From Thousands of Views of DC…
May 20, 2010
I keep uncovering new blogs from a variety of women in D.C. who are at various stages of life. This week, I uncovered DC Ladies, written mostly by a mom and daughter who just wanted to do something creative together. They manage to highlight great city locations and activities in a personal way. Wonder if my little Mia will do that with me when she’s old enough to choose otherwise? 
There are thousands of DC blogs, really. Who has time for all of them? My colleague Mark has introduced me to a number of those worth following and I trust him on this, as he’s the cheeky social set master. Two of my favorite – mostly because I get to live vicariously through them – are Kate Michael at KStreetKate and Pamela Sorensen at Pamela’s Punch.
From the Daily Candy emails to high end caterers like DesignCuisine to my new favorite… the Mrs. O Watch… these only skim the surface of the breadth of eye candy content available. On my simple mind this morning… what Michelle wore last night to the State Dinner…. And I’ve gotta say, she was stunning in her Peter Soronen..(photo by the Washington Post). How does she always manage to work in a belt?! I mean, seriously!
Coming soon… the best issue and government blogs in DC…(yes, there may be a Microsoft connection somehow….)
Daughters and Mothers
May 9, 2010
My friend Laura lost her sweet mother Rosemary nearly two years ago. On a walk together recently, Laura confided that although she thought maybe the pain would subside, it hasn’t gotten easier. I believe her. Rosemary was a lot like my mom…. Young and stylish for her age, gregarious, loving life with her husband, completely head over heels in love with her grandchildren. So when Laura’s son Pierson went off to kindergarten and when daughter Jessica says a new word, Laura longs for Rosemary to be ther for the joy, the milestones.
I’m convinced that Mother’s Day must be the most emotional holiday on the planet and there are no days so powerful as the first Mother’s Day as a new mom or the first Mother’s Day without Mom. As for me, I’ve experienced only the magic of the first. And yes, I dread the second. Perhaps Libby Copland — in her loving tribute to her new daughter — has gotten me thinking as she says “Isn’t it strange how time compresses, how you can be nostalgic for a thing even as you’re in the midst of it?”
In the morning, I will head to California with my mother and my five year old daughter…it’s a work trip for me ultimately, but we’ll squeeze in some sun, sand and priceless together time… simply because we can.
Snowstorms and shovels
February 10, 2010
I teased my colleague Kathy this morning that, with that adorable little 3 year old she brought back from Russia, she also brough unending WINTER!
Not since New Years weekend of 1996 do I remember getting snowed in for so long…and with so many house guests on top of our 4 roomies. The mid 90s were the days of our 20s! When that snowstorm hit, it was my first year of DC group house single living – My BFF Missie and I, who had just moved to DC from Lancaster, our high school buddy T (who, since moving on to LA is now “Shad”), his girlfriend (announced to us on move-in day) Wendy, all of us living in a McLean couple’s home for a few years while they were overseas.
On that fateful holiday, trapped with us for days, given the icy blast and the trecherous road conditions, were Jere, Hoyt, and Jim and Kate….all faithful friends from PA who had not planned to stay all week in Virginia. I don’t remember how much we shoveled that weekend. I do remember pasta dinners and drinking games, scrabble challenges, movies and phone calls to see if the PA roads had opened. I remember us getting sick of each other too (“How the heck can Jere sleep til noon?!”). Nevertheless, the weekend was etched in our minds. And, still friends, as we gathered over this past Christmas holiday to catch up, we recounted that 96 blizzard with the whitewashed sort of fondness that time brings.
Today, our blizzard day lives are quite different. In our household, we wake to snow at 6 AM, not 10. Usually the first words out of the mouths of babes are ”Mama, are we going to school today?” Followed by long hugs, wishes for cereal (or chicken nuggets) for breakfast, and then the making of a to-do list for the day. There are snow day playdates, attempts at helping Daddy shovel, and slides down the driveway…
For me, there’s a little more time to read.. especially the work of two columnists writing about men and shoveling “it” — from different perspectives….
Ruth Marcus, continuing her unique view (which I”ve agreed with before) on the heroine Jenny Sanford, in light of Jenny’s book. She rightly lambasts Mr. Sanford as a cad (putting it nicely), and blasts Jenny for sticking around as long as she did. There is a lot hereto ponder on a cold snowy day, given what we want to believe about “til death do us part” and redeption. Whether you’re Hillary Clinton, Jenny Sanford or Elizabeth Edwards, the path you must follow is probably not framed in Vegas lights.
On a lighter note, Kathleen Parker has a refreshing and interesting take on men, why we want them, and how the shovels of 2010 have unearthed many innate desires to demonstrate worth.
Happy snow and happy reading!
