I'm really looking forward
to the NH RG, since I missed the one in Maine. It will be nice to get
away for a few days and it's really nice that I can stay at my parents house
for the weekend.
Hello All,
This is Maine Mensa. We'll be posting more and getting some events going soon again. I hate snow ! But I like Maine....so gotta take the good with the bad. Keep watching this site, and we will try to keep it hoppin'.
Merry Chrisatmas, everyone!
So sorry to hear about your recents events ....ouch ! Missed you, too! This is the doldrums time of year for us Maine Mensans...things start firing up as we think about the NH RG in February though.
Hello everyone.
I was so looking forward to the RG in Freeport. I was going to come alone, so what I had planned on doing was just going up Friday, paying for a room and the day, and leaving Saturday, since I had other things to do later that weekend. Well, that turned out to be a great idea on my part, because I would have been out some money otherwise!
Here is what happened: Wednesday I was feeling unusually stiff and sore at work, so I decided to see my chiropractor after work that day. Fortunately she's open late on Wednesdays. She agreed that my muscles were unusually tense and my joints were stiff, but after seeing her, I felt like new. I got an excellent nights sleep and woke up Thursday feeling refreshed and ready to go. I was just about ready to leave, and I was putting skin lotion on my face when *ZAP!* my muscles said, "No! No more!". I couldn't turn my head and was in a lot of pain. My regular back doctor who I see about once a month for a birth defect, had recently told me that if I ever have any sudden pain anywhere on my body, to see him right away. I called him as soon as I got to work and saw him a few hours later. At the time he thought that my muscles had just relapsed into their natural, over tense position, and were inflamed and irritated from seeing a chiropractor. He sent me back to work and said I'd be better in a day or two, barring any major complications. (Yay, can still go to RG at this point).
Well, the next day (Friday), I couldn't move. I called out of work and stayed in bed most of the day. I called my doctor back and he called in some prescriptions for me for muscle relaxants and pain killers. I had to go see him again Monday. I spent the rest of the weekend sulking because I rarely get invited out and I couldn't go to the RG.
So, to speed you up to now, I bulged a disk (similar to herniation or "slipped" disk). Missed 2 weeks of work. And, to put the icing on the cake, missed the last 2 weeks of my probationary period of work and got fired. But, I was "not fired for my injuries". I don't believe that, since the reason they stated for my termination was "I did not exceed or meet expectations". I went on two months probation IN AUGUST at work because our volume went up and my managers were concerned because I "don't work well under stress", and I "don't like surprise project with really short deadlines." (duh) We were supposed to meet every two weeks to discuss my job and how I was doing, we only met twice and both times I was told I was doing fine. I think they just wanted to hire a processor and get rid of a servicer, to be honest.
If you were paying attention and did the math, my probationary period was up in October.
But this was the kick in the pants I needed to go back to school. I kept thinking, I should get my masters degree, but I like my job and I don't think I'll be able to do both at once. Well, now I'm free to pursue a masters degree. (I'm thinking about a Masters in Health Administration, sound good? I decided against an MBA because those programs seem so cold and personality-less.)
I'm a glass is half full kind of person. If God closes a door he opens a window. And, because of the time of year, I can probably easily get a seasonal job at the mall here in Biddeford or at worst the call center at LL Bean.
I've spent a lot of my life worrying about what-if's and I'm not going to do that now. I've been officially unemployed for five and a half hours and I've already contacted St. Joseph's College online continuing education department, their financial aid department, and a wrongful termination lawyer. Tomorrow, if I feel up to it, I'll go look for a part time job at the Biddeford mall.
So, to make a long story short, I'm sorry I didn't get to see you all last month. I really wanted to go and was really disappointed that I couldn't go. I'm still on part time bed rest and I can't drive long distances, but I'm getting better. My spine is back in place, I just have a lot of fluid around my neck that needs to go away. That will make the pain stop.
