3/29/17- Happy Birthday to Me!

Yay!  It's my birthday!  This week I'm all about the positive and focusing on celebration.  I have a lot to celebrate too. Family and friends. A published book.   People writing about my book on their blogs.  People buying my stories.  Cake.  A good paying job, even though I don't get paid the same as my engineering peers.  Oh that's going down the negative path.

Let's look at the cute picture instead of my Jack and Bobby (and me) that my friend, Enthusiastic About Life, took:

Every since I released my book, all I wanted was a picture of Jack reading my book.  That's easier said than done with an on-the-go toddler.  Luckily, my friend not only captured Jack looking at the book, but it's family photo too!

My friend was also kind enough to share my journey as a published author and giveaway another copy of my book on  Enthusiastic About Life.  And a fellow STEM mom wrote such a positive review on her blog, Mamas Organized Chaos, that I'm again on cloud nine.  Seeing and hearing about how your book makes children happy, well, that's a dream come true. Pinch me.

I also had Highlights, the children's magazine, buy my poem!  I don't know when it will be published, but one of the editors found out about my background in STEM and left the door open (or maybe it's a window) for me to submit science activities.  I also have a potential byline with a different STEM website, and the story is about my amazing, engineering friend Style Kemistry, so I really hope the outlet picks the story up.

And there's a radio interview (eek, I hope I don't say something dumb live). And book festivals.  And another published, children's book author is taking the time to read and review my book right now as we speak.  It's all so crazy and humbling.

And this weekend, dear husband is throwing me a birthday party and book launch party with family and friends. That's the sweet icing on the cake. And there will be cake (I think he's getting the cake to look like Annie, but I think that's supposed to be a surprise, but, he told me he had to run to the baker and was holding a copy of the book, so yeah). To paraphrase Fillmore from our house's favorite movie "Cars", like, feel the love man. I'm one loved birthday lady!  Happy birthday to me!  😍

3/22/17- Weekend Naps

So weekends are pretty awesome, I think most people would agree.  I can leave work behind and spend blissful time with family and friends.  And, I can also nap when Jack takes his nap.  As his parents, we try to make sure to leave open a couple of hours on weekends for Jack to take a nap. This is part of his schedule M-F at preschool/daycare, and we varied from it once. ONCE. And it was a disaster. So many tears from me, and from Jack, and his really weird refusal to go sleep at 10 pm that night when bed time is usually 8:30 pm.  I'm not saying we have to lay him down right at 1 pm for every nap, but we do need be home within a half hour or so of that nap window.

As someone with an autoimmune disease, I'm very thankful that my son takes a nap and that we can give that excuse to leave a party or a luncheon or whatever.  Because truth is, I need that nap. A party or a luncheon or whatever, really zaps my energy. While I think about napping every day of the work week (A (work) day in the life of RA), I actually take that nap on weekends (most times). And I have the perfect excuse, my toddler son!  I don't have to feel like the lame sicko that I know, and anyone close to me, knows I am.

There's usually no timer on my weekend naps, as Bobby will watch Jack if I nap longer than Jack, but I do find than more than a hour leaves me more tired and groggy than I originally was.  Also, if I am doing more than one thing on a Saturday, like 2 birthday parties, and I don't really get a chance to nap, I've found a little green tea around 3 pm can restore some of that energy.  But a nap is my preferred energy refresher on the weekends. And might as well, after all, it's the weekend!

Here's a typical Saturday for me:

8:00 AM: Jack is up. Jack may have woken up at 7:15 am, but he likes to lay in bed for a half hour if he can. Guess he got that from me. Bobby's been up since 7:00 am because week day schedules die hard. I'm debating whether or not to get up.  My fingers hurt slightly, so I decide to go back to sleep.

8:30 AM:  I can't really fall back asleep, so I get up.  Jack's watching a cartoon, and I get to sit next to him on the couch. Bobby and I talk about going to breakfast, but I know we won't go to our most favorite breakfast place.  It's right next to a bookstore that has a train set, which means one of us will be with Jack at the bookstore (because Jack has to play with that train set) while the other parent is scarfing breakfast at the restaurant. I also have to remind Bobby that I have to wait a half hour to eat (part of the requirements for my first pill of the day).

9:00 AM:  We end up eating breakfast at home. Sometimes I remember to take my vitamins; sometimes I don't.  It's the weekend! (I know, I know: your body doesn't care what day of the week it is).

