#365Gratitude Day 41: A good interview

I had a really great job interview yesterday.  It was the second interview I've had recently, and while I was nervous beforehand, it wasn't the heart-pounding-like-a-Keith-Moon-drum-solo experience that my first interview was.

It went really well.  The interviewer was really nice, and we clicked right away.  He was impressed with my experience, and we had a long, good talk about technology in general, my experience in particular, and some of the various technical things I've done.  Then, he ran me through some programming problems, and had me work the code out on a whiteboard with him.

I left there feeling really damn good about the experience, and the company, too.

I don't know what it means yet, but around 10:30pm last night I got an email from a company VP looking to follow up with me today.  

I'm trying very hard to not have any expectations about this - and failing miserably.  We'll see!

#365Gratitude Day 40: Now dot is mindfulness

Sometimes I find examples of the power of mindfulness in the strangest places, activities, or challenges. 

Just today I found it in a game on my phone. The game is called Two Dots.  

The basic premise of the game is that you draw lines connecting dots of the same color. If you connect 4 in a box, you remove all dots of that color from the board.  

It's a great, sometimes maddening game.  I'll get stuck on a board for days. If you use up your five lives, they recharge every 20 minutes. 

There are power ups, which aren't free, and which are not guaranteed to even help you.  

There's this one board, #153, that had eluded me for about two weeks now.  

But after 14 days of solid frustration, I had an epiphany. I realized that each board has some one (or more) special technique, move, issue, or concern and if you calm your mind and just   pay attention you can pick up what it is, and leverage it to your use. 

For those of you still struggling with that very same board, I'll give you a hint. Think of the shape of the letter "P", and use it when making boxes with empty dots.  

Anyhow, it totally punched me in the brain this morning how micro moments like this are endlessly repeated in one's larger macro life. When I stop obsessing over how things should be, were, or might be, and pay attention to how they are , I gain special insight into playing the game/living my life well. 

Game on!

#365Gratitude Day 39: Fortunately Forced Out

Saturday night didn't work out so well for me. I went to bed with job related woes on my mind, and around 3:30 in the morning my brain said, "That's it for sleep this time. You are done."​

Ick. ​

I stayed up talking to friends on Twitter, watching Big Hero 6 for like the 4th time in 3 days, and generally just obsessing in fine Samsara style in the dark. ​

Missy had to work too, and had slept in the other room, leaving Kate and I to share the bed in ours. She came in around 5:30 to find me awake, and begged me to try to get back to sleep.​

I tried, I really did. 

I crept downstairs, where Missy cuddled and reassured me before she had to go. ​

​When Kate got up, she saw what a sleep deprived mess I was and took care of me. We spent a day of quiet, quality time together that made me feel much better. 

But I was still a spoonless, cranky mess around lunch time. Her partner Ollie was also down here visiting our magnificent mutual friend Tasha.  They wanted to meet up for lunch, but I said I wanted to stay home, because I felt like a Cranky McCrabbypants. 

Kate wouldn't hear of it, and convinced me that it would be good for me. She said she was buying and to just get ready to go, because I basically had no choice in the matter. ​

I caved. ​

I'm glad I did. It was good to get out of the house, good to spend time with friends, good to eat two-flavor Phoenix shrimp (because, delicious), and good to let myself let go and be taken care of by other people.  

I can't remember if it was Kate, Tasha, or Ollie who at one point pointed out to me that I can kind of suck at that.  I do a lot of introspection (hence this blog), and talk a lot of talk about mindfulness and self-actualization, but we're not islands. People are social animals. 

Later in the day Ollie and I had a long talk about that. It reminded me of a great book I love, and which I recommended to her, Spider Robinson's Callahan's Cross-Time Saloon.  

That book is the source of Callahan's Law: 

"Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased—thus do we refute entropy."

Thanks for the reminder.

#365Gratitude Day 38: Metasharkshower

Our girl Kate is down to visit us this weekend. When we got up, Missy, as is often her habit, encouraged Kate and I to go take a shower, together. 

I love showering with my intimate friends and partners.  It's kind of sexual for me, and kind of not. When you're covered in body wash, shampoo, and water and naught else with someone, it has a way of making you very close, and not just physically. 

At one point Kate and I noticed that my love for all things shark related had looped us into this strangely meta, self-referential experience.

In the shower she had used one of my shark themed bath poufs to soap me up, afterward had wrapped me up in my shark hoodie towel, and was drying me off, and using the towel on a shark tattoo I have. 

We both laughed, feeling a weird Inception-like moment about it.  

It was great.  

#365Gratitude Day 37: Homecoming

I'm not going to lie, my life's been a little turbulent lately.  Finding a new job while still working my old one is both a blessing and a curse, at times.  

One thing that's come out of it is I'll get struck by these spontaneous moments of excessive gratitude.  Like Friday when I got home from work, and Missy was there waiting for me. 

There's something very warm, comforting and reassuring about coming home to her. She's always glad to see me, always ready with open arms. 

Wherever she is, that's where home is, to me.