Month of March, 2006

Tips

If you happen to drink too much at dinner and come back to your hotel room looking to flirt with someone on the Internet here are some tips.

• Make sure you don't actually interact with anyone in real time. It's best to just leave comments on their site.
• If you do leave comments, make sure their site allows you to delete it later.
• If you do leave comments, it's best to do that with someone outside of your time zone. So when you wake up in the morning and realize that you've embarrassed yourself, you can delete before they're out of bed and had a chance to read your comments.

Today I'm in Cincinnati. Yesterday I arrived just at the end of a very beautiful day - warm and clear. I enjoyed dinner with a beautiful view of downtown. Cincinnati is a beautiful city. Today turns out to be rainy, but I can't really complain as I don't get to see rain very often. In the airport, I got my shoes shined. The gentleman shining shoes was so cheery that I felt shined on the inside too.

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End

It's sad that through Dave, I had to learn that Sarah was shutting down her site. I'll miss her blog.

Looking for a Project?

You might check out the potential 43 Places project over at 43 Things.

43 Places
43 Things

India Impact

My mom and I were talking tonight about the impact visiting India has had on us. Here are some of the things that have changed for me since my trip.

• Phoenix drivers don't bother me nearly as much as they did before I saw how crazy driving in India is. I have a whole new appreciation for driving in the States.
• Posesssions simply don't seem as important. Being reminded of how poor the majority of the world is gave me perspective. For example, I was totally wanting a new car before my trip. Now I'm quite satisfied with me 7 year old civic.
• The variety of food I experience on a regular basis is something to appreciate. In any given week, I eat cuisine from every part of the world. I'm so very lucky that I don't eat the same types of food all the time.
• I am feeling the motivation to volunteer with an organization that helps people who have less than I do. India made me remember how truly wealthy I am. I should give more - both financially and with my time.

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India Tour Group

A photo of the group I travelled with in India.

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Airport

Great article by Sarah Hepola about airports...especially since I'm sitting in one at the moment.

Culture in India

I've been back from vacation less than a week and I'm already on a business trip. Yep, someone scheduled it for me while I was out of the office. There are pros and cons to that. Pros are I didn't have to make travel arrangements. Cons are I didn't sleep in my own bed last night. Luckily it's just a short overnight trip and I'll be home tonight.

Last night while at dinner with a coworker, we were talking about my trip to India. He's done some business in Mumbai so he was sharing his thoughts on India. He said the most difficult thing for him was that as an American, he could never figure out what the Indians thought of him, his presentation, the products, etc. We discussed how the culture in India is different.

Here are some of my thoughts.*
• No one wants to tell you no. A couple times, in a restaurant I asked for something and was told yes, I could have it. Then the waiter disappeared...forever. They didn't have the item I requested but culturally wouldn't tell me that. As Americans we simply have a very different perspective on "no."
• No one wants to disappoint you. Of course this is a good thing but the flip side is no one wanted to set our expectations either. I guess the thought process is if you're not expecting anything, you won't be disappointed.
• Things change so much in India, people there are far more laid back than Americans. As an American, I often struggle to relax and just let things happen.
• Non-verbal communication (body language) would take me a really, really long time to adjust to. The most obvious example is Indians shake their head side to side when they are saying yes. That's the opposite of what Americans do. I had read about this difference and thought I was prepared to notice it. That was not the case at all. While in a conversation, it was horribly difficult to pull back and recognize that difference. Instead, I thought I was getting blown off or teased. It reinforced for me how important body language is to my ability to communicate.
• Women aren't equal to men. The inequality between genders is something I expected to see, but still had a hard time adjusting to. I'm such an extreme feminist (by definition I think men and women are equal) that I have a hard time understanding anything that doesn't support my beliefs. For example, in one restaurant, I couldn't figure out why no one was taking our order when everyone else in the group was being served. It finally occurred to us that it was probably due to the fact we didn't have any men at the table. Another example is hotel staff would greet my father but not my mother and I as we were walking with him.

*Disclaimer: None of this is meant to offend anyone. It's simply my thoughts about my experience - my LIMITED experience with a limited number of people.

