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Argentina Trip 2008

1.September.2009 in Life, Travel | No comments

I realize that it has been almost a year since our trip to Argentina.  Oddly enough, I still feel I can blog about the trip.  Go figure…..

It had been 8 years since I’d been in Buenos Aires when we landed.  The view of the neighborhoods off the hwy — they seemed the same — and there was a sense of falling into old patterns of comfort and familiarity.  Sadly, as Dad explained to Toni in the cab to the hotel, things were very much the same as ever:  economically un fracaso total.

“The more things change, the more they stay the same” is probably the best way to describe my feelings of the time we spent in Buenos Aires.  The city feels as familiar as my home town of Chapel Hill.  The distance between visits makes it hard to really land and know exactly where I am going (the way I used to), but I think Toni and I did fairly well in our days of wandering around (re)discovering the city.

I was very nervous before we went, wondering how Toni would feel about this country I love so much, and the people there that I love as well.  Fortunately, he seemed to enjoy it as much as I did, and wants to return to explore more.  In planning the trip I decided that we would go to one place from my travel abroad days (Iguazu Falls) and one place I had never been before (Peninsula Valdes).  The two side trips had a common theme “nature’s beauty and bounty” and highlighted the widely divergent geography of the country.  We went from tropical humidity to desert and cooler when we changed locales.

Iguazu Falls

Iguazu Falls

Iguazu Falls are on the border of Argentina and Brasil and I believe they more than earn their place as one of the modern natural marvels of the world.  Walking into the national park we immediately saw an amazing toucan.  It was just one of the first of many exciting sightings for the day.  Other animals:  a guinea pig, “falso coral” snake, coatis (the raccoons of the park, I saw them mug tourists for their food!), many butterflies, and lizards.  (I’m sure I’m missing more!).  We also came home with many images of mushrooms, and are pretty sure we saw some boletus.  This is all on top of the images of the falls themselves.  I thought it was pretty funny that I kept trying to remind Toni to look to the left side of the trail where the water was at first.  Pretty soon he was as hooked as I was at the sight of all that water rushing over those cliffs in a never ending stream.

We had to take a short break because of a torrential downpour after walking around the trails, but we did make it out to the Devil’s Throat (sadly, not before our camera battery died, so no pics).  The mist and power of the falling water are beyond words.  What I marveled at tho’, were the birds darting around in the splash and spray — these delicate creatures were making their home in the falls!  Walking back, I read a plaque that told me the ruined walkway that had been washed away in a flood was the walkway I had used when I had visited the park back in 1990.  It was a reminder of time passing and the power of a river that I thought was already pretty impressive.

We did not have a lot of time, so skipped the view from the Brasilian side of the falls, but I did take a short walk from our hotel to snap a picture of the Tres Fronteras — the spot where you can see Argentina, Brasil, and Paraguay.  The next day we had the morning to tour before flying out, but the heavens opened with a deluge of rain so strong you couldn’t see very far outside the door of the hotel.  I was VERY glad we had seen as much as we had the day before!

Our next stop, Estancia La Ernestina on the northern tip of Peninsula Valdes.  I can’t say enough about this guest house.  Itis a working sheep farm with a few rooms.  The owner, Juan, acts as your guide and takes you out to see the many animals that live on the estancia (in addition to the sheep).  All meals are included in the cost of housing.  Yes, it is a desert region, so water is at a premium, and the lights at night come from a generator that is turned off on the early side if you are a night owl, but the people we met there were warm and open — what I like about traveling in Argentina a little off the beaten path.  Juan is mad about Orcas, and there is a resident group he studies in collaboration with scientists.  We spent a large portion of the day following them (Mel is the big star, you can see him hunting on you tube if you google La Ernestina — warning, it can be graphic.)

The big bull elephant seal

The big bull elephant seal

It was an amazing few days.  We got to see Guanacos, Maras, Lesser Rheas, Orcas, Right Whales, Elephant Seals, Sea Lions, Magellanic Penguins, any number of other birds I should know.  I’ve included what we call our “money shot” of the bull elephant seal roaring with a wave crashing behind his head.  And yes, we were very close to him.  Part of the perks of sitting with someone who knows the animals that visit his land, and sitting with a very small group.

The one disappointment from this part of the trip was that our one day to get out on the water and closer to the Right Whales did not happen because the wind was blowing too strongly.

We wrapped up our trip with a few more days in Buenos Aires before flying home to San Francisco.

I’ll leave you with a package of me sitting in front of the statue of San Martin — I used to play on this statue when I was a kid living on Carlos Pellegrini.

me sitting in front of the statue of San Martin, where I used to play as a kid.

me sitting in front of the statue of San Martin, where I used to play as a kid.

