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| Tuesday, March 4, 2003 Breakfast: everything bagel; grande skim, no-foam latte Lunch: filet o' fish from McD's Mid-day snack: chocolate cupcake; tall skim, no-foam latte Dinner: leftover seafood kimchi jigae Oy, it's been awhile since I last wrote. Totally defeats the purpose of having a personal webpage but c'est le vie. So what's the latest with me? Work has been sucking me dry. I was leading a project to merge two marketing pieces together. You'd think that would be easy enough but not when you have 30+ stakeholders. The conference call with all of them was tres amusing... now that I look back on it. Since that politically-charged project is coming to an end, another politically-charged one is my plate but I don't mind this one so far. I like the stakeholders I've been working with which makes all the difference in the world. The killer has been a coworker and these professional development courses I've been taking. For years, I've had no problems with this coworker but she's been having these moments lately where she turns on you and then tries to make up for it by being saccharinely sweet. I can't deal with that; I have no patience for people who make an effort to intentionally hurt me. I tried distancing myself from her but that didn't make things better so I decided to work towards having neutral feelings which is easier said than done. I'm not making faces anymore but I still have a long way to go. And these training courses! I'm enrolled in two this quarter which was a big mistake. One is a self-study course on Health Plan Finance and I have to take the test by the end of the month. I've been spending my weekends reading the materials which is mind-numbingly dry. There's a reason I didn't take finance courses in college!! The other one sucks up my Thursday nights. So I do a full day at work and then drag my a$$ to this "life-changing" course. I signed up to help me to stop freaking out when I speak in front of a group and I think it's slowly working but I object to the elementary tactics. For example, on the first night, they taught us a "tool" for conversations. [Announcer] You too can have scintillating conversations with any stranger with this basic 6-step tool. Sign up today! [end] Oy, so demeaning! I'd have to say that the 2 mini-presentations per meeting is helpful but I did not recommend that Angie, another coworker, take the course. The one thing that helps me keep my sanity is an upcoming trip. In late May, I'm off to the oh so fabulous country of Spain. I've heard great stuff and expectations are high. I'm going with Marisol and we've booked our trip with Contiki Tours. I'm pretty neutral about Madrid since I've read that it's on the ghetto side. Barcelona is supposed to be amazing but I haven't found anything specific to back up that vague claim. Basque country - San Sebastien and Bilbao - promises to be cultural. San Sebastien was home to El Cid which any devoted AP Spanish student should know. The Guggenheim Museum is in Bilbao. I'm more interested in San Sebastien since it has the reputation for some of the best food in Spain. Yum... I've got a list of restaurants I want to hit in all of the cities we're visiting. We'll also be in Ibiza for two whole days! WOOHOO!! I joked at work that I might not come back from Ibiza. There are amazing beaches and insane clubs. One of the more well-known clubs is the place that douses dancers with tons of bubbles. The seasoned club-goers supposedly bring goggles. hehe. Been going to the gym so I can look decent in a swim suit. We'll be going through a couple other cities which sound like they'll be ok but I'm hyped up for the ones I've mentioned. Yeon and I were supposed to go to Havasupai later this month but I just read an email from Keith that the planned weekend is already booked. This would've been an awesome hiking trip and I really was looking forward to it. Shoot, I even switched my cardio workout to a high-resistance training so that my legs would be ready for the grueling 11-mile hike out of the canyon. It's not such a bad thing especially since we haven't bought our tickets and airfare is never reasonable for the spring break season. Besides, I'm supposed to go to a Lifehouse concert on the 26th so now I won't be sore for that. What else have I been up to? Well, I've been working on being a good sister. Now that Dave is in Chicago at NU's law school, I've discovered that my parents' brain-washing techniques have succeeded. I just started buying the "poor" law student groceries and taking him out to eat once a week. Calling him "poor" is funny because he lives in Streeterville and recently bought a $1k+ suit. I have no doubt that he'll be scooped up by a high-paying law firm so I'm not too worried... yet. And he does cover the more reasonably priced dinners. We've been to Emilio's in Streeterville, Topolobampo, Zaven's, Capital Grille, and some others that aren't coming to mind. Topolobampo is fabulous! One of my best dining experiences. I plan on moving this summer/fall so that I'm closer to him since this is probably the last chance I'll get to do any sort of quality bonding with him. So to the boys reading this, you might be seeing an email from me soliciting for your brawn! ^_^ Ohh! I almost forgot about my 29-gallon freshwater fish tank. I just installed a simple CO2 system and added a jungle's worth of plants. Right now, it's a green hodge podge but there's a method to the madness. I want to see which plants flourish and then aquascape with the "winners". I'm on a green thumb high since my gerber daisy plant flowered. Yay! |