A reflection on the summer of 2009

As the true end of summer approaches, I want to reflect on what a great summer this has been. The weather in Seattle could not have been better, except that perhaps a bit more rain would have been nice! Funny, I know. Also, I got to do fair amount of traveling, and therefore, met and spent time with some incredible people. Here are a few highlights of the summer of 2009 for me.



To kick off the summer, the entire Cool Works team gathered in Yellowstone for our annual meetup. This year, as many of you know, we tried to meet as many My CoolWorks members as we could. Thanks again to those who came out to see us. Knowing that you are doing these jobs, and getting to live in these fabulous places, keeps us motivated to move Cool Works forward and hopefully provide many more opportunities to other adventure-minded folks. The summaries for the whole meetup in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks can be found here, here, here, and here.



My next adventure, and right quick, after Yellowstone was the annual SHRM conference in New Orleans, a new city for me, and my first conference where I was considered a member of the press. I blogged about my time there and shared some insights I had gleaned from the wonderful speakers and networking events.



What a privilege it was to be in the company of such wonderful HR and recruiting folks including many of my favorite bloggers and twitter friends. Also, I got to hang out with my friend, Erin, someone I met at the 2007 conference in Las Vegas. Life sure is full of fun bends and twists (and powdered sugar messes!).



Next on the horizon were two special dinners by Outstanding in the Field. We attended our first OITF dinner last year and are officially hooked. The first dinner we went with some wine and foodies friends and the second dinner was a company event for my husband's business. There are so many wonderful things about these meals. 1) The food is FRESH and local. 2) The people with whom you share the meal are fantastic. 3) The scenery is always amazing.



Seattle broke the heat record on July 29 by reaching 103 degrees! Crazy. My Mini documented the event.



I like to say that this particular week was sponsored by Twitter, the micro-blogging site. On Monday, I spoke at the Cool Twitter Conference created by Bob Fine and my topic was "Tweet about what you love and the connections will follow." Good fun. And then, on Wednesday of this week, the hottest day of the year, I met for the first time the social media fellow at the Puget Sound Blood Center, Sean DeButts. We rented canoes at the arboretum. Twitter rocks.

Then came the all mighty Seattle celebration Seafair. We were fortunate to be invited by our neighbors to spend time on the log boom. I've never been so close to the Blue Angels or Hydros and was as giddy as a school girl. It was incredible.


Find more photos like this on My CoolWorks
Somehow in the midst of all of this, I took a moment, well several, to organize my thoughts around a new photography project I call "The Elements." In essence, I thought about the four elements: air, earth, fire and water; and then I collaged 9 of my photographs into each element. It was a fun process for me and really good to think about my photography and make decisions about what certain images meant to me. I highly recommend the process. So much of my time is spent running from one thing to the next so this really brought focus to my mind and spirit. It was great. The images are still on display in Everett, Washington at my friends' store, A Gathering Grove, and will be until November.


Find more photos like this on My CoolWorks
The following week, I got to go back in time, well, sort of. I was a Company Advisor for Washington Business Week, a teen business camp that I attended 20 years ago. It was so much fun to go back and relive that experience, but this time, I was the mentor and advisor. I've realized that over the course of my life I tend to participate as a "student" and then later give back to said program by taking on a leadership role. It's a good pattern I think. This experience was especially good for me because I faced head on my fear that I didn't have enough experience to teach kids about business. Which, when I step out of my head and look at it objectively, it's silly that I ever thought that. The kids were great. They absolutely exceeded my expectations and I'm excited for the future. One girl in particular, who I met on the first day, and frankly I didn't believe that she would make it through the week, got really involved with her company and gained a whole bunch of self-esteem. I feel privileged to have played any role in that transformation. I finished the week by giving the keynote address to the students, the CAs and WBW staff, and the parents. And, better yet, when I told my dad that I was asked to do so, he said, "Way to go, kid." : )

The capper on this week was going to Nate's 20 year high school reunion as if I needed another night of getting too little sleep! Actually, it was really fun. I know enough of his classmates to enjoy myself and it's always good to hear of stories from back in the day. Plus, because I had just spent an entire week working high school students, it didn't take much effort to be back there mentally myself. I want to say that this is the same week that we lost John Hughes, the ultimate movie director, who specialized in teen drama. What a talented man.

Then, a mere two weeks later, and really, the icing on the cake for the summer of 2009 was our sailing trip to Greece with SeaScape Sailling. I've been blogging about this trip on my photography website, Kari's Musings About Photography. I had been to Greece way back in 1995 where I spent some time in Athens and on one Greek island, Sifnos. This time the emphasis was the islands, the Dodecanese to be precise, which are the farthest east and in sight of Turkey. We went to 8 different islands over 7 days.

A sample of my images:

I'm still reveling over how great this trip was and still have lots of photos to edit. I'm sure that I'll have more stories to tell. One thing I did want to note is that those of you doing seasonal jobs here are no different than seasonal workers over there. We interacted with lots of people doing jobs so that they could be in the great places over there. Traveling and working where you love to be is not just an American concept.

So why am I writing this? Well, I'm not doing it to brag. More than anything, I feel absolutely blessed to be living this life and also I know that dreary winter days are coming. By getting this down on virtual paper, I'll have a place to go and remind myself what a glorious summer it was.

For anyone reading this, I sincerely hope that you too made some terrific memories this summer, maybe in a new place, working a new job, meeting lots of new "seasonal" friends. Please share your stories on here too so we can be inspired by the cool stuff you got to do this year. Life is really about looking for joy in everything we get to do. Two of my favorite blog posts on this network this year came from Ryan aka intheories and Richard aka aggie71. Both men remind us that time is precious, our experience here on earth is what you make it and also to be thankful for what you got.

Lastly, I hope that you'll join us for a chat about the summer that was on Monday, September 28 at 9pm Eastern / 6pm Pacific. I can't wait to hear the highlights. Enjoy the last week plus of summer, folks!