A Good Weekend for Me/Not for the Hubby

Saturday: I went up to the Russian River with the younger Flosses where we played a fun game of golf, never mind the fact that two of us are really bad golfers. The weather was perfect, the course was surrounded by huge Sequioas, I never lost my ball, (which is quite easy if you really don’t hit it very far to begin with), and we enjoyed a cocktail on the 5th Hole. That night we had a BBQ back at the Cabin and relaxed on deck while hitting a volleyball back and forth as we tried not to send it flying over the deck into the poison oak below. Later that evening Krin introduced me to a new game called SayGo! which is somewhat similar to scrabble, only much faster, and not for points. For those of you who have played with competitive Krin before, I suggest you play a game with her where she has lost the directions. It really takes the competitive edge out of a game if you don’t know how to score it – and yet, it’s still fun!

Mr. Mingle on the other hand was left at home because he had to work, and then he went to a movie and a dinner that evening.

Sunday: Woke up relatively early to go boating at Lake Berryessa. I have never seen a lake so crowded or so choppy, but we still had a great time boating around. The weather was a little chilly, but if we were stopped it was warm enough in the sunshine to lay out and get a little tan. (Or a little splotchy in my case since I didn’t apply the sunblock evenly). The Big Floss went for a short wakeboard when we found a patch of semi-smooth water, but it didn’t last too long once the waves started up again. We amused ourselves by watching Krin and Zach swim the new dog – mini dachshund, Roxy – ashore so she could take a dump. (Roxy, not Krin) And cheered loudly when the mission was successful. (It’s the little things in life that make us happy). Later in the day we boated over to a bridge where there were tons of boats hanging out. It looked like Spring Break at Lake Havasu. If any of you are not familiar with “lake people”, they are a very, very special breed. As Big Floss said, we could have stayed and people-watched all day long. One boat in particular stuck out because the boat was called “Pimp Nasty”, and a bunch of skinheads were yelling out “White Power” and “Hey Mother$#%@” every time they passed. We stayed long enough to see what was going on, to see that it wasn’t our type of crowd, and then boated back to the ramp to go home for the day.

Mr. Mingle on the other hand was at home working again, and also feeling sick. He drove up to meet us at the Russian River cabin Sunday night but by the time he got there was so sick with food poisoning that it wasn’t a fun visit for him.

Monday: Mr. Mingle and I had originally planned to go to a winery and then stop by my dad’s for lunch. Then, we were going to go shopping after that. However, since he was still feeling really sick, we skipped the winery, stopped by my dad’s quickly to pick up some things and then went straight home. Both of us ended up taking a nap, but I woke up about 3 hours earlier then he did and decided that I needed to go shopping. We are going on vacation in a few weeks and I need some new summer clothes – you know how it is. I went to a mall nearby in Emeryville and, after a gluttonous dessert treat, decided to check out the GAP. It was one of those rare days where everything that was on sale, actually fit! I ended up leaving there with two big bags of clothes (for both Mr. Mingle and I) and went home happy.

All in all, I had a really great weekend – I just wish that Mr. Mingle could have enjoyed it too.

A Poem About Yesterday

As I sit here at this hotel on Fisherman's Wharf

it is a beautiful day.

Outside.

Inside, there are no windows, just long tables and chairs.

One man speaks for hours about something I do not know.

They let us out for lunch which is nice.

Good food, sat in the sun.

But then they said, "Come back in now."

There was no caffeine to keep me awake, only water,

and the bathroom is hard to get to.

I wait for a break

and write a poem called

Mingle at the Argonaut.

This was just one of many things I amused myself with as I attended a seminar in the city about something that meant nothing to me. It was all about upgrading some application that I don't use to begin with. If I found myself dozing I would concentrate for 5 minutes at a time and write down every random quote that I could. I'll share some with you so you can share in my 'fun' of yesterday...

"eurobucket"
"A concept that we call existing on or after"
"If I double-click into Avon, I have the Johnson family and the Smith family"
"Drill into the concentration percentage"
"Basically the answer is no."
"As you know, I don't have to click refresh everytime, because you can set it to refresh at any interval you choose, but I'm going to push it."
"What does test class really mean?"
"I don't have nearly enough time to walk through the enhancements or ease of use items in the new version." (And yet he was still able to talk for hours)

Sigh....I'm happy the weekend is here.

Interview

I decided to apply for the position of Director of my old department and had an interview for this on Wednesday. I thought that I might have a good chance at this position considering I actually trained the guy who previously filled it. I thought that I could walk in to the interviews with confidence and “talk the talk”. On Tuesday I met with a friend of mine in HR who proceeded to tell me “they are considering a stronger candidate, but it might be good for you to meet with the CIO anyway, so she can hear what you have to say.” What an intro.

I met with two people the next day – the CIO for an hour in person and then her counterpart for another half hour over the phone. Mind you, I used to work with these people and know their um...habits…they are very demanding. Still though, I went to the interview with as much confidence that I could muster. That’s when they pulled out the business jargon dictionary… “What value proposition can you bring to the table?” “What advice/ideas would you provide to help us build a stronger labor model?” “Tell me an example when you have worked with a matrix management situation…” and so on… (Fortunately, I had looked up “matrix management” on google right before the interview and got that one.) For the other questions, I would put into it into context with the rest of the conversation and just hope I was going down the right track with my answer. She then asked me, “How is your success measured in your current role”, to which I instantly replied, “That’s a really good question, I have no idea.” I could tell this shocked her – ‘you should know that’, she replied. I wanted to say, I KNOW – THIS IS WHY I’M APPLYING FOR A DIFFERENT JOB. But I didn’t, and then she proceeded to ask how I thought my success should be measured in the position I was applying for. To which I made up a long winded answer, which could be summarized by the first sentence that went something like, “I would guess my success would be measured on whether or not I do a good job, and accomplish everything you need.” At the end of the day why can’t we just ask our bosses, “Are you happy with the work I’m doing?” Yes or No. But I digress…


At the end of the interview she also echoed the HR lady with the news of “we have one strong candidate we are considering” thereby implying it was not me. Seriously though, if that interview is an inkling of what I would encounter on the job – then maybe it’s for the best. And to end on a lighter note – my proudest moment of recovery was when I almost fell forward out of the chair, caught myself, continued talking and didn’t bat an eye. She on the other hand said, “oh my!” If anything, they should really hire me for my comic relief.