My New Look...

As we approach to the new year, I decided to give my hair cut yet another chance and VOILA!

Here is new me, walking out of my hair cut...

Teresa spent 1.5 hours playing with my hair and I think the result is great!  Derek is loving it too...

Our Thanksgiving Weekend

Our Thanksgiving weekend...

Every morning since Thanksgiving, I've been narrating in my head what to put on my blog for Thanksgiving... Then every night, I tell myself that I will write all that in my head into my blog the next day.  Now that is has been almost two weeks, I think it is time to put all that in my head into writing!

Our Thanksgiving Day started with 1.5-hour long yoga session, where we were instructed to think about our lives, think about the most magical places we’ve been, think about the people to thank, think about those who are always in your heart…  I know… It does sound cheesy to be told to think about all that, but I realized that in the midst of relaxing, these thoughts were the best to occupy my mind.  All of a sudden, I found myself in the most magical places that I have been with people who I love.  The yoga session didn’t only make sure that all my muscles were relaxed and stretched enough but it also made me think about ALL those that I love and keep right there in my mind… Can you think of that magical place?  If you want to share it with me just write it down and send it along. J

Of course the fresh start of our day only got better as the hours rolled…  Derek and I created our dinner menu.  We started to cook around 4pm with a nice wine to accompany our preparation stage.  As Derek worked on our stuffed pork chops, I worked on my surprise addition to the dinner – butter biscuits made purely from almond flour!  Since I had already baked our pumpkin pie over the weekend, I had very few to prepare on my end.  Once the food was ready, we raised our glasses for all of you – our family and friends.  The words are not enough to express our thankfulness for you!  Thank you for being who you are, for being there ALL the time, for helping us forming our own lives… 

Given such a magical day, our weekend also continued as one.  Derek and I finally had the one relaxing weekend that we needed since the beginning of October.  My new job happened so fast that we didn’t even have the time to adjust fully over the last month, until the Thanksgiving weekend.  We were able to play tennis and head to the trails for both days of the weekend for some fun bike rides.

With delicious food in our stomachs, fresh air in our lungs and even more love in our hearts, we started the next week with a fresh mind!  I am hoping that all of you who read this post will have a chance to pause for a MINUTE (only 60 seconds), take a deep breath, imagine your magical place and smile!!!

With love from SF…

My Movie is out!

So before I continue with rest of my trip stories, I wanted to announce that my second windsurfing training movie is out.  From the very early feedbacks, it seems like it has been liked too.

Matt - our "sponsor" - will be posting this article on his website too, which led me create a whole new blog site for my fitness related articles.  That site is still in-works but as soon as it is up an running I will make sure to include anyone who is interested in the notifications. :) Just let me know.

Here is the link to my article/movie: http://www.flowindsurfing.com/node/1369/

And here is one reference to it: http://www.boardseekermag.com/wnews/show/1/2667 (scroll down - on the side is my picture)

Who knows, maybe my future career will be very different! :)

Rest of my Trip

So I realized that I never finished my story about my Atlanta trip...

For those of you who actually read the first part, the second part is definitely much better.  Given all the things that went bad during my travelling day, things started to get better on my first day at work.  It didn't magically turned all good but gradually...

The office was right behind the hotel (literarly).  Therefore, in the morning, I waiting until 8:45 to leave the hotel as it would only take me 2 minutes to get into the office.  I left the hotel from the back door, walked through the garden of the hotel - about 30 full steps and arrived to the back door of the office.  Well, the back door was only for people with a badge.  I looked around to see if there was a short cut to get to the front of the building and only path I found was through the bushes in the garden.  So I went through... Well...  First of all, I didn't realize that the ground was slightly wet so my white loafers found themselves slipping in the mud. Secondly, once I got out of the bushes, I landed right by the garbage cans with a truck collecting the garbage.  So my first 'good morning' exchange was with the garbage crew!  Then lastly, when I went through the front door, I found myself inside a fancy lobby with people gathering for a meeting...  The problem with that was my muddy white shoes on super clean floors!  Nice introduction, right?!

Anyway, once Richard - my host - walked down to meet me, I had already cleaned my shoes on the carpet and moved seats to hide the fact that all that mud and leaves were from my shoes. :)  I wonder if anyone saw it.

From the moment I met Richard and started to meet rest of the Analytics team, my day improved gradually.  I realized that I finally belong to a team who shares the same passion when it comes to numbers.  They were there too help me as opposed to object every single thing that I was trying to do - as it was in my old job.

My first day was full of meetings but in a great way...  The amount of information that I received was A LOT! So at the end of the day, I decided to treat my body and empty my mind by going to the closest YMCA for a good workout...  It was only 5-8 minutes away from the hotel (driving).  I had no problem finding it.  I even mapped out the Whole Foods from the YMCA so that I will have my place to pick up a decent dinner - just like we do every Tuesday back home. 

