The Tauntress

Today – Labor Day was the last day of the Minnesota State Fair. It was also the day that I checked an item off of my personal bucket list. I went to see Bonnie Raitt perform live.

I’ve been a fan of her and her music since her album “Nick of Time” was released in the late 80’s – early 90’s. But honestly, I bought and endlessly listened to “Nick of Time” and “Luck of the Draw” almost exclusively. There were a couple listens here and there of other stuff but my personal fascination with her was from those two albums.

I heard a live recording of her once – doing “Angel from Montgomery” – where she thanked the crowd and told them she loved them and to “take care of each other”. I thought that was the coolest thing and I adopted it for my own online shows as part of my parting words. “Take care of yourself, take care of each other. Have a blast in your Second Life if nowhere else, and until the next time I’m signing off in three, two, one…”

When I heard back in June that she was going to be at the Minnesota State Fair on Labor Day I jumped at the chance to get tickets. I ended up spending over $300 on two floor seat tickets. To me it was worth it – I didn’t know when I’d get a chance to see her again – if ever – so I wanted to be able to enjoy the experience without worrying about heights and tight seats.

Even though the day threatened rain and my energy level was lower than usual, I made my way via car, bus and foot to the Great Minnesota Get-Together. We left later in the day, not really planning on doing much prior to the concert other than getting chocolate chip cookies [check] and Star Tribune Fair T-shirts [check, check].

And of course, we planned on hitting as many Pokestops and catching as many Pokemon as we could. The Fairgrounds were rife with Pokestops – more than 20 from what I could tell – and 6 gyms! Both Smidge and I finally caught a Snorlax. I personally caught more Drowsees than you could shake a stick at… (I use that analogy but I have no idea what it means… And now I had to look that up. You can read what I found here.)

After stopping for Philly Cheese Steak for Smidge and a burger for me (and yes, some mini donuts), we ambled over to the Grandstand. When we arrived, all of the seats were wet from the sprinkle of rain we’d gotten earlier. I didn’t care though and plopped myself down to get comfy. Turns out the money I paid for the seats were well worth it! I was disappointed to hear, though, that we wouldn’t be able to take any pics during the show.

I have to say, I’m a satisfied customer. The show was incredible. I remember seeing film clips of girls screaming and crying over the Beatles and I always scoffed at them. I couldn’t imagine why they’d react that way. Well, I was in tears for about 1/2 of Bonnie Raitt’s set. Her musicianship is stellar and her voice – my heavens her VOICE – was so unreal. Like she tears off a little piece of her soul with each song and distributes it to every single person in the audience. Completely authentic. Genuine gratitude to the audience. I’m going to start counting the days until I get to see her perform again.

So very thankful for having a life that allows me to do things like enjoy a fair and world-class musicians.

Last thing I wanna do right now is write a blog post. I just finished up a blog post for the NA WERG wherein I had major issues getting images to show up correctly. Argh. I’m one of those people who doesn’t handle setbacks very well. Especially where it’s something that I don’t have much knowledge of or feel that I’m powerless to make a difference. Temper tantrums ensue which include yelling, cussing and rude gestures at the screen. Thankfully I work from home in the privacy of my bedroom so the only witness to this episode was my cat. And all he did was look at me, twitch his ears, and settle back down to snooze.

Part of the issue with my reaction is most likely related to two things: 1) I have sleep apnea and have yet to receive the dental appliance to assist with treating the disorder which means I don’t get much restful sleep and 2) I need to lose 6 pounds by Friday. The first thing is likely contributing to the fact I’m having so many issues with the second thing. I have a doctor’s appointment on Friday and it’s the culmination of over 10 months of working to qualify for gastric by-pass surgery. It’s been a roller-coaster ride in more ways than one and I really don’t want to go into it right now – like really don’t. Suffice to say there have been numerous set-backs, large sums of money, flaming hoops through which to jump and labyrinthine insurance policies to navigate to get to this point. If I meet the weight loss requirement by Friday, they will submit paperwork to the insurance company for approval. It’s taken me nearly a year to get to this point. And the chances of me losing this 6 lbs by Friday are slim to nil (and nil is winning).

If I were a wise woman, accepting in the ways of karma and the universe, I would say this was some Higher Power’s way of getting me to learn patience. I’m not a very good student.

Anyway… I’m here, writing, because I made a promise that every week I would post something to this blog. At least once a week if not more. So here it is.

I’ve known for a while that if I wanted to be promoted at work I’d need to seek a new role within the company. That’s how it works in HR at my company. So I’ve been applying for roles that come up at a level higher than mine for the last couple of months. Surprisingly there’s been quite a few. I’ve applied to all for which I had even a chance of being considered.

In the midst of this, I was contacted by a Senior Manager with whom I worked previously to let me know about a role that was being opened within her department. I had told her previously that I was interested if anything should open up with her group given that they’re global and do a lot of the architecture around our internal HR processes. I indicated that I was definitely interested. Let’s call this job Role B.

Lo and behold, yesterday I was offered a role (let’s call it Role A) related to one I’d interviewed for previously. This role would be doing much of what I’ve been doing except at a higher level – operations-focused, more involved in stats, reporting and actually supervising people. At any other time, I would have jumped at this role. But knowing there’s this other position (Role B) working with a group that rarely has open positions… Well, let’s just say I’m a little torn. I let the Manager who offered me the role (Role A) know that – I was honest and transparent. And she said she can hold off on making a decision for about another week so that’s good.

This morning I was contacted by another Senior Manager; this one related to the role that I’ve been offered (Role A). He wanted to get an idea of why my preference is the way I say it is (Role B, then Role A) and was hoping – I think – to convince me to take Role A. I was open with him as well and I could tell he listened to and understood my preference. I don’t think he liked it, but he understood.

