Giving Things Up
Jan 18 2009

This weekend I completely spaced on my daughter’s swim class.  Her class has been at 10:00 for the last 4 months but because of a few unexpected things that happened on Saturday morning (e.g., our house cleaner who comes every two weeks called in sick so I had to quickly start changing beds/washing sheets & towels and my husband was gone for activities surrounding the founding of The Magellan School) my mind somehow shifted into thinking the class was at 10:30.

We showed up at 10:30, and I wondered where the other kids in her class were when my son pointed through the window and said ‘there they are!‘  It still hadn’t hit me that I had gotten the time wrong and I walked in and the parents said ‘there you are‘ and in slow motion I said ‘did I miss the class?‘ and they all nodded.  I was in shock because I’ve never done that before.  I apologized profusely.  I asked the teacher if she could just get in for a little bit but she had to go to her next class.  One of the guy teachers who was nearby said he’d give her a mini-lesson and thankfully he spent about 20 minutes with her in the water.  I almost cried on the spot out of gratitude and not having to wallow in guilt while she cried about not being able to swim.  My son waited as patiently as he could on the other side of the window given that I had originally told him he could play a game on my new iPhone for a little while during her class.  The teacher was so kind to her and gave her piggy back rides while taking her under water.  She laughed and smiled.  He called her ‘sweet pea‘ and ‘sweetie pie‘ and if he wasn’t in the water, I would have given him a big hug for making/saving my day!   You can’t buy that kind of marketing and in that one instant, I wanted to tell everyone how amazing Emler Swim School is!

Well, last month I forgot to pay the mortgage or shall I say I remembered too late.  I’ve never done that either so we had to suck it up and pay a late fee much to my chagrin.  I can’t recall ever paying a late fee although I’m sure it’s happened at least once on something.

Oh and I didn’t win my longed for trip to Tobago mostly because I didn’t have the time or wasn’t able to come up with the right strategy in a timely manner to make it happen. Looking back, I think if I had taken off a week from my day job to make sure I won this week vacation, I would have won. 🙂

UPDATE: After finishing this blog post, I went to a yoga class.  I got there only to realize I forgot my yoga mat (for the first time ever!) at home despite going back into the house before I left to get it and a towel.  I had to rent a mat and let’s just say a rental mat offers a sub par experience to your own purple mat.  My right ankle hurts a little bit now.

So needless to say these are signs that I have too much going on…some of which I’ve blogged about and some of which I haven’t and probably won’t.  I’ve started to look at the things I can give up in my life and I’ve given up a couple of things so far.  I gave up co-writing the series for the UT Alumni magazine and just last week I took a leave of absence from my weekly Blog Mastermind call with some amazing folks who I mentioned in the GigaOm article I did on finding a business parter online.  It was a tough decision but they were all supportive and told me I was welcome back at any time.  I’ve also started to unsubscribe from blogs, newsletters, etc. that I haven’t been reading anyway.  I’m taking a long hard look at my life and trying to figure out what I can give up without giving up anything I really want/need to do.

I may need to give up some things temporarily while I sort things out and find a way to integrate them back into my life once I deal with some of the other things going on in my life, but how does one do this without risking making the wrong decisions?  Sigh.

I wonder if we had a crystal ball if any of us would still in fact be able to make the perfect decision.  So far, I feel like I’ve been extremely lucky in the decisions I have made in my life and although I certainly wish I could change a few things, I don’t have any big regrets.

Have you given up something and felt relieved?  Have you given up something and later wished you hadn’t because you weren’t able to go back to doing it again?  Or as my friend Robb just asked “What is the biggest thing you have ever given up on?” and my answer was “Myself.” But I usually pull myself out of it pretty quickly when I repeatedly realize that I am my own worst critic and at times my own best cheerleader…

Author: | Filed under: entrepreneurship, parenting | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments »

Please, Please, Please Vote To Send Me To Tobago
Jan 12 2009

So I’m not really sure how the winner will be selected or how much the independent voting counts but in case you missed it, I entered a contest to win a $5,000 trip to Tobago.  I mentioned things like steel pan drums, blue water, cabana boys, foot massages, and 4 bedrooms in my contest entry post that was exactly 350 words long.  I NEED this vacation like a fish needs water and to have it for free (well there’s no such thing as a free lunch — so almost free) would be blissful.

So if you could be so kind as to click this link: http://blog.homeaway.com/node/42 and hit the Vote button, I would be ever so grateful…well as grateful as any gal can be to people she might or might not know who vote for her to win something fabulous based on a blog entry. 

When you hit the Vote button it will bring you back to my blog and show you the original entry.  At the top of the browser, you will be asked to enter your email address in order to vote.  Of course HomeAway, the sponsor of this competition, wants to make sure the voters are legit!  Voting is open until January 15, 2009 I think.

UPDATE: You should get a confirmation email with a link you HAVE to click in order to confirm the vote.  If you don’t get it, please check your junk/spam folder and if you still don’t find it, please email Victor at Victor at vwang@homeaway.com and let him know.  I know this is a lot of steps…too bad this isn’t for a $20,000 vacation so that all of you could come with me! 🙂

THANK YOU from the bottom of my weary brain and heart that both long to sit under a palapa listening to the sound of the ocean and tropical birds, while sipping the perfect pina colada. 😎

Author: | Filed under: Just For Fun, travel | Tags: , , , , | 5 Comments »

Calgon Take Me Away
Dec 28 2008

Yes, I need a getaway (click this link if you want to learn how to enter the contest yourself) and here’s my entry to win a dream vacation valued up to $5,000 from Home Away in exactly 350 words: 

Actually, Calgon can’t help me now.  The day job, after hours job, two kids, husband, a house, financial crisis, etc. have taken their toll.  And the 1970’s Enjoli perfume commercial (click on the YouTube link to see a beautiful, perfectly figured, exceptionally tall, blonde woman who wears 3 outfits in one day strutting her stuff!) that glorified women bringing home the bacon, frying it up in a pan, doing laundry, and never letting you forget you’re a man is a bunch of bull corn.  Yes, I said bologna bull corn.  Hitting her man on the head with the frying pan is much more realistic! 

tobago-jacarandaSo yes, I need a getaway to a warm, sunny, seaside location where I can sit under a palapa sipping margaritas, pina coladas, cosmopolitans, Mexican Martinis, oh heck why not some straight up tequila shots!  Somewhere (with a beach view) that I can wake up the next day not hung over (hey, this is a dream vacation, right?) with svelte cabana boys (ssshhh, don’t tell my husband) waiting on me hand and foot…especially foot.  I’m a sucker for a good foot massage… 

So you might be asking yourself where is this location that I can blow $5,000?  Is it in Mexico, in Asia, South America, in Europe, or even on this planet?  Well my first choice of Tahiti apparently does not yet exist in the Home Away network, or I’m not capable of using the search feature correctly…which is quite possible.  So I had to settle for Cuba.  Just kidding! 

But seriously, I’ll take Tobago because there were far too many options for Hawaii for my currently stuffy allergy and/or cold ridden head to process.  I’ve been to Tobago on a work related trip many years ago.  The water was the bluest I had ever seen and the steel pan drums were the steeliest I had ever heard.  So check out Jacaranda house (click to see the property). It has 4 bedrooms (for the cabana boys and my girlfriends), 3 bathrooms, and rents for $2,086 to $3,129 per week.  Ahhh, I can smell the coconut rum already…

Author: | Filed under: Just For Fun, random stuff, travel | Tags: , , , , , , , | 18 Comments »