Car Woes

See me see trouble, I am completely rideless.  My car refused to start yesterday.   The dealership people said it would cost over twelve hundred to fix it initially.  They are not sure what the problem is and they feel that once they fix whatever it is that they think is wrong with it, then they can check other areas.   Aw, hell to the naw.  I am not doing that.  My car's probably worth forty five hundred or five thousand max, if I tried to sell it.   However, that's with the fixing and patching of the side bumps that I have artistically plastered on it.  This morning, I had to car pool with DH.   I thought he would drop me off and then come back to get me, Naija madam style, but that's not how it went down.  I will be going back to pick him up after work.   I am so not a car-pooling person.  I want my car back.  Tomorrow, I'm supposed to be at a Sheckys event with my girls.  I am not sure if I can even make it.  It all depends on DH's plans for tomorrow evening.   Hopefully, he's not got much going on and I can take his ride.  This is totally taking me back to the days when I was dependent on my parents for a ride.

 

Sometime ago, I posted that I wanted a beemer.  I think it was around my birthday.   Now, I'll take anything that is reliable.  I am so not a car person so I draw a blank whenever I'm asked what kind of car I like.  Just give me a beemer and I'll be fine for the next ten years.   Unfortunately, buying a beemer is not top priority right now so I might just have to suck it up and patch my ride.  The thing is, how am I supposed to shell out twelve hundred and then they can't guarantee that it'll solve the problem.   Those dealerships sef.  My car only has seventy six thousand miles but I seem to be spending twenty five hundred a year on maintenance.   It doesn't seem worth it but it's either that or I chuck up a whole lot more to buy a new car.  It's certainly been 'cheaper to keep her' but I'm not sure how much longer I'll be keeping her.

TI-RED

Gosh.  Today's one of those days that I'm not feeling anything.  I'm feeling blue, for lack of a better term.  My sister called my dad so I know he's fine.  I haven't heard from DH's side of the family but his brother in law will be in town soon so we will get some news from his end.  Another crash in Nigeria... It has left me so weak.  I learnt this as I was leaving church yesterday.  It is so sad.  I went online to get all the news I could and I'm still checking the obvious websites for more information.  

 

When will something finally be done?  When so many children were killed in the Sosoliso crash, the women of Nigeria said enough is enough.  They demonstrated and got teargassed by policemen.  Now, many more lives have been lost and I wonder if anything serious will be done?  A thought just came to my mind; is it possible that they'll do something now that we have lost one of our foremost religious leaders?  Will they (the government) do something now that we've lost many northerners?  We can be pretty tribalistic and power seems to be in the control of the North one way or another?  Will they do something now that we've lost 2 senators?  Will they ever do something?  It is sad that we don't value life as it is.  That a person's life is lost is never news.   The fact that over 300 lives have been lost due to plane crashes in a little over a year should move us to action.  What will it take to get the people of Nigeria vexed into action?  What will it take for the government to value the life of each and every Nigerian?  It is sad that the newspapers tend to highlight the names of prominent people that perished but hey, that's how they get attention drawn to the issues.  What will it take to get the attention of people that can really do something?  In the words of my cousin, I am ti-red.  Really.

Two more hours

Two more hours and I'll be home free.  I'm taking the next couple of days to do NOTHING.   Gosh, I love the sound of that.  I'm not going to be doing exactly nothing, I do have a mid-term to study for, there's the issue of VC's house that is up for sale or rent so an ad needs to be put in the paper and on craigslist, there's also my hair that needs to get done – I'm thinking of getting extensions after seeing a picture of Oluchi.   My inches off the shoulder 'do is getting tired and way too high maintenance.  I'm seriously considering some extensions so that I don't have to worry about sweat messing my hair up when I work out.   Basically, there's tons of stuff to do these next few days but one thing I won't be doing is getting up at 7:30 to go to work.  Yay!!!   Double yay, in fact.  DH's also taking the next couple of days off and he says he wants to watch the King of Scotland.   Yuck!   I'm sure it's a good movie; it just looks stressful to watch.  The whole Idi Amin storyline is just not that appealing.  I didn't watch the first one, who says I want to watch this one?  I am not up for any gory stuff but I'm thinking that I might have to take this one for the team.  As soon as I said yuck, I wouldn't be going; he reminded me of all the Oprah shows, Desperate Housewives, etc. that he's sat through because of me.   Looks like I'm going to have to add King of Scotland to my list of things to do.  It won't be so bad, I'll just tune off or better still, fall asleep in the darkness of the movie theatre.  

