And this is slightly analogous to how I feel every morning now. Because the alarm clock goes off on all the days.

Four years ago, I accepted a job offer where I was the sole Texas employee in a company where most of my co-workers were on Greenwich Mean Time. I set up a home office, and although I traveled quite a bit, my daily office hours were extremely flexible. The process of work was something that I could do at any hour of the day, any day of the week. “Weekends” lost their meaning; if something needed doing, any day or time was fair game.

The trade-off was that if I didn’t have an early conference call with Ireland, or an airplane to catch, I didn’t really have to set an alarm. One’s workday doesn’t have to run 8am - 5pm, if instead it runs 10am - 10pm. What I got done and how much was vastly more important than at what hours.

Then, when I left the Irish company, I began consulting. And again… what and how was more important than when. I could schedule client meetings for late in the day. I could block out a day to chaperone a school trip if I needed. The idea of using “vacation time” or “PTO” or “sick time” was quite foreign. Getting dressed for work meant a t-shirt and shorts, no shoes. And of course: only once or twice a week, with the alarm clock.

I became very spoiled with the privileges of working from home and setting my own schedule. More than once, I remarked to others that I didn’t think I could ever go back to a 9-to-5 environment. O, folly of the under-employed!

But, that was then. Goodbye, sleeping-in days. Verily, thou art gone.

At the end of June, I accepted a full-time offer from one of my consulting clients. The company is called Community Development Associates (they advise on and provide tax-exempt financing and arbitrage rebate services); I am now their vice president of marketing. And the CDA office is about two miles from my house, so there is no need to work from home.

This means that the alarm clock goes off every single weekday. The question before bed is no longer “do I need an alarm in the morning?” Because that answer is always yes.

And of course, this means that I now wake up at the same time on weekend mornings as well. Lounging in bed till 9:00 or 10:00 am is no more.

I know those of you out there with little children or lifelong 9-to-5 jobs are smirking at me (trust me, my husband has been smirking for weeks now). Go ahead; get it out of your systems. I’m a real grownup now with a “real job” again.

But I will say this, at the least: after the utter freedom and autonomy that was borne of the last four years of my workday, at least the new circumstances are as ideal as possible. I have a nice big office in a great office space; the commute is non-existent and I can park right outside the front door; they have a fridge filled with almost as many goodies as my home fridge; the dress at work is casual as long as there are no client meetings or conferences on the schedule; and the people are really, exceptionally, unusually nice. As in, other people I know who also know my boss tell me (unsolicited) how lucky I am to work for such a great guy.

I like the work, too. My focus is on bringing new products into new markets for the firm, which is my favorite space. It is challenging but rewarding work that improves communities, so it pushes my civic buttons.

(I’m aware that there is a honeymoon phase of any new life change, but I worked for CDA for six months prior as a consultant, so I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what it’s like for the long-term.)

My cat wonders where I go every day now, and why she can no longer nap on the warm adapters from my printer and computer, and come meowing around for a head scratching any time of day she likes. But she’ll muddle through.

And soon enough, I’ll no longer lament that my alarm clock goes off on all the days. It’ll be old hat, and I’ll be a regular workaday schlub like everyone else.

Last Saturday, I was at Grand Lake in northeast Oklahoma with my family. There was an incident on a boat, which can be blamed neither on alcohol nor weather nor some reckless yahoo on a Ski-doo. Sadly, there is no one to blame but me… but I stepped down off the dock crookedly, and I twisted my right ankle. It just rolled outward and popped, and I went down like a sack of concrete.

I’ve had ankle sprains before, but nothing ever like this. Within minutes, it was swollen to the size of a softball. I was able to climb to a sitting position, but just barely; mostly, I spent the day lolling on the aft seat while people brought me Advil and cold beverages and ice packs wrapped in towels. I didn’t swim, I didn’t go on the Waverunners, I couldn’t go up and down to the docks like everyone else.

