Author: Dianne Smith

General

Thank you for the snowstorm

Dianne Smith

I am definitely on my goodbye tour – since I last posted I have been to Long Island to see my family and was treated to a delicious dinner and the cutest cake! Don’t let the cuteness fool you, it was huge, SOLID to it’s core and delicious. I got to spend some nice time with my very first friend; my uncle who is 2 years older than me. 

My cake

My next stop was to NYC to visit with my friend from college who lives in CT and likes any reason to come back into the city, we went to the Howard Greenberg Gallery and checked out the Vivian Maier exhibit (as well as the stunning Anthropocene.) If you are a fan of street photographers you should check out Vivian, the story of the discovery of her work is so interesting – I highly recommend the documentary. Next visit was with my friend – my sis in law and her friend, we had a yummy lunch in Warrenton with pretty drinks. 

Pretty drink

Next stop and city – DC to see MY DC (3)TEAM and friends, it was funny to see people stop in their tracks and say “wait, didn’t you retire?” Great to catch up and to get to say goodbye to some of my favorites who weren’t in town for my ‘goodbye’ party, shake the hand of our Executive President who has been at the company for 57 years (to my 25) and pick up one last slug in the carpool. This post is dedicated to friends, ones that are in your family, those people that you meet and have an instant connection, those that build into friendships over time; it really doesn’t matter how it happens but the people in your life are what make your life what it is. I went to see a show (Soccer Mommy and they do a beautiful cover of Springsteen’s I’m on Fire btw) with my daughter, her friends, my friend and her daughter – we had so much fun with each other. Friends. 

Snowy

What I’m doing: Tickets to Jordan = arranged! The girls and I will leave on December 27th and arrive on the 28th! The girls will come back to the states on January 10th! In between we’ve been told that the presence of our company is requested at the Red Sea! I can’t wait to see it and share it with you! Finn’s transport to Jordan = arranged! He will be staying behind because I misunderstood a requirement – thinking he only needed to have a current rabies vaccine, which he does have but it was administered 2 years ago and for Jordan he has to have one that was administered within the last year. So I got him a new shot, his microcip and he is going to stay at a ‘resort’ too and then join us on January 7th. House photographed for the rental listing = completed! Now to send it all to the company and get this house listed!

creek

The snowstorm yesterday was a beautiful one with big fluffy flakes, a perfect snow to see me off to the Middle East where I don’t plan to see snow.  That is until we travel to a European city this time next year to hopefully celebrate Christmas. I am thankful that I didn’t have anywhere to be and that I could get a lot of keep/donate/recycle of my daughters things completed. Most of the photos on my phone right now are of random things with texts to the girls asking “do you want this anymore?” Next up is to arrange to have our SUV shipped over and then plan for the pack-out of my house which is scheduled for the 17, 18 and 19th… NEXT WEEK! Ahhhh….  

What I’m listening to: XMU on Sirius XM. My fave DJ is Josiah Lambert (@josiahOnAir on Twitter) so I’m just waiting for his shift! So much music I’m loving lately, it keeps my mind distracted when I start to get overwhelmed, writing this blog post helped too – so thank you for being here to read it. I won’t wait so long next time…  bye for now.

Jordan, Knowledge Management, Music

Task list and milestones. Check em off and meet em.

Dianne Smith

It feels like today was two full days. I am a live in the moment kind of person so once I have my moment I move on and put things in my past. I emailed, phone called, texted, facebooked, instagrammed; I TCB’d to put it mildly and I barely remember anything! Thankfully I have a check list that I cross off once I have gotten something done so I have a record of my productivity. Yes, I have my mammogram scheduled and no, the mortgage company didn’t make it out to inspect my roof repairs – but some things are beyond one’s control and don’t get checked off and that is OK. Chunk it out, batch it – if it is in small groupings that you can tackle you will feel so good. Check off the little tasks until you meet your big milestones… I have a lot of tasks til my ‘arrive in Jordan’ milestone but I’m up for it!

Checklist
My checklist for the day.

What I’m doing: One of the most important things I did today was finding someone to color my hair in Jordan. This post is dedicated to knowledge management – I used many of the KM practices I utilized at work to find things out and get things done today. I am using my knowledge network to figure out all that I can before I arrive in Amman by belonging to a Facebook community of expats and it has helped greatly. “Any brunettes out there that have a colorist they love?” Asking a question last night using natural language got me some results by the time I woke up this morning! I shared what I learned by checking in with my subject matter expert (stylist)here at home who enthusiastically approved of the recommendation I’d gotten. She is going to transfer the knowledge (my color formula) of how I get my glorious color and hopefully there will not be any interruption of service and my roots will be as brown as the day I was born! I practiced knowledge elicitation by asking the property management company a bunch of questions that hopefully they can answer soon and I can make an informed decision and sign a contract to have them in charge of my house and who lives in it while we are gone! I also talked with a company that does pet relocation and am hopeful that they can get Finn (our Boston Terrier) and Gracie (our Graygirl Cat) to our new home in Amman with little fanfare. Gracie is an outside cat, she adopted us so we have done our best to have her live inside but she was raised in the wild and she ‘goes’ outdoors. In Jordan she will be an inside cat only – so tonight after dinner with Amelia – I got Gracie a litter box that Finn was more interested in than she! Not sure what he was expecting to happen, but he sat there in front of it after sniffing it a bunch. 

Finn wants to use the litter box.
Finn wants to use the litter box.

