Out of the ordinary

This week would have been an almost normal week except for an act of near spontaneity - near only because I had been planning to do what I ended up doing before dropping the idea and then deciding to actually go through with it at the last minute. On Tuesday afternoon I jetted down to Atlanta to attend the German American Chamber of Commerce New Year's Reception, an event that provided ample opportunity to network with German businesspeople from the Atlanta area as well as people who have some sort of personal or professional connection to Germany. I ended up getting the ticket for $5.00 with my Skymiles and was able to stay downtown with a friend, whom I had met in 2008 when I first attended the event. The only problem I had was that my wardrobe was void of anything even close to resembling business attire. I have several cute, fun, summery dresses and at least one formal cocktail dress, but none were really up for the occasion. The rest of my wardrobe basically consists of casualwear - and when I say casual I mean sweatpants-t-shirt-and-a-fleece kind of casual. I often joke that wearing jeans is getting dressed up. After all, I work from home. I take naps when I feel the need and thus I feel no need to wear anything other than things that make me feel comfortable. I'll admit that I do have a couple of pairs of slacks, but nothing that I could magically turn into a professional looking outfit. On Monday night, after ransacking my closet in a last effort to somehow find something suitable to wear, I came to the dreaded conclusion that yes, I would in fact have to make a trip to the mall in search of something to wear Tuesday morning before leaving for Atlanta.

Unlike most women, I absolutely hate shopping. The thought of it almost sends my stomach into knots. If I could have it my way, I'd have a personal fashion assistant come along with me, or, better yet, do the shopping for me and always get it right because they know how to dress me. Since that isn't and likely never will be my reality, I instead have to ask a salesperson in the respective store for assistance. Although I'm not a shopper, I was disturbed to find out that the stores in nearest mall don't open until 10 AM - wouldn't it make more sense for them to open early, or do real shoppers sleep in? I killed some time at Target picking up some last-minute items before heading to the mall across the street. I circled around the mall - upstairs and downstairs - for about 10 minutes until the first gates to the stores started to go up. I was the first person in LOFT and was slightly perturbed that the saleswomen neither greeted me nor asked me if I wanted assistance. Did I really look that frumpy? Isn't every person who comes through the door a potential customer in need of assistance - even more so the one who really looks like she needs a completely new wardrobe, like me? In the past I have been known to be annoyed by such greetings, but on Tuesday I actually needed to be asked. I browsed around the store for a little while, not particularly enthusiastic about anything on the racks. After about 15 minutes I finally had to ask for some assistance - yet she still didn't seem particularly excited about helping me. It turned out that everything the two of us picked out was a disaster - the colors and styles made me want to scream in horror as I began to look like some sort of a clown from a frilly floral freak show. I hated the collars, I hated the cardigans (I can't stand button-up sweaters in general), I really hated the striped "bag" shirt (I prefer more form fitting attire if I have to dress up) - basically I hated pretty much everything. After wasting a good portion of the very little time that I had allotted for shopping, I quickly hurried into the next store - Benneton - where everything was on sale. That quickly proved to be a major miss as well, with my sizes being gone in everything I liked and the Italian sizes proving to be more than just a little confusing (no they are nothing like German sizes - those I have long figured out!). With about 45 minutes left to find something, I knew that Express was probably going to be my best bet. Within moments of entering the store, I knew I should have gone there first. Not only did they have business attire, they had it in my size (most importantly in my size and petite) and in multiple options. The sales girls were more than helpful and I ended up getting a black jacket with matching pants, a matching skirt, and two blouses. I actually looked like a business professional and was quite certain that I wouldn't be mistaken for a high school student (as I was the night before in art class). I quickly hurried home, changed into the pant suit with the sharp and shiny royal blue blouse, and hurried off to the airport - my brother volunteering to drive me as well as stay at my house for the night to watch the dogs.

