Breaking Point

For the first time in years working for my company, I reached my breaking point yesterday. I'm notorious in my group for being a workaholic and working long hours and well, sort of patient in dealing with a lot of things. I work in IT operations and my job is all about proactively preventing problems, fixing problems and trying to figure out how to make things better for the user community.

This week has been hell for me. Yesterday, I just could not bear hearing another complaint from anyone especially from people in my group. Each time someone from my group approached my desk, I would ask them if they were going to complain and if they had complaints, go take a number or get in line because I just could not deal with it.

I'm a problem solver. I have a one track mind when it comes to solving issues that my group is dealing with. If there is a problem, I fix it period. I have lost count of the number of times that I was told by the higher-ups to just go and take care of the problem -- just make it disappear. They don't care how I would do it as long as the end all is the problem has been resolved. One of our users told me today that I am the "super" problem solver that's why they come to me to take care of things. Maybe I do have some sort of super hero complex after all...

Travelling Again

I'm at SFO International Airport again right now. I'm off to Dallas this week for a few days for work. I hope it's not going to be too busy that I'll never see anything else except the hotel, the office and whichever restaurant I decide to eat at.

During my last trip, I was hoping to get to the mothership (Neiman Marcus flagship store) but I never did. I NEED, NEED, NEED to visit that store. I'm planning on taking off early today just to go and see it.

It's Been a Blur...

I’ve gone through a series of déjà vu’s lately. If you go through my past blogs, you’ll find the word AGAIN, over and over. I was going to title this blog as Houston again.

I was back in Houston again this week. At the time of writing of this blog, I’m on an airplane, on my way home. The past 2 weeks of my life has been as about the Houston office set-up. Working late nights, not having enough sleep, getting on an airplane and flying back and forth between SF and Houston have consumed my time for the past 2 weeks. Although I did manage to squeeze in going to Disneyland in between my 2 trips to Houston. Time just flew for me these past 2 weeks. Everything that happened seems so hazy and just went quickly past before my eyes.

I probably would’ve hated doing this office setup just because I needed to think of all the aspects of integrating their system with ours and because of the fact that it just takes a lot of time and there’s a lot of things that need to be done. Thank goodness, the people there were very nice so it made things a lot easier.

Another Airport... Another Plane Ride...

I’m at San Francisco International Airport right now waiting for my flight to Houston. Yep, I seem to be a regular at SFO this year.

Never been to Houston before. I’ll be there for 3 days. I’m not too sure if I will actually get to see anything in Houston. I’m setting up another office there for the company I work for. So it’s another office and another server room...

Airplanes

I hate flying on planes. I realize that unless I learn how to levitate or grow wings or mutate into a superhero who knows how to fly, I will need to get on a plane to fly across the country.

I used to look forward getting on an airplane when I was younger. It didn’t happen often and I sort of viewed it as an experience plus not everyone at the place I grew up in even had the chance to ride on a plane. Plane tickets were too expensive (not that they’re any cheaper now).

I’m just not as thrilled now as I used to be. I guess when you keep on doing something regularly, the novelty wears off. It turns out to be a boring, tedious thing that I have to go through to get from here to there and from there to here. I can’t remember how many times I’ve been on a plane this year and I think I’ll be on a couple more flights before the end of the year the way things are going right now.

I really hate take offs, landings, and whenever the plane hits turbulence. My heart goes to my throat at these times. I usually sleep through the take off and if I’m able to, I would love to sleep through the entire flight. Landings are tricky. There’s nothing much I can do except sit through it and hope for the best.

I’m at NY’s JFK Airport right now waiting for my flight home. I can’t think of a better way to spend the time than to blog. (re: I AM SO BORED!). In about an hour and a half, I’m getting on a plane for a boring 6 hour trip home.

So ready to go home...

I am so ready to go home now. I fly out on Wednesday night. I really cannot wait. I'm feeling homesick. I miss Arvin (my hubby) and I miss my furbaby Jack. I miss seeing my saltwater aquarium as well. I just hope that everything is okay with it. I am really going to cry if my tank is dead because I've been away for so long.

I am sooooooooooooo tired. I usually don't sleep well when I travel and not being able to sleep well for a week is catching up on me. Eastern time sucks for me. I have trouble adjusting to the time whenever I go East.

In as much as I love coming to New York City, I don't think I can ever work/live here again. It's just too stressful for me. It's too crowded and people are always in a hurry. Sure, I miss going to Broadway shows since San Francisco is not much of a theatre town. But then again, I seem to be coming to NY a lot lately.

36 hours, 30 minutes and counting and I am flying out of here...

Maybe surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
I just wanna go home
Babe I miss you, you know

--Michael Buble, Home

Me the Workaholic

It's 8pm on a Tuesday night and here I am still at work. I am pretty much watching grass grow on one of my servers so it's a really good time to blog. Plus, I have not written anything for a while.

The past few weeks, my life has been consumed by work, work, work and more work. It's just that there are so many things going on at the same time at work. My hours are prety much 9AM to 6PM however, when I get home, I cannot help but whip out my laptop, VPN to the office and continue where I left off.

I really enjoy what I do that's why I don't mind the long hours. Everything I do looks like play to me. My servers, SAN and other IT equipment are my toys. I look at every problem as a challenge and a puzzle I need to solve. Makes things really easy for me.

My name is Carmila and I am a WORKAHOLIC!

