Author Archives: Yvonne

Train travel

Posted on by
Reply

I dreaded taking this train, and now that I have taken it, it absolutely was not fun at all. It’s a spoiled point of view, but after having taken amazing trains in Japan, Switzerland, and Germany, it’s really hard to take an Amtrak train and think, “wow, this is an awesome experience!” The wi-fi kept coming in and out, the ride was really bumpy, and the seats were sub par. Granted, it only took one hour and 20 minutes to get back to Penn Station, but I could feel myself getting nauseated while trying to get some work done. I just want to get home. I just want to get home. I kept thinking this in my mind.

I talked to my dad about the whole experience, and he said to me that at least I got to stay at a nice hotel in downtown and expense some decent meals. The truth is that while work travel may seem glamorous to those who don’t do it often or at all, at the end of the day, sometimes it’s really nice and comforting just to eat a meal in your own home, made by yourself or a family member, and just sit and relax and not be in some foreign transient environment. It can be a really lonely and alienating experience, especially after you got stranded in an airport due to wind storms and everyone around you is an upset or angry stranger.

Unexpectedly in Philadelphia

Posted on by
Reply

On my return home from Tampa today, I had a connecting flight through Philadelphia. I knew the winds and rain were a bit crazy since I felt a lot of turbulence on the flight to Philly, but I didn’t realize that it would cause several delays and ultimately a flight cancellation for my return to New York. I waited for hours and hours for an update, and of course all the airline agents were agitated and didn’t know what to tell us. The airport was packed with thousands of passengers who had been displaced, so tension was thick in the air, and I heard a lot of yelling and swearing as I walked through the AA terminal.

I’m only two hours away from New York City, I thought as I charged my phone at an available outlet and tried to figure out my next steps. I could try a car service, maybe even Uber it, wait for a flight tomorrow… what’s it going to be? Oh, well, the car services were all unavailable until 2pm tomorrow, no flights were going to land at LaGuardia airport tonight, and all flights for tomorrow are booked up also until 2pm tomorrow (magic time it appears to be), Uber refused to let me input any address not in Pennsylvania, and when I tried calling the first three airport hotels, they had zero rooms available.

I ended up finally booking a hotel in downtown Philadelphia and booked a seat on Amtrak to get back to the city by midday tomorrow. I never thought I wouldn’t be returning back to New York on this trip via plane and that I’d have to take a disgusting Keystone train back to the city. This trip has become the most exhausting trip ever, and it was all for work. All I want to do is go home, and I can’t do that. My level of frustration is at an all-time high.

Always on

Posted on by
Reply

During my work trips to see clients, I always take them out for a team dinner or bonding event, and the events seem to have gotten bigger and bigger every subsequent time I have come down. The events are rarely fewer than 12 people, and with the usual long tables that American restaurants love, it’s hard to interact with everyone. I try to get my internal team to spread out, stop talking to each other, and talk to our clients, which is obviously the reason we are all visiting. These events are made to get to know each other outside of the office, get a sense of everyone’s personalities, and subconsciously find ways to get them to like and trust us more and thus work better together.

I oftentimes realize that although I appear as an extrovert to a lot of people, these events make me more cognizant that I’m really just a closeted introvert. Sure, I love talking to new people, I have no problem talking to strangers, and I’m pretty good at small talk with random people on the street (and my loud volume and laugh also makes people think I’m very extroverted), but sometimes, making the effort to talk to people I don’t know that well personally can be so taxing. I can feel myself straining when I am sharing stories to engage with people I don’t know. I don’t know if they can tell I am straining or if they are just eating up what I am saying. But they seem to be enjoying themselves, and I guess that’s all that matters.

When I got back to my hotel tonight, I plopped all my stuff down, washed up, and crawled into bed with my computer. I felt so relieved to have alone time and be by myself.

My mom asked why our company doesn’t make us share rooms when we travel in order to save money. “You’re costing your company a lot of money every time you take these work trips,” she said to me the other day. “$200-350/night for a hotel room is ridiculous. Why don’t you just offer to share a room with one of your woman coworkers?”

