The End of an Era

Well, today I discovered that my Georgia Tech email expired...AND, I had ignored a statement alerting me to the expiration of www.accessiblethreads.com. WOW. Don't go to this link. It doesn't link to anything. I can't believe it! I guess it's real. I have a job, I work in a great company, they pay me a salary, benefits and I work with great people everyday. Just as quickly and, unfortunately, quietly, as Accessible Threads arrived...it has consequently dissapeared. I am no longer in grad school, no longer the principal of my own company, I am a cog in a wheel, but so far, I actually like it that way.

This cog has been afforded new experiences in corporate America, experiences for networking and sanity. Experiences for having a real weekend and enough income to perhaps buy my first home. I don't think this new step would be as interesting had I not experienced doing it all on my own, being chief cook and bottle washer as well as accountant, adminstrator, graphic artist and prototyper. It taught me a lot, about me, about business and about what I want next. It's much easier to work for a large company having pushed my personal envelope by doing it my way for awhile. Right now, someone else's way, albeit a way I am allowed to challenge and drive as I see fit, works just fine for me. I get to walk away each evening not worrying where the next client is coming from and go in each morning and work with an extremely talented group of people. Not to trash Kirby at all, but he's not the most conversational work partner :-).

So, I felt the need to acknowledge this passing here, in this online space. Perhaps any google search for Accessible Threads will land someone here, where they will find it's epitaph. May you all find a few interesting forks in your road as you travel through life.

Seattle-Tacoma

The Glass Museum in Tacoma Washington Chihuly on the Bridge in Tacoma
I had my first official business trip for Intel this week, which took me up to Seattle! This is my third or fourth visit, but it's always interesting, beautiful and greeeen! The weekend included
visiting friends as well as a visit to Little Mt. Si, Discovery Park and a glass museum in Tacoma Washington, home of the infamous Dale Chihuly. Although the museum itself didn't have any Chihuly inside, there are several public sculptures which include his work. There is a bridge with a ceiling of glass pieces and a huge wall set up like an old curiousity box full of oversized glass pieces. It's very impressive and even more impressive that it hasn't been vandalized! As you drive in, these blue blobs (which are plastic, not glass, are on an overpass with the wall of glass above.

Hood River

An old (well, she's not old...but we've known each other a long time!) friend came to visit in September. My first real visitor! We had a whirlwind weekend exploring the Hood River area and surrounding farms, referred to locally as "the fruit loop." We bought many types of pears locally grown, and sunflowers and delicious Marionberry wine! It was a gorgeous weekend.

We traveled out to Multnomah and other falls and ended the day at a moonlight ceremony in the Japanese Tea Garden. We saw the full moon rise over the mountains. What an amazing sight. Flutes were playing in the background and the moon just scooted up and over the mountain. We ate yummy moon dumplings and drank sake! Since this was a night time event I don't have any good pictures, but suffice it to say it was a really special evening. http://www.japanesegarden.com/ to see a bit about this beautiful space. Below is the bridge at Multnomah Falls--you can walk across and look at this amazing sight!