I had two SQL Saturdays this month SQLSaturday Chicago and SQLSaturday Rochester both of which were very cold. Hopefully, the winter SQLSaturdays are over, for now, I want it to be spring and see no more snow for awhile. I know I’m a baby, but I’m used to North Carolina weather and traveling north well it’s cold. Now for the adventurous parts of both trips. Delivering back to back presentations in Chicago was my first time doing that. It went well, but it is a bit of a difficult transition in my head to what I was talking about next. And the Airbnb I was staying the woman’s daughter got engaged in a party at the house that Saturday so it wasn’t the quietest of places to stay. In Rochester, it was clear the snow had come, and it was freezing. But I think the adventure came in leading the WIT Panel during lunch. Having been my first time trying doing such a thing, I was nervous, but after stuttering through the PowerPoint with some stats about Women in Technology, things went smooth. Not only did women have questions but men did as well. Thanks to Andy Levy (t | b) for wanting to have the WIT Panel and getting me involved, I think we helped educate so men and women on the challenges that women face in the field. I attended both events as an Idera Ace. Thanks, Idera. I also presented remotely to the SQL Malibu User Group. So after five presentations in 8 days, I was bit talked out.

While in Chicago I met up with some from the speakingmentors.com site that wanted me to mentor them on a new presentation. We had dinner after the event, and we had some much in common as in where they were at now and where they would like to career-wise, it turns out I’ll be mentoring in more just than the speaking category. This should be fun! If anyone else is looking for a speaking mentor check out the speakingmentors.com site. If you want a mentor if a different category, look around at people you see that are where you want to be and don’t be afraid to ask them to mentor you. If they say no, just ask someone else. Most people will be more than willing to help.

This month I only read two books to completion The CEO Next Door and The Reputation Game. I enjoyed reading The CEO Next Door to get a perspective and what makes successful leaders as I hope to one day be in a leadership role. The Reputation Game is an essential read for some these days with all the scandals going on, but was interesting in the fact that your reputation is based on others say about you and can have two aspects your character and competency.

In my superhero duties, I no court hearings and just had to visit with the kids on my caseload. April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month in the U.S.; I encourage everyone to see what local events might be happening in your area to remember this. There are lots of pinwheel planting ceremonies going on, including one I will be participating in at our courthouse on April 10th, besides planting a blue pinwheel for every child we represented in the last year, we will be planting different pinwheels for every child that died while in foster care in North Carolina last year.

This month we have our second webinar on WeSpeakLinux.com to bring general Linux content to the Windows administrators and developers. Come check out Andrew Mallet (t | b) telling us how to navigate the command line at Olympic speed on April 5th at 12 PM EST. I noticed we might have some problems with our Slack signups so if you had a problem try again and let know so I can get in there. Hope some of you will attend the webinar.

In working on my goals for this year. I started studying for LCFS certification (I finished one module this month). I am working on a new presentation for Idera and planning an Azure related one. I started exercising (now I need to eat like I’m am so it does me some good).