Michelle almost Didn’t Make it to Asia
If you’ve ever been down to the wire and had others relying on you, then you’ll understand the anxiety that Michelle was dealing with when her passport arrived with a mere week to book travel and plan her trip to Asia. Kathy understands how that feels as sometimes plans are interrupted by things outside our control. And both Michelle and Kathy are making plans to attend WordCamp Phoenix in March. Making plans means more than just scheduling a flight – especially when repping StellarWP at events and coordinating with your team. But we’re both up to the task and can’t wait to see you (and especially each other) soon!
Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Start your week smiling with your friends, Kathy’s aunt and Michelle Ette. It’s time to get ready for some weekly motivation
Speaker 1 00:00:07 With WP Motivate. Happy Friday, Kathy.
Speaker 2 00:00:15 Happy Friday. How are you doing? I, I packing
Speaker 1 00:00:19 . Oh gosh. Wouldn’t that be nice? No, I haven’t got that far yet.
Speaker 2 00:00:24 . Oh, no. Time to tick
Speaker 1 00:00:26 In. I know. And I didn’t make a lot of this public because I didn’t wanna scare the people at where Camp Asia I didn’t want. And I was already like, nervous enough about it, but I had lost my passport and so I needed to get a replacement passport and it was down to the wire and I applied for the replacement passport and paid extra to expedite it, which is three to five weeks. Well, five weeks would’ve been the day I was supposed to leave for Thailand. Wow. And with travel not refundable most of the time I was not about to book anything until I had passport in hand. It arrived Monday of this week, Sunday night, or Monday, whatever, when I got the mail. So it was Monday. So I get, I get the passport Monday and it’s like, all right, we got a week.
Speaker 1 00:01:17 So I get online to start looking at booking travel and I was thinking I would fly out on the 14th since it starts on the 17th, but it’s like 30 hours of travel time, which would actually put me arriving on the morning of the 17th, which is contributor today. So I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t do that. Yeah. Because, and, and Mark West Guard from WS Forum said to me, he’s flown in and out of Asia before. He said, you need a buffer day because a 13 hour time difference from our time zone here to Thailand means that you need to sleep when you get there or you will be compost. Yeah. For the entire time here in Thailand. serious. And so I’m, I re like, looked at different flights and I’m actually flying out at my flight leaves at 5:30 PM Monday the 14th. Happy Valentine’s Day from the year .
Speaker 1 00:02:07 And uh, I arrive on the morning of the 15th tie time. So I will have that day and whatever to reacclimate myself to time zones and then be able to hit the ground running on the 16th at night. I think there’s a party or something. There’s so many parties around Word camps. Um, and then contributor day on the 17th, which I’m staffing the, um, the photo table for contributor day cuz I am part of the photo team, uh, one of the moderators for the, uh, photography project, photo directory for wordpress.org. So I’ll be able to be there. I don’t know what, what, what questions people will have or what we, what work we’re gonna do, but I’m excited about it. And then I’m speaking and , I’d love to tell you what I’m speaking, but like I’m not in that time zone. So it has like, I am so time zone challenged.
Speaker 1 00:03:01 I’m speaking at some point the 18th or the 19th you’ll get there. Yeah. Yeah. They even sent me an email yesterday that’s like, uh, we’re so sorry we’ve had a switch. Uh, we’ve had a, a adjustment in the calendar so you’re not speaking at this time. We hope that inconvenience. I’m like, it’s all like, good, I’m just gonna be there. Just tell me when to show up where, you know, it’s all good. But because I didn’t know if I was actually gonna be going until this week. I hadn’t booked travel, I hadn’t booked hotel. I hadn’t made arrangements to meet with people there yet. I hadn’t put my slideshow together yet for my talk, which I have to do this afternoon. Um, cuz it’s really late. They wanted it like a month ago and I was just like, yeah, I’m getting, I’m working on it, but I’m doing a lightning talk.
Speaker 1 00:03:50 So it’s not like there’s a million slides anyway for a lightning talk cuz that’s a 10 minute talk. And yes, anybody listening, it feels absolutely bizarre to travel 30 hours to Asia to talk for 10 minutes. But I am just absolutely honored and thrilled to be, um, asked to speak. I am talking about looking for the good and the good things that have happened, um, in the last three years of a WordPress in spite of a global pandemic and the changes that that threw into everybody’s lives and the fact that so much good has come out of it in spite of the tragedy and everything that we’ve gone through. And not just the pandemic but floods and puss and earthquakes and everything else. Right. Um, war and everything that we as a community have rallied around one another. And so that’s what I’m gonna be talking about is the fact that as a community we can go through a lot of compost.
