Instead of

Instead of an amazing vacation seeing various sights in Germany and Amsterdam with my sister.......

I painted my kitchen.

Before... notice the border around the top and the green walls:
















After..... no border and lovely cream walls:

Graduate School

You may or may not remember, but about six months ago I decided it would be a great idea to apply to graduate school as my 30th birthday present to myself. So I prepped for the GRE, and submitted applications. Since I got the applications submitted in early December, most of the six months has been spent waiting.

I got rejected from NC State, but they were my second choice, so I was still holding out hope.

I got called in for an interview at NC Central. It was so great to walk onto a college campus. The energy, the vibe, it is just indescribable unless you are like me and love to learn things and be in that environment. The interview was ok, I think I answered the questions fairly well. What amused me was I came in at the same time as another lady, and I was wearing flat shoes, slacks, and a button down shirt, and she was wearing high heels and a pencil skirt. Definately not the same style :)

They said they would be making the final decision after all the interviews were complete..... and the result is....

I got in! I am so excited!

Another fun thing I got to do instead of going to Germany (yes, eventually I am going to have to forgive that volcano for disrupting my vacation) was to attend an orientation for my program. I got accepted into the Career Counseling program, which is one focus in the larger counseling education masters program. The other two options are mental health and school counseling. What I learned at orientation is that career counseling is the least popular option. This bodes well for getting internships and jobs if there aren't alot of people to compete with. The main reason for this is career counselors don't have licensure, so apparently alot of people can do the job without the education or background in it. The rest of the orientation was fairly boring, just the usual rules and regulations and how to graduate. But I did get to talk to my advisor and get registered for classes.

So I think I will agree with a friend, 2010 is the Year of Yay!

Volcano

My sister posted the best pictures that describe how I feel about a volcano disrupting my vacation plans. I was supposed to visit her in Germany to have a fabulous time in her final week living there. It was also going to help me hit Europe and Asia in the same year, which would put me in a better position to win the Ms. Travel of 2010 award.


But alas..... this is my consolation prize:

Honeymoon

My fiance planned our honeymoon entirely as a surprise. We decided to play 20 questions, one question a day, for me to guess the location. What was fascinating was to learn that we have completely different styles in how we would approach a 20 questions game, so it was pretty entertaining.

Question 1: Will we focus on rest and relaxation on our honeymoon? Yes

Question 2: Is it north of the equator? Yes

Question 3: Is it on the African Continent? No

Question 4: Is the location an island? Yes

List of possible islands in the Atlantic Ocean

Question 5: Would the beaches on the island be considered white sand beaches? In other words, is this the carribean? Yes

List of possible islands in the Caribbean

Question 6: Do they speak English? Yes

Question 7: Is the island known for piracy? Maybe

Question 8: Is this island in the beach boys song Kokomo? No

If you are keeping track, this has eliminated: Bermuda, Bahama, Kokomo, Aruba, Jamaica, Key Largo, Montego, Martinique, Montserrat, Port-au-Prince Haiti

Question 9: Is the island in the area known as the Greater Antilles? No

We have now eliminated Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico

Question 10: Is it one of the Windward Islands (on the Lesser Antilles)? Yes

We have narrowed it down to Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Grenada, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago

Question 11: Is this island known for being a leading producer of spices such as cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg? No

In case you couldn't tell, we just eliminated Grenada. We are down to: Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago

Question 12: Is this island the home of two Nobel Laureates Arthur Lewis and Derek Walcott? No

We just eliminated Saint Lucia. Remaining contenders: Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago

Question 13: Is this island geologically predominately non-volcanic origin? No

We just eliminated Barbados. Remaining contenders: Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago

Question 14: Is the head of state Queen Elizabeth II? No

We just eliminated Saint Vincent and Grenadines.

Drumroll: The location is specifically the Tobago island of Trinidad and Tobago

Pigeon Point Dock, Tobago

Beautiful sandy beaches

Oldest rainforest

You will have to wait until after the honeymoon to get any more details!

