New Job, New Coast!

Yes, the news is in the title. I was offered a new job and now I've moved back to the west coast!!
A few quick bits before I go into detail

It's with a startup: HotelTonight
I'm working in Partner Development as a Sales Coordinator
It's in San Francisco
I spent last week driving across the country...

And now I am so incredibly happy!

So, a little background on where this all came from...

As time was progressing, I considered my opportunity with NCCER, and the reality came to me that while I am passionate about an educated craft workforce, I am not passionate enough about the construction industry to make it my career and my life.

An avid reader of start-up and technology news, one day I came across an article "Top Startups to watch out for of 2011" and among the companies listed I saw HotelTonight. Giddy, I looked into the company, downloaded the iPhone app and because I loved the philosophy and work the company was setting out to do (encourage spontaneous travel, awesome) I looked into job opportunities.

With an application letter like none I've written before and a resume that boasted the color green and varying gray font, I sent in my somewhat spontaneous and fun application with hope for an opportunity.  And behold, a week later I had a phone interview with a Berkeley grad who finished her undergrad degree the same year I did. After a fun conversation, the invite to a San Francisco interview was secured!

The interview was 2 hours of fun, and a few weeks later I was offered a position.  It turned out that while the original job I applied for wasn't the best fit, they had been thinking of another position that wasn't yet created, and after meeting me they decided that I would be an ideal candidate to be the first one to figure it out!

So, with an offer in San Francisco, I of course moved as soon as possible. My dream job after college was to be with a startup, developing and creating something new, in San Francisco. While I didn't make it right after graduation, Florida was a great stepping stone that got me to where I ultimately want to be.

Day one working and living in the city is now complete and I couldn't be happier!

 

I can still Adventure!

I was afraid for a little while that getting a 'real job' would place some severe limitations on my rather adventurous spirit.  And while 8:30-5:30, monday-friday does definitely put a damper on the randomness, I've still managed to get out and about to adventures a decent bit in the last few months.

(By the way, sorry for the long gap in coverage, though I'm keeping up the adventures, sometimes the mundanity of work, yoga, bar, yoga, work doesn't quite inspire the blogger in me)

And on that note, WOW, June was the last update!

Front of the Vizcaya villa

"Sunken ship" aka cement party boat in the ocean at Vizkaya

Well, since then I had a very lovely visitor come to Gainesville for an exquisite week of hiking and beach going and museum viewing. Afterward, I decided I needed an adventure and on a whim I left one Friday to spend a weekend with Steph Paula in Miami. What a kick that was! Steph was a wonderful host, taking me out to some local Miami night spots and some beautiful and historic sites during the day. We visited Vizcaya , a decadent Italian-renaissance style villa that is now a National Historic Landmark. The villa had some of the most incredible and intricate wood and plaster work that I've ever seen, accompanied by beautiful tapestries and carpets and paintings and decorative items. It was a gorgeous house furnished with a collection of items that span the history of the world. It was just superb.  We did manage a bit of time in famous South Beach with a few of Steph's friends, spending time on the jetti and then enjoying strong mixed drinks at a purportedly required South Beach bar.

The next weekend (or was it the one after). Anyway, for Labor day weekend I adventured to a small town outside of Baton Rouge Louisiana, Zachry, where it just so happens that almost all of my father's side of the family lives. This is family that I haven't seen nor been in touch with since I attended an aunts wedding in 1996 (PS my father hasn't been in my life since about that same time, a story for another time).

Only recently I became re-acquainted with my uncle Jimmy Jr., who had mysteriously added me on Facebook just before I moved to Florida (as my mom can attest, I wasn't totally sure how exactly I was related to him at first, but "he's your dad's brother" simplifies it).  Once I moved here to Florida, I got up the guts to actually engage with him and from there a great friendship has blossomed!  After much discussion and one random trip he made to Gainesville for work (where I got to take him to one of my favorite restaurants), we had all decided that Labor Day weekend would be the perfect opportunity to convene and connect.
And so I spent a wonderful weekend meeting new cousins (none were born last I had known anyone) and getting to know my uncle Jimmy, his wonderful wife, and some more of the Moffett family, and eating lots of yummy food you can only find in the south!  I even got to see my gigantic little brother Ben!

