Since late May, I’ve tried two pots of basil out in my yard. Both
of them have ended like this:
I don’t know what’s eating them, but I wish whoever it is would
stop. I’m not growing this stuff for lacy beauty; I want herbs for caprese
salad and tomato mayonnaise and salade Niçoise.
I spent three hours yesterday interviewing for a product
management position for an industry leader in cyber security. It’s my aspirational
job in my aspirational company in my aspirational industry.
A lot of people helped me with this. Encouragement, support,
connections. Less than 24 hours after I sent the job details and the names of
the hiring manager and recruiter to the fellow
I “met” on Twitter, I had an email from the recruiter to set up a call, and
the hiring manager had viewed my LinkedIn profile. That was literally two weeks
ago.
(And I was able to find that information on the hiring manager and
the recruiter because of a connection I made (also through someone on Twitter)
with someone who works in the company. Both of these have been unstinting in
their encouragement. Rob and Dave—you guys totally rock.)
In those two weeks, I’ve spoken with six people on the phone,
despite last week being Black Hat (huge industry conference), and then they
pulled together the interview with three of them who are locally based yesterday.
Every single conversation I’ve had has been invigorating and I felt
extraordinarily comfortable talking with these people. The challenge they need
help with is exactly the sort of thing I love and I get the feeling that my
colleagues would be welcoming and supportive.
Friends have counseled me on my interview attire; I bought a skirt
and practiced wearing real shoes. (I’ve basically worn nothing but trainers for
a couple of years.) I even wore makeup, which I scrubbed off the instant I got
home. (The hair, however—well, it’s August in the District They Call Columbia.
My bad hair day will not end until late September.) The air between GMT and PDT
pulsed with the positive energy people were sending me, and I went into this
interview absolutely #playingtowin.
Next steps are that they'll confer and get back to me "shortly". So now—like those folks in Casablanca—we wait…
UPDATE: Recruiter called me to reported, “so far I’ve had positive
feedback”, which is what he’s said after each of the calls I had with the team.
So still waiting, but there’s an exit visa about.
Saturday I went to the People’s Republic’s farmers market to pick
up some bits and bobs for Sunday’s
dinner. This included blueberries for the pavlovas. And here’s something
that I’ve not seen before:
A hairnet for berry punnets.
Now, this is what I call innovation—solving a real problem for
real people. If you try to carry home any kind of berry in open containers,
they jump out all over the place. And even if you empty the punnet into a
plastic bag, the berries get squashed.
A few weeks ago, I unpacked my good china. For five years it sat
in a dish-pack in a Sunnyvale garage. I briefly unpacked it when I moved to
Arlington, but never used it before it went back into a carton for the move to
the People’s Republic, where it sat in a closet for more than two years.
Once it was out, however, I realized I now have enough plates to
invite people over for dinner. I also dug around and found my serving dishes;
yay! So last night I hosted three friends for a summer meal—chicken, squash,
salad and pavlovas. I’m still working out the technical details of sourdough
baguettes, so I had a backup from the farmers market. I’m a girl who likes
redundant systems.
Today I’m grateful that finally clearing out that carton inspired
me to invite friends to come over for supper and discussion. I’ve missed this.
