A Month in Motion

It's been 4 weeks since I've written anything for the site, and you may be wondering what I've been up to in that time. Where'd I go? What've I been doing? Is everything all right?

TL;DR: Everything is great, nothing to worry about!

Well, saying that "everything" is great is a huge lie, because of, you know... *waves hands at the general state of my country* ... but I'm doing just fine, thanks for asking. Digging in to what's been happening for me over the past four weeks:

Week 1

The week of January 19th was consumed with work. My manager held an offsite planning meeting for her full extended leadership team in San Francisco, with folks flying in from all over the world, so we could plan out the coming fiscal year for our department. While San Francisco is local for me, I took advantage of the opportunity to spend additional time with my colleagues by staying in a hotel in the city. That allowed me to join in the social activities in the evenings, building stronger relationships with my peers, and reducing the disruption at home if I'd be coming home late in the evening every night.

Week 2

Unfortunately, all that bonding time and close proximity to people who'd been through airports came with a cost, as I came down with strep throat. While I recovered fairly quickly, it did take a lot out of me for most of the week... and, worse, I got April sick, too, which meant that when I was getting back to full strength, she was getting knocked down by the germs I'd brought home.

Week 3

Thankfully, we were both fully recovered by the time I took off for my annual vacation with my buddies. Every year in February, since 2010*, I've joined a group of friends for a guys' poker weekend in Lake Tahoe. The group overall has been doing this trip for over 30 years! For the first time, though, we deviated from tradition, putting Tahoe aside and trying out Paso Robles instead. It turned out to be a great choice.

* Other than 2021, when we were all still stuck at home, waiting for Covid vaccines to become available.

When you rent a giant house for 12 middle-aged men for a long weekend, the most important decision to settle once you get there is "where is everyone going to sleep?" We settle that dilemma by having a no-limit Texas Hold'em elimination tournament as soon as we all arrive at the vacation house. First place in the tournament gets first choice of sleeping arrangements; second place gets second choice, and so on down the line. There are usually 3 or 4 rooms with king or queen sized beds, one room with two sets of bunk beds, and then everyone else makes do with either a couch or a strategically situated air mattress – large laundry rooms and oversized walk-in closets become prime real estate for the tournament's bottom-finishers.

This year, I finished first in the tournament!

Since Paso Robles isn't cold in February like Tahoe is, and we didn't worry about being snowed in, some of the group spent their Thursday and Friday going golfing, and another group used those days to go wine tasting. I chose the wine tasting route both days, visiting DAOU, Denner, Booker, and J. Lohr.

We also took the afternoon on Saturday for the Tahoe Book Club to have our monthly discussion group at Barrelhouse Brewing.

This trip is always one of the highlights of my year, and I always come away from it feeling thankful for great friends. Already can't wait for next year!

Week 4

Then, on Sunday, instead of heading back north to go home, I headed east and drove from Paso Robles to Las Vegas. For my first time, I was going to my company's annual kickoff conference. In my head, it made more sense for me to drive the 5 hours from Paso to Vegas, rather than drive 3 hours back home – through potential Super Bowl traffic in Santa Clara, no less – and fly to Vegas on Monday morning.

I watched the Super Bowl from my hotel room in Vegas, trying to get a little caught up with work while the game was on, before the conference started. Long-time readers of mine will know I used to be a New England Patriots super-fan, as well as a big-time fantasy football player. I drifted away from the NFL in the late 2010s, for a number of reasons that I won't go into here right now (ask me in the comments if you want?), but I would always at least watch the Super Bowl. As the Patriots looked more and more like a contender this season, I paid a little more attention as they made the playoffs, and then all the way to winning the AFC Championship. Thankfully, I wasn't as emotionally invested as I used to be, when the Pats got trucked by the Seattle Seahawks, 29-13.

As for the company kickoff (or CKO), obviously I'm not going to get into the details here – that's all confidential! If you want to learn more about what Salesforce is up to, go read up on "the Agentic Enterprise".

Suffice to say, it was a week full of learning — but more than that, it was about reconnecting with leaders across the company: executives, old teammates, current collaborators, and brand-new faces where we immediately started brainstorming what we might try next.

Oh, and we had Sting play our opening welcome reception!!

And then, when it was all said and done, I drove back home from Las Vegas on Friday. It took me about 9 hours, with frequent but quick stops to stretch. My right hamstring doesn't like it when I'm driving for so long...

Best of all, though, I was home in time to spend Valentine's Day with April.

What's Next?

Now I’m easing back into the routine of home, and tomorrow back into the routine of work. There’s plenty to catch up on, and being out of my normal rhythms for so long has felt a little overwhelming. But I’m ready to settle back into the steady flows of everyday life.