All Moved In

Well, I suppose that even though we moved in to our new apartment, the title is actually misleading. While I was at work, Leo moved in 1-1/2 beds, a good portion of my clothes, and much of my kitchen "stuff". Last night we made some "adjustments" to our cable so that we could use the metallic outside of the cable connection as an antenna and watched the local news [the old fashioned way] on a 25" tv while sprawled out on the floor of a large, empty living room. We've opted not to hook up cable tv, chose a $5/month phone service, and a $14.95/month high speed internet service. I am almost ready to settle in for my 6-month assignment. The shower was hot, the a/c (after a bit of work) was cool, and the noise was not bad at all. I slept good in my new home-away-from-home. Now it's lunch time, and I am taking a bit of an extended lunch to find out about the neighborhood. Less than 5 miles away is a small, quaint library with the typical Harris County free wifi. Leo disappeared into the shelves as soon as we arrived. (Like me, he absolutely loves libraries.) I miss home already, and unlike Leo, who has decided that we are through with the "move", I am thinking about what pieces of furniture I want to bring up and who I can hire to move them. If I can settle in for the long-haul and shut down my road-warrior ways for a few months, I believe I can make some progress on projects at work and at school. I think it's going to be a good run. Well, I suppose I should find the hubby and grab a burger before heading back to work, but I'm thrilled to find out that in the middle of the day, when I sometimes have a difficult time getting work done at "the office", I have other options, like the library. Yes, for the moment anyway, we are all moved in.

Moving Back to Houston

I picked Leo up from the airport on Tuesday. His 10 days in New Mexico were fun, he said, but both of us agreed that it was just too many days apart. He had to stay with me in Houston (cheap hotel and a good book) while I worked, but we [finally] headed home this evening.

My hotel is one of the cheapest in Houston at $59.99 a night, and I really like it. However, Houston has the highest hotel tax rate in the country, 17%, which makes my stay $70 a night. Since I stay there three nights a week, a quick calculation determined that perhaps it was not the best thing to do. So...we went apartment hunting. My needs are simple, for this home-away-from-home. I just need a bed, a shower, an air conditioner, and an internet connection. We put down money on a place about 15 miles from where I'm working now, and about 1 mile from where I will work from September through December. The apartment is a decent size, decent price, and a prime location for people who like to eat and shop (hmm...one of those fits me). It is near the corner of 45S and the beltway, and I'm looking forward to getting settled in on Monday.

I keep thinking that "this time is the last time" every time I get a new place to live. Prior to this, it was a rent house in Galena Park. Before that, it was a very nice apartment inside the loop. Before that, a maid's quarters in University Place, and before that, a mobile home in Brazoria. In the last 6 years, I think I've lived in 8 different places. I think that makes me a gypsy!

Anyway, here we are again with an apartment in Houston, and a TON of work waiting on me. I'm doing fine, however, keeping up for the most part and hanging in there with schoolwork as well. I worry a bit about Leo, because he has to work so hard keeping me going. Someday I hope to get us in a position where he no longer has to be the driver and the laundry man, but for now, I depend on him for these services.

So, if you see me around Houston, be sure and say "hey". I'm hoping to make time for getting some old friendships back on track while I'm there (Debbie, Johnny and Martha, etc.), and making my customers happy at the same time.

Greetings to my Skype Friends

For those of you who don't know, Skype is a free program that allows for online chatting. Unlike other chat clients, however, Skype also allows for free computer-to-computer audio and/or video interaction. For example, our team regularly meets to "chat" (type in messages in a chat window) since there are 6 of us, with varying connection speeds and locations. We choose to use the "chatting" services when we want to moderate our conversation and want to have a written record of what we've talked about. When 3 or 4 of us meet, however, sometimes we use the audio conferencing feature. We can all talk so much faster than we can type, and the interactions in voice conversations are different. So sometimes one method serves us better than another.

Even though most of my Skype conversations are with this group, as our work load for school is often very intense and we are required to complete a number of group projects, there are others with whom I Skype. These are people who, looking for someone to chat with, just pick my name, and my short little profile, out of a list and ask if we can be "friends". I have to say that I get a lot of invitations [which is interesting in itself since I clearly point out my age in my profile] that I turn down, just from the fact that I don't have time for more. But, my little list is composed of the most interesting group that I just love to chat with on occasion.

