The "This Is Not About Italy" post

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Although you'd never know it from my Facebook page and this blog, there are other happenings in life versus reliving the Italy trip. A quick recap to bring us all up to date: 

  • This Saturday is the 24-hour run at Hinson Lake. You know, there's a fine line between "bad ass" and "dumb ass" and 24-hour runs are a balancing act.  Last year I ran 54 miles in 11 hours. This year I'm aiming for 70 miles and lasting until midnight. Bored Saturday and looking for something to fill the hours? Come run with me. And bring chocolate. 
  • THE BOOK. Does This Collar Make My Butt Look Big? A Diet Book For Cats is due to my editor October 1st. My writer's group has been handing me feedback all week and I'm in a mad scramble to rip the book apart, incorpurrate (sorry, job hazard) their suggestions and get it out on time. Stress level = 8, but I'm having fun. I do my best work when I can see the finish line. 
  • New Clients. Sensing my absence from the country, several new clients popped up while I was away.
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The Italy Diaries: Photos

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Outside the VaticanFlickr is my friend. That's where I have uploaded the approximately 1 billion photos we took while in Italy. Blair complained I was putting too many pics up on Facebook, so I have deleted over half the pics we took.

What's here is not labeled, for the most part. Trips to Europe always end up with us taking 30 close up pics of some object or statue a tour guide emphasizes as being important, then us having no idea what we're looking at when we get home. Anyway, I find the pictures I return to are the ones of friends, or good meals, or simple street views that remind me of my time in a certain place. 

I've more or less categorized the pictures by city. I skipped Pompeii and Vatican City. Pompeii because ruins tend to look like little more than big gray rocks in photos, and the Vatican because really, how many pictures of religious icons and tapestries can you look at? 

Here are the links to the slideshows. There's only about 30 pics in each show, so takes about 2 minutes per city to go through them: 

 Below is my absolute favorite photo of the entire trip. Blair and I at the Colosseum, deciding whether or not someone lives or dies. Our choices are rather indicative of our personalities, don't you think?

I also like the photo of us on our last night in Rome, heading out for the group dinner.

Ciao!

 

 

 


Ignite Charlotte - Fizzled Out

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For those who didn't see my FB post, I will NOT be speaking at Ignite Charlotte 5 this coming Tuesday. I was unable to complete my slide deck before I left for Italy and they couldn't accept the deck once I got back.

The event organizer was quite gracious about the whole thing--much more so then I would have been. I've organized my fair share of events and am (I'm now embarrassed to say) snide about people who fall short on their commitments. "Do these people not own a calendar?" I ask. "How hard it is to do what you say you're going to do?"

Lesson: We become what we mock. 

I have my reasons for being unable to complete my deck before my trip, but the bottom line is I knew I was cutting it close getting the slides prepared. I didn't leave any room for contingencies that might arise and, as this blog post shows, a few landmines blew up. I should have started the process much earlier. 

The good news is I don't think I burned any bridges and I'm still interested in participating in an Ignite event. You can bet the next time, I'll have my deck ready before I even send my application in.

Best Wishes to all the Ignite Charlotte 5 speakers!!

Dena