When I arrived to the YMCA, it totally felt like home.  I didn't realize up until then that working for the Y for the last 8 years made me a part of the whole Y family.  I was treated like family at the Alpharetta Y - wasn't even charged a fee to go in... They directed me to the locker room and there I went! "Go downstairs and the rooms will be on your right"... I followed the directions... Went downstairs, passed one door and took the second door on my right...  Fairly quiet inside...  First I try to get the lockers open.  I might have spent 5 minutes trying to open the locker door when I realized that all I needed to do was to pull it towards me.  So finally, got it open, put my stuff in, closed it but... it didn't lock!  So I picked another one... this time it locked... I was ready to leave - FINALLY.  I just wanted to run to the bathroom realy quick before my workout so I ran to the far end of the room.  And that's when I saw a gentleman combing his hair - luckily all dressed! Well, yes... I was in the men's locker room. I immediatelly turned around and ran towards the locker to pick my stuff up before anyone would see me.  I was too late.  Two men walked into the room as I was trying to pick my stuff up.  Looking at their reaction, they were as embarrassed as I was seeing a woman in their locker room - funny, huh?  Basically, the first door that I ignored was THE women's locker room.  At least, now I was an expert on picking lockers... So I picked my locker, used the ladies' room and made it to the gym floor in a split second!

My workout, my food and my sleep was great that night...  I had a huge smile on my face both because I was happy with the team that I met and also from the funny things that happened during the day.  The next day was just another good day at work!

So, yes, my week started very rough but it GRADUALLY got better...  On Friday, when I arrived to SF, I was tired but content!  I was looking forward to a weekend with Arlene.  Our timing on our flights ended up being so good that I got to see my love at the airport, as opposed to taking the bus to home.  Three of us drove home to start an awesome weekend...

My first Work-Travel ever!

Atlanta... Here I come...

So how did it go?  Well... I should admit that it didn't start so well.

On Monday morning, as I was headed to my plane, dispite the 30 minute wait to get to the gate, I had to give up my delicious "almond butter" to the security guards!  Basically even before getting into the plane, I was upset.  Then the plane ride... It all started with the plane itself...  They had these overhead bins that can only fit a small purse if placed without any planning.  So they kept checking people's bags in, when almost all the overhead bins were only half full. The flight attendants weren't helpful either...  Well, afterwards, I realized that they just didn't care, given how many knees, toes and elbows they injured during the flight. :)  And finally came the food issue. San Francisco to Atlanta is a 5 hour plane ride so it is definitely not short.  Even though I brought my snack with me, I decided to purchase lunch - afterall it would be on the company.  I picked the food I wanted and waited for the cart to make it to my row.  Well, the food cart was OUT OF all the food choices that I liked. They only had some M&Ms left for lunch that would cost $6!

By the time, I was out of the plane, I was already questioning my decision of joining GE!  I know... I was exaggerating the situation but I couldn't help thinking about my first week experience in the office and then added this "on-boarding" trip without any agenda following a bad flight experience!  Don't you think it might be okay to exaggerate at that point?  Luckily one person never lost his belief in me and my decision - Derek!  He kept telling me that I haven't started working yet.  So right...

Anyway, you would think that was it for the first day.  NOPE... So I picked up my rental car, mapped the directions to my hotel on my iphone, studied the map a little so that I wouldn't be relying on my phone all the time and started to drive.  The iphone did mention that the best route was through a toll road, so I made sure that I had $1 bills on me.  Finally, I hit the toll road.  There were lanes for quick pass with the prepaid tool, cashier booths for those with bills, coin pass for those with coins to throw it in the bill.  Given all these choices, I made sure to pick a lane with a booth since I didn't have any coins with me.  Well... I came to find out that a booth might not always have a person in it.  As I was pulled forward looking for coins everywhere in the car, the driver from the car behind came by to throw 50 cents into the bucket for me so that the gate can open and the traffic caused by me can move.  You know, it was REALLY EMBARRASING!

Luckily once I finally arrived to my hotel, things were a little better.  I was able to grab some dinner and even have a facetime with my love.  I was even able to locate a YMCA to go for a workout since the fitness room at the hotel was too small to fit 3 people all at once!

Now that you read about my first day, how about I provide some rest to your eyes.

Rest to be continued tomorrow... 

My first week...

Every morning, I do "look up" and out during my commute and write down my observations so that my readers can enjoy my train ride with me...  However, by the time, I hit "publish" the website crashes on me and I loose everything I've written!  So now, I decided to do this while I am at my desk, on a real computer, as opposed to my phone!

My first week at GE... I should say so far, so good.  This is a tiny little office with 11 people at the most - generally about 4-5 of them are either traveling for business or working at the San Jose office!  Therefore, it has been really quiet since Monday.  I am going through the regular hurdles of being a "new hire", such as not having my computer, or not having a GE email address...  On my very first day, the computer that a co-worker logged me in went into sleep and because my co-worker left for the day I didn't even have internet available.  As a result, I ended up going through all sorts of presentations that were put together by my group.  I definitely learned a lot during that process.

