Last Month
Decembers tend to be my worst month of the year because a particular series of events happen and a certain set of memories come back each year. However, some amazing things have also developed this month, and so it deserves to be talked about.
Work Interviews
There’s not much to say about work anymore, so I’m changing this section to Interviews. I decided that I’ll be public about my job search, but won’t mention the companies I talk to until after I’m hired.
- I continue to get some great interviews. I had an on-site in Portland and in Seattle. Both wanted to be the same week (right after Thanksgiving) and after scheduling both, I realized flying to the city and back home only to try to fly back out was pretty ridiculous. But also it would have worked out that I would have had to change planes in the middle of the air. So I changed it to make it one giant trip. KC->Portland->Seattle->KC. (Or, including layovers, KC->Denver->Portland->San Jose->Seattle->Salt Lake City->KC.) But it was good. But didn’t get either job (though the Portland one I was really close on, and would work there in a heartbeat if they asked me again).
- I am schedule to go to an on-site in the Bay Area again. I sure do like it there, so I’m excited to go back.
- I have been in talks with a company in Pittsburgh, and though details are still pending, it’s looking like they want to bring me on site too.
- I have started talking to about 3 other companies and working with finding positions and scheduling interviews with them.
Life
- As I mentioned above, Decembers are a rough month. There’s a huge list of reasons, but some of the hardest involve memories of depression, feeling like each year I got older and had nothing accomplished with my life (though it’s a bit better now), and death of a friend and death of my “adopted mom’s” son many years ago. But I want to reclaim the month for good. I had this silly idea last year of wanting to have people mail me postcards, and decided to try it this year. I bought a PO Box for 3 months (the minimum you can get) and then… just published it on the internet. (I know, who does that?) And I was pleasantly surprised to get over 50 cards from all over the US and world! I was expecting mostly touristy cards, like pictures of the city people live in, but I was also pleasantly surprised at people’s creativity! I got some amazing postcards that made me smile, and they came at a good rate over the course of the whole month. It surprisingly worked amazingly well! I think I might a blog post more about my experiences with that.
- While I went to Portland and Seattle for on-site job interviews, I did stay extra days to hang out with some great friends and play tourist. I had been to Portland the previous year for AlterConf Portland 2016, but Seattle was a first. In Portland, I got to reconnect with Sage (and meet their partner Jamey), Audrey, Erin, Liss, and Jay, and then meet Twitter/Slack friends Jamie, Jesse, Rachael, Alex, and Kara. In Seattle, I got to meet Slack friends Heather and AJ, Twitter friend Erica, and ran around and saw the touristy things. (The Space Needle is so cool!)
- I got to sing in my second concert, The Curve of Time, with the Kansas City Women’s Chorus. It was so fun and great to be around 80+ amazing women and be a part of something beautiful. We got to sing fun songs, thoughtful songs, powerful songs, and just plain beautiful songs. It’s also the first time I felt I finally had made some good friends in the group. When I started rehearsals for this in September, there were notes both higher and lower than my singing range, and by concert time I had managed to hit them. I also found I had to build more confidence singing independent of music or others around me as there were parts where I couldn’t hear other alto 2 people around me. Kinda scary for me, but I did it! (Check out one of our songs, and this great review!)
- I posted a Twitter thread on how I worry about not feeling technical enough, especially lately given that I don’t really have much of a technical muse or much energy to trying to work on side projects, and chatting about day job-type work isn’t really anything worth talking about.
Speaking/Talks
Invited
- I mentioned last time being invited to Deliver:Agile 2018. I decided on a topic and the organizers like it. Hopefully it will go on the website soon.
- I was invited to speak at DevFestMN, and am working with the organizers on selecting a topic.
- I was invited to be the guest speaker for Techtonica‘s Apprenticeship Launch Celebration. I was asked to give an inspirational speech to the women and non-binary people going into the first code school session.
Podcasts
- I was on Hallway Chat‘s last episode of 2017, episode #29, and I chatted with hosts Liam and Tara about all sorts of different things. It was a great chat, and they must have loved having me because they tweeted “End your year on a high note: meet someone worth knowing.”
Published
- Last Month (or Three) (11/7/2017)
- The Three Questions I’m Asking at Every Interview (11/20/2017)
Entertainment
- I finished Angel! Finally got through all 12 seasons of the whole Buffy-Angel collection. Though I have to say… WHAT WAS THAT ENDING!?!? Come on, that was a terrible ending for the show.
- I wanted something light-hearted for the remainder of December, so I decided I never finished Community and I needed to. I started over from the beginning, and just started season 3 today (as of this writing).
- I saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi in theaters. And spoiler alert: you see who the last Jedi is. But really I liked it. Would recommend.
- I saw The Disaster Artist also. It was also great. I didn’t know about The Room (the movie this movie is about) or anything about the people that made it. I had heard this movie was funny but “funny” is a vast understatement. This movie is hilarious and ridiculous and I definitely had to cringe at some of the awkward situations.
- I also saw Pitch Perfect 3. If you liked the first two (like I did), you’ll like the third. I think it pulled a few heartstrings as well because of my involvement with the women’s chorus, but also lots of talk in the movie about their futures and starting new chapters of their life, and I definitely felt those feels as well. I liked this movie as well.
Stay tuned for my year in review post and looking at next year. Until then…
~ Sarah