No work until Wednesday

One week ago we left for my parents' place for Christmas and we got back yesterday. It was a memorable visit; I'll leave it at that. I had a very nice time with my sister who lives in SoCal and because she lives so far away, I see her once, maybe twice a year for only a few days at a time. I always feel so sad when she has to go since I know I won't see her again for many months. I hope we can fly down to see her by spring or summer next year.

I also chatted a lot to her husband who is the number one salesman nationwide in his company and is compensated extremely well for it. Why not get some tips from such success?!?

Now we're back home and nobody is interested in networking or doing business until after New Year's Day, so I'm enjoying a few more days off until January 2 and not putting any pressure on myself.

Right now I'm reading Amy Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses. Of course I know who Amy Tan is, but this is the first book of hers I'm reading, and I did see The Joy Luck Club movie, but didn't read the book. So far it's very good and a nice change from reading books on business and sales techniques. Everyone needs a good work of fiction now and then...

Today's Plans and my speech result

We're off to our friends' house today for a Christmas party. I don't like giving gifts for Christmas because I feel that the holiday has become far too consumer driven. Instead I prefer to gather with people and have delicious food and enjoy one another's company! So today we're going to some dear friends' house and we're having a lovely meal with duck, potatoes, green beans with roasted fennel and pearl onions, honey ginger carrots, beer, champagne, appetizers and a lovely dessert from a local bakery here in town. Aidan will help to decorate their Christmas tree today and all in all, it's going to be a wonderful day.

Speech result from Thursday's Toastmasters: I was awarded best speaker of the night! I was so surprised because I'm up against far more experienced members. I also was awarded best Table Topics, which means you're given an off-the-cuff topic to talk about for 2 minutes. What a surprise!

An over the top birthday gift

So I turn 38 today. At what age can you no longer say 'I'm in my mid-thirties'? At least I can still say that I'm thirty-something! I find I no longer stress about my age the way I used to before I was married with a baby. Just having those two events taken care of has put my heart to rest, FOR ME it was something very important to fulfill in my life.

But I tend to always find something to stress about, and now it's saving for our future. My upcoming years remind me that I need to work hard when I'm younger so that 20 or 25 years down the road I won't need to work. It's very difficult to do when you've got a child not yet in school and we have to figure out childcare options. We're getting it sorted out, though.

And speaking of working, my dear husband bought me the most over the top birthday gift: A new laptop computer!!! I've had my other laptop since January 2001, just before my return to Thailand. I didn't want to trudge over to internet cafes every time I wanted to log on. Needless to say my old laptop was overloaded, slow and tired. Golf recently bought a new desktop computer (to replace one that was about 10 years old!) and he will be using that one for his translating and I had questioned to myself how we would share it because I didn't use my old laptop very often. Well, he solved that problem last night! I'm so pleased, thank you very much, honey!

Gotta go get Aidan up now and later this morning make my birthday brownies - Swiss Truffle style, whatever that means, but it sure sounds delicious!

My Next Toastmasters Speech

I've decided to give another speech this coming Thursday at Toastmasters, and I've chosen my topic: Making a difference with a Microloan.

I mentioned Kiva.org in a previous post, and today I joined up and finally made a loan of $25 to start out (I don't have much to spare until I make my first sale) and to the left of my postings, you can see the woman in Tajikistan I chose to make a loan to. I felt I could not give a speech about something I believe in unless I'm actually participating in it, so the good thing is that in making my decision to give this speech, it spurred me on to finally making that loan!

My speech is going to be about the benefits microloans bring to the poor of developing countries. I hope I can inspire some of my fellow Toastmasters to also make a loan during this holiday season of giving.

Cold in the eye of the beholder

It's cold here - for California standards, anyway. We have a neighbor right across the way who has her door wide open, screen door shut to let in all that frigid air. And one of her kitchen windows open. BBBBBBUUUUUUURRRRRRRRR!!!!