Once I got to Atlanta, I took MARTA straight downtown to my friend's condo, quickly freshened up, hailed a taxi, and headed to the event. Although I had been to the same event twice before - in 2008 and 2009 - I was only certain of knowing one familiar face. I got there about an hour after everything had started, which might have been to my disadvantage in retrospect. I find it extremely difficult to engage in smalltalk and "naturally" socialize.I don't think there's anything natural about it. Nevertheless, I tried my best, but soon found myself in the very awkward situation of trying to hold a champagne glass and a plate of food, all while trying to eat what is on the plate with only a fork. The stuffed mushrooms clearly needed to be cut with a knife to avoid the embarrassment of looking like a chipmunk with stuffed cheeks. However, a frantic mishap resulting from an attempt to cut the mushroom with the fork and having it fly into someone's face would have been even worse. Thankfully that didn't happen, but that vision was in the back of my mind. It would have been better had I not needed to eat at all, but since I had only had some fruit, an egg, and gluten-free toast for "breakfast" at 12:30, I was starving and had to eat something. Despite these initial difficulties, I did actually manage to engage in a few conversations (mostly in German) and exchange a few business cards. I of course enjoyed astonishing native German speakers by the fact that I'm not actually German (one of my favorite things to do!), which actually led to a couple of conversations with GACC staff who may need translations. I met one person whom I ended up hanging out with the most, who introduced me to another language services provider (the owner of a translation agency) and who also gave me a book tip to perhaps help with such networking situations in the future. I'll definitely have to give it a read.

While I certainly didn't become a networking expert in one evening, I definitely think it was good to put myself out there, get away from my everyday life for an evening and - most importantly - step outside of my comfort zone. I certainly had nothing to lose - who knows, I might have even gained something more than just a new, professional look!

The outfit I wore Tuesday night

Jacket with skirt

The two new blouses

Playing with paint

Last week I decided to sign up for a new activity, which started tonight. The title: "Exploring your Creativity". I haven't taken art classes since I was in middle school so it's been quite a long time. Any artistic endeavors I've attempted in past years have usually been quite intentional - when I set my mind to do something I can usually do it. But simply doodling and drawing for fun or to take my mind off of things that might be bothering has never really been my outlet. The problem is that I don't really have an outlet - my brain is usually in overdrive, worrying about things that are beyond my control. I figured I needed an activity that would take my mind to another place and use parts of the brain that are understimulated. Tonight did just the trick. There has definitely been a lot on my mind lately and it was good to simply allow myself to be an "anti-perfectionist", to draw squiggly lines, and play with finger paint. Dabbing my fingers into primary colors I wiped them in various patterns across half of a blank sheet of paper, then folded it in half to create a mirror image of my paint splatter. The results looked a lot like the ink splotch images psychiatrists use, and in away the activity sort of felt like therapy. The realist, INTJ that I am sometimes struggles with non-realistic things, but this activity helped me release some of that for two hours. Hopefully as I continue taking classes some of that artistic creativity will splash into other areas of my life. I'm looking forward to it!

The long, low hound gang

As I hinted in my last post, there is now a new certain someone special in my life who happens to come along with a great dog - a beagle-basset mix named Toby. When I had J. over for dinner a couple of weeks ago, it was great to see how great he got along with Quintin and Jewel and how much they liked him. I've since had the opportunity to hang out with Toby a few times and he is really sweet - unbelievably he never barks! My dogs, on the other hand, can be barkaholics and are not exactly known for their fondness of other canines (just remember how they were when I rescued the boxer back in November). I sometimes call them little breedists, but they have even lashed out at other dachshunds for no reason at all. The thought of a meeting between our dogs terrified me - but how is a relationship supposed to work if we can't bring our dogs together? Obviously this is a hurdle that has to be overcome, so today we took our first step towards facing this challenge (4 miles worth of steps to be exact).

I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about today's canine encounter. We decided to meet at a local walking path around a lake and walk our dogs together. Usually when my dogs encounter other dogs on our usual walks they go nuts, barking aggressively at any canine they see. I tried to put my negative thoughts behind me - in particular that image in the back of my head of Quintin attacking Toby - and focused on positive energy. When our dogs first met my two barked a bit, but with some mild correction were eventually quite well behaved. At Quintin's first attempt to lunge at Toby, J. promptly scolded Quintin and made sure he knew that such behavior was unacceptable. Before anything else could happen, we set off on our walk around the lake. J. has done such a great job with Toby and has clearly taken Cesar Milan's tips to heart; J.'s calmness and composure seemed to be positively transferred to my dogs. Of course it also helped that he had come prepared with plenty of reward treats! It didn't take too long before all three of our dogs were walking together as a gang of long, low hounds. Quintin only acted up a couple of times, but the correction seemed to work. What was even more amazing was that my dogs not only walked together with Toby (who often took the lead), but that they were even quite calm as we passed other dogs of all shapes and sizes. In fact, as I was leaving the park I ran into my former dog trainer who was impressed to see how well my dogs behaved around other dogs. Definitely confirmation that something is going right!

