Week 29 ?????????

Monday

As you might have read last week, we had our German friends visiting, so besides uploading some jobs to the job board, I took the day off to be with them. That being said, we had Sasha Bondareva come over and help us take down the party tent we put up for the CPHUX BBQ potluck in June. It was also useful for Victor’s name-giving party and Olivia’s 2nd birthday. Taking it down with four adults was definitely a great call, and I had the easiest job of sitting in a tent with Victor and watching the others work.

We picked up Olivia and decided to make a trip into the city. Lars stayed home with Victor because both of them had been feeling a bit off.

We biked to Amager Beach Park, where their son Julius had a blast in the sand and the sea. Olivia didn’t even want to touch the sand with her bare feet. We continued to Reffen to get some food. Almost there, we got caught in the rain and had to wait it out. We shared some different dishes and then returned home.

Our carpenter was working when I got back, and I had an interesting talk with him about all the things that weren’t done correctly. These were things we would never have found out about because they were hidden inside the wall. It makes me sad and furious. We have paid so much and waited too long to find out that what we bought isn’t up to par. What the actual FUCK!?

Tuesday

We had a lovely breakfast with our friends, and I said goodbye to them before I dropped Olivia off at daycare.

Victor barely slept last night, and Lars didn’t sleep at all until we switched around 4:30. I managed to get him to fall asleep but ended up sitting in a chair, half breastfeeding, half rocking, and half sleeping. So, obviously, both of us were pretty exhausted today.

I tried to reply to some of the many messages I’ve received while I’ve been away. I filled out speaker info for an event I’ll be speaking at in October for Tech Job Fair. I got a bit overwhelmed and decided to look at our video database. For many months, we’ve been working on re-coding our website, and with that, we’re moving our video library. Some things can be done code-wise, but we wanted to tag companies and speakers, add their LinkedIn links, and put more text for each event. So I’m currently doing this manually. Jayden Hanly always said that I loved manual data entry, and this is another testament to that ??

Suddenly I heard a knock on the door and a small voice saying “moar.” I opened the heavy door to see my daughter's beautiful blue eyes. I got a smile, and as the door opened, I received a big hug. This is one of the reasons why I love motherhood and the toddler phase.

I made dinner, and we had a good time eating together. Victor had spaghetti everywhere ??

After a failed attempt to tuck Victor in, I took Olivia out for a walk and managed to get her to fall asleep.

When I got back, the EM semi-final between Spain and France was on. Lars is a BIG Barcelona fan, and as he says, if Spanish soccer is successful, more money will go into the clubs, and that means better Spanish soccer. I love that giving him space and time to watch soccer matches makes him this happy. I’m also glad that he’s only a fan of one club ??

That evening, I was feeling a bit sad and frustrated. CPHUX has been losing more members than we’ve been gaining, and if I want to continue doing this full-time, I need to turn the ship around. Luckily, I had my bestie Mariah Sells ready on text to lend me her ears, ask caring questions, and provide an overview I was lacking. I can’t wait for her to be back in Denmark ????

I’m hoping for a better night, but I’m not expecting the best.

Wednesday

Today I hustled on my manual data entry and created some rules for webinar naming conventions. There was a lot of looking up old speaker responses to paint a fuller picture. (Just to clarify, I have a big-ass spreadsheet, not individual messages.) But in some cases, I had to look up the event and copy-paste from there. It’s pretty wicked to go back to events from 2020. We’ve hosted so many great events, and I’m proud that all those hours of knowledge-sharing have been documented for others. People who couldn’t be in the physical room can benefit from it.

And I’m excited to build on this.

Sasha Bondareva and I talked about how it could be cool to look up people who got a job and hear about their journey to landing the job. I reached out to some people to see if they’d be game, and one person already said yes. Hopefully, we can kick off the new event season with a brand new type of event:

“How XXX landed XXXX position at XXXX”

I think there’s a lot to learn, and we even talked about including the hiring manager if they’re game.

