My Blog

When I renewed my passport back in ’97, I set a goal to have every page of the passport stamped with foreign custom stamps by the time it expires in ’07. With 11 out of 15 pages fully stamped by foreign customs, I guess I am a bit behind. I wanted to travel the world with my passport pages documenting the day, month and year of departure and entry. The passport is a diary of where I have been in the last few years without the pictures and the stories. When I look at my passport, it reminds me of the weeks I spent in Barcelona on business, the many times I’ve been to Paris, London, Canada, Mexico and the misc. cities of Europe, as well as my ’97 trip to Hong Kong, the year it was returned to China. The visa for China made me remember all the days I spent in 4 and 5 star chinese restaurants in which I found the quality and standard of mainland cuisine to be subpar with the US. I bet China will be different next year when I intend to go back.

I didn’t like Thailand when I first went in 2000. I think it was because I hated being shuffled by the tour guide from place to place. Being on tour was like boot camp, with no freedom to browse the streets as I please, dine where my curiosity takes me and enjoy the fruits of my own planning effort. Sleeping in and abstaining from the tour proved not to be an option. Having taken that vacation was like not taking vacation at all. I returned home feeling more tired than when I left. I just made my second trip to Thailand this month. It was a self-tour and I fell in love with the country. So much as changed from five years ago. This time I also went to KoSamui island where we stayed in a 1700+ sq villa with private pool, gazebo and jacuzzi overlooking the ocean below. I think it will be the best lodging I will ever stay in and unless I become a millionaire, I’d probably never come across a vacation home so spectacular again. My first trip in 2000 didn’t take me to the floating market –it was there this time that I acquired a few souvenirs and gifts and got to practice the skill of bargaining. The only downfall to my trip was the hike up the mountain to visit the Namuang waterfall that caused me to become victim to the bites of malicious Thai mosquitoes. I have the "red bean leg" to prove my defeat to the hungry insects. Where will my next trip take me? The dream vacation would be to buy an open- ended ticket that will take me wherever my adventurous spirit desires. I’d like to go from one foreign city to another and experience it’s culture, food and nature to my heart’s content. But at the end of my vacation, I am always glad to come home to sleep in my own bed and to see the smiling loyal face that greets me nearly every waking moment – my dog’s.

My biggest dilemma is deciding whether it is necessary to focus on building up my resume with Fortune 500 work experience or to go for the convenience of a smaller company close to home with good benefits. For the past month, I have been entertaining career opportunities with recognizable companies like Disney, Citigroup, Countrywide, Ticketmaster and Kaiser. Then, there are the "smaller" publicly traded companies in various industries like REIT, consulting, financial services, manufacturing and software development that fall within the $400-$800M range. Having turned down a few big and small company offers already, the one I am leaning most towards is only 10 miles from home and offers full tuition reimbursement. It doesn’t have the brand name of a Fortune 500 company, the title doesn’t meet my expectations and there seems to be too many existing intradepartmental problems. But, they have bent over backwards to meet my comp requests, the benefits package exceeds those of the large corporations. I know I’ll be taking a huge risk going in. Should intradepartmental issues arise to impede my opportunities for advancement, I may just have to take a step back out. On the plus side, I’ll appreciate the proximity to home come rainy season and when gas prices shoot north of $3/gallon.

I know if i end up at this "smaller" company, I will have to take advantage of their tuition reimbursement plan. I may not have the "name" on my resume but I can make myself competitive by obtaining an MBA or getting another professional license. For all that time I’d save commuting, I’d probably have an extra hour a day to study. Another consideration I need to take into account is whether I am ready to be in the financial services industry. I’ve always been drawn to the manufacturing and distribution industries and the experience gained has made me very marketable. Some say the financial services industry is a difficult one to break into if you don’t have any prior experience, yet too many years in it could lessen your chances of getting back into manufacturing and distribution.

Maybe at this point in my career, the name of an employer isn’t quite as critical. Going on an interview and wowing the hiring managers 95% of the time hasn’t been a problem in the past and hopefully it won’t be an issue going forward. I just have to make sure I keep up with the industry specific laws and standards and continue to set 3 and 5 year goals so that I don’t become bored.

