Another Award for the Lady

G. has received yet another award acknowledging her commitment to the Arts, to the Community and to Children. Her contributions were recognized by being named as a "Woman of Distinction" by the local chapter of the United Nations as part of the International Woman's Day celebrations. Very cool!

Another milestone reached...successfully

For the past three days I have been presenting 'stand up' training for a group of clients... essentially lecturing for 7 hours a day, for those three days. And I am overjoyed to report that the trainee feedback forms made absolutely no mention of any issues with my voice, my diction, or anything negative that might be associated with the fallout from my cancer battle. And these folks were workmates of a group who, the week before, complained long and loud about the diction and accents of my two teammates' presentation. Not significant, you say? One of the forms actually said that the instructor (me) 'spoke clearly'. Some of them were aware of the problems from the previous session. But about me, they were very complimentary.

Well, I did have one guy mention that he thought I was a little nervous... I suspect that my body language is a little skewed because of my shoulder... but even that is nearly back to normal. I did catch myself clasping my hands in front of me, rather than crossing my arms, which would be the more comfortable stance. I'll rationalize that one away by suggesting that I am aware that crossing one's arms is a signal of defiance and being closed to input and discussion. I would prefer to think that I am trying to remain 'open' to my students... but looking nervous? Damn. I'll have to work on that...

During the three days I did feel at times like I was slightly slurring my words, and my mouth, particularly my lips, got very dry at points. But no one had to ask me to repeat anything.

I think that my immediate supervisor has breathed a sigh of relief as well... he called at the end of the first day to ask how it went. The relief was evident in his voice; he even commented that he was confident in my assurances that it went well because my voice sounded so good over the phone. You know, I've had this feeling that he was delaying assigning the training to me, taking it on himself when he really didn't have the time, prepping the other team members to deliver the training because he wasn't sure I would ever be up to it...

Wow. I'm sure glad that I made it through without any ill effects. Now that I have proven I can actually do it, I will start concentrating on the curriculum and adding my own spin to the presentation. It (the curriculum) was tuned up while I was away, but even still I am not totally comfortable with what it is. We do license it from a third party, so I will have to be a little bit careful with what I do to it. My 'national roadshow' doesn't get started in earnest until late April, so I do have plenty of time. Although, there is a really strong possibility that I will be going to Washington, DC at the beginning of April to do some training for a group within our American practice that is supporting one of our major American clients.

The kid and her husband got back from what he was describing before they left as their 'last vacation'. I suspect that he sees a major change in their lifestyle with the imminent birth of their first child. Hey, it made me laugh...

The trip wasn't the best.

They went to the Dominican Republic and were extremely disappointed by it. Customer service levels were not what they've come to expect from their experiences in Cuba and St. Lucia, or even in Mexico. The food, especially the preparation of meats, left a lot to be desired. It rained far too much for K.'s comfort level. And they had one driver on an excursion that had to be told to slow down because K. was getting tossed around unmercifully in the back of the jeep they were in. D. was quite concerned that she, or the baby would be hurt, so used his size, subverting his normally gentle demeanor to intimidate the driver into slowing down and driving reasonably. The ironic part is that they were on their way to do a few hours worth of ATVing on a beach... the roads must have been pretty extreme for the ride to and back from the ATV site to have been rougher than than the actually activity!

Well, given the frequency with which I've been updated this blog lately, I figured it was about time to do something with it, anything... so at the tail end of a fine Family Day, I've just poured myself a glass of homemade wine (from a kit; none of that squish-the-grapes-yourself stuff...too much work!) and sat down to write something. The wine isn't too terrible... but still plonk-ish at best. Maybe it will get better with age? Well, at least it's saving money, right? This low quality wine would cost at least $10.00... I can make and bottle my own for about $3.00, plus my labour... And it is a wine that doesn't dry my mouth out completely... Normally I would drink scotch. I've found that scotch does not affect my dry mouth syndrome, strangely enough. But I'm just about out, I can't bring my self to venture into the -15 C, regardless of how sunny it is...

"It never rains, but it pours..." I'm sure where that quote comes from, originally, but it sure seems to be a valid truism. Just when I was beginning to question my effectiveness at work, all sorts of things have reared up to demand my attention! Things are so busy right now that our little team had to have a meeting to try to coordinate all the work, set priorities and generally attempt to get a handle on how we're going to get to the end of March without upsetting any of our clients. I was asked to shift a couple of process assessments to April so that I could take on an increased role for the special evaluation of a set of processes at Alberta Justice. I'm also working through the build of an instruction manual for a new assessment tool, but have had to hand a big chunk of it off to another consultant.... but I am expected to guide her through it. It appears that my approach to the design of the manual is a big hit with the gentleman in charge of the project. That's two items that are really good for my ego!

At the end of next week (Saturday) G. and I fly off to Las Vegas. I am attending an ITSM Conference... she is just coming along for the ride. Kinda cool is the ability to meet with some of the minds that we consult with on a fairly regular basis... team members from as far away as Halifax, Montreal and Toronto will be there... It should be very interesting. And entertaining... we still haven't decided which shows we will try to see this time.

And speaking of conferences, I've been shortlisted as a speaker for a major ITSM conference being held in Houston, TX during September of 2009. I have a phone interview tomorrow with the selection board... who will decide if I should be permitted to pursue the opportunity. Pursuit means that I have to actually sit down and write the presentation and submit it to them by the end of March... which isn't a big deal except that...

I have two white paper proposals that have been accepted as finalists in the corporate National 'Call for Papers' competition. The finished papers are due by March 20th... One paper is 'shared' with Zubair, and the other is mine and mine alone. Unfortunately, the competition is a wee bit high profile within the firm, so I can't back out of either paper... But on the upside, the winning paper gets $5000.00, with good money for a second or third place finish as well. Hell, even being an 'also ran' after this point is a good thing, so long as the final product is of reasonable quality.

And we're embarking on a new national training initiative. We have a team of four who are prepared to present ITIL V3 certification training under the corporate logo... at this time, I've got something like fourteen three day sessions, beginning with one the week of March 9th in Edmonton, that will take me to Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Halifax, all before December 2009. I'm seriously thinking of contacting the various cancer institutes along the way to offer to do some 'guest speaking' while I'm in town... if there is a need/desire. But if the response I've had from the Cross Cancer Institute is any indication, I won't be doing much...

I'm really looking forward to the training... it is something that I really enjoy. The challenge is whether or not my voice, tongue and throat are up to talking for three days straight. I certainly hope so!

Ya, I know that I'm doing a terrible job of keeping this blog updated. I'd like to say that I'm horrendously busy... but that's not entirely true. What I am is intellectually beat at the end of each day, lately. There are other things swirling around me that are emotionally draining, even though they don't directly affect me. And after evaluating all that, I just don't feel that I have something to contribute, or it isn't something that I'm comfortable discussing online, or it shouldn't be added to the drivel found on the Internet...

Since I have discovered who some of the core readers of this blog are, I find myself censoring more and more... an awful lot of "oh, that might come across as hurtful to person X" or "person Y might take issue with that" and even a lot of "well, that's none of that person's business", and even some of "will that person use it against this other person?". I've become quite sensitized...

Topics for future exploration, exploitation, or avoidance:

• personal bankruptcies--why its happening to people I know
• family dramas made more severe by the recession
• getting ready for all day training sessions again--am I really up to it?
• why is the Cross Cancer Institute ignoring my offer?

Experience is a mistake we remember.