(Yes, I relish in life's small pleasures.) :)
Since we took yesterday off to travel back from the trip, we get to start our workweeks today! Yay! Short workweek!
(Yes, I relish in life's small pleasures.) :)
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As nice as it is to visit friends and family, it's always nice to come home. Although, I have to admit, I'm not looking forward to doing the laundry...
We attended a nice wedding this morning, which was nice. But the part I enjoyed the most about today was getting to see family (esp my sister!) and catching up with one of my closest friends, Lokuo! :) (Really sorry for not telling you earlier that I would be down!).
It's true that time and presence cannot be replaced by communication via the internet or phone. So it is a great blessing whenever I get to catch up with people I care about and see their faces. I'm not a talker and sometimes I end up in awkward silences, but not with my girlfriends! I think it's because I don't really have to censor myself and I can just speak my mind. It's like therapy or getting a massage. I can just relax and enjoy. And it's nice to get things that have been bothering me off my chest and have an understanding audience. Even though I will be the one dealing with my issues, it's an enormous comfort just telling it to a good listening ear. So thank you, my dear, for meeting up with me and for treating me to yummy dinner! David and I are going down to Socal to attend a wedding this weekend. At first we were expecting the worst because there was construction in parts of highway 5. Which meant that one of the two lanes would be closed! We've also heard from people who just drove down to SSC say that the trip took them 9 hours so we were mentally prepared for the long trip.
We started driving early this morning at 5:50 AM and actually made it to Baldwin Park by 10:50 AM! That's only 5 hours! There wasn't too much traffic on the 5 and even in parts when it was just 1 lane, we were always going at least 60 mph! So really thank God we didn't miss Sabbath at all and had a smooth trip down. :) Some of you may know that work is often too relaxed for me. My boss usually sets a very loose deadline for things so I have a lot of leeway in terms of time. I have a love/hate feeling towards that. I love it because I never need to work more than 40 hours a week and I can spend a lot of time doing other stuff. But I also hate it because I'll procrastinate for as long as I can and it leaves me feeling very unmotivated to do my work.
This week, however, was actually a productive one. I didn't save the world or anyone this week, but I was able to modify a few of our standard operating procedures in our quality system based on some audit findings we had a few months ago. (So interesting, I know.) Even though it wasn't hard work, it wasn't easy either. It's a bit like playing tetris. You have to make sure what you modify will address all the audit findings, yet everything has to fit back in the grand scheme of our quality system. So you can't go crazy with it and tear apart the old system. So this morning, I tied up all the loose ends and sent all the documents for release (they're currently routing in the company for approver signatures). It's funny that I feel happier and better on busy weeks than on slow weeks. I actually go home feeling more spirited than when I was just passing hours in the workday. It also felt good because I know the changes will ultimately be better for everyone and we'll be a lot more ready for our FDA audit whenever they decide to come. But that being said, I thank God that it's Friday! There are many reasons to be thankful for having David in my life, but this time I'm thankful because I have a dream & burden sharer.
I am actually serious when I say we're thinking about opening an online store. We've been down this same road so many times that we just decided to get some action behind it. When I got home two nights ago, David had already done all this research on the boring (but critical) stuff -- like how to register your business with the county, what does the city of Mountain View require, etc. He's also found a web host and registered our domain name. Yesterday, he showed me a spreadsheet he drafted to organize all the things we have to do. All these things added together would've frustrated me and taken the wind out of my sails. But because of him, I still feel like there is enough momentum to keep pursuing. I'm so very thankful that he's so organized and good with computer/web stuff. Recently I've been keeping an eye out for products and trying to understand the wholesale world better. The deeper I dig, the more I see that opening a store, even an online one, is not an easy thing at all. It's definitely not for the faint of heart and I find myself wishing I were more skilled. But I'm extremely thankful that I have David and that he's willing to share the burden of my dream. I don't know what triggered it but I've caught the dreaming bug again. I don't know if I've told any of you, but my dream is to someday open a cute store somewhere in downtown and sell things that I love. Those items can be curated or made by me.
My "inventory" have changed over the years. At first I really wanted to sell stationary and paper goods. I love walking into a fresh stationary store (Kikki's in New Zealand was amazing). Then, I wanted to sell some useful yet beautiful goods. Not sure what that really means, but something with both form and function. I'm still liking that a lot, and now I'm bent more towards home decor, office gadgets and packaging supplies. And of course my store would sell some tea, coffee and goodies and be a slice of heaven inside. Okay, maybe not sell, but it'll definitely offer some tea and coffee. And it will have flowers - potted or vased. And plenty of beautiful lighting. Too bad dreaming is much simpler than reality. And truth be told, we'd need a lot of upfront capital and risk-taking to go with such a venture. I'm surprisingly risk-adverse, so quitting my job and being completely financially vulnerable and worse, knee deep in debt, just shakes me. So I'm thinking about opening an online store and here's what I would sell. For now, the store will be called "Form & Function". So, here's to dreaming. :) I'm currently at home in bed covered with blankets. Not because I'm cold, but I like comfy blankies.
I "emailed-in" sick this morning because I was just too tired and I was developing sore throat. I've found the best remedy against getting sick is just to rest myself before it actually happens. So I'm not sure if I'm abusing the "sick day" rule, but I'm thinking it's better than actually getting sick for a few days. Yesterday, we took my parents to Rohnert Park/Sonoma region to visit my cousin's family. The drive itself was around 1:30-2 hours each way so we spent a good 3-4 hours on the road. We left at 8:30am (very early in the morning for David and me) and I had thought that we would be back by the afternoon. But we ended up getting home at around 8 or so and by the time we had dinner and went home it was probably 9ish? We were both so tired so we took a shower and went to sleep by 10:30 last night. I think we were exhausted from the day as well as the previous week. I fell asleep immediately and didn't wake up again until past 9. That's when I emailed in sick. I'm so glad I have a comfortable place to lay down and just rest and recoup. Although I won't complain if someone can bring me tea. :) I actually had a rather busy weekend so it wasn't really a relaxing one, but I'm thankful for having weekends nonetheless.
I can't imagine a life where one has to work 7 days a week. I think our lifespans would be 20 years tops if that were the case. And I think we got off a bit lucky that we got 2 days in the weekend because the original intention was to work 6 days a week and rest on the 7th day. How do people do it back then with working 6 days of the week? I'm glad I'll never know. This morning when I saw my friend Lokuo's post, I was greatly saddened. I was thinking...of all people, why her?! She already has enough on her plate and it just seems outright unfair for her to suffer more. Why not me? As told yesterday, my life is going just fine. I can probably handle a trial or two. I felt quite helpless as a friend. I wanted to send a positive and reassuring comment to her post, but I found myself wordless. Really, there's nothing I can say that can really comfort her heart and help her situation. At the end I wrote a short statement telling her that her friends will be with her. But I know it falls short; just what can we do? Then I remember my friend Ms. Priss' post a few days ago. In her post she quotes Laura Story sharing the mindset with which she wrote the song "Blessings". That blessings sometimes come as disasters in disguise. Laura says: I spent my whole life singing, ''Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,' but until Jesus took me through something where my only option was to trust Him, I didn't really know that sweetness. I was so touched those words. It made me appreciate more how sweet it is that we always have a God to rely on. But today, those words ring even truer since there is now a situation that calls for faith in those words. I'm deeply comforted because I know that even though I can only watch my friend from the sidelines, God has her in His hands and in His heart. And that's the best place she can be. |
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