Kourtny’s blah-g

Life has been good these days, and often I feel like I need to pinch myself. I hope I’m not dreaming and will likely wake up any minute to realize it’s all been too good to be true.

I’m now a Team Lead for my group at work. My current manager is new at management, but he has quickly been learning the ropes and has risen to the challenge. As a result, I would say he has grown into a very strong and supportive leader.

He not only asked me to take over as Team Lead but has gradually and truly learned to lean on me as a rising leader and designer for our team. I think over the last several months our level of trust in each other’s roles and abilities in our team has really grown strong and confident, and we are working very well as a unit.

This type of challenge is something I’ve been looking forward to for some time, and I am grateful to my manager for believing in my skills and strengths enough to allow me to really step up and into this new role. I believe that our team is truly a fantastic team of individuals who all have such talent, skill, passion, and true kinship for one another. It’s because of such people that I continue to strive to challenge myself, learn quickly, and always do my best to excel so that I won’t ever let any of them down. And believe me, this isn’t always easy when you’re working with people who are the cream of the crop…as everyone at Apple seems to be.

I know this all sounds corny and like I’ve taken words from a Hallmark card and written them down in my blog, but I’m very serious. Not every day does one get to work with people who you feel are always bringing their best to the table each day they’re there, who are self-starters, who are so passionate about design and have such a strong work ethic, who you never worry about pulling their own weight. And how often does anyone feel like they have such influence over something they work on, something that millions of people buy and love? All I can say is, “Wow!” I just feel so honored and privileged to be who I am and where I am right this minute.

And of course, besides that, I have the most wonderful and supportive husband, two beautiful cats, and a brand new house to live in…all of which I LOVE to come home to every day. And yet…I LOVE my day when I’m at work.

I also have an awesome new window office, so I finally have natural light. It’s pretty sweet.

Knock on wood that life stays good for awhile longer since we all know that the only constant in life is “change”.

For now, if I’m dreaming…please don’t wake me up!

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?

• Bought a house
• Took a 10-day cruise to Alaska.
• Travelled to Orlando and visited Disneyworld
• Helped design the 2007 iPod

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t really have official New Year’s resolutions. I am constantly setting goals and refining them or settings new ones as I accomplish them. My on-going goals are to continue to maintain a happy marriage, exercise, lose weight, and learn new things.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Matt and Sharon have a newborn son—JT—who was born in October.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully, no one this year.

5. What countries did you visit?
Victoria, Canada…while we were on our Alaskan cruise.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?

• Have a stable job
• Have more financial security

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
4 dates in particular:

• May 2007: I moved over to the iPod team
• May 2007: 10-day Alaskan cruise with our 7 mutual friends
• October 2007: Spent my birthday at Disneyworld
• December 2007: My iPod manager quit

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Helping revamp the user interface design for the 2007 Nano and iPod Classic.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not losing weight.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
None so far. *knock on wood*

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Our house.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Diane Cascia who I volunteer with at Safe Haven Animal Sanctuary…who is always so selfless and giving towards the cause of animal rescue. She devotes all of her free time towards educating people about cats. She rescues cats from the outdoors and from being put down at the San Jose Animal Shelter. She fosters and finds foster homes for all of these wonderful cats until they are adopted out to a good home.

Diane is a wonderful human being who deserves more appreciation than she probably gets. I thank her for everything she does to make this world a better place for cats and for the humans who live in it.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
My manager Bill for quitting and no longer being my manager. He’s the best manager I’ve had to date.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Buying a house.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

• Buying a house
• Getting to work with a great manager and an outstanding team on this year’s iPod UI.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
“How to Save a Life” by the Fray.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

• happier or sadder?: both
• thinner or fatter?: slightly fatter
• richer or poorer?: richer

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Taking more dance classes, cooking and eating at home more, exercising, spending more time with friends and family, doing something more to help animals get adopted to good homes.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Worrying, spending countless hours at work preparing for SJ reviews, eating more than I should, spending too much money eating out, and not exercising enough.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Going to Tucson to visit Michael’s family like we do every Christmas.

21. Did you fall in love in 2007?
I fell in love with my husband back in 1999. Every day he shows me why I love him so much.

