1) Go skydiving
2) Start my MBA
3) Buy a house
4) Visit Germany, England, Scotland and Australia
5) Learn to go scuba diving
6) Ride a Harley Davidson
7) Go to culinary school
8) Learn to play the piano
9) Take flying lessons
10) Go bungee jumping
I have finally come to the conclusion that I have a curse when it comes to Kinko's. With my job, Kinko's has sometimes become a second home, especially on the road. I have spent numerous hours sending client presentations, handouts and documents to Kinko's to be printed for my meetings.
Everytime I walk into a Kinko's something goes dreadfully wrong.
First, there was the "I ruined this ladies life" at Kinko's. I unplugged her laptop by accident, thinking it was mine.
Then I accidently ran up a $475 bill for one order by accidently asking them to print in color vs. black and white. The difference - about $425 dollars. Thankfully, my boss was understanding but has now told me that I am now banned from Kinko's. It is a great joke in my company.
Over the last few months, I sent over huge orders that needed to be done by a particular time. Everytime, I called to verify that they received them and that they will be ready, but when I arrived, they could not find the orders or accidently erased the orders before I got there.
This week? I went to Kinko's to print out another training presentation, sent it to the printer from my email, saw that it was printing, erased it from my email and then waited for it to print. The catch? The printer stopped working midway and they could not get it to start again.
I now walk into Kinko's prepared for something to go wrong and just to take it as it comes.
A friend and I had a conversation yesterday about hug etiquette. When is it proper to hug someone, what you should do if someone wants to give you a hug and you do not want to hug them, why do people hug, who you feel comfortable hugging, etc. This conversation mainly surrounded hugs and your co-workers. Both of us have seen where colleagues will extend hugs to certain people and not others. It is kind of interesting to understand the dynamics of who will hug who and who you feel obligated to give a hug.
So, last night, I had dinner with a VP of my company who is in town to meet with a few of my clients. I purposefully did not extend the hug when I saw him, but he did give me a hug.
Are you ever curious to think what it would be like to be someone else? To be born in a different decade, century or continent? I often wonder what makes that person who they are and what if I was them? What would I feel, what would I struggle with and what would come easy?
In a few weeks, I have my 3 year anniverary with the company that I work for. I often wonder where I would be if I did not accept my first position with this company. Would I have found my way to Memphis for a different reason? I am not sure.
I also wonder what my life would be like if I was not a first born or if I was a male and not a female. Would I find myself in the same career that I am now? Would I be more determined and work harder? Would I have the same aspirations in life and vaules that motivate me?
I have always been such a curious person and always bugged my father on road trips asking him what everything was that I saw, even though most of the time he had no idea. I am still that way and annoy people when I am on road trips, I am sure. But, I love thinking through these things and just trying to imagine things different, not in a bad way, but in a way that helps put everything in perspective.
I think that I was born too late in the 1970's! One of my favorite bands of all time is Abba.
Currently, I am listening to Abba Gold - Greatest Hits. It is keeping up my energy as I clean my house.
I love silence: no music playing, no one talking to me, no phones ringing and being by my self. I know that most cannot comprehend this, but I find so much comfort in being silent and being by my self. As I get older, I notice that I am becoming more and more interverted. I am definately not the same person that I was 5 years ago or even a year ago.
I love sorting through my thoughts and just pondering on things that are important to me. Nothing is more relaxing to wake up, make a pot of coffee, sit on my balcony and be alone.
It is the little things in life that make me so happy!
1) The fact that my neighbor took out my trash for me last week.
2) A cup of strong coffee while waiting to see if I was going to get out of Atlanta, after waiting 7 hours in the airport.
3) To hear a smile through the phone when someone is talking to me.
4) To sleep in my own bed.
5) To know that someone actually cares that I get home after a long few days of travel.
6) A glass of merlot!
7) A baby smiling at me
8) An email from my brother
9) Laughing with someone
10) A goodbye hug that is still with you a few days later.
This is my new name from my groupies.....a.k.a. the jr. high girls that I teach every Sunday. It has been quite an experience jumping from teaching 6 & 7 year olds to 13 & 14 year olds, or however old they are!
Amazingly, I have been able to bond with them over the past month. When they heard that I was going to be gone this weekend, they are exclaimed that they wanted to come along for a road trip! Ha, can you imagine me and 13 jr. high girls tramping arround the country. I don't think that we could even make it out side the Memphis city limits!
They are a great group; silly, no responsiblity and care for anything! What I would almost give to be back in their shoes. But, I don't think that I want to face the pressure of high school and peer pressure all over again. That almost seems more stressful then my 60+ hour work week and crazy travels.
I am home until Wednesday afternoon. Then I am off to Nashville, St. Louis, Atlanta and then Nashville. I will be home long enough on Sunday night to switch suitcases before I fly out on Monday morning. This weekend is all play in St. Louis. I am meeting a great friend and we are going to celebrate her birthday!
There is nothing more thrilling then knowing that you will be sleeping in your own bed that night! More then once this past week, I woke up and had no idea what city I was in......this is not a good sign. I am home for a few days before I am off again.
I finally made it home at 8am this morning. My agenda: get groceries (there is nothing to eat), drop off two weeks worth of dry cleaning, blockbuster, and taking naps. I have already taken one nap in the middle of a movie. It feels wonderful to sleep.
The next couple of months are going to be tough, espically in light of my last post. There are several client trials that I will have to take charge on since we will be one member short. The HR conversation is going to take place on Monday morning. I just pray that it goes well; I will be in the city where that person lives later on this week for client meetings. I need to call several of them and change times or dates, just in case he decides to show up.
I find myself in a very difficult situation here at work. There have been two colleagues who have not been performing well in their positions. For what ever reason, both of them have felt the need to confide in me some pretty damaging information, which has led to me having to report it to upper management.
Based upon a conversation I had a few nights ago, one of them is going to be fired on Monday. He made a threat against the company and against a regional manager. Last night, I had to write up a detailed report about it and send it to HR. The upper management is, of course, concerned about me because of all of this, but it is what it is. If these men were not in the precarious situation with their work, they would not be having these damaging conversations with me.
It is what it is.
I am on my second week of my mad travels. I woke up this morning and had no idea where I was. Finally, it dawned on me after a few minutes; I am in Nashville, TN. I leave today for Lafayette, LA, for a week of long meetings that I need to attend.
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As I side note, I have falled in love with reading again. By the time I graduated, reading took its toll on me as I was an English major. It has only been in the past year that I have really started to read again; I am loving it.
My current read is Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm - Where the Dead Do Tell Tales by Dr. Bill Blass. Yes, it probably sounds morbid; for those that do not know me, I love forensic science. If I had the smarts, I probably would have pursued a forensic science degree. Strange? Yes.
The book is fascinating. I am only 60 pages into it, but it talks about how you can tell the difference between a child and woman - just based upon their skeleton bones. The tales of deaths and how they have helped further the science of forensic study is truly amazing!