Seriously? Both!

Daily writing prompt
Are you seeking security or adventure?

Security or Adventure? To be or not to be? Those are questions that have plagued humans since the dawn of time. IDK if that’s true it just sounded good. So to answer the prompt- well duh I want both security AND adventure.

Seriously WordPress, this is a formula failure of epic proportions. Instead of an OR statement this is an AND statement.

I need security to, oh I don’t know, pay my bills, take care of family or have any sense of responsibility. It might sound boring but geez we can’t be all bungee jumping all over the place 24/7 and expect to not have a crap ton of health bills because of broken bones have any type of rest or relaxation or inner peace. All adventure all the time is tiring. I know. Because I’ve gone through pockets of time where I overscheduled too much adventure and after awhile it sucks.

At the same time, adventure is needed to break up monotony of the day to day and expand our experiences. Adventure doesn’t have to be some expensive vacation, like a safari trip or scaling the side of a tall building. You can actually sprinkle adventure through your day.

Like for example, the building I work in was recently bought by a private financial services firm that wanted to move into the building and they thought “huh- let’s just buy the building – how hard can it be to run a building? (idiots).” But whatever- so I’d been hearing stories about the new building owner who sounded like quite a character. I got a tip the owner was outside smoking away while taking a cell phone call with his lawyer after parking his car on a public sidewalk experiencing some parking issues. So I’m like- I’ve got, GOT, to check this out. I nonchalantly walked outside and pretended to be looking at my phone when I reality I was eavesdropping (wasn’t hard- the dude was talking LOUDLY) and taking surveillance photos. I won’t post those here even though it’d be hilarious as the dude was basically wearing sweats while chain smoking and demanding answers on several things from his lawyer.

After a few minutes of playing spy, I decided to take a circuitous route to get back to the building entrance by ducking into another business. What do you know, the building owner went the opposite direction and ended up in the same area without any awareness that he’d been observed for the past 10 minutes. I did nothing with the information I gathered, but it was a fun adventure pretending to live out my real dream job of being a private investigator.

But see, adventure is only special if it’s on occasion or in small doses. Like everything, adventure is best experienced in moderation.

No adventure = no fun.

Too much adventure = fun then no fun.

Some adventure = fun.

Let me know if you agree or disagree in the comments below. If you’re a PI, convince me I should switch careers.

This Better Get Better with Age

What do you think gets better with age?

With proper planning and luck, my retirement fund cause I don’t plan to stay in corporate life until death.

Semi alive roses in July in the desert- they’re skill kicking!

Gotta make sure I have time to smell these before they (or I) die.

Avoidance

What strategies do you use to increase comfort in your daily life?

Act busy to avoid getting more work assigned. If you’re already busy, act busier. Rinse and repeat. This also works if you want to avoid chatting with coworkers. If they want to ask you questions about work stuff, tell them to throw a meeting on your calendar. 90% of people from my experience will never willingly schedule a meeting but be prepared for the 10% that will. None of this is a guarantee of smooth sailing but it helps make the daily less rocky.

Good luck!

Any vacation is memorable

Describe your most memorable vacation.

Any vacation is memorable as long as you are not working or checking in with work or thinking about work. ‘Nuff said.

I also advocate for taking at least a lunch break during the working day, which can be thought of as mini vacations. Taking a walk or even stepping outside your home or office for a few minutes can do wonders.

If you work in office, try to find green spaces nearby to walk around or even just sit for a few minutes and enjoy the quiet.

Here are some of my mini vacations when working at the office. These were all taken within the past two weeks.

So I know some of you are thinking -” uh isn’t it hot in Phoenix right now”. Yes! So  your next question might be “how are you outside walking around taking photos?!” Well- because when I am in the office, the air conditioning is set much lower than I’m used to so I need to dethaw by mid-day and it takes a good 10-15 minute jaunt around the area to do that!

Ok so for me the motivation to get out and take a break is two fold- mental AND physical health/comfort. Because feeling like a popsicle all day is completely unproductive.

Also notice – we still have greenery in the dead of summer!

Heritage Square Downtown Phoenix
Arizona Center Downtown Phoenix

Virginia G. Piper Plaza Downtown Phoenix

Focus Focus Focus

What is your favorite genre of music?