Cafe FAQ and Nutmeg Business join forces

10.July.2009 in Job Search, Life, Technology | 1 comment

It has taken a while, but after a few months of analysis I realized that searching for a full time job is something I’ve FELT I should be doing rather than something I WANTED to be doing.  What I really want to do is pursue a dream of building a business from the ground up — when I started doing work as Nutmeg Business Solutions over a decade ago I hoped it would happen, but never felt strong enough to really make it so.  Many people have mentioned that Training and Instructional Design work is ideally suited to the freelancer lifestyle and I sensed they were right;  I just had to find the right path towards that goal.

I realized a few weeks ago the past year has brought the right elements into play.

Working at CallWave I sat across from a dynamic communicator, Barbara Bryn Klare.  She was the Communications Manager and I found myself not only bouncing ideas off of her, but helping her when she needed it.  Not only did we work well together, but I found the work she did was enjoyable, and it fed back into my own training work.  In the months since we were displaced I’ve helped her with a few projects, and we continue to be a dynamic team.

She is starting Cafe FAQ and has asked me to join forces with her.

This opportunity is the moment that makes me feel I could make this dream happen.  In addition, other elements have aligned themselves to give me the space to focus on making this dream work.

The Cafe is open for business — and I know we can get the ball rolling and make a going concern of it.

Building a working life and taking time to analyze

24.April.2009 in Job Search, Life | No comments

Since my most recent downsizing, I’ve been trying to see if I can build enough business as a contractor or freelance trainer or instructional designer.  I do continue to search for full-time work, but I am also pursuing these short term opportunities.  For what I do, it seems there are many more short-term jobs than jobs that offer a constant stream of activity.

There are pluses to both scenarios, and I do enjoy having control over my time, so….  The catch is getting the ball rolling and getting things started can be a challenge.  I worry I’m not following leads where I should be.  Am I holding myself back?  I guess I need to get in touch with my inner saleswoman and make some opportunities where they may not seem to exist.

Another plus or minus of the time on my hands is the ability to analyze my goals and wants in working life.  I realized on my Germany trip that I missed working with Art and Art History.  Is it too late to return to that field in some capacity?  For pay, or as a docent?  If you catch this post and have a contact in the museum world let me know.  I’d love to have an informational interview with someone.

Photos from Argentina

6.November.2008 in Life, Travel | 1 comment

I’m going to blog about the trip to Argentina, but thought I’d post a link to Toni’s Picasa album to share pics of the trip:

Argentina October/November 2008

We started in Buenos Aires, went to Iguazu, and then went to Peninsula Valdes before returning to Buenos Aires for a few more days.

5769, thoughts on the year ahead

5.November.2008 in Life | No comments

Yom Kippur is recently over and I have been thinking a bit about what happened in the year that just passed and what I would like to change in myself in the year to come.

It was exciting to have Toni move out to California.  Having my partner local certainly made building our life here a lot easier.  There were and are adjustments we are still making with each other — habits we built in the time apart and habits we are realizing we each have that we have to both work on.

The most important item I recognize from my behavior last year that I want to change is that I withdrew from social networks and friends and I need to re-engage and reconnect or I will lose those relationships.  I also need to start getting out and building networks here in the Bay Area.  Toni and I are very comfortable with each other and happy spending our days together, but I think we need to build connections with others as well.  It doesn’t seem healthy to live so much in our house.  I recently signed up for a Facebook account, and there is a jolt of energy in getting connected with people and being able to quickly peek and see what they are doing.

But, in the year that passed it was easy to spend time with Toni, and comfortable as well.  And, in retrospect, I probaby needed that comfort.

Work was pretty brutal.  There were the stresses of the merger, working for a large company that did not do a good job of communicating and managing change. I felt a large responsibility was dumped on the shoulders of my department that was not ours to handle.   At the time, I never said this outside the very small circle of my boss and close colleague.  Given that, we took it on, and I think we did it well. But, that takes a toll.  Being in the front line in the field working with people who are in the dark and anxious about their future is not particularly fun.  In the end I learned a lot and grew in my abilities.

Another hard part of the job was the constant travel.  I was on the road most of the time between January and May.  When I was home it was often home for just a day or so.  I love travel, but this got old quick.  I think in part because I was in a different place almost every day of the week.  Traveling to one spot and staying put can make a big difference!  You can settle into a routine of sorts.

But, to be honest, a lot of this was cover and focus from the reality in the family that I was desperate to not have to confront.  Kate was losing her struggles with cancer and the few breaks in the training schedule were spent on trips East to say farewell.  I’ve done this once before, and it was hard then, and it certainly didn’t get any easier having to say goodbye to a family member.  It hurts to type this even now.