Turns out that my cousins are a wild bunch that never sleep! Ben and I (Ben more than I) stayed up with them until nearly 4 am a few nights that we were there!  We, of course, went to the local graveyard to look for ghosts at 2am one night. Jenny and I did manicures and pedicures (pink and white with inverse polka dots) and curled each others hair (I haven't had my hair in ringlets for quite some time)!  And with the grown ups I got to hear stories about my dad growing up, he and my mom when they first married. It was a great historical family gathering while getting to know the more recently added family. I wish I could explain how wonderful they all are!

I also got to catch up on a lot of family history (drama! kidding! (sort of)) that I had otherwise not been exposed to. My mom had told me a lot about my paternal family history, but in talking with them my knowledge expanded a great bit more. What it really comes down to is that this side of my family is the quintessential example of deep southern kindness and charm. Their slow southern drawls and incredible generosity and openness made me feel right at home-just like I was amongst family I had been visiting with every Sunday for my whole life!

Overall, visiting this new found family was an excellent experience. I've always been fortunate to be super close to everyone on my mom's side and I feel extremely lucky that my family just doubled in size and awesomeness! I'm one lucky girl.

Now it's back to life in Gainesville...I wonder what adventures await me next!

Office Supply in My Dreams

#4

Old office supply store...(ew

It’s that time of the month again, time to restock on office supplies and replace any equipment that may be working just exactly wrong.  Don’t get disappointed, this is great news! You get to go experience Inkwell, the office supply store!

Grab your keys and a friend or two, smart phones in tact, and drive on over.  Don’t worry about coffee, they have that and more at the store.  Ensure that you’ve let the team know you’ll be gone for a while, the office store isn’t just about buying supplies, it’s about getting inspired in the process.   

Welcome to InkWell.

You pull up and the parking sign reminds you to bring your phones and leave all else behind.  Open the doors and you are sucked into a vibrantly colored store, clean and organized, with every person engaged in conversation or groups taking notes as they watch a speaker discuss the latest new employee engagement practices.  The entire place is abuzz with conversation and upon closer listening most of them center around the great new chairs they are about to buy, or getting suggestions on how the office they composed virtually would feel and work in real life. 

   

You’re in the Ikea of office supplies (but less of a gigantic warehouse and more like a few compartmentalized office examples organized by general stylistic category) where people are interacting with each other anywhere you look. Picture an office suited for the eco friendly (recycled everything and no printers/paper waste allowed and a local free-trade coffee bean vending machine in the entry, reusable mugs only) or one for the super high tech (gadget plug in hubs everywhere and extreme simplicity in décor).  You and your team meander your way through each space looking at its gadgets, trying out the furniture, or listening to a brief inspirational talk that is projected onto the walls.  

Take your time walking through the different ‘office ecosystems’ and if you see a file cabinet or a leadership poster you like, pull out your handy smartphone and scan the QR code (we’ll get into this part later).  Stop at an office break room and lounge with others who are discussing project management budgeting to get ideas about how to empower employee accountability with company budget responsibilities. Keep walking through the different office spaces, equipped fully with paper supplies and coat hangers and anytime you see something you like just scan away (people not included).  

As you finish experiencing office spaces, you’ll end in an open shared lounge room and an ultra comfortable array of chairs and desks, organized by similarity of course.  On one wall, you’ll see TED talks and excellent keynote speeches, and you’ll be encouraged to Bump your chosen selections to a computer projector, where the InkWell phone app will begin to assemble your selections into a coherent office scene. With this, you can pick and choose the furniture and decorations that you enjoyed (and scanned the QR code of) and arrange them with a drag of the finger to compare styles and see how things fit together in your virtual office.  If you’d like, upload a picture of your current office space (a 3-D model with true-to-scale dimensions, of course, shot beforehand with the phone app) and place the new supplies into your current atmosphere to see how they fit in.

