Boricua en la Lima

Well, not really. But as one of the few people who has stuck with Grey's Anatomy through thick and thin, especially after last season, I struggle to find meaning in spending those 40 minutes catching up with the show on Hulu.  And with last Thursday's episode I found plenty of reasons!  And as usual those lessons came in the form of Webber and Bailey. First Bailey makes a huge mess of her first day as Chief being what I used to call (because I was called that) a STEAMROLLER.  She barked orders and asked for the impossible and didn't bother to listen. And of course things went horribly wrong and people were talking behind her back and hating her. Just like they did with me. And then the A-HA moments start to happen in rapid succession.  First when someone makes her understand she's being doing things all wrong.  And when they make her realize that she has it in her to make things right, she just needs to change perspectives. https://www.facebook.com/Grey...

Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull In between the lull of catching up on Hulu on the last bit of summer shows and the beginning of the Fall line up (alas it came too quick!) I have been catching up on Kindle and iBooks reading.  Last week I finished Creativity Inc ., which is honestly the best non-fiction book I've read in a long time.  As a parent (and Disney and Pixar enthusiast) I loved reading about the creative process that went into all these famous kids' movies. As a business person and marketer I loved the author's perspective about management, leadership and strategy development. Key learning for me was giving people the freedom to excel at what they're really good at in order to achieve excellence.  And finally as a Steve Jobs junkie I loved getting additional glimpses into his life and mind. The chapter specifically dedicated to Steve made me cry, I felt it rang more true than all of Walter Isaacson's biography. If you're looking for a great read I...

In my new line of work everyone is always telling me (well not just me, everyone!) "you have to write all the time", "you have to produce online content, not just share content", "you have to build your online professional presence", etc.  Well, I got kind of tired of hearing it and decided today was the day to get back into the good old forgotten blog. I’ve got a few topics I’m going to write over the next few weeks (time permitting which is scary!) but I’m going to start with an update on where I’m working, why I’m working here, and why it might be the place that just might stick... Well, here's the update. After working in Asia Sur for about 1.5-2 years (cannot remember time anymore now that I'm 41, ouch!) I left the magazine at the end of March and decided I would re-group and try to find a job that would be a much better fit with my skills and my need to balance personal and professional life. After almost 3 years of living in Peru I f...

A lot has been happening which is taking up a lot of time and not letting me write much! Not to mention not inspiring me much either. First, work continues to be a lot more time than I initially bargained for. I think I am getting more used to it by now but it´s still not at a level I want it to be at long term. But either I´ve learned a lot and I´m starting to do things a bit faster, or we haven´t had enough high pressure visits or I don´t know what, but now I get home around 7:00 pm or 7:30 pm at night instead of midnight almost every night.  Watch me say that this week and jinx it for next week. But the good thing is that because of the better recent work schedule I´ve been able to do my week runs around 8 pm or so once the kids are tucking in for the night.  It hasn´t been easy because most days I just want to get in bed and watch some TV before zonking out for the night, but I think I am somewhat on track to run this marathon on November 3 rd .  But basically betwee...

We're on our way back to the train station from Machu Picchu and I am so happy that I've gotten to enjoy a well deserved couple of days off as well as seeing the kids enjoy themselves in Cuzco so much when I get am email from the school administration that a kid in pre-kinder has passed away. No name, no explanation, just a note saying that they have rallied all the counseling support they can to deal with this thing on Monday morning when the kids go back to school. First thing I wonder is if the kid was in my kid's classroom, were they friends? How will they explain this to my kid, how will I explain this to my kid? Will all the kids react as if it was a non-event or will their little worlds be shattered? Obviously this is nothing compared to Newton but I find myself at a loss here too, not understanding how God can let something so tragic and sad happen. It's Father's Day tomorrow and I feel so horrible for the parents of this kid, what they must be going throu...

Work has been so absolutely crazy this month I haven't even had time to really properly move in.  Every weekend I spend about two hours doing ONE project that's move related and then I do nothing for the next seven days due to lack of time.  So it feels like progress on the house is EXTREMELY slow, because it is! After Easter we had my mom come visit and fortunately she's still with us.  My sister and her husband and son also came to visit but I didn't spend nearly as much time as I would've wanted with them mainly because of how crazy things have been at work.  Initially I wanted to fly to Cuzco with them but I ended up just spending a weekend with them and then I sort of took off their last day here so I could also spend some more time with them.  Sort of because while we were "hanging out" at the beach I was sitting there laptop in hand clicking away.  But hey at least I got that day with them.  Not to mention all the FOOD we ate!  Which of c...

