DD Week 8: A friday, a week, back to work
According to my calculations, calendar, and now my “Ages & Stages” email, DD was 8 weeks old Friday. Almost 2 months! Wow! Mommy and dd are doing fantastically. I’ve had to get to know her all over again this past week. She smiles all the time. A couple times this week, she’s called me at work, just to giggle. If you don’t have a kid, but you’re planning on it, wait til you get that phone call. So, so cool.
Let me try to catch you up on the past couple of weeks. We’ve been super busy, super tired, super happy.
So 3 Fridays ago (August 15th), we took dd up to C’s cousin’s house for a little get together. This was the cousin that got married a day after dd’s expected due date. Good food, good people, good times. Their home is out on the lake (yes, I know, there’s a few lakes here in MN). Now, if you’ve ever been to a lake home before, then you know about driving to them. For those that don’t know, its typically “take a left here, then a right, then another right, then a left, then a left, etc etc”. Directions in are always fun. Trying to leave in the dark, is not. But the moon was fantastic.
The rest of the weekend, we just hung out, soaking up every minute.
Monday morning, I left the house about 630 with the following:
- 1 Dell D620
- 1 Dell D600
- 1 External Hard Drive
- 1 Linksys WRT54G, possibly bricked
- Several Thumb Drives
- Assorted Cords and Cables
- 2 Notepads & assorted writing devices (you know, for handwritten stuff
- 1 week’s worth of clothes
- The corporate card
I am en route to Community SANS. 6 days of computer security training. I show up a tad early, thanks to some great traffic. I stop in at the front desk to drop the bags off. Jokingly, I ask about my room. Surprisingly, its ready! So I head upstairs and open the door….
Pretty sweet, huh? Knowing I’m in a bit of a hurry, I drop everything on the bed, grab the D600, and find my conference room. After being turned away from the wrong one, I make it to the correct place.
Seems that everyone else was really early, so I grabbed a seat in the back, next to the dude that runs CCureIT. He also happens to be a facilitator for SANS. Bonus! I survey the group. 24 people from all walks of life. Pen Testers, Managers, ITSec Guys, Compliance people, and a Government guy. Skillsets appear to range from the newbie all the way up to “I should be teaching you“. Age is as varied as the laptops. Dell seems to be the big winner, with IBM a close second. Couple of those sexy Sonys too.
Each day was chock full of digital goodness. Networking, Defense-In-Depth, Internet Security Technology, Secure Communications, Windows Security and Linux Security. Each day more challenging than the day prior. I can’t even begin to tell you all the stuff I learned. The first day, our instructor started out with “if you’re not paranoid now, you will be by the time this class is done”. He’s right1. Its a constant game of cops and robbers, except that the robbers are much better funded, in an ever changing world. If you’re in the security world, do check out SANS.
Monday night, as I sat on the patio eating dinner alone, I came to a realization: this is my life. I will always be that guy. The guy you see on the patio, eating alone, with that contented look. Its not happy, but its not sad. Its just content. He smiles as he takes a bite, chews, and wipes his mouth. His smile is choreographed to a tune. A special tune that only he and his wife share. As he picks up the phone, he answers with that same smile: “Hello Gorgeous”
I finally got home Saturday evening and saw C+dd for the first time in almost a week. Drove me nuts. Saturday night, we did nothing. Sunday, back to church, and then something happened that scared the crap out of me & dd. We’d just put dd down for a nap and finished up brunch. We planned to clean the kitchen, but C had to run downstairs for a second. As she started, I started towards the bedroom. I made it to the hall when I heard it. Its that sound that anyone with stairs knows. Unmistakable and simple. Now C’s been known to stumble here and there. Its never been a big deal. A quick holler “Hon, you okay?” is normally followed by a laughing “yeah”. That was the answer I expected. What I received was silence.
In the 3 seconds it took me to get from the middle of the house to the base of the stairs, I must’ve yelled out to her 10 times. I recall rounding the corner and seeing her pick herself up from midway down. I get down there and kneel down, face to face. She’s still not responding to me, but motor skills are there. She finally sees me, and is able to make noises that sound like response. I get her up, and help her upstairs. She’s talking a bit now, asking to lie down. We make it down the hall when she starts blacking out. By this point, dd knows something’s going on, and she no longer wishes to nap, as stated in her repeated requests for pickup. I get C to the bedroom and have her stay sitting, upright2. I run and pick up dd, then get back. C’s left side is hurtin. Left heel, left butt cheek, left arm. Right thumb hurts from trying to catch herself. Instinct at that point. Her head doesn’t hurt, but she’s acting like she took a shot to it. I feel her head. No bumps. No pain. I try to convince her that we need to go to the ER, just to be safe. Her first response is “what about dd?”. She’s such a great mommy. Even in pain and confusion, she puts her daughter ahead of herself.
So, for the second time in 2 months, I make the “I don’t want to alarm you but I need you here” call to Oz. This time, I started it out with “Hi Oz. What’cha doin?” (her response) “Oh, okay. Well, no reason for alarm, but could you come over please?”. Yeah, that didn’t work out. Hopefully, I won’t have to make that call again. She arrives, music playing in my head, and comes on in. She knew something was wrong when she saw C’s slippers at the top of the stairs, as if thrown (that was me). After seconds of assessment, she agrees that we should go. DD hangs out, and we cruise to the hospital. 4.5 hours and a CT scan later, and the verdict is in: mild concussion and some bruising. We get home, and the care taking begins. I do all I can to keep her down and comfortable. Amazing how quickly things can change.
Monday morning, I work from home for the first few hours, just to make sure C’s able to handle things. She’s good to go. Moving around, albeit slowly. So its off to work I go. Being gone for a week didn’t make things easier when I got back. Quite a busy week. One major highlight to point out though…..
For the 2.5 years I worked “in the dungeons”, I received praise here and there. It mattered when I did get it, but it wasn’t nearly that often. Since switching jobs, I have received an immense amount of verbal praise (not to mention the birthday lunches and anniversary recognition). But this week marked a milestone for me. I received my very first award. I have been working on a project for quite a while. Just so happened that when it was ending, I was out of the office. But being the guy I am, I still assisted and tried to drive it home. My efforts for this work gained me an actual award! This was my first corporate award in my life. So, so awesome. It will be framed and on my wall soon! Go me! 
A whirlwind of days for the past few weeks. I do apologize for the lack of posting. Timing is the toughest part. Always have something going on. But I’ll try to post a little bit as often as I can.
p.s. Here’s the pics from that week away. I’ll put more up soon, especially on flickr.
