Out and about

Seem to have had a very busy social life of late....nice! The highlight had to be Saturday when I went along to the NCLR fundraiser in San Fran. This is the group that has been fighting Proposition 8 - which is the vote that overturned gays and lesbians right to marry in California. I went to this dance last year as well (before prop 8 happened; they fight for equal rights around lots of issues btw). There were upwards of 1000 women all dressed very fine, lots of dancing and fun. Dee invited me to join her friends (including her date) for dinner before the event (originally 6 of us but we met up with another group so had a random gathering of 12). Funniest part was I assumed everyone knew each other - turned out no, there were a couple of connections but it really was a spontaneous moment (pic on ther right is Jaclyn, Dee, Me and Sim). After dinner and before the dance we went to a pre.dinner party....more new folk to meet. Dance kicked off at 8pm and went to midnight. It was a really good mixture of music so I did end up dancing the night away. I met up with Marcia, Michelle and Sim as well...so between them and the new folk I had met I had plenty of people to hang with! I decided to stay in SF for the night so had a hotel booked about 5mins from the venue. It was fun to wake up Sunday morning, having had a great night, and stroll around until I felt ready to drive back to Santa Cruz.

Also last Thursday I drove in to SF after work to meet Dee who took me to this weekly gathering that happens in a local bar. It's a "networking" event, which really translates into girls meeting up after work. That was fun too (I did meet a couple of the people I spent Saturday night with there, so not complete strangers). Must have been between 80-100 women - a small affair by SF standards!

Ruth arrives this coming weekend so Michelle and I head into SF on Friday night, staying until Sunday when Ruth heads back to NZ. Not quite sure what the adventures will be yet - but we will figure something (shame she wasn't here for this weekend!).

Work continues to shift and turn......and grow. I've been given some new responsibilities and I am also about to do a communications needs assessment around the entire operations team (not just the change part that I currently manage)....have to make recommendations to my boss and the VP - things happen quickly here so who knows where this might all lead!

Summers here which is making me very happy as the suns out early and stays out longer - of course it also means more riding time.....yayayayayayay (not that I need much of an excuse).

Santa Cruz Derby Girls

Okay this is too cool and too geeky but not only did I take this video on by blackberry but I figured out how to upload it as well! Saturday night Sim, Michelle, Cristi (American friend of Sims who got her Masters at the University of Canterbury....would you believe) and I headed out to the roller derby....it was fab!
Oh and now I know how to take video and upload it.....expect more original work.

Sick, sick, sick, i-fly and pow wow

So two weeks ago I got a terrible head cold...yes right in the middle of all the drama about swine flu. I definitely didn't have the flu but I was decidedly unwell and still have a low level cough. Didn't leave the house for six days, although did work (as you do). Luckily Michelle, Marcia and Sim bought supplies. Anyway I'm still not right and fed-up with the whole deal...complaining over.
Forgetting all that a group of us headed off to i-fly. I wrote about this maybe a year and a half ago. It's sky diving in a wind tunnel. It's way fun and quite physically demanding. Anyway had such a good time I'm going to see if I can do the training camp so I can learn to do all the tricks!
After i-fly we headed to the pow wow...I also wrote about this a year ago. It's really big with different American Indian Tribes competing in various dance competitions.
Weather here's turned and it's now really feeling like summer has arrived - all the more reason to find excuses to ride or have the top down on the car!