If anyone have an opinion that they are willing to share on big vs small companies, send me an email!

I have a love-hate relationship with birthdays. I am happy that I’ve passed another milestone in my life…..looking back at my accomplishments, new interests, experiences and friends I’ve made in the past year but I hate getting older. The person who is normally happy finds herself in a sad and depressed state of mind the two weeks leading up to the actual day. (I feel sorry for my boyfriend during those two weeks). Of course, this state occurs only when I am bored at work, or alone in my room. For the most part having friends around makes me forget that I am getting older because every one gets older. I’ve thought about what it would be like if I could start my life over…..like be 12 again. I would want to live my life differently. Before I get too far in those thoughts, I have to remind myself that I wouldn’t want to live those years over again knowing what I know now. Imagine how bored you’d be being 12 again sitting in algebra class when you can do calculus. Or reading Catcher in the Rye in english class, thinking "This is useless, I’m never going to need this for my job" and while other girls are screaming about getting cooties from guys, I’d be like "Get a grip!!" I wouldn’t have any friends because I couldn’t relate to the typical 12 year old boy or girl. I wouldn’t be looking up guys telephone numbers in the white pages with my best friends and crank calling them. We wouldn’t be passing notes in the hallway or giving each other make overs before 8th grade dance! How awkard those dances must be now that I look back. And oh my god!! Those dresses we wore - was soooo eighties!! we wore blue eyeliners and pink lipstick! Nope, I don’t want to be 12 again!

If there was a perfect age, I’d want to be "stuck" in, that would be 25. I’d want to look 25 forever but not necessarily be 25 mentally. My high school friend’s dad once said to us that women are most beautiful when they are 25. That’s the age when they have reached mental and physical maturity. I used to want to be 21 forever but then you can’t a rent a car when you are 21 and you can when you are 25. So, I’ve settled at 25.  If I was granted a few wishes by a genie - being 25 forever would be one of them. Obviously, I never found the lamp because now I am 3 years over the "ideal" age. I have always forgotten my age - last year I was telling people I was 26 when I turned 27. You know how embarassing that is when you tell people you are 26 and you had your 27th birthday three months before. And I still tell people my boyfriend is 28 when he turned 29 five months ago.  Some people just need to get with reality! :oP

Fortunately, the dark cloud of sadness surrounding birthdays passes pretty quickly. It’s only been 2 days since my birthday and I am feeling great!! I think I am ready to a 28 year old. Another thing too…..having a great time dancing and being around friends on your birthday is like a mini rite of passage celebration that helps ease the pain of growing older. People make New Year’s resolution’s on New Year Eve but I tend to make mine the days leading up to and after my birthday. This coming year…..I hope to do a lot more surfing, more snowboarding, being more charitable and patient AND NOT taking things and people for granted. Whew! With that being said, anyone up for surfing during the weekdays this coming week - send me an email.

Dallas is one awesome city. The heat took some getting used to when I first arrived. Last week was record setting heat (for the year) in Dallas and it wasn’t even all that bad. I got used to the 100 degree weather rather quickly. There’s not much difference between LA and Dallas when it comes to entertainment, work and the necessities. There’s nothing you can get in LA that you can’t get here. Like every major city, there’s a downtown, a club/bar scene, and numerous upscale restaurants. Dallas has its fair share of restaurants like Steel – a place to see and be seen - my colleague saw 3 celebrities when he dined there. I went there last night and didn’t see any one I recognized. Maybe watching TV on a regular basis would help! But, what I did see, were young and old women alike, perfectly made up to strut their stuff (w/ fake boobs and expensive purses). Two women could be dining together but make more eye contact with the male guests than with each other. It was obvious the place was a meat market similar to the ones you’d see in Newport Beach! Dallas is LA without the beach – something I’d miss terribly. Another thing I’d miss a lot is skiing and snowboarding. But then again, So Cal doesn’t have good snow anyway! If it wasn’t for the points pass I bought, I’d never step foot on So Cal’s mountains. People are friendly here…..but what do I know? The only people I’ve met so far are the ones who are servicing me: wait staff who bring my dinners, sales reps trying to sell me a house or front desk receptionists making sure I am comfortable with my hotel stay. One thing is….it’s hard to go unnoticed here in Dallas and I don’t think it’s because of my ethnicity. For example, sometimes I just want to walk into a new home sales office, grab a brochure and be on my merry way to touring the models. In California, I’d go unnoticed among the 10 other individuals lingering in the sales office. Not in Dallas, you’ll have to answer 20 questions before you are even handed a price sheet. It’s WAY more attention than I am used to. The first few sales people I talked to looked so confused when I asked them “what does your waitlist look like?” that I thought I had asked the question in Chinese instead of English. I had to explain to them that all new home communities in So Cal have a waitlist….then they would respond in excitement, “you won’t have that problem here!” They also seem too eager to elaborate their answers to my questions. I think I must be some sort of entertainment for them. Heck! I am probably the only person they have talked to all day!