One hard thing, I should admit is, coming from a very high-tech, all-about-looks company to a very down-to-earth, regular company.  Being away from the city definitely gives me the perspective of the people out here.  From what I have heard, this job gets really hectic with all the client requests, but I can already feel the slower pace of things around me.  Yet again, I might become one of the more dressed up people.  I have already told twice by my work buddy, Nicole, that it is okay to wear jeans.  :)  What can I say, I do like dressing up business casual...  The challenge is to decide on my outfit from the night before as I try to leave home at 6:30am.

I am already excited to look into their data and understand things better.  It does sound like they will actually give me the responsibility to really be involved - unlike BOKU, where they told me I was responsible but I really wasn't! :)

Now going back to my early commutes in the train...  Just a quick scenery description from my rides...  This morning, when I made it to the train at Civic Center, the sun was still asleep.  It was pitch dark outside.  The train goes underground all the way to Oakland station, where it finally emerges to the outside...  When we got out of the dark and loud tunnel, I stopped playing my sudoku and looked up.  One side of me was lit with the early orange beams from the sun, the other side was still asleep...  It was an amazing site.  The orange beams were trying to clear the hills while, the bay was snoozing their alarm clock!  I kept watching the lit side as I wanted to feel like I was coming to work during the day and not during the night. By the time I arrived to my station, the sun was still playing the hide-and-seek game but its orange beams were shinning all over the city of Walnut Creek.  You know that brisk mornings?  It was that type of morning today with those beams touch your face gently...  The fall is here and the winter is approaching fast! 

Tomorrow I am looking forward to another bright morning...

City Lights from the Sea

I meant to write this post last Friday but by the time we made it home, I was too tired to even sit down and of course, then the weekend hit with its full speed.  Still better later than never...

Last Friday, Derek and I were able to leave our works around 5pm and head to Crissy Field with the hopes of being able to windsurf for at least an hour.  Since we didn't have faith in Crissy Field, we were ready for yet another let down.  Well...  Crissy decided to behave and once in a blue moon delivered good amount of winds that we made to call to windsurf.  We were in the water by 5:45pm.  Knowing that we only had about an hour and a half until the sunset, we tried to take full advantage of the wind.

The Golden Gate Bridge was clear and bright with no fog in site.  As the minutes became hours, the sun slowly hid behind the South Tower of the bridge, making the bridge even redder than usual.  The reflections on the water got darker as the sky turned more purple.  There was a magical calming effect in the air as if everything was getting ready for the relaxing night...  No more tourist boats, no more fishermen, the tankers leaving the bay, the sailboats coming back and about 6 windsurfers still in the water...  We made sure to send away the sun but the wind was still with us.  So without any spoken words, the decision was made: we were going to let the city lite up the night for us so that we could continue...

Slowly, East Bay hills showed up with their lights, then came Sausalito.  On the beach, cars started to turn on their headlights almost showing us the smooth path to the beach.  The city was glowing under the clear purple sky that was ready to put on its black dress...

By the time we got out of the water, the sun was well gone and the night was already settled in!  Crissy gave us one of the most amazing experiences...

We always say that one out of ten times Crissy Field's conditions leaves us speechless...  This was that time...

As frustrated as it gets us almost every Friday night, last Friday's session was worth all those previous disappointments.  After all, how many of us get the chance to watch the city lights shine your path on the water?  Believe me, this city made me feel like I was on a red carpet - celebrity of the water with my love right next to me!

Breath of Summer

Just when we thought that Fall was here, Summer finally arrived at San Francisco...  I walked out of the office to run some errands and the heat hit my skin accompanied with the fresh smell in the air.  That smell takes all worries, problems and sour taste of work away and replaces them with dreams to come true.  Of course, I would prefer Derek to be right next to me but at least I will get to see him in only one hour.

So have you had a chance to close your eyes and smell the air today?  Wherever you are, whatever time it is right now, why don't you give it a try?  For some reason, here, in the middle of Financial District, somehow I get to smell trees and just the freshness in the air.  Call it desperation to get away, still feels very good.

Now, my hope is that our summer will last at least for 4 days...

10 years later...

Hard to believe but it has been 10 years since I moved to San Francisco...  And it has been 'almost' 10 years since I registered this blog!  So I decided now it is time to bring it to life.

When I first arrived to the US, one phrase that I had the hardest time to understand was "what's up".  All and all, it sounds like a simple phrase.  However, what I didn't understand was the meaning behind it - why would people use this phrase instead of saying "how are you?"?, why do you respond to it in a very automated fashion "not much"?, what does it really mean?

Well, I never got answers to my questions but when I moved to San Francisco and adapted my regular routine of taking the bus to work every day, this phrase all of a sudden gained some real value...

One day, as I was looking out the window during my 30 minute ride to work, I saw a dog waiting for its owner outside of a coffee shop.  He was "trying" to bark so that his owner would come out.  However, the dog was mute so no sound was coming out of it. The bus moved on, the scene was left behind and my day just moved on... That was when I realized that we have these out-of-the-blue experiences every day and if we don't share it they fade away even though some of them might deserve the attention.  Therefore I decided to start this blog so that I won't let these unusual events, thoughts, things to fade away and be forgotten...

Let's see what will happen tomorrow... If you are curious just make sure to follow this blog and even better, if you have something to share just put it as a comment on my entries...