Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Distracted by Light


He had simply gotten distracted by the other lights.

The other day at the beach I had the chance to meet a new friend that gave me some insight into my own life. It was a baby sea turtle that had gotten turned around and was walking towards the town right off the beach. This small, little creature was trying with all this might to get to where he needed to go. All he knew was that where there was light was where he was supposed to be.

Spotting this small babe, I reached down and picked him up. He had simply gotten distracted by the other lights. I walked down to the water's edge and placed him into the water. Off he went swimming.

What does this have to do with me? He had simply gotten distracted by the other lights. Hung up on old expectations and feelings I too had become distracted by other lights. Floodlights. You know the type that knock everything else out of the picture; they cause you to lose perspective. But thanks to hands, all different types of hands, coming in different shapes and forms, picking me up, gently nudging me -through words, actions, and general self-examination (tough love) the light refocused. Accepting my situation and the amazing lesson it offers me, I'm turned around and back to being a lighthouse; a beacon that shines bright.


Tuesday, August 22, 2006

The Wall Street What

A funny thing happened walking out of the door to work today.

The little grandma who lives next door to me (now referred to as LG) poke her head out as if she was waiting for me to leave and says the following

LG: "Oh you're still getting that newspaper huh?" (she's talkign about the Wall Street Journal)

Me: "Yes mam' we are"

LG: "Oh is he ever going to come and back get it to read it?" (He would be my former roomate Mr. Circus Burberry Sweater)

Me: "I read it actually. It's for me. "

LG: "Oh...I see. The Wall Street thing with the numbers and such "

Perhaps women in her day didn't read the Wall Street Journal. This is a new day. I did have a nice little laugh driving to work though, and then proceeded to rip off the plastic wrap and smell my fresh Wall Street. It's the way I start my day now. I should have given her the paper to read! It's a good daily dose!

Monday, August 21, 2006

Every Reason in the World

We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed but we don't give up and we don't quit.

2 Corinthians: 4:8

I have every reason to be the happiest girl ever. I am very appreciative to a very special person in my life. I haven't had the chance to witness and feel this type of friendship!! before. To be able to see God's strength exhibited through a man towards a woman is quite amazing. He's one of a kind, and he's mine.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Technology and Women

I love technology, especially when I figure it out. My latest adventure has been with the wireless internet. The first thing I had to do was to have my local cable company out to install the modem for High Speed Internet. Great, easy, done. The next step was getting the wireless router to hook up to the modem (easy) and then link up to my computer. The best part was that we had some problems, but then I got it to work! I love it when this happens.

See, there's this stereotype around women and technology that I totally want to debunk. Ever since I was little I loved playing with technology and why, well my parents were nice enough to let me experiment on the stereo and how it hooked up to the tv. They let me try and figure out how nintendo hooked up to the television, and Dad even let me play around with his computer. One time Dad and I got so involved in trying to fix the computer that we got to take a look at the CD drive...and yes, you're right that computer did never come back to life. But that point is you have to not be intimidated by it and you have to trust yourself. They make it pretty easy on us nowadays.

To solve my little problem I went online and figured out how to run a command prompt from my computer that would give me my IP Address, Subnet Mask, and Gateway. Once I had this I could keep the ball rolling. But I had a moment where I felt all energized inside, when I was typing in DOS mode.

It feels good to be able to work with technology. And now I'm announcing the birth of my little logitech camera made special for notebooks. This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

Until then...

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

School of Hard Knocks


I've officially returned to the residence I've taken up in South Florida for the next year. Even though I've only been back for roughly 3 days I had accumulated enough frustration that sent me on a 1 mile run and opened up a bottle of wine. Ahh...there are better ways to deal with this...

For starters, since I do not have clear expectations and responsibilities for my job at this current moment I making the most of my time by working on evaluations (job task) as well as investing in my personal growth. This means graduate school essays periodically wander across my computer desktop. For me this is fun because I enjoy writing, and it's good to see that I have experiences and short/long term goals that perfectly compliment an MBA program.

This startup business atmosphere, although very frustrating at times, does offer an excellent learning tool. The school of hard knocks teaches me everyday about the dos and don’ts of business.

  1. Get organized
  2. Hire enough staff
  3. Place your employees in the right positions
  4. Set clear expectations and goals
  5. Get everyone on the same page
  6. Quit growing if you don’t have the resources to handle it

It's a funny environment here and all I know is that it's motivating me to want more. The biggest problem that I face is that this environment is slightly de-motivating, as I feel that I am not accomplishing much because there aren’t any tones set. Additionally, since I pride being successful and enjoy being successful I have to create my own milestones. Good learning lesson about myself!

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Decompressing at the Houseboat

What I've been up to so far post my LA summer...

I just had the best weekend ever with my family. Below you will find pics. to help explain our houseboating adventures on Lake Shelbyville. The best part ever there is there are no distractions! (no internet, no tv, hardly any cell phone towers) It's a time for everyone to rest, relax, and play!!!

Here's a pic. of all the cousins doing a giant bubble bath on the water trampoline. How fun is that! So we splashed around on there for awhile and were trying to push each other in the water! Yay for family time and bubbles.



Here's the boat Little Feat. Of course my family also has great taste in music and they named their boat after the awesome band Little Feat since the folks in their family (my cousins) are always running around the boat. Our evenings and afternoons were composed of a little toddlin in the boat, beer, The Who and other great music.

This is a picture of me out on the lake. Check out the beautiful background. Once we moved the boat away from the dock and anchored it in the cove we were surrounded by the forests and trees. We spotted an owl flying over the water. Of course you'll notice I'm wearing my Gallaudet University hat and tshirt. Can't let go of LA that fast....:)


Besides kayaking and swimming, Heidi and I took out Uncle Mark's jet ski one afternoon. What was so funny is that Heidi and I were doing some wave jumping and Heidi yells to me "Emily this makes me nervous!" We drove into a sand bar and switched drivers. I drove back. I am pretty proud of the fact that we never fell off!!

So overall it was a fabulous time. For one thing I know that I love being on water. It's relaxing and a great way to get away and reconnect with nature and your loved ones. So be on the look out for our boat - you'll spot it by the Pirate flag, American Flag, and of course a German flag!