I was looking forward to driving to San Antonio this weekend. Phenomenal Tex-Mex food and the bustle and hustle of the Riverwalk & Alamo are things I’ve heard about and really wanted to see and experience. But, then news arrived that 25,000 Louisiana refugees will be shuttled to the Alamodome in downtown S.A. (refugees are already arriving in Dallas). I will need to make last minute plans to divert my visit to Austin and meet up with a colleague instead. Austin was rated the #1 city in the US for singles! I’ll have to see what the fuss is all about.

I am sitting in my hotel room, enjoying every bite of the Lindt chocolate bar I resurrected to solid form (forgot about it in my suitcase in 100 degree Texas heat) as I am updating my blog. It’s late night and I have given in to this craving :o(. I acquired this candy when I was in Montreal last week. Lindt chocolate, in my opinion is the best chocolate in the world. I visited their Swiss facility 4 years ago and had fallen in love with their products ever since.

As I am typing away, I am daydreaming of my next visit to Tahoe. I can’t wait for winter to come around again. I welcome El Nino any year, more rain = more snow. I would have to say one of my greatest passions in life is snowboarding. I am hooked like an addict and is determined to become better. I look forward to my next trip - I can picture the breath taking beauty of the lake, the majestic surrounding snow capped mountains and the thin, crisp air I will be feeling against my cheeks as I move down the mountain. The imagery is so vivid - I can smell the air.

I am determined to try all things that make life interesting and worth living. I think that is my quest in this life. I have always been active and open to trying new things….as a child, I literally bounced off walls, couches, beds, chairs and tables. To my parents’ dismay, I wasn’t the quiet and orderly daughter they had wanted me to be. Instead, I was the one who couldn’t sit still, was always on the go and protested piano lessons. I’ve lost count of the number of times when I was scolded for being too mischievous and fearless. Which brings me to recall the one time I was under my cousin’s lead to take out every fruit on the plum tree in his backyard. I have to add that he was a greater menace (I was a close second as his puppet). And when we joined forces - nothing good can come of it. This was the tree his parents had cultivated for years….it was the first time it bore fruit. He was five and I was four. He handed me a baseball bat and together we took the liberty of striking down all the plums within our little reach…….until they were all on the ground. We were so tired and thirsty but also very happy over our victorious afternoon. Needless to say, we were totally busted by dinner time.

Among my siblings, I was the one with the least fear of anyone and anything new. But I have become more and more conservative with age. Ten years ago, I wanted to try bungee jumping and ski diving. I think I still want to try ski diving with the right group of people. For now, I’ll settle on snowboarding in the winter, surfing in the summer………(to be continued)

