Badminton Sundays

I've been going to the Sunset Rec Center on Lawton 2 Sundays in a row now to play badminton. They have courts set up from 5:00-7:30 every Sunday evening. 5:00-6:00 is the family hour, so unless you have a kid under 18, you can not play. 6:00-7:30 is for everyone, so you basically sign up for 20 minute intervals of playing. The Sunday program is relatively new, because the Rec Center's badminton night is usually held on Thursday. They still have the Thursday badminton nights, so Sunday is an additional night. Sundays are definitely better for me since I don't have to rush leaving work and getting to the courts in time.

I haven't played badminton since high school, which is years ago. I am so rusty with my skills. Plus, I don't exercise on a normal basis whatsoever, so all the running around gets me panting in no time. But it's still fun. It's a form of exercising, in a fun way. I am less sore today than I was last week. That's always a good sign that muscles are being used...

Sur La Table

We finally ended our meetings on Thursday with a "team-bonding event," which is a cooking class hosted by Sur La Table. We got into teams and created one of the 5 designated dishes. The ingredients were half-prepared so all we needed to do was to finish up prepping and cook the meal. We then all ate each other's dishes. As fun as that sounded, after an intense 4 days of 10+ hour meetings, this is the LAST thing people wanted to do. Everyone was dead tired and hungry but we still had to "cook." I could tell that it was just something that people didn't want to do, but because we all had to be "PC," everyone just pretended to have had great fun. On the other hand, I must admit that the food turned out really good, mainly because everyone was so hungry by the time we ate (around 9:00pm). It was definitely a very long week.

It's Over

Whew!! I'm done with the presentation!! I tried to not get nervous until the very end. I could hear my voice crack and had to swallow to regain my normal voice back. I also spoke really fast and had to refer to my paper for the numbers. There are some words that I stumbled on, but it was good that I practiced a little bit beforehand. I didn't say some of the things I wanted to say. I think I was so nervous although people tell me that I wasn't. Only one person said I showed nervousness. I really hate giving presentations! I am so glad that I'm done. Now, I can sit back and relax a little bit for the remainder of the week. That's one of the good things about doing it first. Now it is other people's turn.

Presentations

I hate giving presentations, I mean I DEPISE giving presentations. I don't like it when I am at the center of attention. I don't like it when I'm the only one talking and all eyes are on me. The irony is that I am fine speaking out in a large group during a discussion. I am fine standing up to ask a question to the presenter in a large group. It just needs to be a two-way conversation. But when I'm the only one talking and other people are not responding but just staring at me, I totally FREAK OUT!! This is what happens: I stumble - my words come out sloppy and incoherent. I speak fast. I turn red. My legs shake. I get DAMN NERVOUS. It's written all over my face and my speech. I just don't have enough practice in giving presentations so I am very inexperienced.

So I have to give a presentation this Monday to 40-50 people, including very high-level people in my company. I am so stressed about it. I've been thinking about nothing but the presentation. I am so scared and nervous. I have butterflies in my stomach. Maybe I care too much. But then again, I don't want to end up looking like a fool. Why am I more nervous about this stupid presentation than going through jaw surgery? Dang it, it just doesn't make sense. I can't wait until this is all over. It would be such a sigh of relief. Hope I will do OK.

Executing my resignation

There are many times in my 7 years of working at this company that I think about quitting. Recently, it is more frequent than not. On my work roller coaster, I often go through valleys and peaks. Right now, I can only describe myself in the valley -- a deep valley. I find my current position so uninteresting, so unchallenging. I am damn bored. I've only been in this position for 3 months and I by no means know everything. But I'm still damn bored. I feel so sluggish and hate looking at the same stuff over and over. It's just unchallenging. So I have been thinking how the day would be when I turn in my resignation notice... how I would execute my resignation?? I will tell my boss first and then my assistant, and then down the list of people I like and hang out with first. I can already see people's reactions and their faces of shock. As in any gossip, the news of my resignation will fly in record speeds, so by this time everyone would have heard about it. Some nosy people will come to me and ask where I'm going. I might even get called in to the big boss's office to talk about why I'm leaving, where I'm going, and I should consider staying... but I would say no. My mind would have already been made up. My decision would be absolute, unwavering.

When will this day be??