Ode to IBM

Today is my last day with the company, so I thought I would write down some of the highlights of my career so that when I am old, I will remember what a hotshot I was :)

2000

I was hired as a summer intern in Tivoli, working on mainframes. I had never written a program in REXX before because in school we were using Java. My internship extended into the fall, but then the area got downsized that winter, so my internship transferred to WebSphere.

2001

I was hired full time in WebSphere the day after I graduated. Looking back, I would say I should have taken a week off, because you can only accrue half your vacation time when you work half the year. But, if I had done that, things might not have worked out as well because two weeks after being hired, that area was downsized. Luckily for me, my first manager when I was an intern had an opening, so I was able to transfer to that area.

2002

Just short of my first anniversary, I was promoted. The manager I worked for was amazing, and gave me all kinds of growth opportunities, and I really excelled. For example, I got to prototype design work and sit in architecture meetings with customers, which is rare for a new hire.

From my boss in my appraisal of 2002:
Heather continues to amaze me. She seeks out new and challenging work, puts forth excellent ideas, is a team player, and is recognized as a hard worker with exceptional technical skills. Heather has a great sense of personal responsibility and always takes ownership of problems within her area. She acts independently, but also knows when to look for additional resources and support. She has excellent communication, teaming and listening skills. She has proven to be an asset to any team of which she was part.

2003

Of course, nothing in IBM is permanent. While I thought I was going to be able to lead the next project, the company decided to send the entire group to India, so I had to find a new job. For some reason, it was difficult to find a new job in development, so I went into test. Let's just be honest. Working in test is a really hard way to move up the ladder. So my career basically stalled out.

From my boss in my appraisal of 2003:
Heather has excellent communication skills and works equally well with all members of the organization. She is driven and thorough and seeks out ways to contribute to the group, always seeking to enhance her skills. She has been very proactive for accepting new assignments. Heather requires very little direction to proceed forward with creating scenarios, test plans, task definitions, or business modeling.

2004

I got to travel to Toronto for a customer seminar, and then to Boston to get requirements from a customer. This was my first taste of business travel, and I liked it. I got to eat good food, and while I didn't have time in Toronto to see the city, in Boston I went down to Harvard and got to walk around.

From my boss in my appraisal of 2004:
Heather has been very driven to creating a new automation strategy within the Commerce Organization using Rational Functional Tester. She did a good job of communicating to the team and has saved team members time from trying things that have been identified as broken. Heather will run with a task and drive it to completion with little supervision. She was our go to tester for Telesales. Bottom line, she did an excellent job creating testplans/testcases, providing feedback to Development (100+ comments against Telesales design doc), and in general, ensuring test had it's act together for Telesales, despite unclear designs and missed DCUT dates. Heather did an Excellent job of helping mentor/evaluate co-ops. She is always willing to accept additional tasks, including creating a demo for telesales, creating a Project plan, and taking the lead on the TRC automation. Heather has been presented with 2 Bravo awards and 3 Thanks awards for her 2004 achievements.

2005

As an IBMer, we have all sorts of different acronyms for IBM.... one of them is I've Been Moved. If you haven't picked up the pattern yet, 2005 is an odd year, so time for me to look for a new job. The reason this time was the project I was working on got it's funding cut. I was seeing a pattern, and so I decided to work on a side plan so that if I was ever really on the resource action list, I would be prepared. Thus begins the money saving spreadsheet to "retire" at 30. I also realized that changing jobs every two years was no way to get to the next level at IBM. Also, since I had just spent two years in test, no one wanted to hire me as a developer. So I moved back to Tivoli (which as you will recall is where I started as a co-op), and accepted a test role. This was the first time I was responsible for managing people overseas. What it means is 6 AM meetings and 10 PM meetings, sending many emails to try to make sure you are understood and that the work is on track. I was very sad that I didn't get to go to China to meet the team. As an aside, moving back to Tivoli, everyone there thought I was a co-op. Apparently I inherited my mothers good looks. But it was frustrating because I was trying to be taken seriously as a leader. So one of my mentors created a sign that said, "No I am not a co-op, I started work here at the turn of the century". Hahaha.