 

Meanwhile, I've been asked to cut back on TV.  Apparently, I watch way too many shows.   When asked how many I'm watching right now, I didn't realize how many TV shows or programs I am actively watching or following.   Here's what I'm watching: Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Men in Trees, Boston Legal, Brothers and Sisters.   I also TIVO Oprah, Tyra (still supporting my sister), Africa Report, Flip that House and let's not forget Girlfriends.   That show (Girlfriends) is getting all kind of lame this season.   What were they thinking, letting Ms. Toni Childs walk?  I guess Joan keeps mentioning her name so that viewers will remember who she is in the event that she returns to the show.   That's my hope.  Any show I don't watch live is not a must-see.  Oprah falls into this category these days.   Not because it comes on when I'm at work, I am now a more discerning viewer.   In the past, I watched every single show I TIVOed.  Now, I only watch if the title or the first few minutes catch my interest.   So, that whole episode about the lies that people are telling went bye bye two-thirds of the way, the whole Matthew McConnaughey car giveaway show went delete within minutes.  I tell myself that even Oprah wouldn't watch all her shows.   Gotta spend my time wisely.

Boot Camp Results

Week six is here! Thank you, Jesus! I can't wait to get back to my normal sleeping pattern. There were times when I thought I couldn't make it and I asked the Lord to propel me. How handy... Anyhoo, I haven't measured myself since that first day and here's what I've got:
Weight - 156
Hips (oh so very important) - 39
Waist - 29
Upper waist (? worrahell, it's smaller so I measured it) - 27
Thigh (one) - 21
Arm - 11.25

That's it! I can't compare the results side by side until Friday. However, I do know that some parts have gotten smaller, trimmer, and harder. Big yay! Maybe not yet. I'm obviously happy even though I don't have my stats from the first day in front of me.

Overall, I wasn't as good as I thought I would be. I missed two days because of rain and four days because of my wisdom teeth. Sucks but hey, I was sick and on the rain days, I didn't want to fall sick. It's all good. We do a PT (physical training) test tomorrow to find out how far along we've come since our first day. We will run 2 miles (eight laps round the track) to see how fast we can do a 2-mile run. After that, we will be timed to see how many push ups, sit ups and co that we can do in however many minutes.

Honestly, after the hard day we had today (2 suicides, then 2 laps, then abs, then another 2 laps, then push ups), I wasn't planning on going tomorrow. DH says tomorrow's test is the point of it all - to see how my fitness level has improved from my first day. I honestly don't care, I just don't want to be the least improved person in the group. I would rather stay home than come last tomorrow. I am very competitive and I don't want to suck. I am happy with my results so far but I guess I need to push myself further and see how far I can go. Lord, carry me tomorrow.

Weekend Warrior

Hmm… what to do this weekend? Someone just asked me. Starting with Saturday, I have a final at 1PM so I will be doing some sleeping, some studying, then some exam taking. Right after that, I am planning a winter clothing drive at the hubby’s House of God. I said this to a girlfriend of mine at work and she laughed like that’s what married women do. Yes, that’s what married women do, Dolly. Whatever. I just like that sort of thing. So, I’m making some flyers 150-200 on my poor printer. In my past life, I would sneak around and print them out at work during lunch or after work. These days, I don’t care for doing that sort of thing. It’s too time-consuming. I’ll do them at home. If the printer ink finishes, DH knows where to get some more – Best Buy, his favorite store. Anyhow, once I’m done with taking the winter clothes and blankets that I’ve been dying to get rid of, as well as the extra-large U-Haul boxes that we haven’t done anything with but kept anyways since we moved eons ago to church, it will be all good. I’ll have done my good deed for the weekend and come back home and SLEEP. I mean, CRASH. I am just so tired these days.

