Cow’s Life - Thinking Outside Of The Barn

When I took the new teaching job back in Jan this year, I was fully expecting to work as a low key technical trainer and just do my teaching.

Just 2 weeks ago, my role and responsibility suddenly changed. Now, I am appointed as the new education manager of the new organization we are building as the result of the recent acquisition. So forget about staying at home and teach. I have been flying non stop in the last 2 weeks to attend summit meetings to lay out plans to build this new organization. Like a few years back when I worked on a high profile DC job that nearly destroyed my mental heath, here I am again, sitting with a full room of execs and VPs throwing big words at each other and demanding big dollars without the politeness.

I was much younger then, less mature and was very much afraid of these big boys. 4 years have passed and I noticed a huge difference between me now and the me then: I don’t give a fuck of what’s going on… Last week, I booked a 5pm flight to come home. The partner who owns the organization suddenly asked me to stay for one more day for a meeting that I was never invited to. I flat out said that I had to go home tonight. In front of all the VPs/Execs, he yelled at me, “Christine? Do you want to get fired?” Crap! What do I care?! I quit once remember? So I threw my hands in the air, “Great! FIRE ME!” Everybody busted in laughs and continued with whatever they were doing… I ended up delaying my 5pm flight to 7:25pm, attended the meeting for 2 more hours, gave my opinions and flew back home.

One thing I learned from these Big Boys in the last 2 weeks was that these guys all have big nasty attitude and have “I am the Boss. Don’t mess with me” written all over on their foreheads. As opposed to the file and rank employees like myself, we are used to the concept to “perform well” and to “please our boss and others”. The more we try to please others, the less respect we get. It’s week 2 into my new job and I have been putting on a big nasty “Don’t mess with me or no education for your people” banner on my forehead too. It’s been working quite well and I have networked with quite a lot Partners and Execs in the last a few days to talk about Value-Adds and importance of getting their people trained… I know.. I know.. It’s all corporate buillshit… Even though I am working in a cut throat environment right now, nothing is like working on a fucked up slavery client project. To be honest, I don’t think these big guys jobs are that hard. The consultants who are working on the fields truly have the hardest jobs. So my hat’s off to those of you who are still out there busting your asses everyday. It’s a great job to start your career with, but don’t stay out there for too long… I know I will never get back to the consulting career again…

I took a leave of absence in Jan from my professional blog company b5media to deal with my real job. Finally, I was done with my slavery real job so I picked up my slack and started blogging for food again. Turns out, all of my proposals back in 2005 got approved so I now end up with 3 professional blogs to keep up with. That’s why I haven’t been able to do anything fun on my own site. I kind of regret that I am taking on too many blogs too soon…When I am under pressure to post on schedule, the used-to-be-fun blogging doesn’t seem so fun anymore. Well, let’s just see how this goes…

Here is a list of the posts I did on those sites in the last a few days. I am also introducing a new site I will be writing for: The Play Gadgets. It’s about video game gadgets. I am rewriting my template files to include these blogs on the side bars too. Hopefully you guys will still be enjoying reading my stuff …

Posted on Feb 22: Universal RF adapter/switch for all game consoles

Posted on Feb 22: Lazy guy’s gift guide
If you are one of these guys who is clueless about what to get for your lovely lady without breaking your bank, here is your guide.

Posted on Feb 21: Men And Calendars
Why men hate Valentine’s Day and why women have to have gifts on those dates.

Posted on Feb 16: Worst Pickup lines you can ever think of
This is my usual brew-ha-ha of the day…

Posted on Feb 15: Housework and Sex
Why neat home can lead to better sex life for the couple.

Posted on Feb 22: Why Women Make Less Than Men
Well, simple. ‘Cause we don’t ask for it the way men do

Posted from Feb 14 through Feb 21: Lessons learned after qutting my consulting career
Lesson 1: Learn to say “I can’t do it”
Lesson 2: Break that Agreement
Lesson 3: Learn to believe it is not my fault
Final Lesson: Make Changes Today

After soaking my machine in water last week and losing two replacements in a week by the carriers (talking about a lottery winning probability), I will be offline starting tomorrow until Thursday. Let’s just hope my next shipment will peacefully make it to the destination.

In the meantime, I will go to work with pen and paper and play some Lottery. If I managed to lose that many machines in a week, I may hit a home run .. You never know…

Inspired by Jee’s 8 Best Things in 2005, I gave myself 2 minutes to write down a few best moments of 2005. There are quite a few things popped out of my memory right away. There are no logical explanations as why my brain chooses to remember these events. Anyway, here is the top 6 Best Moment List minus my personal happy moments in my private life..