I am back in Montreal for my third and last week of the audit. Today was busier than ever. I worked about 11 hours and ate McDonald’s for lunch - blaahhh……at least I was able to get a filet-o-fish sandwich w/fries. And I didn’t even have to go pick it up. In Canada, the ketchup is sweeter and less tangy than the one in the US. I still like the US one better! With all the work I have been doing here in Montreal, I have to say I really did enjoy my stay. I haven’t gotten a chance to go downtown to see the world’s largest underground city. I was there the first week and none of us seemed to know there was one. I later acquired that knowledge when I went to the Montreal casino with Stacie to watch her gamble. At the very least, I ended my last week in Canada with some play time at the Sheraton’s waterslide. Last Thurs night, after we arrived in Montreal from Granby, Stacie and I went for a dip in the pool and a few rides down the water tunnel. After going down the slide the "right" way a few times, I told her that I was going to try sliding down head first! She told me, that "I wouldn’t do that if I were you." Well, I did it. Lol!! I had my arms in front of me and went down the slide head first and on my stomach.  I would be lying to say that it wasn’t thrilling at all. I rode up pretty high on the side of the slide and later Stacie said when I went around the corner of the tunnel, she saw a big splash of water come out of the side. Then, I skipped over the water like a rock! - parallel to the surface for about 4 ft before I landed in the water. It was so funny -we busted out laughing til my eyes teared. I finished off the evening with a late dinner meal at Japon -  a must try Japanese restaurant in Montreal. I have become a regular at the restaurant since I found it my first week in Montreal. I’ve been going about 3-4 times a week - taking my coworkers with me every other time. I was going so often that I was getting freebies from the sushi chefs…..who were giving me and my colleagues (when they came along) sushi creations, seafood etc with every visit.

Tonight is my last night in Bromont and tomorrow is my last working day in Granby, Canada. I have found this week to be a pleasantly challenging experience. Normally, I am a zombie functioning on 5-6 hours of sleep but not this week. I am just barely revving up the engine. I think it’s because I’ve had quite a work load this week. I never know anymore when it’s lunch time. Just about every day my new colleague, Stacie has to ask me "are you ready for lunch?" It’s just the two of us here auditing the satellite location of Granby while the rest of the group is still in Montreal. I arrive at work and it feels as if 30 minutes later, it’s lunch time. Four hours would go by but it would feel like 1 hour! That’s just the way I like to spend my work day. With all the work we have in front of us, sometimes I feel overwhelmed about getting to a certain milestone in a 10 hour work day.  But, when that happensI know I am enjoyng my work. Time pressure makes me more efficient! Some things I have found challenging were trying to make out what the people I am interviewing are saying…..their heavy french accent makes them sound like they are chewing on marbles when they are speaking. Some can’t even speak english, in cases like that, we have to deal with make-do "translators" who are sometimes over the telephone. Training Stacie has been easy though, she’s pretty sharp! At first I thought we could just split up the workload, what was 50 hours of work would become 25 hours each. I was telling her in Montreal that it will be a breeze getting all of our work done. Not until I remembered, she’s new to the PBG business. So basically, I’d have to do almost all of the work myself while explaining to her what I am doing and why. But, she’s made my life easier than I thought. Together, we will turn 50 hours of work to hopefully 35 hours. Our goal is to get done early tomorrow to make our 50 mile drive back to Montreal. We shall spend the afternoon or evening (depending on when we finish our work) riding down the 120 ft waterslide at our Montreal hotel (she has only heard of my stories about this slide). I have personally ridden this waterslide (about 7 times last week). It’s fun trying to go through the tunnel as fast as I can. Staying in Montreal Thurs night before we catch our Fri morning flight home would be better than trying to make the drive to the airport on Fri morning - since we can’t anticipate how bad morning traffic would be into Montreal.

I will surely miss my stay in Bromont. The hotel I am staying in is so comfortable and cozy. It has a European feel - my room would probably be a 5 star in Europe. I will miss dining at Chateau Bromont and all the little and big family owned restaurants (that were either a hit or miss). We never knew what we were walking into until it was too late. Last night, Stacie ordered a cheeseburger (that’s basically all she likes) that looked like it came out of a microwave. It was hardened on the sides. The buns were toasted though (she suspected it was stale) and it had 2 pickles and a glob of ketchup. Even I wouldn’t touch that stuff!I kidded with her that she might have accidently ordered from the kid’s menu and encouraged her to order something else (since service was so slow) and we had to go back to the laundromat where my clothes were being washed. That night before dinner, we drove all over town trying to find a laundromat and  bursted out laughing when what we finally found was a small white shack, at the end of a long driveway in the middle of a run-down neighborhood. It was a little trailer that we kept passing over and over again. We would have never found that place if we weren’t able understand the laundromat lady’s directions in broken english. That might be the end of my bright idea of traveling with a 19" carry on for a two week stay (I am the queen of packing light cuz I always know I can find a laundromat somewhere). Normally, the hotels I stay in have a self service one or i just have the hotel send it off for dry cleaning/laundry. Unfortunately, our charming hotel in Bromont doesn’t offer any of those services or amenities.

