24 Hours

Disclaimer: 
I write a lot of blog entries while I'm at work. Something about IT auditing inspires me to think about anything and everything not related to IT auditing. Plus my brain tends to be a crowded and crazy place in need of an outlet. Most of these entries never end up getting posted, either because they are half-finished or because I decide later that they are too nutty for anyone to see. This one I decided to post. It is pretty long and not too interesting, so I will not be offended if you give up now. But just in case you were wondering what 24 hours looks like in my life over the span of a Monday, I have kindly taken the time to track it for you.

Midnight:
I had just finished putting together this Power Point slide deck that I'd been putting off for about six weeks. I was feeling accomplished and was pretty excited about this feat. Too excited to sleep, in fact. So I did the next best thing: personality research. I began to put to rest a personality mystery that has been stumping me for more than a year. I also re-evaluated myself by re-taking the personality test. And what do you know, I am the same person that I was two years ago. Except stronger in certain preferences than before and weaker in another.

3 am
It was time to begin doing my laundry. Naturally this was prior to my 6:30 am flight this morning. Shockingly, somebody else was doing laundry at this time also. I thought I was the only one in my building who creeps around the laundry room in the middle of the night?

4 am
The mysterious night-laundry person was using three of the four dryers, with 52 minutes to go on each one. So I loaded my wet clothes into the fourth dryer and hit 'Start'. As luck would have it, the machine did not work. I panicked. Naturally I had timed this all out so that I could dry my clothes for precisely one 60-minute cycle and then have a grand total of 20 minutes to get dressed into a freshly-washed outfit, pack my freshly-laundered clothes for the next few days, and climb my freshly-covered behind into a cab en route to the airport. Having wet clothes and no undergarments was not part of this carefully concocted plan. So in a 4 am burst of panic, I told the dryer, "NOO!! PLEASE DON'T DO THIS RIGHT NOW!" And that did the trick. Crisis averted. As it turns out, I was late to the airport anyway.

5:54 am
I arrived at the airport and realized I had forgotten to put on deoderant. Whoops. Good thing I had just showered an hour before. (While my clothes were in the dryer, of course). Unfortunately I was in a big rush, and the invasive body scanning machines just about tripled my 5-10 minute estimate for getting through security. But despite a few mishaps I still made it to my gate with just barely enough time to sneak away into the bathroom and dig out my berry-blossom-flavored deodorant (which I've been using since the seventh grade, if you can believe it) before boarding.

6:30 am
I ended up sitting next to a Serbian man on the plane who wanted to exchange life stories. (I know he is from Serbia because he told me so.) When I sat down, he immediately began an extensive line of questioning. What was my name? Where was I from? What was my profession? Oh, really, what's an IT advisor? Normally I am a pretty chatty girl, sometimes even with strange men on airplanes. But at 6:30 am?! Come on. Besides, he had a really strange sense of humor that was not making much sense at this unbearable hour. He introduced himself to me as George Clooney. Being half asleep, my response was "what? Joe?" And even worse, he was breathing coffee ALL over me. I tried really hard to come up with two put-ups in my head in exchange for secretly telling him that he was the most obnoxious man on the plane. But all I could think of was that I liked his scarf. What can I say, it was early.

8:30 am
When I travel for work, whichever boy happens to be with traveling with me usually insists upon driving, so I end up sitting in the front seat and navigating. I hate to admit this, but I am not a very good navigator. Exhibit A: I accidentally forgot to point out a rather important turn off the highway and put us on a nice 6-mile detour. But hey, at least it wasn't as bad as the time I was in Maryland and instead of setting the GPS to go to the hotel, I accidentally set it to go back to Boston...

Noon
I decided the number of people's hands I have had to shake since becoming a business chick has been A LOT. (Good thing all the people whose hands I shook the other week in California didn't realize that I had been coughing and sick the whole time.) And you know what I realized this afternoon? I have a really firm handshake! I noticed this after I just about crushed two different ladies' hands. They had really weak, girly handshakes.

