Category: daily mishaps

My Emogi Stone

In July 1799 Napoleon’s army found the Rosetta stone and ever since then hieroglyphs have been interpreted and understood. This was a great moment in history for the human kind and as someone could finally interpret the hieroglyphs in Egypt.

And then in the 2000 we had another monumental discovery, emojis. Ever since then humanity went back and humans started conversing again in pictures, apparently the cave man had it right. I recently received a text from a prospective client of mine on my work phone in response to something I texted them. Instead of a real conversation I received a text back with 5 faces with tears, 10 praying hands and 3 hearts. Mind you, this prospective client is an adult and this was a business text. We have never met each other. As I am  an adult who only uses emojis in texts with immediate family and friends, I was a little dumbfounded as I had no clue on how I am supposed to respond to this. 

What happened to business writing or texting? A couple of years ago I took a great class through Coursera on Business writing, professional texting etiquette was not part of the course. Neither was interpreting emojis part of the course. I am aware I am a little older and don’t use emojis that often and I do use real words and sentences so I am not always sure what the interpretations for emojis are. I am debating creating an  “ Emogi Stone” to help people interpret what other people are texting us or to make sure we are not texting something weird to others.

However, in my own personal humble opinion, there is no room for emojis in business emails and texts unless you work for a software company that creates emojis as part of their business. It seems like we regressed back a couple of hundred of years. So in your personal life go ahead, and if you really feel inclined to send me a business text, please   📧 🔠🙏

Eternal student

Every Tuesday I wake up very early for my language class. It is an international class so people log in literally from all corners of the earth. It is still dark outside, cold and everyone else is still sleeping. Even the dog does not understand what I am doing up at this  crazy time. And every Tuesday when the alarm goes off and I get dressed quietly in the dark so I will not wake my husband up, I ask myself – are you crazy, why on earth are you doing this? Go back to sleep.

And yet, after each class I am happy and I  smile, as tired as I am, I really enjoy this class even though I am not really good in this class. 

As an adult it is fun for me to learn new languages and just learn new skills. I find it really good for my soul as it brings me joy and probably helps combat dementia or alzheimer. Some tell me I am nuts for taking on new study areas. After I finally finished my MBA my husband looked at me and asked when I am going to get my PHD, I said never. But these days I am reconsidering. 

We are never too old to learn and yes I finished my masters at 54, but who says I can’t get a PHD by 65, I am not in a hurry and I don’t mind being an old woman when I get my degree. This is part of the fun of doing  new things when you are older and have the freedom to follow whatever your heart desires. Macrame, new language, or anything else that suits me at the time.

And if waking up in the dark, logging in to a class with people from all around the world makes me happy albeit tired, great. I shall continue, who knows maybe I did find my new calling as the eternal student.

I hate daylight saving time!

Daylight saving time started yesterday and I am not happy, I had work yesterday  so having to adjust to the one less hour of sleep was imminent. I love having light later in the day but adjusting to this time change takes me a couple of days, my body takes this one measly hour difference very seriously. There were several articles on how to get adjusted better, so for the last couple of days I followed the advice and got up an hour early but as expected I was also tired early.

Daylight savings would  probably be a great idea if I was a farmer but I am not, I’m just a paper pusher who likes to sleep and doesn’t like her circadian rhythm messed with. So even after day two of this time change I am not happy, instead I am tired and highly caffeinated.And I am not alone,  the Monday after  daylight saving starts is called Sleepy Monday and for a good reason,  it is the most sleep deprived day of the year. So how  does this help me? It simply  doesn’t.  I worked on day one of time change so even a nap was not in my cards and again I am working today and the rest of the week so  there is still no nap in my near future. I shall be tired and possibly grouchy for the rest of the week, at least that is my plan. Don’t say I did not warn you!

When unprepared for class – regressing back to high school.