From my boss in my appraisal of 2005:
Despite her inexperience with the product relative to her peers, she accepted a 'stretch' assignment to take on the role of SVT lead for the release and was assigned a mentor to help with this significant task. Leading an SVT was also new ground for Heather and she came on boardfaster than I expected. In fact, from the mid-way point of the test and beyond, she did an outstanding job leading a fairly large geographically dispersed team in China and the U.S. Her communications with the entire team and management was both timely, clear, and complete. She approached her work in a professional, calm, and composed manner, a trait that will serve her very well as she advances her career in IBM. She listens very well and always seems to be in command of the issues. This year, she has clearly proven to be an effective leader, demonstrated excellent initiative by willingly stepping out of her comfort zone, but most importantly, showed strong aptitude in successfully delivering the results the business needed.

2006

I realized I was tired of being in test and tired of not being able to move forward. So rather than wait for the next project cut, I decided to initiate my own move. It took a bit of doing, and I actually worked in three places in 2006, but I landed myself in a development role on the install team of another group in Tivoli. Let me just say that Tivoli is the only building in RTP that has real offices with real doors, and honestly, I didn't want to leave a real office.
Oh, I should also mention that I got to travel to Austin for a test automation convention. The last time I was in Austin was an interview for Dell, and I loved the city, so I tacked on a weekend to revisit some of the sites. I got bumped up to a mustang convertible rental car which was totally awesome because it was gorgeous weather. I drove around the parks, downtown, went out and had a great dinner overlooking the river. It was totally fantastic.


From my boss in my appraisal of 2006:
This was a big year for Heather. She started off as the team lead and project planner for the SOA for ITCAM test effort. This included testers in RTP and China. The distributed team required good communications and flexibility. She was a leader in the automation for her team, working with other automation gurus and establishing consistent code across the project. Heather was moved to CMDB around the middle of the year to help out the testing. Her assistance there was a huge help to the team, and she always made her very aggressive point targets. While she was on CMDB, she again brought her automation skills to bear, and coded up several routines that were used in the daily build verifications. Heather also spent time coaching and bringing her SOA peer up to speed on that project so that he could assume the lead while she was on CMDB. Her assistance made the transition seamless. Going forward, I expect Heather to continue leveraging her strong development skills and finding ways to make the overall process better.

2007

I began my quest to take over the world by aggressively learned the new technology, designing the new installer for a product IBM acquired, and becoming the Driver Queen. Basically I was trying to prove that I could lead and become a Chief Programmer by the time I was 30 and get promoted. (At IBM, promotion and title are not the same thing). I got to go to Anaheim, CA for a technical leader conference. I also tacked on some vacation time, and got to see the beach, whales, Ansel Adams display, and my first presidential library (Richard Nixon's).


From my boss in my appraisal of 2007:
Heather is extremely well organized and prepared as demonstrated in her leading, planning, designing, and executing on the install team. She is able to take on new tasks and responsibilities when necessary and show great initiative toward accomplishing goals.

2008

My hard work paid off, and I actually was promoted. I should also mention that I got a 1 rating, even while being at a new level. Ultimately I got five 1 ratings in the nine years I worked at IBM, which is pretty good.

From my boss in my appraisal of 2008:
Heather Morgan was promoted from Band 7 to Band 8 in July 2008. For this performance periord Heather was the Technical Lead for Base Services Installer (BSI). In addition to her leadership task Heather completed several install features lineitems on schedule. Heather always looks for ways to improve the process as demonstrated in creating a plan for quartely install deliverables, delivering function earlier in the media refreshes, and delivering drivers with testable functions earlier.

2009

Finally I was made the Chief Programmer. I also spent time in St Louis, which included vacation time to see the Arch, and also vacation time to visit my sister in Missouri. But the glimmer had faded. Too many resource actions every year. Too much indecision in projects. Too much overtime required to be a 1 performer. Too many headaches. Too many jobs moved overseas. Plus.... I hit 30. My golden age. Did I have enough money to really "retire", to complete change jobs?