Speaker 1 00:04:43 We can go through a lot of really, really bad stuff. And yet as a community, we always come together for each other and rally around one another. And for me that is just phenomenal. Right. Just phenomenal. So that’s what my 10 minute talk is gonna be about. I am so excited to be able to go there and do that. I have bought an extra ticket for a friend to travel with me because I am a disabled person. And traveling terrifies me. not worrying about not being able to stand up and walk from point A to point B without some assistance. Somebody to grab my backpack if I need to. Those kinds of things always like terrifies me. Yeah. The time zone difference is somebody that understands how to do that. Somebody who can navigate that or I don’t feel like I’m gonna extra it somewhere alone.
Speaker 1 00:05:30 And so, um, and it’s fun to ha to travel with somebody and have a companion. Anyway. So, um, so I have a friend that’s going with me and will make things a lot better. And he’s in WordPress two, so he’s got a ticket. He’s gonna be there for the whole shebang. He’s going to all the same parties. Um, and, and it’s gonna be fun to introduce him around, um, to everything that’s going on and to, to meet people. And he’s, he’s a rockstar. Um, so he’s gonna be awesome. And yeah, I’m excited about it. But, um, I haven’t started packing yet. I I did get new, a new suitcase, so that’s good. And I did, um, just in case order the plugs, like cuz they don’t use the same outlets that we do. So I bought some, I guess they’re adapters. I, I don’t even know the right terminologies for, so I bought some adapters so that I can plug my extension cord in and plug, I’ve got the hiccups, everything into my extension card and uh, yeah, it should be good. I’m, I’m pretty excited about it.
Speaker 2 00:06:22 That is so cool. Do you, are you gonna have some time after Word camp to just kind of take in Thailand a little bit?
Speaker 1 00:06:28 I booked an extra three days so that we, uh, well two days. So the, it ends on the 19th, we fly back on the morning of the 23rd. And so we get two days to kind of actually take in Bangkok, um, do some sightseeing, you know, whatever it is we wanna do before we fly home.
Speaker 2 00:06:47 So. Amazing. Wow. I’m so excited for you and I’m so excited. You know, word Camp Asia, when the whole pandemic stuff started, word Camp Asia was the first one that, the first major one that really took a cancellation and that it, where, where it was just like pulled and it was the first one. And so I’ve always felt like so sad for all of the organizers and everybody mm-hmm. who bought tickets and everybody who was like really excited Yeah. For the first ever Word, camp Asia. So it’s so exciting to me to see this event happening, even though I can’t be there. It’s a little, a little much for me for travel for right now, but I’m so excited that you get to go and that Thank you. You’ve got some other stellar people going to as well, I think.
Speaker 1 00:07:29 Um Yep. It’s a couple people.
Speaker 2 00:07:31 Yeah. So I’m just excited that the whole community gets to actually have the, the real first word, camp Asia, and you get to be
Speaker 1 00:07:38 There. Woo. I know. It’s very exciting. I’m very excited about it. And, uh, so when, when the first one was canceled back in 2020, it was, I think it was scheduled for, was it scheduled for April or May of that year, I think. And like, we went onto lockdown in March.
Speaker 2 00:07:54 Mm.
Speaker 1 00:07:55 And it got scheduled, it, it got canceled with like just a couple weeks PR before it was all supposed to happen. And one of the organizers over there, um, I, I am so excited about meeting friends that I’ve never met in person, but I count as my friends. So one of the organizers is, I have several organizers that are right friends, but one of them reached out to me and she said, did we make the right decision? Like some of us are still going because we have the time booked, we have the travel booked, we’re still gonna go there, we’re still gonna meet up, you know, together, but are we making the right, do we make the right decision? Do you think this was smart? And I said to her at that time, well, none of us knew what was gonna happen. Right. The whole idea was like, oh, we’re gonna go into lockdown for a few weeks and this thing will be eradicated.
Speaker 1 00:08:36 Well, no, that’s not how it works. Right. But even with not having the vision of what would ha the next three years would look like I said, you absolutely made the right decision because yeah, we don’t know what’s going to happen. And if people traveled there and were there in massive quantities, thousands of people and people left and got sick, left and died because more people were dying back then, we didn’t have the medications for it that we do not, we certainly didn’t have vaccines yet and there weren’t as many, um, what do you call the, the breathing machines and things like that. I can’t think of the right word to say, but, um, intubation and all of those things. And we lost community members to Covid because of a super spreader event like that. Yeah. That would’ve been the worst thing to hit the, the community. So absolutely made the right choice, but so excited that it gets to happen now.