In any case, I am glad to have been to Granby/Bromont but I am more looking forward to going home this weekend!

What is destiny? Or more specifically what is my destiny? Sometimes I find myself asking these kinds of questions. I have a friend who is supposedly a “psychic” to whom I often ask questions. I am both a skeptic and a believer in his abilities. I have heard some things that I almost cannot believe either because these events have occurred and I am utterly impressed or because they are so far fetched that they cannot comprehensibly happen. For the most part, I am a skeptic when he tells me what my destiny is…..#1 because it hasn’t happened and #2 there is no certainty is will happen in the future. I am always the one in the group challenging his answers, looking for inconsistencies in his words or hypochrisies in his behavior but at the same time looking for confirmations in his statements. Yet, I desperately want to be believe in the encouraging and the very good things he has to say.

Our destinies are supposedly mapped out before we entered this world. To me, there’s both security and inequality if this was true. For example: If you were destined to be successful in a particular field, you are ensured “help” from different individuals along the way and you will encounter fewer set backs. These helpers can be your friends, your employer, a stranger, your family – basically from anyone. The inequality I see is for those who are less fortunate. What if you have more mishaps and setbacks than the average Joe (in any aspect of life)? My “counsel’s” reasoning is because you have not done enough “good” in a prior existence. How can you be punished for something you did in a previous life of which you have no recollection of? How can you correct the wrong, when you don’t even remember what you have done and to whom you have done it to? If you were forced to drink from the river of forgetfulness before entering this realm again, how can you “pay back your debt” and stop the cycle from perpetuating itself if you don’t’ remember the events or the series of events that occurred? That’s like asking someone with Amnesia to remember a series of events leading up the illness. How can restitution be paid otherwise when there are no recognition of wrong doing and no opportunity for remorse? And if you continue to do more wrong……then I guess you’d be indebted forever from one lifetime to the next. There would be no end to this debaucle and no hope for your plight.

So does the more cumulative “good” or charitable deeds done in one’s lifetime commensurate with the amount of luck and fortune in the next life? What about animals? I know some Asian religions ( I won’t name those) believe that if you have done terrible things in your lifetime, you may come back as an animal in the next one. So, does that mean Toby (my dog) was a criminal in a previous life? Perhaps he was just a bank robber (hence the good life he supposedly leads - per Frank he’s one lucky dog  ) versus if he was a serial killer, then he’d be a homeless, flea-infested dog who has to fetch his own scraps from the local landfill and fend for himself from ruthless children and cruel adults?

I don’t know. Who would be the judge of the number of good deeds done? Is there a scorekeeper and is he fair? Does anyone audit his tablets? (hehe- ok I had to write this one in- I am such a dork!). What if he screwed up on yours? Then, I guess you’ll have to live a dog’s life………

Just some random thoughts as I am sitting in my

Montreal

hotel room….on one sleepless night.

