplace Summit since 2004, eventually you'll find you won't be there.

That being said, though, I typically really look forward to seeing friends at this wonderful event, and to making new ones.  As much as anything - that's what keeps me coming back.

As I mentioned in my previous entry, I won't be home for another weekend until at least mid-October.  The good news is that most of my time away will be spent on the East Coast where there really IS a fall.  Here in Phoenix our idea of fall is when the monsoons end and daily highs fall into the upper 90's.  There was something on the news yesterday saying that this was the 9th warmest summer here on record.  It wasn't that there were so many days that were more scorchingly hot than usual - it was because our nightly lows were typically 3 or 4 degrees warmer than normal and often didn't get below 90.  Can you imagine that?  Where the overnight low is more than 90 degrees??  Crazy, I know.  But for those of us who live here it's just something you get used to.

I'm looking forward to being somewhere in autumn where there is some "nip" in the air, where leaves change, where you open your window at night and there's a cool breeze coming in.  Autumn is my favorite season but living here involves some aspect of NOT having seasons in the traditional sense, or at least how I'm used to.  So, if we want to experience fall we typically have to go somewhere else and this upcoming jag of travel just so happens to provide that.

I've been busy updating my website here locally and need to understand a few things more clearly before I'm ready to roll it out publicly.  I'm trying to incorporate the old with the new, the best of the past with things that I think are important now.  At the same time, although iWeb makes it insanely easy to create web pages it has some limitations as well.  Some are obvious while others aren't - like, the ability to add meta tags to your pages.  The simplicity of it allows you to do some fairly complex things with a simple drag and drop, but the real question is how is it working behind the scenes and whether or not there are things that can be done to "tweek".  Anyway, work is ongoing and I'm getting there.

Three days are down at the World Wrestling Championships is Moscow and 8 US wrestlers have competed so far.  No medals.  The Women's brackets started today and 2 US women competed.  My weight class happens on Friday.  I have no shame admitting that part of my morning ritual this week is to look at the overnight results.  I wish I were 25 years younger....I'd be SO into this stuff.  This sport gets into your blood - it just does - to the point where it's not just something you do but it's something that you are.  I realize that sounds odd but if you do something with the intensity that some of us do this sport for as long as I did you'll know what I mean.  I have enjoyed reconnecting with the sport in general as another of those "full circle" things....

I have what I'll call a "hiking friend".  Actually, I've got a couple of them but one of them actually lives here, and she's one of those rare people I meet who is as extreme and driven as I am.  There's a special thing about choosing your hiking friends wisely because at some point you may be attached to a rope with them on the rocky side of a mountain and your lives depend on one another. 

We're talking about doing Mt. Whitney in California in the spring.  At almost 14,500 ft. it's the tallest peak in the contiguous US, and can be quite the challenging climb depending on your route, the time of year, the weather, and your skills.  I'm a very goal-driven person and once I've set goals it's hard to dislodge them from my head.  This particular climb is something that would be a huge stretch for me, but training for it keeps me in shape.  She's already done it at least a couple of times and talks about setting base camp and starting the ascent on the summit at, like, 3am so as not to be on the top during the most dangerous part of the day.  You've gotta be kidding me.  And, I'll admit that going up doesn't cause me as much anxiety as coming down.  You know how they say, "Don't look down"?  Well, it's hard not to look down when you're actually going down.

This hike is preparation for an even bigger trek we've been discussing, but I'll leave that for another entry...

As with the photo I shared of the light tied to the bow of the boat during the dark of night these mountains are symbolic of many things for me.  I'm even planning to bring some of my dad's ashes up to the top.  He would have LOVED to make this climb.  Hopefully, he will.

I look over my life and see so much - so many dear friends, so many things accomplished, so many passions, so many things I enjoy, so many things I appreciate, so much I still want to do.  I can't imagine NOT making time for living.  Sometimes it honestly feels that there's just not time for it all in one lifetime.

The paradox is that is my life:  The song that has been stuck in my head for a week now is one I've shared here before and it's actually a pretty dark song but I blast this sucka in my car.




Lyrics:
I've gone all this fuc*in' way
To wander back at - back at the start.
Hey!  The closer we think we are
Well, it only got us apart
Have you got anything left to show?
No no I didn't think so
Hey! The sooner we realize
We cover ourselves in lies
But underneath we're not so tough
Oh, love is not enough.

Love it.

Back to the here and now:  I've got an appointment with the oral surgeon today for a "check-up" on the tooth extraction.  I haven't had any complications (at least, not as far as I know) so I expect that will go quickly.  I'm scheduled to see the extended version of Avatar 3D with friends.  I need to pack.  I've got some errands to run.  I'd like to spend an hour at the fitness center.  I'm meeting someone for lunch.  I've got a laundry list of other things that need to get done....it looks to be a busy day.  So, I better get at it.