10:30 AM: We make it out the door to go to our weekend activity: party, science museum, lunch, play date, etc. I really don't know where the 1-2 hours go in between breakfast and leaving the house. I think we have a tiny weeny black hole in our house.  Anyway, we usually have a good time at said weekend activity.

1:30 PM: I tell Bobby I'm going to work on my writing or tasks, like laundry, but then I usually go lay down for a nap.  I swear up and down my nap will only be an hour. Bobby ask if he should wake me.  Sure, I say.

3:30 PM: Bobby tries to wake me; I brush him off with some good grunts.

4:00 PM: I hear that Jack is up. Keep napping.

4:30 PM: Ok, ok, I'm up.  Blah, I napped too long.  I just want to watch movies and order pizza for dinner.

6:00 PM: We order pizza.  Or we have a dinner engagement to go to, so I force myself to go out.  Or on a really good day, I feel up for a restaurant that has an outdoor play area (like Chandler Mall-- their outdoor square has really cool lawn games).  I really enjoy the chance to play with Jack at the outdoor play area or watching Cars with him on the couch (for the 100th time; thank goodness Cars is a really good movie and makes me laugh every time we watch it).

8:30 PM: Jack goes to bed.  I think about joining him.

10:30 PM: Woo hoo!  I stayed up, go me, I'm not completely lame! And, Bobby and I finally finished watching recorded TiVo episodes of Downtown Abbey (yeah, we have some old stuff on the TiVo that we never really get around to watch). Time for bed- do I wash my face or not?  Screw it, I'm tired.  Take my night time pills. Then, it's lights out. Night, night!

Seriously, can it get any better than that?  I love my weekends.  I'm well rested and so happy on the weekends.  I've never related more to an orange cat than when Mondays roll around. I have to say good-bye to all that happiness and all that fantastic napping.  It sharks. So, I wish you a happy weekend and wonderful (weekend) naps!  I'm off to nap...

3/8/17- Reading List 2: STEM Picture Books

Last week I suggested a science activity, Galaxy Slime, as a spring break activity, and this week I'm suggesting books for spring break. Almost a year ago (eek, that's too long!) I created a reading list, recommending books for girls (and boys), ages preteen to teen, to get them interested in STEM. That list is here: Reading List.  It was based off of what I read at that age and how those books influenced in some way my career path to engineering. Today, there are many Middle Grade and Young Adult (preteen to teen) books that have STEM in them (for example "Hidden Figures For Young Readers") that were not included in my recommendations.  Again, my recommendations were based off of my own experience.

I've created a second reading list, this time focusing on preschoolers to about 2nd graders.  The books I remember loving at this age were Berenstain Bears series, Clifford the Big Red Dog series, Curious George series, Madeline series, Frances series (i.e. A Bargain for Frances), and Imogene's Antlers. With the exception of Curious George, I really liked books that had girls as main characters. Probably because I could myself reflected in those female characters.  Some of those girls were spunky: Imogene, Madeline, Sister Bear (at least when she was fighting with Brother Bear) and Frances.  And Curious George? While he encouraged curiosity in me (and spunk; that might have been a theme for me).

With that all said, the books I'm recommending for this second reading list (to encourage preschoolers to 2nd graders in STEM) are more current picture book. Of course, feel free to read the classics mentioned in the paragraph above, but these recent books are specifically focused on STEM. It's a short list-- I envision I'll have many more lists as my son grows and as other parents, teachers, grandparents and friends make recommendations to me.

Here we go:

1) "Rosie Revere, Engineer" by Andrea Beaty and Illustrated by David Roberts
This book is my favorite STEM book for pre-K to 2nd! I dream of writing such book.  The author (and illustrator) have 2 companion books, "Iggy Peck, Architect" and "Ada Twist, Scientist", but to me this is the best one of the series (probably because she's spunky and an engineer).

2) "What Do You Do with an Idea?" By Kobi Yamada and Illustrated by Mae Besom
Kobi also has another book "What Do You Do with a Problem?" but I prefer this book. One of my nephew's wants to be an inventor, and I just had to give him this book.

3) Usborne's "Look inside How Computers Work" Written by Alex Frith and Rosie Dickins and Illustrated by Colin King
Usborne has a lot of good science, technology, computer, engineering type books, but this book is the one we own. Jack loves lifting the flaps at age 2 (I think he'll appreciate the information soon enough).

4) "The Most Magnificent Thing" by Ashley Spires
Also great for budding inventors.