Using some more knowledge management practice I reviewed and followed the documentation; sprinkled in the litter – it is enhanced with an attractant *catnip – and placed it where the subject matter expert (my daughter) advised was the best spot; at the back door where Gracie usually goes out. We shall see, she has to use it because she will not be going outside in Amman unless she is wearing a leash. Tomorrow is chock full of tasks too; mail some records, make a deal on some American Girl doll stuff, and drop off coats to Micah

What I’m watching: just finished watching the latest episode of Riverdale. Love it.

What I’m listening to: I don’t know how many times today I listened to Jupiter 4 by Sharon Van Etten but it was a whole lot and I put it on again after Riverdale was over. I hadn’t listened to her stuff before but Comeback Kid and now Jupiter 4 from her upcoming record have both been awesome! I’m going to listen to it again, it reminds me of being young and wanting to be with Mike every waking moment, I’m glad that soon I will be with him all of the time. I’m listening again. bye for now.

Art, Jordan, Minimalism

What is next? Stay on track.

Dianne Smith

Next stop on my journey to Jordan was to move inside and upstairs and get my daughter’s rooms homogenized for rental photographs. Yesterday the pre-move surveyor arrived at 8am so we could go through all of my belongings and make determinations; what is going over by air, what is going by sea and what will remain in the US in storage. Thankfully, I started practicing minimalism two years ago and have already donated or disbursed of the things that no longer hold value to me or bring me joy. I cannot say the same thing for my older daughter – she loves the thought of my brand of minimalism but she is a collector like her dad – so she will have some belongings to contend with. But, minimalism doesn’t mean you get rid of everything or that you live with so little that you are depriving yourself, it is unique to each person’s practice.

What I’m doing: I feel good about what I accomplished yesterday, met with the moving rep, cleaned up my daughter’s rooms, mailed some records from my husband’s collection, bought pet food, wrote up a lil bio for the 25 year service award ceremony, met my older daughter for dinner and went to my final painting class at LibertyTown. This blog post is dedicated to oil painting and my final piece completed there as a student. I started taking classes in February 2017 after not having painted ever in my life. I feel that my first year of minimalism in 2016 (I watched The Minimalists documentary on New Years Eve 2015) allowed me to free my mind of mental clutter and my home of physical clutter which empowered me to pursue creativity; both personally and professionally.

Finn in Foyer.
Finn in Foyer.

Not only did I learn to paint from my teacher, I learned that having a process to follow is a great contributor to success and I have so enjoyed learning this process. We project a photograph to a canvas, sketch it in, apply a base and then start underpainting to block in the right values. From there you add your layers, colors and values of mixed oil paint until it looks like the image above – you sign in, varnish it and Voila it’s done!

Red!
Red!

I intend to continue painting while I am in Amman, I have an easel (It is a Bob Ross one!!) and some of my own oil paints, brushes and palette – I have the process down but will start flying on my own without my safety net of my teacher and fellow students. I’m looking forward to new subjects, new students and teachers and expanding my creativity so I can feel like a success when I finish another painting. 

What I’m listening to: Radiohead Hail to the Thief which turned 15 this year. Radiohead are in my top 5 favorite bands and the song Where I End and You Begin is up in my top songs of all time, I don’t know if it was written as a love song but it invokes that feeling in me. 
Now its time for me to do my homework so I’ll be prepared to meet with my finances guy later and then with my friends for a happy hour. I will celebrate my painting being finished, that I’m moving along in my process to join my husband in Jordan, and that I will get to see my daughters, my sisters, my nieces and nephews tomorrow morning as they wake up in my disheveled house. bye for now.

General, Jordan

The road to Jordan begins today. Focus.

Dianne Smith

Kinda…I picked a good week for my first day of retirement, current weather in my part of Virginia is 60 and sunny!

What I’m doing:  After a few chores inside the house this morning I took advantage of the sun and headed outside to ready my yard for the family that will hopefully rent my house soon! My first order of business before I make the trip to Jordan is to get our house rented. I have a realty and property management company picked out, just need to get the house ready to show and rent.

Leaves everywhere you look!

We live in the middle of the woods – which we love, lots of trees, wildlife and privacy but tons of leaves in the fall. I hadn’t had a chance to get out and do pre-emptive leaf blowing or raking so I decided to break it into sections today, the section above is next. 

This blog post is dedicated to the moss in my yard, I think moss is the coolest groundcover and if I could, I would have my entire yard covered in it. My front yard has some moss but the small cleared area in the back between the house and woods is a glorious green carpet right now and for the next few weeks I will admire it and hope that it is still here when I get back from Amman in a few years. I got as far as the extension cord on the leaf blower would let me, so I came inside for lunch and to get a blog post under my belt. I’m trying to figure out my style since the last blog I contributed to was my team blog at work. 

Moss in my yard.
Cleared the leaves to let the moss photosynthesize! 

What I’m listening to: currently listening to Deceased Ghostly White for the 20th time. If you like metal (heavy, speed, thrash, death) you’ll love it; my husband writes the music and plays guitar. Our younger daughter speaks and sings on it, too.

Now it’s time for me to make some phone calls to arrange for my ‘pack out’ of household items to ship to Amman and things that we will store here in the US while we are gone. Then off to tackle the leaves in picture number one above and sit and admire the moss from picture two. I did get a work “page” so fingers crossed that my G peers are able to quickly resolve the issues.

Hope everyone is having a great day, bye for now. 


Update: at 2:17 I got a page that the issue resolved. Coincidence? My finger crossing is magical!