Soon, the swelling got colorful. It’s been a fine rainbow of bruises, from aqua and blue to purplish-red. I hobbled around the rest of the weekend, doing the PRINCE treatment and trying to stay off it. By the second day, it didn’t seem to be improving, so I made an appointment with my family physician in Dallas.

They took one look at it and sent me for x-rays. The x-ray technician took…well, three very radioactive looks at it, and referred me to an orthopedic surgeon—for the x-ray revealed “a tiny chip suggesting avulsion-type fracture of the lateral malleolus.” But whether or not the ankle was cracked or broken was inconclusive on the films.

Without the ortho opinion, all they could tell for sure was that I was not allowed to go down to Fair Park last night to see Wicked at the Dallas Summer Musicals. (And I had so been looking forward to it. I was invited by a colleague to a private dinner at the Music Hall before the show, with a themed menu. Wicked Wedge of the West with blue cheese crumbles. I promise I’m not making this up.)

So I stayed home, sulking on the couch—Ace-bandaged and ice-packed and elevated. I played Dr. Google while looking over the x-ray report, and I learned that the lateral malleolus is the bottom-most point of the fibula (leg bone) and it makes the outer bony protusion that you think of as your ankle, and that fractures to it are fairly common. I learned that ankle sprains are the most common injury that basketball players experience.

In fact, I read so much last night that I was sure I knew exactly what would happen in my exam today. (Cue foreboding music.)

So today, I saw a very nice orthopedic surgeon specializing in foot and ankle, and an orthopedic PA. They reviewed my x-rays. And they wiggled my right foot around, and poked and prodded it in ways that were clearly very scientific. They appreciated my Technicolor cankle to appropriate degrees.

And the diagnosis was that I do not have a fracture—just a severe sprain. Which was the good news.

The bad news is that I have ligamentous laxity or hypermobility— the clinical term for a life-long condition that in the olden days we called “double-jointed.”

Which I had always believed was a good thing. When I was a kid, it was a cool trick that I could bend my fingers from just the top knuckle, or bend my thumb back to touch my forearm. When I was in dance and gymnastics, it was an asset that I was so flexible. As an adult, it has impressed my stepkid that I am still closer to doing the splits at 30-something, with no practice, than she is at 14, with weeks of stretching.

I’m bendy. Always have been. It impresses people in gym class. More limber. More flexible. What’s not to love about that?

But as Dr. D. was asking me pointed questions about what kinds of joint injuries I’d had as a child (loads of them), and did I notice my joints clicking and popping in normal range of motion (yes!), and how far back I could bend my fingers (freakishly far)… the light bulb was slowly dawning. When I showed him the bizarre way I can rotate my elbows, he was sure.

There isn’t a lot of research in the U.S. on hypermobility. It’s a very prevalent diagnosis in the UK and Europe, but allegedly American doctors don’t diagnose it or pay much attention to it. (Which I believe, since I’m a textbook case of it and yet it took my first adult visit to an orthopedic specialist at age 36 for anyone to notice)

Every major injury I’ve had in life can tie directly back to this hypermobility: The hamstring tear in 10th grade. The broken wrist in 7th grade. The shoulders that I can dis- and re-locate á la Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon. And the near-annual right ankle sprain (although never this bad).

And there’s the rub: it’s never been this bad before. But those loosey-goosey joints that were fun when I was young and springy are now just… loose. The doctor described my right ankle ligaments as stretched out and not keeping my ankle in place as designed. In fact, in two weeks, if my ligaments haven’t done a suitable amount of internal repair work, the ortho wants to talk surgery.

My hypermobile ligaments are not snapping back like a fresh rubber band. They’re lying limp, and I’m injuring myself.

If there is a silver lining to the rainbow sprain, it’s that I got examined by this orthopedic specialist and got a reality check about my ligaments and joints. I have to change a few things in my life, if I don’t want hobbling and aching to be the new normal.