5) "Chicken in Space" by Adam Lehrhaupt
Found this book pretty funny, and (to me) shows where imagination meets science.

6) Sweet Dreams Sarah: From Slavery to Inventor by  Vivian Kirkfield and Illustrated by Chris Ewald
The story of Sarah B. Goode, one of the first African-American women to get a US patent. It's on Jack's to read list!

7) "Baby Loves Aerospace Engineering" by Ruth Spiro and Illustrated by Irene Chan
Fun book to introduce planes and flight to preschoolers (and babies).

And finally, *shameless self-promotion alert* I recommend "Annie Aardvark, Mathematician."  What recommendations would you make? Leave a comment here or on social media. I'd love to discover more STEM books for children.  Happy spring break! Happy reading!

(I'll have to work on a list for 3rd-6th graders next. There's some overlap from the preteen recommendations, but I'll get on it. In about year. ;-)).

3/2/17- Spring Break STEM Activity

Spring break is right around the corner for many kids!  Not Jack, as he is in daycare/preschool (which doesn't close for spring break), and he basically just took a week off for a cold. So to preschool for him, and to work for Bobby and me. We'll take him on vacation in late summer/early fall, so don't feel too bad that he doesn't get spring break.

Since spring break is right around the corner, I thought now would be a good time to share another STEM activity.  The activity won't entertain your kids for a whole week (or maybe it could if they end up really liking it), but it is pretty fun.  The professional engineering society that I belong to did the activity at Chase Field's STEM Night, and then we recently did it at E-Day at the AZ Science Center. Not sure if the engineers or kids had more fun.

Without further ado, Galaxy Slime! The slime is so popular right now, check out the MSN video "Slime Fad is Back." I like to think our engineering society started the trend, but most likely we did not.

Supplies Needed:
Bowl
Spoon
1 cup Elmer's Glue (white or clear work)
1 cup Liquid Starch (we used the Walmart brand, Stay-Flo)
Food Coloring (optional)
Glitter (optional)
Plastic Bag (optional)

Instructions:
1) Put the glue into the bowl first.
2) Stir in food coloring and glitter, if desired.
3) Slowly stir in the liquid starch in increments.  You probably won't use the full cup of liquid starch.
4) Stir until you don't see the "white" liquid starch.  Then switch to kneading the slime with your hands, checking how stretchy the slime is.  If you want it stretchy vs.gak, again you probably won't use the full cup of liquid starch.
5) After your child is done playing with their slime, they can save it in a plastic bag (or Tupperware).

Jack's galaxy slime has lasted for a week after he made it at E-Day.  He liked mixing the colors and glitter in the glue, but he lost interest in the final product.  I do think this activity is fun to do with toddlers (who are past the put everything in their mouth stage), just remember toddlers are going to need more help with the food coloring than a 10 year old is (Jack squeezed like 100 drops in because I thought he could do it himself, haha).

It is great for ages 2-99. Thought I'd take the Lego approach there; after 99, you just won't find this activity or Legos fun. Oh, and it's called Galaxy Slime, because if you add color and glitter, it looks like a Galaxy!  Also, the glue and starch combine to make a polymer! Happy (STEM) Spring Break!

2/23/17- Happy E-Week: Where Does Time Go?!

The last time I posted to this blog was almost a month ago, holy shark (batman)! And here's the cliche, where did the time go?! I guess most of it went to Jack, Bobby, friends, family, work, the usual stuff. Although, some not so usual stuff happened too. I went to a conference! I gave a presentation at that conference! I did an author visit to Jack's preschool! I had to cancel another school visit because Jack was sick! Jack spent 2 nights in a row coughing!

So the last one is not fun for anyone, but especially Jack. He got some kind of nasty cold, although colds this time of year are not unusual for our household. He has had a hard time sleeping, with hour long cough spouts at 2 am. We've done humidifier, Vick's, Zarbee's, Tylenol/Ibuprofen (only when fever was present, which was once theses past few days thankfully), essential oils--the only thing that works for his night time coughing fit is waiting it out. The doctor said this illness appears to be viral, so we can't antibiotic it (I want to reassure you  and myself that the doctor verified that his lungs sound fine and ears look clear). The 2 am wake up calls feel like infancy all over again, where we are all walking, sleep-deprived zombies the next day.

