Home

Advertisement

Customize
About this Journal
Current Month
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930
Sep. 18th, 2009 @ 02:23 pm Peregrination
So the Akiruno Student Cultural Exchange has been rescheduled for February. We're all staying at the log cabins owned by Mr. Ueda (who's son Shigeru was part of the 3rd exchange). Unfortunately, fear and threat of H1N1 has reduced our experience in Akiruno from a 10 day home and school exchange program for our students to 10 days in Japan visiting tourist spots and a one day tour and visit of Akiruno City and their schools and potential welcome and farewell festivities. We'll be traveling to Kyoto and will stay there for 3 days and 2 nights so that should be a good field trip. Even more unfortunately not even all of that is 100% finalized so these things are still subject to change.

I want to book some personal travel and even tempted myself by visiting the website of the tour group I used through China. What a tease. I'm so tempted to journey to see Machu Pichu though. Ecuador has been on the list for at least 3 years.

Who knows maybe I'll venture off to Iceland this winter for some Northern Lights.

Mom is talking about getting the whole family to the Grand Canyon this summer too so maybe I should hold off on personal plans.

Plus, there is of course the undetermined date of my return to Hawaii.
About this Entry
24
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
May. 8th, 2009 @ 01:20 pm There's just something about interpersonal relationships.
These days I feel respected as part of a team in the Communications and Marketing Department at the American Heart Association's Framingham office. It's something that I've truly been lacking in the professional realm since I returned from Japan.

And as the date gets closer I feel that the "planning team" (as I call it) and the ambassadors for this year's student exchange to Akiruno have created a network of dependable relationships and established a positive attitude. It is with the efforts of many that this whole program comes together so seemingly effortless. I am thrilled to be a part of this process and look forward to new life experiences.

I also just joined up with John Hubbard's Cube 3 softball team. Though I did not perform to the best of my ability by any means, it was awesome to get outside and do something different and meet some great people that I get to play a summer's worth of fun co-ed softball with. It's totally worth the 40min drive - though we're eventually going to have to convince everyone to hang out and grab a beer or something to eat afterward.

I can't help but mention my reunion of a birthday that I celebrated last week. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect way to spend my evening than catching up with some of my favorite people in the world and hearing all the wonderful things that are going on in our adult atmospheres. New jobs, real jobs, engagements, weddings, houses, business trips, non-business traveling - it's just amazing how fast life changes when you live in a vacuum consumed with working and trying to get ahead in the rat race. I truly have surrounded myself with some of the kindest souls ever to exist. Plus, they're bright, funny and ambitious.

Sometimes I lose myself in unimportant things and I have to remember to appreciate what I do have.

And Karena, thanks for continuing to call even when I don't call back, even when I hang up because I want to watch TV with my mom, and especially since you have to prod to get things out of me that I think you must already know through ESP.
About this Entry
24
2 comments
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Dec. 15th, 2008 @ 08:03 pm (no subject)
I have a new car. My very first brand new car: 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt. Black Betty is her name.

I have a new part-time job. I'm interning at the American Heart Association with their communications and marketing department.

I'm hoping these are steps to more new things. :)
About this Entry
24
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Oct. 23rd, 2008 @ 06:36 pm (no subject)
The delegation is arriving in a few days and I will be a busy little bee bussing around, entertaining and keeping track of our Japanese visitors (and everyone else who is determined to take them everywhere).

I've created a photo book which has some errors but who's counting. I just hope it prints nice and gets here in time!

Because I was in charge of the photo book I have now been asked to create a slideshow with those same pictures.

I am also the MC for the Welcome Ceremony on Monday and I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to design and print a program to be copied and handed out at the ceremony. I haven't even figured out exactly what I want to say but I can do that this weekend I guess. I think I will have to.

Because I am the MC for the Welcome Ceremony I have been asked to be the MC for Anniversary Celebration on Thursday which is a more relaxed setting but still another set of prepared something or another to not sound completely unprepared.

