Visit to the dr - not bad!

Well, in other news we made a trip to the dr. today, and according to him, things seem to be way improved for me health-wise. Yay!!!! As long as things continue to move in this direction, 2009 is already a better year personally than '08.

I'm just ecstatic with positive news, as this has been such trying time on our family and friends.  I think that we still have a few more months of hardship ahead of us, but it's nice to know that things will continue to improve.

I've been using my family's advice and trying my best not to be stressed or worried about anything. Of course, easier said than done! I think that that little change in mindset is going to take a while, and be a forever work in progress.

So we watched a few Hindi movies this past weekend, and I spent time with some good friends from college. It was nice to have that block of time with family and friends at once, and I hope I don't go through withdrawal over the next few days.
TTFN and Night all,
A

Today is way better

I was having a reaallllly bad day yesterday, and I think my last post reflects the state of mind that I was in at the time. It's a little fast for another post, but I couldn't leave that last one of the most current image in anyone's mind. My one saving grace through this experience has been positive and forward thinking, and I want it back as soon as possible!

I'm sure that this next few months of recovery will take me through many ups and downs. I'd like to think that last night was the worst of it, although it eventually just needed an over the counter med to take effect. It can always get worse, so I want to treasure every positive moment that I experience through this.

Now that I've covered a bit of the sadness in my life, let's cover some of the not-so-sad parts. Until recently, I worked professionally with a Microsoft software called Navision. I managed a help desk and trained users on Navision. The next step on my career path is to become an implementer, so I plan to use this free time to obtain further certifications on the Navision front. I'm a bit rusty right now, but I do plan to get back into the program soon. I'm not sure whether that is next month or a few months from now, but I realize now that my mind can't decide when the healing happens - the body will, and I must be patient. This is one valuable quality that I can improve in myself patience with nature and letting things happen as they will. At some point you just have to trust that things will work out for the best, do your part when possible. and then let them.

Boring post, I know. Navision is quite interesting to those that work with it, but it sounds quite dry when described professionally. It is an enterprise resource planning software that encompasses all the activities and transactions that can occur within a small-to-medium-sized organization. I have obtained my Navision certifications in Financials and Trade 5. Next steps are certifications in Manufacturing and Warehouse Management.

So what else? It's just a lazy Sunday around here. We have the christmas tree up and are eagerly awaiting my husband and my sister and her husband - they all get into town this week. I haven't done a thing in the way of Christmas presents - I'm hoping my parents can just cover me this year for the most part. Being housebound really puts a damper on your ability to shop, but I feel kind of lucky because of my disability this week! Shhhhh-don't tell!

Have a beautiful day,
Amy

The real deal

I've been purposely staying off topic with this blog while I grapple with some of the real issues at hand. Fact A - I am currently in the process of undergoing treatment for a major illness while I recuperate in my parents' home. Fact B - My husband is in the process of moving our things from LA to Houston, where I am. Fact C - I was working full-time until Mid-October,. Fact D - My prognosis appears to be good, but it is still too soon to know how far the disease has progressed. We believe that the illness started at the beginning of this year, but do not know this for sure, and what the current form it takes is. Fact E - We have tons of friends and family that have shown themselves to be increasingly more supportive as time goes on. My family and I continue the slow process of imparting the above to our nearest and dearest as we struggle to deal with day-to-day issues around the holidays. Suffice it to say, this can definitely be considered one of the hardest of our lives/

I am so thankful to have this blog as a relatively new outlet, and look forward to turning it into a source of information and entertainment for others. Something good always comes of hardship, and I'm looking to this blog to be my resulting gift to the world. I'm sure it will do more to help me with distractions that are sorely needed at this point in time.

TTFN,
A

Taking care of bizness

Well today has been quite productive. I got rid of several to-dos over the phone today, which is always nice.

I was reading an interview with the author of the GTD (Getting Things Done) book, David Allen, and it reminded me of a time when I was regularly crossing to-dos off a list and feeling good about it. It inspired me to take action today, which, in turn, is a great sign that healing is happening. Yay!

I had been reading a lot about the GTD approach and maximizing productivity over the past year. Efficiency is a big deal to me, and I am constantly striving to be more organized and efficient in my daily life. This seems like a great time to practice this quality in myself and my family.

How important is efficiency and organization to you in your daily activities? Is it something that you strive toward, or does it just come naturally? Or do you just do your thing, and worry about re-organizing later as part of future reiterations?

