managing stress in a fast-paced world

At work the other day, in a meeting when it was my turn to talk, I got straight down to business. My boss seemed to be on a high that day and was laughing and joking with everyone and anything. When I started to talk about my project and the goals of it, she stopped me and said, “wait… you need to do something funny, you need to play along…”

My response was, “okay” followed by a long pause. As in okay, now lets get back to business.

Today one of my managers calls me with some pretty urgent requests. I quickly scribble them down and repeat them and ask for clarification on some of them. She then asks when they can be done, and I tell her later this week. Her reply was, “I love you” my reply was “okay”. Then she said, “wait, I said I love you” and I was like, “okay” then she asked, “Did you hear me?” to which I replied, “yeah”.

I didn’t realize, but she had someone else in the room with her, and the two of them over there had a good laugh after that… really though, what do you say to someone when they tell you that? uhh thanks???

I’ve been walking around Rivermark lately, trips to Safeway, a short walk after dinner, biking around, and even rollerblading back and forth. It’s a nice little community they’ve built. I’d say only half is built right now, and the views from some homes will be very different once all the other homes, school and whatever is built.

These two photos are from the area, the water sculpture is located in a roundabout near Yoyo Sushi and Fantasia. The tree is one of many that they actually uprooted, boxed up for over a year, and recently replanted in the same area. I think there’s a total of six planted throughout the community.

This is what my boss said in a meeting today, “life should be easier.”

It kinda hit me at that point that I’m probably not alone in the world thinking that things are way more complicated than they should be. Too many choices to make, too many responsabilities, and everything is complicated.

Someday I wish technology will make my life 100% easier, like the transporter in Star Trek, that would make my life easier…

It’s been a long weekend… I didn’t get to do everything I wanted, but I was busy doing all the things I didn’t plan to do.

Sometime friday night I was helping Mike hack away at his brand new computer case. We drilled and cut into it, then re-wired the fans and slapped it all together. Somewhere in that time I got a call from Japan, I didn’t get the my phone in time, so all that was left was a voice message,

“Hi this is Miho, I’m on my way, I’ll call you when I get to SFO.” *click*

At first I was in shock, I remember someone telling me something about Miho paying a visit, no specific dates though. I called John and asked him what was going on. His reply was, “Oh yea, she’s coming tomorrow…”

Nobody knew what she was going to do or who would be hosting her, pretty caotic if you ask me. I already had plans to invite people over for dinner too! Anyways, that was the start of a very busy weekend for me, way too much going on, no time to clean up or take a load off and this was one of those weekends where all I wanted to do was relax.

I don’t know why, but I saw this today and just thought it was so cool. Even though I don’t watch alot of TV, the sheer amount of remotes I have is insane. It is a One For All Kameleon 8 URC-9960.

The even nicer thing is that I ordered it from Amazon this morning and it shipped the same day, how cool is that?

I’ve been shopping more and more the past week. It started with a CamelBak BlowFish, then I ordered a 1GB CompactFlash card (also from Amazon), I’ve already found some things I want to get at Orchard this weekend too.

My parents have been more and more annoying lately. I’ve decided that I’m not going to go out of my way to see them. It might sound drastic, but whenever I talk to them they just don’t get it. It’s like talking to a wall. Last nights conversation went something like this.

Dad: Are you chewing your food well?

Me: Yes I make a conscious effort to chew my food throughly.

Dad: You know you should chew your food. Most people don’t chew their food.

Me: Yes I make a conscious effort to chew my food throughly.

Dad: You should chew your food until it dissolved and liquid.

Me: Yes I make a conscious effort to chew my food throughly.

We talked about other things, just about everything went like that, with me either agreeing or not and him completely not listening to me. I just can’t deal with people like that.

One of the things that really bothered me was how he made everything sound so easy. “oh you’re not happy with ….., go out and change it” I was like “shit, if it was so easy I’d be doing it already.” Of course it’s easy to look at a problem and suggest a solution, but it’s much harder go and do something. For example he was telling me I need to go to the gym for 2 hours everyday, I told him I spend 10-12 hours working everyday and I just don’t have 2 hours to go to the gym, not to mention that I think the gym is a complete waste of money. I much prefer to go biking or rollerblading, or whatever else there is to do outdoors.

It’s one thing I really hate, I think I’m well aware of changes that need to happen, I do try my best, what I don’t need is somebody telling me what is good for me. How can they possibly know?

I’ve been trying to talk to the manager at the body shop which completely messed up my car…

I decided to call the dealer, the same one where I bought the car brand new 4 years ago… They found my car and told me what is wrong:

1 - The water leak is still not fixed, it leaked when they took it through the car wash.

2 - The comfort control module is “completely shot” according to the service manager.

3 - The brand new Optima battery which I paid for because they ruined my old battery is now completely dead and needs to be replaced.

I feel sad, driving used to be one of the things I really enjoyed.

I just got off the phone with my mom, she called yesterday and I finally checked my voicemail today. Also had a message from the body shop, I think sometime next month marks the 1 year I’ve been without my car.

Anyways, my mom starts telling me how last she saw me it looks like I’ve gained weight… it’s true I have. She starts telling me how I should cut down on carbs, now I know better than to go on one of these crazy low carb things. This article in todays news basically confirms what I learned years ago in school.

So I know I need to loose weight, I should probably just cut down on my total caloric intake. What I am not going to do is panic and try to lose 30lbs. in 30 days. Thats just foolish and a waste of time.

What a weekend, I’ve got some major sunburn to show for it too. The strangest thing happened too. After biking with Nelson and Jimmy, my wrist actually feels better. It did hurt while I was on the bike, I actually rode one-handed for some short flat parts. Once I was at home and cleaned up, it had a larger range of movement without pain. Maybe it has something to do with the pressure, or maybe the exercise makes it stronger somehow.

I like to think my threshold for pain is high, alot of times I’ll get a cut and just won’t notice until I see it. My wrist is bothering me, it’s actually more painful than I ever remember. So painful that I’m actively trying not to use my right hand. My mouse is on my left now, I drive with my left hand only now too.

I think it’s caused by multiple things:

1 - moving, all that lifting and cleaning.

2 - work, sitting on front of a computer, this was bound to happen.

3 - lack of rest, not letting it properly heal.

I’m going to make a strong effort to not use it as much as possible and let it rest, it sucks to be in so much pain.