Most of my life I have excelled at cramming. In high school and in college my idea of prepping for a hard exam up until junior year was a 4 hour study session the night before. Junior and Senior year studying was cramming what I could learn into a week long study session. Normally I am all for cramming but I am learning the drawbacks. Not for studying but for living.
I spend 4 out of every 6 - 7 weeks on the road. For those of you that aren't mathematically inclined (cough cough Katie cough cough) that means I spend around only 3 - 4 months actually in my house and in my city. Take into consideration that during this time I am also making trips to see family and go on vacation and we can safely cut that down to three months out of the year. In those three months I have to cram a life normally lived in a year. Dates, dinner with friends, movie nights, moving - all of these have to be jam packed into 2-3 week intervals in between audits. What use to be easy to prioritize suddenly isn't so easy. Do you paint your new house with your best friends and future roommates or do you go to dinner with someone you haven't seen in almost a month? Solution: Go to dinner paint splattered and hope that your friend loves you enough to ignore the enormous glob of primer you didn't realize you had on your elbow.
In those three weeks I soak up time with people and, if I am not studying for my next CPA exam, revel in alone time spent in a room that has my own decorations in it. In two days I will be on a plane to Argentina. I can't even begin to express how blessed I feel that I get to go there and get paid to do it. In this down economy with jobs being scarce, I have a well paying job that satisfies my need to travel and see the wonders that God has created.
But...
But......
Sometimes I feel like I am missing out on the small wonders at home.
I won't be here when my parents come back for a short visit. For the first time in many years my face won't worship with thousands others underneath the stars at Creation East. I miss birthdays and celebrations. I don't get to play softball on a local team with the ridiculous name of "That's what she said" who had a rocky first round but had some great time showing the other teams what we were made of in following seasons.
My dad has been a great help and I have really come to understand what he did for our family in the years that he was VP at ABB. When I call him upset about how I am not at home he always asks me about what adventure I had been on that weekend, focusing me on the fun instead of the dreary. When that doesn't work he lends an understanding ear.
So for now, in the two days before I leave, I will focus on the adventures to be had and the adventures to come. Painting rooms with friends, celebrating a friend's pregnancy, packing up all my stuff to move as soon as I get back, and live the life that God has for me now. Cram it all in and work out the rest later.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Tattoos
I have two Tattoos. One I have had for just over 3 years and another one I got just a month ago. I can say that they have been an interesting part of my life and have put me in situations I never expected to be in. Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way.
God gave her some pretty awesome insights as to what he intended her to be as a bride. Maybe she will blog about it because I don't think I could explain it accurately, especially since she was the one who lived it.
We were quickly joined by the rest of the bridal party and headed down to the Lobby. One girl said "We should get tattoos". I saw Katie get "THE FACE". I had seen that face plenty of times before. Katie had made up her mind about something and it was going to happen. She is an unstoppable force of nature when she has her mind set on something. We had seen a tattoo parlor in the mall next to our hotel during a hunt for food and she knew exactly how to get there. Around 6 or 7 of us headed off towards the tattoo parlor. I don't think anyone but me realized Katie was serious and that she intended to get a tattoo. I kept on saying to myself "naaahhh Katie doesn't want a tattoo" but then I would look at her face and say to her "Are we really doing this?" to which she would reply "yup". I don't know if this is true but I don't think even she realized that she was getting a tattoo. It had become a mission.
Katie very quickly had a very nice Tattoo artist showing her different fonts for her tattoo which was to be "2Cor11:2" on her hip. They worked out spacings and fonts. He was fantastic, understanding this was permanent and wanting her to have the right font and spacing. Everyone else was mulling about not really being serious and Katie was having hers drawn up. She looked at me and said "You're getting one too right? I can't get one if you don't. I need to do this with my big sister." Even if I hadn't already decided to get a new tattoo, that question right there would have sealed the deal. I can never deny the "please be my big sister" card. After Katie took a quick break to call Judge and let him know what was going down followed by a quick walk around the mall to pray about it, we paid for her tattoos to chorus of her friends saying "Wait?! BAKER is getting a TATTOO?!"