From my boss in my appraisal of 2009:
Heather had an excellent year in 2009. Throughout the year she showed both technical and personal leadership in every aspect of her job. As the lead for the install components, Heather drove the creation of common Tpae based installation components. This was not only technically challenging, but it required the driving of organizational and behavioral changes. As Chief Programmer for the CCMDB 7.2.1 release, Heather drove the efforts to build the initial project plan and information to support the Plan DCP.

2010

For a long time I have dreamed about quitting, just throwing my badge on my boss's desk and walking out on a Wednesday. Well... I got part of that dream. I did give almost 3 weeks notice in order to not burn bridges, and frankly, I didn't want to leave the team stranded. Turning in my notice was way to much fun because it was such a shock to my boss, and then to everyone else. But we were able to put in a transition plan, and I am sure that everything will run smoothly (or at least continue to run) without me. But today, Wednesday, is my final day. It is just fun to leave in the middle of a week. I have to admit, quitting a job like this is much like attending your own funeral. So many colleagues have sent emails and sametimes congratulating me, telling me how much they appreciated me and my work, and also wishing they could do the same. It is so nice to be appreciated, and to be reminded that you did a good job, not just from managers, but from peers. I was very blessed to have this job for the last nine years, and to succeed and have all the opportunities I have had. I learned that I really don't like writing code, but I do like running teams and coordinating and managing people and schedules. But I am equally blessed to be able to quit this job, and do something new and exciting with my life.

Planning

Because wedding plans are really only interesting to the couple doing the planning, I have lumped all the entries into one, so you can skip it entirely if this type of drivel is not your cup of tea. As an aside, based on several online "to do" lists, I am done planning. If you do read it, and there is an area that I have missed, please let me know!

Temple
Dresses
Rings
Venue
Flowers
Food
Photographer
Invitations

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Temple

A beautiful location where we will be sealed.

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Dresses

If you haven't seen Say Yes to the Dress, then go to youtube and watch for a minute:





Ok, now that you have the proper background...

My sister and I went out wedding dress shopping. I was looking for a more fitted silloette, not a poofy ball gown. I had seen a dress on JCrew that I thought was simply elegant, and was looking for something similar. But I was also struggling with the fact that this is my second wedding, and I don't really need to do the whole white dress thing again.
After browsing online, I realized I probably wasn't going to find the perfect silver dress in a slim sillouette, so I went back to the store with a friend. The sales person pulled the dress I had liked before, and also brought a second option that was a similar. I walked out in the second one, and another customer was like, oh my gosh! you look stunning! it is just like on that show, say yes to the dress! Are you going to say yes to that dress??!? Honestly, it really was like the show. Dress 1, I was fine with, Dress 2, my face lit up like a kid seeing a christmas tree for the first time. I like to think of myself as a fairly straightforward, no nonsense kind of person, but I may have to re-evaluate after this cliched demonstration! So I said yes to Dress 2.

My sisters have been trying to find dresses to wear to the wedding as well. We have traded in store shopping for online ordering because it is so much easier to have clothes shipped to your house, try them on, and figure out what you like. Every time a new set arrives, they try them on and we say, "Are you going to say yes to that dress?"

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Rings

Another fun outing I had with my sister was ring shopping. We got asked twice if we were twins, so we just went with it and said that we were twins and we were shopping for rings so that we could pass the information onto our boyfriends, who are also twins. We found a store that just has every size of diamond in a ring so you can see how a 1 carat looks on your hand. One difference between my sister and I is that my hands are huge in comparison, so I could wear bigger, thicker rings than she could.

I would like to mention that I really had nothing to do with picking out my engagement ring. My sister and I were out having fun, but my fiance did all the hard work to select a ring for me. He did an excellent job. I have even gotten comments from random strangers on how gorgeous and sparkly it is. (Specifically, I was handing someone my drivers license with the left hand, and they were like, oh my goodness, that ring is gorgeous!)