How about, the Lakewood Antique Market is going bye-bye? This is their last weekend and I have to go out there. I should probably go over there and see if I can get Roy from Rome to give me his card. I lost his card and I like the bookcases he makes with tin and wood. I am not ready to get anything made or buy anything but I feel an obligation to go since it is their last weekend ever. Lakewood Antiques. That used to be my joint back in the day. The place Nicole and I went to. How about I don’t know where Nicole is and haven’t heard from her in over two years? Maybe it’s time for me to call her and ask if she’s going. Maybe I should just call up my old friend Mandie and invite her instead. I ain’t seen her in a while either but it would be less weird than calling up Nicole. Mandie and I have been leaving each other messages the past couple of days talking about how it’s been a while and how we should hang out and all. This might be the perfect opportunity, plus it is kid-friendly. She can bring her kids and they can see their Naija auntie all over again. I do love me her blue eyed, blonde haired little boy and her red-head, dunno-what eyed little girl. She says they’ve grown and I’m sure I’ll be surprised. Only thing is that she moved way way far and I don’t know if Lakewood will be too far of a drive for them. That’s my Saturday.

No plans for Sunday. How about, I just want to rest and do nothing? Maybe take a late momo (morning) nap so that I don’t get messed up and not fall asleep until 4 am like I did last Sun/Monday. That was awful. I didn’t fall asleep until 4am because I took a three-hour nap. By the time the alarm clock went off at 5:30, there was no way I could get up so bootcamp only took place in my dreams. What is it about napping that totally messes with regular sleep time? Man, I love Sunday naps but they are dangerous for my well-being. I sleep so deep, it’s hard for me to wake up. When I am ready to wake up, I’m in a state of consciousness where I am kinda awake but unable to open my eyes and get up. Too weird and hard to describe, but scary overall. That’s my Sunday. I will just chill, call up ma famille, make the programs for my cousin’s wedding, and take it easy so that I can wake up 5:30 Monday morning refreshed and ready for bootcamp.

Crazy Dude

Don’t know why but reading a young Nigerian guy’s blog reminded me of an ex. They seem kinda similar except that this dude is not Nigerian. When we met, I was on a two-week vacation and thought it would be nice to be noticed and hang out with the guy during my stay. He seemed interesting, very odd, but whatever, I thought I liked him and it was okay if he was a little off. It would only be for 2 weeks any way. Turns out he was a crazy dude. Now that I think about it, I don’t even know why it took so long for us to break up. I was seventeen and thought it would last 2 weeks but it ended up being a long distance relationship that lasted four years. What a waste! I was so young.

He once told me that he tried to kill his brother. I don’t know if he was lying but I definitely don’t put it past him. He told me how he asked his cousin to help him buy a gun and how he once had a knife (or was it the gun, I don’t remember now) on him and he walked up behind his brother but didn’t do it. That brother of his is very sweet and I never understood why there was so much hate. I remember calling him (long distance) one day and it was probably early morning his time and a girl picked up his cell phone with a sleepy voice. He actually denied that a girl picked up his phone at that time. Still, that didn’t break us up.

He once got a girl pregnant while we were supposedly dating and she ended up getting an abortion. He says he did that for me. Out of the blue one day, he just burst out crying and said that it would have been his child’s birthday. Child? I didn’t know you had a child? That’s when the story came out. He showed me a cry stopper thingy (can’t remember the name of those things babies have in their mouths) and said it was for his baby. It’s crazy but I don’t think I was hurt by the betrayal. I only remember being sad that a child was lost in the process. Then another day, we were hanging out and his younger brother blurted out something about him living with someone back where he was going to college at the time. Still, that didn’t break us up. One day, he got a gift specially made for a friend of his back in college with the initial ‘K’. He even said her name when I asked who the gift was for. It rang a bell but that still didn’t break us up.

Eventually, I saw the light and moved on. Nothing happened. None of the usual drama, I just plain decided to move on for good. His mom called me and asked me to reconsider. I was polite and just listened. I knew there was no going back for me. I think a light bulb just went off and I decided to enjoy my youth and date saner guys whenever I decided to date again. He’s stayed in touch with my Aunt and has stayed over at her house. She is ‘Aunty’ to their daughter. Yup, he and K had a baby girl while we were supposedly dating and they are closer to my Aunt than I am now. I could get details from her about him, his life, but I never ask. Not interested. Just hope any children he has are well-adjusted and maybe that he treats ‘K’ right. Anyhow, the lesson is, get out early. Don’t waste your time. At the sign of first ‘madness’, ‘weirdness’, 'crazy', anything that makes you uncomfortable, get out and stay out!