The tattoos were to be on our right hip where a bathing suit would cover it. Katie laid down on the padded table thing and after some manipulation of the covering for her body so only the tattooed area would show, she got her first tattoo. I don't know if she knows this but since we have grown up sometimes I feel like she is more the older sister than I am. O, we have the typical First born and middle child symptoms, I am a bit over bearing and a stickler for rules where she is more of a free spirit and loud but other than that I feel like sometimes she has more big sister qualities. Maybe it is because I look up to her so much. Sometimes I forget that she is younger than me just because of her conviction on so many things. Most of the time I don't really feel like "the big sister". But there are a few times where I really feel that age difference again and I am a big sister. This was one of those times.
I held her hand while he was tattooing her, reminding her to stay still and caressing her hand. I honestly don't remember what I said to prompt what she said but she looked at me and said "sometimes I just need my big sister's approval. It's like when I quit dance because you did too. I just need it to be a sister thing". I can't tell you how awesome that made me feel. Katie is so strong and independent, to know that at 24 and 26, that I am still a big sister is awesome. It was a great bonding experience.
Katie held my hand as I got three birds tattooed on my hip and we left the tattoo parlor to head back to the wedding. It wasn't until we were texting our other sister, Kristen, that we realized that not only did my tattoo reference my favorite verse but one of our favorite restaurants in Charleston called "Three little birds". Katie also looked up the meaning of "Cor" and discovered that in Latin it means "Heart" and that Cor Cordis was a frequently used expression meaning Heart of Hearts.
The most awesome thing that happened that weekend was everyone wanted to know why I had gotten birds in flight. Because of this I got to share my story with a ton of people about how God had worked in my life. I got to tell the tattoo artist (who after tattooing Katie and Me heard a lot of Jesus talk haha), people at the wedding, friends who didn't already know the story, and a guy on the plane back to San Francisco (where I was on an audit).
I love my tattoo and it was a great weekend.
I am going to tell you about my second tattoo first because it had the most relevance to my life now.
My second tattoo was a lovely combination of long drawn out thought and of spur of the moment impulsiveness. I had been considering getting a silhouette of a sparrow in flight on my wrist for quite some time (since last July probably) and I had decided to get it within the next year, possibly as a reward for passing all my CPA exams. The sparrow was to represent a bible verse that had very special meaning in my life. You can read about it here.
On May 4th weekend I was in Las Vegas celebrating the birthday of my close friend, Becca. I was also there to attend a wedding of a very dear friend Kiala. Kiala was the best friend of my sister, Katie, in HS and my entire family grew very close to her. Unfortunately with the start of a new business for my parents and my youngest sister and brother still in school, Katie (who was a bridesmaid) and I were the only ones able to attend. May 5th was the wedding and Katie and I spent the day getting our nails done and either getting ready to be in the wedding or, in my case, helping the bridal party get ready. God did some pretty awesome things that day. For example: despite the fact that I had to get from one end of the strip to the other during Cinco de Mayo traffic after not keeping an eye on the time, God gave me a taxi who knew the shortcuts and got me to the wedding exactly 2 minutes before it started.
The wedding was lovely and both Katie and I were dreaming about what our weddings would one day be like. Katie and I had gone up to her hotel room to rest our feet a bit before the festivities part of the reception was to occur. We had about an hour and a half in between dinner and the later festivities, in which we could gamble or relax. In the 15 minutes we were in the room, Katie had turned to 2 Corinthians 11:2
I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him
God gave her some pretty awesome insights as to what he intended her to be as a bride. Maybe she will blog about it because I don't think I could explain it accurately, especially since she was the one who lived it.
