When Panda and I had the fortune of staying at the Ritz-Carlton Marina del Rey for a few days, I was excited to document the experience. Here are some of the highlights from that stay; click on pics for the full size.
Ritzy living
Dream schedule
My, how time flies when you’re enjoying yourself! In my first week of scheduling freedom, I have started most days around 8:30-9 in the morning, when I wake up naturally. I then spend the morning whiling away time enjoying an episode of The Voice or some Plants vs. Zombies gaming action. Around noon, I packed up and headed out in search of places where I could sit and read or go online while enjoying the sunshine. Sometimes I ended up hanging out in my car and oftentimes I found myself driving around to various parts of LA – Culver City, Santa Monica, Westwood…
I filled up my tummy for lunch, then spent the afternoons first online, then reading through the first book I plan to cross off my reading list: Switch. Before I knew it, 5 o’clock would roll around and Panda would get back from work to find I wasn’t around. I’d head back to meet up with him for a brief break to decide where to eat and off we’d go. By 9 or 10 we’d be back for the night, winding down the day. All in all a very relaxing and leisurely schedule for me! Perhaps because it was so nice, it went by in a blur and suddenly I find myself at the end of the week wondering where all the days went. Luckily, I now have the weekend to enjoy and more weeks of working online and reading offline to look forward to.
Lego music
Ever want to play a Lego instrument? Well here’s your chance! Just jump on circles on the ground and BAM, music! 😉
Photography skills
I like to tease Panda about his photography skills because his pictures usually come out blurry. Here is one such case where he took a picture, which looks kind of cool, but doesn’t exactly show you what it is we were trying to capture… (though now that I look at it from afar you can kind of tell it’s a bird). Click on the pictures for larger views!
On the brink of freedom
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!
Jellylife
The life of jellyfish… slow, meandering, and glowing?
Tortoise and hare
The Wildlife Learning Center in Sylmar had a special day for Bruin alum because the founder was a UCLA grad himself. We got to see lots of cool creatures!
Final countdown
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.
Bird invasion
You can’t see them all but boy can you hear them! The birds had taken over that roof.
Habitat for Humanity company volunteering
We spent all day Friday out working on a Habitat for Humanity house as a company event, which was quite nice. Since it was overcast and a bit drizzly, we were limited to painting and cleaning. Originally we were supposed to help rip off the roof! Oh well, the guys still got to go to another house down the block that needed some demolition work.