there's a part of me that's waiting / and a part of me that ain't looking back

SD 2221–2264: April showers bring May showers and here I stay waiting to collect my flowers. Or something. I never really love spring and this one has been kind of a dud with a lot of rain and wind limiting the amount of days I’d consider “nice” (69 degrees) weather-wise.

We had an outdoor / picnic pre-mid / late April hang. Here’s how Dane felt about it.

Everything is going great and perfect and I am experiencing a normal amount of stress in reaction to the world.

New job is starting off strong with us heading off to a weeklong work retreat in the Dominican Republic less than a month into the job.

The DR is a beautiful place to spend the morning in a hotel conference room (because you get to spend the afternoon in the pool and the evening at the beach. At least some people did!).

There were games throughout the week, both of which I was promptly eliminated from the first night. I also got to give a bit of a talk which I felt good about.

It was a tiring week that I’ll better prepare for next year but hard to argue with the locale! Best part was meeting all the new coworkers and interacting in person, outside of the Zoom box.

I was excited for the flight back to stare out the window and zone out. Unfortunately the plane had other plans.

It was no rest for the wicked as the first weekend back I shipped off via Amtrak to see my mom and Brandi and her family for Mother’s Day and Brandi’s birthday.

Made our important Pizza Lucé pilgrimage (twice). Good to see the family and niblings.

Also made it to see The Devil Wears Prada 2.

I have not yet gotten to Babu Frik out.

I missed out on Mother’s Day brunch since I was up all Saturday night which abdominal pain. It was something indeterminate between reflux and indigestion and a gallstone attack. Testing didn’t actually show any gallbladder issues, so my body just wanted to make sure I lost a night’s sleep in keeping with this year’s medical themes.

I tested out not taking the day off and working on the train for the quick weekend St. Paul trip. The trip there on Friday leaving at 3pm was fine as could just finish up the week’s work for the first two hours. I did the Empire Builder for this trip rather than Borealis, so there was no WiFi. Tethering to my phone mostly held up, but the ride back on Monday from 8am to 4pm was trickier. I was on 3 or 4 calls but service would drop in or out. So working is possible, but better to avoid any calls so as to not annoy coworkers. I was able to bid up to a Roommette for the trip back which was a nice bit of luxury for a moving office.