Don't despair too much for our little guy though. During the day, he plays, eats, etc. like there's nothing wrong. Just a little runny nose, so he still wants to go run around on the playground and ride his trike and all the normal 2 year old stuff. I wish I had more sick time off from work or no work deadlines (a report is due to our customer by end of month, got it done though!) because I fully want to dedicate myself to Jack's healing. Reality is I can't. I have to remotely log in and get shark done (as well as not burn all my vacation/sick time) while he naps or watches "Cars" for the fiftieth time.

Poor Kid

It's a little stressful, as most working parents know.  In fact, I think any parent, whether they work in (ie stay at home) or outside of the home, knows just how stressful a sick kid is. We know the cold will end, but the time between contracting it and it going away, well, it makes life more interesting. And like I said early, I want nothing more to do than to fully commit myself to Jack's recovery, but this week was bad timing for a cold. I was supposed to go to a middle school and give a speech on how awesome engineering for Engineers' Week (E-Week), but I had to cancel to take care of Jack. I will always put Jack above giving a speech, but I do feel I let down a lot of students yesterday. Although, they're middle schoolers, so there's a chance they don't care. Still, cancelling an obligation like that, well it's hard.  I feel like I let down those kids, their teacher, and my profession.

In uplifting news though, I got to do my first author visit (where an author goes to a school, reads their book and/or gives a presentation)!  And the best part of my first visit was that it was with Jack's preschool!  Most of the preschoolers seemed to enjoy me reading "Annie Aardvark, Mathematician", and when I got to Jack's class (the last class of the visit), Jack was so confused as to why I was there. He was like, oh it's time to go? Cool, let me just grab my blanket. Wait, why is everyone sitting down around my mommy? Why is she starting to read Annie? But he sat down right next to me and helped his class start of the counting (which is in the book). It was so funny and cute. And now he asks for me to read Annie all the time. :)

Look, I'm Presenting at a Conference

I also went to my annual engineering love-fest conference the weekend of February 10th, and I presented there too!  My presentation went really well, at least that's what my engineering friends told me. :) And I sold a couple of books! Mostly, I had a really good time, and this conference always renews my interest to remain in this gosh shark profession (engineering)! I want to be an engineer when I grow up (for the most part; I'd really like to do so at a new company, see previous BAW posts)!

I'll be at E-Day (at the Arizona Science Center) this Saturday, which also does a good job of renewing my interest in the profession, as part the Greater Phoenix Area's E-Week Celebration. Tons of engineering organizations will be at E-Day, doing lots of cool hands on STEM experiments. I'll be at the SWE booth, and SWE will be making slime with the kids who stop by our booth.  If you live in the Phoenix area, please stop by the SWE booth, say hi, and make some slime!

Also, just in time for E-Week, check out my Goodreads Giveaway (below)!  It starts February 26 and ends March 5. You'll have the chance to win 1 of 5 signed books!

Happy E-Week everyone!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Annie Aardvark, Mathematician

by Suzie Olsen

Giveaway ends March 06, 2017.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

1/27/17- Everything is Coming Up Milhouse!

Fellow Simpsons' fans probably recall when Milhouse declares, "Everything is coming up Milhouse!" If not, I've provided a clip below.  That is how I am feeling right now, that "everything is coming up Milhouse!"

My picture book, "Annie Aardvark, Mathematician" came out last week!  It's been over a year since I first drafted the story, and now it's a physical book.  I'm so excited about the book! I'm also excited to get it in the hands of kids. especially minorities and girls, to promote STEM. It's a dream come true, and I'm truly thankful to all my friends and family who are supporting me and buying the book. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Special thanks to my hubby and son.  Jack is the most beautiful thing that I (and Bobby) have ever created, and "Annie Aardvark, Mathematician" is the second most beautiful thing that I have created. The opportunity for me to create beauty again is priceless....or $9.99 on Amazon. :-D

Buy Annie Aardvark, Mathematician

And finally, someone who was in the same grad program as me started the really cool company Tech Love, and long story short, I wrote a blog/op-ed for Tech Love about what it is like to be a female engineer.  Check it out here! https://techlove.io/female-engineer/

And so yeah, I'm on cloud nine!  Even the lack of career progression (at my company) isn't getting me down. Even a toddler's "no, Annie! Blue train!" request (for which book to read at bedtime) isn't getting me down. Because everything is coming up Suzie, I mean Milhouse!  I've got flood pants, and I've got the geek charmed life right now.  Happy weekend to you all!

