Where were you born? Is that where you were raised?

Welcome to the next installment of me documenting my life. I was amusing myself earlier this week while sketching out this topic by reminding myself that the purpose of documenting your life is often to leave some part of you behind for your kids. Since I have no kids, then the rest of you get to enjoy these little trips. 

The question on today's card is "Where were you born? Is that where you were raised?

I was born in Houston Texas, Herman Hospital to be exact. 

Photo from TrailBlaze Travels

My first dad was in the military and stationed there. I don't think we lived there much longer. And I've never been back. Well, that's not completely true. We visited my Great Grandparents in Texas at some point in my life. Only once that I remember. And since then the only other time I've been in Texas was to be stuck in the Dallas airport for 8 hour due to weather. 

Is that where you were raised? 

This is an easy, and yet, complicated, question. The short answer is no. The long answer is a list of places I've lived that will take you a minute or two to read. 

On my 40th birthday, as part of the celebration, I thought it'd be fun to do some Jenn Trivia. One of the questions was how many places had I lived in my 40 years. The catch was every address counted. Not just the different cities or countries, but every address I lived in. 

The answer: 27

That's right, I had lived in 27 different places by the time I was 40. Now that I'm 55, that number is a whoppin 28. The first part of my life I moved frequently. Then I found a place I liked and lived there for 12 years. The longest I ever lived anywhere. Now I'm in this new place (been here for 3 years already). 

Back in the day, I'd move every year. The places I was living would raise my rent and I figured if I was going to pay more rent, I might as well live someplace nicer. It got amusing for my friends who all found other things to do the last weekend in July every year. 

Places I've lived since Houston - Not in any order: Albuquerque, New Jersey, Lancaster (3 different addresses), Washington (I lost count of how many addresses - Kent, Renton, Bellevue, Redmond three times, Lynnwood (twice), Switzerland, Saudi, Mexico, etc

I have mixed emotions about all these locations and all the moving. It makes me feel a little gypsy esk at times. The benefit has been that I was able to make new friends quickly. The downside was you never really created deep, lasting relationships with those friends. 

Moving, I feel, also broadened my view of the world. Living in foreign countries allowed me an opportunity to see, and understand different cultures. Eat their food, see their sights, talk with their people, and immerse myself in their culture. 

What about you? Where were you born and were you raised there?

2024 - Week 1 Done!

Phew. I wasn't sure I was going to make it. The first week of 2024 was a killer of a week. 

Having a shorter week sounds like a good idea at the time, but it ends up being that you still have 40 hours of work to do in only 32 hours. I managed, but just barely. 

In 2017 - 2018 I had the shittiest time at work. I had a small team and WAY too much work for a single team. Myself and another PM colleague spent hours, hours and hours at work weekly. For the first time ever, I clocked over 65 hours at a job for a week. I was getting tired. I was getting burned out. 

I was short tempered with everyone. I had dreams of finding a new job - but God knows I had no time to find said job. I was in a hamster wheel and didn't know how to get out.

I spoke with my boss at the time about it. He didn't seem to hear me. He wasn't interested in how much work was on my plate. He was, instead, interested in the data and how we could use the data. He was in the office late each night and so it seemed it was natural. He was part of the problem and I wasn't aware at the time. 

I read articles about how to communicate with a boss that wasn't listening. I tried those suggestions, and nothing. No change. 

I was on the brink of just walking away. And then we had a reorg.

Saved by the reorg. I went back to work for a former boss and he heard me. He listened. He saw the hours and he got me help. Phew. Just in the nick of time. 

This last week ... nothing like that. Not even close. But it had me thinking about those days now passed. I realized how thankful I was to just be "busy" not overwhelmed. 

We're on the brink of a reorg at work too. I'm about to become the Director of Courseware Project Managers. Not quite a PMO, but close. I'm a bit nervous. A bit scared. And a whole lot of excited. 

I'm going to be managing new people that I know, but haven't had much of an opportunity to work with. I'm clean slating it too. They all come with baggage - good and bad - and I'm going to do my best to just start with a clean slate for each of them. Including the two PMs I already manage who are staying with me. 

The current company has invested in Advanced Leadership training for managers. I think this is a great time to put a lot of that to good use.

Next week will be busy just getting situated. The new team is going to enter the "forming" stage of Tuckman's ladder of new teams. This is the hardest stage for me if I'm being honest. I often want to just skip ahead to the "norming" stage where we are all just productive. 

I'm going to be busy for several weeks moving forward too. I have to get to know these new employees and their jobs. On top of learning all that, I need to get to know them. That's the easy part. 

All this to say, I'm ready for this challenge. I won't ever go back to working 65 hours again, but I'm ok with putting in hours and hard work for a company that values you. Not that the other company didn't value me, they just didn't seem to care that I was overwhelmed. THAT is what I won't let happen again.

In other none work related news, the Crabby Ladies went to see Boys in the Boat yesterday. We read the book in 2014 and it was one of our favorite books. The movie did it justice.