( 37 pictures, some rather large )
I think one of the reasons I mentally eyeroll (just a little bit, I promise) at people when they go one about turning 30 oh noes, is that my 30s have been hands down the best decade of my life so far. So very many good things have happened to me over the last 10 years that if I had to pick a decade to relive, it would be this one.
For most of my 20s, I was still in college, with all these unrealistic dreams about where my life and career was going to go. I let the guys I was dating have too much influence over my life decisions. I won't say that I made bad choices, because I didn't really, but I made a lot of choices that embarrass me a little when I look back at them now. I didn't realize how much growing up I still had to do. On my 30th birthday I had a party with a couple dozen friends, and I thought my life was stable and that it would be this way for the next forty years.
But then things began to change. I'd made more friends at work, people with no connection to my husband. I was the sole income-earner and I think it did a lot for my self-confidence. I started making some real significant contributions at work, started spending time with a different group of people who introduced me to a lot of things I hadn't tried before and never thought I would. I started looking at my life with a more critical eye, noticing that there were a lot of things that weren't going the way I wanted them to, and finally realized that I really did have the power to change things... if I could just find the courage to risk it.
In my thirties, I realized that my marriage wasn't beneficial to me, and found the strength to ask for a divorce.
In my thirties, I dove into the puzzling world that I enjoy so much, and from which I've made so many friends.
In my thirties, I re-evaluated the conviction I'd had that I would never had kids, and realized it hadn't been my own but my ex-husband's conviction.
In my thirties, I lived on my own for the first time since the college dorms. I became a solo homeowner. I weathered some ups and downs at my job and when it became toxic, somehow found it in me to walk away from that as well.
In my thirties, I found that I really could stand up for what I believed even when it wasn't popular; that I could say what I was really feeling without worrying that my friends would laugh at me for it; that saying "Why not?" instead of "Why?" could lead to some fantastic experiences.
So when I see people talking with some trepidation about turning 30, or sounding like it's the beginning of the end, I just... I don't quite get it anymore. I expect I was probably the same way when I was 29, and now I kind of laugh at myself for it. I had no idea of anything that was about to happen, or about how my 30s would be more about opening windows than closing doors. Lots and lots of windows.
And you know what? I'm sure my friends who've already passed that 40th birthday milestone see me eyeing it warily, and they probably do a little mental eyeroll as well. Because I have no idea what the next ten years are going to hold, and for all I know they're going to leave my 30s in the dust.
You're not over the hill until you've been buried on one.
- Mood:
optimistic
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2){kind=small}
sparckl) interviewed Jeff and I for a podcast a couple weeks ago, talking about the [large] overlap between our puzzle life and our family life. You can listen to it here if you have about 25 minutes to spare. Also: you get to listen to me being giggly, then trying to sound serious and not giggly, then back to being giggly again.Total Eclipse of the Moon - NASA Science
Adding to the coolness factor is that since it's happening around moonset, we'll get that optical illusion where the moon appears larger than usual. Lots of great photo ops.
For those not in North America, there's a link on that page to a global visibility map with times in Universal Time (same as GMT, I think). Unfortunately it looks like it's going to hit western Europe mid-afternoon, but maybe if it's getting dark early these days you'll be able to see it?
This is SO COOL to me. Several years ago, also in December, there was one that started around 8 p.m. or so, and I remember standing outside in one of the Microsoft parking lots watching it. People around me were all heading to their cars and hardly anyone stopped to look up.
Not just internet fame, but internet HOTness. Awww yeah.
But there are some people who love it even more than I do. For example, some people use Tableau visualizations as their Twitter background.
Although the fact that I saw the dots and instantly recognized them as a standard Tableau style probably points right back to my own geekiness too.