I really hope everything goes well this week. I'm working 3 shifts, chaperoning and participating probably 5 full days (some before work) and Jen's Wedding is next Saturday. It's going to be crazy. I'm so excited to be a part of it all I just am surprised at how exausting it already is!
About this Entry
24
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Sep. 12th, 2008 @ 11:59 am (no subject)
So in an amazing twist of arms and fate I will be entirely involved with the Marlborough-Akiruno Cultural Exchange this fall and chaperoning next spring. Awesome. I can't wait.

Still trying to find the right placement to replace this mind-numbing waitressing gig.

I just dropped a pretty penny on my car but at least it drives like new now.

Just to start and end with positivity: Mikey is coming home today!
About this Entry
24
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Aug. 12th, 2008 @ 11:50 am (no subject)
I just made a yummy strawberry, banana, orange, cranberry, raspberry homemade smoothy.
It was delicious.
About this Entry
24
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Jul. 15th, 2008 @ 10:45 pm As per our conversation earlier.
The job interview process is one of the biggest tests of self-confidence.

So far it is not my credentials, my persona or my demeanor that have failed me. Feed back has fed me a heavy dose of humility as it has been my appearance and typos that have failed me.

I have asked probing questions and answered confidently those asked of me. I have shown genuine interest and demonstrated how well I could fit in a given opportunity. I've made interviewers like me. I look them in the eyes, stand up when they enter the room, shake their hand with a firm sincerity.

My recent failures have been the absence of a suit jacket on an 85 degree 3rd of July and typos in a thank you letter. These are things I knew better; things I should have paid closer attention to; things that I could give a hundred excuses for but deserve none.

It's a process of eliminating reasons for someone not to hire me more so than being a winning candidate for an open position.

I'm grateful for my recruiter as she is the only honest impartial party who truly understands without sympathy. She figuratively smooths my hair and brushes the lint off my suit just before she sends me off again with a swift kick in the ass. It's not personal, this is the job interviewing process. I have to keep pressing forward.

It's a learning process. The lesson isn't jackets and spell-check: it's attention to detail.

"It's a baptism by fire." (by facing a firing squad)
Goal: Emulate Houdini and escape this death trap.

Hire me?
About this Entry
24
2 comments
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Jun. 12th, 2008 @ 08:02 pm (no subject)
I really just dropped a pretty penny on a ticket and I'm headed overseas at the end of July to see my munchkins and friends over in Akiruno City.

Whoa.

I'm so psyched. I don't even know if I'm going to get to visit the schools I taught in but I already asked if I could.

It's going to be oppressively HOT when I go. I'm sure it's nothing I haven't seen :).

I have to keep my itinerary on the downlow until I figure out where I'm going and what I'm doing.
About this Entry
24
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
May. 21st, 2008 @ 12:48 pm (no subject)
Puppies and phone calls from Qatar are the only thing that I will gladly wake up for in the morning.

(puppies are pushing it now)
About this Entry
24
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
May. 7th, 2008 @ 12:06 pm (no subject)
Unfortunately, runner up in the job market still means that you don't get the job. I guess it's nice that they thought so much of me to say something about how well I might have fit.
The search continues.
About this Entry
24
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Apr. 24th, 2008 @ 01:51 pm (no subject)
Working at Firefly's Corporate now. I don't think I've been on time yet.

Just had an interview yesterday for a marketing/fund-raising/development position at an independent grade school. Still not sure how I fit into the equation there though.

25 in less than a week and this is the first time in my life I have not gone out and made an outing for myself. I'm even working on my birthday. I do have to make 2 phone calls though.

He asked me to send something that would fit in a pocket or on dog tags that will remind him of me. :(
About this Entry
24
2 comments
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Apr. 10th, 2008 @ 01:14 pm (no subject)
San Diego is beautiful.
I love my best friend.
And now for 70+ and sunny - you'll find me outside (with sunscreen on I'm blindingly white).
Be back in a week.
About this Entry
24
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Apr. 5th, 2008 @ 02:31 am (no subject)
I am sad.
Someone obviously backed into Zeke, my Civic, and drove off.
Now, I have a dent and I have to walk by it everytime I get into my car, everytime I get gas. No note, no nothing, just an ugly dent and scratch.
The possiblity that it could be one of my co-workers saddens me the most.
Either way Zeke and I are both hurt.