Very simply, I have to build up my muscular strength, so that my muscles and bones can do what my worn-out ligaments apparently cannot: protect my joints.

Otherwise, I’ll be dooming myself to a life of missing out on fun like family lake weekends, and the “Wicked Wedge of the West.”

And I think we can all agree what a tragedy that is.

Migration into Collin County in 2008

Take a look at this interactive infographic from Forbes compiling where Americans are moving, by county. I’ve linked to the map for Collin County.

Black lines show people moving into Collin County and red lines show people moving away. If you mouse over a blue county, you can see how many people moved, and what their median incomes were.

It looks like the majority of the relocators were coming from Texas, Southern California, Southern Florida, and the Northeast. Interestingly, those few who were leaving Collin ended up in other Texas metroplexes like Austin, Houston, and San Antonio.

By comparison, Detroit's residents are fleeing in droves. We have been fortunate that North Texas fared comparatively well during the recession.

The map application is fascinating to play with for other counties too. For example, check out Wayne County, Michigan, where Detroit is located; what a sad state of affairs.

This is all based on IRS data for 2008, and is a neat picture of how diverse Collin County has become.

It has always seemed like everyone here is from somewhere else, present company included. Now we can see it in black and white (and red).

I joined the local Chamber of Commerce, as well as a couple of networking groups in order to amplify my client outreach.

I also applied to the Leadership Frisco program, was subsequently accepted, and began the class year in August 2009.

My blogging here—which had been heretofore a supporting effort to my public sector business development job hunt—was suddenly less needed, and I had far less time for it.

Today, Leadership Frisco Class XIII has come to a close, and my consulting company has settled into a rhythm of existing clients and ongoing projects.  I have wrapped up my involvement on some time-consuming activities that took all my free time and attention this past spring.

I wouldn’t say that suddenly, my days are wide-open… but it seems that this summer finds me having put multiple obligations to bed, and with more time to ponder aloud.  So, I guess we’re back in business again.

You’ll find that some things have remained the same: I still won’t talk too much about my family in this public medium. Their privacy is very important to them and to me (and plus if they want to tell you their own stories, I suspect they will. Not shy wallflowers, these dear ones).

And I still have a hard time staying away from topics like legislative politics, current events, and the like.

But in a past life, I also found time to blog about cooking, entertaining, travelling, reading, music, and other things dear to me. Maybe those things will resurface here if time allows.

I have been blogging (and whatever it was called prior to the invention of the word “blogging”) for many years, under various guises. But like any hobby or habit, it ebbs and swells along with the circumstances of one’s life. Sometimes you can make time for it, and sometimes real life pulls you away.

Today, right now, June 2010… I guess we’re swell again.

“Legislators have never dealt with a recession as precipitous and rapid as this one,” said Susan K. Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States. “They’re faced with some of the toughest decisions legislators ever have to make, for both political and economic reasons, so it’s not surprising that the environment has become very tense.”

The hardest part is that it’s going to take a while. If you believe the analysts who say we have indeed hit the bottom of the market drop, we’ll still have a long while to wait before unemployment turns around and the housing market picks up.  And both of those things have to happen before consumers are back to work, and will start spending again — in turn creating the boosts to sales, property and income tax that the states will require in order to see revenues return.  So there’s still a very long way to go.

The master’s of business administration, a gateway credential throughout corporate America, is especially coveted on Wall Street; in recent years, top business schools have routinely sent more than 40 percent of their graduates into the world of finance.

But with the economy in disarray and so many financial firms in free fall, analysts, and even educators themselves, are wondering if the way business students are taught may have contributed to the most serious economic crisis in decades.

“It is so obvious that something big has failed,” said Ángel Cabrera, dean of the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz. “We can look the other way, but come on. The C.E.O.’s of those companies, those are people we used to brag about. We cannot say, ‘Well, it wasn’t our fault’ when there is such a systemic, widespread failure of leadership.”