I used to fall into the last category, but I'm trying to change that. As a person that has always had trouble managing the stuff around me, I think that this will go years toward making my life happier. I can't wait to see these effects, as they have started showing up everywhere around me.

I'm specifically focussing right now on clutter in my physical and virtual environments. I'm currently working on cleaning out my email inbox for the last several years. Amazingly enough (and surprise surprise) I've saved all of the jokes and cute emails that I've received since 2004. OK, that's embarrassing to admit. But admitting errors is the first step toward change, and I am all about change right now. So I've started the process with the deletion of 1K emails so far, and will continue to do this until it is down to a manageable level. The next step will probably be removing my name from mailing lists that I no longer have the time or need to keep up with so that it takes less effort to maintain my inbox. I have a tendency to go through phases with mailing lists, and of course, once the phase is over, I continue to be bombarded with mail that now needs to be deleted. I'm resolving to revisit my inbox periodically to weed out these time wasters before they become issues. Daily Candy in LA regular updates during this phase of moving from LA back to TX - not so useful!

At close to 6k emails in my personal inbox, the whole thing is still a daunting and tedious task to be undertaken. Oh well, that's just more incentive to perform iterations more often and prevent this from becoming such a bear again in the future.

OK, sorry for the tedious post, but I'm sure thatthere is at least one other person out there that can get something out of this. And it helps me to write about my efforts and to commit to the process verbally. So that's two people that are helped in the process.

That's all for now!
A

Pissed off

I'm in the mood to vent of spleen right now, so please skip this post if this sort of thing is not entertaining to you.

I'm just so irritated at everyone and everything in the world right now! I'm sick of being sick and housebound, waiting for the hubby to get here and worrying about the plans to transport cars and stuff over several states, wondering about the cats, dealing with temperature fluctuations due to different meds, being constantly forcefed by the p's, having people ask to visit, being asked for help by the p's for silly things, stomach queasiness that is near-constant, you name it at this point. If you know me there is a pain in my side with your name on it.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. I normally am good at rising above this sort of petty shit, but hey, it happens.

To continue from my previous post, I had about 20 years of floundering, until I started on a course of treatment that changed my life. I then expereienced what I still consider to be the best and craziest 6 months of my life in which I had a really close set of friends and an educational and career path that I could look forward to. I met my husband and the rest is history. It has been quite a turbulent and crazy ride, and you know what, it just never stops!

OK, I feel better now. This blogging thing is fabulous.
I need to work more on editing, but, hey, that's something to strive for. Onward and upward!

Later,
A

The elusivity of happiness

The inspiration for this post comes from an interview done by Gretchen Rubin with Deborah Norville for her Happiness Project:
http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2008/12/happiness-int-1.html

The interview itself was interesting, but what actually stirred me up enough to write was a comment from a poster that happiness tips from a person that has always been happy are not so useful.

As someone who has had a lifelong struggle chasing the elusiveness of happiness (to paraphrase Mrs. Norville's quote, which I love), I definitely have something to add from the other side.
Mr. Pavlina urges us to use 'fear as the carrot, not the stick'.

I read some posts today on Obama and racism and sexism, and when these issues will cease to matter when evaluating candidates. My personal hot topic is depression - it sounds scary and is scary, and has so many stigmas attached. I come from the Indian-American community, where this word is not even mentioned in any kind of discussion. I have yet to discuss depression and my own personal struggles in the past with anyone outside my closest friends, husband, parents, and sister. I think I'm ready for this to change.

What works for me is a combination of extra protein in my diet, regular exercise (which I'm generally bad at maintaining), regular chiropractic treatments, and at least 8 hours of sleep at night. If you have tips for what works for you, please post them!

TTFN,
Amy

TMI - its where we live!

OK, next question. Where is the divide drawn in a blog between 'what you do' and 'what you are'? I've been reading up on the perils of putting too much of yourself out there in a blog when the focus should be on marketing oneself as an authority in your career field of choice. This is a huge question that I am struggling with right now, as my family live in a country called TMI. It's a way-of-life for us, one of that I struggle to get a handle on with age and maturity of course.

Where do you draw the line? I have read up on this very struggle by Penelope Trunk and my other favorite bloggers, and hope to learn from their experiences on this journey.

The other issue that I stuggle with is to whom this blog is made accessible. I have removed the link on my facebook page until I figure this out. Something inherently more comfortable about virtual strangers knowing your innermost business :)

And yet another issue that comes up for me as to organize the layout and plans for my personal forum - image. It's not something that I've ever really concerned myself with, and as a result, I never really managed my personal image well. This falls in line with the question of TMI and oversharing.

