Episode 52: April, May, June 2010
Highlights of the month:
• Spring Break in Puerto Rico;
• Deb travels to Atlanta, Zurich, Miami, and New York;
• Memorial Day weekend in Oklahoma;
• Weekend in Philadelphia.
Puerto Rico is an amazing island in the Caribbean whose culture, food, and language brings together Spanish, African, Indian, and American influences. In many ways, Puerto Rico shares a lot with the U.S., including the same currency and citizenship. Most importantly, the weather in Puerto Rico is just about as close to perfect as it can get, averaging 83°F (~23°C) in the winter and 85°F (~29°C) in the summer. For that reason alone, Puerto Rico was a top choice for our winter vacation this year. In the schools here, students are given a week-long break during the winter season that is called Spring Break. Puerto Rico was our Spring Break.
With all that had been going on, we took ample time to relax on the beach and catch up on some reading. We stayed in San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico. The city has a nice old town, and visiting that was a highlight of our trip. The old city reminded me of Valetta, Malta’s capital city, as it had a colonial style and was surrounded by defensive forts. We had a great day exploring the old city, but decided not to do any more day trips, and rather enjoyed our time on the beach reading, swimming, and relaxing. One day, I decided to get a massage from a local who fancied himself as a beach-side masseuse. It seemed like a great idea until I realized that “Juan” was a bit of an amateur chiropractor, which made relaxing a little challenging. The only two words we had in common was “hurts” and “cracks”, both of which he used repeatedly as questions to ask me if he was hurting me (which he was not) and whether that was a crack that he had heard (and he was very pleased with himself whenever I said yes to that one).
Neal did us proud with the culinary picks. In typical style, he had done his research well ahead of time to make sure to get a reservation at the places we really wanted to experience – and we were not disappointed. Our favorite place by far was Budatai, a stylish restaurant featuring Asian-Latino cuisine from Puerto Rico’s most notable chef, Roberto Trevino. We enjoyed the best traditional Caribbean fare at a place called Ajili Mojili. And on another night, we got a taste of Cuba at Ropa Vieja.
After the much needed break, it was back to our busy lives that we try to keep somewhat balanced between work and play. I invited my team from around the world in town for a week-long meeting. This was the first time we had all been together in the 18 months since I took on my new role, and the meeting proved to be a very worthwhile investment. In addition to getting through many workshops, we did a team building event at a local pottery studio where we were split into three teams and tasked with making ceramic masks that told a particular story. I even managed to introduce the team to my love of the hula hoop to break up all the time indoors. Needless to say, it was an energizing week.
In May, I packed my bags and headed to Zurich for 10 days. In addition to work, I was there in time to wish our friend, Peter Paul, farewell as he resigned from Dow to work for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. While I was there, I headed to Dad and Julie’s for a couple of days to catch up with them in their neck of the woods. We had a nice time catching up on all that had been happening in each other’s lives.
While I was in Zurich, Neal was in a different world of his own. Since March, Neal had been working on the planning and messaging for a major investor event that was held in Philadelphia. For three months, he basically worked around the clock on every aspect of the event, from where it would be held, to who would be involved, to inviting the investors, to crafting the slides and speeches for the eight presentations that were given. Needless to say, he was relieved when the event finished up. On the end of the trip, Neal managed to grab a train to Washington, D.C. where he caught up with his parents who were conveniently also in town for the weekend.
I returned from Zurich while Neal was still in Philadelphia and repacked, this time for a girl’s trip to Miami. I was asked to chair a conference there on talent management, so my friend, Stephanie, decided to join me and make it a girls’ getaway. The two days of the conference were great and Stephanie amused herself, even joining the conference dinner one evening. Outside of the conference, we had a wonderful time sampling all the local food, laying out by the pool, and getting spa treatments. While we were there, I celebrated my birthday, which we did by strolling in the famous South Beach area for some serious people watching, laying in the sun, and swimming in the ocean. Later that day, we headed into town for a look at the stores and stopped for a fantastic pizza and salad lunch that was reminiscent of the kind of pizza we used to get in Switzerland (Stephanie and her husband, Luis, have lived there, too). We had a great time, even though the trip home was an adventure we would have preferred to live without (let’s just say it involved a delayed flight, a plane unable to land, and a rental car before we finally reached home many hours later than planned).