Speaker 2 00:09:28 Yeah. Yeah. It’s, uh, it’s very exciting and I’m excited that more and more Word camps are starting to pop up on the calendar and more people can get together because I think we’re in a really exciting time for WordPress right now just with Gutenberg. We’re finally feeling like it’s in a state of maturity where people are Yeah. Building all kinds of cool stuff and full site editing coming on the horizon and just, and, and if you haven’t seen Cadence’s, block suit, , I just had a conversation this morning with someone, an another old time word, Prosser, who was like, I just built a whole site. I know I’m not supposed to use that on production, but I built a whole site with Cadence Black three and it is on fire. This is
Speaker 1 00:10:11 Oh, I love it.
Speaker 2 00:10:11 Excited. So I’m excited for what 2023 is going to bring for WordPress. And so it seems to be me too appropriate that we, it’s almost like we’re kind of picking up where we left off before all of this crazy lockdown stuff and
Speaker 1 00:10:25 Yeah, my, my daughter, um, she, she used to refer to things she hasn’t as much anymore, but she used to refer, refer to things as bc not as in like before the common era, before Christ, but before Covid. Like life BC was like February, 2020 and earlier before lockdown and the world went crazy.
Speaker 2 00:10:46 Yeah, yeah. Crazy. I mean, I was traveling so much going to Word camps all over the place and Yeah, me too. And then it’s just not at all. And it’s so funny because I, at the time I was traveling a lot with my son who was, you know, his professional career as a camera holder and, uh, not my daughter’s like of that age. She’s almost 15. And she’s like, when’s it my turn? I wanna go, I wanna go to Word Camp. I wanna go to this one. I wanna go here. And she’s like, yeah, was practicing, I do a lingo practice here practicing Greek.
Speaker 1 00:11:18 Oh, nice.
Speaker 2 00:11:20 I’m like, well, she’s done, she went through Russian for a while, then she went through Italian for a while and she’s like, we’re going to Word Camp Europe. Right. And I’m like,
Speaker 1 00:11:31 Maybe
Speaker 2 00:11:32 Next year, maybe another language for you.
Speaker 1 00:11:35 Oh, my daughter messaged me and she’s like, can I go to Greece with you? I’m like, sure she can be my Travel companion. Um, but she’s gotta she’s gotta commit to being as cheerful and helpful as, as my, as Jeff is when he travels with me because she’s like, mom, mom, you know, kinda thing. I’m like, there will be none of that
Speaker 2 00:11:55 . Yeah, yeah. No, if you, anybody who travels with me, it’s like, all right, you’re working . I’m working here working, we’re working together,
Speaker 1 00:12:02 You know? Exactly. This is a working trip for me. I’ll book a couple extra days in so we can see Grease. Absolutely. But at Word Camp, you’re my bitch. .
Speaker 3 00:12:12 Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:12:16 Exactly. Are you going to, are you going to Athens? Are you going to work camp here up?
Speaker 1 00:12:20 I am. I don’t know. We haven’t even talked about it as a company. I don’t know if they’re sponsoring me, but I, I did apply to speak. I haven’t been notified of course yet, whether or not I speak, I am either going as a company if we sponsor it or I’m paying my own way because there’s no way I’m not going to work Camp Europe this year.
Speaker 2 00:12:37 Amazing. I’m so jealous.
Speaker 1 00:12:40 Excited.
Speaker 2 00:12:40 I’ll be right there with you. But not this year,
Speaker 1 00:12:44 Just No, but you and I are tentatively making plans to be, we’re Camp Phoenix together. Yes. So we’re talking as a company about sponsorship and, and those kinds of things. And so hopefully you’ll be able to make the plans you need to for home life. Um, yeah. To be able to go and, you know, we’ll coordinate our travel. I, I, we’ll get our own rooms cuz you don’t need to hear me snore, but, um, , well if I,
Speaker 2 00:13:10 My daughter wants to go too, so I’ve, she’ll have to listen to me snorer. .
Speaker 1 00:13:15 Unfortunately. I’ll probably lean on you a little bit to help me with my travel since you’re so used to helping people. Like I can’t take apart and put together my scooter myself. So maybe you can direct the taxi drivers to help with that
Speaker 2 00:13:27 . Yeah, definitely. Well, we’ll take care of you. And if I’ve got Claire with me, she’s
Speaker 1 00:13:32 Awesome. She’ll be
Speaker 2 00:13:34 Both of our bitches. .
