Everyone wants to feel like someone cares

Do you ever just have one of those weeks? Yesterday I called into a 9 AM conference call.... that was supposed to happen today. I then went to a 9:30 AM meeting, also happening today. So apparently yesterday was Thursday for me. Then today at 9 AM I called into the meeting that was scheduled for 9:30 AM, was late to the real 9 AM meeting, totally forgot about the 11:30 AM meeting, and then left work late to go to orchestra.

This scatter-brained-ness has extended to my blogging. I have started blog posts all week, only to find myself at a loss for words. Yea, I know you are surprised since I usually can ramble on and on about something :) Last week I was dying to blog about my big project, but I couldn't because I was trying to keep it a secret. Now I can't even find anything to say about that. Work is apparently just as scattered since I can't keep my calendar straight. At least I did remember it was my mom's birthday. But I forgot to do one of those special blog posts to commemorate it. Happy Belated Blog Birthday Mom!



And as for the subject title of this blog, I heard that song coming home from Orchestra and so it got stuck in my head. Good song. So hopefully this random collection of thoughts will help me clear out my head so I can figure out what day tomorrow is :)

An award.... of sorts

I won an award from my friend (some award!). It's basically a tag, but it sounded interesting so here I go (coming up with honest things to tell).



Here's the scoop...
1.Choose a minimum of 7 blogs and show the 7 winners' names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with "Honest Scrap", the nifty icon they can display proudly on their blog.
3. List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

here's my honest scrap:

1. I lived in Scotland with my family when I was 7 and I wore a black and orange stripped tie with a grey jumper to school which I thought was hideous because it didn't match.
2. I didn't like wearing tennis shoes because I thought they made my feet look fat. So I wore boots or sandals or jellies, anything but tennis shoes. I finally got over my terror of tennis shoes a couple of years ago, and own a pair that are nice to work out in and wear with jeans.
3. I was in the pit orchestra in high school playing the violin for our school musical. This meant I got to have an exchange student from London stay with me, and then go to London the next year to perform our musical. It was totally awesome to travel with my friends on a trip that wasn't a family vacation.
4. I have been robbed in Honduras at machete point, and I have had two apartments broken into which resulted lost property.
5. I have eaten a chicken guacamole sandwich in Mexico.
6. I don't like to have my hair shorter than my shoulders because it gets to big and poofy, but I forget this fact every couple of years and let a hair dresser cut it to my chin because they say it will be cute, and then I spend the next year clipping it back with little clips trying to get it to grow out and be less poofy.
7. I do not have a middle name.
8. My first job was working at Brueggers Bagel. I did not enjoy the part where I had to stand outside and hold the sign to get people to come into the store.
9. I love milk. I will order milk at a restaurant if I haven't had my glass for the day. This was especially funny to do in St Louis where I ate out for every meal, and waiters do a double take when you order milk.
10. I have always wanted to have red hair because it seemed more glamorous than blonde. So I finally got the guts up to dye my hair 2 years ago, and I really enjoyed it, but then decided it wasn't worth keeping up. But those are by far my favorite pictures of myself.

Blogs I tagged to get this award:
#1 Kim
#2 Carla
#3 Liz
#4 Stephanie
#5 Emily M
#6 Abe and Meredith
#7 Jamie
#8 Emily J

Happy Valentines Day

My sisters and I went to see Stomp last night. It was totally awesome! A great show, and great company to spend the evening.

Working 9 to 5

I opted to not post a video for this because of the language, but hum the tune to yourself while reading :)

I attended a Relief Society Enrichment night this week. It was a dinner for a Visiting Teaching conference. I was seated at a table with 7 other women. What was interesting was three of them were freshman in college, one was looking for a job, and three were employed. However, none of them were "career" women. In the words of one of the women at the table, when she graduated college she wasn't interested in a career job, so she works for a friend of her family's. The others have worked various jobs, but never more than a couple of years at once place. Usually the job changes are to move locations or because the current job got boring, not to move up a career ladder and get more skills or more prestige or a better title.

It occurred to me as I sat at this table that I am a career woman. I have pushed for the last two years to get a promotion, because I thought I was well-qualified and slightly overdue for it. I did finally get the promotion last summer. For the last year I have been pushing to be a Chief Programmer, which means the leader over an entire project (like, 50 ish people). Since that isn't panning out, I have been asking about moving into management, thinking that maybe that track will be faster than the technical advancement track.

