Blog Tag!

Four jobs I've had

• Brookstone salesgirl
  
• Summer camp lunch maker
  
• Telephony sysadmin
  
• IT consultant
  

Four movies I can watch over and over

• Joy Luck Club
  
• Office Space
  
• Bring it On
  
• Aladdin
  

Four TV shows I love(d) to watch

• CSI: Las Vegas
  
• Friends
  
• Bewitched/I Dream fo Jeannie
  
• Food Network pastry competitions
  

Four places I've been on vacation

• Great Britain
  
• West Carribean
  
• Japan
  
• Taiwan
  

Four favorite dishes

• Houston's tuna salad
  
• Blue Mesa Grill's corncake
  
• Mom's lions' head meatballs
  
• jellyfish
  

Four websites I visit daily

• CNN
  
• WashingtonPost
  
• NYTimes
  
• LATimes
  

Four places I'd rather be

• Home in my jammies
  
• snowboarding on fresh powder
  
• shopping
  
• peering at tropical fish through the glass floor of a Fiji bungalow
  

Self-awareness
***
My friend O introduced me to a personality mapping device called a Johari window. Similar to the gamut of personality tests that are used in the corporate world, the Johari window prompts you to enter a few descriptors on what you think of yourself. Additionally, it allows your friends and acquaintances to help paint a more thorough picture of who you project versus who you think you are on the inside. Often the two are very drasticly different. For example: I act like a tough old grump, but actually have a soft spot for stuffed animals, strawberry ice cream, and fresh cut flowers (even if they do die).

Awareness is always a good thing, help complete my profile.

***

It's not all sunshine and roses, the Johari also has a very realistic counterpart, the Nohari to improve inner faults as well.

Valentine's Day revisited.

Local morning DJ Elliot in the morning asked his callers to call in with their "worst of" V-day stories from yesterday. One female caller had this story to share: her significant other of 3+ years had something important to tell her for Valentine's Day. He proceeded to notify her that she was in fact the "other woman" and that he was married and had a 1 year old child. He also gave her $20 and told her to buy herself something nice.

I really didn't know how to respond to that, but the shock certainly helped push me out of bed.

Reality bites
***
Every girl dreams about her wedding day. It may be a fancy frilly affair with 500 guests or it may be a quick trip to the local judge, but every girl has given at least a miniscule bit of thought to how they'd like their wedding day to be (or whether they even want one).

Buttercream dreams aside, the reality is that with most of us pushing our wedding dates out to our early 30s, we have increased our responsibilities, and therefore financial loads. Our aging parents are looking to retire, many of our mortgages are interest only, and some of us are still paying off or are accruing new student loans.

For those who got married in their early 20s, they were restricted by limited budgets due to careers still in their infancy and lack of time otherwise dedicated to the pursuit of graduate studies.

There is no *perfect* time to get hitched. The joining of two families will always have its associated financial burdens, relationship and communication tussles, and take up way more time and effort than you expected as you juggle the rest of your life with your third hand. There will always be a job to put on hold, a project to interrupt, or something else in life to put a bump in the road.

Something tells me though, that the start of a new life together more than compensates for the trouble experienced while picking out the perfect shade of silver so as to not incense your bridesmaids.