Happy summer! It’s nearly mid August and yet with the hot and cold weather we’ve been having here in Seattle, a few trees are starting to turn. Fall is probably my favorite season in the northwest, so a couple of auburn leaves here and there are certainly a way to raise my spirits.
Friday marked my last day in my department at Amazon. After 2.5 years and a few really hard peak seasons, I’ll be moving from a marketing role to product management in the Marketplace organization. Product management, for many graduates of MBA programs, is a very ideal trade, particularly for those who have spent thousands of dollars to move into tech and work in an organization to launch the next big thing. I haven’t personally been drawn to it as a discipline before, but in the role I’m taking on, it’s the medium needed to get the work done. So it’s time to become a student again. It’ll be a new environment to learn, continue flexing my professional humility skills, and attempt to push another Amazon business forward.
The move itself is also bittersweet – I had the opportunity to build a large team that is very much taking the reins going forward on a business I care deeply about. It was the first real time that I was able to find my footing as a manager and be able to have tangible examples of empowering others to develop their own careers. It’s been very difficult at times but also very rewarding looking back.
Outside of my work, summer for us has felt pretty standard. We have had the chance to attend a number of great concerts and dinners. On the music side we’ve seen Katy Perry, The Appleseed Cast, Jimmy Eat World, Third Eye Blind, Kishi Bashi, The Strumbellas, and a few others. Each of these musicians or bands have been constants in my life over the last 10+ years, so it’s been a pleasure to get to see them live. If you are looking for new music to try, Kishi Bashi’s Omoiyari and The Strumbella’s Rattlesnake are both great listens. Rattlesnake has a special meaning as it’s from a longstanding band who is writing about growing up (into their 30s) which we all seem to be stuck in the mindset of these days. It’s very heartfelt and not just the writer’s experience as several of their band members came back from maternity or paternity leaves to support their tour.
On the food side, I gushed about a chance to attend what felt like a show at Archipelago. There’s 8 seats twice a night, and the chef and staff talk about Filipino heritage both at home and in the northwest. It was a beautiful meal and Kaitlin and I were both pleased to find out that we had a very shared history with the chef and his partner at both UW and Kitsap/Vancouver. This last month has been a test in cooking as I try to not break every rule attached to Whole 30 but also not pull my hair out at the instagram posts of test kitchen chefs making ribs, pastries, or other summer treats. This post from Deb Perelman almost put me over the edge – quite literally a perfect summer spin on a BLT. It’s bookmarked until after I can abandon my pre-vacation diet.
Speaking of vacation.. Kaitlin and I are packing our bags for Maui next week. Literally the same vacation we took last year, but it was too relaxing to say no to. I have a short stack of books to read on the beach, my Mai Tai to Piña Colada ratios set (3:3 daily of course), and more sunscreen than ever thought I’d need. I used to tan! Now I burn fairly easily at the sight of sun, so protection is key.
Lastly, I do hope to have a stronger approach to time management for the next few months, which involves spending more time blogging a few times a month. I suspended my Facebook last week; don’t know if it’s more than temporary, but it is freeing to have one less platform to worry about. If I can cut back on reddit time, I’ll be in the clear.
typingham 