Not your mother’s feminist
January 9, 2010
Both before and since I’ve had children, few things have driven me as crazy as the debate over “motherhood VS. work.” Seems that our polarized nation of Democrat/Republican, stay at home/work outside the home, feminist/NOTfeminist language forces us too often in one camp or the other. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve felt alone on one side of the discussion around women’s roles.
Post college, I could not get enough Naomi Wolf and Katie Roiphe, not because I agreed with everything they preached in their new wave of feminism, but because they were talking a language that was relevant to my generation. They had a refreshing honesty about female independence. Yet it seemed completely devoid of any faith perspective.
Then I met Lilian Calles Barger. Not only did she bridge the world of intellectual feminism and faith together for me, but she refused to be trapped into all the big church-based questions that so many in my world got stuck on — “Can women lead in the church?”, “What is their proper ”role’?, etc. She rightly pointed out that so many in the faith community are navel gasing and talking amongst themselves — yet have nothing to offer to the broader academic community when it comes to feminism and its tenants. She dared to ask, “Why would (or should) we recommend wholesale rejection of feminist ideals without engaging thoughtful feminist academics on the basis of ideas?”
It’s Lilian who’s worked tirelessly to create a third way of feminism and faith discussion that avoids preaching, platitudes, and easy answers. Classic Lilian….in one of her blog entries from the summer:
“ Why can’t we get beyond this dicotomy between motherhood and work? Women, like men, have been created for two God given purposes, relationships and creative work. They are NOT mutually exclusive.”
Since she founded the Damaris Project in 1997, she has launched salons across the country to create forums for open, honest discussion about culture and feminism. Lilian has also gone on to write books on our view of the body and the role or experience of Christian feminism. I love her unending quest for Truth.
Big Warm Up
November 20, 2009
Maybe it’s because i’ve had a particularly tough morning, but this made me tear up today! Land’s End does a great job of showcasing a commitment to a cause in which they can make a difference (not random, but makes strategic sense), while also showing a deftness in tugging on emotional strings AND making it easy to share the “cause” with friends..
I’ve embedded the video below but to customize it for yourself (you’ll see what I mean once you watch it) and share with your friends, you will want to go to The Big Warm Up. Enjoy… and go home and go through your closets…winter’s coming and it’s cold.
Giving Back to Military Families
October 22, 2009
Feeling pretty lucky lately, that my job affords me the opportunities it does — flexibility, work from home when necessary, an office right down the street from the kids’ school, constant challenge and working with some incredible people who believe in the power of technology to contribute to a changed and better world.
In addition to all of that, however, one of the very coolest aspects of the job is how we get to give back, to serve. Here in Microsoft public sector, we live and work in the Washington DC region. Those who serve our nation are also our customers, our neighbors. Giving back to this community should be part of our corporate culture, our citizenship charter. And it is. In very small ways, we are able to support some incredible organizations…
For the 3rd year in a row, we’re working with the USO of Metro DC to bring entertainment and fun to the troops and their families..In September, Santa came early — with some Radio City Music Hall Rockettes — to share the news that the Radio City Christmas Spectacular is coming to DC in December…and Microsoft and the USO will be hosting a full show for 8200+ troops and their families…
After traveling across the city via metro and pedicab, Santa found the Radio City Rockettes and posed for some quintessential DC shots
Santa also made a stop at Fort Myers to say hey to some troops and families…
Recently, I’ve also been introduced to the incredible work of the American Red Cross of the National Capital Area.. Serving on the organization’s Fire and Ice Gala communications committee has opened my eyes to the work this group does day in and day out to support our military families in the region — with everything from basic supplies to airport welcomes to sitting by a wounded soldier’s bed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The Gala was an amazing evening of honoring our military and their families. General Peter Chiarelli, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, and his wife Beth, helped to honor our wounded from every branch of the service. CBS Correspondent Kimberly Dozier spoke eloquently of the service members commitment to duty, honor, country. Dozier herself was injured and near death, due to a roadside bomb in Iraq, while she was covering the war.
It was an honor to be part of this evening… and to raise funds and awareness for one of the most essential causes in our area.
Here are a few pictures from the night!
Microsoft's Teresa Carlson (center) flanked a friend and Goldi Kamali of FedScoop (r).
Rob and me, enjoying the evening..
A vast array of silent auction items....
Cloudy Skies
October 19, 2009
“What’s the old movie line from ‘Annie Hall’? Relationships are like sharks; they move forward, or they die,” says Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive. “Well, technology companies either move forward, too, or they die. They become less relevant.”
This quote, taken from this past Sunday’s New York Times story on Microsoft’s big bets on Win7 and the Cloud — pretty much summarizes the reality of our industry, the speed at which change is coming, and the ability of Microsoft to remain relevant, particularly among the seemingly nimble competitors Amazon and Google. The next 12 months are going to be a wild ride. We will launch not only Windows 7, but Azure and Office 2010. We will move government cusotmers to the cloud at record speed, battling it out for business every step of the way. I’m hoping for less of these stories along the way and working for more of these.
