Category: work

Automattic Grand Meetup 2015

I’m sitting in the lobby of the Grand Summit Hotel in Park City, Utah, watching my colleagues head out to the shuttles and off to the airport. Most of them I won’t see for another year. Well, you know, see in person. The way Automattic communicates, it doesn’t feel like that at all.

It was a busy week. And a hard one from which to be away from home, what with Gareth’s memorial and all.

Monday, I arrived and we had the welcome reception. It’s probably the most overwhelming part of the whole meetup, especially since we have about 150 more employees than we did last year. (We’re up to nearly 400 and we’re still hiring!)

Tuesday

I worked in person with my teammates. What a concept! We’re allowed to choose to either do a project, take a class, or do our regular job during the GM, and I chose the latter. It was a gorgeous day and so we had a little walking meeting and enjoyed the scenery while strategizing about hiring.

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That evening, I gave my flash talk. I was glad to get it over with early in the GM, so I didn’t have to stress about it for the rest of the time. I didn’t mumble or nervously stumble over my words, and I even got a few laughs, so I’ll call that a win!

Later, I attended a workshop on Lightroom given by another Automattician, and learned a bunch of new tricks for processing photos.

Wednesday

I woke up early-ish and took my camera up the hill behind the hotel to take some sunrise photos.

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Spent the day working again, and possibly streaking our hair with fun colors. While we worked, obviously. (I interviewed a potential Happiness Engineer with bleach in my hair.)

Thursday

Woke up early for the Automattic 5k. (Not my best time, but heck, I did it.)

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More working, and then in the afternoon, I painted a pretty picture.

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In the afternoon, we took the company photos and some with our teams. And some goofy ones with friends.

That night, I attended a nighttime photography workshop and tested out what I learned. I wouldn’t say it was a total success, but it was fun and if you don’t look too closely, they look pretty good.

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Hit the party suite that night, took some selfies with coworkers.

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Friday

I had a pretty quiet morning, watching some fantastic flash talks and visiting with friends. Then around lunchtime, a few of us headed into Salt Lake City to get our tattoos.

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Saturday

Had a quiet morning. Went on a tiny hike with Zandy, watched flash talks, and then failed with the rest of my team to escape a room. (But at least I got a few of the clues!)

Went into Park City with some pals where we had a yummy lunch and did a bit of shopping. It was raining, so we didn’t stay for too long. But we saw a bunch of Automatticians doing a bike tour. (Confession: I was supposed to do that bike tour like I did last year, but I was scared to ride on hills in the rain.)

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That evening, I had a great dinner where I had some wine. And then I didn’t stop having wine until about 4am. Uh. It was fun. There were lots of pics at the selfie wall that night. And plenty more tomfoolery.

Sunday

I…did not feel well. I managed to make it through the day and then last night was the big closing party. It was awesome. I do wish I’d felt a bit better.

Robyn sang a song!

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And the photo booth…so much fun!

Good times.

Until next year!

 

 

 

The night sky in Park City

I went on a nighttime photography outing last night. I wouldn’t say I did super great at it (so much to learn!) but I had fun and got some cool photos.

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Automattic 5K

This morning, I “ran” a 5K with a few of my coworkers. I say “ran” because altitude, man. And hills. Mountains, even. So while my time wasn’t great, I had a great time chatting with my coworker Carolyn, which is exactly what we did for the 5K last year. Tradition!

Park City, Wednesday

Is today Thursday? I have no idea. But here are some photos I took yesterday. Which I’m pretty sure what Wednesday. Hmm.

Yeah. It’s pretty here.

Sunrise in Park City

This is becoming somewhat of a tradition. In Barcelona, my coworker Deborah and I went for a run on my birthday and ended up watching the sunset over the Mediterranean. Hard to beat that, but this came close:

(Sped up 10x.)

 

Park City so far

I should be blogging more about the Grand Meetup so far. Let’s see. Monday I left New Orleans (after breakfast at IHOP with George and the boys)

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Fortunately, getting there was uneventful, which is the best you can really hope for.

When I arrived, I found some friends and we went off to the welcome party, which was a tad overwhelming, but great. Went to sleep way too late and woke up way too early yesterday.

But it was a gorgeous day. Mostly spent working, but we had a walking meeting outside.

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I also got my Flash Talk done (everyone in the company has to give a 4 minute or less presentation on the topic of their choosing) which was a relief. Last year, I presented a video, so I just had to stand there while it played. This year I actually had to, you know, speak. So that was a bit trickier. But I pulled it off without mumbling too much, I think. (My topic was based on this blog post – it was 10 things I hear as a mom of triplets.)

Anyway, went to bed early last night after a workshop on Lightroom given by a coworker, so I’m excited to go take some more photos (with my actual camera and not my phone) and test out the new tips I learned.

In Dallas

I’m in Dallas now for work, helping out as Volunteer Coordinator of the DFW WordCamp. It’s really great to get to see how these events come together, since we’re working on organizing a WordCamp NOLA sometime next summer. This has been a great learning experience.

This is my second WordCamp ever – I attended the WordCamp in Dayton, Ohio earlier this year and gave a talk on Making Blogging a Habit. I…have not been habitually blogging lately. But I am going to take my own advice and just put something down and publish it.