I have been deluding myself into thinking I was just working at a job. When I was in college, I had no aspirations to be a career woman. I simply wanted to make money so that I wouldn't be poor. When I started at IBM, I didn't plan on staying there for more than a couple of years. I even thought about turning down stock options because I wouldn't be around when they vested. I used to think it didn't matter if I was a lead, I was good with just doing my job. But that actually isn't the case. I have recently been confronted with people at work who are
really ok with just doing their job, and not seeking anything more. I am always interested in growth opportunities, and if there is a hole I am always interested in filling it. I was thinking about this, and was going to blame the Individual Development Plan. At IBM, we have to tell them where we want to be in the next 1 year, and the next 5 years. I have had on there to be an STSM, which is close to the highest technical title you can have at IBM, but I never thought it was serious. But apparently, if you read that year after year after year, you start to believe it.

However, as I thought about this more, I realized it didn't just start with IBM. I have actually always been this driven. I worked at Wal-Mart when I was in high school and I started out stocking shelves. And then I got to know how Wal-Mart works, and started helping out when we were short, covering managers by being responsible for all of the registers in the store. So the managers wanted to assign me to work on the registers, and I told them no, they didn't need another cashier, they needed better management of the registered. I asked to be promoted to a Customer Service Manager (CSM), and that I was good at that and could keep everything organized and running. So they did, which meant a pay raise, and I was a CSM at the age of 18.

Moral of the story: Attending enrichment meetings is a great way to learn something new about yourself :)

99 Things

I saw this on a blog and I thought I'd play along... (Can you tell I am trying to kill time while waiting for builds?)

Here are the rules: Bold the things you’ve done and post on your blog!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (Does orchestra count?)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland (only California Adventure)
8. Climbed a mountain (Blue Ridge and Hanging Rock count, right?)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo (ummm does playing a solo on the violin count?)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (This Spring Break!!)
18. Grown your own vegetables (I am counting the ingredients to make salsa)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked (In Honduras)
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (except that IBM doesn't have sick days, just personal days)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon (Does the Krispy Kreme thing count? It felt like a long ways to me.... :) )
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (I have been to Scotland and England, but I don't remember visiting where my ancestors came from exactly)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance (I don't remember stuff like this... so maybe....)
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (snorkeling in Honduras)
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching (In California, it was awesome!)
63. Got flowers for no reason (Well... I bought them for my table once)
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check (Completely unintentional, and I learned my lesson)
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square (Had an interview in NYC and my hotel was off Times Square so that is where the cab let me out)
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle (I think mostly 4 Trax, but my grandparents do have motorcycles)
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Redwoods
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Who wants to play?

The Devil Tag

My friend Liz tagged me on her blog. Someone's husband in the long train of tags calls it the devil tag, making it one of the more catchy tag names.

Here are the details:

1. Go to my documents/pictures.
2. Go to my 6th file folder.
3. Go to my 6th picture.
4. Blog about it.
5. Tag 6 people to do the same.



I took this picture when I was on a business trip to California. Specifically, I was in Anaheim at the big Technical Conference for IBM. It was a really huge room full of IBMers, like three thousand all in one place. Which is a lot. The conference had it's memorable moments, but like all business trips, the best part is when you extend it to the weekend so you can do some sightseeing. On this particular trip I drove out to the Pacific Ocean, and walked along the beach at Newport, CA which is where the O.C. is filmed. This is the first time I had seen the Pacific ocean. The amazing thing was the lack of dunes. The Atlantic ocean has dunes, so while you have houses "on the beach", they usually are behind the dunes. At the Pacific Ocean, the houses are literally on the beach, with nothing between the "backyard" of the house and the whole public beach. Also, the houses aren't built up a level. Most beach houses I have seen on the east coast are up on stilts with the cars parked underneath. At this particular stretch of beach, the houses were flat on the ground. I walked by a school whose playground was on the beach. Yea... I am sure alot of studying gets done there. When I got to the pier I realized I had walked alot farther than I had anticipated, and it took alot longer. So I paid a person at a bike store to ride a two person bike with me back to my car, so they could bring the bike back to the store. A one way trip for me, if that makes any sense. This was the first time I had ridden a two person bike, and now I can't remember what that is called. Anyway it is a very interesting balancing sensation. But I recommend it if you are into triathalons :) It wouldn't be a complete trip without me saying that I did get ice cream at the beach. All in all, I think I prefer the Atlantic ocean beaches and water, but maybe that is just because that is what I am most used to.