 

If you want to get the input of the team back in the office, just choose to share the office space you’ve created and post the options via a survey using any of the social media tools you’d like. Have your coworkers rate the selections they like best and go from there. Or, be a dictator and just go with what you want.  The office is a place you create and exist within, not just a place you have to go five+ days a week.

InkWell is about creating an office ecosystem that fits your business culture; it’s about providing employees with the tools, both physical and cognitive, that will help them to excel in what they do.  It’s a place that encourages creative business practices and is full of people who do what you do, so share with them and engage in the community. If work is your life, getting prepared for it should be enjoyable!


*Web Content Warning: Inkwell is a fictional business made in the imagination of @stephusry. The nature of this post is exploratory. No armadillos were harmed in the production of this post...

June for Skills

It looks like monthly updates are the new trend with me. I do have a great excuse though…I have yet to purchase internet at my apartment, so I don’t have access to internet when I’m most likely to update my blog and second, now that I’ve switched to the IPhone (yes, I’ve moved on from the dear BlackBerry) it’s much, much harder to type out long messages (I so miss the BlackBerry keyboard!). And you know what, even know, in a little café called Maude’s in downtown Gainesville, I still can’t get the interenet to work for more than a spurt of 10 minutes. Maybe it’s just me…

But on the update note, life during the month of June was busy! (I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures, the internet is being a pain as usual)

I traveled to Tampa, Florida to watch the US Men’s National Soccer Team play (and lose) against Panama in the Gold Cup, I’ve taken my new car in to a few auto body shops to have some repairs looked at (my car was sideswiped in a parking spot downtown one Friday night, it looks like the person dragged their car along the entire side of mine before realizing they hit anything) so I’m going through the process of dealing with my very first insurance claim on my own, and at the end of the month I flew to Kansas City for my favorite week of the year, the week which holds the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference.

Leading up to Skills was quite an experience for me as my company is the industry sponsor of the Carpentry competition at the event. This means we organize all the judges, technical committee members, and the competition itself for the 78 high school and college students that won at the state level and arrive to compete.  This was a side to SkillsUSA that I had never seen, because as a student attendee, competitor, and national officer, one has no clue as to the immense amount of work industry puts in to make the event happen. Throughout June I was part of conference calls and spent days ordering various supplies needed to make the event happen.

On top of hosting the competition, the board of trustees for my company also held their meeting during the conference, meaning that I got to help a little more with the planning and coordination of their schedule. Oh, and my main purpose once I was actually at the conference was as a volunteer for Skills, working with the wonderful VIP/Media team that I’ve now been with for the past 4 conferences!  That group, with our wonderful leadership from SkillsUSA, is composed of a few past national officers and we get to work with all of the government and industry VIP’s, as well as the media people, that attend the conference. It’s a great group.

Skills week is always something I take care to expand by going a little early or staying a little late. Though I was delayed about 7 hours on my way to Kansas City (so much for sailing that day) I was able to stay for a day after the conference, during which a group of us tried to sail, only to turn around immediately after we passed the breaker due to 4 foot swells that would likely have toppled us if we hadn't immediately turned around.  On Saturday night, courtesy of our friend Chad, a few of us went to watch the Sporting Kansas City soccer game, in conjunction with the US vs. Mexico final for the Gold Cup. While Sporting came out on top, the US had a pretty rough defeat at the hand of one of our biggest rivals. It was a high intensity game and we left to the cheers of the Mexico supporters at the end of the game. On Sunday I had the most simple flight to or from Gainesville that I've had yet, no delays and no interruptions, getting me back in town in time to relax before having friends over for the weekly front yard yoga session that I've started to teach.