Last weekend Team SharkBait played in the World Henchman Organization game. Since one of our usual team members (Jay/QQ) was hosting, we recruited Scott's brother Chad to step in. Chad has played in a couple puzzlehunts as well as Shinteki...5? The one with the colors, the one where I was 7 months pregnant and my team pulled me from one of the more physical events. But I digress. The point is simply that while Chad hadn't done a full overnight game, he was no rookie either.
Friday night was a banquet dinner, and [REDACTED]. Afterwards SharkBait swung by a Safeway on our way back to the hotel to stock up on snacks. As usual, we overpurchased, but I think we're getting better at it because we ended up with a lot less this time. It helped that GC had promised on their website that they'd be providing meals at several points along the way.
Saturday morning started out with us in... oh, probably the upper mid-pack, I'd say. We hit [REDACTED] at the same time as a bunch of other teams, and similarly with [REDACTED]. But we were picking up speed, and by the time we got to [REDACTED] we were running fourth out of twenty. This held up through dinner and [REDACTED].
After [REDACTED] we were well ahead of GC's staffing schedule, and since we happened to be not too far from my house I wanted to swing by and pick up something I'd forgotten to pack. But en route, we called GC to let them know we were taking a detour and they told us no, we've found a way to open the next site early, go there instead. So we did. Again, we were fourth or fifth to arrive. But for the first time in SharkBait's history, we were first to leave! And we managed to hang on to that lead for several sites, thanks in part to a [REDACTED] issue and to [REDACTED]'s amazing [REDACTED] skills.
After completing [REDACTED] we found out that there was a [REDACTED] that we should have gotten earlier but didn't due to a small issue with our [REDACTED]. This was the item that triggered this reaction and got us very excited for the next location. Unfortunately, the next one was a [REDACTED] that took us much longer than expected, and between that and the lateness of the hour and some other things, team morale took a big hit. We came into that location first, and we left [REDACTED] out of [REDACTED] teams that visited that site.
Matters didn't improve with the next one, which we later agreed would have been a great [REDACTED] but didn't work well with [REDACTED]. We spent much, much longer there than we wanted to. And to make matters worse, we kept seeing other teams leaving--teams who had arrived after we did. (We found out later that [REDACTED] but obviously we had no way of knowing this at the time.) So, given those two issues hitting us consecutively, I was in a down mood heading to the next site. Plus, my feet were cold and wet from [REDACTED]. The next puzzle itself was actually pretty nice and I wish I'd been less of a grouch for it. And then at one point I had to hand off Excel to one of my teammates because I was falling asleep at the keyboard.
But things improved markedly after that. We had a great time at [REDACTED] made especially enjoyable by [REDACTED]. [REDACTED] was right in our wheelhouse, and [REDACTED] was quick and a lot of fun.
Final standings aren't posted yet. I think we made it into the top five, although we found out afterward that while a few of the leading teams were bashing their heads against [REDACTED], some other teams got to see [REDACTED] instead. I don't know what [REDACTED] was but I think just about anything would have been better than [REDACTED], and I wish we'd been directed there instead, and had gotten to use the extra time for naps.
It's been so long since there's been a real Seattle Game that at several points I had a hard time shaking the feeling that we were playing in yet another MS intern event's beta test. (Especially when we were in the lead.) We had some rough spots (but seriously, cram six people into a van for 36 hours straight and who wouldn't have rough spots?) but we also had some really great moments, including:
- The whole team breaking into a spontaneous rendition of the Bad Horse theme song at [REDACTED]
- Jen and I doing [REDACTED] at [REDACTED]
- GC staff memebr [REDACTED]'s deliciously evil portrayal of [REDACTED]
- The [REDACTED] at [REDACTED] - because these always make me happy
- GC staff member [REDACTED]'s portrayal of [REDACTED], because we love him so much (and also his [REDACTED] later)
- For one brief shining
momentcouple of hours, leading the pack that included teams like Briny Deep, Blood and Bones, and the Burninators. We knew we'd never hang on to that lead, but it was sweet while it lasted. - Obviously, the team reaction to [REDACTED]