While there is certainly a long way to go, I think we are headed in the right direction. Hopefully the day when all three dogs can calmly hang out together in the same room isn't too far away!

(I didn't manage to get a picture of the three hounds today, but I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities.)

A new month and a new year

Greetings readers - I can't believe I only managed to write 3 posts in December - all of which had to do with Christmas baking (no wonder!) There were a lot of other things keeping me away from writing such as: work (particularly tons of translations for the Oriental rug industry, just like in November), getting out and being more active, a certain special someone I started communicating with before Thanksgiving and finally met on December 9th, a Christmas cruise to Cozumel (Mexico), as well as relaxing and recuperating after the cruise and into the first couple of days of the new year.

The Christmas cruise was a lot of fun, especially our white Christmas in Cozumel (by that I mean white sand). Unfortunately on the way back from Mexico a cold front hit the Gulf at around 1 AM on December 26th and the entire rest of the ride back was accompanied by really rough waters. Despite all prevention aids, my mom got extremely seasick and had to get IV fluids in the infirmary. I didn't get sick but found the only way to prevent the possibility of seasickness was to lie down, so I stayed in bed for almost the remainder of the cruise. But up until then we really had a great time. I'm not sure I've become a cruising person. I think now I can say I've done it, but don't really have to do it again. I think I prefer more privacy and more opportunities for real relaxation. I also didn't really enjoy being really dizzy for days after the cruise, which only started to wear off a week later.

After getting back from the cruise I stayed at my mom's until this past Tuesday, where I was really able to read and relax. That was more of a vacation for me. I did a little bit of work here and there, but I mostly enjoyed sleeping and reading to my heart's content. I read "Welcome to the World, Baby Girl" by Fannie Flagg (author of Fried Green Tomatoes) and have started "Blue Like Jazz" and just finished "The 5 Love Languages". On the professional front I'll be reading more books on writing and style, but I want to make sure I manage to find more time to read for pleasure.

New Year's Eve I was supposed to go to a New Year's Eve party with a certain special someone, but he was sick and those plans fell through. Thankfully I had a backup plan - aka Raclette with the family. I brought this tradition back from Germany and we absolutely love it. For those of you not familiar with raclette, it is a cousin of fondue. Instead of a pot, raclette has a grill that is set in the middle of the table. You can grill on the top and below there are small individual pans for people to cook in. You can put pretty much anything you want in the pan and then you top it off with a slice of cheese that melts. The word raclette means to scrape - i.e. scrape the cheese and all the stuff out of the little pan. When your little portion is done you put it onto your plate and eat it with potatoes. You keep making individual portions until you are full. This is a social meal that can last for hours. I've yet to meet anyone who doesn't like it. This year's raclette featured: tomatoes, pears, mushrooms (shiitake and baby bellas) asparagus, onion, pineapple, scallops, corn, bell peppers, shrimp, walnuts, steak, grape tomatoes, zucchini and squash, raclette cheese, cheddar cheese, colby jack cheese. brie and gorgonzola. As sides at the table we had homemade bread and butter pickles from my stepdad's daughter and pickled beets. As sauces we had aioli from Trader Joe's, honey mustard dressing, A1. I also used curry powder and an Middle Eastern spice blend to season my food.

As for New Year's resolutions, I wrote down a few little things: achieve a better work/life balance, read more, cook more (I'd like to try one new recipe per week), achieve my target weight (i.e. lose 6-7 lbs) and maintain it, pay off the car (scheduled to be paid off in May - 1.5 years ahead of schedule) and save more. I'm also hoping to do some traveling this year - at least one trip to Germany, hopefully a trip to China in September/October to visit a friend, and who knows what else I might come up with.

I'm sure some of you might be curious about my mentions of a special someone. I'll get to that in another post, just be patient.