{"id":10327,"date":"2026-08-29T22:44:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T20:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/?p=10327"},"modified":"2026-08-29T22:44:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T20:44:39","slug":"dressing-up-then-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/2026\/08\/29\/dressing-up-then-down\/","title":{"rendered":"DRESSING UP, THEN DOWN"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toe news: it’s much better, though still not 100%. There is still some infection, I think, because the top of it is still quite red, though it’s not swollen anymore and doesn’t hurt unless I press on it, but I can still tell that there is probably nail pushing in where it shouldn’t be. I can at least wear shoes again, which is a relief.<\/p>\n

I was in B\u00e5stad for a 2-day work event, a Global Sales & Marketing summit, lots of company rah-rah, which I don’t care for, but lots of fun moments as well. We had 3 buses going up from Lund, and the trip takes about 1.5 hours. We were in B\u00e5stad as well last year, but at a different hotel. This one was very swanky, but was several different buildings, around various tennis courts. B\u00e5stad is the center of Swedish tennis, a lovely resort town right on the water, and is home to the Swedish Open. During July the population (normally around 5000) swells to nearly 30,000. It’s a lovely town, though I confess to not being able to take much advantage of it. Because of my toe and my stupid knees, I didn’t go for any walks on the beach or anything, but it was fine.<\/p>\n

We were probably close to 150 people altogether, and we all had our own hotel rooms, which was awesome. I don’t think I would go if we had to share rooms, and I know many others feel the same way. It’s the one big off-site event that we’ve had at all, and the only overnight one since right after I started at the company. Last year, the team activities were all very athletic…they offered pilates, crossfit, yoga, running, etc., And a New Zealand haka class, which required standing for nearly 2 hours. THIS year, the activities were great fun, and much more casual. We had a blind drawing contest, a drumming and street performance class, and a team quest challenge, with an app, that had 100 different activities our teams of 7 people had to do: taking photos or videos which were then reviewed and passed for points. It was hilarious and lots of fun, even though my team came nowhere near winning. One of the tasks was to film the team singing an Abba song, and when they put a compilation video together the next day, EVERY SINGLE team of 19 had independently chosen Dancing Queen<\/em>. HAHAHA! <\/p>\n

Repeat review of our sales and marketing strategy, info on the recent reorganization, a partner presentation, and lots of speakers on subjects like AI (which I think many of us are getting a little tired of), and other relevant topics. We had a couple of hours of free time as well, and while most people either went to the bar, the spa, or the beach, I went back to my room and read for awhile, before getting ready for the mingle and dinner. The theme was “Tennis Week” (of course), and Helena on my team had organized getting white and yellow tennis visors for all of us, and Emelie had made stickers with our team name for them. I don’t have any sportswear or tennis clothes, so I simply dressed nicely in a sleeveless top and sequined capri pants with sandals, and a pretty white flower necklace. I’m so glad that my hair is long enough to be able to style now. I could squinch it into curls quite easily, and I constantly get compliments on it nowadays. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

\"Axis
\nAnnaBo and AnnaBr<\/p>\n

\"Axis
\nEmelie and AnnaF<\/p>\n

\"Axis
\nLina and Helena<\/p>\n

\"Axis
\nLisel and me<\/p>\n

Nearly everyone had dressed up, either fancy, or according to the theme, so it was quite fun. The dinner was VERY long though and very late. Despite the fact that the lunch and breakfast buffets were both excellent, I wasn’t super impressed with the dinner. The appetizer, Toast Skagen, was quite good, but the main dish (ryggbiff<\/em>) was tough, and very fatty, and the sides were not great. Dessert was decent as well. They had a DJ that started the inevitable music quiz between the main course and the dessert, with 4 parts…the first one was guessing song titles from emoji rebuses, and was really hard. I could only figure out two of them! After dessert, he started part two, which was guessing TV shows from their theme song, but I decided I was done, and too tired to stay up any longer. It was nearly 10:30 by that point! As I went out the door, the first theme song had come on, and I said “Mad Men” to the staff at the door as I walked out. \ud83d\ude00 Apparently, there were more really long, really hard, quiz sections afterwards, and they didn’t end until nearly midnight! Then they cleared tables for a dance floor and some people were there until 1 AM. EESH. I was very glad I had left when I did. I slept fairly well, with windows open, curtains drawn, and a quite comfortable bed.<\/p>\n

Next day was more of the same with workshops and presentations and activities, and I was completely beat, and “peopled-out” by the time we were able to board the bus back to Lund. After we got back, I went downtown and had a slice of my favorite mushroom pizza at Folk and talked to Martin for an hour, went to the grocery store, and then home, where I collapsed (muddy and exhausted). <\/p>\n

HAHAHA! “Collapsed, muddy and exhausted” is a quote that my college friends and I used to say all the time, but I can’t remember what it’s from. I just typed it into Google to see if I could find it, and the AI overview is very concerned about me:<\/p>\n

\"AI<\/p>\n

Thanks, AI. Good to know you’ve got my back.<\/p>\n

Today was all about downtime. I slept in, got up at 9 to take the Flyingeloppis donations out to the curb, got back in bed, and played on my iPad for awhile. After I got up, showered, and dressed, I did some housecleaning (wastebaskets, recycleables, dishwasher, vacuuming, laundry), had lunch, and then spent most of the day doing absolutely nothing. I put some activities up on the AIC website, answered some emails, finished one book and started another, and worked on a jigsaw puzzle. I had a few text messages with Karin but otherwise, no human contact. <\/p>\n

Anders is off hiking up north with his friend Ola for 10 days (he left Wednesday) and is completely incommunicado with no internet, which I actually very much dislike. I can’t even use Find My iPhone to see where he is, as it only shows me where he last had a connection, which was Wednesday. He’s north of the Arctic Circle. I hope the weather is okay! Tomorrow I have a Zoom meeting at 10 AM that I am not looking forward to (disciplinary meeting with a problem AIC member), and have to call a new registration, but otherwise have no plans. I had thought about going to the Flyingeloppis, but will probably skip it. It’s supposed to rain all day, which makes me feel sorry for the loppis <\/em>organizers. (Loppis <\/em>means flea market, by the way)<\/p>\n

Mood: relaxed
\nMusic: Kelly Boesch\u2014Hey Now<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toe news: it’s much better, though still not 100%. There is still some infection, I think, because the top of it is still quite red, though it’s not swollen anymore and doesn’t hurt unless I press on it, but I can still tell that there is probably nail pushing in where it shouldn’t be. I can at least wear shoes again, which is a relief. I was in B\u00e5stad for a 2-day work event, a Global Sales & Marketing summit, lots of company rah-rah, which I don’t care for, but lots of fun moments as well. We had 3 buses...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4,14,7,6],"class_list":["post-10327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-beinglizardek","tag-goodthings","tag-obiterphotos","tag-thedayjob"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10327"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10336,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10327\/revisions\/10336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}