Meanwhile, this afternoon I had a phone call with the original SMgr – Role B – about the position. She indicated that I’m in their top 3 for her role and that she wants me to talk with someone else since she feels a little biased (she knows personally 2 of the 3 people they’re considering). She’s hoping they can make a decision by mid-week next week. I’m nervous about this other interview but at the same time, I’m confident in my ability to represent myself competently.

I’m in this weird spot now, emotionally. I’m going to be making a change, soon and while that’s exciting – whichever Role I take – it’s also kind of sad (because I love my current team) and also kind of scary (what if I’m not right for the Role – whichever I take?)

It’s this see-saw of emotions – one minute up and thrilled because darnit, people WANT me! On the other side, I’m anxious about doing well – maintaining my reputation as someone who gets the job done.

It’s going to be an interesting week, that’s for sure.

Several of us are hosting a SecondLife RL musicians jam here in the Twin Cities in September. RL stands for Real Life, by the way. That means a bunch of us who know each other in a virtual world gather in an actual real life location a couple times of year to make music and laugh and eat and drink and giggle and drink and dork around. It’s a ridiculous amount of fun, primarily because we’ve all gotten to know each other really well and it’s a place where almost everyone feels accepted, just as they are.

Most of the work for creating a jam happens way in advance of the actual date and then the day before. But there are a couple of things that need to happen in the middle and ordering lanyards for jam badges and a banner for the stage are 2 of them. That was my task today since it’s less than a month before the event and I keep forgetting to get my act together.

So off to Vistaprint I went to order a banner. I’d started it a couple weeks before but ran into a snag when the custom image created by our resident artist, Suzen Juel, wasn’t an high enough resolution for the size of banner I was looking to create. After messing around with it for about an hour, I realized that making the banner slightly smaller and adding a generic celebration background would solve the issue. Added some metal grommets and rope and voila! We have a banner for under $70.

Not bad, huh? We needed it to be white so folks can sign the banner before they leave the jam. That’s become a tradition over the years. I still have the sign from our last jam in 2014. Not sure what we’ll do with it but who knows? Maybe we’ll make a jam time capsule at some point.

Then came the lanyards. I’d already done some investigating online and came across a site that looked to have a decent product at a reasonable price. I actually spoke to a rep and that made the difference, I think. They’re supposed to give me a mock up of the lanyard within the next 48 hours so I can approve. I’ve already paid them so I’m a little leary until I actually see something. If it works out, we’re gonna have an awesome souvenir/keepsake for people attending the jam.

Printing by Suzen Juel

T-shirt Inkies by Suzen Juel

Group banner by Suzen Juel

So the lanyards are supposed to be 1″ wide polyester using the images above – first the 7 inkie, then the words, then the 3 inkie, then the words, then the 7 inkie again, etc… They’re going to mock them up on a purple or violet lanyard to see how they look. If it’s ugly, we’ll just make the lanyard white. Keeping my fingers crossed that this company will actually do what they said they are going to do!

Now if I can remember to call the hotel and see about upgrading our booking to a suite…

I’ve known Kari from the time we were in the same dorm Freshman year (Kildahl – Alribba, Riba, Roo!). She was the official party organizer – if there was a party, she either planned it, hosted it or knew about it. We got to know each while working in the Cafe (pronounced “calf”) together at St. Olaf College. I was one of the lunch ladies (“Two lines – you want ’em, we got ’em!”) while Kari was Queen of the Dry End (where the dishes came out of the industrial washer). Most days you could find her sorting silverware while I wiped counters, trading quips and talking about our upcoming Junior year abroad in England.

Oddly enough, we never saw each other while we were in Europe but became fast friends upon returning to college our Senior year. That friendship continued and grew through those tough years in our 20’s & 30’s while we struggled to establish ourselves financially and professionally. We’d fallen into the habit of calling each other “Dude” at some point along the way. She was “Dude” and I was “Dude Too” in response. There were times it was so comfortable to address her that way, the nickname would slip out when addressing other people – even occasionally co-workers. We still call each other by that sobriquet.

Kari followed me to Houston @2003 and ended up purchasing a home and pursuing her passion for the written word by becoming a Technical Writer. She is currently employed by Aramco and works in Saudi Arabia. We don’t get to see each other as often these days but somehow manage to stay in touch via Facebook, Skype and WhatsApp. Still, when I found out she was coming back to the States for a couple weeks after not having seen her for nearly 2 years, I knew I needed to plan a trip back to H-Town so we could reconnect in person.

Thing is — there’s all of these expectations and anticipations and palpitations around seeing someone you haven’t seen in while. Someone with whom you share such a deep and varied history. She and I have been through a lot together, survived the ups & downs that can break friendships and relationships. Kari is someone who doesn’t let go and who believes in second chances. That’s one of the main reasons we’ve stayed friends for so long.

Of course, the trip turned out to be fantastic. We had plenty of time to reconnect and for me to hear all of her stories about her world travels and the people she’s met and the places she’s seen and the things she’s purchased. There was an evening out at karaoke with our mutual friend Courtney and another afternoon gathering with friends we share from our time together in Texas. Kari’s mother is my adopted Mom Nancy and I was able to partake of her infamous Pull Apart Roast Beef — truly ambrosia of the gods! And of course there was veg-time, watching some Netflix and chilling.

Goodbye was tough, especially since I know she’s headed to a part of the world that isn’t always the safest. But I’m thankful that I made the effort to see her in person, to recommit to a friendship that’s lasted over 25 years. The older I get, the harder it seems to make new friends. I treasure Kari and the foundation and trust we have with each other. And I’m looking forward to the time we can be in the same physical space together again.