Um… no. I need that alone time. I need my privacy. I’m a 30-freakin’-year-old career woman. I am not ever offering to share a room when I travel, not that I have ever, even once, been asked. If I didn’t have that alone time to myself and had to think about whether I had to put clothes on when leaving the bathroom to go to the hotel bedroom, I would not be a happy little worker. The older I get, the more I savor time to myself. It’s my time to recharge, think, and just be me. I don’t always want to be “always on,” always thinking about what other people think or how they will react to the things I say and do. Sometimes, I just want to be off and relaxed.

Little blob

Posted on by
Reply

I spent the evening in Tampa tonight with a friend’s friend, his wife, and their 1.5 year old son. He’s probably the smartest little child I’ve ever met. He mimics everything that we do – high fives, jumps, yells, even chest beating. He’s also the happiest and most expressive little toddler I’ve ever seen. Today during our dinner of ribs, barbequed chicken, baked beans and slaw, he even ate our food cut into bits, all on his own, interchanging between using his little baby fork and his hands, along with a pretty decent pile of baked sweet potatoes. This child has the palate of God’s children.

Every time I see them, of course we spend a bit of time talking about children, child-rearing, and my potential future as a mother. I read their little toddler bedtime stories tonight, and he loved every minute of it – all my little explanations, imitations of animals and trains, and facial expressions. “He was so enthralled with your story telling!” my friend exclaimed. “Wow, you’re going to be a great mom one day!”

Maybe I will be, but I am absolutely terrified. The idea that a little blob could come out of my body and be 100% dependent on me is quite surreal. I told him this, and he said everyone feels that way. I suppose that is true.

“It’s scary in the beginning, and I felt the same way when he was born,” my friend said. “But after a while, you realize that babies aren’t that complicated after all. When babies cry, it’s always one of three things: 1) they’re hungry, 2) their diapers need to be changed, or 3) they’re tired and need to sleep.”

If only it were really that simple.

Twitter

Posted on by
Reply

I tried to make a group client dinner reservation for Roux, a popular restaurant in Tampa, and they made it really impossible to get through. I tried calling their phone, which resulted in a failed voice message system that produced loud beeping sounds and refused to let me leave a message. I attempted making a reservation through their online booking system, and they would not allow me to make a booking for more than 10 people via their site. I called again and again. This was just not going to work. Finally, I decided that I would need to Tweet them on Twitter to get a response. Within a day, their PR and communications manager messaged me back and called me, made my booking and set up fixed menus for me.

It’s amazing to see the power of Twitter. Of course, in fear that I would potentially give them negative publicity via Twitter, Facebook, or another channel, they tended to my every need and continued to respond to all my e-mails within an hour or so. Social media works very, very well.

No more gifts

Posted on by
Reply

My mom loves her gifts. But she also is eagerly awaiting the day after my wedding so she can hound me about her future grandchildren — you know, the ones who I haven’t been thinking much about at all.

“Don’t buy me any more gifts,” she said yesterday. “You should be saving money for your future children… my future grandchildren!” Then she starts chuckling. I can see her smiling through the phone. The smile is so big that I can feel it through the phone. “You know, I need grandchildren! I need them soon!”

She used to hound me about saving money for a future down payment on a house. Now that I am getting married in a month, she is hounding me for the grandchildren. It’s always something.

Annoyed FedEx delivery guy

Posted on by
Reply

I had stems of 24 large cymbidium orchids sent to my mom for her birthday. When I placed the order, which I thought I got a pretty good deal on since cymbidiums are one of the most expensive orchids to buy, I envisioned my mother’s face ecstatically opening the box to uncover these fat, beautiful cymbidium faces, freckled with fuchsia and yellow and staring back at her. I anticipated that given the long life of orchids, the blooms would last her until the time she and my dad departed San Francisco to drive down to San Clemente for our wedding. Little did I know that the path to get to her would not be so smooth and bright.