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India Map

I've always been fascinated by maps. There's so much you can understand about the world simply by looking at a map. It's perfect for someone like me who learns through pictures.

On the map of India, find New Delhi, which is in the upper left corner of the country. That will give you some reference for the detail in the other map. I'm showing the detail, because it contains the cities I visited while in India.

Delhi - also known as New Delhi, but as far as I understand, it's all one big city so there's old and new Delhi. It is the capital of India and is also it's own state. Kinda like Washington D.C.

Amritsar - along the border of Pakistan, north west of Delhi in the state of Punjab.

Agra - south east of Delhi, known for the Taj Mahal. It is in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP).

Jaipur - south west of Delhi, known for the Amber Fort and a popular city with tourists. In the state of Rajasthan, which is known for being one of the areas that people are still very traditional - in dress and in lifestyle.

Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur create what is known as "the golden triangle."

As you can see from these maps, I spent my time in a very small part of the country. Because I was there for so long (10 days), I felt like I saw a ton of the country. But I didn't. I only saw a tiny piece. I guess it would be like visiting Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado and feeling like you've seen the whole United States.

While in India, we did most of our travelling by bus. Infrastructure in India simply isn't that good so it took a long time to go very short distances. Plus it was typically a very bumpy ride due to the quality of the roadways. I far preferred travelling by train (in an air conditioned car with reserved seating...not the local trains in which people pile on top of each other to ride). If I go back to India, I would most definitely travel more by train than by car or bus.

However, the benefit of travelling by bus is that you get to see so much of the countryside. I loved driving through villages and seeing people sitting around. I was shocked at how often children would stop and wave at our obviously marked "tourist" bus. I enjoyed seeing all the cows in the street and was amazed at their ability to stay out of most people's way. I enjoyed watching our bus driver maintain control and avoid a million accidents in a country which has very little traffic organization. It was fascinating seeing the different types of houses people lived in as well as seeing the different types of crops grown across the region. It was all so fascinating and a wonderful way to see the country. I wish I had more pictures, but it's simply too hard to take them out a window as we bumped our way down the road.

India

It's 2am and I'm wide awake. That's probably because I've spent the past 10 days in India. Yep, it's definitely because I'm on the wrong time zone. When it's 2am in Phoenix, it's 2:30 in the afternoon in Delhi. (Notice the 30 minute difference...no one explained to me why that's the case. Strange, isn't it?)

So I spent 10 days vacationing in India with my parents. A few months ago, I learned that my mother was setting up a tour for a small group (about 22 people total). I've always wanted to go to India so I jumped at the chance to go with my parents. When I was young, I can remember Neill, a family friend, talking about his trip to India in the 70's. I was fascinated with his description of the Taj Mahal and wanted to visit it so badly. I remember being told by the adults that I would never want to go to India - that I would stand out too much because of the color of my skin and the wealth that it portrayed. They made me believe I would never visit India. I'm so glad they were wrong.

India is a beautiful country with amazingly wonderful people. I have so many thoughts to share about my trip, but it's probably best for me to start with the photos. You can view the whole set, but these are some of my favorites.

Denver

Last week, I was in Denver to visit customers and stayed the weekend. I arrived on Thursday night and luckily got Julie and Jason to accept a last minute invitation to dinner. Jason and Julie are blogger friends from Dallas. They moved to Colorado three years ago. We hadn't seen each other since their wedding two years ago - time goes so fast! We ate at Ted's Montana Grill near their house in Westminster. I caught Julie and Jason at a pretty joyous time. Julie had just received an offer for a new job and had given notice earlier that day. Jason recently received a great review at work and was placed on a special project. They were both glowing from all the positive events occurring in a short time frame. After dinner they took me on a tour of their fabulous new home, which is even better than the pictures!

For the rest of my time in Denver, I stayed with Summer and Greg. Summer is my best friend from high school and Greg, her husband. There's nothing quite like being with your best friends. Summer and I could be on the moon and as long as we're together, we're happy. It's just so perfect to be together. I caught Summer at a pretty exciting time in her life - Friday was her last day at her current job and she was starting a new job on March 1. Friday night we simply stayed home and hung out. We drank cosmos and vodka sodas, listened to music, danced in the living room (while Greg pretended not to be horrified while he watched from the kitchen), and eventually made fun of old music videos on TV. It was just like high school and exactly what I needed.

