a little Aggression

I don't know how many of you guys like sports, but I LOVE SPORTS. Not only do I love sports, but I love playing sports. Now, I don't know how many of you are competitive when you play sports, but I really hate when people say, "We're just playing for fun." I suppose I'm too competitive for my own good, but when I play sports, I turn into another creature. Yes, I said creature because some sort of valve turns on and I become so mean.

When I watch basketball games and a player gets T'ed up, I always think to myself, "Sheesh, just calm down. You can't do anything about it now, so just let it go." Well, this past weekend during a "friendly flag football tournament," I learned that I would probably get T'ed up (or thrown red flags) if I played professional sports. I'm sure some kid watching me on TV would say the same thing, "Calm down."

Oh... my blood just boils up when I lose (or while I'm playing and things aren't going very smoothly). Aggression just builds up when I play, and I suppose that agreesion gets taken out on the opponent. Note: I did win a good sportsmanship trophy during the summer after the 8th grade during basketball camp. I guess I was much nicer then!

Malena

Since I'm doing a work rotation Downtown, I've been taking the Metro Bus. Yesterday, on the way home, I missed the bus (but not to worry b/c at my location, they run every 5 minutes during the "peak/rush" hours). A lady pulls up and asks any takers for "228" (that's my bus number). Then two people proceeded to enter her vehicle. Since she was stopped at the light I decided to knock on the window and ask, "Did you say 228? Can I come too?" You should know that on the I-10 HOV lane, you have to have a minimum of 3 people between 5-6pm. She already had her quota, so my little mooching self didn't need to hop on, but she was kind enough to say "sure." As the four strangers sat in the car, no one talked to each other. We just sat back. I felt a little uncomfortable.

As I was sitting in the car, I really wanted to sleep. Afterall the guy sitting in the passenger side fell asleep and then I thought, "What if she was some pyscho and took us somewhere. Or what if my bus isn't really 228... how am I going to call my mom and tell her I ended up in Katy?" It was actually a pretty uneventful ride. We got back to the park & ride and all parted ways. The best thing, I saved myself $3.00 for the bus ride.

That leads me to Malena (I don't know how to spell her name). This morning, as I walked to the bus after parking my car, I noticed a little Beamer waiting by the "Downtown line." (This is the line people stand in so they can catch a ride with cars who only have one person but need the coveted second (or third) rider. I looked in and asked if she needed someone to ride with her to Downtown. She was exhuberant in her response of "yes." Well, you need to be on the HOV lane by 6:45AM if you want to take 2 ppl, but it was now 6:50/6:55. I assured her it would be okay b/c my mom and I are familar with the system. Although I really wanted to nap in the car, Melena and talked the whole way to work.

She was born in Moscow, Russia. Her father is Russian and her mother is from Finland (I really wanted to say her mother is a "Fin" or "Finlian" but none of those sound correct. Sort of like Houstonians are from Houston and Floridians are from Florida, but to me "Floridian sounds weird... okay no more tangent). Her family moved to the states about 8 years ago and she just graduated in Decemeber. She works at Shell as an analyst. At the end of the car ride, we finally asked each other's names. She did ask what time I was getting off of work (I think perhaps she wanted me to ride back with her so she didn't have to face traffic on her own)... but I don't think our schedules will work out.

Thanks Melena for the ride and for saving me another $3.00!

“Bim, like in Beam me up Scotty”

In the summer of ’97 (possibly one of the greatest summers of my life), I met a quirky (in the absolutely best way possible) gal named Bim. (You pronounce her name just as my title reads). I don’t know what it was but we seemed to hit it off. The next year, I went to Philadelphia to visit her for a week. Our friendship is one of those where you don’t have to have much ‘upkeep.’ It’s not high maintenance and there’s an equal amount of effort on both parts. We’re both extremely weird in our own ways but have the same ‘serious’ qualities. (‘serious’ for lack of a better way to describe it).

Yesterday, I got a package in the mail. She asked me to be one of her bride’s maids! Of course I said yes! One of her other bride’s maid is a gal we met in that very same summer. We’re all great friends, and it will be a blast reeking havoc on Bim’s wedding day in Philly. Sorry, Andy. And for those who don’t know, Bim and Andy met that very same summer. Oh, the summer of ’97. There should be a song.

P.S. If she lets me, I’ll post the bride’s maid dresses she’s deciding between. I am going to try them on and take pictures for her to see! It’s time to chop off the hair so it’ll grow back by August :D

Adventures, Part 3

Day 3: My mom and I decide it would be better if I take the public transportation to work today. We left the house at 6:30am-ish. I ask the nice bus driver all sorts of noob type questions and take a seat in the Metro. We leave at 6:55AM. I slightly lean my seat back, very aware of the larger man sitting behind me because I don’t want to hit him or bring discomfort to him, but he “punches” the seat. I don’t think he was too pleased with me taking away a little tiny not even noticeable piece of his leg space. Oh well. I get to my cross streets and enter work by 7:30AM!!! Can you believe how quickly I actually got down here? I can’t. Man, this technically means I could probably catch the next Metro, rather than the 6:55 one, which means I could wake up later, which means more sleep, which means a more happy Nutters! (But since my mom and I carpool, I don’t think that will happen. I don’t know when she got into work today, but she usually likes to get there by 7:15-7:30 and she was still on the bus when I walked into my office. I think I will get a mo-ped to scoot myself to the bus station!)

