A Workaholic's Tale (Part 2)

Short post with four funny stories from the summer at work. Because I started writing these post but stopped and now I will just post them.

After Philly, I had a super lazy weekend, spending it at home and enjoying Father's Day with my daddy. Then I had to hop onto a plane to Illinois. I started reading American Sniper and was loving it. As I met up with Dan & Tim, I was telling them about how much I love the book so far, and Tim was like "Isn't that guy dead?" And I was like, no, it's an autobiography, he's alive to write it." Tim said "noooo. i'm pretty sure he was shot this year while out working with returned vets." I looked it up, and he was right; Christ Kyle was killed this year, on Groundhog's Day while working with a returned vet who snapped and killed Chris,  another person, and then himself. It was really heart-wrenching news. I felt like my own friend was killed.

When you're on business trips with the same people over and over, you tend to get to know a little about each other rather than small talk all the time. We were talking about me not having a boyfriend. Tim told me "You have a car and a career; you dont need a boyfriend." He then went on to explain how boyfriends would be jealous of all the time I don't spend with them, because I travel for word and am never available. I said, "errrr...i'm pretty sure and car and career aren't good boyfriend substitutes" but I dont think he really understood. lol.

The next tale takes place in Atlanta. We were in the office for a long day of too much working. I take a break to read the news because Lindsay messaged me that there was an announcement with the Supreme Court ruling over gay marriage. I read the articles, and casually say "The Supreme Court announced their ruling on gay marriage." One of my co-workers looks at me and says "Do you fly the rainbow flag?" I pause and look at him saying "excuse me?" and he repeated his question. I said "I think you need to stop and think about  what you want to ask me and re-phrase your question." He did not. Paul is sitting across the table gawking at us, and I say "Paul, are you hearing what I'm hearing?" and Paul says "Yeah. It sounds like he's asking if you're gay." I nod my head and look at the guy and he's like "that's not what I meant" and I just had to laugh because it was such a horribly worded phrase, but it broke up the monotony of a long work day with a chuckle.

About a month later, (7/31) Paul is visiting Houston and having a workshop with Lindsay and me early in the morning. He is on the phone talking to someone and was like "yeah. natasha is waking up right next to me." He then pauses, looks at me and says, "that didn't come out right"  I think the best part of that day was during lunch when Paul opened up to us about how he used to work too much, and it started causing marital issues. He told us of how his wife gave him an ultimatum and how he felt that the Spirit told to discuss this with his boss, was also a Christian. His boss told him to cancel all his meetings and phone calls, and go home to talk to his wife. They talked and went to marriage counseling and really began to communicate better. He realized that he needed to make his family a higher priority than work and make sure he's making time. This made me stop and pause, because if I look at my life right now, there is little-to-no work/life balance. I may not have a spouse or kids who are suffering from my work schedule, but I'm working too much and not having enough me time. It's starting to affect my life. I went to get a facial and even the lady was like "you are breaking out girl" and it is the first time in my life that i am getting stress acne. It's gross. It is making me sleep less because when I get home, I want to stay up and do me-time things. It makes me re-think my priorities. What am I willing to sacrifice to have a successful career? How important is a high-level career to me? Is this what I want to do for the rest of my life: work long hours to make money, but not necessarily have time to turn off my brain, lay in the grass, and relax? What do I want in life, and how do I obtain it?

A Workaholic's Tale (Part 1)

It's been almost 2 months since my last post. Let's see how well I remember everything. After my return to Belize I slept and went off straight to Illinois for a business trip for the week. While I was there I got started on a freight project and I was given the assignment for the North American freight. It was pretty fun. I got to have dinner with Jon every night and catch up with him. I hadn't seen him in almost a year. I also ran into Tim, who was there for the other project I'm working on. I got to the office really early to get some stuff done before meeting with one of my team members, Jim. I was walking from my temp desk to Jim's office. As I was walking down the hall, I looked up and saw this guy that looked super familiar, and I had to give him a double take. It was Tim. Tim is not like my other friends. He's a co-worker friend, and a co-worker first, friend second. I have only met Tim 3 times in person, but when we talk it is like we are besties. All together, I think we've spend a total of 7 days together in person. He kidnapped me temporarily to introduce me to people I'd never met and I went on another tour of the plant with him and my other team.

