Reflections of a week gone crazy

So yes, this was a crazy week!

Normally, I am good at maintaining a strict schedule (see post on My New Old Schedule), but something happened Monday that caused a violent chain reaction to my time-management ability... I ended up working late.

And when I work late, I go to sleep late

And when I go to sleep late, I wake up later in the morning

And when I wake up later in the morning I go to work later than I want to

So instead of getting in at work at 6 in the morning this week, after that late night incursion, I was getting in around 8:30-9:00 AM.

Somehow I found the time I need to hit the gym and meet my weight training goals for the week... Alleluia!

Tuesday was a very sad day for Corporate America. Many people lost jobs. I have colleagues here and abroad that were affected. Please keep everyone who lost their jobs this week in your prayers. They have definitely been in mine. This is also a reminder that I have a lot to be thankful for. I was not affected by the job cuts, but that does not mean I need to stay stagnant in my career growth, both inside/outside of work. As an Engineer, I have a lot of skills that I am using, and skills that I am not. It is important to keep all your skills up because you will not know the day or the hour you will be called to use abilities that you had to shelve for the greater good of a project that you are assigned to. America's job cuts is a wake up call to me to let me know that there is no such thing as job security, and you need to do things to set you apart from many others.

In my profession that could vary. But the path that I will most like take is the path that will lead me to a Professional Engineers license, a PMP Certification, and an MBA, because these are my immediate, and long term goals. I want to be a future executive, whether in the company which I am employed or in my own company (as soon as I think of something GREAT!).

Wednesday my brother, his wife, and I got together and went out for dinner. It was great seeing those two, and I know better days are ahead when they get their tails to Charlotte! I can not wait for them to move! Carolina Panthers, here we come!!!

At choir practice Thursday, the director gave the ministry some deep insight on why we sing, and how powerful the words we convey in our singing truly are. If you sing the right note at the right tune, at the right moment, it can reach deep into a persons soul, and they are filled with emotion. Some cry, some are overjoyed, and some are just frozen. When you sing, you are praying twice, or something like that... I think that is the appropriate phrase, but I always find a way to 'goof' it up.

Friday, a friend from the Buckeye days came to town. I took her to dinner and we went dancing. The sista had rhythm but she "got served" by me :-) HAHAHAHAHAHAH, Okay in all actuality, she was holding her own, but I showed her how to dance a little bit of salsa... and it was not like I had to break it down to her kindergarten style. She was a quick study. Point is, she had a lot of fun, and it was great being reunited with a fellow Buckeye!

So besides the normal tutoring, and shopping for groceries, I pretty much did not do anything on Saturday. Went to church... Talked to God... Will be back tomorrow, singing with the choir. My niece will be with me to start off the new week!

Good night everyone!

More Tutoring and Family Time

So today was my second tutoring session. And it was smooth, just like the first session. I really am getting my teaching groove back. My client has decided to sign up for more tutor slots this upcoming week, so I am really excited about that. Once this session was over, I spent time with my nieces. We have a going out tradition that we recently started (since I found out they existed and going to school in the area). We go out, bash on some really nice dessert, and we talk about everything that is happening in our worlds. They are real intelligent and smart young ladies.

Diamonds in the rough. With my help they will become true gems :-)

As always, I gotta keep my salsa up, so yessm! I am going dancing. Peace!

Operation "Go As Planned..."

Did not fare so well. You see, I thought that if I took Jade early into her surgery (7:00AM) I would be out by 9-9:30 AM and still be able to have a decent work day. Well, well there was a lot of rust, an unfortunate side effect of originally hailing from the North, and by the time they scraped all the iron oxide out, it was literally lunch time. Now normally, I would have eaten lunch, but today I sung with the choir at a funeral (which usually occupies my 1 hr lunch window)... Now this was at 11:30AM...... By 1:50PM I arrived at work, and just told my manager that I was taking the day off. I was sooooo pissed because I did not get any work done, plus I was tired, and since I did not have breakfast or lunch, hungry. 

I have no one else to blame but myself. I made a serious error in (time) judgment. When the guy told me that my car's alignment would not take any more than 2 hours, I should have just taken the shuttle back to work instead of waiting like an eddy right then and there. To me, I came in at 7, and 7+2=9, therefore I would have left around 9, and got in like around 9:15-ish. It would have still been a very salvageable work day. I did not take into account the intangibles... How was I supposed to know that Jade was going to get that rusty as a result of Northern exposure? Once 2 hrs became 3.... then became 4.... I just kept getting more and more restless and upset. 

So I guess I learned some major lessons today:

#1. Things do not "Go As Planned" hence the name of the blog subject.

#2. Bring some snacks/rations/MRE's(Meals Ready to Eat), something to fill your stomach up if you ever decide to wait during service.

#3. If you are doing anything else to your car besides an oil change, TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEIR SHUTTLE SERVICE! Leave immediately so you can have a productive day at work!

#4. If you are too overwhelmed to work for that day, get out of that environment. I know my limits, and I am confident that taking a vacation day today was definitely the right thing to do. 

Besides, how often does getting an alignment and new tires for Jade, singing at a funeral, and waiting waaaaay longer to get your car actually happen in the course of one's life? I sincerely hope that this is one of the more rare sequence of events to happen in my days. I would not know what to do if this ever becomes common. 

