Don't tell me it's already September.....

Greetings friends -

It's simply amazing to me that time has gone so fast that it is now September 7, 2008. I cannot believe how quickly this summer zipped by.

I was on a carousel.....self-inflicted....but nonetheless I was busy.

It was a great summer....and some of it was good; some of it was tough and some of it was fun!!

I found myself immersed in reading.....I have recently started Robin Cook's Marker which is about genetic markers for breast cancer and mysterious killings in major metropolitan New York hospitals. I love these medical thrillers as well as legal thrillers.

A few weeks ago, my sister, Ruth, sent me a wonderful book called, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Randy was the noted professor from Carnegie Mellon who found out that he had pancreatic cancer and did not have long to live life. He was born in 1960 and on July 25, 2008, he left this world. The Last Lecture is part of a You Tube phenomenon that has taken the Internet world by storm and ended up in book format. Randy gives us a blueprint of his life in that he really did achieve his childhood dreams. The book likens his need to be like and then to be Captain James T. Kirk. Thi is so timely to me, a Star Trek fan, in conjunction with leadership skills. Ruth and I were discussing leadership styles and she suggested that I read this book.

Since then, I have picked up some other books that have been provided to me by some of my work mentors. I applied for a new job; one that could be a huge career challenge for me but one that I would enjoy. Several years ago, when I first became an IT professional, I always thought it would be my goal to become an IT Director. I quickly realized at that time that I was not ready. Am I any more prepared? Maybe from a technical perspective but as Ruth pointed out to me, maybe not from a leadership or managerial perspective. Hence our discussion about this book and others. And a timely discussion on my all-woman IT group called Systers, provided me with some other information specifically on becoming a manager without specific "manager training."

The other day, my good friend, Laurie Carlson and I ventured to Des Moines, Iowa to show River and Flame at a specialty. River did quite well making the "cut" for Best of Breed and Flamers won her hunting class and then she went on to Best of Opposite. This was such a huge win for her and both of us were quite proud. I also won several nice things at the raffle. In this basket that I won for a woman after a dog show, a gift-loaded wicker basket had...chocolate (Ghardelli no less) and both some of my favorite, too, as well as bubble bath, lotion and a candle and a book to read. The book is entitled, The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright. This was a book published in 2007 and was one of those that I could NOT put down.

For all of you that have spouses, parents, siblings, I highly recommend this book and a box of kleenex...the book ends completely and happily and just gave me a sense of how life did play out well for the family in this story.

The Wednesday Letters are letters that Jack wrote to Laurel every Wednesday of their married life.

In part of Jack's November 14, 1979 letter he wrote this:

Laurel,

It's Wednesday, but just barely! I'm sitting in
the parking lot of
the theater and all I've got to write on is a flier from
tonight. I'm
watching Joe tell jokes to some women across the
street. But time
for the news of the night. You better be
sitting. I MET WILLIAM
SHATNER!! Did you hear that? I MET
WILLIAM SHATNER!!

I was sure that when they said there would
be cast members from the
show at the theater tonight they meant George Takei
or some extras whose name
you never knew. But as Joe and I were
standing around the lobby, he just
walked in. What a sight!!
He's just as nice in person as I thought
he'd be. Some think he's a
windbad and maybe he is I think he's
always in character. And
really, who isn't? . . . .

So, just what is it about William Shatner (a/k/a Captain James T. Kirk)? I think we all liked him as Randy Pausch alluded to because he could coordinate all the likes of the men under him on the Starship Enterprise....plus Shatner was hugely handsome and sauve....*grin*

Anyway, I just thought this was so neat that both of these quick-read books mentioned William Shatner. And as Randy noted in his book, William Shatner sent an autographed photograph of Captain Kirk that said, "Randy, I don't believe in the no-win scenario. My best, William Shatner."

Perhaps all of us have to believe in that....even if it really is September already.

And....with John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin, I think that we all can believe. I was so elated about that pick....and Ruth has blogged about it as have a lot of others.

Well...I believe that I need to get to work.....

Thanks for reading....and remember....reading does open up whole new worlds and worlds that do often shadow each other in ways you never expect.