So other than preparing for Skills, attending Skills, and then doing the wrap-up work post-Skills, June was otherwise a pretty normal month.  I did partake in a few more trips to the atlantic coast to go to the beach. And I over Memorial Day weekend I realized how insane the public beaches in Florida get during those holidays. To all my Californian’s out there, it’s worse in Florida, be thankful you’re on the west coast!

I’m feeling pretty well settled in Gainesville now, and only occasionally do I have to use the GPS on my phone to find places.  I’ve found a yoga studio to take classes at (that I also sometimes teach at as a substitute, which is great). The bad thing is that we’re into the really hot muggy months of Florida summer now. Air conditioning, which I had always considered an optional thing that was never really used, is now a necessity.  I am inside a lot here with work, but some afternoons just leaving I am amazed by the hot mugginess of it.

I hear it’s only this warm through August though, so while it is quite hot, it’s not a depressingly long period of excessive heat.

This month I get to really dive in to my ‘realm’ of projects at work, doing a lot of outreach to our youth programs and their affiliates. I’ll also be traveling to a conference in Nashville at the end of the month for a High Schools that Work Conference. I’m really excited as this is my first solo trip…wish me luck!

Now, this weekend is the 4^th. We took another big group trip to the beach on Saturday, and tonight one of our friends, who’s house we refer to as the “swinger pad” (it looks like a 1990’s pad, big open rooms, angled walls and ceiling, overall an awesome place) is hosting a 4^th of July barbecue which is sure to be fun.  I don’t know how they shoot off or see fireworks in this part of the world as the trees limit ones view of the sky, but I’m set on finding a nice place to watch some fireworks go off on Monday.

I hope everyone has a great long weekend and happy Independence Day!

Settling In

Oh my goodness it's been a while since I've last given an update via this lovely blogsite of mine. And to think of all that has occurred.

I guess the good news that comes with the fact that I haven't been writing is that I've made some really wonderful friends over the last month and the relationships have just blossomed into adventures!

It all started with a wonderful trip to Anastasia State Park on the Atlantic Coast. A group of nearly 20 of us carpooled there (about 1.5 hours) and after lugging a massive cooler about half of a mile to get to the perfect beach spot, we set up shop for a day of ocean wave wading, volleyball, sunshine and fun.  While I did receive a bit of a sun burn (the sun in Florida is like nothing I've ever experienced) the day was excellent.

I've also done some more Gainesville exploring. Trying not only the local Mexican place owned by the drummer from ___, but I got a gym membership (purely for yoga-class taking purposes), I've started to enjoy a few of the other local restaurants, and I've become very good friends with a checkout lady at the local grocery store Wards. 

My apartment is finally looking like a functional home. I now even have a very nice set of silverware courtesy of my mom :)  My paintings that were stored in San Diego have now arrived and I even have barstools at my kitchen counter. I'm all sorts of established in my little apartment now.

The long weekend was really excellent here. Not only did my new large group of friends have a great night out on Friday. We then took another day for the beach on Saturday, followed by an awesome and loud dinner that evening. The next day a few of us rose early to go to a local farm and pick peaches ($1.50 per pound) and we ended up with about $25 dollars worth of them between three of us (I have eaten So many peaches, and created so many random peach recipes in the last week it's quite silly).  Later we attended a big Brazilian barbecue hosted at a friends house that's referred to as the "swinger" pad due to it's 1990's sprawling yet geometric architecture.  That night concluded with an art sale at the house. Monday was the day of recovery and at the end of it I was fortunate to have a few friends come over to my place where I lead a sunset yoga session on the grass.  What a beautiful life!