I AM going to the RG in Portsmouth, NH, in February. That one's a no-brainer for me. My parents have a condo they bought as an investment and it's in down town Market Square. I can stay there and go to the events. I LOVE Portsmouth. I grew up near there and was born there.
I hope to see you all sometime soon, if not, have a very great Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year.
-Leona
I was so looking forward to the RG in Freeport. I was going to come alone, so what I had planned on doing was just going up Friday, paying for a room and the day, and leaving Saturday, since I had other things to do later that weekend. Well, that turned out to be a great idea on my part, because I would have been out some money otherwise!
Here is what happened: Wednesday I was feeling unusually stiff and sore at work, so I decided to see my chiropractor after work that day. Fortunately she's open late on Wednesdays. She agreed that my muscles were unusually tense and my joints were stiff, but after seeing her, I felt like new. I got an excellent nights sleep and woke up Thursday feeling refreshed and ready to go. I was just about ready to leave, and I was putting skin lotion on my face when *ZAP!* my muscles said, "No! No more!". I couldn't turn my head and was in a lot of pain. My regular back doctor who I see about once a month for a birth defect, had recently told me that if I ever have any sudden pain anywhere on my body, to see him right away. I called him as soon as I got to work and saw him a few hours later. At the time he thought that my muscles had just relapsed into their natural, over tense position, and were inflamed and irritated from seeing a chiropractor. He sent me back to work and said I'd be better in a day or two, barring any major complications. (Yay, can still go to RG at this point).
Well, the next day (Friday), I couldn't move. I called out of work and stayed in bed most of the day. I called my doctor back and he called in some prescriptions for me for muscle relaxants and pain killers. I had to go see him again Monday. I spent the rest of the weekend sulking because I rarely get invited out and I couldn't go to the RG.
So, to speed you up to now, I bulged a disk (similar to herniation or "slipped" disk). Missed 2 weeks of work. And, to put the icing on the cake, missed the last 2 weeks of my probationary period of work and got fired. But, I was "not fired for my injuries". I don't believe that, since the reason they stated for my termination was "I did not exceed or meet expectations". I went on two months probation IN AUGUST at work because our volume went up and my managers were concerned because I "don't work well under stress", and I "don't like surprise project with really short deadlines." (duh) We were supposed to meet every two weeks to discuss my job and how I was doing, we only met twice and both times I was told I was doing fine. I think they just wanted to hire a processor and get rid of a servicer, to be honest.
If you were paying attention and did the math, my probationary period was up in October.
But this was the kick in the pants I needed to go back to school. I kept thinking, I should get my masters degree, but I like my job and I don't think I'll be able to do both at once. Well, now I'm free to pursue a masters degree. (I'm thinking about a Masters in Health Administration, sound good? I decided against an MBA because those programs seem so cold and personality-less.)
I'm a glass is half full kind of person. If God closes a door he opens a window. And, because of the time of year, I can probably easily get a seasonal job at the mall here in Biddeford or at worst the call center at LL Bean.
I've spent a lot of my life worrying about what-if's and I'm not going to do that now. I've been officially unemployed for five and a half hours and I've already contacted St. Joseph's College online continuing education department, their financial aid department, and a wrongful termination lawyer. Tomorrow, if I feel up to it, I'll go look for a part time job at the Biddeford mall.
So, to make a long story short, I'm sorry I didn't get to see you all last month. I really wanted to go and was really disappointed that I couldn't go. I'm still on part time bed rest and I can't drive long distances, but I'm getting better. My spine is back in place, I just have a lot of fluid around my neck that needs to go away. That will make the pain stop.
I AM going to the RG in Portsmouth, NH, in February. That one's a no-brainer for me. My parents have a condo they bought as an investment and it's in down town Market Square. I can stay there and go to the events. I LOVE Portsmouth. I grew up near there and was born there.
I hope to see you all sometime soon, if not, have a very great Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year.