Cabrera’s quote is the gist of the article: We the Business Community encouraged this to happen, by institutionalizing and placing extremely high value on an educational program that rewards that behavior which prioritizes shareholder return above all else, including responsibility and risk management.

As someone without an MBA, my inclination is to file this nugget away for future reference. What a timely response I could provide if asked whether an MBA is in my future.

But as someone who works alongside MBAs — and has seen first-hand the commoditization of that degree, and how it can serve as a license for managers to behave badly and to operate without conscience — I have to say that I am glad that thought leaders in the business world are finally realizing that “we have seen the enemy, and he is us.”

Manager ≠ leader.

NB: For the record, I riffed on the MBA in my About page months and months ago. It wasn’t an opportune update sparked by the NYT article!

A number of states have proposed, designed and enacted state-level stimulus plans in response to the current economic recession.  Public spending on infrastructure projects is perhaps the most common component of state stimulus plans.  Other elements include small business development, increased capital in local financial markets, job creation incentives, and investments in green energy and health technology.

The [chart at link above] shows stimulus plan details for 16 states.  Investments from these selected states add up to over $10 billion.

This bit from Indiana is especially interesting: “The proposal also clarifies that the legislature, not the governor, is to distribute future federal stimulus funds.” In other words, the Indiana General Assembly has ruled that any money coming to the state from the Congressional stimulus package will get appropriated by the legislature.

And yet, the Indiana General Assembly must adjourn no later than April 30, 2009. I expect the governor will have to call a special session in order for the Assembly to meet to appropriate these funds.

So, in a bit of wonkish irony: the legislature made a rule calling dibs on doling out federal stimulus money… but existing rules will likely mandate that the governor gets to decide the mechanism by which the lege will do the doling.

In “15 Companies That Might Not Survive 2009,” Rick Newman opens with the recent demise of big-box retailers Circuit City and Linens-N-Things. From there, I expected to see the list populated mostly with similar retail operations — companies that sell consumer goods at a time when consumers just aren’t consuming. (It’s not a trick of the crystall ball to speculate that long-troubled BlockBuster likely won’t last the year. They weren’t doing well before the bust, and haven’t significantly changed their product offerings or business model in any meaningful way since. Chrysler was another no-brainer for the list.)

But I wasn’t expecting #15:

BearingPoint. (BGPT; about 16,000 employees; stock down 21%). This Virginia-based consulting firm, spun out of KPMG in 2001, is struggling to solve its own operating problems. The firm has consistently lost money, revenue has been falling, and management stopped issuing earnings guidance in 2008. Stable government contracts generate about 30 percent of the firm’s business, but the firm may sell other divisions to help pay off debt. With a key interest payment due in April, management needs to hustle - or devise its own exit strategy.

What especially surprised me is the idea that if BearingPoint survives, it will be based on their substantial pile of “stable government contracts.”

I can tell you first-hand that providing professional services to the public sector can be challenging, and that engagements are prone to bumps and hurdles. But those are a common element of public-private relationships. What separates the wheat from the chaff among government contractors is how those inevitable bumps and hurdles are handled.

And from what I’ve heard and seen, I’d be hard-pressed to say that BearingPoint has always risen above to triumph:

• In 2007, BearingPoint had to abandon a multimillion-dollar technical contract in Florida, to privatize the state’s accounting services via a project called “Aspire,” after significant technical failures (“$89M down the state drain”, St. Petersburg Times, May 18, 2007).
  
  

  To be fair to BearingPoint, it does sound like the state of Florida had equal culpability in this one. Still, why was the situation allowed to get this bad? Over three years and ~$90M, the project shouldn’t have devolved into “he said, she said” on a public stage. That’s an embarrassment to both parties — and worse, it erodes the public’s confidence in the state’s ability to oversee high-dollar appropriations.

• In 2004, BearingPoint was removed from another multimillion-dollar contract in Florida, where they were contracted to “maintain and improve services delivered through the State Technology Office’s data center, desktop management, and e-government services.”
  