As I said, Florida has more SUN than I've ever experienced. It's ALWAYS sunny. You may laugh and think how I lived in San Diego for all those years and how it must be sunny there. But it wasn't. San Diego gets the June gloom, the summer days always start off with the marine layer blocking out most sun. So while it's bright, it's not sunny.  Here in Florida the sun shines without fail ALL the time. Seriously, there's very rarely a cloud to block the sun, and when there is it's a massive torrential downpour, so you aren't outside anyway.  While it's been quite warm (upper 80's on average), I've still managed to only turn on my air conditioning on rare occasions, so I'm proud to be doing my best to conserve there (though the car is another story)

Work has been challenging of late, but I'm really starting to feel more comfortable in my role and with the company (I think I actually understand most of what we do now) so I'm really jumping into some projects now. As was determined, I get to focus on the youth initiatives, so I've been working hard to help the team develop and plan for the SkillsUSA National Carpentry competition, which our company hosts. I'm a double duty attendee of the conference this year, working both my normal job with the confrence VIP's and media but also helping my company with its hosting of the competition. It should be a great new way to experience the conference and I'm learning a whole new aspect of what it takes to run the national conference. An excellent learning experience all around.

With so much time to cover I could go on, but I think I've covered the most recent highlights. All in all, things are wonderful, people are excellent, and while I miss my friends from all the other places in the world, I think I'll be happy calling this little tree town of Gainesville my home for a few years :)

12 Hours on the Water-A Sailing Race Adventure

It was a busy week at work last week. We're in the final stages of creating a 'relationship management' database through which we can begin to track and be accountable for, well, the relationships that we form and develop as a  Workforce Development Team. So I was very much looking foward to a lazy weekend of cleaning up the house and reading some classics through iBooks on my brand new IPhone (yes I finally made the switch from the old Blackberry, and while I miss my keyboard, the accessibility of applications via the IPhone are much worth it)

So there I was having a nice evening in on Friday evening. I cooked up a stirfy ensemble of fresh green beans, yellow squash, corn, celery, green bell peppers (my coworkers and I all pitched in for a weekly box of vegetables from local farms, very cool, check it out at http://homegrowngainesville.wordpress.com) and was watching the latest Harry Potter film when I got a call from a recent acquaintance that I had made through the Gainesville Power and Sail Squadron (a group here in Gainesville that hosts events and educational opportunities for people with boat). He happened to be entered in a "Mug Race" (http://www.rudderclub.com/mug.html), which also happens to be "the longest sailboat river race in the country". At a wopping 38.5 nautical miles, he informed me that there were many years that, due to lack of wind, no one would finish the entire race. And most years, it would take people nearly 12 hours to finish.  So, did I want to come along and crew his Sirius 21 foot sailboat with him?

With an opportunity like that, of course I said yes! So I planned to rise at 5:30 the next morning and hit the road to Palatka (about an hour away) where I'd meet him at a marina and jump on the boat to start the race at 7:30. 

Sunrise on the drive west to the St.

His boat is a definite fixer-upper. The two days prior, he had sailed the race course going the opposite direction and had found he had some problems taking on water. So we had some bailing out to plan to do if things got too windy. Other than that he explained that she sailed fine and that the jib (little front sail) was mine to man.

At 7:30 we were off, and after some initial complications with some of the rigging not being up correctly, we were on our way.  Partway through the course, Bill (the man I was sailing with) decided to go wide through one of the bends in the river and then cut across the top section. As crew I just followed along, but in my head, I knew that even if the wind was excellent we'd be putting ourselves way off course and likely fall behind anyway.  Well, it turned out the wind wasn't good like he had projected, putting us about 45 minutes behind the other boats. On a 12 hour course, that's understandable, but it still didn't feel good.

Notice how flat the water is-sailing on glass! Not a good thing!

And then...the wind died. We were sailing on glass, which essentially meant we were not sailing at all but sitting on the water and waiting.  Here and there for the next 4 hours we had some good runs with wind. But when we arrived at a long stretch that we expected to be blowing with wind it was totally dead.  Bill called a friend who was on land and asked him what kind of time we were making (if there was any way we'd make it by the 8:30pm race end time).