1. Erol (Istanbul, Turkey) owns a tour bus. His English is definitely good enough that we rarely misunderstand each other, and he has shared some wonderful and beautiful photos from his country with me. He has a wonderful habit of speaking to me in endearing terms that many here is the states would find "uncomfortable" (he occasionally expresses his love and sends me kisses), but Leo and I both recognize them as phrases that indicate just how much he wants us to be friends, and knowing the context, I find them exotic and wonderful expressions of friendship.
2. Sami (Helsinki, Finland) is my most recent friend, as I couldn't resist accepting a chat invitation from Finland. As it turns out, he is Palestinian, born in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and we are a couple of months apart in age. Sami is a currently unemployed electrical engineer and his English is very good. We talked of opportunities here in the states for him, both as a student and in the work force, but he told me the same story that I hear from so many others about how difficult it is to get into the country now, especially if your heritage is of a certain part of the world. I hope to be able to chat with him again soon.
3. Rachid (Rissani, Morocco) is a 45-year-old small business owner in Morocco. Rachid often wants to talk to me, using the voice feature of skype, but I usually only set up for that (headset and all) when I have a scheduled voice chat, so we've only actually talked on one occasion. [Rachid's typed English is good, but his spoken English is quite excellent.] We often speak of our very different lifestyles, especially when it comes to work. Rachid is always encouraging me to slow down, relax, and enjoy life a little instead of rushing through it, and I am always trying to explain how the crazy rush of my life is actually enjoyable for me (most of the time!) We talk to each other almost every week, and I very much enjoy these conversations.
4. Simon (Tianjin, China) is an electrical control engineer in a US-owned company in China. He is 45, with a wife and one 17-year-old son. Simon has been to the US once, but it was to a midwestern town and his visit was all work-related. Simon and I have a difficult time understanding each other only rarely, as when talking about our technical business experiences. Simon's primary reason for making friends around the world seems to be a lot like mine...just to learn and experience things by interacting with others who are very much like us in some ways, and very different from us in others. I ALWAYS enjoy chatting with Simon.
5. Tarik (Casablance, Morocco) is about the same age as my youngest daughter and is very interested in coming to the US to attend school. I tried to help him out by sending him links to the University of Houston, but we had so much trouble, I went ahead and entered his information into the Texas Common Application (the place where all students register for all colleges in Texas) for him while he fed the details to me in a chat. Tarik seems to be a very fun-loving young man and I always enjoy chatting with him. We sometimes have a difficult time understanding each other, but that just makes it more of a challenge and a lot more fun!

So, now you know about some of my international friends and what we talk about online. I have been thinking (a LOT recently) about setting us some more formal, scheduled small group chats with people just like these around the work to talk about things like home and family, work and career, neighbors and neighborhoods, as well as pre-conceived notions, misconceptions, and just interesting chitchat. If I ever follow up on this idea, I'll be sure and let you all know about it, just in case you want to participate!

Topless in Houston

Yup...that's right. This was definitely the week to go topless. Not me! (That's a scary thought!) No...I spent the week in Houston with Molly, and she spent the entire time topless. I fell in love with Molly about 7 years ago. Leo wasn't that excited about her at first, but after a few years, he changed his mind and fell in love with her as well. Now, we even occasionally fight over her. So who's Molly, you wonder? Molly is our 1995 Mazda Miata, one of the least expensive, and absolutely the most fun automobile we have ever owned. She's a teeny tiny convertible, and at twelve years of age, she's still a beauty.

This was a good week, a really good week. Not only did I have a really good time working on a group of spreadsheets for one of my customers, but I also got all my readings done, almost all of my homework done, and I even made progress on our new team technology, something that really looks promising. So, yesterday on my way home (after 4 nights in a noisy hotel, I was ready to get home) I decided to vary from my normal routine of listening to class readings on my iPod on the road and, believe it or not, I listened to music all the way home. I popped in an MP3 mix that covers quite a range of styles and listened to some of the following:

• James Taylor (Sweet Baby James, Mexico, Autour du Rocher...)
• Janis Ian (At Seventeen, The Roller Skate Song...)
• Eagles (Seven Bridges Road [I LOVE that track!])
• Jackson Browne (Loadout, Stay...)
• Bonnie Raitt (Louise, Kisses Sweeter than Wine...)
• Die Prinzen (Deutschland, Mein bester Freund...)
• Ladysmith Black Mambo (Hello my Baby, Oh Happy Day, Amaphiko Okundiza...)
• Rockabella (Sittin' on the Dock, Stand by Me, Lean on Me...)
• And more, more, more.

One last thing...I got my first check from the company I was having a problem with. Yup. I now have money in the bank, and am actively working on getting out of a hole. Absolutely, this week was a very good week.

Sleep Deprivation

Gee, after reading my last post I can see that Sleep Deprivation has some serious side effects. Namely, it appears to cause rambling and incoherency. The problem is, I'm still short on sleep, so this posting may not be any better. Still, I thought I should clarify some things that appeared in the last, and very strange, posting.

