Last Day Chillin'

Last day chillin'
Originally uploaded by Susie Barber

Well, the day has finally come: after 9 months of unemployment (3 months of which were spent traveling and 2.5 months of which were spent healing from my stupid bike crash), I start working tomorrow. Yep, you heard it right -- I'm going to be working.

I was lucky enough to get a year-long contract with Cisco working as a Business Analyst in their Business Collaboration Technology unit. This group is bringing social networking technologies to Cisco's 100,000+ employees world-wide. It is over the hill in San Jose, but I can telecommute some. Who would have thought that I'd end up with such a cool job in this economy? I really feel like I hit the lottery.

I do have to admit, that while I'm relieved to land a job and excited about the work I'll be doing, I'm sad that my semi-retirement is at an end. It's been pretty liberating to wake up each day and decide what I'd like to do for the day (without spending much money, of course). I've had the opportunity to travel to parts of the world that I never thought I'd get to, catch up on all my reading, get a lot of bike riding in (until the crash) and just generally decompress and reassess my life. My priorities are definitely different than they were a year ago and I feel much more "chill". I know what you're thinking, but I stopped taking my pain killers and muscle relaxants more than a month ago!

I'm extremely lucky to have traveled and spent so much time out of work without incurring any credit card debt, selling my boat, or touching my retirement accounts. Hell, I still have money left in my checking account. Though I do wish I had the money to remain retired forever, that's just not the case yet.

But in the meantime, I can honestly say that getting laid off last summer was the best thing that ever happened to me.

The Long Awaited Update

On the morphine drip
Originally uploaded by Susie Barber

OK, so sorry for not updating in so long, but I have my reasons. Firstly, I did manage to send in two entries to the Wonderlust and Lipstick travel writing contest. I wanted to do more, but I'll get to that in a minute. At Erika's suggestion, I sent in the 'incompetent guide' entry from my time in Chitwan. And while I could have picked from so many great memories (the elephants and camping on "the beach" in Thailand, spending some of Ramadan in the Middle East, the African safari), I sent in another Nepal story. What can I say? Nepal was just my favorite place and my time with Prem staying in that small village warms my heart every time I think about it. It's probably the most "authentic" experience that I had (meaning least touristy). We'll see how it goes.

Now, you might wonder, why only 2 entries. Well for those of you who don't follow along on Facebook or Twitter, I had a bit of a cycling accident. I won't bore you with the details -- Sarah wrote it up very nicely here. The damage: 4 broken ribs (numbers 3-6 in back and they're not very clean fractures) and a cracked collar bone. We'll ignore the bruised shoulder blade for now. After some hours in a San Luis Obispo ER, they let me go back to Santa Cruz (with a friend driving). After a day at home, I had some muscle spasms that made it nearly impossible to breathe and I thought that I had punctured a lung. So after a quick call, Patti took me to the ER and I was admitted into the hospital for a few days. And, since we found out that morphine makes me itch really bad, I was strung out on both morphine and benedryl for some time. Who knew benedryl could be injected into IVs? Patti took me home for a couple of days after and since, I've been back home getting by with some help from my friends. And pain killers. I saw my doctor yesterday and get to start PT in a week or so. I get to pedal the bike on the trainer as soon as I can get someone to help me set that up. So things are looking up. The job search is just a bit on hold for now.

Anyway, I was remiss in getting more contest entries in. Hope you understand.

I Need Your Help!

Lost City of the Incas
Originally uploaded by flower_bee

Probably the biggest regret that I have about my travels this year is that I didn't have the time or money to go to South America. At the time I bought my plane tickets, I decided to skip that continent because I have plenty of frequent flier miles on American Airlines and can go any time I want.

Today the Wonderlust and Lipstick blog was brought to my attention. It's a site written by a woman who has traveled extensively and now writes travel books and is the definitive authority on how to travel solo for women. I wish I knew about this site before leaving for my trip and I really wish I read her book on India before going. But that's beside the point.

Currently, there's a contest on her site and the winner gets a trip to South America visiting the Amazon and traveling down the Inca Trail. How cool would it be to win that? All I have to do is write a travel story and submit it by 1/31/09. Even better is that the judges are all travel writers and editors and I'd so love to get their feedback on some of my writing!

So, what's your favorite entry that I posted on my trip? What place would you like me to write more about? And what posts should I just plain avoid for this contest? Please, I really need to know what stories you liked the most because I can't be objective. HELP ME!


And for those of you who didn't follow the trip, just check the blog archives starting back in July.

The Trainer

Today I just couldn't get myself out the door to go for a ride. It wasn't raining or anything, but it was cold when I rode yesterday and it was even colder today and I just didn't want to do it. And, of course, I kept procrastinating getting on the trainer because riding the trainer is just so much fun.

But then the postman came and brought me a couple of NetFlix rentals. There it was: Mamma Mia!. So I thought, "what the hell"? It has tunes to pedal by, after all. Before you know it, I was riding the trainer with the TV volume cranked singing at the top of my lungs. Proudly, I only knew a few of the songs and didn't know all of the lyrics to any of them. But I'm good at making them up. Yes, I was kinda boogying on the saddle through every song and nearly crashed during Dancing Queen. If I hadn't have set up next to the dining room table, I would have hit the carpet. "Dancing on the pedals" has a whole new meaning to me now. I made it through the entire movie and then did my crunches during the closing credits (which were better than the movie).

A few quick observations:

1. Pierce Brosnan, though fantastic eye candy, CANNOT SING. He should never do a musical again.
2. Meryl Streep needs to do Dancing with the Stars.
3. My sit bones are much happier when I'm sitting upright swinging my arms to the music.
4. Riding rollers would have put me in the hospital today.
5. I really need a job so that I stop doing stupid things like this.

My Favorite Time Trialist

I'm Pooped

For whatever reason, I've been on a roll since I woke up yesterday. Here's what I've gotten done in the last two days:

• Wrote the annual Christmas letter and sent out all cards
• Wrapped all Christmas presents and got the shipping done
• 4 loads of laundry
• Cleaned the entire house, including the oven and windows
• Reorganized the bike stuff in the garage
• Cleaned out the inside of the car, including vacuuming
• Mowed the back yard and weeded all the flower beds
• Raked all leaves from the damned willow tree
• Cut back morning glory, ginger and freesia in the yard
• Washed and lubed the road bike
• Completely reorganized my closets
• Cleaned out the fridge
• Balanced all bank accounts

So I rewarded myself by going to see a matinee showing of Milk this afternoon. Good movie. And I should finish the book I'm reading tonight. I really need to find a job soon, just to keep me from going crazy.

Gotta Love Saturday Night Live!

I Just Had to Post This