I hate the idea of talking strictly about professional and not personal interests. My bent is toward the latter - I would much rather go through my personal struggles over the past 20+ plus years. I know that I could help others with what I have to share, but I first need to prep myself internally for the information being out there. Bear with me - I realize that this is all very theoretical when laid out like this and not very entertaining, but I will come to a decision and move forward with it soon - that I promise you!

Until later,
A

Phones - are there too many out there?

Not to jump around too much subject-wise, but which phones are you gadget junkies salivating over right now - the bberry storm or bold? Or are you still ecstatic with your iphones?

I have a 3 year old gorgeous phone that I had been loathe to give up for years. This thing was in my color and had everything I needed and kept me from feeling too 'accessible' to work and home. Now I feel ready to get a phone that offers more features to choose from and I'm not so concerned about it being in my favorite color - I can tell this is going to be another tmi post! Oh well, my friends all know and love me well for my eccentricities.

How much of your phone is just about it being a means to contact people and keep pieces of data handy, and how much of it is about the image that one projects to others? I have struggled with this concept for years, and worry that I am moving from function to form, which is not the direction that I want to be moving in. Of course my current phone is bright cherry red - maybe a little more function and form are called for here?

The other feature that I desperately need improved functionality on is my current speaker phone. The one I currently use is mono only, which is a no-no if you are against headsets, as I am. So much to choose from - there are just too many options out there! And how long is the latest gadget the very latest thing anyway - a week if you're lucky?

Update as of 12/09 - based on mollywood's review of the latest blackberrys, I'm once again leaning toward the Bold: http://www.wowowow.com/post/mollywood-new-blackberry-storm-iphone-smart-phone-146277. Now I just need to make sure that it is available at Sprint..

Tata for now,
A

What a year!

Now that I have found some time to reflect on 2008, I realize what a crazy year this has been! I started a new job, which I loved, had some strange health issues periodically, celebrated my sister's wedding over 2 weeks of craziness, welcomed my husband back from his 6 month overseas trip to deal with family lawsuits, dealt with a lawsuit in the US, got laid off from said job, went on a cruise to Mexico, signed a settlement for the US lawsuit, and got diagnosed with a major illness.

Now that I have recovered a bit from the above, at least enough to be able to write about it somewhat coherently, I am working to keep positive about the future. I know for sure that these are minor setbacks, and that things will hopefully continue to improve. I am so ready to move back into my independent life - depending on others just sucks!

Of course, the year hasn't been all bad. Obama won, my sister's wedding was a truly fabulous occasion, the cruise was awesome, and I made some amazing new friends at work and home. There is also a real sense of trust that must be established in order for you to depend on others for basic things. I'm not sure that I ever had that sense of trust in anyone, at least not for a very long time. It feels great to know that my family has my back no matter what - I'm not sure that I ever really realized this before. Strange but true!

I realize now that maybe this time off from life is what I need in order to regroup and make changes for the better. Generally periods of intense turmoil are accompanied by growth, and it ends up having been worth it when you look back. I'm not worried, just ready for 2008 to be over. This has been quite a year!

A

Reflexology rules!

I just had my first full reflexology session today, and it was fabulous. I've been experiencing some foot pain lately, and have a cruise to Mexico coming up next week. The doctors are stumped as to the cause of pain, and I was getting a bit desperate to feel better in prep for the vacay, so I decided to give reflexology a try.

After the session, the pain was close to gone. I still have a bit of trouble with pressure on the soles of my feet, hence the constant donning of uggs, but I do have hope now of graduating to shoes that are a bit cuter.

I'd really like to encourage anyone that has any sort of pain (non-emergency of course) or trouble sleeping (check) to try this alternative mode of therapy out. I don't think I have ever been more relaxed in my life than I was after my session (I really mean EVER). I'll post more on this session later for those of you that are still reading. I just wanted to mention this great event in my day while it was fresh on my mind.

Now off to try on bathing suits!

A

My first post

This is my first post on the new blog.
As the title states, I live with my husband and our cats, Gigi and Lulu. Those of you that know me well have met all four of us. If you only know me from an online forum, you have not actually met any of us. No matter - technology now makes f2f (face to face) meetings non essential, although nice-to-have.

I work with a Microsoft software called Navision.
Please stay tuned, there is more to come..