I listen to too many genres and subgenres to pick a favorite. Since this blog is related to coping with on the job tomfoolery, my answer is curated to playlists that keep me calm focused when I have things I don’t want to work on important deadlines or I’m cleaning up other people’s messes I’m solving complicated tasks that require diplomacy and concentration.

Below are some playlists that help me retain my sanity focus during work hours.  All links are to YouTube playlists, because it’s free.

-Playlists of Erik Satie’s Gymnopedies or Gnossiennes on a loop. These are instrumental piano pieces that I find both calming and beautiful and stop me from typing out my real thoughts by email increase my patience.

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr4azoVLqL0&pp=ygUKRXJpayBzYXRpZQ%3D%3D

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FS6o3qFimsc&pp=ygUKRXJpayBzYXRpZQ%3D%3D

-Chill with Taiki playlists. These are lo-fi playlists featuring Taiki, a cute Shiba Inu. The link below is to my favorite of the playlists.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9FvvbVI5rYA&pp=ygURY2hpbGwgd2l0aCB0YWlraSA%3D

– Blue Lines by Massive Attack. A classic from the British Trip Hop collective. The variety of the songs from start to finish hold my interest yet simultaneously allows me to focus.

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI6kLIhBBwmQs4uIox4UgB2UHc4IuS78s 

I have a number of personal playlists as well that feature other genres than shown above but these are my defaults when I don’t feel like sifting through my personal collection and just want to hit play and go.

How does your musical tastes differ from work to your off time? Or is it the same? 

Notes to My Future Self

What are you most worried about for the future?

I’m an analyst, so… Everything?

Too broad?

Ok let me think of specifics.

1. I still don’t know the correct answer to the riddle “how many chucks would a woodchuck chuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood” and I fear I will never know the answer. Seems like I could just add up the number of times the word “chuck” appears but that seems too obvious.

2. That I’ll turn into some crazy person who decides not to retire. I’ve dreamt of retirement since I was a girl (yeah you read that right) so not retiring would shake up the core of my identity.

3. That I’ll develop some weird health condition that prevents me from drinking coffee.  Would be almost as devastating as item 2 above if not more so.

4. That I’ll never make time to learn underwater basket weaving.

5. That the Friday/Saturday morning kids show Xploration Earth is right and we’ll all be eating crickets as our main source of protein by the year 2050.

Phew now that I got that out of my system, what are you all worried about? Can’t be nearly as bad as my list.

‘The Bear’ by FX: Overhyped or Underwhelming? Unfrazzled Analyst

Over the weekend I decided to sit down and watch the highly acclaimed Season 1 of “The Bear” which has received accolades left and right. Much of the setting takes place in a restaurant and highlights the dysfunction of the workplace, so it’s fitting to talk about here. About 10 minutes into the pilot episode, I feel asleep. After a short nap, I powered through the remaining 20 odd minutes.

I took a 3 hour break doing other more interesting things (*cough cough housework*) then watched Episode 2. It was ok. Then I watched episode 3. About halfway through this episode I wanted to gouge my eyes out do some more cleaning. The next day I opted to skip ahead to the last episode of Season 1 and OMG it was an hour-long episode. I remember watching to the five-minute mark then I blinked (feel asleep again) and it was 20 minutes in. And the scene I opened my eyes to moved so incredibly slow I finally said eff this and decided this wasn’t worth my time.

What did I not like about this show? Let’s see, the plot, the characters, the dialogue… pretty much everything.

  • While the backstory of Carmy’s nightmares and complicated relationship with his brother could make for compelling television, it just did not resonate with me.
  • The dialogue. I’m not a prude when it comes to swearing, but the dialogue relies heavily on swearing which annoyed me by episode 2.
  • Overall, the characters were unlikable, and I really didn’t care what happened to them.

I know my list of dislikes is not very detailed for a commentary (and a commentary by an analyst) but that would require me to watch more of this show and that is not going to happen.

If you like the show, great, but for me, this show was less exciting than watching paint dry.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Actually, I lied. A time lapse video of paint drying, cracking and peeling would be more interesting than this show.

Disagree? Fight me. First leave a comment below then fight me.

Are there any other “critically acclaimed” movies, music, tv shows or books that you checked out and could not understand the hype? Drop me a note!