Bittersweet

 Over the ten years I worked at Washington Mutual, we worked hard and we often played hard, especially if it was to raise money for United Way.  These photos are from the 2007 Zucchini Car Races, which pitted execs and staff against one another for silly prizes, and to kick off the annual campaign.  Washington Mutual matched every employee's contribution to United Way, and enabled the donation via payroll deduction. Above, CIO Deb Horvath listening to the referee before racing.

Here Deb races Retail Bank exec James Cameron, a Brit.

Corporate Communications exec Ann Shannon races Karen Pierce from my team.

Here, CTO Pia Jorgensen beats CIO Deb Horvath.

In pre-WaMu Center days, we raced on the roof at Second & Seneca.  Here, Infrastructure exec Mike Spalter (a la Jerry Garcia) and myself (Princess of Darkness, per this photo and previous photos) face off.

I have always been extraordinarily proud of the teams I led.  Here a photo of some of the team at Al Wilson's Bon Voyage Party on the roof of WaMu Center. 

Here's another picture of the Enterprise Risk Services Seattle team (2007?), with the projector's blue light cutting across our eyes.

I thought I'd post these tonight before I attend the last Washington Mutual Alumni Group Emergency Assistance potluck at the Museum of History and Industry.  Seeing this many former Washington Mutual folks is always, always bittersweet.

Look back to look forward

This has been a wonderful month, so far.  The sunshine coincides with the re-entry of two of my favorite people in the world.  My colleague and friend Lauren Du Graf has been working with me to re-imagine my risk consulting firm.  Earlier this week, I wrote more about that in my other blog.


The other friend who dropped back into my world this month is Luba Lisenberg, whose work you can see here.  With good friends, it is hard to remember when you did not know them -- our first meeting was about 30 years ago, when her son Pablo Schugurensky   was my intern in the Office of Public Affairs at the  Seattle Art Museum.


Luba is a fierce artist, a psychoanalyst  turned sculptor, who lives in Buenos Aires.  My friend Jenny and I visited her there about ten years ago.  We see her each year when she flies north to visit Pablo and his family, who live in this very neighborhood now.  There is such rich fabric woven through our lives.


This visit we talked primarily about looking forward.  Both of us are tweaking the content of our days and the work we do.  It made sense to look back at the variations of our journey in order to look forward.

Happy Independence Day!

Seattle fireworks as seen from Gasworks Park.

Wishing one and all a safe and happy Fourth of July.

Our hearts go out to those who are suffering because of wildfires in the West or power outages in the East.