It’s Sunday night and for the first time in over two years, I won’t be joining the rest of the work force as they begin another work week tomorrow.  It’s a peaceful feeling, to be able to sleep when I want to and not worry about waking up at a particular time.  I’m excited to be able to wake up tomorrow and realize that I don’t need to drag myself up at the crack of dawn to drive for two hours just to get to work.  It’ll take some getting used to, since I even woke up yesterday thinking that I might be late for something.

For the next week, I have tasked myself with two very simple things: pack and read.  Panda’s in town so I’ll be hanging out with him at night.  While he’s at work I’ll need something to do, so it’s a perfect time to get some reading in.  My reading list is full of awesome texts and I look forward to everything these books have to teach me.  Being able to do it by the pool, at the beach, or in a dessert/drink shop makes it all the more amazing.  I’m pretty thrilled to spend my days with less structure and more go with the flow choices.  Hopefully it will inspire a lot of creativity and productivity too!

Well, over the course of the last couple days, it has become public knowledge that I put in my two weeks and will be leaving my company at the end of the week.  Today one of the CEOs said bye to me since he’s off to NY tomorrow and I won’t be seeing him again before I’m done.  It hasn’t quite hit me yet that I won’t be seeing these people again (at least not in a consistent manner).  The good thing is I will likely need to come back to train my replacement whenever they find one, so it’s not completely the end of seeing my coworkers!  I’ll definitely miss them a lot.

Still, it’s time for me to move on, both personally and professionally.  I don’t get to see Panda nearly enough, so I want to dedicate some time to that.  Also, I have some of my own things I want to pursue and it’s a great time to do so.  I don’t feel I can really give it a solid effort unless I were to work on it full time, so that’s the plan.  Luckily, I have so much support around me and not a single person has discouraged me from my dreams.  I have a lot to look forward to and I’m excited to be able to set my own schedule and take control of my life in ways I haven’t yet.

This week, I have done my best to “rally the troops” as I like to say, encouraging them to all join me for my lunch plans.  Many have been working on various health efforts, like juicing or the caveman diet, so they don’t get out to lunch anymore.  Happily, they have been taking a break from their efforts to save money or lose weight and I’m hoping everyone will come out Friday to the last hurrah!  After all, it’s the people who make the place what it is and it’s the people I’ll miss.

Tonight a car started to merge into me, which made me grateful that I was an alert driver, noticed the drifting, and promptly moved and braked to avoid a collision. I would have honked too, to warn the guy, but I was just about to take a sip from my tea so my hands were too occupied. I wonder if he ever had a clue how close we were to scraping against each other.

It used to be common for me to be tired on my drives home and if this had happened last year when I was commuting, it may not have panned out the same way. Thankfully, I have a secret weapon under my belt that has been helping me stay alert during my drives. It has been very effective and I can’t wait to unveil it someday! For now Maven and I are working on launching it so I’ll keep it under wraps. One day though, you’ll hear about it!

Our sense of smell can be very important in how we experience things.  A bunch of the guys at work have gotten into the juicing craze and to quell their craving for foods, they’ve taken to smelling food instead of eating it.  Apparently a good long whiff of my junk food can help satisfy some of their hunger for the items!  To a certain extent, I can understand that, since we often smell things and start to experience it before it reaches our mouths.  Still, there’s nothing quite like eating the food after smelling it, so their diet baffles me.

Their recent quirky behavior has reminded me of how intensely we can be affected by our sense of smell.  One guy gets paranoid when he smells Febreeze, since that almost always comes from the restroom after someone has #2ed.  Meanwhile, whenever he comes back from smoking, I tend to get a whiff of that, which usually gags me.  Also, the office has a lingering musty smell from the dogs that hang out there.  I’m sure those with dogs don’t really notice since they’re accustomed to it, but I’m pretty sensitive to it whenever I enter the building.  I wonder if my cats make our household smell any different.  Missy certainly can smell like kitty litter at times!

Of course smells also evoke plenty of positive memories and associations too!  I love going home to the smell of cooking and I have this fantastic shampoo from the Hilton that makes me smile whenever I catch a hint of it, since it smells like a gentle perfume and reminds me of when Panda is in town.  Similarly, I have a strawberry EOS lip balm that is succulent and makes me happy not just with its sweet scent, but also knowing that my lips will feel soft and hydrated.  I don’t think I’d experience these things quite the same if I wasn’t able to smell them.  Their scents really do help enhance the experience!

It’s funny how interconnected we can be.  Lately I have come across many situations that make me shake my head at how small the world can be at times (or maybe it’s just LA).  The most prominent example is when I commented on a friend and coworker’s Facebook about a post he put up, then later saw that the next person to comment was one of the girls who used to live in my house!  The house that we have owned for about 10 years now…  At work the next day, I had to ask my coworker how he knew this girl and (dun dun dun…) she’s his cousin!  Wow.  Of all the coincidences in this universe, that is one I didn’t see coming.  So as it turns out, my coworker had been in my house before, many many years ago.