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Venue

My fiance and I decided a cultural hall reception wasn't our style, so we went out looking for other options. When I say "looking", since he is in Japan, and I am in Raleigh, we did some online shopping for venues. One beautiful location was the Cotton Room in Durham. It is an all-inclusive location, meaning the caterer owns the venue, so you have one person to work with for the location, food, setup, cleanup, etc. This gets expensive, as were several other options we sorted through. Thank goodness my mom emailed with a great location, the Page Walker House. Based on her recommendation we booked it without even seeing it. Then later my mom and I stopped by to get pictures, and it really is a great location (and will look even better when it isn't snowing!)





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Flowers

Ding goes the bell over the door, and the scent of roses wafts over you. Flowers sit in buckets, waiting to be used, and scraps are strewn over a work table. Honestly, florist shops are a bit intimidating for someone who knows nothing about flowers. So I brought my friend, who has a sister who is a horticulturalist for backup. The first one I went to, the lady just kept saying I needed to know what I wanted. She kept tossing out ideas, and I thought they all sounded fine. But she seemed uncomfortable with the fact that I didn't have a firm idea, so I looked through some magazines at her store, and then I went home and started to look online, and realized I didn't really care that much. I sent several jpg images to my fiance, and then I walked around a wedding expo. At the expo I saw small glass arrangements with one flower, and calla lillies, which I decided were perfect. Replace pink with purple and you get the idea.












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Food

My mother's wedding cake was the most delicious and memorable wedding cake ever. More than twenty years later, when we went to family reunions, people would still comment on how wonderful her cake was. This is the goal of all reception food. To be memorable, delicious, and above all, not stressful. In my mind, this meant finding a good caterer. Luckily, my fiance had a friend who had worked for a catering company, and would bring samples home. So I set up an appointment to discuss options.

Here's how the conversation went:
Caterer: Do you have a theme?
Me: No
Caterer: Do you have a favorite food?
Me: I like everything
Caterer: Should we do a southern theme?
Me: That would be fine. But I need some gluten free options. Oh, and I want guacamole.
Caterer: Any other dislikes?
Me: Ummmmm mushrooms.
Caterer: Okay.... any other preferences?
Me: I don't think so
Caterer: Alright, I will send a proposal.

It was over in 5 minutes. I can only imagine that other brides come in, "I want an asian inspired bistro theme with exactly these food options, and there must be this serving dish, and it must be done at 7:32 exactly". Hahaha. The caterer emailed a pdf file with several options, so my fiance and I read through it, drooling, and came up with several good choices. I am very excited about the food.

The following items will be passed when guests first arrive:
Corn Cakes with Duck Confit in Sweet Pepper Sauce
Whole kernel corn cakes topped with citrus spiced confit of duck leg and a
sweet and spicy sauce with fresh cilantro.
Shrimp Rumaki
Fresh gulf shrimp wrapped with smokey bacon and skewered. Bake until
golden.
Mozzarella with Sun-Dried Tomato Picks
Little mouthfuls of Italian fresh Mozzarella and Sun-Dried tomatoes on picks.

Then these items will be available on buffet tables:
Mexican Dip Station
Chile con queso dip, spicy spinach dip, Mexican ten layer dip , salsa, sour
cream and guacomole served with corn tortilla chips for dipping.
Strawberries & Sauces
Fresh strawberries served with key lime dip and powdered sugar.
Mixed Greens with Candied Pecans & Chevre
Gourmet Mixed Greens topped with Candied Pecan Pralines, Chevre, Red Bell
Pepper, Cucumber and Lemon Poppy Dressing.
Quesadilla Station
This station features grilled Crab & Tomato Quesadilla with avocado salsa
and Roasted Pork & Carmelized Onion Quesadilla with Salsa Fresca Sauce.