1/6/17- Don't Get Sick in Engineering (or other industries for that matter)

Welcome New Year!  I'm rearing and ready to go!  I'm ready to bring you this PSA: Whatever you do, do not get sick in Engineering.  I don't mean a cold or flu that goes away after a couple of weeks, I mean a chronic illness.  Being sick will hurt your career in engineering. And most likely in other industries as well, but today my focus is on the industry I work in, engineering and my observations. 

Engineering is competitive.  Don't be fooled by the stereotype of the mild-mannered nerd; we're out for intellectual blood in this industry.  Got a B+ on your Calc II test? Ha, I got an A-! Got a job at a government contractor? Ha, I got a job at the Fortune 500 Silicon Valley tech giant!  The best one (in my opinion), the not so subtle brag about how hard you've been working. Man, I'm wiped from working 50 hours this week.  Yeah, me too dude, those 60 hours I worked, they were killer. We get into pissing matches about how our company is willing to take advantage of our desire to beat out the other guy. I mean, overtime.  We get into pissing matches about overtime (companies would never exploit us, never). 

Side note to engineering managers: if you ever need to motive your workforce to work overtime, just say your star pupil is already doing 50 hours a week, even if they're not. End of side note.   Sure, there are a few humble engineers, who aren't competitive and ambitious (not that either is bad per say), but it is rare to find that engineer who thinks that teachers or waiters have harder jobs than they do.  Math decathlon is a sport, and the winner matters-- engineers can be competitive, as the next academically smart smug intellect. Myself included (when I was a hostess at Chili's in college, studying engineering, I thought I was way too good for this job; that job probably brought me just as much stress, maybe even more, than my current job. Have you ever had to sit people at Chili's on a Friday night in the early aught? It's a logistics nightmare, parenthesis ramble over). 

Early in my engineering career, I joked with a friend and colleague that one day I'll be VP of this company.  He joked, not if I beat you there first.  I wasn't completely arrogant, I knew that one day would be 20+ years down the road, but I had ambition.  I got told I was smart and capable, receiving good performance reviews those first couple of years.  Both my friend and I should now be project managers within our organization, if we are continue on our path to VP.  Neither of us are PMs.  Him, probably because he's Hispanic (which is a post for another day) and me, probably because I'm a chronically ill female (the female part is also a post for another day).  

Here's the part of the story where if you want, you can call me a whiny little shark. Suzie, there are tons of sick people who succeed every day in engineering; you just need to suck it up, you big baby. That's your decision to call me whatever, but it's my decision is to speak about my observations and truth. Plus, I've already told myself plenty of times to suck it up, so it wouldn't be anything new to hear you call me that. I've already beat you to the punch (I was first to do it, na, na, boo, boo, competitive engineer strikes again!).

Alright now that we got that out of our systems, let's move forward with this story.  I got really sick in 2007, see other blog posts for more details, and it took until 2008 to learn that I had Rheumatoid Arthritis.  And also in 2007, I was this close to being fired from my job/company.  Somehow I didn't, and here's probably the one cool thing my company has done for me over the years, they helped me go on to FMLA (to protect my job) and as I slowly recovered, allowed me to be part time.  At that time I was so thankful, and to some degree, I still am thankful today. 

But it was the first set back in my career for being chronically ill. I mean, I almost got fired. That's pretty big set up.  In this competitive industry, if I didn't have someone above me be empathetic about my plight, I would have been let go.  In fact, at any other tech company I would have been let go. Our industry is more competitive than it is empathetic. You ask, how do you know for sure if you were someplace else, you would have been fired?   Because it happened to my friend Emma. Her company basically fired her for being ill. Let me emphasis basically here; yes, there probably are nuances to her case. Overall though, her MS limited when and where she could work, and her company at the time didn't know how to define work within those parameters (I am hopeful that now they do).  There was no let's renew your FMLA or talk about going onto long term disability. They didn't have time to figure it; they had to get on with business.  

I understand their position, but it doesn't make it any easier to watch someone who loved being an engineer so much (and who you care about), shrink and wilt. So much so, that she thought she wouldn't be welcomed anymore in our very supportive female engineering society. She thought because she didn't officially have the title anymore, how could she be in our professional society? How could she attend society meetings without being an engineer?  She was fighting to get long term disability from the insurance her company carried, and her mother won Emma's case postmortem.  It was a bitter victory to say the least.

