Weeknotes 25:32

Posted 3 days ago

Week of August 3–9

Beer City Code

I attended Beer City Code with several of my teammates over the weekend. This is the first in-person conference that I had attended in 12 years. We participated in a workshop day on Friday and the main conference was on Saturday at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The conference did not include any keynote speakers but was 7 breakout sessions through the day. I enjoyed getting to spend time with my remote teammates and have the space to think about web development away from the work.

Read more about my experiences at Beer City Code

Challenging week

Although it was a short week, the three days that I spent “in the office” were challenging. It was a combination of factors. The overcast skies, allergies, and grief all contributed to me feeling tired physically, emotionally, and mentally. It was hard to get going each day and I had to find the internal fortitude to push through when I didn’t really feel like doing anything. I took a few short naps to help me get through. On Wednesday, I started building out a page for an event coming up later in the Fall. I have the opportunity to tap into my design skills and that energized me a bit to push through the day on Wednesday. I made some important decisions on a couple of issues that I have been thinking about and was glad to move each of those forward.

Grief

I mentioned that grief was one of the contributing factors to my challenging week. I don’t think I am aware of how much of my present experience is shaped by the grief of losing my mother-in-law a little over a month ago. I have never had someone that lived with me die before. It is a lost that we feel every day. I am reminded often of the loss when I head to bed and remember that I don’t need to put things out for her to get her breakfast. Or when I walk by her empty room on the first floor of our house. Her birthday was on Sunday (10th). So I got reminders on my phone starting last week.

The summer has flown by and soon my son will go back to school (end of this week). So I have also been sad about him leaving because this will probably be his final summer at home. He will graduate in May and plans to follow his girlfriend in the Fall as she goes to graduate school. So I experience a little bit of grief in anticipation of another life change.

As I have been reading about grief, I realize that I still have a lot of pain from being laid off last year. There is grief over that loss. I have a new job but it is not the same experience and I miss things about that previous job–both in the work I got to do and the people I worked with.

Articles I read

What I watched

Animation vs. Coding (YouTube) – This was a fun break in the work day.

  • NCIS (Netflix)
  • Project Runway (various seasons on Samsung Plus TV)
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron (TV) – I watched this on Saturday night to unwind from the conference.

Books I am reading

  • Sunday Matters (Paul David Tripp) – I read one devotional a week.
  • Everyday Gospel (Paul David Tripp) – Reading through the Bible this year with this devotional.
  • Spurgeon: A Life (Alex DiPrima) – I read this on the plane both ways and at night at the hotel. I do not know much about Charles Spurgeon and have enjoyed this introduction to the Prince of Preachers.

What I played

MLB The Show 20 (Twins) – I played three games this week and went 2-1. I had started to play on Tuesday night but had to stop because something came up.

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