While I have worked for other companies which tout their global status, until joining my current office a couple months ago, I had yet to be in a place where I was as likely to be seated next to Michigan natives as I was across from Europeans, Asians and staff members visiting from Germany. It's refreshing, feels healthier somehow; and makes me more self-conscious about not having passed the U.S. borders, beyond having gone to Canada (no disrespect, Canada!). When people ask where I have been and I don't have much of anything to report, the answering silence isn't snobby, it's just more a sense of it...not making sense to them. How curious...But there is a world out there. Meanwhile in my office, I still need to remind myself that email I wrote at my noon is someone else's midnight and that if I have issues with project X, I had better call or email before noon, to have any chance of reaching that one golden person who possesses the answers I need.
A fellow coworker, who loves a piece of cake in the afternoon, returns to her desk and plunks herself down. Her face is cross: "I am sick of being mistaken for being French. I do not even sound French!" Her ordinarily straight posture slumps. She frowns, her fork poised above swirls of chocolate frosting. I want to issue a collective apology: even in this university town, most of us don't know. We just don't...
***
An overheard phone call from the end of May.
"Oh, no. Actually our office is closed on Monday, in observance of Memorial Day."
**
"Oh, well, it's to honor soldiers who have lost their lives in service of our country."
**
"...No, it could be any war."
**
"...Honestly, we mainly just have lots of barbeques?"
**
Those kind of exchanges happen a lot. And I love how it brings you back to square one: Oh, right, this isn't automatically known. But ahhhh, will I love it in bigger doses? I am about to find out. Due to shifting staff on a larger project, which I am involved with, it came to light this past week that I'll be working overseas for several weeks, starting in the end of July! My head's spinning with all the details to be worked out. I expect it to be quite a hectic time, but am also hoping that it will be wonderfully stimulating and eye opening. Without any additional stops, flights to Shanghai last 14 hours; the time difference is exactly 12 hours. Quite an initiation to global travel! Whew. More to come, certainly. At least from Wikipedia, it looks like blogspot is blocked in China (as well as most of the major sites I am used to using~~), so I probably won't be able to post updates....Hmmm. I have lots of research ahead of me!
Showing posts with label travel predictions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel predictions. Show all posts
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Saturday, January 7, 2012
I Bet We Could Knock Brad off the Monkey Bars with this Wiffleball
Tallyho, Readers!
I'm imagining most of the world out tonight, for some silly reason. Am restless, but upbeat. It's loud here, though only because I have the poor habit of turning the music up ever louder. It's a wonder I don't have tinnitus at this point... But surely, at least part of the groundless optimism* results from revisiting Temper Trap, as HOW can one listen to Sweet Disposition and feel woeful? The top comment from that video is "i put this song on repeat and stared at my ceiling fan for an hour" -- pretty much my experience when I first encountered it. And also: guitar guy, I'm sorry they're throwing drum sticks at you. Cute topknot.
*who says groundless pessimism? No one. Shouldn't it be in our lexicon? Pessimists have low confidence in life, but high confidence in their own ability to assess situations and predict outcome. Kinda funny, huh. Even in mindset, the comfort of familiarity can trump openness and happiness? I say this as more of a pessimist than an optimist. Someday I hope to be a lapsed pessimist~~
I also have a spring in my step because there is a talk of a trip next month! Not a long one and not across the globe, but a place I haven't been to before! Just to go, just because! I had utterly forgotten how trip anticipation makes one so hopeful, giddy almost. What possibility, what a thrill! The superstitious side of me warns against mentioning the destination, as that would cause it to backslide out of existence. But no! And see, if you have visited me here before, you may be saying: Talk about superstition, didn't that woman from Rust Belt TELL you she saw travel for you in the early Spring? And didn't you joke about that? Well, true. And maybe that slightly later trip would still even hold and maybe THAT would be international. For truly, my world needs shaking up and maybe 2012 is when the shaking should happen.**
{**Additional superstitious protective shield: please no shaking in horrid, atrocious ways. I'd rather not become homeless, lose the use of any appendages, watch my loved ones suffer, or be mauled by a tiger. Thanks for taking note.}
Maybe for a change of pace, I'll become a lunch monitor. You know,
"Includes lunch room set-up, lunch card distribution, monitoring student check-in tables, selling milk & snacks, supervising students and assisting with their needs during lunch, assisting food servers, monitoring lunch time recess and clean-up of the lunch room."
I can sell milk and snacks. From what I can recall, I think I'll also need to start collecting stickers again and trade sheets with the well behaved kids; snatch pudding cups back from schemers and smack metal tables with my wooden spoon for intimidation purposes, when it seems the room is the verge of a food throwing melee.
Luckily, I already have wooden spoons for hand pulling woodblock prints, though obviously I can't bring my favorite spoon, because if that one broke against the table, it'd be like Samson with his hair cut -- all my power would instantly drain away and the food fight would not abate.
I will also probably need to start wearing makeup and curtail my cursing habit. The latter part is probably advisable anyway. The description also informs the the applicant must be "able to lift 60 lbs. individually." Which, fine. But it will take a while that way.
Or maybe I'll come up with a brilliant larger project, I'll hop onto Kickstarter and ask people to help me out.
Oh! Speaking of which, one of my favored up-and-coming local bands has done such a thing. Check out Hand in the Ocean's plea/song snippet here. Aren't they fun? Wouldn't it be fun to see how they grow and how their music gains in complexity? They're not even asking for that much ($600 according to the page, $800, according to the vid-- some confusion there).
