It's been one week...

I am on a business trip. It has been a long week. Let me dispel the myth of the business trip.

1. Exotic destinations - Even if you are going somewhere that people might take a vacation to, the most you see of it is the airport, the hotel, and your assigned workspace. You have to attach vacation days to your business trip to do some sightseeing, and often the demands of the business don't let you do that.
2. Great food - Being stuck in a conference room with 7 other people until 10 PM at night where they bring in pizza with anchovies, shrimp, and broccoli on it does not count as great food.
3. Free Time - I usually enjoy traveling because I get cable in the hotel.... this week I have had exactly a half hour to watch TV before I am so exhausted I have to sleep so I can get up and do it all over again.
4. You are there until you finish - I will not be home for my birthday to enjoy my mom's homemade rolls

But there is always a silver lining. I do get to see my sister, which will be totally awesome, and because work extended my business trip, they offered to pay for me to visit my sister. So now it is totally free for me to go see her. Plus, I do have a job, which is a great blessing. So I am not really complaining. Mom's rolls will keep another week.

So Long and Thanks for all the Fish

HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy Series

Life changes. People move away. And frankly, I am tired of it. I think I was meant to be born in a time when everyone for 5 generations of your family lived in the same small town, all the neighbors had lived there their whole lives, and your best friend lived next door and never left. I know..... there are alot of people I wouldn't have met had my life actually been lived in such a town, but here me out. This year close to everyone I really liked having around have moved because of jobs. Which is a great thing for them because a job is a wonderful thing to have. But this blog is not about them and how great their opportunities are, and how fortunate they are. It is about me, who gets left behind to only have phone conversations and miss them. You know, you can feel homesick when you are the one left at home. In my class last semester we read several articles about homesickness and whether it was a disease or a mental state. What I can say for sure is that it has nothing to do with a place, and everything to do with people. So for all you people who have moved, know you are missed. Of course, I will also say that I have vacation time, so there is a perk to people moving away, it gives me new places to visit, and I have really enjoyed the visits I have gone on so far, and am looking forward to some new trips :)
Just because people move does not mean you won't see them again. You might think you never will. It might take 10 years, but sometimes things just work out. I have a best friend that has been my best friend for over 20 years. We grew up together, and I moved away, and you would think after college you wouldn't necessarily keep up, but then she moved to where I lived, and it has been fantastic. I have really enjoyed being friends as adults. So even though we won't live in the same state for a while, you never know.
So here's a shout out to friends that really do last a lifetime:

Jan 7 1991 Monday
This year Liz and I have decided to give little presents to 1 kid each month. For instance, O.B. (Oliver) is for January. We gave him a pinball machine, a chinese yo-yo, and another thing which I forget. We are going by secret names like Birthday Blastors and Halloween Haunters.
Today Liz and I practiced spying. We're pretty good.
We threw snowballs at Terek and Shane. Then Liz and I ran down to her house because the boys were hot on our tails. I started to build a fort. Large enough to hold Liz and I but small enough not to get a breezy chill. Liz held off the boys, who weren't that hard because they couldn't aim. I finished the fort in about 20-25 min. and I'm not lieing. I really hope there is no school, or at least a late opening or early closing. I really can't stand school!

