Grit & Grace: A Panel Discussion on Female Leadership in Male Dominated Industries

I signed up for this panel discussion probably more than a month ago. It wasn’t until the day before the panel that I realized that Andrea, one of the women talking, was a college classmate of Dallas’s who I’d met several times!

The reason I signed up was because I’ve been on team and leading teams in a male-dominated industry (software development) for something like 20 years. I thought it would be interesting and insightful, AND IT WAS. It’s always nice to get out of the office for a breath of fresh ideas, even if just for an hour or two. Also nice to visit the 1871 space once in a while. I hadn’t been there for a few years.

Isobar Chicago Secret Santa Gift Exchange and Party

FullSizeRender-2 Yummy holiday treats!

FullSizeRender My first coquito. Love at first sip!

FullSizeRender-3 My gift from my secret santa.

FullSizeRender-1 Getting ready – Naz, AJ, John, Irene, Stephanie, Esteban

IMG_1822 Sam, Robbie, Alex, Andrea

IMG_0779 Allison

IMG_0785 Bryan

IMG_0780 Claire

IMG_0786 Irene

IMG_0781 Naz

IMG_1823Val, John, Laura, Maria

IMG_1821IMG_0787 FullSizeRender-4 AJ

IMG_1824 Katie, Grey, Megan, Irene and Chris

IMG_0782 Mark

IMG_0783 Ann

IMG_1829 Liz, Chris, Me, Thomas

IMG_0788 Matt

IMG_1830 Ramtin, Meenasha, Stephanie, Ronald

IMG_0784 George

IMG_1832 Fletcher, Ben, Ashley

FullSizeRender-5EVERYONE!

Meenasha did a great job again this year coordinating our office secret santa gift exchange and party. This is seriously one of my favorite office events. It’s so much fun! This year we had something like 40 participants. I wasn’t sure how we’d get through everyone in an hour, but we managed.

I was assigned Chris’s name in the exchange. I know him pretty well, but for some reason, was still having a tough time figuring out what to get him! I ended up getting him some hot sauce from Nando’s Peri Peri and a gift card for the restaurant. I’d been there with him before and he really liked it.

My secret santa was Thomas and he got me two really nice candles. One was “gray flannel” scent, which everyone was really interested to smell. I don’t know him really at all, but he did good!

Meenasha also brought my new favorite holiday drink, coquito, which is like a Puerto Rican eggnog. So delicious.

Past Years:

Isobar Women’s Auction to Benefit Girls Who Code

fullsizerender-18The Isobar Women’s Community in Chicago sponsored a charity auction to benefit Girls Who Code.

(null)More than 20 people donated arts, goods and services to be auctioned off.

fullsizerender-20(null)I donated two dozen pumpkin cookies with browned butter icing. One box sold for $16 (Laura W) and one box sold for $15 (Katie). Dallas estimated I was going to raise $5 for charity and I ended up raising $31!

fullsizerender-19(null)Isobar provided a lot of booze to get the bidding going furiously. It worked. Especially on Chris!

(null)(null)(null)The bidding got pretty intense at times! Especially when these ladies tried to outbid themselves up into the hundreds of dollars!

(null)All in all we raised more than $6,000 for Girls Who Code, which far far far exceeded what anyone was expecting! I got outbid on a ton of things but ended up winning a custom portrait from my super talented coworker, Ramtin.

Isobar Summer Event at Bub City

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Last week we had an all-day Isobar company meeting, as we do every year. The annual t-shirt contest was reinstated and everyone got the winner’s shirt, which featured a skeleton astronaut(?). At about 2:00 or 2:30, we headed over to Bub City, where we had the whole place rented out to ourselves. I’d never been to Bub City and I really liked the space. There was a band playing that was really good and after a while, when the drinks started kicking in, they let people come up and sing songs like live band karaoke. There was a barbecue buffet that people said was good, but there were also a ton of passed appetizers and I mostly ate those.

I made Romi do his first shot of Malort and now he thinks he can call himself a true Chicagoan. Little did I know that would come back to bite me later on when Mike made me do a shot of Malort! Karma.

FullSizeRender.jpg-3 Bub City (View Larger)

FullSizeRender.jpg-1 Good ol’ American sliders

FullSizeRender.jpg-4 AJ + Mike

FullSizeRender.jpg-2 Adam + AJ

FullSizeRender.jpg-5 Lobster Roll

img_7918Becky, Michelle, Rachelle, Katie, Megan

FullSizeRender-2-1Bryan, Ujval + Me

IMG_7911Michelle, Bryan + Me

IMG_7910Romi, George + Me

FullSizeRender-1Egor + Sam line dancing

FullSizeRender-4 Sheriff George

FullSizeRender.jpg-6 Vinay

FullSizeRender-6 Ronak

IMG_7831 Sam + Me

IMG_7917Romi’s first shot of Malort. (I had Fireball.)

