Archive for "Confessions"
I’m Talented at Being Annoying
Posted on April 26, 2013 by Ching under Confessions, Leadership.
Last night I shared with Brian some of the things I’ve learned in Leadership Elite over the last few weeks. I told him that talent is more important than experience, education, and intelligence when selecting someone for a job. I told him that even the most menial jobs require talent. He didn’t buy it.
I read him some excerpts from the book that we’re reading in class, First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently
- I asked him the following questions:
- Is there a 4th of July in Mexico?
- If the doctor gave you three pills and told you to take one every half hour, how long would they last?
- How many species of each type of animal did Moses take into the ark?
Guess what. He got all three questions wrong. I told him that it’s not him. It’s because of his filters. Our filters are the building blocks of our talents. He was like, “Not this again!” Did I mention that he really hates it whenever I go through training?
Anyway, I did get him to agree that he has a talent for organizing things. He can bring order to the most chaotic of environments. His desk is always neat and organized. He’s even helped me clean and organize my own desk. When there isn’t an organized process for doing things, he creates one. When I look at my messy closet, I am overwhelmed; yet he can organize everything within minutes. Organization is not just something he is good at — he’s talented at it.
I thought for a moment and asked, “So what’s my talent?”
“Being annoying,” Brian replied. After I glared at him and we laughed together, he admitted, “Actually, you are talented at learning things.”
I think he’s absolutely right. It explains why I learn choreo in Zumba really quickly. It explains why I love going to school. It explains why I’m always eager to receive training and acquire new skills. It explains why I enjoy getting up early on Saturday mornings and sitting in a Spanish class that I’m not even enrolled in. It explains why I embrace new information rather than rejecting it. It’s not because I’m gullible or impressionable, though I am at times. It’s because I’m an empty cup ready to be filled. I’m a sponge that just wants to soak things up. I am this way because I have a talent for learning (or so we’ve concluded).
You know what excites me most about this revelation? I just learned something new about myself.
FOLLOW UP:
While I was typing this post, the doorbell rang. Brian answered the door and talked to the guy outside.
I was like, “Who was that?” Apparently it’s some guy going door to door, offering lawn care services.
“That would suck,” he said.
“What?” I asked.
“Going door to door.”
“Not if you’re talented at it!”
And that, my friends, is the reason why talent is important when hiring someone to do a job.
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National Sales Meeting 2013
Posted on April 24, 2013 by Ching under Confessions.
The week of National Sales Meeting is my most dreaded part of the year because it’s a week when Brian spends all his waking moments at the hotel where their work convention is held. He’d often leave at 6 AM and not be home until 11 PM. As if the long hours apart aren’t bad enough, I actually have to drive myself around and pump my own gas. Having to fend for myself gives me a taste of what it would be like to be single. Not that much fun. I’m so glad I have Brian. And, I’m so glad that NSM only lasts a week. Blech.
There are some good things about NSM, though. It means I get to see our Latin American friends, brief as it may be.
Tonight we had a wonderful dinner at Wasabi, one of our favorite restaurants. Brian thought he wouldn’t be able to join us at first. I picked up Toby and Jorge and the three of us were finishing the last of our starters (we got deep-fried vegetable and chicken dumplings and crab cakes and a rice crispy, which isn’t pictured but it’s Jorge’s favorite at Wasabi) when Brian arrived. Apparently, things were under control at the IT bunker at the hotel and his bosses could spare him. Thank you, Jesse and Justin!
We also got a couple of orders of the shrimp tempura crazy roll, which is one of our favorite rolls at Wasabi. That’s what we always get. I did get to try something new this time. Toby ordered the BSCR. I think that the acronym stands for baked scallop crab roll. It was delicious. Even Brian, who doesn’t usually eat scallops, liked it.
I’m glad that I got to try it. There are several things on the menu that we still haven’t tried yet. I’m sure they’re all really good. We’ve yet to order anything at Wasabi that we didn’t like. It’s our favorite sushi joint in town. It seems that it’s become a favorite for Jorge and Toby too.
NSM may not be my favorite time of year, but I always enjoy seeing Brian’s friends in sales specially Toby and Jorge. Dinner with these two almost makes up for being without Brian during NSM week. Thanks for dinner, Jorge and Toby!
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The Blizzard of Oz
Posted on February 21, 2013 by Ching under Confessions, Relationship.
I usually don’t mind it as much when Brian travels because I’m pretty self-sufficient. He does take good care of me, though. He makes sure that I have everything I need, including filling up Bebot’s gas tank so I don’t have to pump gas myself. I always appreciate it when he does this, but I appreciated it even more this week.
The main thing that I hate about Brian being gone is that I actually have to drive myself. I hate driving. And, of all the days that he could be gone, his trip fell on the worst week ever. Not only do I have to drive myself, but I have to drive myself in this miserable weather.
The first time I wished Brian were here was when I tried to go to work at six o’clock this morning. He’s usually the voice of reason so, had he been here, he probably would have talked me into calling my boss before I got myself in this predicament. However, he wasn’t here; therefore, I was left to my own devices and poor judgement. So I opened the garage and looked at how much snow there was on the ground. My first instinct was that I should shovel a path for my car but we have a pretty long driveway so I talked myself out of it by rationalizing that the snow isn’t really that high.
