something delicious, P.E.

Stuff

Quick life update here between appointments:

• Ran leg 5 of the VT City Marathon relay (5.6 miles) in 54 minutes and some seconds.  A new PR for that distance.  Our team did great too, coming in 333 out of 780 teams (or something like that).
• Started the Tuesday night trail running series at the local mtn bike place.  ouch.  hopefully tomorrow will be easier.
• Passed my professional engineer's exam, so now I get to have a couple of initials after my name in the professional world.
• Am leaving for Hawaii in exactly 2 days.   2 DAYS!!!

soy un perdedor

I've officially decided to postpone my taking of the PE exam until the spring.  Why?  Because I haven't started studying and the fall exam is scheduled for the end of October.  Why?  Because I've been too busy with work, and also too busy having fun to study.  Why?  Soy un perdedor.  Because I'm a loser and apparently do not give a shit about my career. At least I am good for remembering song lyrics and low-level Spanish.

The good news is that I've been cleared by the VT PE Board to take the test, which is now the only thing that stands between me and being a licensed professional is many hours of studying and eight hours of figurin' and filling in circles with a number two pencil.  Really the biggest hurdle to clear will be my own procrastination.

I felt a huge sense of relief though, the minute I decided to wait.  That shit was seriously hanging over my head like a big dark cloud of unworthiness.  Nothing has changed though, I really don't have any more free time.  But now I can be busy without thinking about how I'm not studying.  I won't have to do that for a couple of months.  I can enjoy the fall season and all it has to offer...crispy leaves and whatnot. 

I should be filling out my PE application right now

My application for a Professional Engineer license is due next Thursday.  The license that gives me the power to design things--by myself.  The license that lets people sue me when I make mistakes.  The license that gives me a fat raise and an extra 5 days of vacation. 

I'm getting ahead of myself.  First, I need to actually START FILLING OUT THE APPLICATION.  All of the items that are the responsibility of others-- the five professional references, the proof of education, notice of passing score on the FE, etc.-- are taken care of, but the items that I'm in charge of--namely the outline of my past 5 years of work experience--still sit waiting for me to touch them. 

I feel like the worst professional ever.  I'd honestly rather be watching RockStar (Josh sucks, he's a creepy Backstreet Boy, not a rock star) than working on something that will further my career.  I do wish I cared more. 

This weekend was 95+ degrees, which would have been the perfect opportunity to sit my ass in front of the computer and crank out five or six pages of work experience.  Instead, I went shopping and bought this:

The most gorgeous book cabinet in the world on extra-reduced clearance at an "all discontinued items" tent sale.  It has drawers on the bottom for my laptop and associated power cords.  Joe was kind enough to drill a small hole through the back of the drawer so I can charge my laptop inside the drawer.   In my defense: tent sale.

Day two of the hotty hotness would also have been a fine time for career-furtherin', but I chose instead to hike with Joe and the pups to our secret swimming spot on the lake.  After four miles of sweat dripping in the eyes and bugs sticking to the sweat, we arrived at our spot only to find five yachts (gasp!) tied together and anchored in the cove, and dozens of beautiful, well-groomed folk with their squealing, privileged children enjoying the lake.   Evvy had no problem crashing the party (PEOPLE!  I LOVE PEOPLE!!  I NEED TO GO LICK THEIR LEGS AND DO MY BOUNCY DOG DANCE FOR THEM!), but I was smelly, muddy, and was wearing the old bathing suit that is beginning to wear thin on the right butt-cheek, so we called her back and moved on to a less desirable, but equally refreshing swimming location.

My point is, why can I not focus on what most people deem one of the most important aspects of their lives?  Eh, careers.  Like now, for instance:  I am typing stories and questions when I should be describing to the VT Board of Professional Engineering how I designed a stormwater treatment facility for a small commercial office building back in November of 2002.

Enough self doubt for now, this chick is going to go decorate a cake.

may contain adult references

This evening was the first official meeting of the Vermont chapter of Engineers without Borders.  I signed on as the secretary, mainly because I wanted to help out in some way but I am too lazy to be either the President, Vice President, or worse, Fundraising Chair.  Treasurer would have been cake too, but someone had gobbled that up by the time my two week standard waiting period for volunteering had passed.  So now I am in charge of minutes and probably something else.

