I was able to take a break after leaving Mapbox and am starting a new role very soon. Here’s a look back at how I’ve spent January 2019:

• Rearranged our storage closet
• Lunched with friends at some of my favorite SF spots. Nopalito, Underdogs Too, The Grove, Barcha, The Snug, more
• Wrote a few blogposts
• Watched the fish at Cal Academy
• Celebrated my dad’s birthday with my parents in Wisconsin
• Swam and rowed in some wild winter water
• Helped hire a new food pantry leader at church
• Made so many dumplings
• Baked Flour banana bread, cheesecake, quiche
• Read A Year Off, China Rich Girlfriend, Devils Teeth, Shark Drunk
• Got a massage
• Visited SFMOMA – highlights are the Vija Celmins and The Sea Ranch exhibitions
• Attended 4 yoga classes
• Took one of the cats to the vet
• Interviewed with some terrific teams – these conversations give me hope for an improving culture of communication in the tech industry
• Saw Mary Poppins live at SF Symphony
• Met some good dogs at a dog show

This past week I coached at a rowing clinic with one of my friends as part of a local school’s program. The students practiced erg technique in the morning, learned about the Bay’s history at the Maritime museum over lunch, and in the afternoon took to the water with us and the Sea Scouts. What a treat!

We’d had a successful launch out into our cove and the two rowers with me immediately saw their new technique come to life as we glided out on the water. We even got to practice some turns and stops as they switched seats. Returning was equally effective with a push from a northern wind and rolling swells.

Docking, however, was an adventure. Like any bow seat in a double scull boat, I had stern seat put oars up so I could guide us in and get extra oars out of the way. A couple feet from where I’d have backed in to the dock a swell pushed the boat over to the side of the dock and we headed straight for a barnacle-laden dock balance. I shifted to rowing backwards to get us out of the way but it was too late. We nudged the balance with an audible crunch, I uttered a couple profanities, then I furiously rowed backwards to get us out of there.

At this stage the smart thing to do would have been to row back out, take a deep breath, and try again. But I was determined to stick the landing and we were so close. I got us out of the channel, took 2 full strokes so we were parallel to the dock, and the current pushed us to the other side of the dock (near Hyde Street Pier)! We (literally) weren’t out of the water yet and I had to turn the boat around again. The students asked if I needed help. I said “no but this is a great lesson!”

After righting the boat with some furious backwards strokes and a couple river turns, and tossing the painter to the dock (the main rope at the boat’s bow), we were in position to come in and had a crew cheering us on. We pulled up, got out, and the boat and its rowers lived to see another day.

The Bay water temperature is dropping, most recently around 54 degrees Fahrenheit. The Bay activity is different this time of year, too. As more food sources shelter in the Bay from winter swells, so do seals and sea lions, eager for a nice meal of crab or perhaps sardines.

Yesterday brought not one but two pinniped encounters in the Aquatic Park cove (I’ll say pinniped to encompass all variations of seals, sea lions). One sea lion decided my friend was competing with them for food and chased her past the breakwater and along the Balclutha. She escaped with a scratch and some dents in her bright yellow fins. The other encounter happened minutes later when a gray harbor seal chased my friend all the way to shore – no nips or bites but a good scare. We’re not alone in the water.

Recently I’d ventured south to Año Nuevo state park. There, on the beach while looking at the surf lay a very sleepy elephant seal, so large it could be mistaken for a rock. I kept my distance (25 feet or more), but got close enough to see it exhale from whatever dream it was having. Elephant seals are less curious about humans than their seal and sea lion cousins – they’re barely aware of them but they can barrel over a human in seconds if food or a mate is nearby.

Luckily all the pinnipeds I mentioned looked fairly healthy and happy, but others aren’t so lucky.

To report a stranded marine mammal: call the Marine Mammal Center at (415) 289-SEAL or email rescue@tmmc.org (photos especially helpful).

I enjoyed a couple trainings recently from Gainsight and DSG about facilitating strategic meetings with customers. Here are a few take-aways in no particular order:

• Set up goals at the beginning of the meeting with your customer, agree to them, and align next actions with these same goals.
• If you’re meeting with an executive from your customer’s company, make sure your company’s counterpart can participate.
• Keep goals for these meetings high-level and specific to your customer’s business. This is a great time to discuss increasing efficiencies, getting ahead of competition, and seeing more ROI for your projects together.
• Draw charts and notes during the meeting to track goals, discuss industry trends, and align on next actions. Use a whiteboard, napkin, whatever you have handy.
• Meet 1-2 times internally before the meeting to prep with attendees. Make sure your teammates know which topics they’re covering and what questions or comments could come up from the customer.
• “QBR” (quarterly business review) is a bit of a misnomer. Hold strategic customer meetings as often as the relationship warrants. This could mean monthly, twice a year, etc.

I’m often very hungry after morning swims and need to replenish whatever energy I’ve burned. Enter the breakfast sandwich. It’s delicious, it’s heavy, it’s portable. Burritos count. Here are a few of my favorites in/around San Francisco should you find yourself in a similar situation:

Special breakfast sandwich from Devil’s Teeth:

• Why it’s good: scrambled eggs and cheese, avocado, spicy aioli, flake-y warm biscuit
• Concessions you’ll make: waiting more than a few minutes (if it’s busy) as each one is made to order

Breakfast combo from Super Duper:

• Why it’s good: no-frills egg/cheese/optional meat sandwich on a toasted English muffin, with coffee and a donut
• Concessions you’ll make: this is Super Duper’s only breakfast option

Breakfast burrito from Uno Dos Tacos:

• Why it’s good: the perfect size not-too-big breakfast burrito with eggs, cheese, potatoes, salsa, optional meat
• Concessions you’ll make: longer lines as of late but they move fast

I spend a lot of my time at the South End Rowing Club. Mornings after my swims I often met one of our members, the godfather of open water swimming, asking where I’d swam that morning or what swim I wanted to do next. He was almost always there – sitting in an armchair near our deck and wearing a baseball cap – to kayak for someone training for a marathon swim or plan one of our many swims around the San Francisco Bay. He’s not in that armchair anymore but his quotes live on:

“Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.”

“Shut up and swim!”

“It’s going to be GREAT!”