Back to the Future

I have been attending some business seminar classes this semester because I had the wild idea that I would like to own my own business. I am very very grateful for these classes, because they have opened my eyes to what I would like and what I wouldn't like about owning a business.
But the most interesting thing I have learned is the reason people want to start their own business is that they want to become someone new. They have imagined a different future for themselves, one in which they are different, and to fulfill the vision, they want to start a business.
Part of a business plan is writing down the specifics of the business so that everyone has the same vision you do of your business. The location, the clientele, the way you fit into it, how you will expand, etc.
I think it is useful once in a while to sit back and think about life in a very specific way. Not just, I want to go to Paris someday, but I would like to go to Paris for my 35th birthday and eat my birthday dinner near the Eiffel tower. That is what a business plan should say, I am going to open a store at the corner of Elm and Market, I will own the building and lease the top floor, I will advertise by having a really cool sign, and participate in the local news paper, I expect my clientele to be mostly foot traffic because it is in a restored downtown area..... and on and on with the specifics.
The main thing many of the instructors emphasized was, if all you want out of starting your own business is a new life, there are easier and cheaper ways of getting a new life! You can join a gym, you can get a different job, you can move, you can redecorate your house. All of which they say would be less stressful than starting your own business. This got me to thinking, because lately I have had the itch to have a new life. To be a better version of myself. To become the funny, charming, physically fit, knowledgeable person I know is somewhere in there. But all of those are general words. To change, we have to get down to the specifics. For example, one person I know at work says her motivation for getting up an exercising is she can vividly imagine herself at 65 playing with grandchildren on the beach, running into the water and helping them swim and build sandcastles. She believes that if she exercises now, she will be able at 65 to do that kind of activity. But it is a very specific vision that helps her get out of bed on dark, cold mornings.
The one specific thing I hold onto is the idea of an early retirement. But I think I need to work on what I imagine my life will be after I retire, because then I can be working towards those specific goals, and not just the generic big idea of "early retirement". So here's to imagining the future!

Dancing Queen

Young and Sweet, Only 17


Once upon a time I loved going to dances. We used to drive to Raleigh for the once a month YSA dances, and they were a blast. You would get dressed up and do up your hair and makeup and then go see if there was anyone interesting to meet. It was the mormon version of clubbing. If there was someone interesting, you were always trying to separate yourself from your girlfriends so that the guy wasn't intimidated to come ask you to dance. Sometimes, if you were bold, you would ask him to dance. There is something about music that just gets inside my bones and I want to dance. I am not a good dancer, but I just like to dance.
My friend called me and asked if I wanted to go to one of these dances. It has been a long time since I have gone to a dance, so at first I was like..... hmmmmm...... dance or stay home and sit in my comfy recliner and watch the Office........ I caved and went to the dance. I put on my "Mary Kay Dramatic Eye Makeup" look, a cute tuxedo style top and my trouser jeans. When I got to the dance I felt way overdressed. It wasn't at all like I remember dances from college. So either my memory is faulty, or things have changed. What I remember is the entire gym at the Raleigh Stake Center being full of people at the dance, it was so hot you were automatically drenched in sweat when you walked in, the refreshment table always had sugar treats and drinks on it, and there were a few chairs, but for the most part, only a few people hung back on the wall. Now the dance takes up half the gym in the Apex Stake Center, and it is pretty empty. Although, I am told that what I consider pretty empty is a good turnout. But then the music started to play, and I just can't stop my feet from doing the DDR dance. Then they played NSync, and I wanted to do the video dance to Bye Bye Bye. Later they did a fabulous 80s song, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. At this point, I am thinking Karaoke might be more fun than a dance. Karaoke is a solo activity, and it probably doesn't have the awkward slow songs to interrupt the fun songs. I enjoy singing along to good songs, almost as much as I like dancing to them.
I had made up my mind after posting about telling someone I work at IBM and having their eyes glaze over that that wasn't going to be my problem anymore. If people are amazed at what I do, great. I am not going to try to downplay what I do anymore. So someone asked me to dance. He happens to be quite a bit younger than me, hasn't been to school after high school, and is a salesman for an electrical company. He asked if I was in school, and I said no I work at IBM... as someone who writes software programs.... His response: you must be one of those really smart computer people then. Yes, I am. So what kind of software? The kind that manages information, keeping track of changes to the assets in your business..... Wow. So did you get your education in that? Yes, I went to Carolina to get my degree..... At this point he walks away. Jokingly. So I said, oh, you are a State fan. He said no, at the moment he is an ECU fan. I didn't really think we had a rivalry with ECU, but whatever. Anyway his eyes were totally glazed over, but it might be because he realized I was older than his oldest brother :) hehehehehe
Bottom line, while it wasn't the dances I remember, it wasn't the worst way to spend 45 minutes. And my recliner probably could use a break from me sitting in it :)