We were quickly joined by the rest of the bridal party and headed down to the Lobby. One girl said "We should get tattoos". I saw Katie get "THE FACE". I had seen that face plenty of times before. Katie had made up her mind about something and it was going to happen. She is an unstoppable force of nature when she has her mind set on something. We had seen a tattoo parlor in the mall next to our hotel during a hunt for food and she knew exactly how to get there. Around 6 or 7 of us headed off towards the tattoo parlor. I don't think anyone but me realized Katie was serious and that she intended to get a tattoo. I kept on saying to myself "naaahhh Katie doesn't want a tattoo" but then I would look at her face and say to her "Are we really doing this?" to which she would reply "yup". I don't know if this is true but I don't think even she realized that she was getting a tattoo. It had become a mission.
Katie very quickly had a very nice Tattoo artist showing her different fonts for her tattoo which was to be "2Cor11:2" on her hip. They worked out spacings and fonts. He was fantastic, understanding this was permanent and wanting her to have the right font and spacing. Everyone else was mulling about not really being serious and Katie was having hers drawn up. She looked at me and said "You're getting one too right? I can't get one if you don't. I need to do this with my big sister." Even if I hadn't already decided to get a new tattoo, that question right there would have sealed the deal. I can never deny the "please be my big sister" card. After Katie took a quick break to call Judge and let him know what was going down followed by a quick walk around the mall to pray about it, we paid for her tattoos to chorus of her friends saying "Wait?! BAKER is getting a TATTOO?!"
The tattoos were to be on our right hip where a bathing suit would cover it. Katie laid down on the padded table thing and after some manipulation of the covering for her body so only the tattooed area would show, she got her first tattoo. I don't know if she knows this but since we have grown up sometimes I feel like she is more the older sister than I am. O, we have the typical First born and middle child symptoms, I am a bit over bearing and a stickler for rules where she is more of a free spirit and loud but other than that I feel like sometimes she has more big sister qualities. Maybe it is because I look up to her so much. Sometimes I forget that she is younger than me just because of her conviction on so many things. Most of the time I don't really feel like "the big sister". But there are a few times where I really feel that age difference again and I am a big sister. This was one of those times.
I held her hand while he was tattooing her, reminding her to stay still and caressing her hand. I honestly don't remember what I said to prompt what she said but she looked at me and said "sometimes I just need my big sister's approval. It's like when I quit dance because you did too. I just need it to be a sister thing". I can't tell you how awesome that made me feel. Katie is so strong and independent, to know that at 24 and 26, that I am still a big sister is awesome. It was a great bonding experience.
Katie held my hand as I got three birds tattooed on my hip and we left the tattoo parlor to head back to the wedding. It wasn't until we were texting our other sister, Kristen, that we realized that not only did my tattoo reference my favorite verse but one of our favorite restaurants in Charleston called "Three little birds". Katie also looked up the meaning of "Cor" and discovered that in Latin it means "Heart" and that Cor Cordis was a frequently used expression meaning Heart of Hearts.
The most awesome thing that happened that weekend was everyone wanted to know why I had gotten birds in flight. Because of this I got to share my story with a ton of people about how God had worked in my life. I got to tell the tattoo artist (who after tattooing Katie and Me heard a lot of Jesus talk haha), people at the wedding, friends who didn't already know the story, and a guy on the plane back to San Francisco (where I was on an audit).
I love my tattoo and it was a great weekend.
Mine is harder to photo cause it curves around my body more
Close up
Katie's just after getting it done
You can see the placement of it on her upper thigh
Sister tattooed hip pop afterwards
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Exploring Chinese food
After arriving in my Shanghai hotel and changing into business casual to meet up with everybody and then changing back into jeans for dinner (I haven't had this many costume changes in one hour since I was in the play in HS... don't ask I wasn't good in it) we headed to the mall attached to our hotel to eat our dinner. We arrived at the restaurant (ALL the restaurants are in malls... you can't find one not in a mall), were shown our seating area and I eagerly anticipated my first real Chinese meal.
