Wagon Metaphors

Titles for this post that occurred to me in the past 10 seconds: Falling Off the Wagon, Back on the Wagon, Hitching My Wagon. Three clichés were quite enough, so I stopped there and just went with "Wagon Metaphors". So obviously the first two are a reference to the fact that I stopped blogging abruptly just after BlogHer. That was partly coincidental, partly a consequence of being (un)inspired by BlogHer. The uninspiration was entirely my fault; I did BlogHer completely backwards from how (I now realize) I should have done it: namely, I registered only for the cocktail parties and not for the conference itself. I did this for two reasons: (1) I wanted to spend Friday in the office, getting some face time with my colleagues, rather than taking the day off to attend the conference; and (2) since I blog for no other reasons than to record my experiences and possibly make someone else feel less alone (i.e., I don't have some Larger Purpose, nor do I blog for profit), I didn't expect to get much out of the sessions. I didn't love BlogHer in 2006, the last time I attended, so my main goal was to visit with some of the friends I made then and online since.

While I do not for a second regret having face time with my colleagues on Friday, I do kind of regret not going to the conference (and going to the cocktail parties). If I go to BlogHer again in the future, I'll attend the conference and decide on the parties at the last second. While I'm not really a party person in general, I suspect I'd have a better time at them if I also have hang time with other women during the day, and thus have a shared context. (Or, you know, maybe not.) My favorite moments from the parties this time: meeting Schmutzie (she approached me as I walked into the People's Party on Thursday, just after I'd had the thought, "crap, I don't know anyone in the room" and made my evening; wish I'd gotten a photo of us together); hanging out with Leah and finally meeting Joe; trying to get some dancing started—in the wrong room—with Abigail at the Mighty Haus party (yeah, see? parties are not my strong point); finally getting a GLASS OF FUCKING WATER (Pellegrino with lime, FTW!) on the 7th floor of the Macy's party; and sharing said Pellegrino, tofu tarts, and good conversation with Cecily (see us in the last photo of this post from I am Bossy, who (a) was also delightful, (b) knows how to put on a Philly face, and (c) describes the Macy's party pretty accurately).

The "Hitching My Wagon" thing is a reference to the fact that I'm going to be changing jobs very soon, and is also related to the dearth of blog posts here lately. See, right after BlogHer, an opportunity presented itself. It kind of freaked me out, because while I've been thrilled to be a part of the Dreamweaver team for the past 10 years, in my mind I was making little tweaks to my job—adjustments I thought, if they were to materialize, would make me even happier—and it turned out that the Universe was listening. The fact that the Universe was listening was, in itself, enough to cause a mild freakout, but the fact that what sounded like the perfect, no-brainer-to-take-it job was not only not on the Dreamweaver team but not at Adobe nearly sent me round the bend. What to do, what to do? Well, accept, of course, and then freak out some more—about the fact that I'm going to miss the people I work with, most of whom have become close friends over the years; about the fact that I'm going to be leaving my safe little niche for a position that is very likely to make even better use of my skills and interests but that will be decidedly less familiar; about the fact that I'll be moving to a company that's tiny in comparison with my current one, where I'll be more visible, have more leeway (and more responsibility), and will need to do more things for myself (small companies have a lot less infrastructure than giant ones).

I kept the freakout mostly to myself (and Al) for the couple days it took me to make the Final Decision and then tell my manager (and good friend) that I was leaving. After that I told the people I work with most closely, and then the rest of the team. I didn't feel like talking about it publicly, however, so I continued my silence here, thus completely blowing my participation in NaBloPoMo for July. It's difficult to continue writing about mundane things like food and parenthood when Big Things that you can't or don't want to talk about are sitting on your shoulders.

So anyway, my last day at Adobe is this Wednesday, August 6, and my first day at my new company is Monday, August 11. I'm excited and sad and excited and anxious and excited. Total immersion in JavaScript, here I come!

Posted by Lori in blogher08 and work at 4:07 PM on August 4, 2008

Comments (5)

Congratulations on having the Universe listen to you! Hope it goes well. :)

Good for you for seizing the opportunity!

I was starting to imagine, a la my mother, that you were stranded in a snow drift with a broken leg. Good to see you back! And good to hear the great reasons for your absence. Wishing you all the best in your transition!

Congratulations! Bon Voyage! and Mazel Tov!

Comments

Congratulations on having the Universe listen to you! Hope it goes well. :)

Posted by: Megan at August 4, 2008 5:10 PM

Good for you for seizing the opportunity!

Posted by: ratphooey [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 4, 2008 5:57 PM

I was starting to imagine, a la my mother, that you were stranded in a snow drift with a broken leg. Good to see you back! And good to hear the great reasons for your absence. Wishing you all the best in your transition!

Posted by: juliloquy at August 5, 2008 10:16 AM

Good luck!

Posted by: Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah at August 7, 2008 5:59 PM

Congratulations! Bon Voyage! and Mazel Tov!

Posted by: ByJane at August 10, 2008 10:33 AM

Comments are now closed.