4 pm
I became fascinated with the little paper visitor badge which I had been given. It has this little sticker on it shaped like a stop sign. In the morning, the stop sign was white, but over the course of the day, it changed color so that it became darker and darker. By 5 or 6 o'clock it will be completely red, which means I have no more visitor's rights for the day. Is that neat or what?! I may have even snapped a picture a sent it to a friend. I usually get far less interesting plastic badges each time I come to these places. And I usually manage to lose them. One time this man brought me my badge and claimed he found it in a trash can. I think he MAY have been joking... or he very well may have been serious. I never did find out for sure.

5 pm
I decided that it was astounding how I managed to still be walking and talking and functioning on approximately one hour of sleep. I also decided that I might lose my mind if I had to give anymore thought to work for the moment. This is about the time I began profiling my day.

7 pm
I attempted to select a place for dinner. First I picked out the shadiest Italian restaturant in all of New Jersey... so shady, in fact, that it had gone out of business. Fail, GPS. Then I accidentally picked out what must have been the fanciest restaurant in all of New Jersey. When we were seated, there were approximately 8 wine glasses on the table in various sizes... some of them being very large sizes. Almost like glass vases just waiting to be broken. Naturally my first thought was "oh no." Fortunately the waiter came and took them away once he realized that I was not going to be consuming large quantities of wine in the large wine glasses. Leading my travel buddy to comment that they had successfully "Nicole-proofed" our table. For the record, I was extremely careful during dinner and I did not spill anything. No, that's not true, I technically did spill sauce on my pants. But it was minor and barely counts.

Midnight
I was beginning to think about bedtime, so I went to shut off the light. Only to find that the door of my hotel room was not fully closed. It was lovely to make this discovery after I had just taken a very long shower, not to mention after I had spent a pretty good amount of time walking around the room wearing far less than my fellow hotel neighbors should be allowed to see. Sometimes I just shake my head and laugh, because there is nothing else left to do.

The moral of Monday: 
I think the lens through which you view a day is really dependent upon how you approach the world. Maybe in combination with the running commentary that you maintain within your mind. Sometimes I don't always have the most exciting days, but one thing I can be sure about is that each one is an adventure. Just in case I begin to suspect otherwise, something ridiculous catches my attention, or someone new comes along for me to analyze, or the dryer comes back to life just because I say please. At least I manage to stay entertained.

California

 

After traveling to such magnificient locations for work as Kentucky, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and (my most-frequented state) Texas, I finally have a project in California. When I headed to the airport yesterday, my cab driver took one look at me and said "what do you think this is, summer?" Apparently short sleeves and headbands do not suit Boston in March.

While this trip isn't about having (too much) fun, I can't go to California and do nothing cheerful. So last night I had planned on getting a personal tour of USC from a Bostonian turned USC grad student turned co-worker/travel buddy. Who I also messaged at eight o'oclock in the morning to say that "we should obviously get In-N-Out for dinner tonight. Just in case you were thinking of eating it for breakfast and lunch." (He came out early.) I made sure to let him know of my feelings that USC is a snooty private school filled with spoiled kids. But I will never turn down a chance to go back to college.

Of course, when I arrived, we scrapped those plans altogether and went straight to the ocean instead. Just so I could be sure to get in my barefoot walk on the beach and Pacific Ocean sunset.

In addition, we have planned to go see Blake Griffin slam some dunks at a Los Angeles Clippers game this week. This will be my first time at the Staples Center. Too bad I left my green and yellow at home.

And I can't help being just a little bit excited to interact with "my people." If you can call Southern Californians "my people." They are closer to "my people" than Bostonians, anyway. If nothing else, when I mention that I went to school at Cal Poly, I will be greeted with affirmation rather than blank stares and expressions of "oh, where's that?" And I can proudly announce that I'm from the Bay Area without having to add three qualifying sentences about the not-so-suburban suburbs of San Francisco / Oakland / San Jose. 

There is nothing like California to remind me of all the little things I like in the world, even if it happens to be in a bittersweet sort of way.

Some Days

...are discouraging.

You wonder if real friendships actually exist.

And if anybody can ever really be trusted.

You don't understand the people you thought you knew.

You have the depth to appreciate so many things, and the capacity to care very much. And in spite all the reasons not to be, you are inherently a positive person who cheers for good things to happen.

And when things are good, you have high self-esteem and more than enough energy to go around. You are adventurous and curious and in tune with the world.

But when things are bad... it pours. Sometimes your very foundation is shaken. And sometimes you can't feel the ground beneath your feet.