I was not disappointed. The meal is family style and the first things on my plates were: some sort of fried/crunchy jelly fish tentacles, pigs hoof, pigs tail, (there was pigs ear but since I gave that as a treat to my dog it wasn't something I wanted to experience), dumplings that had soup in them (you have to bite a small hole in the bottom, drink the soup, then eat the rest of the dumpling), and a ton of other food I can't remember. I really wish I could say that I took time to really savor the meal put before me but after 12+ hours on a plane and the debacle at the airport I could only appreciate the food so much and since the adrenaline of being in shanghai had worn of, the added benefit of food quickly made me sleepy. After dinner I crashed.
The next morning we were headed to our company headquarters so we got to see a bit of the city as we drove there. I should also probably take some time to mention that I was in Shanghai not only with my normal coworkers but a lot of people that I had previously only knew through email and phone. Suddenly I went from being a minority in a diverse department to even more inundated with culture. Not only was I in China, I was in China with people from China, Hong Kong (do NOT make the mistake of calling them Chinese... lucky someone made that mistake before I did), Italy, Spain, Pakistan, India, Kenya, Honduras, England, Germany, Singapore, and I am sure other places as well. Not only was I getting a taste of China I was getting a taste of the world cultures coming together. At the time I didn't realize it but that was an amazing gift and while I can't say that being with all those people gave me a greater understanding of their culture, I can happily say that somehow we crossed all cultural borders and had a great time just being in China.
Ok back to the interesting stuff
The day was, as any work day might be, informative yet boring. Especially when a city you have never explored is waiting outside of those walls. We were on our own for dinner that night so our lovely coworkers from Shanghai took us to a dumpling restaurant that we had been hearing rave reviews about. Now I like dumplings as much as the next person but I believe that Jesus himself is a cook at that restaurant. Located in a shopping mall (yup yet another one in a shopping mall) they had the most fantastic steamed dumplings. Perfect temperature, the tastes of each layer in the dumpling perfectly complimenting each other (My mouth is watering just thinking about it). I also tried to expand my horizons with new food such as Ox neck soup (really good if you avoid actually eating the neck part), Chinese rice win (horrible awful cough syrup tasting stuff), and some strange beef tofu wrap thing I am still not sure what it was.
The best of all though was the dessert. For dessert there was this steamed dumpling filled with purple sweet potato. Since it is family style again they brought out 10 for the 8 people at the table. Everybody grabbed one and I am only slightly ashamed to say that since I was one of the last ones to get my dumpling from the steamed bamboo thingy, it was right in front of me and well... I ate the other two. Someone saw me really enjoying these dumplings and let the whole table know. The entire table stared at me while I tried to swallow the last dumpling. I hadn't even thought about how rude it was, just how good those dumplings tasted. Luckily almost all at once they started cracking up (probably because I realized what I had done and my eyes got really big). I am sorry that I ate more than my fair share but since I am not going back to shanghai sometime soon I am just going to revel in the awesomeness of those dessert dumplings.
I was not disappointed. The meal is family style and the first things on my plates were: some sort of fried/crunchy jelly fish tentacles, pigs hoof, pigs tail, (there was pigs ear but since I gave that as a treat to my dog it wasn't something I wanted to experience), dumplings that had soup in them (you have to bite a small hole in the bottom, drink the soup, then eat the rest of the dumpling), and a ton of other food I can't remember. I really wish I could say that I took time to really savor the meal put before me but after 12+ hours on a plane and the debacle at the airport I could only appreciate the food so much and since the adrenaline of being in shanghai had worn of, the added benefit of food quickly made me sleepy. After dinner I crashed.
The next morning we were headed to our company headquarters so we got to see a bit of the city as we drove there. I should also probably take some time to mention that I was in Shanghai not only with my normal coworkers but a lot of people that I had previously only knew through email and phone. Suddenly I went from being a minority in a diverse department to even more inundated with culture. Not only was I in China, I was in China with people from China, Hong Kong (do NOT make the mistake of calling them Chinese... lucky someone made that mistake before I did), Italy, Spain, Pakistan, India, Kenya, Honduras, England, Germany, Singapore, and I am sure other places as well. Not only was I getting a taste of China I was getting a taste of the world cultures coming together. At the time I didn't realize it but that was an amazing gift and while I can't say that being with all those people gave me a greater understanding of their culture, I can happily say that somehow we crossed all cultural borders and had a great time just being in China.
