Week 21 - ??????

So many things, both good and bad, have happened these past 10 weeks. The reason I haven’t been writing is because our kids are sleeping SUPER poorly at the moment, and we often go straight to bed with them. So, no time in the evenings to reflect in writing. But this week, 2 or 3 people mentioned my little blog. I was very surprised but also happy that people read along and find my thoughts and life interesting.

To catch you up a bit…

I’ve started seeing a psychologist because I started feeling strong emotions of both anger and sadness that I couldn’t dissect myself. We’re still unfolding things, but shout out to Andreas Aabo for founding and introducing me to Healper . Through some questions, I found my psychologist in a sea of mental health professionals.

I feel like I’m at a crossroads. I’ve applied for some jobs and I’m pretty far in the process with one. But if I don’t get it, I have a new angle to CPHUX which I’m honestly quite excited about. But with two kids and a house in need of improvements, I need to bring some more $$$ to the table.

Monday

Public holiday, so we just had a chill day at home with the kids.

Tuesday

I jumped on a quick call with Nischa Don Maak ??? from Career Club DK . We are in a networking group for community builders and I have a lot of respect for her. She seems like she’s always happy and brings quality support to international women in need of a job ??

We talked about career coaching, which is part of what I’m considering. She gave me some great advice and showed me her approach.

I had the most beautiful bike ride, I think of my life, going from T?rnby to Valby where I met up with Sofie Hartvig Widding . We discussed UX, management, the crazy way many companies organize internally, and life. I’m always so happy and proud when I see women in leading roles, and Sofie was even a part of DI - Dansk Industri UX board (might have a different name ?? damn you memory) where she was part of making political decisions which impact all of us. If that’s not badass?? ??♀? ??

Wednesday

I had a meeting with my psychologist. After the session, I named the meeting “everyday thoughts.”

Around the corner, I met up with Helena Bright and we had a SoMe meeting. With me being on maternity leave, I have zero time to sit down and do work, but Victor usually doesn’t mind doing meetings, so I get other people to do things for me. Helena is currently looking into setting up a mailing list for hiring managers and a database of talented UX professionals the hiring managers can go through. Exciting stuff ??

We went over time so I was a bit late for my mother’s group, but it was so great to see them again.

Thursday

Daniel Simon and I had a very interesting talk about how we can do an event, a workshop, or perhaps a networking group to empower UX professionals who work as a team of one. We discussed what they would want from such an interaction, but also what Daniel actually felt comfortable committing to. I’m excited to explore this further with him and hopefully make something epic in the future ??

Last week, our family went to Gdańsk. Lars has two developers working from there and we’ve always (since he got the job) talked about going to really show that he is invested in them. With my maternity leave running out, now was the last chance to do it. Anyway, on our way home my daughter lost one of her favorite dolls, Trolderikke. So I biked to the airport in hopes of retrieving it, but no luck ??

Biking from there to the pool for Victor's baby swimming class, I got on a call with Sabrine Gadeh?j Andersen from IDA . We discussed an event idea, CPHUX being an active part of IDA’s conference, DRIVING IT, and the next UX Talk which I hope will be “Taxonomy Tales.”

Always great to catch up with her and get new things rolling.

Victor is really a water and jumping baby. Doing flips in the water makes him laugh and my heart just melts.

Lars had a stiff neck, so I also went in the pool with Olivia. That in general is a LOT of fun because she is so active, happy, and animated. But also because Christina Bruun and her daughter Kaia were at the class. In the water, we decided to go for dinner afterward. Super cozy evening although our kids were all over the place ??

Friday

Lars was working from home so I got to drive Olivia to her daycare. On the bike, I joined an online talk about how to network to get more clients. While listening to them talk, I was just not getting how much time all their work would take them ?? but I saw a cool feature on LinkedIn where you can download a list of all your contacts. I tried to do it but wasn’t online long enough ??

I helped my husband write reviews of his team members.

At 11, I jumped on a call with new UX Unite member Prachi Abhyankar, UXC . She wants to be a more active part of CPHUX and I talked through with her what we’re working on and where we needed help.

At 12:45 we went to baby rhythmic class and it was so fun. Victor loves getting thrown around in the air and he’s still not too heavy for me to do so.

Magdalena and I went for an iced coffee and a stroll through Bilka. I biked home, dropped off Victor, picked up Olivia, back home, made sure everything was on track and then…

…did I leave. Headed towards N?rrebro, to see a poetry piece by Mazen Ismail at N?rrebro Teater with my good friend Janus Nielsen .

The piece was so moving, I cried several times. Google Mazen if you speak Danish, his work is so powerful, both presentation-wise but also his ability to invite you into his depths. The piece was called “If We Survive Tonight.” His parents fled to Danmark from Lebanon due to the wars which already cost them one son. Trying to fit in proved hard and Mazen was on the edge of society.

It's the second time I experience him live and I hope he will be a common name, because he's that talented!

Saturday

We got up crazy early, placed our sleeping children in the car, and headed towards Fuen. My cousin’s daughter was getting baptized and that was combined with a housewarming party.

It was great to catch up with some family but such a mouthful with two very energetic kids.

Sunday

We got up, got ready, and drove to Legoland in Billund. Although my mom questioned how much they would get out of it, I thought it was amazing…

…until the rain came. And it came in strong. After 30 mins, we gave up. Luckily, I had brought an umbrella from the car to cast shade on a sleeping Victor. My mom walked to the cars and brought back two additional umbrellas and a plastic bag to cover Olivia’s stroller.

We made it home somewhat dry ?? and once Olivia woke up from her nap, we quickly packed our things and headed home. We left at 17:30 and were home by 21:30 ???? many stops were needed to combat some serious crying sessions Victor was bringing to the table.

Right now I’m sitting in bed, next to my sleeping baby boy. I love him to the moon but FUCK how I hate him when he won’t stop crying and I can’t find any reason for his crying. Both me and my husband are exhausted. Both kids would go off from time to time.

But now they’re sleeping and then, everything is great and I love them to the moon. Please don’t wake up. Please…