10 am - Woke up "earlier" this morning so that I can hit the beach for one last time before I go to Canada. Last night we went to Theresa’s house to have Bobby’s home made Hainan Chicken rice. It was delicious…I must learn his recipe now. He used to have a restaurant so we expected his cooking to be phenomenal. After dinner, the two couples went to downtown Disney to enjoy live music, people watching, shopping and late night dessert at Rain Forest Cafe. I chuckled at this little girl who walked by wearing her neon Minnie ears headband (it was cute!). Frank turned to me and asked affectionately "what? YOU didn’t have one of those???" The fact is…I think I did wear one of those, once upon a time when I was four years old. That brought me back to some early memories of visiting my cousins in the USA for a month back in the early 80’s. During that month, I had pictures of me at Sea World, Universal Studios and Disneyland. Although I vaguely recall wearing a Mickie or Minnie cap, most of my pics had me wearing a sticker in the middle of my forehead. Every day I wore a different colored heart sticker as if it was fashionable. I am not sure if Sailor Moon wore those…. Some American couples would stop and comment on the sticker but I had no idea what they were saying (english was foreign to me). I can imagine, it was somewhere in the line of "what a cute little girl she is, why is she wearing that sticker?" We laughed about it as I was telling my story. Then, that brought me to more memories of my US trip. One day, my mom and I went down to Mission Viejo to visit another set of cousins. Since these three cousins were born in the US, they didn’t speak mandarin (only Taiwanese and English). Without needing much communication, we hit it off and started to play in the backyard. They had a large pool with lots of concrete around it for a good long ride on the tricycle around the pool. My cousin Mary who was 7 rode her bike w/training wheels, and I rode her tricycle ’round and ’round the pool. She was chasing me on her bike. There was a lot of laughter, giggling and pedaling. I was determined not to let her "get" me. We did that for about 15 minutes. Then, I turned around to see where she was in her chase and I must have kept my eyes behind me for too long…..instead of riding around the pool, I started to veer left and rode right into the pool (i’ve since learned the importance of "keeping my eyes on the road"). Then, I remember sinking into that deep, big pool…….it must be fall or winter because the pool hadn’t been cleaned. Before, I knew it, I was sitting at the bottom. I remember it so vividly….the bubbles, the cold water, the bees and bugs, and fallen leaves at my feet, I wasn’t scared….just floating at the bottom of the pool as if I were watching an underwater show. Being a four year old from Taiwan, I didn’t know how to swim. It must have been less than half a minute, when my cousin dove in to rescue me. She was an excellent swimmer. She pulled me to the top and out of the pool. By now, the adults had seen the bicycle lying around the pool and the kids inside the water, they had come running out of the house. They had no idea what was happening. My stomach was bulging from all the water I drank. While my mom was fussing over me trying to dry my hair and my body, my aunt was taking my clothes to stick them in the dryer. I didn’t cry nor was I scared. I got to wear my cousin’s clothes which were way too big for me and we took pictures near the pool. I still have pictures from that day to remind me of the incident.

It’s about 10:30 pm right now and I am just taking a break before I go up to Hollywood. I just came back from Pei Chi’s bbq. This past week has been very busy and academic. I needed 80 CPE hours to renew my license and as of last week, I only had 50 hours. So, Tuesday, I took an individual and corporate tax update class. And I spent Thursday and Friday in a FASB pronouncement seminar. These classes got me another 24 hours of education. I still need 6 more units before Sept. For that, I will have to go through my room, dig through piles of mail and see what kind of CPE books/CDs came through the mail in the last 12 months. I am so disorganized when it comes to things like this. Class was refreshing though. I never felt this good taking a live seminar session when I was in public accounting. Don’t me wrong – I love taking classes. It always meant that physically, I’d get to be away from the office, wear jeans and show up a half hour late. However, I was never able to completely focus on the class. I’d work through problems in my head, mentally picture my week and schedule my workload while the instructor ranted about new tax and accounting laws. This time around it was different. This past week was the first time I took any seminars since leaving public accounting a year ago. I was able to focus and remember most of the changes in the tax laws and the newest accounting and disclosure requirements. I was even semi-motivated and considered going out to buy a GAAP book so that I have a something next to my bedside for night time readings. I imagined that I would become a GAAP expert or maybe just a GAAP geek. I’ve always liked learning and taking class inspired me to study harder - to be more disciplined. It just seems that the FASB changes accounting rules almost as fast as the Treasury with the Internal Revenue code. Anyway, enough about classes. Friday night, we were going to play poker but instead we stayed in to eat Coldstone’s and watched Ali G, the movie.