All posts filed under: Lifestyle

Searching for That Silver Lining

Apparently I had a smile on my face the other day that troubled my family members. It’s the sort of smile I produce when I am thinking and plotting and re-organizing priorities in my head. You see, recently I’ve been tossing around the idea of scaling back on work and finding a new career adventure which actually and truly makes me happy. Because of this back-and-forth, I’ve been buying novels with that very synopsis in play. Woman leaves life and moves somewhere. Woman finds new joy in life. Woman buys a cottage and transforms it. Woman learns life lessons and so on. I mean you get the picture. So I smile, with every purchase of these very novels which are going to become my inspiration to make that leap or ‘bounce’ from the unfulfilling and into a more simple and yet gratifying life. I’ve been caught with the very smile, when I stroll through a park or a quant neighborhood adoring all things nature, steadily and very colorfully readying for winter. It’s all part of …

If My Weeks were Summed Up In A Slide Deck…

This has become a thing it seems for me…where on Fridays, I feel the need to recap…kind of sort of what I do at work with a slide deck of where things are. It almost feel like a series. Season 1, Episode 3 and so on. So with that said, here’s this weeks episode. After a not-so-unplugged time-off last week, I jumped right into my days, doing what we all need to do at our workplace. I pulled 12-18 hours days catching up and preparing for a Thursday morning presentation. I know I was running on fumes and adrenaline all mixed up into one. Because just as I felt myself crashing, I turned to some form of caffeine to get me going again. At one point at nearly 2:30 in the morning, I got into bed and turned off the lights, thinking I would get a few hours sleep. But ended up on my phone sending emails and instant messages to our teams spread across the world before their day ended and mine -on-the-clock- began. …

Beautiful Things

On this Sunday morning I felt the need to inspire you… To seek nature and all it’s beauty To experience a gourmet coffee shop To discover an English Tudor or cottage style home in your neighborhood or beyond. To sit on a park bench along a lakeside and observe the ducks. I guarantee you will walk away feeling the most peaceful. To Consider a wall refresh in your formal dining room

It’s a Wrap…For The Week

I scheduled some much needed time-off this past week…only to end up virtually attending a 2-3 hour meeting each day for work. Mostly external seminars that I could not simply decline or ask to be rescheduled. On day four, while attending virtual session number four on how to be the best version of yourself past the qualifications to be in current role, I realized there is really no 100pct unplugging from work, at least for some careers. Mine happens to be one of those roles-where it is very difficult to unplug. I did learn a lot in the self-betterment seminar, which I will share here in the coming week. After I have time to reflect and gather my thoughts. As for the hours in between the meetings, I did manage to reassess all things piled in my to-do list-mostly chores, to see if they are truly things I need to do or ones I want to do. And miraculously (wink) by the time Wednesday rolled around, the 20 or so to-dos dwindled down to only …

Happy Weekend and all…

I love waking up to a message from our global team in the UK – wishing me a happy weekend. Funny how that works. 6a.m. in California while it is 2p.m. in the UK, where everyone-well at least for our company-is getting ready to unplug from all things work. Anyway, what are you up to this weekend? As I mentioned in my last post, I was going to chase Fall. But, due to the dry weather we are experiencing in California, the leaves are not turning color as beautifully as I had imagined in my head. At least in California. Not sure in other parts of the world. Although someone I work with in the east coast mentioned how green and plush all things were in his state and he wondered if winter was really around the corner… Lots happened this past week. Mostly binge-watched a Netflix mini-series and I have to say I am actually traumatized from being able to decode the underlying message in the series. Have you seen Midnight Mass? I can’t …

Let’s Catch Up

A common text message across any social media or even over a chat medium at work. Catch up requires so much work really these days, more so if you are not emotionally in a good spot. Or are simply overwhelmed with life. Is it really the first day of Fall? Is Christmas truly just around corner? I’ve recently allowed so many things to bring me down…I thought I was over this stage in life, where I am not as bothered as I was in my 20s. But I guess I was wrong. And if I were to excuse my actions, I would have to say perhaps vulnerability has paved the way to our way of thinking and feeling since the pandemic. The world is also changing, I feel much faster than we are programmed to adapt. I once had a neighbor, who always smiled. I mean even while walking to his car, and back into the house alone, he smiled. When I asked him once, how he was able to be this way, he told …

Friend Breakup

Have you ever had a friend break up with you? In a text message? A few months ago, a work friend whom I’ve known for sometime, fifteen years to be exact pretty much without actually typing the words, let me know that our friendship was over. I didn’t challenge it at the time, but since, I’ve been wondering why… Funny story. We met in the most unusual way. The commuter train we were on, broke down. So a group of familiar faces who took the same train daily, decided to walk along the route until we were able to catch the next train. Which never happened and we all ended up reaching our destination respective destination and veered to our homes. Weeks later I ran into him on the train again, we joked about the day the train broke down. And one day to the next of running into one another and stopping to chat, we eventually became commuter buddies. One day he told me he was moving to another town and was going to …

Weekend Thoughts

What are you doing this weekend – is a question most of us ask in text form, or on a call with someone and even through a slack channel at work. So I thought I might ask here – what are you doing this weekend? The sun has finally decided to burst through the heavy fog along the coast of San Francisco and I am excited to report that I am actually going to spend some time walking through Golden Gate Park – without a coat and hat on and even gloves during our so called ‘summer months’ I am also going to try a new twist on chicken from a recipe here. And this cake – oh my how delicious it all sounds. Also on the list of weekend to-dos is read this novel I’ve picked up in Sonoma at my favorite tiny bookstore. I’ll be dreaming about a trip to Ireland – someday, when all is safe and sound and masks are hopefully a thing of the past. Do you ever see a …