22. What was your favorite TV program?

• Grey’s Anatomy
• Dancing with the Stars
• Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
• Family Guy

23. Do you dislike anyone now that you liked this time last year?
Not that I can think of.

24. What was the best book you read?

• How to Buy a House in California by Ralph Warner
• The Complete Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Michael Bublé

26. What did you want and get?
A house.

27. What did you want and not get?
For there to be no homeless animals in the world.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 32. We ate terrific crab and lobster in Downtown Disney (in Orlando) and went to see La Nouba.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Having my team in the iPod group stay together for longer than 7 months.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Mainly wearing what feels comfortable.

32. What kept you sane?
Michael and my cats Fitz and Mia.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt for their philanthropic efforts and endeavors.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Any issue that infringes on the equality of rights for all people and animals.

35. Who did you miss?
My grandma and my best friend…whom I don’t get to see enough.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
My team in iPod.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007.
Learning to express myself more confidently, speaking up more and not being shy about communicating my ideas, and realizing that I have good ideas and strong concepts to contribute.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Can’t think of any

Five things that 2007 taught me:

• Owning a house is awesome
• Job security doesn’t last long
• Believe in myself more
• That being recognized for your efforts or contributions requires being more assertive and stating your ideas and opinions and less about silently working hard when no one’s looking
• Networking with people is helpful

Five personally significant events of 2007:

• Our 5 year wedding anniversary
• Our 10-day Alaskan cruise
• Working in the iPod group
• Finally getting to travel to Disneyworld
• Getting more comfortable with the idea of having kids

Five things I want to do in 2008:

• Continue helping others who cannot help themselves, particularly animals and the elderly.
• Increase my title and responsibilities in my job
• Make more money
• Learn more about Cinema 4D and drawing icons
• Take more dance classes

Five things I don’t want to do in 2008:

• Regret anything I do or say
• Lose a loved one or grow apart from someone I care about
• Hurt others or make someone unhappy
• Be unproductive or procrastinate
• Lose my job

Five people who I’d like to know better in 2008:

• Myself
• Michael (my husband)
• My familly
• My friends
• My co-workers

Change seemed imminent. Two years on one team, and it felt like time to move on. Further details are insignificant now, but the timing was appropriate.

It’s been over 3 months now working on the iPod UI team. So far, I couldn’t be happier. The team consists of individuals who truly feel like my family away from home. We continue to bond as times passes, but already, I sense a friendship and kinship not felt before in previous teams or in my career thus far. My manager encourages me, motivates me, and inspires me daily with his knowledge, enthusiasm and energetic personality.

I feel challenged. At times I feel incompetent. I am surrounded by people with talent oozing out of their fingertips and minds. It drives me to keep learning new things.

At first it is uncomfortable. But with time and effort, it pays off, and I push myself to become a better designer with stronger and more varied skills than I had before. For these reasons and many more, I am thankful to be where I am.

Where will I be in another 4 months?

This summer brought a welcome change…the best of which was a house.

Though Michael and I had not intended on looking for a house until this summer, we ended up buying one about 6 or 7 months earlier than anticipated. The numbers worked in our favor, and we had no reason to wait.

We found a beautiful, brand new house in Sunnyvale, and we’ve been living here over 4 1/2 months already. We have no yard nor do we own our own lawn…things to upgrade to in our next home purchase, but wow…we love our house.

We’re fortunate so far. It’s new, so there haven’t been any real maintenance or fix-it up issues we’ve had to deal with. Our biggest challenge was furnishing the place since we didn’t have nearly enough furniture to fill up the place.

Our next challenge will to be to decorate it more. Our walls are still barren though we did paint our living room and bedroom a different color from the rest of the house. Fortunately, the builder didn’t paint our walls white. I think it’s more of a beige. For our bedroom, we painted it a light brown/grey and the living room was painted a slightly darker, warm beige color. During the day it’s a bit more orangey than I would have preferred. At night it looks great though.

Actually owning a house has been wonderful. We never thought it would happen while we were living in California. I guess having two incomes makes a big difference. We saved for two years after I started working again and that seemed to be enough to help us put down on a house. We’re lucky.

The cats seem to be adjusting well to the house. They were scared for the first 3 days, but now they enjoy laying on the beams of sunlight that shine through our windows. There aren’t as many squirrels here for them to watch during the day, but there are now over 30 windows for them to perch on during the day compared to only the 4 they had when we lived at the apartment.

Owning a house is more expensive. There is also more to clean now, but the benefits far outweigh the burdens.

We love our house!