Only in Dallas

It's been almost a week since I came back home from Dallas. I have several pictures on my Treo that I felt I should post in here. I know, I know, it's a phone, takes crappy pictures but I have it with me all the time so I can just whip it out and snap away.

Anyways, here are a few pictures that I took in Dallas on my Treo.

Dallas Galleria Mall. There are malls everywhere in Dallas. It's a shopping utopia and at the same time purgatory for my credit card.




Reunion Center Ball (ok, maybe I'm making the name up). Anyways, I went up on the ball's observation deck.




Dallas skyline. I took this from the Reunion Center observation deck.






This is from Fogo de Chao. Look closely and you'll see the ribs turning round and round getting cooked. I've never eaten so much meat in my life!



Ummmm... They made it sound like ordering something from a fast food restaurant. I wonder if someone ever goes in and orders condoms "for here".

More of Nothing

Dallas, Day 5:

It's my 5th day in Dallas and Murphy is still screwing around with me. I'm supposed to be going home tomorrow. Everything supposed to be already done but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... Murphy had to screw things up.

My favorite word is NOTHING on this trip. NOTHING is working. NOTHING is done. There is NOTHING to see and NOTHING to do in this city. NOTHING I can do but extend my stay for 2 more days and see more of NOTHING.

Yeah, I am bitter so back off and let me be.

Murphy's Law

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

I have been a victim of Murphy's law this week. I have been in Dallas for the past 2 days to set up the new office. The first day I walked in the new space, my jaw just dropped. I was in shock, cables were hanging loose, furniture was not installed, the patch panel was not installed, the MPLS circuit was installed in the wrong end of the suite, the rack, printer and a lot of other stuff have not been delivered. Total nightmare! Day 2, our MPLS circuit is still not up and it's the most important thing of all. Everything is supposed to be done by Monday. ARRGGGHHHHH...........

Well Murphy, if you're reading this, back off... You're screwing things up!

Everything is HUGE in Texas

I've had a lot of people tell me that everything is HUGE in Texas. I believe it now! Food servings are HUGE, cows are HUGE, even our rental car's HUGE!

I was in Austin Tuesday and Wednesday this week (4/18 & 4/19). It's supposedly a fun town to be in. Unfortunately, I didn't really have any time for fun in Austin. It was work, work, work. Worked late on Tuesday and then had to drive up to Dallas Wednesday night. I only saw the Austin office, the roof of the state capitol, my room at the Omni hotel and County Line BBQ!

Speaking of County Line BBQ, it's the best barbecue I have tasted. Servings were HUGE (of course!) and everything was homemade even the ice cream. I didn't want to leave Austin without going to a landmark restaurant. On the wall, they have pictures of their cows and they are HUGE! They also have a stuffed head of a cow.


See the 3 neon pigs on top of the sign? The pigs turn neon pink when they jump over the BBQ pit. Cute...




Here's the MOTHER OF ALL COWS! This cow is freakin' HUGE! She must've been really special. I bet she tasted really good!




What would you do if you had this stuffed head staring at you while you were eating ribs? I kept on eating.





Cows, cows and a cowboy. Yep, there's cow pictures everywhere.






Meat, meat and more meat.








Even the bread is HUGE!






Oh yeah, we (my co-worker and I) had a pimped out ride. The rental company gave us a Cadillac Escalade ESV. I tell you, that is a big ass car! The freakin' thing is like a truck! We decided to exchange it for a smaller SUV (Ford Explorer) before we kill someone with the HUGE SUV. It was fun while it lasted.




Now, this is what I call a BIG ASS TRUCK!




HUGE, HUMONGOUS, GARGANTUAN, BEHEMOTIC, COLOSSAL, IMMENSE, JUMBO, KING-SIZE, MAMMOTH, ENORMOUS, GIGANTIC, ELEPHANTINE, HULKING, ETC... ETC... That my friend is Texas!

Life is Pandemonium

Some time not too long ago (feels like it was just yesterday but I know it's longer), I felt like I had nothing to do. I had all the time in the world to slack off, surf the web, watch TV/DVDs, read books and just do nothing. Heck, I was even complaining that I was bored and begging people to give me something to do at work.

Funny how things turn out almost overnight. All of a sudden, I get a long list of things to do (yes, that's why I haven't been blogging lately). A lot of them seem to start at the same time and the deadlines are in proximity of one another. I feel that 24 hours is too short and 7 days in a week is not enough. Everyone seems to need me to do something and I also have personal goals that I need to achieve. I am being pulled in different directions.

My life is pandemonium, yet I love it. It's all about the challenge, baby! :)

Tough week

I am so glad this week is over. This has been such a tough week for me. I felt like screaming several times at work out of frustration. Actually, I did scream but not in anyone's face. I normally do not swear no matter how pissed off I am however, this week, I think I broke all records. I've never heard myself swear so much in 1 day! I also got really good at giving the 1 finger salute on both hands to my computer's screen. A lot of my pet peeves seemed to just appear out of nowhere. There were just too many fires to put out.

I kept on listening to Another Day (sung by Kitchie Nadal) just to get me going. Here's my favorite part of the song:

Like a spiral staircase down I go losing every step
I sense an earthquake I.L.U.
Don't even know how to say
When will it break
Today is gone but tomorrow will be okay
I'll wait another day

Hopefully next week will be better...