Category: Just life

That dreaded training session

Today I had corporate training. Usually i get the notification that I have scheduled training I cringe, I hate training sessions, they are usually long, not efficient and not effective. I really do not enjoy them partially because they are on zoom and I need to be  in front of the computer for way too long for my cup of tea. However, today was a first for me.

I attended the training, complaining in my mind about it and then I was pleasantly surprised. Training was good and interesting and I actually enjoyed it, which brought me to think how was this training better? Especially since this was technical IT training that usually burns my brain to a crisp.

The difference was that this session was concise, effective and to the point with real tech examples and know-how. The trainer was not going on and on just to hear her own voice like some people I know. I left the training feeling that I gained knowledge and not wasted my time on another mandated session.

So why was this online training better, for starters it started on time and there was no wait for all the late attendees. Presentation was good and showed real examples that we encountered and solutions and not some theoretical mambo jambo that does not connect to us.The session was short, effective and efficient and I personally felt that the trainer valued my time and was not doing this training just to fulfill some corporate mandate. And lastly this trainer knew how to use the technology, in this case it was Zoom. I attended a training session last week with a trainer that wasted 20 minutes of our time not knowing how to share screens or look at the chat and frankly after the last 3 years of life in zoom if you have not mastered it yet get a moderator to help you. So all in all a good start for my work day!

Why I started blogging

I was asked recently why I am starting a blog, there are many reasons. One of my friends mother passed away recently and when they organized the house later they found notebooks filled with stories and poems that the mom never showed anyone and they decided to publish them after her death, I don’t want my kids to read my notebooks after I’m dead, I want them to see them now, I want the world to see them now,

The other reason was the pandemic, in a way the pandemic made me think about my priorities and what I would like to do in the remaining years that I have. I lost my hearing during the pandemic and that added to my introspection time, I started listening to podcasts while walking the dog and discovered Mike Rowe’s podcast (yes. The Dirty Jobs guy), on several episodes he had his mother Peggy Rowe, Peggy spoke about her road to becoming on the national bestseller list and how she fulfilled her dream and all the ups and downs that led to that and that inspired me to no end.

The other reason that might seem mundane is just a simple quote from Farrah Gray “Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.” that was posted on Linkedin. This post made me stop for a second and  think hard as it  touched a nerve. I have worked for other people all my life, not always were my capabilities appreciated  and when they were I was expected to do more for the same pay while someone else reaped the rewards. Mind you I quit from that company after I saw that my hard work was not appreciated but that belongs to a different post about toxic management. 

All of these reasons plus several others that I did not mention made me think and think hard about how I would like my future to look like, i do not want to miss opportunities or reflect in years to come on how I missed them. I know many of us have the same feelings, especially after the last 3 years we had, at this point in my life I am choosing to forge ahead with a new view – I will not stop myself anymore, I will believe in my capabilities and if ever my bucket list if full  I will simply get a new bucket!

That dreaded Monday feeling

We all have that dreaded back to work day, for some it’s monday, for others it’s going back to work after a vacation or a long weekend. For others it’s every day. There really is no wonder that many songs were written about Mondays and none of them positive, The Bangles have their Manic Monday , the Carpenters have Rainy days and Mondays (always make me cry – continuing lyrics) and i’m not even going to talk about the Boomtown rats – I don’t like Mondays, which is a very dark song. Does Monday morning blues have  to be a Monday, probably not. By coincidence today is my day, not because it is a Monday, I work on Sundays so technically my Monday is a Sunday, instead I have meetings that I am being forced to attend with people I do not value and meetings that just drag on and on as some people just like hearing the sound of their own voice. You go to bed the night before with that terrible feeling of dreading tomorrow and wake up to the same pit feeling in your stomach.

So what do we do to make us less anxious about our “monday”? Suffer in quiet, look for a new job or be a Pollyanna and try to find the positive in this. Frankly I don’t want to be positive today, really not in the mood! But what I did instead was to find a course that looked interesting on Coursera about entrepreneurship and freelancing. Will see how my day ends.

Thoughts during walks 10/3/22

I live in a suburban neighborhood, families, kids walking to school or riding their bikes, dogs being walked everywhere. We have big dog poop trash cans and dog bag dispensers everywhere. There are so many dispensers that you can almost always find a bag. There are some instances that the dispenser is empty for some reason or another but they are really far between. In our many years here I think this happened only twice.

We have a neighbor who walks her dog every morning and passes by my house on the way. I know this for several reasons, my dog really hates her dog, no rhyme or reason she just hates that dog so when they pass my chief barking officer starts. If for some reason my chief barking officer forgot to bark I still know when she  passed by as she always carries a gazillion dog poop bags and leaves them on her trail like  Hansel and Gretel leaving bread crumbs so they can be found. I never understood people who carry that many bags or feel the need to grab all the  bags in the dispenser. Even on any of my dogs’ bad days there really was no need for more than 4 bags max, you can also buy bags on Amazon, pretty cheap as well. I bought a huge box 4 years ago for probably 10 dollars that I still have.

Going  back to the dog poop bag situation and knowing very well that I am weird, everytime I see these bags all over the path we take on our walks I wonder- why have so many bags if you leave them all over the place? Or better yet, what is the need to grab so many bags out of the dispenser when there are dispensers everywhere?  Does the woman have bag anxiety?

 Most days I just pick up the bags that she leaves all over the place and just put them in my pocket without even realizing it (thank god for yoga pants with side pockets), today i actually felt good about the bags all over the sidewalks, I haven’t seen the dog’s owner for several days and didn’t realize that , I know she lives somewhere in the neighborhood but not exactly where, but  this way i knew she was ok. Yes, we do  have a neighborhood busybody who knows everyone and everything and I will catch her later to see if everything is ok  and if our bag lady needs anything.

Becoming a recovering workaholic.

Recently there has been a Tik Tok going around with a voice over that says – being on vacation is better than being at work. And despite most of us agreeing with this as a matter of principal, some of us, me included, have a hard time disconnecting and enjoying our vacation.
This summer i went on a cruise and as a true workaholic i did pay extra for WIFI access. As life tends to throw us curveballs – the internet was great for the phone, not so much for my laptop! I have to admit that letting go was not easy for me but i made a conscious decision to let go and go to the business center and work. I decided to be present, to let go and enjoy spending time with my family, visited new places and i even read a book or two and enjoyed my coffee in relative peace.
This was not easy for me but it did force me to stop and take a look at how i am living and remind me that we all need to disconnect. I still check my emails during my days off, but i try to limit myself to checking only 3 times a day and not constantly. #business #work #coffee #vacationsareneeded #workholics #familytime

I took the scenic route!


Some people take the shortest way possible, it has many advantages.
However with life and things unexpected we might sometimes have to take the long way.
I personally prefer to call it the scenic route, I started my MBA journey many years ago, had to stop for a while to prioritize, went back to school during the pandemic and finally completed my last class this past December, 25 years after I started.
I learned a lot during my in between years, but mostly that it’s never too late to go back to school and it’s never too late to go to school.
It might have been a long route, but personally after finishing my last class – it was the scenic one! #mba