It's a good thing they're not asking for more though, because they really ramp up the incentives. For $50, they will come to your house with some mysterious horror movie (hmmm.) $125 supposedly gets you this: "FIREBALL!!! Nate and Jay will be your hired Fire Breathers for an evening of your choosing." {Plus a download of the live GBS Detroit E.P. before it's released} $200 brings a house party. One can only assume if the ceiling were in the thousands, firstborns would be involved. If you like 'em, feel free to throw some money their way. $5-10 is easy to part with...
Other ways in which I probably won't shake up my life in 2012:
I promise not to start stealing shoes. Or leave them on my front porch, especially when they have such personal significance. Like dear little friends for my feet.
Invest in more holiday lawn gear. Though really, penguins aren't a bad way to go. Especially when they have so many accessorizing options. Earmuffs and no ears! Super-cozy! Does Tophat feel locked out of the Santa contingent, or do the Santas envy his dapper state?
Eat ground candy.
I have finally learned my lesson.
Not that I'm applauding my camera skills, but isn't this a great depiction of post-holiday slump? Taken on the last day of 2011.
Refuse homemade food or drink. This pretty little thang was from the Compatriot. Love the loopy, silky bow! Just enough to announce its special status. Cardamom vanilla vodka. It smells heavenly. I drank a little with Fever Tree tonic last night and it was dreamy.
That's as good a note as any to end on.
May the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back and may your future reading material be less blathery and more meaningful...
I'm imagining most of the world out tonight, for some silly reason. Am restless, but upbeat. It's loud here, though only because I have the poor habit of turning the music up ever louder. It's a wonder I don't have tinnitus at this point... But surely, at least part of the groundless optimism* results from revisiting Temper Trap, as HOW can one listen to Sweet Disposition and feel woeful? The top comment from that video is "i put this song on repeat and stared at my ceiling fan for an hour" -- pretty much my experience when I first encountered it. And also: guitar guy, I'm sorry they're throwing drum sticks at you. Cute topknot.
*who says groundless pessimism? No one. Shouldn't it be in our lexicon? Pessimists have low confidence in life, but high confidence in their own ability to assess situations and predict outcome. Kinda funny, huh. Even in mindset, the comfort of familiarity can trump openness and happiness? I say this as more of a pessimist than an optimist. Someday I hope to be a lapsed pessimist~~
I also have a spring in my step because there is a talk of a trip next month! Not a long one and not across the globe, but a place I haven't been to before! Just to go, just because! I had utterly forgotten how trip anticipation makes one so hopeful, giddy almost. What possibility, what a thrill! The superstitious side of me warns against mentioning the destination, as that would cause it to backslide out of existence. But no! And see, if you have visited me here before, you may be saying: Talk about superstition, didn't that woman from Rust Belt TELL you she saw travel for you in the early Spring? And didn't you joke about that? Well, true. And maybe that slightly later trip would still even hold and maybe THAT would be international. For truly, my world needs shaking up and maybe 2012 is when the shaking should happen.**
{**Additional superstitious protective shield: please no shaking in horrid, atrocious ways. I'd rather not become homeless, lose the use of any appendages, watch my loved ones suffer, or be mauled by a tiger. Thanks for taking note.}
Maybe for a change of pace, I'll become a lunch monitor. You know,
"Includes lunch room set-up, lunch card distribution, monitoring student check-in tables, selling milk & snacks, supervising students and assisting with their needs during lunch, assisting food servers, monitoring lunch time recess and clean-up of the lunch room."
I can sell milk and snacks. From what I can recall, I think I'll also need to start collecting stickers again and trade sheets with the well behaved kids; snatch pudding cups back from schemers and smack metal tables with my wooden spoon for intimidation purposes, when it seems the room is the verge of a food throwing melee.
Luckily, I already have wooden spoons for hand pulling woodblock prints, though obviously I can't bring my favorite spoon, because if that one broke against the table, it'd be like Samson with his hair cut -- all my power would instantly drain away and the food fight would not abate.
I will also probably need to start wearing makeup and curtail my cursing habit. The latter part is probably advisable anyway. The description also informs the the applicant must be "able to lift 60 lbs. individually." Which, fine. But it will take a while that way.
 |
| Pooh: "Think, think, think." |
Oh! Speaking of which, one of my favored up-and-coming local bands has done such a thing. Check out Hand in the Ocean's plea/song snippet here. Aren't they fun? Wouldn't it be fun to see how they grow and how their music gains in complexity? They're not even asking for that much ($600 according to the page, $800, according to the vid-- some confusion there).
It's a good thing they're not asking for more though, because they really ramp up the incentives. For $50, they will come to your house with some mysterious horror movie (hmmm.) $125 supposedly gets you this: "FIREBALL!!! Nate and Jay will be your hired Fire Breathers for an evening of your choosing." {Plus a download of the live GBS Detroit E.P. before it's released} $200 brings a house party. One can only assume if the ceiling were in the thousands, firstborns would be involved. If you like 'em, feel free to throw some money their way. $5-10 is easy to part with...
Other ways in which I probably won't shake up my life in 2012:
 |
| Were they blueberry? if so, no wonder they were left for dead. |
I have finally learned my lesson.
Not that I'm applauding my camera skills, but isn't this a great depiction of post-holiday slump? Taken on the last day of 2011.
That's as good a note as any to end on.
May the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back and may your future reading material be less blathery and more meaningful...
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