For desert we will have:

Cheesecake & Toppings
Sour cream cheesecake topped with warm hot fudge, raspberry tamarind
sauce and blueberry sauce.
Assorted Mini Confections
Assorted mini confections may include: coconut kisses, melting moments,
raspberry linzers, brownie triangles, chocolate mousse cups,lemon curd fruit
tarts.

And of course, wedding cake.

My mom and my sister went with me to sample wedding cake options. We had vanilla, vanilla chiffon, chocolate chiffon, midnight chocolate and carrot cake. The fillings were strawberry, raspberry and chocolate mousse. Frosting was vanilla buttercream, and cream cheese frosting.

We walked in, and were seated at a table with real dishes, and the caterer poured us water flavored with berries. He had a tray with round pieces of cake (think biscuits), and then little cups of the filling and frostings. We could mix and match as we chose to create the perfect cake. Carrot cake and cream cheese frosting went really good together. The midnight chocolate cake tasted better than the chocolate chiffon, and the regular vanilla tasted better than the vanilla chiffon. Apparently chiffon in a cake just makes it mild. The raspberry filling was a stronger flavor than the strawberry, and went great with vanilla. The chocolate filling went great with the chocolate cake. So that is what we got, carrot with cream cheese, vanilla with raspberry, and midnight chocolate with chocolate, surrounded in the vanilla butter cream.

We also got to pick the linens. It was a fabulous store, full of racks and racks and racks of fabric. My mom loves fabric. Then they put our fabric choices on tables, and had us pick the plates and cups and silverware. Thank goodness there were three of us so we could break tied votes!

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Photographer

I was talking to a friend of mine who got married a couple of years ago, and she said the one thing she wished she had done differently was the photographer. She is not a creative person, and neither was her photographer, so she just has straight forward pictures. She likes another friends pictures, because their photographer knew how to pose them. I thought pictures were really important the first time I got married, so I hired a photographer to do a set of family pictures. The second time around this isn't as important to me. Families change, and the snapshots you take are usually more fun than professional pictures. So I left this totally up to my fiance, and he found someone who does photography more as a hobby than a job. I am sure we will have some nice pictures to go along with our memories.

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Invitations

I got a free ticket to a wedding expo, so I went looking for some ideas. If you haven't been to one of these things, it is a bunch of vendors with tables all trying to convince you to sign up for their services. I walked by an invitation table, and they had some pretty invitations displayed, so I paused. The lady working the table asked if I had selected my invitations. I had not. She asked me if I had decided on the paper type and the print type. The confusion on my face lead her to explain that there are three main print types. You can have copper plates print the letters on the paper, which creates an impression, or you can have some technology raise the letters on the paper, or some other technology that is an inferior imitation. Yes, you can tell that I don't care because I can't even remember the names of the types :) I thought about printing my own invitations, but after looking at some paper options, I wasn't interested in doing that. So after looking online for way to long, my fiance sent a great modern classic and we went with it. We went with what looked like dark grey ink, and upon seeing it live in person, I wish we had just gone with black, but at the time, we thought black would be boring. So far this is the only thing that I have a slight twinge of regret on, which I consider pretty good.

My fiance also wanted to include a photograph. While I was in Japan, we took several, and the one we went with was in front of the Tokyo Tower (an imitation of the Eiffel tower). The excellent framing and printing was all the results of my fiance's photo editing skills, and his brothers input.

Good Friday

It was a gorgeous Carolina spring weekend, gorgeous blue skies, beautiful blooming trees. Seriously, 75 degrees is perfect!
I had the pleasure of hanging out with my sister this weekend. This is unusual, because my parents live so close everyone usually stays over at their place. But they were out of town, so my sister and I got to walk through the gorgeous weather to get a redbox and Ritas. If you haven't had Ritas, it is amazing! Try the gelati. We also watched some Project Runway and What not to wear. The episode of What not to wear, the girl went into the 360 mirror wearing a short sleeve cable knit cardigan and khakis, which is what I was wearing that day. It was a bad moment. My only excuse is that it was casual Friday.
The rest of the weekend was great because of conference, and Mom's excellent easter dinner.