I made an early dinner, and then we went to the playground to blow off some baby energy.

Victor is growing a bunch of new teeth and has been a bit sick, which means he sleeps insanely badly. We have to have body contact, and he still wakes up screaming every now and then. I can’t wait for this to be over.

Thursday

I’m so tired of my children not sleeping. Lars and I have meetings almost every hour during the night. Or at least that’s how it feels. Around 4-5, I took over Victor from Lars. Olivia also started screaming and kicking at some point. It all blurs together.

It was raining when we got up. I had to run to the neighboring street to pick up our car so I could get Olivia to daycare without drowning.

Today’s workday has been focused on events. I created the last two UX Meet & Greets at Vipps MobilePay , reached out to a host for an event, connected with some conferences, and wrote a very long message to our event steering committee on Slack ??

Our Notion is currently blocked, which is super frustrating because an old issue is limiting us. So now I’m in dialogue with them to fix it. Super annoying, and damn, how I love Notion.

Friday

I biked to Frederiksberg to visit our SoMe assistant Helena Bright and work from her house. I love visiting people and seeing how they live. That was actually one of my favorite things about working in eldercare (back in 2008 when I had just finished gymnasium).

We did our usual status meeting but started putting the tasks in categories. We also looked at the support mail I'd received from Notion to unlock it for us again ?? Then we went for lunch, where we discussed a meaningful way to celebrate Copenhagen Pride while staying relevant to the community and being inclusive ?? It was a great talk, and I can’t wait to see it unfold in August ?? ?????

Back at her place, I got to roll out my paper roll, and we started drawing out the flow of our Talent Promotion project. Unfortunately, Helena had a deadline, so we didn’t finish, but it was great to get the ball rolling.

She recommended a cafe nearby, so I went there, ordered cake, and got some more work done. After a talk with Helena, we decided to take the graphs Madelein Nienkemper had made for the UX Job Market Report 2023, but since quite a few were missing, we decided to make a mini version. Luckily Agne Baranauskaite who carried last year's report home, was game to set it up. I can feel ALL my report energy has been lost in my body... I'm much more interested in making some interactive graphs on the new website ????

Then I headed to Olivia’s daycare. While biking I called Hugo Sant'Ana and had a great chat about him working with CPHUX to start new partnerships with UX universities. When we got home, we filled the trunk of our car with two grills we had borrowed and headed over to my friend’s house. They had friends coming over for a BBQ and needed them back. Lars then asked if I wanted to go out for sushi, and honestly, I always want to eat sushi ?? Despite the fact that the kids wouldn’t fall asleep until around 22-23, it was a great night.

Saturday

I felt a bit sick, so we just stayed in, and I took some long naps and played The Sims. I’ve played The Sims since the first game came out when I was a kid, so now it’s a kind of safe space for me. When I went to Ghana with my university and was super overstimulated, The Sims took me mentally home, and I would forget all the discomfort. I love the challenges and overcoming poverty, excelling in all jobs, and mastering all skills in no time. If only life were that easy ??

The only thing worth mentioning from this day was that I saw a webinar by Trine Ravnkilde on how to create an email flow after a freebie. This is something we truly should do after people attend our events. I love her approach to marketing, which is to inform people so they can make informed decisions, not to be gross or overly salesy.

Sunday

Again, the night was a blur of actual crying babies, dreams of babies crying, and waking up disoriented. At 7, we gave up and got up. I made us American fluffy pancakes, and it was a cozy morning. I took a nice long nap with Victor around 10 to 11 ?? After some lunch, I walked with Olivia so she could take her nap. Around 14, Lars’s mom came over. She brought cake and strawberries, and everyone enjoyed the coffee feast ????

It was really nice to catch up with her and just chill a bit again today.

We had frozen pizza for supper, and then both kids were put to bed. Right now, we’re watching the European Championships, and Spain just scored the first goal.

I’m looking forward to another productive week ??