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Speaker dinner
Kids Camp! I love this idea. Totally doing this next year.
Adult Camp.
Me and my great coworker Marjorie

  
  

Two years!

One year ago, I wrote this post.

A year ago, I had my first day at Automattic. Mind you, it wasn’t my first day as a full-time employee, but it was the first day of my Happiness Engineer trial. A few weeks before, I’d sent in my resume at the urging of a friend, and the intervening days had been filled with checking my email obsessively, hours-long Skype interviews, and hopes that I’d move on to the next step. And here we were, the first day of my trial.

Now, two years after that life-changing first day, I’m actually running trials. Earlier this year, I started working on the Happiness Hiring team, and now I do that half of my time, and spend the other half of my days helping users. I really love it. I interview prospective Happiness Engineers, and guide them on the path to hopefully getting hired, but I also still get to interact with our users. I really love all of it.

This was a great “second year” with Automattic. I traveled to Utah, Spain, uh, Dayton, and New York City. Next month, I’ll be back in Park City, and who knows after that?

On to year three!*

*I mean, technically, no, I’m still a couple of months away from my official Automattic anniversary, when I started full-time, but let me have this, okay?

Fun with friends

One of my coworkers, Deborah, came through New Orleans today with her family, and the boys and I met them all for an adventure. I haven’t seen her since we were in Barcelona, so it was exciting to see her again.

First, we braved the boiling heat to meet them at the streetcar stop on St. Charles. We stopped for fun pictures at the steps of One Shell Square first.

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Then, we met up with them and made her daughter, Vera, take pics with the boys, since they were all wearing their Wapuu shirts. Meanwhile, her son Isaac closely scrutinized the boys to figure out how best to tell them apart. (I will be asking him for tips.)

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We got on the streetcar and had a great ride down St. Charles.

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Until they kicked us off and made us get on a bus. At first we were disappointed, but then we realized it was air conditioned, and the kids got to stand up, and hey, the bus is really better than the streetcar!

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We got to the park where Deborah and I sat on a bench in the shade while the kids played. And she realized her hat was still on the bus. Ack!

If you look closely you can see Vera putting her stuffed animals in a swing. (Foreshadowing!)

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We made them pose by a tree.

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Got back on the streetcar and bus to go have lunch at Slice. Yum! I bought a Groupon on the way. Handy!

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After we ordered, Vera inquired about the whereabouts of her stuffed animals. ACK! Still in the swing back at Audubon Park!

Deborah zoomed off in an Uber to retrieve the animals – luckily they were safe! while I hung out with the kids and stuffed ourselves with yummy pizza and salad.

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After lunch, we headed back to the streetcar, and then to our car. I was sad our adventure had come to the end. I was very tempted to swipe Vera and take her home with me. She’s adorable and sassy. But I left her with her family, alas.

The end!

Everything else about NYC

BlogHer was the reason I went to New York, but I want to make sure I don’t forget all of the other details of my trip…IMG_3243

Ate at some amazing restaurants. The Spotted Pig had the most incredible corn soup. At Kesté, we ate maybe the best pizza I’ve ever had. I had Korean food for the first time ever. We had Thai. I can’t even remember what all I ate, but it was all delicious. Oh yeah, I finally had a Shake Shack burger! Totally worth the wait. Especially the bun.

I walked a ton. Finally made it all the way to the top of Central Park. Went running with a coworker in Central Park as well. Saw coordinating black and white dogs.

Speaking of black and white dogs, got to hang out with my coworker and her dog, Francis, in Hoboken.

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Went to a work reception thing after BlogHer, got to hang out with more coworkers.

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Had some time to kill before my flight, so I went and saw Trainwreck. (Hilarious!)

Oh, more food: had brunch with some non-work friends that I never get to see. Ate potato waffles topped with poached eggs and some green sauce. So so so good. Got loved up by this sweet baby:

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On the way home, got upgraded to first class, and almost sat next to Elizabeth Moss on the plane. (Some guy took her seat accidentally but she let him keep it. Curses! Just as well, since I’d just spilled red wine in my lap.)

BlogHer ’15

You know I love my job. I sit at my desk at home and help WordPress.com users. I love doing that. I get to sit in my pajamas and not wear makeup and type out my answers over live chat or answering support tickets. It’s great.

But you know what’s even better?

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My lovely coworker Denise

Standing at a booth for two and a half days and helping WordPress users. I’m exhausted. My legs hurt. But it doesn’t matter because I got to see the faces of the people I helped. They literally hugged me when we got a problem solved. People walked up to the booth just to say, “I love WordPress so much!” or “I don’t need help, I just want you to know how much I love you.”

And then there were posts like these:

I also ran into old friends, another identical triplet mom, and got to meet a blogger I’ve been reading forever (and got a little giggly and nervous.)

I got to spend all weekend with this magnificent group of women, just a few of my wonderful coworkers.

Denise and I hung out with Gwynnie. I mean, you know, we were all in the same room, at least.

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I got a bunch of tattoos.

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Man. I love my job.

(Did you know we’re hiring?)