But, for all that, I think I let myself get caught up in the flurry of work to avoid the having to face what was going on, and it is true that if I’d been in better contact with friends I would have to have spoken more about what was going on with Kate.  Being out of touch helped me avoid that bitter truth.

This post is growing longer than I thought it might, so I’ll wrap it up.  I’m resolved to try and maintain connections with friends in the year ahead and grow into my new job and work through the natural grieving process that comes when you face a loss.

May it be a good year!

Birthdays

9.September.2008 in Life | No comments

I realized a while ago that birthdays can be fun if you just relax and try not to place too many expectations and plan too much. I also adopted the idea from Debra at LRP that you should begin celebrating your birthday whenever you feel like it. It becomes the [yourname]fest and lasts until you say it is over.

Well, this year the Lisafest started in July when Matt and Katharine took me (and Mom) out for a lovely elegant dinner in NYC when I was visiting. As much as I love my nephews, and I can watch them vacuum and sweep as a team around the living room for hours, it was nice to spend some time with just their parents. Maybe because of the reminder of the passage of time, I found myself marveling at how nicely I think we have turned out. I got another tasty evening out in SF with Ben and Laurie.

Because we also try to follow Kate’s advice to only pay attention to the milestone birthdays, Toni then planned an escape to wine country the week following the big day. We waited until after the actual day to take advantage of mid-week discounts and rented a car for a few days setting off on Wednesday for Calistoga.

We decided to drive up the coast, which is admittedly not a direct way to get there, but that wasn’t our goal. The heavy fog lying on top of Point Reyes deterred us from exploring the park further, but I enjoyed stopping into the Cowgirl Creamery to see what cheese they might be making and then moseying around the rest of Point Reyes Station. We then drove up the coast, stopping in Marshall for BBQ Oysters and fresh Halibut (mmm…. fresh fish….). I always enjoy a jaunt through the rolling hills of Sonoma County (although it was a bit of a shock to find out Wallaby yogurt is made there rather than Australia). For me it was an almost ideal afternoon.

It was not perfect for two reasons: 1. The bakery in Freestone is not open on a Wednesday, and 2. We got stuck behind a biker (motorbiker) who did not know how to ride and drove up and over from Santa Rosa to Calistoga in the wrong gear at 10 miles per hour refusing to pull over to let the long line of cars behind them pass.

Fortunately, after the stress of trying not to hit the biker if they conked out, we pulled into town in Calistoga in plenty of time for our treatments at the Golden Haven spa. We decided to do the couples mud bath special. A first for me, and as interesting and relaxing as it was, probably my last. I’m just not that into a very hot bath, which is what it essentially is. I was ready to get out probably 5-10 minutes before it was over, just too hot for me. Golden Haven is not fancy, very plain vanilla with a bit of 1970s vibe, but I would go back to try another treatment. You usually pay more for fancy, and sometimes I walk away feeling I just paid for fluff and not relaxation. Then again, some days the fluff is as relaxing as the treatment itself.

Dinner that night was excellent. We ate at JoLe in Calistoga. The concept is smaller portions of farm fresh foods, and the menu is divided up into categories of dishes rather than the traditional appetizer, main course, etc. The recommendation is if you usually eat an appetizer and an entree to order three of their plates. Toni and I decided to order four of their plates and share them all. We also ordered wine and a dessert each. Yes, it was a spendy meal, but the flavors were good and I enjoyed the relaxed pacing. While I did enjoy my salada portion of the meal (it was meat heavy, but I asked and they work with vegetarians and vegans), the dulce de leche dessert took me back to Buenos Aires in a way my tongue hasn’t experienced in a while.

After a quiet evening at La Chaumiere B&B, with a solid breakfast under our belts we headed out to the Calistoga Bike Shop to pick up our bikes and wrist braclets and have ourselves the Cool wine tour. It was great fun. We were provided with a map and some simple directions to six vineyards around town. They are all smaller and we enjoyed ourselves considerably. We took some time to pick blackberries from the side of the road mid-day, which helped tide us over until our late lunch in town.  (home made ding-dongs, yum.)

We drove home through Napa so we could get a sense of the lay of the land.  I had never covered that ground before.  It was amazing to see the size of some of the vinyards. I had heard they were larger in Napa, but MY GOODNESS.  As a last hurrah for the birthday escape we stopped off on a whim in Napa itself to see if Ubuntu had room for us to eat.  I only wish we had not eaten as late a lunch.  The flavors were amazing and we thoroughly enjoyed the meal.  I would go back in a heartbeat!

