second life

Unsuccessfully tried to lighten a very expensive cream-colored slow fashion shirt to white, because I just don't look good in cream. Then threw caution to the wind, and used shibori dyeing techniques, and it turned into a fun shirt that I'll actually wear!

got my back

When your CEO trusts your judgment on some pretty big stuff, then offhandedly mentions a bunch of things he's doing to make your life better because he wants you to stick around.

slow loris

Surprise visitors at work yesterday included a lemur, a kinkajou, an alligator, a great horned owl, an eagle, and this slow loris. Also had lots of human visitors, including three former officemates and one other coworker from my Google days (one was Boyfriend), one bearing a haul of gummies from Switzerland. Stayed until 9:30 for social reasons rather than work reasons for the first time in months. Much needed after a roller coaster week.

hamilton

Finally got to see it a couple weeks ago with my sister and brother in law, and it was fascinating and lingers in the mind. I'm not a history junkie, nor am I a big hip hop fan, but it was pretty brilliant and both of our time and of his time.

vicarious joy

My mentee got into college! With a full ride! As an international student! She's amazing, and I got to be a little part of it! I can't wait to see her reaction and to meet her and be her family while she's here!

decisions

Fourth day of work, first product meeting, and the CEO let me make a design decision, because I was the newest. Designer even said my feedback and questions were useful. Good thing it was yesterday, because as of today, I'm only the third newest.

friends and family

Working in tech, I'm used to getting to test new apps and phones and things. My cousin works for Tempur-Pedic/Sealy, and now I get to test a mattress!! This is kind of awesome, because I've said in the past that one of my dream jobs that doesn't exist would be to test and review mattresses (or books or food or diving or travel -- basically, anything involving reading, eating, sleeping, or going on vacation). I'm not getting paid, but hey, I still get to test a mattress!

my army

Yesterday was a big day for me, and I slept really badly all week thinking about it. I put out a plea for good luck on FB, and so many friends sent so many good thoughts. It's sometimes hard to have friends scattered so far and wide, but it makes me feel warm and fuzzy to imagine all these little points of love and hope sprinkled around the world.

The day went well. I have no idea what's going to happen next (all of the possible outcomes are a bit scary and uncertain), and it's a waiting game now, but having finally gotten through the day, I was able to finally get a real sleep in last night.

So I am better-rested and hanging on to hope from around the world.

namibia in depth

Two weeks of pure awesomeness on what Boyfriend has declared to be the best trip we've ever taken!

• Windhoek
• showing up and finding a firepit in the room
• Okonjima:
• eating granola with yogurt and fruit every morning, and bacon (I don’t usually eat a real breakfast, but I also don’t usually get up at 5 every morning)
• discovering the joys of having hot water bottles in the bed at night, and a fire in the fireplace
• watching a baby leopard play while its mother ate a warthog on our first drive
• taking an extra day so that we could go on a second leopard drive and a second cheetah drive
• going into safari trances on the road and getting a lot of thinking done, and having some good realizations
• and some smaller realizations, such as how much I really like to pee on dives and game drives
• giving up on FitBit, because it registers too many fake steps on bumpy roads
• not being online
• Ongava
• watching the sun set and the moon rise at the same time
• seeing mother and 3-4 week old baby rhino at watering hole on first sundown drive
• taking a hot shower (super-hot, heated by a wood stove) in a cold tent after a dusty day never gets old
• watching a huge orange full moon rising
• seeing a herd of elephants with two babies at the Okonkuejo watering hole in Etosha, drinking, bathing, playing, and taking a dust bath
• watching rhinos and elephants at the watering hole during second dinner
• seeing a mother rhino and her older baby on our last morning drive, and walking near them
• squeezing extra life out of my camera battery when it tried to give up a few times near the rhinos
• Onguma
• getting in before sunset and not having anything to do the rest of the night
• staying in a warm room and a fancy lodge is so great after a cold tent with a basic lodge -- so glad this was after Ongava so we could really wallow and appreciate it with no pressure to go do things
• seeing the Milky Way from our house
• listening to roaring lions the first night
• going into Etosha and feeling no pressure, since we'd already seen everything we'd really wanted to see, so everything else was just a bonus
• getting back from Etosha by noon and having the rest of the day free to relax, read, write, and think
• taking a 2.5 hour nap on a sunny bed after a week of waking up before 6 a.m., and on this particular day, waking up at 6, going on a walk for an hour and a half, then having breakfast, then getting back in bed before 11 a.m. to have a dream within a dream within a dream in a sleep that felt like I was in an underwater cocoon
• coming across a fat, sleepy male lion on night drive
• having a super helpful manager who fixed our wheel well and got our car washed
• starting to figure out manual camera settings for sunrise, sunset, stars
• eating the best food of the trip (the food was good in general, but particularly good here, and we discovered that all those antelopes are delicious -- oryx and springbok are good, but kudu is the best)
• Windhoek
• after seeing the room they were going to give us, asking for our first room back and getting it
• Sossusvlei
• having the front seat in the plane
• making it up the biggest dune (Big Daddy) after much huffing and puffing
• gliding back down the steep face of the dune after some doubt, making the sand sing like a cello and then like a tuba or trombone
• spending another morning at the dunes -- two fun descents, and a long photo session at Deadvlei
• going horseback riding into the sunset, which was startling when we were galloping but exhilarating
• getting two massages, one of them outside!
• getting a late afternoon flight out of Kulala so we could chill for the day
• spending the last night under the stars
• sitting in the cockpit again, just by asking