I Love My Job

I love my job. I mostly do, anyway. The people are great, most of the time. The job itself is great, most of the time. I’m just happy today so here’s how I love my job. Let’s start with I’m in Marketing, which I found I love very recently. I’m also studying Marketing, which I will love if my grade in a particular class changes to an A. The Marketing class I’m taking this semester is great but the teacher’s so so. Let’s just say she’s very tough. First female professor I’ve ever had in grad school but she’s so so tough. Really, unnecessarily tough. Her syllabus is like 6 pages (both sides, so it’s really 12) thick, full of rules (by now, I’m sure students at this level know without a question that plagiarism is against the rules). She maintains that an 89.9 is a B. Whatever. That should be an A. There is no extra credit in this class. So, if you do all the homework, do everything you’re supposed to do, don’t miss 1 day of class, and get 89.9, she won’t round it to a 90 to give you an A. Then, the school’s going towards the A-, A+, A, system (sorry, don’t know the term for it) and professors can at their discretion use this system or not. None of my other professors have instituted it. She has. Lastly, we have no breaks for two and a half hours. Check this out, we stayed the whole time the first day of class. Who does that? The whole two and a half hour period. One of my current professors, who I really like says that he thinks that anyone who makes you stay the whole time on the first day has psychological issues. He said that before I ever took this lady and I laughed not knowing what I was about to get into.

How did this post change from me loving my job to not liking my prof (she’s a great person, I’m sure, but her teaching style’s not). Anyhoo, just to continue, her mid-term was HARD. As in H-A-R-D. At the end of the exam, she had several copies of answers to the exam so not only do you deal with taking a tough exam, you know how badly you did before you leave the exam hall. Gee, thanks. One other thing that irks me is how she calls people out. Not the regular calling out of people to answer questions but calling them out in a way that is a little unnerving. So, we post some of our homework (which we have every week – grad school- not high school, remember?) online. Sometimes, she’ll randomly pull people’s homework on the huge screen in front of the class and ask people to explain what they did. How about, I did my homework 2 hours before class so it should be between you and me? Man, it is an uncomfortable class when she does that. One, the subject matter is new and open to the individual’s interpretation. This homework is not based on what you did in the previous class but what you’s about to do in the next class. Second, I just don’t plain like it (unless of course I know that I did a great job, which I can’t because it’s not a 1+1=2 kind of scenario. Everybody does things differently).

Let me just say that at the beginning of the semester, something in my mind told me NOT to take this class. Not her, because I had no idea who she was, but the class itself. My intuition told me that this area of marketing would be HARD and that’s true; that I may not have time for all the work it requires. Something definitely said “Don’t do it” but I did anyways. I am taking this class because I think it’s a great choice career-wise. It is also very interesting and has loads of practical applications in my line of work. I work very closely with our MR partners. However, it is a lot of work, requires Statistics which I couldn’t remember what that was when I signed up for the class. I hope at the end of the semester, I won’t say to myself, “I should have listened to myself and taken an ‘Easy A’ but meaningless class”.

Okay, now that I’ve said all that, I don’t remember why I started a post about loving my job. In not so many words, these are the reasons why I love my job: our core values as a company, the people, the tough women I work for, the work itself (projects that are enlightening, the opportunity to work with so many people from diverse backgrounds – we’re having a conference call with SA next week and yours truly is putting that together), the fact that what I do is now meaningful (meaning that a few years ago, it wasn’t as meaningful), the flexibility, the amount of time off (if only I used it more and for more exciting stuff than oral surgery). Because it is not all gravy all of the time, one of the things I don’t quite like is the fact that we have TONS of meetings. Every day, including over lunch. Fridays included! Haba, isn’t Friday a chill day for most? There is probably more to my love list but that enthusiastically happy feeling that I had when I started has almost left me after talking about my professor’s style of teaching. Very high school, in my opinion. My tank just went from full to flashing red talking about her. I’ll get it back soon once I start working on an awesome project that Bob started me off with yesterday.