Saturday morning Summer, Greg, and I had breakfast at a diner near their house. As we were passionately discussing world events, Summer pointed out that she was having the best morning because she was with her two best friends. I whole-heartily agreed. After breakfast, we went on a very specific shopping adventure. We went out to buy digital cameras. I had decided that I had to replace my small point-and-shoot camera. When I lost it on New Years Eve, I thought I'd simply switch over to using my digital SLR. However, the size and weight of the SLR was more than I could adjust to for normal activities and I simply wasn't taking pictures. Summer and Greg had been talking about getting a digital camera for years but never made the purchase. It might have something to do with Greg's attention to detail and there simply being too many choices. So Summer and I decided that we were going to buy cameras and Greg just couldn't bear us taking a trip to look at electronics without him. In the end, we bought the same camera - Nikon Coolpix S3. Saturday night, we had a fantastic dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant in Boulder. Sunday included breakfast by Greg and a trip to the mall. It was so great to spend a weekend with such good friends. Hopefully Summer and Greg will be coming to Phoenix to visit soon!

The picture of the house is Summer and Greg's. My mother wanted to see it so there you go, Mom!

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Car Break-in

My car was broken into on Friday night. I got the gym around 7pm and did a nice little hour workout. You can imagine my shock when I walked back to my car and saw glass everywhere. Someone broke the passenger side window to steal my XM satellite radio. They didn't take anything else because there really wasn't anything else in the car. I definitely consider myself lucky in that regard.

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TGIF

This week has been really tough. It started out with me coming off of two back-to-back trips. I love to travel but too often I wear myself out doing it. Then I jumped into strategic meetings with my new team at work. It was overwhelming and exhausting. Overwhelming because I've got a lot of work to do and I'm not entirely sure I can do it all. Though I keep reminding myself that if it wasn't work, no one would pay me to do it. If it were easy, they wouldn't pay very much. Even though I question whether or not I'm able to do this work, I trust that I'll figure it out. People much smarter than me believe that I can do it so I should believe it too.

In addition to thinking really hard, I've been playing pretty hard too. My team has been going out to dinner this week. I've heard fantastic stories about people's education, careers, marriages, and children. It's so exciting and fun to get to know the personal side of coworkers. I especially loved hearing stories about how many of my team members met their spouses. One coworker asked his wife to marry him after they had dated only 20 days! 20 days! They've been married for 20+ years. Another coworker met her husband at a Halloween party. Another at a work event halfway across the world. It's these kind of stories that puts everything in perspective.

So the week has been very hard and very fun at the same time. I'm now ready for the weekend to relax, slow my thinking down, and get my house picked up. Thank goodness we have a five day work week because anything more would kill me.

Randomness

• I love Kanye West. I especially love his Touch the Sky video. Brilliance by Chris Milk. (And I thought my last name was good...Milk is way better.)
• Don't tell me that I think too much. It will just piss me off.
• Food in America is amazing. This week I ate Chinese food Sunday, Italian food on Tuesday, and French on Wednesday.
• Work is in high speed again. I've been burning the candle at both ends. I need a vacation.
• Mr. Lucci is a rapper in Dallas, who will also be at SXSW Music. Thanks, Journalism Josh, for the heads up.
• I am not going to SXSW Interactive this year. I'll miss seeing all my internet friends, especially, Cameron.

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Blogging for 5 Years

It occurred to me the other day that I missed my five year blogversary. Wow, I can hardly believe it, but I've kept this site for the last five years. In the scheme of things that doesn't seem very long but in the blog world it does. It's certainly a nice milestone. As I always say every year, I'm so thankful for blogging. It's given me a wonderful network - better than I could have ever expected. It's been a wonderful experience and hopefully one that keeps going for a very long time.

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So Cute!!

Ky keeps getting cuter every day! He looks a LOT like his mother in this picture. Beautiful.

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