Sunday, May 24, 2009

Weekend Fun

Okay, the title may have been a little misleading. I mean, first off I have fun all the time. Life is just a fun adventure. Secondly, I don't really segment my days into categories of education, work, and fun anymore; they are all the same thing. This weekend Rebecca is here with us in Port Lavaca and she and I are busy getting things set up for when she comes "on board" full time a week from tomorrow. "Pawpaw Leo" and Madison have gone to the movies. The weather is gorgeous and we are enjoying the weekend in spite of the fact that it is (as always) a working weekend.

Although I scour the news and my email inbox for indicators that things will be ramping up soon in PNG, so far, I am seeing none of those signs. It's okay, I guess. I have plenty of work here to do, but you know how it is...always the newest adventure that gets the most attention. Still, it wouldn't hurt for there to be some signs of life from the other side of the planet. Until I hear something, however, I'll do my best to stay focused here and take care of business as needed. Tomorrow is "ExxonMobil day" in my list of to-do tasks, and I'll spend the entire day taking care of outstanding items waiting on me there. The rest of the week I will put in time each day after their 8 hours are full and take care of some other sideline projects. It should be quite a busy week. Still, the biggest excitement comes next Sunday when Rebecca and I spend the evening working out a game plan for the first week of June, our first week in business together.

Wish us luck! This is definitely a FIRST for the both of us!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

They Call Me 'Zygote'

When I was introduced to the first students already in the program yesterday, their very first comment was, "oh, you're a zygote". Not only did I find this highly amusing, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized just how appropriate the term is. A zygote is, in essence, a fertilized egg. Although an egg is just the potential to become something, a zygote goes one step further. A zygote is something that has been kick-started down the path to becoming. It has all of the building blocks it needs but none of the completed structure. Just like the zygote, I am at the very beginning of a long, difficult, but highly rewarding journey.

Yup. I wear my Zygote branding proudly!

The TTU campus really surprised me. While Lubbock is no doubt a true west Texas town, largely flat, dry and containing all the shades of brown that can be found in nature, it is actually much prettier than I imagined. There is a lot of new construction in the areas I visited, both in new roads and in new buildings. Although a first-time [in MANY years] visitor to the city, it appears to be going through a bit of a growth surge. But the TTU campus, well, that is something else altogether. It is surprisingly beautiful. Many of the buildings are works of art, both inside and out. The grounds are well-kept and beautiful, with shaded areas, meandering paths, outdoor seating under the shade trees, fountains and sculptures, and friendly staff in abundance.

But the biggest surprise of all is the participants in the program.

I often work in a building with a large population of scientific PhDs and if I had to categorize them into a single category, I believe I might call them "smart snobs" as they appear to think much more highly of themselves than is warranted. As I arrived on campus here to meet the students that I will be sharing my classes, team activities, and experiences with over the next few years, I was expecting such a highly sought-after program to be full of such high-minded individuals. Boy was I wrong. What I found instead was a room full of warm, inquisitive, interesting, interested, open-minded and often quite down-to-earth "folks". Wow. Normal people with a desire to do more, go further, push boundaries, in other words, I found a room full of people much like me. Well, in some ways that is.

You see, part of my reason for coming to visit is that I understood the program to have a large population of students that currently hold teaching positions at major universities. Sheesh. How intimidating is that! I mean, I only just earned my BS in May of 2007. Some of the people in the room could easily have been my professors just a year ago. But I have found that a few of the people are, like me, from industry, business, or another profession. So, I am really not alone in that respect although I feared I might be.

The second major concern of mine is the fact that I have never been an English major. I have always had a "knack" for English, grammar, vocabulary, and am an avid reader, but I have never focused on English, and certainly not on Rhetoric or Communication as a subject matter for deep study or expertise. Now, as they say, "I are one". In that respect, my concerns were right on target and I find that I have a very long way to go. These instructors and students speak a language I do not know. I actually spent much of yesterday pretending to understand things that were said to me while marking the new terms down in my mind for later look-up. I already have a new stack of words that I have never heard spoken before that I am definitely going to have to learn as they might someday be applied to me. "Rhetorician" for example. Who knew it was a word that people actual use in conversation! (I obviously have a LONG way to go!)

Still, my overwhelming first day emotion is actually relief. My introduction to the class was enough for me to realize that I might actually be able to do this. I've learned new languages before. Last year, for example, I learned to speak "business speak". Starting in just a few months, I have no doubt I will begin learning to speak "communication and rhetoric", the language of individuals, like me, who study such things. Now you must keep in mind it is not the IDEAS about such topics that are new to me. I am an AVID student of human behavior, human learning, and human communication. I mean, these are things that have always interested me and have attracted me, things that have caused me to read more, observe more, experiment more, and think more deeply about them. It's the language I don't know. But it's also that I've been working from the safety of a boat on the surface of the water that I've been looking at them. Now I'm going to don a wetsuit and jump off into the depths with them. How exciting!