The Little Things

The littlest things make me happy. With the help of a colleague of mine, I have been able to answer a pressing question for our project. Here's an email I sent out to my group about a project we're working on. I hope I am not making them sick with my emails. I think the ratio right now is 5:1. With me being the 5, I have just been sending them emails on the daily. I am loving this class (but hating my grade so far – the mid-term was hard). Hopefully, the project will take me over the edge!

"Hey guys,

Hope all is well? Looks like Saturday at 10:00 am works for everyone. Let's be prepared to show and tell on Saturday with our individual survey questions. We'll come together as a group to discuss. This could be done by phone since that's convenient for all. On an exciting note, (It's sad that I think this is exciting), a colleague of mine in our Market Research Dept helped me come up with a formula for sample sizes! I will put that in a spreadsheet and have that with my survey questions on Saturday.

Here's what he says about sample sizes:

"Typically, if we're dealing with a large universe (e.g. a database with over 10,000 customers to be surveyed), basic statistical theory that would tell us that the ending sample size is 400 - or 370 to be precise - if we want to be within a +/- 5 margin of error with 95% reliability (this means that if we were to pull the sample 100 times, in 95 of them, the true margin of error would be with 5% of the mean). This is why you so often see a sample size of 400 recommended. For a sample size of 200, the margin of error changes to about +/-7%. However, if the respondents are more alike in terms of how they'll respond to the questions, you can make do with a smaller sample with the same margin of error and reliability."

So guys, the bottom line is that our target ending sample size is 400 since our client has a large universe with 50,000 people for our survey. This means that after considering all margins of error, we want to end up with 400 people that take our survey. To end up with 400, we have to send the survey to a lot more people and there is a formula for this which we can go over on Saturday.

So, Jemma you'll call me and I'll conference Mike in? Talk to you both on Saturday!"

In totally unrelated news, my crazy-looking head of hair is getting a perm. Yes, ma'am, I said perm. I have ordered my Phyto and will be picking it up on my way home. The girl on the phone wasn't feeling my excitement. First of all, they usually carry just one or two boxes so I had to call in advance to make sure they had it. I have decided that if I must get a perm, I will go as safe as possible with this product that contains no-lye, a lower pH than most, eggs, and soy. That means that I will buy my product and take it to the salon to get my do done. What can I say, this girl's given up the fight. Tomorrow my favorite Aunty (our Naija hair stylist) will be giving me a touch up. She's too nice to us (my sisters and me). Ever ready to take our last minute appointments. I said to her in Yoruba, "Aunty, mo n bo wa ri yin". That means I am coming to see you. Sho' nuff, she says yes, when? So, I've got an early mo mo (morning) post-bootcamp but pre work appointment tomorrow. E go better (It will be well). All na beauty. (It's all for beauty)

Working from Home

Decisions, decisions. Last night, I went to bed unable to decide if I would go to bootcamp or work this morning. I like to make these kinds of decisions before I go to bed so that I know exactly how much sleep time I'm alowed to have. It helps me determine beforehand whether I'll get a chance to relax in bed or if I will be rudely awakened by the alarm clock at 5:30 in the morning. Well, I woke up at 5:15 and decided that bootcamp wouldn't be such a great idea with my puffy cheeks. Bootcamp is quite rough and I know ain't nobody making an exception for me because I'm hurting fromoral surgery. Work, I decided I would, only from home. There was no way I was going to go to work looking the way I do right now. It's not that I'm vain or anything but I don't feel like explaining to everyone I come into contact with why I look like I've been on the losing side of a boxing match. At the same time, I've got a lot on my plate so instead of taking another day off, I've decided to work from home for the next couple of days.

I have always found working from home to be more stressful than working at the office. Maybe it's the way people tend to say 'working' in quotes to imply that they are not really working when they are supposed to be 'working' from home. Sure enough, working from home means that I don't have to shower or brush my hair or worry about what to wear before getting down to business. However, when I do work from home, I have to make sure I'm online practically every second and then some, to make sure that I'm available if and when anyone from my team needs me. I can't even take bathroom breaks because I'm scared someone will ping me while I'm gone and then think that I'm not working because I didn't respond immediately to their IM. Maybe I'm paranoid but that's really how I feel. I don't even take a lunch break when I work from home. Why? There's no need. I just grab a small bite and keep on going. There are no leisurely lunches or stopping by a colleague's desk to chit chat when I'm WFH. There's only me and my laptop and today, I really appreciate it.