I woke up early today for my 7am zoom class, I was very tired. I got home from work the night before at 9:30pm and after walking the dog and decompressing I ended up going to sleep pretty late. And yet, when the alarm rang this morning I crawled out of bed and made myself a strong cup of coffee and logged into my class. Up to now all sounds good, except when I logged in I realized I forgot to submit my homework. Me, the mom who always yelled at my kids when they forgot to submit their homework , actually forgot her homework.

My fight or flight response kicked in and  I felt back in school. In one  moment I regressed back  40 years to a 15 years old me,  waiting for my parents to be called because I didn’t do my homework, except that I was a nerd and always did my homework so this was worse. 

Many times I can talk myself out of situations, but when it’s a language class and you’re a beginner it is not that easy. After my first freak out moment, I calmed down. I remembered that this class is with all adults who do have work and other commitments and is full of curious people who are taking the class to enrich their lives and not from a need to gain a grade, certificate or advancement in the workplace.  Did I like joining class feeling unprepared? Nope, definitely not. But I can guarantee that I will not forget to do my homework again, at least not for this class. I will start on my homework at some point today or tomorrow and will even submit.

What I found amusing is that even as an adult when you are not prepared you regress back to your highschool self, being called to the board and having no answer. Luckily I can also laugh about this and make fun of myself. 

Next I am going to review the quadratic equation in case I am ever asked, no, not really!

When the Temperature “feels like”

The temperatures dipped this week in California and we are cold, real cold and not the fake California cold. We keep getting blizzard warnings, snow at the Hollywood sign and rain, lots of rain. When we actually get weather we check out the weather channel to see how many layers of clothing we need  since a sweater and jacket will clearly not be enough and we will need to wear a warm coat, that’s if we even own one.  But the temperature report does not only consist of what the thermometer says, they also include information about what the temperature feels like, feels like to whom?

That’s what made me wonder- when they say it’s 46 and feels like 42 degrees, Who is the person that works for the forecasters and tells everyone what the temperature feels like. What if that person’s internal thermostat is broken and they run cold or hot. Today it said 42 degrees but feels like 41, now really will I be more cold with that extra less degree?

If there was a 10 degree difference , I might feel it again depending on the circumstances. Let’s say it says 70 degrees but feels like 80, I would. But if it is  10 degrees formally but they say  it  feels like 9 or 11, I believe I will be freezing cold regardless.

So my mission now is to find that person that reports the “feels like” aspect of the weather report, find them and see if that person’s internal thermostat is accurate and then go find the people who report the temperatures and ask them if really anybody cares about this and does it really natter.

My dislike of 10 best lists

The internet is full of lists – 10 things you should not buy at costco, 10 things you should, 10 things you should or shouldn’t buy at trader joes, target or whatever store you go to.

As much as I love lists like any other person (I hate lists!) These people who write the lists either have too much time on their hands to go from store to store or they must enjoy the constant travel from store to store and forget to add the shopping time or the gas as a cost.

My time is limited and even if I love a great deal and really I do,I have to also  account for my travel time and the time it takes me to go from one place to another to find the bestest deal. Driving time comes at a cost. Many of us discovered that when we moved to work from home when tha pandemic closed everything that without driving we had time to play with our kids, cook and even give the dog an extra walk. So even if I am on the hunt for my next great deal I have to calculate my driving time. What will I miss if I spend more time in the car plus in some cases the cost of gas adds up. 

Not to mention that we all value our products differently, what I see as a great bargain or the best product ever, does not mean anything to someone else with different preferences. There is a reason I buy a specific brand of  toilet paper despite an article telling me that a different brand is better, better for whom I ask?

So read these lists, take what you want from them, But don’t let them rule your universe as at the end of the day you have your own list.

Resenteeism or hating your job

Read an article  this weekend about work resenteeism as in resenting our work, I started laughing, apparently I love humor columns. They coined this as a new term and a new  danger to the work environment.  However, some of us have resented or hated our jobs for many years without having a great term to define it, we just called it hating our jobs. That’s why you see so many people going drinking after work in TV shows or in the movies, at least in my opinion. I on the other hand do not drink at all, maybe I like my job, maybe not.

