Catching Up

I took some time off from the blog over the past week or so. I was coming off a long stretch of travel and wanted to spend time resting and catching up around the house. Blogging just fell to the bottom of the priority list. But some cool things have been happening and I’ve got a few hours with nothing better to do, so I’ll go ahead and catch you up on what’s been happening.

While I was in the Seattle area, I got first wind of a new opportunity coming my way. One of my three accounts was being moved to another division. I was given the option of moving with that customer or staying on my current team with my remaining customers. When I returned home, I also got word that one of those remaining customer would probably not be renewing their contract. The new division would give me some additional money, higher profile assignments, and the travel opportunities would be more exotic.

My current manager has been the best I’ve ever worked with and my team is a great group of guys (and a gal). However, the current job would be reduced to one customer for a while, and I would probably be moved to a new manager and a new team. Since change was inevitable, I went for the money. I may end up looking back on the past year as the good times, but I’m happy about the change for now.

I started working with a local theater company as a volunteer grunt. Shakespeare Carolina is a pretty descriptive name for this low budget group of very dedicated actors, directors and stage hands. My buddy Falstaff is one of the driving forces behind SC which is why I decided to go with them. I almost always enjoy hanging out with him (losing money in a poker game is occasionally the possible exception). Working on the current production has not been an exception. I only spent a few hours on The Taming of the Shrew. I expect there will be a lot more to do in Falstaff’s production of Hamlet come July. In that play, kings get killed a lot, just like when I play poker. I’m looking forward to it.

Right now I am on a flight from Charlotte to Los Angeles for my last scheduled database performance workshop. This one is in Simi Valley on the northern edge of Greater Los Angeles. I’ll get to LA before noon. I hope it keeps going as well as the start (see next post).