  

  The contract was retracted due to what were spun by state officials as “procurement irregularities”… but “unfair advantage” by losing bidders.

  State auditors allege that [then-state CIO Kimberly] Bahrami did not use the same requirements for all contractor proposals that were evaluated. Bahrami chose BearingPoint as the lead contractor amongst top firms such as Accenture, and three other bidders that did not make it to the final cut. After Bahrami’s decision, the State gave BearingPoint extra perks such as additional work and compensation which was not part of the original blueprint. Florida audior general, Bill Monroe, stated that according to Florida law, competing vendors did not have an equal opportunity to make proposals. (Law & Entrepreneurship News, 8/28/04)

  And a few weeks after presenting BearingPoint with this $126M contract on a silver platter, Bahrami resigned from the state, to “pursue other professional opportunities”.

  At BearingPoint.

  This affair cast such a pall over the Florida State Technology Office that then-Governor Jeb Bush put Simone Marstiller in place, presumably with a directive to clean house and restore public faith… but to no avail: the STO was defunded by the Florida State Legislature in 2005.

• In 2001, BearingPoint was selected to serve as the systems integrator for a software system called CoreFLS, in a project intended by the US Department of Veteran Affairs to improve health services for veterans — with a price tag close to $500 million (BearingPoint’s cut was $117M).
  
  The prototype was to be built at the Bay Pines VA Medical Center in Florida, then rolled out nationwide, but CoreFLS was riddled with problems, throughout the multi-year engagement. CoreFLS eventually had to be abandoned, at a loss of ~ $300M. BearingPoint spokesman John Schneidawind said that BearingPoint believed it had complied with the CoreFLS contract, and that the system exceeded VA requirements.
  
  

  Criminal and civil investigations were launched (though, I can’t find where — if ever — there were criminal findings). A post-mortem assessment by Carnegie Mellon University called CoreFLS “an exemplary case study in how not to do technology transition.” One U.S. Senator wanted BearingPoint banned from bidding for all government contracts, over the Bay Pines disaster.

This is just three — of the dozens of big contracts that BearingPoint has landed with state and federal government agencies since leaving KPMG. And apparently, ethical issues around “procurement irregularities” aren’t that unusual when BearingPoint is involved.

Now let’s say you are one of the US states experiencing fiscal recession right now (which is most of them). Can you afford — especially in this economic climate, when taxpaying voters are being asked to tighten their belts at home — to earmark even one dime for a company that has a demonstrated history of spectacular expensive failure on government projects?

16,000 employees is a lot of jobs — and for the sake of those workers, I hope BearingPoint hangs on. But it’s got to be an uphill climb to win public-sector contracts… at a time when corporate waste and greed are taking a shellacking in the public sentiment, and every single government appropriation is being examined with a fine-tooth comb.

I just don’t see how it can be enough to pull beleaguered BearingPoint out of the hole.

I had just been interviewed by the New York Times (who made me sound a little ditzy).

I was planning a vacation with my brother and sister-in-law, who figured on having a last hurrah before they started a family.

The US states had just started to get an inkling of the budget trouble that was coming down the pike (PDF).

We were still in the midst of primaries for the US presidential election. Neither party had a nominee yet.

Doesn’t it feel like one hundred years ago?

“This place missed out entirely on the moment,” says Stephen Kinsella, an economist at the University of Limerick. “There has been no accumulation of wealth here.”

Walking through the garbage-strewn, empty roads on a cold, misty afternoon, Mr. Kinsella points to the shuttered houses and the mothers still dressed in pajamas taking their children home from school. Social workers in Moyross refer to the “pajama index”: the more men and women one sees who do not take the time and care to dress for the day, the worse the economic situation tends to be.

The “pajama index” is well-articulated — although not just as an Irish phenomenon, because I’m sure that it’s a symptom in other Western cultures as well. Just as England is more than London, Ireland is more than Dublin.