On Friday morning, the FedEx delivery guy comes to my parents’ house and rings the bell. No one answers at around 9:39am, when he attempted the delivery. He rang again, and still no answer. So what does he decide to do instead of calling the recipient to ask when she would be home so he could re-attempt the delivery? Meh, no problem. He just takes the box, throws it over the gate, and drives off!

My parents come home about two hours later to discover what appears to be a very large florist box sitting in the middle of their staircase. My dad later told me the box was dented on one side, and when they took it in and opened it, six of these very beautiful (and expensive) blooms immediately fall off. Some of the petals had fallen off and had been smashed. Someone had mishandled these poor orchids, and this was just not right.

I online chatted The Bouqs and complained about this shortly after my mom called me, and immediately received a full credit back and numerous apologies. I just kept on imagining a FedEx delivery guy being so frustrated that the recipient was not home and then taking the liberty of throwing the freaking box over the gate. What the heck was he thinking?!

 

Someone’s turning 62

Posted on by
Reply

My mom is turning 62 tomorrow. I’m not allowed to say “happy birthday” to her since she’s a JW, and her people don’t believe in birthdays, but since she is still herself, she loves receiving gifts, and she indirectly expects to get something around the date of her birthday every single year. Chris decided to send her a surprise dinner from some Asian restaurant tonight (I did not know this), and there was no card that said who the food was from.

So my mom called tonight to ask if I sent her food. My initial response was… No, I did not? Why? She said that someone ordered food with a label that said “happy birthday,” and that if I did not send it, she would give it to my aunt upstairs because maybe she ordered it.

“Auntie Linda’s birthday is not in February!” I exclaimed. “And when has she ever ordered food delivery before?!”

I looked over at Chris on the couch. “You sent something to her, didn’t you?” I said to him. He gives me this funny side-eyed look, and so I know he did it. “Chris sent it,” I said to my mom on the phone. “Don’t give it to my aunt!”

These are all the games that my family plays, and Chris just joins right in.

Team dinner

Posted on by
Reply

Tonight, I organized a team dinner for all of the account and campaign managers who work on my clients, and I got a lot of push back from our finance team regarding the spend limit. I finally got a spend limit approved of over double the original amount I was given, and it was sad because the restaurant I chose is supposed to be a reasonably priced place.

For a party of at least eight, the family-style dining includes four appetizers, four mains, and a shared dessert plate. With two hours of unlimited house red and white wine, the price per person is $84 (before tax and tip). And that is supposed to be “cheap” by Manhattan standards. It just goes to show that the term “reasonably priced” is extremely, extremely relative.

Friend’s friends

Posted on by
Reply

A good friend of Chris’s who lives in New York coincidentally got pregnant over the summer and found out her due date was one week after our wedding. This was especially sad news because we knew she and her husband would have happily come to California for our wedding.

While it’s sad that she can’t make it, we understand her predicament. She’s offered to take us out to celebrate early this Friday. What is not sad is when you realize that associated friends who were invited did not even have the decent manners to RSVP to the wedding period.

This is my cynical side speaking, clearly. As soon as I heard she wouldn’t be able to come due to giving birth, I made a silent bet in my head that the two associated friends who would have come if she had come would decline. They didn’t even decline; they didn’t even RSVP. If someone is so generous to invite you to their wedding, the least you could do is RSVP in a timely manner with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no.’ Chris reached out to one of them over Facebook, and he gave some rambling message about not being able to come with excuses that were clearly his way of saying, “Sorry, dude. I just don’t care enough if <mutual friend> doesn’t go, either.” It is sad when you are over 30 and you are still just a follower.

To make matters worse, he reached out separately to me to apologize. What is the point? I really didn’t care at that point and simply responded, “Don’t worry about it.” It just kept getting worse because he kept responding. “That’s the most upset I’ve ever heard you,” he responded back with… Again. “We should hang out some time soon. I miss you guys.”

I didn’t respond to that last bit. No, you don’t miss us. Stop faking that you want to see us and spend time with us, and just move on. We have.

I don’t want to spend time on or with people who don’t make any effort with me. It’s not worth it. The older I get, the more valuable I realize my time is, and the more I do not want to waste it on people who just want other people to be their conveniences in life.