I guess, it could've been worse. (shrug)
About this Entry
24
1 comment
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Apr. 4th, 2008 @ 04:08 am Tidbits of rerun sitcoms
"You know I consider myself a pretty good judge of people and that's why I don't like none of 'em."

I kind of love Roseanne.

Only at a roundtable dinner discussion when DJ brings religion to the forefront could Roseanne and her family demonstrate the Seven Deadly Sins in obvious and vague points of conversation and physical behavior.

And I thought I watched The Cosby Show too many times.



Did I just lose brain cells?
About this Entry
24
2 comments
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Mar. 27th, 2008 @ 12:15 am Vacation sounds pretty good right about now.
2 weeks until San Diego!

Next trip: Japan possibly this summer. Still too early to say definitely but it looks to be shaping up like that. :)
About this Entry
24
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Mar. 23rd, 2008 @ 09:36 pm (no subject)
In the same day I dyed Easter eggs with my brother and found a grey hair on my head.
Leave it to irony.
Happy Easter.
About this Entry
24
1 comment
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Mar. 15th, 2008 @ 02:57 am (no subject)
To be honest, I don't say as much as I wish I would. Then, why is it when I do say something, I regret it? Why do I feel so unprepared for the speech of life (not to be read the speech of my life because I have yet to reach that situation)? Why is it that I am so misunderstood? It's so much easier when you can backspace what you type before you send it. Even if the decision is made within a split second I feel like my mouth just blurts out all the things I shouldn't say wrapped in a tone of insecurity so that I am simultaneously insulting and weak.

Wow, I am awesome.

It also amazes me how well other people can make it sound like their shit smells like roses and that they were the doe-eyed victim of an evil plot.

Someone please teach me that.

In other news (haha), work sucks. I feel like I'm in a soundproof booth screaming to get out and not a soul can hear me. I know I need a real job, I've known for a while. I just wonder why people don't know they need me. I'd be awesome at most things just hire me and pay me for it.
About this Entry
24
2 comments
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Mar. 13th, 2008 @ 04:02 am (no subject)
I feel like I haven't written anything of substance in a long time. I kinda miss the pressure of assignments that require sound communicative skills, written or otherwise. It's not that I want to go back to being a full-time student, I just miss the stimulus.

I had someone compliment me on my cover letter yesterday and specifically point out the impressiveness of the phrasing. I didn't have the heart to tell him that it wasn't my own phrasing - that my college roommate who is an astute third-year BC Law student was arguing for future employment, not me. :(

Sadly the so-called "impressive" cover letter has yet to yield any responses.

I said I miss the stimulus and I truly miss being confident in my arguments, my vocabulary, my creativity. Somewhere between Tokyo and Boston I misplaced them. They're in a safe place in some corner of my brain but repeating the same non-probing questions to patrons at a restaurant everyday is hardly helping to shine a spotlight on those missing tools.

It's not that I've refused all forms of academia, I've been reading and I do converse daily on a variety of topics but I can't wait to regularly be in an environment which demands that I be on top of my game all the time.


Then again, a job isn't necessarily the answer to that. I always described myself as a kinesthetic learner - I learn by doing. Though, I wouldn't mind seeing or experiencing. Who's up for an adventure? Destination TBD but probably far away.
(nextstopsandiego - that's already planned. Yay for Healthy Kids' Day :))
About this Entry
24
10 comments
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Feb. 28th, 2008 @ 12:41 pm (no subject)
Sometimes I get lost in facebook pictures. Sometimes I get lost in pictures... Pictures.

I need new clothes and a new hair cut. Anybody wanna sign me up for "What Not to Wear?"

Japan in July?

And January's Employee of the Month.

That's all folks.
About this Entry
24
2 comments
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Feb. 14th, 2008 @ 02:38 am 02142008
Thank you for my roses. :)
About this Entry
24
Leave a comment
Permanent Link