Because our chapter is just getting off the ground, we had a man with a curly white mustache and snakeskin boots come to our little meeting and give us some pointers on how to get things moving, with project selection, etc.  He presented a fascinating slide show on a recent trip that his chapter had taken to Kenya to help with a village water system, a very popular Engineers w/o Borders type project.  I learned that Nairobi is a very dangerous city, so time spent there should amount to stepping off the airplane and immediately leaving.  I also learned that Kenya is actually very lush and has several gorgeous waterfalls, unlike the desert plains Lion King scene I had been picturing in my mind. 

In a seperate, somewhat more valuable lesson, I'm now going to tell you why, if you are making a public presentation using your personal computer and a projector, you need to know EXACTLY what is on your screen saver.  After Mr. Snakeskin Boots finished his slideshow we were in the middle of discussing how best to select a project for borderless engineering when the projector screen went from the standard windows background to black, and a photograph started to automatically reveal itself in the lower left corner of the screen, from the bottom up.  I thought, 'sweet, he has pictures of Kenya as his screen saver', and what I initially saw as two water jugs carried in a couple of nets actually revealed itself to be a woman in (only) thigh-high white fishnet stockings bent over kissing her own knees accepting the results of a very excited man standing directly behind her.  Photograph number two unrolled itself left to right in the upper right-hand corner of the screen and was also burned into my brain, but I'm a lady and I will not describe it (there was a horse).

Mr. Snakeskin Boots literally dove out of his chair toward his laptop and disconnected the projector cord faster than it took for the redness to work it's way from my neck up to my forehead.  I'm glad the lights were turned off.  He said a few things that I'm sure no one remembers and we all laughed uncomfortably about how not to attract people to our organization.  I couldn't look at the man anymore without cracking up and thinking PERVERT! But Joe was more forgiving and thought that he had been the victim of a cruel teenage prank.  That dude learned his lesson the hard way, no pun intended.

it got better

My birthday was not a wasted day after all.  I had a really good meeting with the client whose project had just been denied.  Turns out, he didn't think it was my fault at all, but rather the fault of the evil doer P.J. Rohnston who, by the way, just had a nasty Letter to the Editor written about him and his evilness in the local paper by a group of residents.

I had a successful dinner party, complete with several complements on my cooking (please, I skewered some bits of steak and veggies.  However, I did prepare a tasty marinade for the steak bits, so yes, I guess I am awesome).  We all ate, drank, and were merry.  It was evident, though, that our little house is nearly at capacity with six adults, three large dogs, and one baby.

My friends and family are awesome.  My parents sent me a nice package with these and this.  I do believe I will have the most clever luggage on the baggage claim.  My suitcase will be thanking me for making it look so smart.  I received several e-mail birthday wishes and even some in the mail.  My grandma even called me last night to say "just thinking about you on your birthday, dear".  How sweet was that?  Oh, and my new biking shoes finally came in.  I did purchase them myself, but the fact that they arrived on my birthday made it extra special.

managing managers

My new business cards came in at work this morning, having been edited to read "Project Manager*/ Engineer" beneath my name instead of plain old "Engineer".  Big deal, I manage projects.  To me, the word manager holds some negative connotation.  It can be heard muttered under coffee breaths in offices around the world "man, my manager is such an asshole".  Technically, I'm managing projects and not people, but some days I do have to talk to a person or two and convince them to get some work done for me already.  Managers can also be the 40-year-old man with a mustache working at your neighborhood KFC just for the fringe benefit of being able to legally assert dominance over 15-year-olds.

I asked my coworker if he might rather have the words "Warrior, Poet" written beneath his name on his business card instead of "Project Manager/ Engineer", which of course he thought was a fantastic idea because while some women might swoon over the security of gettin' with a project manager/engineer, who the hell is going to resist the lovemaking potential of a warrior, poet?  Speaking of warriors, for some reason I have held on to a business card that my dad jokingly made for my brother while we were in high school and I have to share:

This thing cracks me up because if a warrior is a good thing, a warrior at large is a better thing.  Plus the neanderthal rambo thing is pretty happening.

In all honesty, despite my previous experience with fast food managers, I am proud to display the title because, let's face it, I enjoy handling, controlling, and directing.  The title also tells important people that I am competent enough to not only engineer, but to also manage whilst the engineering is happening (cue clip of self back-patting).  Off I go now to control something.

*manager- One who handles, controls, or directs.