-Leona
It was a lot of work for the people putting on the event, but we had a lovely
mini-RG with people from all over the Northeast, and I had a delightful time! I
hope we can do something like this in the future, but, you know, maybe not next
week.
Special thanks to Kevin Tremblay for his help with the games room, and to
our hard-working Hospitality people, and of course to Anne Allen for having the
vision and making it happen!
PopTech 2010, another important event
It will be sometime before my "PopTech Hangover," as our little band of attendees fondly calls it, subsides. The welter of new ideas, the crush of inspiring people, and the energy of the event have left me reeling for weeks following every conference since the very first Camden Technology Conference more than a decade ago.
I trust Andrew and his staff are getting well-deserved praise from many for the effort clearly required to put such an event together; I add mine to it. While the constituents of the event have changed over the years, their enthusiasm, engagement, and creativity have not; this group, like each year's group, was a pleasure to be around.The program offerings ranged from delighting, to troubling, to astounding.
Great things can be even better, so I would like to offer some thoughts that I hope will be found useful. The conference could feel better to some of us in the group with just a few adjustments to program.* Social Innovation Fellows: I enjoy hearing from the Social Innovation Fellows; their work is, after all, the implementation of the ideas that make the event important. However, I find interspersing them with the run of the program detracts from the continuity of the threads. I have been to three Wednesday workshops to date and would be perfectly willing to exchange the experiences I've had in those for time listening to the Social Innovation Fellows. This could give the Fellows time that is in its own conceptual space.* Time Management: Time management is a wonderful puzzle in such a dense schedule; I understand that. While jokes were made about bladders, I was physically uncomfortable on more than one occasion, both from bladder distension and from knees that get tired of a fixed position after long periods, because of extraordinary extensions to the published schedule. Unfortunately, I missed the gala for the first time ever because of time overruns; I just couldn't make it after 5:30 on Saturday. A published schedule that is real would help many of us with our personal management.* Interaction time: One of the substantial benefits of this conference is the opportunity to meet and talk with new, interesting people from outside one's normal sphere. Lunches are wonderful! With the density of the schedule, particularly with overruns, interaction time is quite limited. Finding a way to get some interaction time back in the schedule would be appreciated. Maybe in some small way, less is more, in this regard.That's it. The balance of science/tech/social seemed pretty good to me this year. The absence of "big names" was more than compensated by the generally high quality of the presenters, and I left all signed up for next year.Thanks to the PopTech staff for the work you do; for many it's an important annual event.Tomorrow night (Saturday, the 11th of September) at 7 p.m., the authors of
Short Cuts: A
Guide to Oaths, Ring Tones, Ransom Notes, Famous Last Words, and Other Forms of
Minimalist Communication are going to be at Longfellow
Books in Portland, signing copies of their book. I'm going -- want to join me?
More here...
Can you spare an hour? How about letting us know if you can TEACH a popular game that you know. We'd like to have some GameGurus every half hour teach a game at the RG during the day on Saturday. Do you have a card game you know? I know Canasta, and SET game, and Bananagrams, and Yikerz. After the Game101 lesson, then you can have a REAL game or so with anyone who has learned - or already knows - the game. Any interest? Call Anne 577-6362 or email wilsnanni@yahoo.com
Thanks to Leona for setting this up! I say we do it again next month -- let's
say on Sept. 13? Add a comment if you can make it!
An event is when someone from Mensa
wants to do something fun, and invites us to join. It can be a movie,
dinner, a discussion, a weekend of camping, games, canoeing, listening to
music, etc. It's best when we know in advance so we can let people know
(website, postcard). It can be at your house, in a bar or restaurant-
wherever. I think that the more people that sponsor an event at some
point, the easier it will be for them to spontaneously drop in at another
event. Just one personal contact, and we feel connected. We're
going to have some NEW events coming up - games night, music night, that might
tickle your fancy. And if you think YOU never have any in 'your
neighbohhood'- sponsor one - I'll help- and we'll see what
happens.
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