Tonight, I have to replenish my vitamin supplies (I will blog about this another time), then go back to church for choir practice, and then, salsa dancing! In the midst of all this craziness, I have to do something to keep myself sane. Salsa is it! I have no idea how I am going to wake up at 5 AM tomorrow! LOL!

Wants and Needs for my New Home

Greetings y'all!

Today I began my independent search for a new home. I have an agent and all, but I can not expect my ally to do EVERYTHING for me! A huge part of it definitely involves... well... ME! So I started driving around and looking for some nice town homes. Now some of you might be thinking, "Well yankee, you ballin' and makin' that corporate money... Why not get a house?" Well, simply put, I do not want to deal with yard maintenance. That is a task for "settled and married men." Besides, I do not even have a lawnmower... That is what my homeowners dues are for. Let me find a woman, fall in love, have a knee failure on my strong leg on a romantic getaway first, and THEN I will worry about lawn work. Also, I see myself taking a hiatus from this area in the distant future (about 6-8 years ahead) since I am aiming for a top 10 Business School, so it would not be very beneficial for me to get a single family home at this time.

Do you HONESTLY think by paying a mortgage, this brotha is settling down and getting married? LOLOLOLOLOL!!! No! This young brotha is taking a financially responsible step in the right direction!

Young people fresh out of college, if you get nothing else from this entry, know that you lose more when you rent long term vs renting in the short term (we all know you gotta get your down payment together) saving, and then using the money you supposedly saved since day one of working for your employer as a down payment towards a mortgage!

So then I really thought about what I want vs what I need. Then I started asking some very hard questions... Questions like:

Do I WANT a Garage? HELL YEA!
Do I NEED a Garage right now (starting out)? Uhm, well, no not really. Since it is only going to be me, I can go without a garage. Yea, it will be nice to have a garage for storage space, but I am not even fully utilizing the storage space at my apartment, and the "Containment Area" is pretty safe... No one has mugged Jade, and the areas I am looking to live seem to be pretty safe and alert communities.

Do I WANT assigned parking? YES!
Do I NEED assigned parking? YES! - Let me explain. This is the one thing that really grinds my gears (thanks Peter Griffin) when it comes to (my) apartment living... Sometimes I come home late at night, from my evening adventures (99.99999% from work ;-) ), and I have no where to park! I would have to go all the way to the OTHER side of the apartment complex just to park, and Lord help me if I have groceries that night (and there were QUITE a few nights of that)! I am not a huge fan of parking behind other cars so I can run groceries in... Most of the time, people who park in our spaces are guests of residents, who leave at like 3-4 in the morning... Either way, I am screwed. So, definitely assigned parking. From the places I have been scouting, most of them if not all of them have two spots allocated per town home, more than enough for me and a guest. AND from the neighborhoods I have scouted, there are parking lots literally within walking distance of my assigned slots, so if I ever decide to host an Ohio State, USC, or a Superbowl party, company will not need to worry about where to park!

Do I want an energy efficient home? YES! AS EFFICIENT AS POSSIBLE! I will entertain all options for gas and electric appliances (even a hybrid mix of the two) as long as my bills are kept low when all the dust settles. You should see the electric bill I have to pay this month.... IT'S ATROCIOUS! And it is not like I am watching TV all the time, I do not even have cable! And I have energy efficient light bulbs everywhere! I think the technician is reading the wrong meter for my apartment, personally. Oh well.

One thing that I definitely do not want is a setup where you can place a TV above the fireplace. I want my fireplace on one side of the living room, and enough room to incorporate my couches, and my future flatscreen somewhere else BESIDES on top of the fireplace. If you guys are already doing that, kiss your warranty on your TV's goodbye! And plus, it is a really dumb thing to do, I do not care how well insulated your fireplace is. You never, ever, EVER place elecronic equipment (all electronic equipement is sensitive to excessive heat) above a fireplace! Take it from a "Double E" (Electrical Engineer) who knows!

Bedrooms... I want at least 2! If I can get 3, I would. I do intend on renting out those rooms once I get them. I remember the kindness of former strangers when they let me rent a room in their homes during my summer internships. Now it is my turn to join in on the fun! And make a little money on the side! Most likely it will be interns I rent to, gotta have reliable sources of prospects!

Bathrooms... At the minimum, 2 Full Baths! If I can get 3, el YAY, but at least 2 full. No compromises there! Especially if I am going to rent it out!

Appliances... I need my appliances. I do not want to move into a home and then see a big hole in the wall where the dishwasher, stove, and fridge used to be. I need all my appliances in the house. So all the above, plus washer/dryer, central air/heating, etc... I do not want to buy any major appliance. The only major things I want to buy (post closing) is my bedroom set, some couches for my living room, a decent sized flat screen TV (and no, Vizio will not do), and an XBox 360.

Flooring... I love hard wood floors! Growing up, my room had hard wood floors, so I guess I'm kind of used to it! But if it is too expensive to have, roll out the carpet! Again, hard wood floors is a want, not necesarilly a need.

That about all I had for now, and I am pretty sure I will amend my wants and needs list in my first home. But for now, I think I will fix my dinner and get ready for another nightly adventure... SALSA NIGHT in the City of Medicine!

Gotta keep these skills up (I did not take Salsa lessons to get my jollies off)!!! Aiight y'all, I am out! Peace!