Now this is the kind of business trip I could get used to!  We arrived on Sunday at Urubamba Valley which is on your way to Macchu Picchu if you land in Cuzco's airport which most people do.  We are staying at the Tambo del Inka Luxury Collection Resort & Spa which might be the best if not second best hotel I have ever stayed at (other than maybe the President Wilson and Kempinski hotels in Geneva).  We have gone horseback riding..   ...And spa´ing... ...And llama meeting... ...And eating...and eating, and eating some more...(hey at least I´ve ran 4 miles two days in a row to compensate!) It's been an incredibly luxurious experience which has spoiled me for life!

In the wake of the recent Yahoo controversy, I read this blog post by Penelope Trunk that gave me a huge wake up call.  I´ve already been feeling the pressure of the new job -- people in this job spend way more hours at the job than what I´m used to from my previous job and it´s been making me feel super guilty with the kids at home.  At the same time I don´t even feel like I´m spending enough time at work because the learning curve is so huge and I should be spending a ton more hours to really understand what´s going on and to be at par with co-workers and managers.  So the constant work life balance struggle was starting to tug at me again. It´s also been a shock to my system just because I had something in my previous job that I took for granted that apparently isn´t as common as I would´ve initially thought.  Lots of people around me who wanted the same things for their work-life balance, they wanted to get ahead but also be there for their kids. So I keep cry...

Last week was rough...kids were sick, it was my first week at work, and Jose was out of town. To top that off at the end of the week of course I was sick too. We ended up not going to the beach for the weekend cause the kids kept having fevers every other day. One day one kid was fine and the other one had a fever and the other day it was flipped. This week things are finally starting to feel a bit more under control. I´m feeling a little less frazzled at work, Jose can help a little bit in the mornings and the kids are finally coming out of being sick and starting to go to all their summer activities so I don´t feel like a horrible mom for not being with them while they´re sick. Hopefully tomorrow we can make it back out to the beach house and relax a bit this weekend!

I yelled at the kids probably more than I should've this morning. I broke a hair brush trying to get Gabi to listen to me! I wanted them to understand it was my first day of work and it was so important to me and could they just behave for ONE day!?! Of course they were totally oblivious to how important today was to me, why should they understand? Gabi actually wanted to come to the office with me! Jose is traveling this week too and that didn't help with the morning routine. Funny thing was I was just sad to leave them and was acting out. Of course I was a bit stressed because I wanted my first day of work to go smoothly and it wasn't going smoothly at all. But of course I should've never expected it to go smoothly, not with two young children in the house! But more than anything I was just sad to leave them after so long. I cried a few times before actually walking through the office doors.  I felt like coming back from maternity leave times ten.  Because now they...

...like I really want to move to my new house but probably won't be able to until the end of January! Argh, so frustrating.  Trying to be really patient but there are just some "creature comforts" I feel like I am entitled to NOW! Like what you say (thinking I sound like a Gen Y'er or Millenial or whatever they're called).  Like clothes for work would be nice.  Yep, I've accepted a job offer with L'Oreal and I need to start soon but guess what, all my working clothes are in boxes, together with my summer clothes.  Well it's getting warm and it's getting to the point where I'm going to need professional looking clothes but all those things are still in boxes because I never thought it would take this long to move into our new place.  The cat is also starting to act out -- he's peeing and pooping in places he's not supposed to.  And I know that part of it is because he's living with a dog which he's not used to doing and he's...

Crash landing is probably the best term to describe what I'm doing in the office today after so much time away! Suffice it to say the vacation to Lima was amazing and much-needed, and that it'll take me a while to adjust to the reality of being back in the daily grind (not to mention losing those extra few pounds).  Given I can't get my head in the game for a good post-vacation blog post today (hopefully after next weekend), I decided to just post these videos from our vacation, and then post my career horoscope for the year from Yahoo which I thought was suitable to describe the mayhem going on in our work lives right now, given that Jose is leaving tomorrow for Cincinnati and will spend a good portion of the next three months in Cincinnati.  Here's to single motherhood, hoping I can survive the next few months of 2012! I'm hoping the horoscope is right and that while turbulent, 2012 will bring great things to our personal and professional lives...