And it's during those time that you can't help but wonder if you are simply a victim of your own optimism.

101 Things I Like

I decided to borrow this idea from someone else. It seemed like a good idea, since I do like positivity. I do not, however, like perfectly even numbers. So here are 101 things I like, in no particular order. The items in bold are my all-time favorite things which I really, really like. I guess you could say these are the ones which either define me, or which have made my life experience worthwhile so far.

[1] Sunshine
[2] Window seats
[3] The internet
[4] The ideas of balance and equilibrium
[5] Daydreaming
[6] Drinking diet Coke at airports (but nowhere else)
[7] Reading a good book
[8] Hot showers
[9] My version of God / The Universe / The Force
[10] Roller coasters, especially ones with big hills
[11] School
[12] The Pacific Ocean
[13] Fridays
[14] Sushi
[15] Warm blankets
[16] Beads + fiddle toys
[17] Trampolines
[18] Friends
[19] Sunscreen
[20] Going to the top of tall buildings or high viewing points and looking out over cities
[21] Girl Scout cookies
[22] Music
[23] Learning about different styles of architecture
[24] Rocky. And all of Rocky's relatives (i.e. dogs)
[25] Breakfast / brunch
[26] Sunflowers
[27] Good spelling and grammar skills
[28] My bear, Bear
[29] Portland, OR
[30] Medford, OR
[31] My green & yellow teams: The Okaland A's, The Boston Celtics, The Cal Poly Mustangs
[32] My favorite town... San Luis Obispo, CA
[33] Mario games
[34] Wall-hangings that are perfectly level
[35] Movie nights
[36] My mom
[37] Hot chocolate. And chocolate, in general.
[38] Creativity
[39] Green eyes
[40] Hanging out on a boat. (Mostly I like small boats, like paddle boats or kayaks or speedboats. Being isolated on the water is soothing and awesome.)
[41] Chapstick
[42] Being outdoors
[43] Swings
[44] Deep dish pizza. And probably most other pizza.
[45] Hot tubs
[46] Public transportation
[47] Onions (weird?)
[48] Taking breaks
[49] Analyzing personalities
[50] Naps
[51] Sundresses
[52] Orange Gatorade
[53] Rivers
[54] Writing about whatever comes to mind
[55] Visiting baseball parks in different cities (so far I've been able to see the parks in Boston; Chicago; Arlington, TX; San Francisco; Oakland; and Seattle)
[56] Overcoming obstacles

[57] Sleeping with my fan on
[58] Small acts of thoughtfulness that make your whole day
[59] Going on vacation
[60] The Guggenheim Museum in NYC (this is where my soul lives)
[61] Picnics
[62] My first and second favorite colors: purple and light yellow
[63] Hospitals (odd...)
[64] Comfy couches
[65] Snowboarding
[66] Laughter
[67] Going for a jog to create negative ions (negative ions = happy feelings)
[68] Jeans
[69] Having time to myself
[70] Exploring a new place
[71] Cleanliness... although this unfortunately conflicts with my dislike for the act of cleaning
[72] Mountains / hills
[73] The smell of cologne (but NOT perfume… yuck)
[74] Having good conversations
[75] Flip flops (as in shoes, not people)
[76] Dressing up for special occasions. And dressing down the rest of the time.
[77] Having occassional moments of profound wisdom
[78] Funny words
[79] Palm trees with Christmas lights
[80] Being myself
[81] Learning something interesting that I didn't know before
[82] Using parentheses and ellipses (can you tell...?)
[83] Staying up late
[84] Making other people happy
[85] Singing, if the singing bug strikes
[86] The 8th-floor lounge at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square
[87] Taking walks
[88] Giraffes
[89] Fruity / sweet-scented lotions
[90] Exclamation points!
[91] Compliments
[92] EXCITEMENT… like that feeling that you are really happy to be alive
[93] Being tan
[94] People-watching. And solving people mysteries. Take that how you will.
[95] Excel spreadsheets
[96] Silliness
[97] Freshly-cleaned laundry that is still warm
[98] Playing pranks
[99] Tropical islands (Well I've never actually been to one, yet. But I imagine I'd really like it.)
[100] Happy memories
[101] Finishing a task