Ok back to the interesting stuff
The day was, as any work day might be, informative yet boring. Especially when a city you have never explored is waiting outside of those walls. We were on our own for dinner that night so our lovely coworkers from Shanghai took us to a dumpling restaurant that we had been hearing rave reviews about. Now I like dumplings as much as the next person but I believe that Jesus himself is a cook at that restaurant. Located in a shopping mall (yup yet another one in a shopping mall) they had the most fantastic steamed dumplings. Perfect temperature, the tastes of each layer in the dumpling perfectly complimenting each other (My mouth is watering just thinking about it). I also tried to expand my horizons with new food such as Ox neck soup (really good if you avoid actually eating the neck part), Chinese rice win (horrible awful cough syrup tasting stuff), and some strange beef tofu wrap thing I am still not sure what it was.
The best of all though was the dessert. For dessert there was this steamed dumpling filled with purple sweet potato. Since it is family style again they brought out 10 for the 8 people at the table. Everybody grabbed one and I am only slightly ashamed to say that since I was one of the last ones to get my dumpling from the steamed bamboo thingy, it was right in front of me and well... I ate the other two. Someone saw me really enjoying these dumplings and let the whole table know. The entire table stared at me while I tried to swallow the last dumpling. I hadn't even thought about how rude it was, just how good those dumplings tasted. Luckily almost all at once they started cracking up (probably because I realized what I had done and my eyes got really big). I am sorry that I ate more than my fair share but since I am not going back to shanghai sometime soon I am just going to revel in the awesomeness of those dessert dumplings.
Eating a Steamed shrimp and soup dumpling
My first bite of the infamous dessert dumpling
Monday, May 14, 2012
Adventures in China
I have a wonderful job. I work for a large firm and I get to go exciting places and learn a lot of new things. My work takes me mainly around the US but recently in addition to seeing Portland, Seattle, San Francisco Bay area, Napa Valley, and Las Vegas, I got to go to China, specifically Shanghai, for a Global Meeting with a pit stop to S. Korea on the way home.
Now my knowledge of China is very limited and unfortunately I did no research before going (I learned the hard way that haven't some idea of the history of a place enriches the experience). I got to China knowing a few things: 1) It's a huge country 2) They were communist 3) They spoke Chinese 4) Fortune cookies didn't come from China (it's an American invention).
I had my slip of paper telling me the name of the driver who was to pick me up and an emergency contact number just in case. I was a bit worried but I had traveled around Europe by myself and I could handle any situation if I just took a breath and thought things through. Well little surprise - my solo trip to Europe doesn't compare to traveling in China. In Europe there is a good chance that who ever you are speaking to in places that frequently deal with tourist will have superb English. Not so in China.
When I finally figured that my driver wasn't there because my flight was an hour late trying to find a pay phone was horrendous (because they don't have any) and no one around spoke good enough English that I could convey what I was looking for. When I finally found the travel/information desk they let me use their phone (for a small fee) and I was able to contact the driver with his mobile number work had given me. I couldn't understand anything he said and had to have the lady who work there translate for me. After a brief conversation with him she said Xie Xie (pronounced Shay shay) and hung up the phone. She turned to me and said "you were too late he isn't coming". Oooookkkkk I am starting to panic slightly. I called the emergency contact number ready to freak out and the VP of my department answers the phone..... OK definitely can NOT freak out now. He told me to go to the Marriott Kiosk which I had seen as soon as I got through customs and have them arrange a driver for me and that my company would cover the cost. Phew panic averted. I paid the lady for the use of the phone (I still have no clue how much it cost me and now that I think about it I didn't expense it either.... hmmm...) and headed once again confident to the Marriott Kiosk...