First is the issue that I started to bring up and never got back to about my MSSTC team. I started off with a topic that looked like I was going to spill my guts about being on a poorly functioning team. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. Despite the fact that we are ALL involved in some real life activities outside of class, we still manage to get our work done. This is nothing short of a miracle. Additionally, although I'm not going to ramble about my team members' personalities here, I will tell you they are an amazing group of people. We come from a very wide range of cultures, backgrounds, attitudes, and aptitudes, but instead of causing problems, this diversity is precisely what generates most of the discussion and most of the learning in our group.

Another thing that looked like it might pop up in my last posting was some ugly-headed monster crying about school and/or instructors being too hard. Yikes! Where did that come from? School and the instructors ARE hard, but my instructors at UT are also incredible, incredibly interesting, insightful and helpful. I realize that I said it all wrong last time when I was "crying" about my B's in class. Yup...I really do wish I was getting better grades. But other than that, I just couldn't ask for a better set of instructors to teach me about this strange new world of developing innovations into marketable products. The program is absolutely fabulous.

Tonight I'm on the road, staying in a cheap (but clean and comfortable) hotel in Houston. [I'm hoping Leo will come to town tomorrow...I miss him already.] I could easily go to sleep now, but have to attend an online class meeting at 9pm (3 hours from now), so I'm working on homework instead. Almost all my reading is done (I'm a fast reader and love to read, so the reading assignments are almost never a problem for me), but I still have several assignments to complete. My part of the research on our new technology is not going well as the inventors seem to be avoiding me. But, I'm still hoping for the best. And my Finance homework is still waiting for me. I always put it first on my list, knowing it will take me the longest to make heads or tails of, but always end up pushing it down the list, knowing it will take me the longest to make heads or tails of. Still, the honest truth about the program is that, even though the work is KILLING me, I am learning, growing, and improving so much every day. And on those occasions when I am not sleep deprived, I realize that I am having an absolute blast in life!

Doubts and Concerns

After so many stormy days in a row, today seems unusually bright and sunny. Leo's giving me lots of "room" though...he can obviously sense that I'm in a bit of a troublesome mood. I still have not received that illusive paycheck, so we are still living on borrowed money. Upset at not being able to make any progress, I went back to an old client, one who pays a lot less per hour, but is a LOT MORE DEPENDABLE with the pay. They have a project for me to work that will require >40 hour weeks for a few weeks. This is very problematic for my school work, but I'm desperate and have no real choice.

As far as school goes, while the program is still as exciting as in the beginning, and I am learning so very much, this weekend was the second time I seriously questioned whether or not I should drop out of the program. First of all, almost everything we are graded on is based on a team effort. If you remember back to some of my postings a year ago, this sounded a lot like my complaints about work in the UH program. However, I had a solution for that...I did all the work. Because I was the "senior" person on all my teams, because I am a grand champion wordsmith (my sister calls it "grand champion bullsh..."), and because I have ALWAYS been a workaholic, that worked just fine. I did all the work, our teams made all A's, and I learned what I needed to.

Here's the rub, though. In those classes, the reason I did well, I think, was twofold: 1) I'm a really hard worker and put a huge amount of effort into my work, and 2) I have a lot of experience, especially with team activities, under my belt. In other words, it was who I am and what I brought to the party that earned me those A's, and it had very little to do with what I was learning in my classes. Now, fast-forward a year and you'll find me struggling to make a single "A" in my courses. Why? Even though I'm still hard-working, I am now one of the people in the class with the LEAST experience in the field we are studying. So, who in the class are making the A's now? It's not those who are learning the most, but those who are learning the least. The A's go to the folks that are already out in tech fields doing the things we do in class. They are just here to get the piece of paper. Those of us who are working the hardest and struggling to make new contacts, learn new terminologies, learn new "games", etc. are the ones who are also struggling for the B's in the class.

So, when I went to bed at 2am on Friday night, I thought to myself, "What am I doing here? Why am I doing it? Is this what I really want?" I spent an hour or so trying to figure out what would happen if I dropped out of the program now.

But morning came, and I thought better of it. First of all, at my age and stage in the game, is making straight A's really that important to me? It was in undergraduate school, because it gave me a huge sense of accomplishment. It may have played a small part in getting me into Grad school, but then, it may not. So in actuality, the A's were for me and nobody else. So now the big question of the day is, can I be happy as a straight B student? Okay, maybe "happy" is stretching it a bit, so let me try again. How about this...is surviving the program and graduating with a B average going to further my long-term goals? Hmm...I'll have to say that while I lose out on things like bragging rights, the MS does actually propel me forward. For today then, the answer is "YES...I'm going to stay in the program, do my best to survive, and be the sponge in the class that soaks up every piece of information that I can. Yes, this is definitely furthering my long-term goals."