Speaker 1 00:13:35 There you go.
Speaker 3 00:13:36
Speaker 1 00:13:37 She’ll go buy her all the Starbucks she wants, I promise.
Speaker 2 00:13:41 Yeah. Oh, it’s, it’s a great venue. Um mm-hmm. , it’s uh, it’s right downtown and it’s like across the street there’s like a grocery stores even. So it’s like mm-hmm. really super easy to get whatever you need and just like right there. So it’s, it’s a really great venue and I just love, I mean obviously it’s kind of like home to me for word camps. Yeah. Cause I organized for a couple of years and so that team that does Word Camp Phoenix is amazing with Raha and Carol. Yeah. And Dave and everybody else who’s there. I’ve
Speaker 1 00:14:13 Been talking to Carol, she knows that I’m planning to come and she reached out to make sure that I have my accessibility needs met while I’m there. Amazing. And that was so wonderful. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 00:14:24 Yeah. She’s amazing. She would, um, she was always concerned that like we would get sick outward camp because you know, conference crud never Oh
Speaker 1 00:14:30 Yeah, for
Speaker 2 00:14:31 Sure. She always had like fresh homemade elderberry like, okay everybody come
Speaker 3 00:14:35 Get your out. Like, ok mom,
Speaker 1 00:14:38 Elderberry syrup time tastes better than like Will, I’m gonna say for sure
Speaker 2 00:14:43 . Yeah. She totally took care of us. She takes, but she takes care of the organizing committee. She takes care of the speakers and she just like cares for the people there so much. She’s kind of, um, she’s an amazing human being. I’m That’s
Speaker 1 00:14:56 Wonderful. Blessed
Speaker 2 00:14:58 To have known her and to know her. I mean, even though I’m not there, it feels like I’m gone. Like I’m, I wanna go home. I wanna go back to Phoenix and see everybody. Well
Speaker 1 00:15:07 Have all these homes
Speaker 2 00:15:08 I wanna go to.
Speaker 1 00:15:09 I absolutely am putting out all the positive vibes in the world to make sure that you’re there with me. Cuz it’s gonna be exciting. And, and we’ve been at camps before, but never as coworkers, so this would be so fun.
Speaker 2 00:15:21 . Yeah, yeah. It’ll be fun. We’ll have a good time.
Speaker 1 00:15:24 Absolutely.
Speaker 2 00:15:25 And they put on a really great camp. Great.
Speaker 1 00:15:28 I’ve heard, I’ve heard, and some of it was in the film that you put together so I could see things that were happening through that. It was just wonderful. So Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:15:36 Yeah, that Al feels like a documentary of everything that happened, like that one year , it was kind of a tough year at the Phoenix Convention Center. Just dealing with all of the convention center stuff is, is hard. But, but yeah, that was so much fun.
Speaker 1 00:15:50 Absolutely. Well figures crossed that it works out that you can get to at least Phoenix, if not also Europe. I’m gonna put it out there. Maybe Europe’s not completely off the table. You never know. We figure things out as we go,
Speaker 2 00:16:04 But, um, yes, exactly.
Speaker 1 00:16:05 Super excited. So, uh, I think we’re gonna just in case anybody’s like totally tuned into hearing us every week, because I’m in Thailand next week, we are gonna take a little bit of a hiatus and, um, so you won’t hear us hear from us next week. Uh, we’re unsure about the week following since I may be completely jet lagged when we get back, but it might be, it’ll at least be one week, if not two before we’re back again. But it doesn’t mean that we aren’t thinking about you all and hoping that you’re finding motivation in every day. So any last words, Kathy?
Speaker 2 00:16:38 You know me. I’m just saved for that last word, . That’s, I’m just saving it all.
Speaker 1 00:16:44 I love it. There’s always that little pause that always just makes we giggle after we actually close the thing. But we hope you all have a wonderful week. I will be tweeting and sharing information from Thailand as I’m there. Follow me on Twitter at Michelle Ames if you’re interested in seeing my journey. Um, other than that, we’ll see in a few weeks. Bye
Speaker 2 00:17:04 Bye. , this has been WP Motivate with Kathy’s aunt and Michelle Fette. To learn more
Speaker 1 00:17:11 Or to sponsor us, go to
Speaker 2 00:17:13 Wp motivate.com.