Anyway, I didn’t have a problem backing out of the garage. I was actually congratulating myself for saving all that time by skipping the snow shoveling part. Unfortunately, I only got as far as the end of the driveway before my car got stuck. I guess when I turned the steering wheel so my car could face the street, I ended up putting so much snow under my car that it got stuck. When I called Brian to tell him about my predicament, he said I “high centered” my car. He advised me to call his dad to see if he could help me get my car back into the garage.
When I called my father in law, he told me that it would take him a while to get to me so he suggested that I go back in the house and he would call me when he was on his way. While I was waiting, I figured I would call our friend Cory who lives just down the street from us. I was thinking that, between the three of us, we could get my car back in the garage in no time.
I don’t really like just sitting around and waiting so I decided I’m just going to start shoveling snow while I wait for them to show up. That will save us a lot of time as we won’t have to clear a path then. We’ll just need to work on getting the car unstuck. By the way, I really love our long driveway for when we have company over. However, when I had to shovel all that snow today, I didn’t love it quite as much.
It seemed like the snow fell faster than I could shovel. I felt like I was bailing water out of the ocean. Seriously. I kept at it, though. Better than just sitting around. Anyway, I found out a bit later that neither my father in law or Cory could get to me because they couldn’t get out of their neighborhoods. I was pretty much on my own. Brian had some good advice, though. He told me to clear a path for the car and then pour some salt on the path and under the tires for traction. I was almost halfway done with the snow shoveling part so I was like, “I can do this.”
I couldn’t get my car unstuck on the first attempt. I guess I didn’t clear enough of the snow around the car and under the tires. I dug as much of the snow as I could from under the car and shoveled snow all around the car before I tried again. I still couldn’t get the car unstuck on my second attempt so I had the brilliant idea of leaving the car in drive, hopping out, and pushing it onto the driveway. I did successfully get the car to move that time, but it took off without me. You could call it an “Oh, Shit!” moment. Literally. I was yelling “Break! Break! Break” in my head except I was outside the car chasing after it. Thankfully, the car didn’t go very far because the huge snow bank I created from shoveling the driveway prevented it from going any farther. I got back in the car and tried to move backwards and forwards to straighten it out, rather than leaving it sideways into the snow bank. I could feel the car losing traction again so I didn’t try any more. I was just so relieved that Bebot was finally in my driveway and no longer out on the street in the way of other cars, which were somehow magically able to go by. I have no idea how.
It was about eight thirty at this point and I was spent. I decided to take a break from manual labor and do some other work so fired up my work laptop and connected to the VPN. I figured I would work some, then make lunch (carb up for more snow shoveling), then shovel more snow, and finally drive Bebot back into the garage.
It turned out to be a good plan because the snow let up about that time. The path that I had cleared stayed pretty clear so, for the most part, I just had to shovel snow around the car. I’m so glad we had that salt in the garage. It came in handy today. I had no problems getting the car back into the garage after lunch. I’m so glad I did too because, had I waited until later, it would have posed a bigger challenge. Shortly after I got the car back in the garage, the snow started coming down again and more ferociously than ever.
Anyway, I was so proud of myself for getting my car unstuck and shoveling my despicably long driveway all by my lonesome. Brian thinks I’m this helpless little girl so he was quite impressed. I was worn out, though. I had snot running down my face and my fingers were numb the entire time. But, hey, I did it. Now, let’s hope I don’t have to do it all over again tomorrow.
P.S. I really, really missed Brian today more than ever. It was miserable shoveling snow by myself. With him here, it would have been fun at least. Everything is always more fun when he’s around.
P.P.S. Brian told me that I he was relieved that I didn’t trip while pushing the car and get dragged under it. I had to explain to him that I was pushing the car from the trunk so I was completely outside of it. Thus, when it took off without me, I couldn’t get back in. I guess I was supposed to push the car from the driver’s side (and not from the trunk like I was doing) so that I could jump back in the car and steer as soon as it started going. I don’t know that I would have had enough leverage pushing that way, though. And, there’s only one of me. Someone had to push the car; that meant I needed to get out. Also, if I did it the way that Brian imagined then there was a chance that I could have tripped and gotten run over by the car. As foolish as my method seems, in hindsight, I think that it was actually far safer. The car couldn’t run me over because it was taking off away from me. LOL.
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Welcome to Corks Bar
Posted on January 19, 2013 by Ching under Confessions.
Because Brian and I are uber nerds, we decided to name our basement bar. We couldn’t figure out what to call it and we just got a cork cage for our wine corks the other day so Brian suggested we call the bar Corks. I thought he said Quarks at first like the bar in Star Trek, but he clarified and said Corks as in wine corks. I immediately loved it. Ya’ll know how much I love word games so the fact that these two names are homonyms is right up my alley.
So welcome to Corks Bar everyone! There’s never any cover and there’s always something to drink. No guarantees on the availability of beer, but we can guarantee that there will always be House Wine.
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Brian Actually Fell UP the Stairs
Posted on January 19, 2013 by Ching under Confessions.
If Brian kills himself in the stairs, I would not be the least bit surprised. He actually fell UP the steps last night. Yes. He fell on his ass while going up the steps. Thank heavens he didn’t break the wine glasses! LOL.
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