The Lisafest is currently on hold, but we are finalizing our plans to go to Argentina late October, early November, so it will continue….

Gainfully employed!!!

22.August.2008 in Job Search, Life | 1 comment

I am happy to write that I will start work on Monday! It has been such a rush, as I interviewed just over a week ago. I was at the tail end of the interview process and they made their decision very soon afterwards. It was a bit of a shock that the call came about when they said the next steps would be, but I was happy to take it.

I will be an application trainer. I will create and deliver training on CallWave’s new products:  FUZE and WebMessenger. The energy at being involved at the launch of something is infectious. I will be under a deadline to start, but I hope I can do what they need. More on this to come for sure.

Another turn down on the job hunt, this one done well

12.August.2008 in Life | 1 comment

Since I wrote a post complaining about rude behavior on the trail of the next job, I thought I really should take time to share about a positive experience I had last week.  

I had a phone screening for a curriculum manager position at Genesys last Friday.  (I did not want to name names for the companies that I was complaining about, but want to give credit to a company that hires a class act.)  The manager I spoke with realized after a few minutes that I was not going to bring the skills he needed to the job.  

What I really liked was that he was open about it.  AND he addressed the issue in such a direct way, yet without malice, that I walked away from the conversation on the same high I would have had if I had nailed it.  

It is true I will not get that job, but I got some great advice, and made a new contact in my field I hope I can keep in touch with.  

Is it a sign of a good manager who can say no to someone and make it look as easy as saying yes.  I enjoyed that encounter and want to give him credit for some behavior that seems to be rarer than I want it to be.

Snubs on the trail for a job

3.August.2008 in Life | 1 comment

I find it hard to understand why employers searching for employees feel comfortable throwing basic manners out the window.  Treating people as if they do not rate common courtesies makes companies look like jerks, and in this world might that not come back to haunt them?  

Now, I do not mean I expect a personalized response to any application I submit via a website.  As a matter of fact, when I submit my resume via a website I am pleasantly surprised by an actual response.  No, I am speaking about communicating to a candidate you have had contact with.  If I speak to a recruiter (internal or external) and they pass my resume on, it makes sense to actually respond to the candidate to let them know the hiring manager is passing.  Silence can mean any number of things, not just “no thank you.”

I recently had 2 episodes I want to share.  

I had a phone interview at a company with a good product with both my hr contact AND the hiring manager.  I felt it went well.  The conversation flowed and the call ran long.  These are all things I had been told were good signs.  I sent in my writing samples as requested and followed up with the recruiter as instructed.  Nothing….  I got a bit nervous with the silence because my delivery and read receipts had also not come back.  I contacted the hr coordinator who had helped set up the interview to verify my message had made it.  Lo and behold, I receive back a GENERIC rejection letter.  Why is this a dis? 

  1. I felt I had moved beyond generic communication with the company, and this message did not even mention the position I had spoken to people about.
  2. The subject line of the message misspelled “interest.”  I did not even rank careful communication.

The sad part for the company is that they are actively searching for a number of positions, and through my outplacement program I have contact with a lot of other talented people looking for jobs.  If they had treated me with some basic manners and turned me down in “person” I would have willingly spread the news about their openings to people.  Now, after this action, I would not feel comfortable passing on postings as this type of behavior sends a message to me about corporate culture I am not comfortable with. 

The other dis was probably a bit more typical.  I had another phone screen, this time with the hiring manager.  I was the first of 6 people, 4 of which would be brought on-site the next week for interviews.  I did the diligent follow up thing with the manager, even tho’ I was on the road, and never got a response at all.  I do not think it is going out on a limb to say I will not be going on-site, but again, with such a small pool of people to call back to say no thanks to (2), I feel it is base-level manners to do so.

Long time no type

22.June.2008 in Life | No comments

It has been a while since I last posted on these pages.  I have been going through a lot of transitions in the past few weeks, and have let these transitions distract me from starting to post items on the blog. 

Transitions can be interesting things.  If you accept them, it can be a time of great growth and development.  The key seems to be to stay open and accept that changes have arrived.  We may not be able to control them, but hopefully we can use the time to great effect.

I realized if I am going to live the blog life, I should be more open with information — otherwise why bother?  The transitions were pretty significant ones, and I’m tiptoeing around.  

My step-mother Kate passed away the Sunday of Memorial Day after a long fight with ovarian cancer and my department was shut down in July.  (I worked for World Savings, which became Wachovia, and many departments have been eliminated in the merger.)  RIFed for the first time in my life, but I suspect not the last.  I am looking at this summer as one of good-byes and endings, but am also hopeful that I can be open to the changes so it can become one of new beginnings as well.

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