According to the latest articles there are several reasons for resenteeism, being underpaid, overworked, feeling like you missed the boat on getting a different job with all the layoffs going around, not feeling appreciated and undervalued by your company. These are all valid reasons that have been around forever and will most likely be around forever. However for most of us, we don’t always need to find a reason why we hate our jobs and yet stay at the job we hate. Most of us stay in our jobs because we are responsible, we have family obligations, we need to  put food on the table,  we have kids in college, a mortgage and the need for health insurance. Maybe we should all  start drinking.

The weird things I like to read in my local newspaper

My local newspaper publishes a  list of restaurants that have had health violations the previous week, each week I think to myself do I check the list or do I not. Do I really want to know? And yet every week I go to that list and read it, hoping and praying that I did not go to any of these places. It’s like a traffic accident that you see is about to happen and you can’t turn your head to avoid looking. 

There really is no point in reading  that a restaurant I went to last week or two weeks ago had a cockroach infestation or no sufficient hot water and yet I still read it. Maybe its a form of self torture, who knows.

There usually have some normal and reasonable closures, but when it said the closed CVS and only allowed prepacked foods at this particular CVS I started to wonder what exactly they sell, we have several CVS’s close by and none of them sell fresh food or ice cream. So I went to the official county website to see if there is any further information but alas there is none.

What should we do with the information about health department closures,do I go to a place that was cited and closed with the belief that it is cleaner now, with immodium in my purse just in case or do I avoid going to a place I like as they frequently have issues. This is going to be a tough decision!

When fries are on the no go list

I love eating and I love eating crap! The problem is my body, with complete agreement from my doctors, all disagree with my love of crap. This sucks big time! So for the last 2 weeks I have been eating relatively healthy, not that I don’t like healthy foods, fruit and vegetables, I actually do like them and some I even love. What I don’t love is not having the freedom to eat what I feel like. As a celiac, I should be used to this feeling. But adding more restrictions to my already restricted diet is not fun. Goodbye french fries and potato chips hello cottage cheese and tomatoes. Someone should write a country song about this, really. I can even hear the song  in my brain and  it’s a very sad breakup  song. But truthfully. While I will be limiting some of my favorite  fried food groups,I will not be giving them up completely, I will just be more conscious of what I am eating and some foods will be modified. Fries are really too good to give up completely.

Unfortunately for my walking partner, the vet told Sagey girl that she is a little chonky as well and needs to lose a few. So both of us will be adding more veggies to our diets and walking a couple more steps. Thankfully the weather where we live is good almost year round so someone is happy about the extra steps.I already exercise and walk 10000 steps a day thanks to my 70lb dog, who makes sure to provide me with my resistance training as well.

Enjoying the sunset

We are busy planning our trips for the next couple of years, trying to decide on where we would like to go and what we would like to see. This is great because we both really like to travel and did not have any destinations planned for 2023 and beyond.  Planning big trips is a lot of fun but we should not forget day trips and hikes and local amazing places that most of us have close to home. Sometimes our own backyard can be amazing as well. Today we  decided to go down for a walk and went down to our local  beach. The weather was perfect, low 70’s (20C) and just beautiful. I haven’t gone to the beach in the last  3 months, no special reason, just did not get a chance, which is a real shame. 

The weather was amazing and we were blessed with a great sunset. And we really enjoyed our walk as did Sagey girl,our Airedale,  she behaved well and did not bark or terrorize the other dogs either. So what have I learned from this? 

I learned that I  have  to remind myself to enjoy the simple things. Grand plans are great, but sometimes local things are great as well. I also had to remind myself to pause a little and take a break, walk the dog on different paths and just enjoy being away from work even if it’s for an hour.