I don't even know where to begin. The past 5 days have been amazing.
First, the shopping. Mags and I went through my entire closet and threw out 2/3 of it. I have 7 full shopping bags of shirts, pants, sweaters, dresses, and skirts that don't suit me. And I haven't even weeded out my t-shirts yet. The rejects are either the wrong size, out dated, wrong color for me, or wrong style/cut for my body type. It feels SO good to have done this. I'm wearing one of my new outfits today - black pants and a sweater. Tomorrow I'm going to wear the black pants with my new red top. Who would have thought that clothes could be so fun?
This weekend was just amazing. We had the Future of Information Architecture Retreat at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove. Photos of the event are collecting over at Flickr (the one below was taken by Jorge Arango). I really can't thank everyone enough. It was such a success, on so many levels. We had about 45 people attend. The conference grounds were wonderful. Totally set up the relaxing, retreaty, comfortable feel that I wanted the weekend to have. Except for too little regular coffee Saturday morning, all the logistics went off without a hitch. Woo!
I don't know that I learned that much about where the future of IA is headed. But I do know that I made some decisions about my career and where I am headed. I also know that I need to read more (I always feel that way after I hang out with a group of IAs). I learned that there is a lot of good work going on in many places in the world (though I knew that already). And there are a lot of folks that are geniuely concerned and want to see that this good work continues.
I also learned that by being an IA, I am part of an amazing group of individuals (Okay, I also knew that before, but the point was really hit home this weekend). This to me was the most important and the best part of the weekend. I belonged. I was part of the group. I was happy that each and every one of them was there, and they (seemed to be) happy that I was there too. It's a group of very talented, highly intelligent, kind, funny, fun-loving, and caring people. This weekend went a long way to improving the sense of community. I feel that these folks are not only my peers, but they are also my friends. We laughed. We had fun. We talked about important things and geeked out together. But also really enjoyed each other's company.
Oh, and Anders and I have already started talking about planning one for next year. So stay tuned.
Left to Right, Starting in the back row: Dennis, Gene, Frank, Victor, Scott
Middle row: Migel, Javier, Chris, Mags, Christina, Bill, Austin
First row: Anders, Jamie, Chiara, Jess