• After working 30+ hours straight without sleeping or resting, I had to get away from the world. So I headed over to the woods to camp for a weekend. It was a very hot summer afternoon. I sat by my tent for nearly 6 hours, surrounded by the trees, birds and fresh air without moving, talking or thinking. It was the most peaceful time I have ever spent. That day, I understood the healing power of Mother Nature.
• After searching and waiting for 5 years, my best friend told me that she’s getting married in April 2006. I remember these painful years she spent with a broken, painful, and frastrated heart. But she didn’t settle and kept on hoping. Finally, she found what she was looking for. Yesterday, she ordered me my Bridesmaid dress! Haha!!
• This past Thanksgiving was my mother’s retail store’s one year Anniversary. I spent almost a whole night helping her to stock the new arrivals and set up the pricing system before the Black Friday. At 2am, I was so exausted. I sat on the floor looking at the isle I just cleaned up and the new products that were about to be sold the next day. The sense of achivement was much greater than winning a reward from my own job.
• I was born and raised in cities. I am afriad of heights, dirt roads and bugs. I did my first outdoor climb in June at Golden, Colorado. Ever since then, I realized that I can do anything as long as I give myself a chance to do it. When it comes to personal ability, the sky is the limit. This is probably one of the most important lessons I learned in 2005
• On June 26, I set up Yuna’s Village and wrote this post a day later to pull myself together after some hardships I suffered. I decided to write only positive thoughts and events. Even if things are not looking so bright, I gotta find something good to write about. Half year later, I find myself becoming much happier and healthier. This blog site is the best thing happened in 2005. Even if one day I stop blogging, I know nothing will let me down anymore, ’cause there is always something bright out there if we are willing to look for it.
• I started my adult life in New York and I spent 3 years in World Trade Center area. I went back to New York City 6 months after 911 and I had an emotional breakdown after I visited the temp memorial which no longer exists. Ever since then, I couldn’t bring myself to revisit New York until this year. When I was standing in the new Path train station that was rebuilt inside of Ground Zero, I was speechless. I spent quite a lot of time in front of this picture. It was the most emotional but encouraging moment in 2005:

  

As the city glows in dark and my butt feels better, I took an easy stroll along the streets in the center city after the class. It was my first day to walk freely on the streets after feeling sick and miserable for the whole week. The carefree California air instantaneously washed off the stress I had carried from my office. Saks, Macy, Nordstrom, Victory Secret, and the Gallery with full of dazzling shops are lining up on the wavy San Francisco streets. I couldn’t help myself but to step into those mega size stores admiring the uniqueness of the goodies that can’t be found elsewhere.

Later into the evening, I was sitting by the street with a couple of girls and my Gay friend, having French dinner, laughing, drinking and bitching about guys. It was a total Sex And The City scene mixed with the California scent and LES HORS D’OEUVRES.

I couldn’t stand the big city life so I left New York. But on the other hand, I’ve always missed the city life even though Colorado has offered me the chance to live up and close with the most beautiful Mother Nature. Ahh.. humans. We are never satisfied with what we have. We let go of the things we have possessed and miss them when we don’t have them. All the sudden, I miss New York’s cute coffee shops, the summer Jazz dance festivals by the Michigan Lake in Chicago, the 4am Dim Sum in Shanghai, China, and I am going to miss the time I spent here tonight, in the beautiful charming San Francisco.

Although I am injured and not able to snowboard, I tagged along this weekend to hang out in Vail with my friends. The 1 – 2 foot fresh powder was just too good to pass. After struggling nearly 4 hours on the road, we finally arrived in Vail Village. The entire Denver must came here ‘cause the only empty parking spots were for the handicapped. After circling around a few levels in the garage, we noticed that we must have passed by a few empty handicapped spots on each level.

“Can handicapped people ski and snowboard? Don’t you think those people who ski and snowboard shouldn’t be classified as handicapped?” My friend was getting frustrated. I started to count and didn’t see a single handicapped spot being taken and we had this army of late arrivals who were still desperately circling around the garage hoping to get lucky.

I used to have a blind roommate and we always used her handicapped parking permit to get the best spots. Her sight was permanently damaged and that was how she got the handicapped blue parking tag. I don’t know if my broken tailbone qualifies me as one of those handicapped parkers. But in reality, I don’t have a permit and I really need a closer spot at this time. What are the practical use of these spots anyway if the injured people can’t park there and the handicapped people don’t come here?

I accidentally came across this picture last night. Hmm, maybe I was wrong… Maybe the disabled do snowboard so Vail needs to designate 50 handicapped spots by the lift chairs.

“You can’t walk yet? But you will soon? Sorry, no handicapped spots for you! Keep circling!”

When I was at the Doc’s office, the guy told me a few things I shouldn’t do. You know, things like snowboarding, rock climbing, exercising, etc… Nothing surprising. But I am tell ya, the doc’s list is not even close to the real life experiences.

