I am very sorry I haven’t written for a few months. It has been the longest short summer of my life. It started the day before father’s day. My dad was at a local hardware store when he had a freakish accident. He was trying to get out of someone’s way and tripped and fell backwards. He ended up fracturing his skull and had 4 hematomas. He was in and out of the ICU for 3 weeks, and ended up having to have emergency craniotomy surgery. It’s hard to believe that my dad went from the brink of death to almost recovered within 8 weeks. But what an amazing 8 weeks it was.

Of the 35 days from the end of June through July, I spent 23 days traveling. Now while this can be rough on anyone, it was probably the hardest for my two pooches. My husband had just come for his longest visit and brought the last of our pets (2 birds, 2 dogs…in 850 sq. ft…yes I know). My poor dogs literally had to spend all day and all night in their crates while being visited 3 times a day for about an hour. I don’t think I have ever felt so guilty in my entire life. My traveling pretty much stopped at the end July with one last trip at the end of August for my baby cousins wedding.

In other news…some of you may remember from my week 9 post that I had gone through some revelations. Well, here is my big announcement…are you ready…I have gone back to acting. Now for those of you who know me as the rational, logical, computer geek are probably going…what the… Fear not, I have not lost my mind completely. Some of you may not have known that I actually spent about 4 years acting in Dallas. It’s not something I advertised a lot since I had the corporate “rep” and all. And how after all, are you going to ask IT directors for millions of dollars to manage if they think you are just a flaky actress. And to alleviate further, I have not as of yet quit “my day job”. I have just merely started to insert my passion back into my life. I am a little lucky that I have managed to age fairly gracefully (due to good genetics..but a little exercise and lots water helps too) which gives me a little more longevity for now at least. Mainly, what I have discovered is that life is just too freaking short to settle.

So in the last few months, I have landed an agent, shot 3 shorts, was an extra on “Leverage” and landed a small role in movie. I also managed to put up a really sad little site www.michelleslezak.com. Some how awesome database skills do not translate to web technology. Although, my husband who is a web guy said he is at least not ashamed to be associated with me. I also have an idea for a project of sorts. I will let you guys in on it a little later.

Till next time.

Michelle

Work is starting to calm down a little because our project is about to go in. We are working through the last of the data issues which seem to be stemming from the fact that its marketing data and not always accurate. But I am now only working about every other day from home and have time to send you guys an email. Also, I think they are about to announce another reorg for my group. So that will be interesting. It’s also year end right now for Microsoft, so we are going through budgeting season and will be doing our commitments and 360s and blah blah blah. At least they are not as crazy as CapOne. I don’t think they really want feedback from one another.

On the personal front, I have finally started to make some friends by where I live. I think now that it’s finally getting really nice out, people are crawling out of their homes. It’s true though that people do not invite you over, they just sort of invite you to hang on their porch and cook out….sort of strange. I also went kayaking for the first time ever on Lake Union. It was definitely an experience. I found out that my arms and shoulders are sadly out of shape, but I’m not that surprised. Oh, and I worked out with my old trainer from Dallas the Tuesday I left, he crippled me for like 3 days, and when my husband told him…he just smiled and evil, trainer smile. That’s just mean. If any of you would like to be beaten into shape, let me know. He is very good at what he does, and he is not that expensive.

Till next week.

Michelle

The main thing I have been doing this weekend is unpacking. I have done over 25 hours of unpacking in the last 3 days and I am about half done. I have 18 bruises on my arms and legs and a variety of box cuts all over. Through the bangs and bruises and I have discovered something….moving BLOWS!!! I now know why people over 25 (or so) don’t move once they have a house, and it’s not to lay roots and have a sense of community. It’s because going through the pain of packing and unpacking may be one of the most miserable exercises ever. In short…it sucks!

Now, you may ask, why did I differentiate between under and over 25. I figured, under 25 you don’t own anything, so your moving experience can’t be that bad yet. Also, you probably have not had to experience downsizing if you are under 25. If I can offer you one piece of advice, try to avoid downsizing at all costs. Unfortunately for the Dallas folks, that means you can never move. You will never be able to afford a house of the same size in any major city outside of Texas. It’s one of the ways they trap you. If you do decide to “take on the adventure”, there is one piece of advice I can offer. Go through your stuff and weed out everything you haven’t used, worn, or thought about for the last half a year. Once you have pared down, double the amount of stuff that you just put in your give away pile. That will give you some idea of what will fit if you decide to pay for extra storage.

I have also figured out the difference between a large house and a small house. While some of you may think the obvious answer is size, it is not. It’s the ability to have redundancy. My husband and I evidently own enough floss, to keep a small city properly dentally hygiened. In a large house, you can have 20 floss containers, because you have ample storage. This is not the case with a small house. In a small house, it’s more of JIT methodology. When you are about to run out of something, you must now go replace it. Same goes for paper towels, napkins, shampoo, and all major consumable goods. No more of the bulk buying to have a backup and a backup to your backup. This is also why they build grocery stores every couple of blocks. I have 4 within a mile and now I know why.

Just a couple more notes about this experience. The people that packed up my house killed a small forest to move me. I have 45 boxes with over 4 feet folded sheets that were stuck in around and on top of each box. At least, Seattle is one of the most recycling friendly towns, so there are lots of neighbors bins I have been able to take advantage of. Also, their ability to label leaves a lot to be desired, as a box with one pair of slippers hardly qualifies to be labeled “shoes” when the other 50 things in there are all from the kitchen. They are also sort of like a swarm of locusts. They will pack anything and everything that they come in contact with. I have found single q-tips, random twist ties, and single plastic grocery bags. As one of my co-workers put it, if they find a piece of poo in your drawer, they will wrap it and put it in a box. I would like to say that is a joke, but it’s not.

Alright, enough ranting…In other news. I will be coming to Dallas on 5/28 around 1:30 and leaving on 6/2 afternoon sometime. I would love to see as many of you as possible. Please let me know when you guys are available for lunch or happy hour. I know Vidya is already trying to plan something for the CapOne or ex-Cappers.

Welcome to the new folks and the best to my old friends.

Till next week.

Michelle