Serendipity
Last night, I was up until almost 5am! What was I doing? Just shooting the breeze basically. I seem to have be doing that a lot this week.
I went up to San Francisco again to have dinner with the Voxilla crew and meet some people–some expected, some unexpected. The unexpected was this lady named Lisa, whom I ended up hanging out with well after dinner. Since I had a car and people needed rides to hotels in The City and to San Mateo, and I was going down to Sunnyvale on 101, it was all on the way. I took the two people to their hotels and then I drove Lisa down to San Mateo–after I found the freeway of course. 
Lisa invited me to an Irish pub for a beer in San Mateo, so we hung out and talked for quite a while. Later, her friend who is down at a club down on Castro Street in Mountain View called Lisa up and asked her to come down and dance and stay the evening at his house. Mountain View is right next to Sunnyvale, so again “on the way.” We swing by Lisa’s place, grab and drop off some stuff, and head on down to Mountain View. “You must dance two songs” Lisa tells me. I dance like a cross between a white boy and an albino, but hey, what the hell.
By the time we get to Mountain View, it is just after 1:30am. Since the club closes at 2am, the bouncer did not allow us to go inside. More talking ensues and eventually her friend Eric comes out. So do about 100 or so other people in that club as well as the club across the street.
It’s 2am, we’re standing outside of a club talking, and the cops are all over the place. So are a lot of taxis to take the drunk people home. Eventually the croud clears out and the three of us are standing around on the street in the chilly January evening. We eventually move the conversation over to Eric’s house, which is just down the street.
So here I am sitting on a meditation pillow on the floor of Eric’s living room at 4am in the morning. By this point, I am starting to get a little sleepy. I stay up late, but not usually that late. And we’re still talking. I finally manage to break away at about 4:30am after exchanging contact information. I get back to the hotel, pack my suitcase, peck out a quick email to the office letting them know I was out a bit late, and might not be in until a bit later in the morning, and finally passed out about 5am.
So what did I talk about with these strangers whom I hadn’t met before this evening? Everything. I was in quite a talkative mood. And I really needed to hash out what’s been going on in my life with people who weren’t heavily involved in it. I got quite a different perspective on things, which I definitely needed.
What has been going on? A lot. This week at work, I have been working through some issues with my boss, or at least he who will likely be my boss. Things are slowing down for the both of us for the first half of 2006. We are both going to take the time to take some training. I am going to take some VoIP training in mid-April, one of those “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” class, and, if we can find it, at least one class on Product Lifecycle Management since that is a direction we are likely going in. That should keep me busy for the next 6 months. Whether they lay me off or not (always possible), at least I will have gotten some training under my belt.
Meanwhile, Voxilla is picking up steam as well. We’ve hired some new staff, which I met this week. Some new projects are starting up, including a couple I need to do. I can see some conflicts coming for my time. At some point, I am going to have to choose between the two and I’m not sure which choice to make. But the time has not come yet, so I will not worry now.
One of my character flaws is that I always like to “be busy.” When I find myself going idle, I am always looking for something to do. Whether it be blogging, reading RSS feeds, listening to podcasts, or anything else, I will find a way to fill the time. This is actually a liability, it turns out, because I rarely spend any time just, well, “enjoying” myself. I also don’t spending time thinking about things, at least not too often.
One of the things Lisa and Eric helped me to identify is that I need to “make space” for things. This can mean taking some time to “just be silly,” meditating, or just “doing nothing.” Nothing. What a concept. I can’t remember when I spent time doing that. But I’m sure I need it once in a while.
I also need some time with my wife with no kids. I’ve known that, I’m just not too sure how to go about finding that time.
Anyway, a little bit of serendipity was just what I needed to get a little direction in life, or at least a much needed shift in perspective.
