16 gigs of music and there’s nothing on my iPhone I feel like listening to this morning in my office. I’m constantly pulled back to Aaron Lewis tunes on dark cold days like today. It’s a Monday, the first day of what’s to become 5 weeks of non-stop work focus, the starting line to our first release on this project I’ve been involved with since September of last year. It’s been a rollercoaster lesson in project management, and I can only assume this audience isn’t too keen on hearing all of the ins and outs of how this thing has progressed, I’ll keep it short and simple. It’s been chaos, over and underwhelming at times. It’s been some 65+ hours a week, and a few where I could simply coast. In a nutshell, it’s been intense, and we’re just getting started. We’re scheduled to start UAT (User Acceptance Testing) this week, where we’ll do everything we can to break the system, make sure everything we’ve built works as designed, and anything we break, fix before we roll it out live the first week of May. I’ll be heading to Dallas, TX next week to work with my team there on how to use this beautiful new thing we’ve designed and built, come home for a week for some last minute fixes and meetings, and then turn right back around to Dallas to launch this bad boy. From there, who knows where to next. Right now there’s talk of Cairo and El Salvador for a week at a pop, and as much fun as that sounds, my cynical side is resisting and just wanting to stay put for a little bit. Anyone seen my old adventure hat??
So yeah, I’m stuck in this work-centric juxtaposition when I’d much rather be on the broader topic of me and all the things that you guys love reading. I’ve had some pretty killer weekends lately, met some super rad people, hung out with the best of my friends (well, not all of them), seen some ridiculous moments of alcohol induced humility, spent some amazing time with my amazing son, talked on the phone for hours with people too far away to hug, and simply have just been smiling all along the way. It’s been a huge relief honestly, letting go of the parts that hold back smiles, real smiles, and just enjoying this wild ride. I know you want more than that, and I’d love to divulge all of the dirt and empty out the skeletons, but I’m still a gentleman. Some things, you just keep close to the chest, others to the hip.
Interesting concept posted by a good friend this morning. It’s called the Six Word Memoir, and made me stop and think about what 6 words could ultimately end up on my headstone? It’s funny, the first thing I came up with, I actually stole borrowed in my Senior Year quote “Words and Music, My Only Tools” from a Mother Love Bone song. Since then, I’ve had a couple other originals such as “Don’t you only get one shot?” and “The beginning of the end, again” and so on. Give it a shot, what six words would you end with?
There’s my gems today, give me time, “I’m sure there’s more of this coming” (couldn’t resist one more)
Stay blessed-