The next week, I headed to Pittsburgh, and guess who I saw?!?!? Jarrett and Lindsay. I was snap chatting them my journey to the office. Dan, Tim, and I flew into the airport at the same time and decided to go into the office for a bit, because we all had so much work to do. I snap chatted Jarrett and Lindsay a pic of right outside the office, and guess who met me right as soon as I walked into the door? Jarrett. He was waiting. It was pretty funny, because to me, Jarrett and Lindsay are more friends than co-workers, so it's weird to try and act professional and adult around them, something I was trying to do because Tim and Dan were with me. Lindsay and Jarrett wanted to go out that night because the Penguins were in the playoffs. However, Dan, Tim, and I were working late, and by the time we were heading to dinner, it became obvious that it would be too late to meet up because I was already exhausted from my long flight. After dinner we headed back to the hotel.

The next day was our first day of eSourcing training. It was like college but no one expects you to pay attention all the time. Lindsay and I sat at our table together. It was pretty entertaining. I also met another person who got hired around the same time as I was; his name is Jake, and he's pretty cool. I told him later that I really liked him or I was going to kill him. Needless to say, we get along quite well. The day after I LinkedIn with him, it turns out his girlfriend checked me out. There was also a German guy there, who was soooo funny. Lindsay and I loved talking to him because he was really quiet since everyone talked to other people they were more familiar with. It was a good day of training, and at times i felt like a student again, especially when Tim and I would make a joke to each other across the room, and I would have to try not to laugh. After a long day of work we went out for some italian food. i cant remember what I ordered but when it came out the german guy looked at it and said "did you change your order?". I said, "no" and he said "that is not whatever-i-ordered". i had to laugh. i miss german bluntness. We then went to a minor league baseball game because no one was playing in pittsburgh. I got to get to know Jake a little better. At one point they were selling milk and cookies, and dan went to buy me some! #sospoiled

Wednesday, was another day in the office learning. I'm pretty sure that Jarrett was starting to feel neglected because Lindsay and I were spending so much time together without him. After work we went to a Hibachi grill. Rob made a rule that Lindsay and I couldn't sit next to each other. What can I say? We just have too much fun together. While we were there, the chef did shots for my co-workers. it was weird seeing co-workers do shots, but entertaining. Then the chef decided to toss rice at us for us to catch with our mouths. It was awkward. I went back to the hotel and found pieces of rice in my hair. bah. After, Dan, Tim, and I got donuts for after dinner snack. The rest of the week was less exciting as I had another day in Pittsburgh before flying home, where my flight was delayed and I got home super late, and felt miserable the next day. While I was working from home, i realized, I sing "As I Have Loved You" in Spanish to myself, without consciously thinking about it. #crazypants.

Can I also say, I also finished reading Lone Survivor while on the plane ride back. I was a hot mess. I was crying my eyes out in the boarding area and I was reading it. I had to pause and calm myself down because I was getting super anxious. When I sat down the guy next to me saw what I was reading and was like "wow, that's a great book" i looked up at him with red tear stained eyes and said "oh my gosh, yes". We totally connected. I highly recommend that book.

Friday night I was able to go out with some girlfriends. We went for Indian food and the place seemed a little sketchy, but it was good. We watched How to Tame A Dragon, which was sooooo good, and was a lot of fun. Saturday, I went and did Top Golf with my friend Daniel, and it was a blast. It was super hot outside, but still enjoyable....and i realized i still suck at golf. After lunch I had to go return my library books, and then I went home for the night to watch Netflix while working from home.  I had been so swamped at work, and the travelling didn't help because I never had time to just sit and work.

I went to my new office for the 2nd time in two weeks on Monday (6/10). I realized that my pink pen that Kim gave me as a going-away gift was missing. Not cool. Turns out one of the girls who sits around me stole it. I had to use my powers of being awesome to get it back. (it disappeared the following week and I haven't seen it since). Later I went to scope out a place to eat lunch around my new office. I found a great mexican place. It fits my requirements:

1. Servers must be latinos and speak spanish.
2. 75% of the people eating at the restaurant are latinos.
3. (Optional) They greet me in Spanish and speak to me the entire time in Spanish.

The drive to my place after work is like 6x longer than the drive from my previous office. It's depressing. Granted, it was only about a 5 minute drive, so it's quite painful to have to drive at least 30 minutes to work after that. At FHE, a guy asked me out like 5 times in the same night. I never even said no, but he kept asking me out. It was kinda annoying. I just told him I was busy, and when I had time, I would let him know. This is where the 60/40 rule comes in. Unlike the Hitch 90/10 rule, when you're flirting, it has to be 60/40. If it's more than 60% the guy, the guy comes off super creepy or needy. If it's less, he's obviously not that into you, and you're wasting your time. Also, if you're not willing to go 40%, you're not that interested either. It's a personal theory.

6/11:  I was feeling depressed. As I was driving home at lunch (because i decided i was going to work the afternoon from home) i decided i would work out to work off my stress. But then i got home and was like, nah....to much effort. Then I packed for Philly.