Well no one was there... completely deserted stand. Finally a cop came up to me and I thought he was going to help me out but just told me to move along. I tried explaining to him but his English was barely there so once again I am wandering the terminal. Now I do not like going back to my boss' boss' boss and say heyyy..... yeah it's a no go. For some reason, I just can't do it. Plan A fell through and Plan B was almost in shambles. Not to mention I was already late getting to the meeting because I left a day later to be in a really good friend's wedding. I finally find just a general tourist stand where there was a Marriott employee. They arranged a car for me and suddenly I am off to meet up with the rest of my company.
I can tell you two things about the ride into the city: 1) I was in the city 5 minutes after leaving the airport but it took me 45 minutes without traffic to get to the city center 2) I was grinning like an idiot the entire time (hey! I was in shanghai! a place I am sure I had never even considered going to)
I arrived late Monday afternoon (Monday morning EST) just in time for the wrap up session and get information about where we were going for dinner. I was beat but I was in China. I was not missing one thing of this trip.
To be continued.....
Next post includes Chinese Karaoke, Taxi Drivers, Sightseeing, and my food experiences (especially a new found love for a steamed dessert dumpling)
Now my knowledge of China is very limited and unfortunately I did no research before going (I learned the hard way that haven't some idea of the history of a place enriches the experience). I got to China knowing a few things: 1) It's a huge country 2) They were communist 3) They spoke Chinese 4) Fortune cookies didn't come from China (it's an American invention).
I had my slip of paper telling me the name of the driver who was to pick me up and an emergency contact number just in case. I was a bit worried but I had traveled around Europe by myself and I could handle any situation if I just took a breath and thought things through. Well little surprise - my solo trip to Europe doesn't compare to traveling in China. In Europe there is a good chance that who ever you are speaking to in places that frequently deal with tourist will have superb English. Not so in China.
When I finally figured that my driver wasn't there because my flight was an hour late trying to find a pay phone was horrendous (because they don't have any) and no one around spoke good enough English that I could convey what I was looking for. When I finally found the travel/information desk they let me use their phone (for a small fee) and I was able to contact the driver with his mobile number work had given me. I couldn't understand anything he said and had to have the lady who work there translate for me. After a brief conversation with him she said Xie Xie (pronounced Shay shay) and hung up the phone. She turned to me and said "you were too late he isn't coming". Oooookkkkk I am starting to panic slightly. I called the emergency contact number ready to freak out and the VP of my department answers the phone..... OK definitely can NOT freak out now. He told me to go to the Marriott Kiosk which I had seen as soon as I got through customs and have them arrange a driver for me and that my company would cover the cost. Phew panic averted. I paid the lady for the use of the phone (I still have no clue how much it cost me and now that I think about it I didn't expense it either.... hmmm...) and headed once again confident to the Marriott Kiosk...
Well no one was there... completely deserted stand. Finally a cop came up to me and I thought he was going to help me out but just told me to move along. I tried explaining to him but his English was barely there so once again I am wandering the terminal. Now I do not like going back to my boss' boss' boss and say heyyy..... yeah it's a no go. For some reason, I just can't do it. Plan A fell through and Plan B was almost in shambles. Not to mention I was already late getting to the meeting because I left a day later to be in a really good friend's wedding. I finally find just a general tourist stand where there was a Marriott employee. They arranged a car for me and suddenly I am off to meet up with the rest of my company.
I can tell you two things about the ride into the city: 1) I was in the city 5 minutes after leaving the airport but it took me 45 minutes without traffic to get to the city center 2) I was grinning like an idiot the entire time (hey! I was in shanghai! a place I am sure I had never even considered going to)
I arrived late Monday afternoon (Monday morning EST) just in time for the wrap up session and get information about where we were going for dinner. I was beat but I was in China. I was not missing one thing of this trip.
To be continued.....
Next post includes Chinese Karaoke, Taxi Drivers, Sightseeing, and my food experiences (especially a new found love for a steamed dessert dumpling)
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