That day after I broke my tailbone, my friend took me to the ER. He is a funny guy who always makes me laugh. As usual, I laughed at his jokes and boy, my ass hurt like hell! I had to yell at him, “Don’t make me laugh, my ass hurts!”

A few days later, I had my first sneeze. I didn’t realize that my entire body shakes when I sneeze, tailbone included. I had to lie down on the couch to recover from the pain after each sneeze.

Unfortunately, I am relatively a happy person who laughs a lot and just caught cold at this moment. Talking about the perfect timing. I guess this is the once in the life time chance (I hope once is enough) for me to laugh/sneeze/cough my ass off.

Update on Dec 6 :
Defintely don’t take a flight. Stupid me flew to San Francisco 8 days after the accident and the 3 hour flight sitting in a middle seat was as miserable as you could imagine. What the hell was I thinking!? Durh..

Before I say anything, take a look at the following chart:

(source: www.crutchfield.com/TV)

The Tube CRT offers the best quality of picture in the 13” – 36” range. A 36 inch CRT old fashion Tube TV costs probably 400 bucks while a same size Plasma costs $1999! I don’t know if I can convince myself to spend $1500 more just to get a flatter look. It seems kind of waste of money. So I am going to stick with my 100 dollar 27 inch old fashioned Panasonic CRT for a while.

For the very first time in my life, I broke a piece of my bone.

I was unloading from a lift chair when my right foot slipped. My butt landed pretty hard on the binding. It was so painful that my tears came out right away involuntarily. I probably took a hundred falls on my butt ever since I started learning snowboarding and this one was by far the worst. I didn’t know I broke my tail bone at that time. I fell so many times that the pain was already part of the game.

After 15 minutes of struggling, I strapped my feet back in and rode down the hill with the rest of the class. An hour later, I found myself having difficulties sitting in the cafeteria. Even my favorite hot beef stew couldn’t keep my mind off the pain.

Three hours after the fall, the pain was still so persistent that I started having a hard time walking down the stairs. Finally, my friends put me in the back seat and drove me back to Denver. I still didn’t think I broke anything until the doctor gave me an examination in the ER and told me I broke the tip of my tail bone. I was very disappointed when I heard the news. I have the next two weekends planned to go to Wolf Creek and Vail. Now, I can’t even rock climb. Bummer!

Although I can still walk (slowly) and sit on a donut shaped cushion for coupe of hours, driving still gives me a lot of ass-ache. I tried to go to the nearby Target today and the 2 mile roundtrip was quite a struggle when dealing with the road bumps. I probably pissed off a lot of drivers by going 10 miles an hour.

My friends showed so much caring after I got injured. A girl I met just a few weeks ago postponed her night out with her friends and drove me from Breckenridge back to my apartment. A close friend of mine also missed a portion of his party and took me to the ER and got me medications and food. A few people called today to let me know that they are only a phone call away if I needed anything.

I wrote a very moody post just a week ago when I felt very lonely. But when a situation like this happens, people do care and they do anything they can to help their friends. I am truly grateful that after just a short period of time living in Denver, I’ve had a few people whom I can rely on if I am ever in trouble. This is a very comforting thought.

Thank you guys for helping me to grow my tail back. I will do the same if you ever have problems with your tails or paws. Hehehe..

I was supposed to fly from Denver back to Nashville for the Thanksgiving holiday this evening. Well, it’s 4 hours passing my original flight schedule and I am still in Denver. The flight got delayed and delayed and then further delayed until I couldn’t bear anymore. I rent a car and came home. I guess I will have to give it another try tomorrow.

After experiencing countless delay and cancellations, this scenario is no longer strange to me, although still pissing me off from time to time. A lot of you may travel to see your families and friends in the next few days; I figured I’d offer some lessons learned from my past travel experiences to make your trip a less stressful one:

1. Always buy e-ticket. If you have access to a computer and a printer, check in online, print out the boarding pass before heading over to the airport. You can go directly to the security line. How nice!
2. Instead of checking in one big luggage, bring two carry-on pieces. The flexibility is extremely important if the agents have to reschedule your flight. And you can pretty much hop on any flights on the same day without paying extra fees.
3. Always check the flight status before you leave home. Majority of the airlines let you check the flight status online and it is in sync with the airport systems. If the flight is severely delayed or even canceled, you don’t have to waste too much time.
4. If your flight is canceled, don’t line up to talk to the agent if you need to rebook. It takes forever unless you are the first 10 customers. Instead, call the airline reservation number directly and talk to someone to reschedule your flight. When a flight shows up as “cancel” status, the reservation agent on the telephone will be able to rebook you without charging you.
5. Most importantly, don’t get frustrated. It took me a long time to realize that getting stressed out of something that is out of my control simply doesn’t do any good. Try to focus on working out the alternatives when situation arises.

Hope everybody has a pleasant trip and happy Thanksgiving!