I tag Emily M., Emily J., Jamie M., Teresa M., and Carolina Chocolate

I guess a new experience could be worth trying

Jamie started school at UNC Chapel Hill last fall.  I go to Chapel Hill every week for Orchestra, so we have been meeting for dinner.  During the fall, we hit most of the restaurants right on Franklin Street.  This spring I thought we could branch out before repeating a restaurant.  Last week we tried a really unmemorable new Italian restaurant.  At least we recovered by having some ice cream :)  I asked Jamie if she would be interested in trying Asian food, and she said she was up for it.  The reason I asked is because our parents are not big Asian food people, so I wasn't sure if she was interested.  But Jamie said she had tried Indian food, and enjoyed it, so this week we went to a Thai restaurant.  Thai food was introduced to me when I was a Junior in college.  I had flown out to Seattle to interview at Microsoft for an internship position.  I was taken to two Thai restaurants during the course of my interviews, so I think it is a pretty popular choice in Seattle.  Needless to say, I loved what I ate, and when I got home, I proceeded to try to find Thai restaurants.  My favorite one is in Cary now, but there are other ones that are good.  It was also a surprise to me when I realized that one of my other sisters liked Thai food.  So then whenever we would visit each other, we started having a Thai dinner night.  Needless to say, I was hoping Jamie would like Thai food so that perhaps we could eat it on occasion together.  At the restaurant in Chapel Hill we ordered Massaman Curry and Sweet and Sour stir fry so that Jamie could try a couple of different things.  I thought they were fantastic, but I was a little sad that Emily wasn't ordering the Massaman since that is one of her favorites.  Jamie said she enjoyed the food, so maybe when she is down in Cary, I will take her to my favorite place.

 

Krispy Kreme Challenge

My roommate ran the Krispy Kreme Challenge last year and said it was alot of fun.  

The motto: 

2400 calories

12 donuts

4 miles

1 hour

The basic premise is you run 2 miles to the Krispy Kreme store, eat 12 glazed donuts, and run 2 miles back to where you started.  This is the first race I have ever participated in.  I am not a runner, but I thought..... donuts..... and signed up.  Also, it does benefit charity.  Yea, you are probably thinking, "The Biggest Loser doesn't need more contestants", or that this would be a great challenge to win immunity.  Anyway what I learned alot from this event. 

1. There is a reason people train for races
2. Donuts do not smell as good when you have run/walked 2 miles to get them.  They smell better when you are in a car.
3. People run in very interesting costumes.... Dressed as donuts, Dressed like Olympic divers, Dressed like Superman.... 
4. Going downhill is easier than going uphill
5. There are some pretty bungalows in Raleigh, and lots of new condos

Will I do this again?  Well...... I was thinking of actually being the person who stands at the corner and says, "Good job! Keep running!" because I saw the police cruiser bring those people donuts.  And I bet they tasted really good when you are just standing on a quiet residential street in a gorgeous 60 degree day in February in Raleigh.

Ode to my Dad

I remember when we lived in Scotland, we had a dial on the fridge. The dial said when one of us kids got to out alone with dad on whatever errand he was running. I remember one time I went out with my dad, and we got pigs in a blanket. It was a real treat!

When I was a freshman in high school, my dad took me to a football game. I sat by my friends near the marching band, and dad sat somewhere else where parents sat. It was a great game and went into overtime! My dad came over to find me and we decided to stay to see how the game would turn out. 3 overtimes later we won! It was the best game, and so much fun to go with my dad. It turns out that this was a week before my mom gave birth to my little sister, and it was also back in the days before cell phones. Needless to say my mom was not particularly happy with the fact that my dad and I stayed out past 11 to watch football. But I just remember my dad let me hang out with my friends, and he was so cool for staying through all the overtimes. (No, that isn't a picture of me... it is a generic band picture)

When I was in high school, my dad let me use the car to get to school and work. This usually meant I dropped him off at his work really really really early in the morning, and he walked home. Of course, he may remember this differently..... Walking to work uphill both ways with snow and no shoes.... What? You had feet? But I digress.

One time I had driven the car to work, and decided to go to the bank during lunch to drop off paychecks. The bank was up the road and on the left. It was a rainy day, and I was in the left hand lane of a four lane road. As I approached an intersection, there was a car going the opposite way who was attempting to turn left across my lane and the other lane into a vet hospital on my side of the road. They started to inch forward, and I thought they were going to turn in front of me, so I slammed on the brakes. Since the road was wet, I slid around, and hit some cars, and ended up in front of the vet hospital. All of the people were fine, but the car was totaled. I was so worried to call my dad because I thought he would be mad at me. He wasn't mad at all. He came and got me and made sure the accident was taken care of by the police. He took me home and called work to tell them I wouldn't be back in that day. He just asked me if I was ok, and he has never mentioned that I wrecked his car, not even to tease me about it years later.

Last week my dad was watching the news about the economic stimulus package and the state of the economy. When I saw him, he asked me if I had money in the bank. I said yes... why do you ask? He said it was going to be a rough six months, but as long as I had money in the bank, I would be ok. I was so touched by this, because it is my dad's way of letting me know he loves me.

Dad, I love you too.