And generally:

• I don’t usually keep this kind of schedule when left to my own devices, but it was amazing to see sunrise, sunset, and stars every day, especially when there was so much sky.
• I realized that one of the amazing things about dive trips or safaris is that you just show up, and then you can turn your brain off, because there is no planning to do and no decisions to make. They tell you when to wake up, when to eat, where to go, what to see, and you can just enjoy yourself without worrying over whether you’re doing the right thing at the right time to get the most out of the day.

april fool's

My product team did a clever prank today that was simple and fun (com.google was a flipped version of google.com), and even gave me credit for making them think of doing one in the first place.

closeup

Went in for a company-funded photo shoot today to get a headshot for a conference. There was a makeup artist, and the photographer did silly photos, too, so I have lots of good pictures for serious and silly uses.

eating the dogfood

I'll never get tired of the free gadgets at work, which we use in order to "eat our own dogfood" and improve the products. New tablet shows up at my desk today; I have no idea why I was chosen, but I will gladly use it.

the other morning

The other morning, I woke up about two hours before I was supposed to get up, fell back asleep, had a long dream, then woke up convinced that I would have to get up. When I checked the clock, only 20 minutes had passed. This happened a few times in a row, so it almost felt like I'd slept several more hours.

happy new year

Happy, indeed. The last couple weeks had lots of frabjousness:

• A last-minute failed test and successful resuscitation of a cranky old underwater camera strobe, just in time to take it on the trip
• A three-star meal at Sushi Mizutani in Tokyo: uni that made us forget why we don't usually like uni, needlefish, otoro to make your mouth weep
• Another three-star meal at Ryu Gin, also in Tokyo: resident owls in the waiting room, an introduction to cod milt, perfectly cooked mackerel that tasted nothing like mackerel, a tangerine dessert that was the love-child of pop rocks, sherbet, and pie
• Two nights at the Four Seasons in Tokyo, which may be the best hotel ever (lovely rooms, excellent staff, and they even bring you and your 150+ pounds of dive gear and luggage to the train platform)
• Baffling but funny ads on the train
• Two nights at the Ritz, where we could watch the sun set behind Mount Fuji
• Reunion meals with my host sister from Japan, a law school friend, and a friend from my Zurich days
• Hot ginger ale in a can from a vending machine, both strange and delicious
• A reprieve from winter, complete with swimsuits, flip flops, and sunscreen
• 20 dives in Palau, where we reveled in being in the water again (has it really been over two years?), saw mantas on our first dive, lost count of the sharks, and saw the strangest crabs on our night dive
• Stars in the sky, phosphorescent plankton in the water
• A hilarious Christmas Eve with the other guests, including attempts to translate joked from English to Chinese to Japanese and back, an impromptu sumo contest, and experimental drinks made with sriracha
• One of the oddest people we've ever met, and will remember forever through a series of catchphrases
• Not a single episode of puking, despite taking minimal Dramamine and going on the boat every day
• Zero email access for over ten days
• Island puppies who loved to lick the salt water from our dive gear
• Lots of reading (twelve books in eighteen days), bringing my year-end tally to 114
• Upon returning, a dog completely overwhelmed with joy and excitement, and parents who have decided that they love this new dog
• A couple of light work days, to ease back into the idea without too much strain, then a weekend to forget about it again

fixit

I fixed the flash for my underwater camera housing all by myself, with a toothbrush and some vinegar. And some advice from an engineer.

so special

I feel so special. I got a preview copy of Daniel Suarez's next book in the mail, it's coming out in February! Hoping to bring him back to Google to give another talk, he's a really good guy who writes bestselling techno thrillers.

seen today

You know what's cool? Hummingbirds.

first shipment received

First installment of my birthday present to Boyfriend received, and everything about it, down to the packaging, is awesome. Can't wait for the next batch to arrive.

ready for review

1,780 old photos, scanned from negatives, ready for review!

working phone

Exciting feature that we've never seen in a house before: has T-Mobile reception!