My dichotomous life

Toasting her publishing work with apple juice.

Work-life at Amazon is often manageable but once every 2-3 weeks, the two distinct parts of my life - mom and career woman - come crashing together and makes for interesting times.  Take Friday, May 3, 2013 for example.  The Kindergarten class was celebrating their most recent writing lesson with a Publishing Party.  The children published a wide variety of "All about" books; as in all about flowers, all about butterflies, all about Skylanders.  This party took place between 1:30-2:00 PM at Buckley.  I have weekly meetings from 2:00-3:00 PM (sometimes 3:30) every Fridays with product and sales leads, including VP's.  I drive the content for my team so it's a fairly intense call.

Publishing parties are a big deal and this was the second (and last one) for the year.  The invitation read something along the lines of, "If you cannot attend, a special person will be assigned to your child."  How can I let a "special person" be assigned to my Lauren?  So I accelerated my work schedule that day, informed the appropriate folks that I would be 10-15 minutes late, and went to the party. 

I arrived promptly at 1:30 and Lauren welcomed me with the warmest embrace.  She was thrilled to celebrate her achievements with me.  I caught myself looking at the clock every five minutes.  I told myself, "Be present for Lauren.  She deserves it.  Be in the moment."  But it was very hard.  I thought, "If we leave 10 minutes early, I can make my call on time."  Of course Lauren wrote a dozen books and wanted to read each one to me in proper order.  There was no way we would be done 10 minutes early.  With two "books" remaining, I suggested to Lauren, "Let's read the last two at home w/ dad!"  She agreed, we packed up, and walked briskly to my car.  It was 1:55 PM.  By the time I went downstairs to the office and dialed in, it was 2:10 PM.  I did great on this call and it progressed past 3 PM.  After it was done, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.  One minute, I was at a Kindergarten publishing party.  The next, I was talking business with execs.  This is my life.  The choice I made.  It is hairy at times but I needed to take a moment to remind myself that this is when I feel most fulfilled.  I can't imagine life any other way.  The girls will see me being a loving mom, working hard building my career and most importantly, being happy...and they will make choices to lead fulfilling lives themselves.