I got back to Michigan and repacked again for our long weekend to see Neal’s parents and grandparents in Oklahoma over the Memorial Day holiday. Surekha and Ravi are doing great, and it was wonderful to see them. As an added bonus, Neal’s uncle was in town as was Rohit, a very close family friend who is currently at medical school in Dallas. Neal’s grandparents are doing great, despite a little fall that Grandpa endured a few weeks back. Even over the few days we were there we could see his health improve as the bruising started to heal and he got a little more mobile. We also caught up with one of Neal’s friends from high school, Brandon, and his wife, Krista, who have recently moved back to Stillwater after a number of years away.
The rest of the quarter was packed with events with friends, some of which were formal – such as bridal showers, birthdays, and farewell parties – and others that were informal. There were plenty of active adventures in celebration of the weather getting nicer, including some great bike rides throughout Michigan. We had a few fundraising events for the United Way and Big Brothers Big Sisters, and a few additional fun things, including tapas cooking lessons and watching some baseball at the local minor league stadium.
For the last 10 months, I had been working on a major divestment for Dow which closed in the middle of June. The project took me to New York City for a few day trips – and my very first stay at the Plaza hotel (yes, I felt like Pretty Woman). The lead up to closing was quite grueling, with plenty of long hours on my part, but the whole project was a lot of fun and I learned a tremendous amount about working with private equity as well as all the internal effort needed to carve out the businesses that were grouped together for the divestment. Needless to say, there were many celebrations and much satisfaction at the end of June once the deal was closed.
Our final big adventure of the quarter was a weekend in Philadelphia. Since the acquisition of Rohm and Haas 18 months ago, Dow has had an airplane shuttle that flies between Midland and Philadelphia (where Rohm and Haas was headquartered) three times a week. Neal took advantage of this perk by flying to Philadelphia to meet me there on the tail end of a work trip for me. The temperatures were soaring in the high 90s (low 30s Celsius), but we still took advantage of every minute there to explore as much of the city as we could. The restaurants and history in Philadelphia are most impressive. On Friday evening, we did some leisurely shopping followed by dinner at Barclay Prime, a famed steakhouse in a trendy area called Rittenhouse Square. On Saturday we did some more exploring, seeing some of Philadelphia’s most famous historical sites, including the Liberty Bell. That evening, we headed to a tapas restaurant called Amada where we took advantage of the warm evening by sitting outside and enjoying some of the best Spanish food we have ever had. As we sat outside, we were treated to a fireworks display that was taking place in another area of Philadelphia but could be seen from our dinner seats. The following day we decided not to brave the heat on foot, and instead took the Hop-on/Hop-off bus to see more of Philadelphia’s sights. The bus was a great way to see a lot in a short amount of time. My favorite stop was the Eastern State Penitentiary, one of America’s oldest prisons and one with an incredible history. It was last operational in 1971 but is now open for tourists to see what being there would have been like. As one would expect, it was creepy and fascinating all at the same time. Following our bus tour, we stopped at a local artisans market where we were happy to cool down with a cold beer and snack before venturing our way back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at Morimoto, one of the premiere restaurants in Philadelphia and home to some funky takes on Japanese food. We were not at all disappointed.
The trip to Philadelphia was a great weekend getaway. With so much history and public art all over the city, there was so much to see without having to go into any of the numerous museums. The city will definitely be visited by the Shorgs again!
And with that trip, we reached the half-way mark in 2010. Here’s hoping that the second-half of the year brings just as many adventures!