“We can never become complacent, because just when the services transformation has gotten to this point, the next transformation comes,” Mr. Ozzie says. “That’s the way our company works.”
Good Butt Genes?
September 6, 2009
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about jeans….and genes… Jeans because we are on the verge of Fall and I realized 1) I really need to shed about 20 pounds to rightfully wear my Levis skinny jeans in public, and 2) my SevenforAllMankind Good Butt Jeans are the only pair I have… I am rightfully due for a shopping spree.
However, the more important genes on my mind recently have been those that I’ve inherited. My mother’s brush (still going on) with Cancer and my Grandma Good’s suffering from Alzheimer’s has brought a few realities of genetics (and dare I say, mortality) very close to home.
There may be a discoverable genetic predisposition to cancer on the Siegrist side of the House. As Mom’s doctors close in on a diagnosis after the last (non Ovarian cancer) weeks of uncertainty, we can take the next steps for her health. We’ll then look at the potential benefits we could find (as a family) in genetic counseling. As part of that, I want my Dad, my brother and me to explore the chances that each of us is in line for Alzheimers. The emerging research here gives us reason for hope….
It’s only due to the incredible work taking place in genomics today that we’re now getting closer to a place of actually knowing — and in my mind better preparing for — what may lie ahead for each of us…. The work of the incredible Francis Collins, who led NIH’s Human Genome mapping effort (and now runs the show at NIH)… has led to the birth of pioneering efforts like 23andme. And just this week, Linda Avey, one of 23andMe’s founders, announced that she is leaving the organization to start the Alzheimer’s Research Foundation. Linda lost a father in law to Alzheimers, a personal impact so close to home that she’s preparing to give all of her professional energy and expertise to the alleviation of this sad, heart-wrenching disease.
Though some genetic “gifts” (or in my deriere case “witholdings”) become clear much earlier in life, it is those yet undiscovered that are most fascinating… Linda, sign me up to for your trials.
Alive
August 1, 2009
It’s pretty tough to write a blog post on something as sobering as cancer while listening to the Black Eyed Peas “Alive”….BIDIA (But I’ll do it anyway), as I document what’s going on in our family on my mother’s side.
Thought her ovaries are now gone, thanks to a scheduled hysterectomy, my mother has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and will begin chemo in three weeks. My aunt Marti was diagnosed earlier this year with a form of abdominal cancer. And my aunt Eva was diagnosed with ovarian cancer last year about this time…All of these different forms, each of these various stages and all discovered in different ways. Not since my Aunt Mim’s illness and death roughly 6 years ago has something like this hit our family so directly, yet never so frequently.
Siegrist blood runs through us...Mom, Mia, Marti and me
Genetics? Environmental? As of now, we don’t know. We’ve asked all the questions and will continue to ask more as my mom’s, my aunts’, and perhaps even my own path unfolds. We’ll study the disease, meet with the specialists at Johns Hopkins Ovarian Cancer Center, pray for healing — for all 3 women I mention, and seek peace amidst suffering.
The only thing I know for sure right now is that grace can sustain these women, all followers of Christ, all deeply loved not only by us (their family), but by the Creator of the Universe. My friend Sara Sicks, who wrote so beautifully and honestly on suffering last year as she was going through chemo for breast cancer, has summed it up in one of her posts…she says, “It is through the crucible of suffering that we can change and slowly become more beautiful ….. May God have his way with us so that we turn into the people we were meant to be, people who are joyful and satisfied with our place in God’s family (we are his beloved!).”
May we truly feel ALIVE… Indeed, ” I’ve got so much love….I’ve got so much love..”
Working Girl
May 23, 2009
Our Microsoft internal site, MSW, this week had a great story on Lisa Gurry, a long time Microsoft employee who was recently named one of the top 30 Working mothers, along with Michelle Obama, by Working Mother magazine. It highlighted for me the balance, real life struggles and success of some smart women, but it reminded me of the benefit of working for Microsoft where flexibility is a reality and a huge benefit.
It’s a nice tribute that showcases the complexities that Lisa now juggles. The internal site notes:
One of the questions Gurry was asked on stage (at the Working Mothers event) was whether she considered technological advances in the workplace a good thing or a bad thing when it comes to work-life balance. She answered, enthusiastically, that without laptops, mobile phones, and other mobile devices and connectivity, “many of us wouldn’t have the flexibility we have today.” “One of the reasons I value [Microsoft] is that we are able to do some special activities with Taylor while having a little bit of a flexible work arrangement. And Microsoft insurance has been an absolute gift,” Gurry said. “We would not be able to give her the care that she was getting otherwise. I’ve always been a very grateful Microsoft employee, but I’ve never been more grateful than in my current situation.”