FullSizeRender.jpg-7 This mannequin is the first thing you see when you open the women’s bathroom door. Aimee actually screamed and slammed the door shut. I cautiously reopened it and we realized the joke.

FullSizeRender.jpg-8 Dancing!

FullSizeRender.jpg-10 Detroit girls came to party.

FullSizeRender.jpg-11 Detroit Isobar.

FullSizeRender-5 I think they sang some Back Street Boys.

FullSizeRender.jpg-9I can’t remember what these guys sang.

FullSizeRender-16 Brian from the Denver office started to sing Purple Rain and everyone was like “no way… ” And then he killed it!

FullSizeRender-13 Jen nailled it too, with her rendition of Bobby McGee.

FullSizeRender-12 I drunkenly walked past these Dayo and Jeff, saw they both were wearing blueish shirts, and called them twins. Then they joked for a long time how they look SO MUCH alike (not at all).

FullSizeRender-11 AJ + Ann

FullSizeRender-15AJ + Sam

IMG_7871
The Dance Floor!!

FullSizeRender-17 Cowboy Mike

FullSizeRender-10 FullSizeRender-14Back in the Bathroom!

After the official party was over, we went to Sportsman’s Club. They have an awesome patio and the weather was finally perfect. Things got a bit sloppy and we practically attacked the tamale guy, but it was nice to hang out with all my work friends, not in the work setting. Super fun time!

FullSizeRender-21 Julia + Rudy

FullSizeRender-22 Julia + Rudy

FullSizeRender-20 Chris + Me

FullSizeRender-19 AJ photobombing Anne + Me

FullSizeRender-23Rudy + AJ

Oh, and one photo that I have from the meeting. Saurab moderated a panel of all of last year’s value award winners. Becky, Chris and Romi are on my old project that I just switched away from a few months ago. Sloane and Kevin are on my new project team.

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Past Roundarch/Roundarch Isobar/Isobar Summer Events:
2015: ROOF on theWit
2014: American Junkie (rain backup to Oak Street Beach)
2013: The Rooftop at Market
2011: Millennium Park (daytime photos, nighttime photos)
2011: Paris Club
2010: Shedd Aquarium (Also celebrating Roundarch’s 10 year anniversary)
2009: Party at the River East Arts Center
2008: Wendella Architectural Boat Tour and dinner/drinks at the Adler Planetarium

Tour de Fat


Tour de Fat


Killian & Jill


Molly & Liz


Stephanie & Dallas


Stephanie & Dallas


Front: Killian, Dallas Back: Lisa, Jess, Brian, Stephanie, Andrea


Stephanie & Rachelle


Crazy Tall Bike


Bike Powered Bubbler


Sign at the crazy bike corral entrance.


Rachelle


Stephanie


Stephanie & Rachelle


Stephanie & Rachelle


Rachelle

After the Tour de Fat bike parade, Jen and Quinn had to head out but the rest of us went over to Palmer Square for the Tour de Fat festival. Last year we had just a few people with us at Tour de Fat, but this year we had something like 10, plus we ran into our condo neighbors and hung out with them. Last year Brian, Dallas and Killian’s friend from college, drove in from out of town for the event and has so much fun that this year he brought his wife with him.

There were a few new things at Tour de Fat this year, but generally things were the same as last year. Same crazy bikes, some of the same music and performance acts. Dallas wished they had switched it up a little, but I still had a fun time. It had stormed in the night before the fest so the grounds were pretty muddy. And while it didn’t rain the day of, it was so hot and humid. My hair was wet with sweat. Kind of gross, but still a good time.

After a while some of our friends headed over to Dunlay’s to check in on World Cup soccer. Steph and I walked around a little bit then met them at Dunlay’s. We sat outside, though, with all the other people who didn’t care about soccer. Then a bit later on Jess (my friend, not my niece!), Dallas, Steph and I had dinner at Rocking Horse.

Easter Weekend

Easter Egg Hunt
Back: Jesse, Andrea, Calvin, Masako, Eleanor, Sarah, Audrey, Toby.
Front: Deanne, Yvan, Jeannette, Rachelle, Jessica.
Easter Egg Hunt, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn

Central Park Sheep Meadow
Sheep Meadow, Central Park, Manhattan

Central Park
Central Park, Manhattan

Easter at Central Park. It was a beautiful day. I got sunburned. Ow. It doesn’t hurt as much as Jeannette’s head must, though. She was beamed in the forehead with a 100 mph frisbee. The result was a typical New Yorker confrontation peppered with plenty of curse words on this holy Sabbath. Yesterday, Yvan & Jeannette hosted an Easter Eggstravaganza complete with an Easter ham and an Easter egg hunt in a playground. Lots of fun. Here are a bunch of photos that Jessica took this weekend (free ophoto registration required).