After some calculations, he reported that at the rate we were going, we'd make it to the finish in approximately 38 hours.

Ouch. So, with neither of us having a true agenda to be competitive in the race, we decided to sail a bit longer, and then motor on back to our start marina and then take my car to Jacksonville (30 minutes by road) and celebrate with those who had finished (not that we were expecting there to be many people).  After a free spaghetti dinner and some beer, 8pm rolled around and the first boats started to come in (remember, that's after over 12 hours on the water). The only people that ended up finishing the race by the cutoff were about 10 catamarans (who are always faster than monohaul boats) and the other 180+ boats were at various intervals along the river.

To say the race were a success would be false, but even without success I had a wonderful time and made a few new friends (and boy am I tan!)

I'm so happy to be involved in sailing here in Florida. It's definitely one community that I'll continue to be a part of throughout my time here. :)

A little bit of an update

I find myself in a bit of a funny position because in many ways I don't feel like I've been up to a whole lot since I've arrived here in Gainesiville and started working. But then again, I've been doing so so very much!

Every day after work I find myself running errands to various hardware, home and grocery stores to pick up little things that will make life a little bit easier. (A spatula being the most recent necessary acquisition). Nearly every day after work I'm off running errands or picking things up until nearly 7pm before I come home to cook myself a nice meal (in my one skillet or single sauce pan). I will say that as far as the techniques of cooking, having few tools to work with sure makes one become creative (think cutting up a pineapple with a butter knife and pair of scissors).  I've started to do the actual sewing on the few fabric projects that I purchased materials for, and while the 1960's sewing machine that I bought for $20 on Craigslist is winning against me in my struggles to make it work, I've gotten a bit better at hand stitching and have already completed a curtain and finished a few small pillows.

Really, everything so far has been a fun challenge in seeing how I could make do without the tools I'm used to using to complete the projects and daily operations that I'm accustomed to doing. I still need to buy some hangers and a small dresser, but in the meantime have found the boxes that some of my belongings were shipped in to be excellent substitute drawers and sometimes tables. It's really a story of making due with what I have.

You may be curious why I haven't just gone and bought all of these basic 'necessities'. Well, for start, I'm trying to be a responsible budgeter. But on top of that, Gainesville stores just do not have the quality or diversity of things that I would choose to purchase for my home! It's fascinating to me the amount of effort it took me just to find a pair of sheets that I really wanted! Now, maybe I'm a little bit picky, but never before have I had such a hard time finding things I like. And to top both of these things off, I find that I still have a large aversion to owning 'stuff'. It's somewhat funny, but I'm still having a hard time unpacking the last of my things from the suitcases that I've lived out of for the past year. I'm now in a place where I can do some real-time getting-settled-in-one-place-for-a-while, but it freaks me out to think of a life so...stable! It may seem silly, but the last year that I spent living out of a backpack with few things really worked for me!

On another note, I've kept to beign myself and have been sure to have a few adventures since I've arrived here. My first weekend I drove from Gainesville to the Atlantic coast and drove down along the water with my coworker Miriam. Last weekend I traveled to the Florida Key, Marathon, to spend the long Easter weekend with my good San Diego friend Kat, and this weekend I adventured out to St. Augustine, the US's oldest city, to explore cobbled streets and visit old lighthouses.

Work is going well as I'm getting more used to the company and the ways that it works, I'm still learning and waiting to find where I fit into the whole organization, but I can only say good things about my coworkers, the company, and their reception of me so far. I'm a pretty lucky girl.

Soon I'll have some updates on my travels (the Florida Keys were Amazing!) and some more insider scoops on Gainesville (and the groups I'm getting involved with including the Power and Sail Squadron and Alachua County Emerging Leaders). Hopefully I'll be out on my road bike soon (it's arrived but I have to pump up the tires) and possibly I'll be visiting some 'long lost' family in Alabama in not too long!  Lots to look forward to!