I've been told more than once from different managers, being a part time sicko employee, "Know that your career is limited," and "you'll have career growth, it will move more slowly."   Those statements are (unfortunately) correct.  Ever year as part of our performance assessments, we have to write down our long term goals.  Since 2008 (the year I started feeling better and went from 24 hours to 30 hours), I have written my long term goal as "project leader."  Managing a team has been a career goal for me for 8+ years.  I am a task lead, but I don't directly manage anyone.  To move up to the next level within my company, that level specifically calls out for supervisor/manager experience.

So the end of 2016 and yesterday (2017,) I explicitly wrote down that I want to be a supervisor and why I'd be a good supervisor. No vague project leader term (because you could possibly be a project leader without any direct reports/supervisees). I explicitly asked to run/manager team. And then I voiced my concern to my manager (in our one on one) about how my career growth feels limited if I don't have the opportunity to manage someone (even just one intern, how hard is it to give me one gosh shark intern?).  First time, it was our company, specifically our project, is not set up to manage a team remotely or part time.  Second time around, it was, well our project just doesn't have any teams to manage currently, but I'm willing to help you find that opportunity with another project, especially one set up around remote work.  

Okay cool, that's a fair answer. However, it showed what I already knew a couple of years ago (I mean after 8+ years of not reaching your long term goal, you start to get the hint that your career is stalled).  If I want my career to grow, I need to work on another project or leave the company.  I doubt I can shake the stigma of being a chronically ill engineer, so my best opportunity for job growth is to leave the company and work someplace else, where they don't know I'm a sicko.  

It's tough to see 2 engineers with 10 years of experience have the opportunity to be supervisors. Another engineer with 8 years become the manager of the test team and got his own office (while you're still in a cube). A different engineer with 4 years  of experience will be put on the project leader team this year. Another engineer with 2 years of experience is accepted onto the Engineering Leadership Program.  I'm not saying their opportunities aren't well deserved, because the opportunities are deserved, those people have worked hard; I'm just saying that I've worked hard too, so where's my opportunity for growth?  It's certainly not here.

The good news is that now that I have accepted that I have no room to grow at my current company, I'm no longer indifferent about the salary I make.  I know engineers make a lot of money compared to other professions, but when you're an engineering making 10K less than another engineer at the same level, it's one more indication of how being sick this industry really hurts your career. Real quick, my company pro-rates my salary, my salary is based on 40 hours/week. So technically if my performance reviews said I did a good job, then my 40 hours/week salary should be within hundreds of the other people who work 40 hours and who are within my level.  I have a feeling my counterparts don't make what I make, and if they did, why are they still here?  Our company (according to Glassdoor.com and Salary.com), are underpaying you!

Anyway, I feel that I can no longer be complaisant about my salary (not like I felt a year ago in The Salary). Sometime in the next 2 weeks I'm going to ask for the average salary of someone at my level. I feel like I owe it to all the sickos and other discriminated people out there.  By staying indifferent about my salary, I'm only hurt those around me.  I know, how unselfish of me.  Yes, I am doing it for myself too. It's important that I do it for me (my self-esteem could use the boost right now; I'm wallowing in my own pity party).  But somebody has to speak up for the disenfranchised, so I might as well speak up for them while I'm standing up for myself. And what do I have to lose? Job opportunities at my current company?  Oh wait, that's already in the toilet, so yeah I have nothing to risk by asking for more.  For the sicko club (it's like the Breakfast Club, but we're all napping in the library instead of dancing and sharing information about latest diet/treatment/medication instead of high school gossip), fist raised victoriously in the air!

So, the morale of the story?  Don't get sick in engineering. Your career depends on you staying healthy.  Take your vitamins. Exercise. Get your flu shots. For those of us who battle diseases and chronic illnesses. I promise to stay in this industry until my fingers are all gnarled and knotted and I can no longer type (but by then maybe the workplace will have cognitive software, think The Matrix, and I can just blink my TPS reports over to my boss, and I could stay even longer in this industry).  I know the longer I stay in this industry, the better I make it for others like me.  That's my promise to you: that through my trials and tribulations, I'll make this industry better for us all sickos. That one day, no one will measure your career by the number of sick days you took.  One day, it will be okay to be sick in engineering.

*1/7/17 Update: I've had 2 engineering friends who have auto immune diseases share with me their career struggles (aka stalling).  I deeply appreciate them sharing their stories with me.  And one even shared some statistics from this post.  I'm developing a secret hand shake for us sickos, so that we can advocate career advancement for each other in our industry. Is wincing in pain after shaking hands too spot on?  Take care!