August 11, 2008

(With music from The King and I)

“Whenever I feel afraid,

I whistle a happy tune…”

Yup, I was whistling a whole lot last Thursday. I had a meeting with the company CEO the next day and I was beyond nervous. I really hadnothing to worry about. I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do behind the scenes and on the stage. I’ve kept everything that’s supposed to be kept, I’ve said everything (well almost everything) that’s supposed to be said. I shouldn’t be nervous. But NO…I was nervous.

I hate going to meetings unprepared, specially if these meetings are with the company CEO who I only get to really talk to around once or twice a year. The problem is, this CEO rarely gives an agenda for our meetings, and when he does…you only stick to it for around 5 minutes.

It’s vital to be ready for anything and everything.

“Just for him!
Though the man may be
My Lord and Master,
Though he may study me
As hard as he can,
The smile beneath my smile
He’ll never see “

He told me he was very pleased with something I recently did. I said thank you but my face remained blank. He stared at me for a really long time trying to decipher what I’m really thinking and feeling. I was inwardly rolling my eyes. There’s no way he will be able to tell what’s really going on in my head. I have mastered the blank expression I use in meetings. I only show emotions I want to show….nope, there are practically no slips here. Ruy can attest to how good I am with my blank and stoic emotions.

Some might wonder why I choose to keep my expression stoic when the statement was good….because it can’t always be good. If he sees how I react to a good statement and compares to how I would react to a negative comment…then I become too transparent…and that’s not good. I loose my calm and logical demeanor. I like hearing everything he has to say first…then stewing over things for days and weeks…before I show emotions.

3 days after the meeting…I’m softly whistling another happy tune. *sigh* This is tough.

While shivering in my shoes
I strike a careless pose
And whistle a happy tune
And no one ever knows,
I’m afraid.

While the entire world collectively groans “I hate Mondays” I am singing a different tune. I LOVE MONDAY MORNINGS.

I love the fact that Ruy drives me to work every Monday.

I love going to work really early (I’m in by around 8am).

I love being the first person in my office.

I love the alone time and the silence.

I love how productive I am when I’m all alone.

I love the long working day (I usually stay in the office for 11-12 hours)

I love love love love my Monday Rush…

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses. No one in Greece has memorized all 158 verses.

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

The average secretary’s left hand does 56% of the typing.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

Two-thirds of the world’s eggplant is grown in New Jersey.

The longest one-syllable word in the English language is “screeched.”

On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament Building is an American flag.

All of the clocks in the movie Pulp Fiction are stuck on 4:20.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.

“Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt”.

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

Almonds are members of the peach family.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies’ room during a dance.

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

There are only four words in the English language which end in “-dous”: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

Los Angeles’s full name is “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reinade los Angeles de Porciuncula”. And can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size, “L.A.”

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.

Al Capone’s business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

The only real person to be a Pez head was Betsy Ross.

The Ramses brand condom is named after the great pharaoh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children.

When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home, the stadium becomes the state’s third largest city.

The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra’s “Its A Wonderful Life.”

A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the “1″ encased in the “shield” and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner.

It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.

Who’s that playing the piano on the “Mad About You” theme? Paul Reiser himself.

The male gypsy moth can “smell” the virgin female gypsy moth from 1.8 miles away.

In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

The name for Oz in the “Wizard of Oz” was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence “Oz.”

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister.

John Lennon’s first girlfriend was named Thelma Pickles.

The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

‘Stewardesses’ is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.

Our house has been a series of sudden decisions. It started when I decided that the room was too small for me and that since I had no plans of having a baby any time soon, then we should only have one room.

Then I got pregnant, so in the middle of constructions we turned the living room into Andrea’s room.

Then I bugged Ruy about having a dirty kitchen. I cannot stand the small of frying fish inside the house and I really wanted to keep the interior of the house as clean as possible. A big chunk of money was then spent creating a wall, to cover the back area of our house to create a little area for our laundry and our dirty kitchen. 

This basically removed all ventilation coming from that area. Ruy was cooking 2 nights ago and he was sweating like a pig. We don’t have any space for electric fans there so I guess we’ll have to make do  with portable fans.

Ruy turned 3-0 last Friday!!! Woohooo….I can now tease him about us being in 2 different decades…hehehe.

Ruy was being a pain…he wouldn’t tell me his wishes and his goals. Grrr…