Yikes! I see that, once again, I've rambled ON AND ON. My apologies. I did want you to know, however, that I am enjoying my trip to Lubbock, am THRILLED to be in with such a prestigious but down-to-earth group of students, and am looking forward to the next few years of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears with great anticipation!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Working Woman (and more)

Ah...home again! Although it is short-lived and gives me no break in my work, it is very nice to be home again. As I drove home last night I was hoping that I would find Grace and Jess back home when I arrived. No such luck. Although I don't take the opportunity to visit with them nearly as much as Leo does, I really do miss them when they're gone. I am really hoping they will be back by the time Leo gets home next Thursday.

The past few weeks have been a bit rough with lots of travel and lots of crazy snippets of work. For example, on Tuesday I had four meetings with four different groups on four different projects. One was a brand new project, two were revisions of old projects, and one was a request for some data from one of my old projects to help someone else with their new project. Crazy. Yes. Definitely.

I still have one more trip to make before I settle in for a bit of a break (and get to know my MIA spouse all over again!) I am flying out to Lubbock on Monday morning in order to visit the campus, sit in on a class lecture, and meet some of the professors I will be working for over the next few years. Although I am not nervous at all, I do worry a bit that I will be one of the program participants that are the least "in the know" about the program and what it entails. I'm hoping to learn a lot on my little two-day journey. When I get back into town, I have a Wednesday meeting in Houston (I've been asked to 'hack' someone else's database in order to retrieve some important data). I'm not sure whether I'll do the hotel thing on Tuesday-Wednesday or what. Actually that's a nice segue into my next topic, that of getting an apartment [again] in Houston.

With so many 'unknowns' about where my business is headed, I have been hesitant about renting another apartment in Houston. The truth is, however, that I am doing more and more work there [again] and really am hurting over a place to stay. The hotel bills for the past 2 months are really killing me. So, it's time to go apartment hunting again. This time, however, there are some changes in the method/madness.

My daughter, Rebecca Faircloth, is going to start working for me full-time on June 1. She is going to be the Office Manager for my Amaya Consulting business and will probably be doing a lot of work for my part in the Herries ETS joint venture as well. In this role, she and I will be working closely together for the next few months and she is going to need to relocate to Houston. So...we are apartment hunting together. In talking to friends recently, I've figured out that for the first time in a really long time, more and more people that I know are going to such a living arrangement and sharing living space and living expenses with others. Rebecca and I are both quite independent, but we've discussed it enough to feel that we are going to be able to 'live together', at least part of the time, without any problems. But beyond that, daughter or not, I am so VERY pleased to have some help in my business. A few months of getting things organized and outlining the division of duties and I think we are going to be off to a running start at ramping up our activities. So, even though the times are busy and a bit crazy, this is also a good time for me, my business, and my life. It's really starting to get FUN again!

Lots of work is waiting on me in what's left of this morning, so I'd better get to it. Hope to see/hear from some of you soon. And I'm hoping that I can spend a couple of days here at home, enjoying what is developing into a very beautiful place. And I am looking forward to my sweetie returning home from Nigeria in only a week. Whoopie!!

Monday, May 11, 2009

iPhone Posting

Staying tonight at my sis' house and thinking of the four back-to-back meetings I have lined up tomorrow. Think I will make the trip home tomorrow night if I can. I made reservations to fly out to Lubbock next week. I'm looking forward to the campus visit, but I'm a little worried, a little embarrassed about all the things I do NOT know about this pursuit of a PhD. Anyway, just wanted to put up a brief posting. Typing this in on my little iPhone keypad is about to wear me out, so I think I'll say "goodnight" now.

Friday, May 08, 2009

Ready to Spend 1/2 Day at Home

Although my trip to Virginia went well, I came home to another problem (work) that prevented me from attending the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston on Thursday. I was disappointed, but it was something I really needed to attend to. Oh well.

Today I'm at sis' house working on a project with her. I will swing by West Columbia to watch my oldest nephew's baseball game tonight, then head home for long enough to wash some clothes, pack my bags, and head back to Houston again in the morning.

Daughter Rebecca and I will be staying in Baytown tomorrow night. We are scheduled to put in a few hours' work, attend an event with sis, (a lecture by a woman named Lisa), and a few more hours of work on Sunday. I'll stay at sis' house once again Sunday night and gear up for several scheduled meetings on Monday and Tuesday. I'm hoping to get to come home again on Wednesday, but that really remains to be seen.

I've picked up a couple of new contracts in the last week, but my workload is such that I am prepared to handle them. The fact that Rebecca is going to be a full-time employee for me starting the first or second week of June is a REALLY BIG deal. The game plan is that her coming on board will free me up to do more work and allow for her skills to develop further at the same time. We are both excited about it. I'll be sure to keep the updates coming. (And I'm really sorry they are so few and far between these days!)