[Mid-Way through Day 3]

Adventures, Part 2

Day 2: I again had to drive to work because I had to go back and forth to headquarters. This time, I dropped my mom off at the Med Center and then proceeded Downtown. Unfortunately, I got lost. Not a big surprise. No big deal though because my new boss is pretty chill.

Now it’s time for me to leave and go back to headquarters. Unfortunately, I’m not familiar with all the streets that surround the building I am in. I thought I would make my walk to the parking garage by using a back door. WRONG! I walked out became so disoriented, and it was like I was in a whole new world. I’d never seen that side of the world before! Well, I had to walk back into the building. No bueno. Prior to getting into my car, I mapquested directions, but that was not good because I don’t know which direction northeast on Walker is. No big deal because as I mentioned in Day 1, my co-worker gave me excellent directions to getting to the new office. I’ll just go back the way I came (keeping in mind that Downtown is made of one way streets, I’ll just use parallel streets). WRONG! Somehow, I ended up getting to a dead end. I managed to make it back to I-10 without too much of a time loss or waste of gas.

It’s now the end of the day and I still need to get my “security clearance” I mentioned in Day 1. My good buddy was supposed to get me all of this was in the office today and said he would do it for me around 3pm. He forgot. So around 4:30-4:45, I remind him. No big deal, he gets me what I need and shows me how to use these things. (Note, I still don’t know where to park, I imagine the garage is beneath me and tomorrow, I will find a way to get in there!). Well, he needs to program my authority level. Too bad he forgot how to do that. It’s nearing 5pm, and I’m getting nervous because I don’t want my mom to wait on me too long. She’s not a big fan of Downtown, and I’m not by my cell phone. He accidentally gives me authority to the VAULT. Yes, VAULT. I quickly said, “Please remove my authority level. I don’t want it.” After about 15 minutes of pushing buttons, I finally have clearance for our “perimeter.” Basically, when I come in and no one else is here, I can let myself in and disarm my perimeter so I can sit in my office at peace. The great thing is, each person makes up their own security code (unless you have master clearance) and even if you held me at gun point, I still wouldn’t be able to get you into someone else’s perimeter or the Vault. (I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, but I vote good).

[End of Day 2]

Adventures, Part 1

I have now started a new rotation for work. Good bye not for profit; hello private banking (in Downtown)! [Sorry Fung, I really thought I would be down in the Medical Center]. Anyhow, if you know me at all, you know my sense of direction is pretty bad.

Day 1: I actually had to stay at the Galleria location because I was taking recruits around our headquarters. That equates to a free fabulous lunch at La Strada! Afterwards, it was time to head to my new down town office. My co-worker gave me excellent directions on how to get here, so there was really no confusion. Too bad I was toting around a big box of stuff, in heals, in heat. That equates to no bueno. Well, I met my new boss for 10 weeks and got to meet some of the other folks. Since we’re at a branch location, there’s lots of candy and random things (i.e. a place to play golf) right outside the private banking area. (And as always, quick cash for me). I now needed to get a parking pass, keys to our area of this massive building, and a security code. Unfortunately, the guy who can give me all of that is not working today. Looks like I will continue to park in the adjacent garage where it costs $2.50/20 minutes. (Can you believe that? Good thing I’m not paying for that bad boy).

Since my mom and I carpool to work, we now have to figure out a new system. Well, the trolley system (I can’t think of what it’s really called) will take her within 5 blocks of my building. She decides to walk and meet me at the corner of the building since she doesn’t really know which building and where I parked. Too bad I wasn’t paying attention to how I excited the parking garage. I didn’t know how to get us back into it without walking up the exit ramps (in which cars are driving down to exit). I asked the guard standing there, but he failed to point me around the corner and through the building’s entrance. Because then, you can get into the garage via elevators and find the floor in which your car is parked. So what did my mom and I do? Walk up the exit ramps (very dangerous = my mom is not pleased).
Unfortunately Day 1 does not end there. You see, I thought I parked on 4A; unfortunately, my car was not on 4A. Too bad there was also a 4B, which I searched and could not find my car. So we went on 3A, 3B, 5B, 5A, 4B, 4A (yes again, just in case), 2B, and finally 2A. JACKPOT! 2A was where my car had been parked. Again, I can’t say my mom was too pleased.

[End of Day 1]