Other such situations include a trip to Wurstküche in downtown LA, where I got into line right behind a fellow 2008 UCLA orientation counselor!  Then, later on as I was eating, I looked up to find one of my pledge bros from AKPsi sitting at another table.  Imagine that.  And many months ago, one of the engineers at work and one of the operations girls were chatting because they found they had both lived in Michigan.  When the guy mentioned that he swam, she was interested because she had worked on the coaching staff or been an assistant.  Further probing revealed that she had actually been there working with the swim team that he was on during the time that he would have been on the team!  And then they both end up at the same (very small) company out in California?!

In addition, that same girl recently found out that her former roommate bartended with the girlfriend of one of our sales guys.  Of all the bars in LA and all the roommates and girlfriends these people could have had…  Seriously, what’s up with all this interconnectedness?  I guess even a large city like Los Angeles can quickly become small after a couple years of building relationships and connections.  Eventually you’re no more than a 2nd degree contact to anyone!

Today at the office we had a white elephant exchange, which was quite fun! I’m quite pleased with what I got and what I gave. Here you can see that this fun piggy bank I ended up getting allows me to free up the water cooler for its original purpose.

A cute piggy bank that I can now use to save up a fund.

I'd been using this toy water cooler to save up change, but now I can actually use it for water!

Today’s my mom’s birthday!  I can’t believe a year has come and gone.  I remember this time last year she wasn’t here, so we didn’t really celebrate.  This year I’ll be going back to see her later in the week and hopefully we can get a nice dinner in before resting up for an early flight that she’ll need to catch.  Soon, I’ll have my birthday too.  My how it all flashes by!

I feel like there hasn’t been that much to pace my life by, since a work day is pretty predictable.  I’m nearing two years of employment at my company and so much has changed, yet the pattern of each day makes things blend a lot more than during my school years.  Within the next year or two I’ll be changing all of that though – it’s about time for a shift in my life.  Going back to school will offer me a change in scenery and pace of life.  I always enjoy shaking things up a bit!

For now I’ll just prepare for that next stage and marvel that in 2012, my parents will be twice my age!  Has it really taken that long to get to this point?  Sometimes I feel older than I am, but of course there is still so much more to grow.

Our company recently had a social outing (to a new place that just opened up – Vodvil) and we got to ride over on this party bus, complete with crazy lights!

So much has changed at work in the past couple of weeks – the call center people moved to a new office, a couple of people left, and we had some major changes with an important client I work with. It feels like a season of change or maybe even growing pains that we are experiencing and the office is a lot quieter now! I’m reminded of when I first started, when there were just about a dozen of us.

I am also the only full-time girl left in the office again. It can definitely get lonely at times and the constant ESPN playing on our TVs is a reminder of the disparity in gender. I don’t usually mind though, since I’m used to environments dominated by men… JROTC & ROTC, film crews, and the financial industry, to name a few. In fact, not too far into the future I will be at yet another one: business school!

Overall it’s the sudden drop lack of talking in the office and the extra empty space that has changed the vibe, so I’m looking forward to a good bonding session at the upcoming company social this week. The tide seems to have changed around here, ushering a new era for us! I think that may also mean a shift in my focus at work, so hopefully that turns into plenty of learning and growth.

Wow, I’m sitting here in the room, with internet on my laptop!  Yeah, I know, that sounds so mundane and even expected, doesn’t it?  Well, it’s not after a month of only having access to the world wide web via my phone.  The open signal at my apartment went away and after a couple of weeks trying to get around it, spending time at Whole Foods, staying late at work, and even waiting in line at the business center for their computers, I’ve decided that this is a luxury that I can and should get.  After all, I’ve saved 8 months worth of internet service fees already!

Awhile back, some of my coworkers introduced me to Clear, so I began to research that in depth, since I really liked the idea of having portable internet (I thought about tethering my phone, but it cost too much for too little bandwidth).  After thinking about it and teetering between yes and no, I finally decided to see if I could get a modem for cheap on eBay.  Much to my surprise, as I was following a modem & router combo to see what kind of price I could get it at, I came across a banner ad for a FREE one!  This definitely peaked my interest, so I clicked on through and found an amazing deal: free modem-router ($120 value), free activation fee ($35 value), and free first month’s service ($45 value)!

Granted, I did have to sign a 2-year contract, but that’s pretty fair and I don’t mind it since I can bring the internet with me when I move.  The only thing I wasn’t crazy about was that I was not given an option for the $35 plan, which is slower, but cheaper.  However, I called up their sales guys and was told that I can downgrade from the $45/month to the $35/month plan without a fee.  I sure hope he didn’t give me misinformation, but if that’s the case I’ll just change my plan later on!  I really doubt I’d need the super fast internet speed, so why pay $10 more a month?  That adds up fast to $240 throughout the course of my contract!

Oh wait, but I’m getting ahead of myself… right now I’m enjoying some free internet at Panda’s hotel room and it feels so strange after so many nights of not being to get online with my laptop!  I did receive my Clear device today and I’m really excited, but since I have internet for now, I don’t want to turn it on and activate it until I need it this weekend.  I can’t wait to try it out though!  I’ve heard great things, especially from our IT guy at work and he should know, right?  I just hope I can get a decent signal at my place.