Over the weekend was Halloween and my little one had save trick or treating from home. We gathered a bunch of candy, some toys and some Pokémon cards that she likes. We then got some trick or treat bags and filled them up with all of these fun things. I then, hid them around the house for her to find. Like an Easter egg hunt, but with a Halloween theme. It wasn’t ideal but it was the best we could do during the circumstances of covid in the air.

My little one dressed up as a Pokémon, Charizard. She loves to play the game and wanted to dress up as one of the characters this year. We usually go over to our cousins house for trick or treating, but year of covid. We skipped. We miss our cousins very much, but during covid season, we will stay safely at home. The day ended with us watching some spooky movies on tv. It was a great day and the little one loved to get all of her treats. And that is all that matters to me.

On Sunday, we received some crap news that some of my mother’s properties located Portugal are going to court for lack of payment. Don’t get me wrong, the properties, from what I understand are little pieces that have been divided a lot throughout the years. It may just be a small little piece that still belongs to her siblings as well. It’s really crummy because we are not there and I have no idea about the laws over there and my parents will not allow us children to take care of their itms. They want complete an utter control. Even at the ages of 82 they will not give up and let their adult children take over or even have a say. At least, help them even. I’ve tried to have a conversation with them in order to help us adult kids help them, and they always change the subject. They used to have someone help out with all of the bills, but that person is now in their 90s and they can no help any longer. Nor does he want to. And then my father did something else, I think he gave permission for his big brother to help with the paying bills, but his brother is also in his mid 80s and he can not do anything either. So here we are, as children, we are useless. We can not touch any of their assets, because they will not allow us. We can not pay any of the bills because we don’t have the assets needed. It’s a cluster. I’ve tried to figure out what is going on and I am more confused than ever. We will probably need a lawyer to take care of their assets. From my understanding, most of the assets they have are really worthless. But it’s a sad moment to know that my parents may loose everything they’ve worked so hard for to the government because a few euros weren’t paid at the right time to the right place. Thinking about it, who knows, maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. Having an inheritance and dividing it between a bunch of people is a pain in the behind. We will most likely need to lawyer up and I have no knowledge of what is going on. I barely know what’s going on in my own personal life, now I have to figure out what my parents want. Which of course they do not know what they want, either. At this age, I think, they should have gotten it together by now, but not my people. They still do not know what they want to do with their inheritance. They still need to “think about it.” People, you’ve have over 80 years to figure it out. Come on, help me help you. Oh well, there is nothing much that we can do. It is their inheritance and us kids can only make decisions when it becomes our inheritance. Until then, there isn’t much we can do. We can have a conversation with stubborn 80 or so year olds but, all they want to talk about is how much everything hurts them and how everyone is against them. Are your people like that too? I hope not. Being this stubborn must be exhausting.

It’s Monday and during the day I’ve been working on product launch stuff. We keep on launching products and more products. This keeps me busy, busy. I work until about five thirty. Then go outside and help out my husband as he is digging up a trench to find the pipes from the house that go to the cesspool. He is thinking of replacing all of the 50 year old piping and I am here to help. I get out a large light from the basement and light up his way. While he is digging up the dirt, I am making sure my little one doesn’t get herself into trouble. It is cold outside and we are all bundled up. Shortly after this, we come inside and have dinner. I wash the dishes inside a bucket so not to get water to go down the drain. The pipes have clogged up somehow and there is no need to add more water to the system. So, I rinse off the dishes. Then toss out the water. I then soap up all of the dishes, then rinse them into the bucket. After I’m done, I have a large amount of water in the bucket that I must dump outside. It’s a pain in the behind, that’s what it is. Today, we will all need to take quick showers as to not fill up the tank with water. Good thing we’re taking care of this now that it’s still warmish. We do not want to do this while its freezing outside. Hopefully it’ll be warmer this week so we can take care of all of the piping and get this settled.
After dinner, I get back to working for the man. I have the launches to take care of. Plus, I need to take care of all of the marketing content that needs to be added to the sites. It doesn’t end.

It’s Tuesday and I am working hard to get ready for tomorrow’s product launches. This morning, I’ve woken up very early, since I couldn’t sleep anymore and got a lot of work done. I then taken my time to eat my breakfast. A pumpkin spice bagel and some coffee. Then I do my beauty routine of lotion, then beauty oil and then a moisturizer. This takes a while to do as I’ve been advised by Rachel Zoe, stylist to the stars, to apply beauty lotion, wait for about 15 minutes than beauty oil, another 15 minutes for the skin to absorb. Then moisturizer on top of all of that after another 15 minutes or so. After that, is when one puts on makeup. I’ve passing on the makeup. I’ve been passing on it since March or covid season. After all of this work on my skin, I get onto the laptop and get to work.
I work and work and work until five on the dot. My brain is tired and am in the need of a mental break. My husband is outside taking care of the cesspool disaster. Looks like some roots got into the piping and now there is a leak on the piping. This is why the main line in the house wasn’t working properly. This is what happens when you have a house that is over 60 years old. It has good bones, but the pipes and other items need replacing eventually. We’ve got a lot of work to do. Meanwhile, our dishwasher continues to not work and we will most likely need to replace it with a new one. After 10 years or so, everything is going to pieces and needs to be fixed or replaced. Nothing lasts anymore. As soon as the appliance’s warrantee is up, so goes the machine. They aren’t even that cheap. Appliances are expensive and they are not made to last. Everything needs replacing after a while. Even the better brands have to be replaced after a while. We have LG brands and the warrantee is up, as is the machine. Guess the company needs to make their money somehow. And that somehow is to make crappy things that won’t last. A homeowner has to purchase new every few years or spend another fortune to fix. It’s all a scam lol.

It’s Wednesday and I am again up early so I can launch my products on the extranest site. If you’re interested, we launched a couple of EOS RF lenses and a PRO printer. Some accessories too like inks and lens hood were launched as well. To do this take a lot of work and coordination with the marketing team, product control team, Corporate Communication team, Administrative team and so on. Lots of email communication going on. By noon I am tired and ready for a break. But nope, I have a meeting instead. We talk about how the site I work on works and if it can be optimized to do more. I don’t have all of the answers, I must inquire my upper management and the administration group to see if the site can handle the requests. Here’s to another project! This is a good thing though, it will keep me busy and hopefully bring more functionality to a site that our Partners are used to utilizing. By the end of the day I am mentally drained. But I must go on. There is pipping work that needs to be done.

It’s Thursday and I am not up to working. I had a terrible dream where I was throwing things at people at the dinner table during a meal. I hope it’s not foreshadowing Thanksgiving this year. Not only does this dream make me grumpy, but we were up until midnight last night. We were trying to figure out how to do the plumbing in the basement. I felt like we were playing legos when trying to figure out how to put the pieces of pipe together. Usually legos are fun, but this time around; not so much. My brain was shot, so my husband was doing all of the thinking.
As for work, it is a light day. We are getting ready for the holidays and I am cleaning up the sites to ensure all looks good and everything works the way that it should. I’ve had lots of planning meetings and lots of other meetings this morning and have a lot more to go in the afternoon. A couple of them are knowledge transfer types as I will be out of the office for a little while on vacation and need to transfer my expertise with others. My coworker, wants nothing to do with my marketing work. She is does not want to do any of the work that I am showing her to do. As far as she is concerned, all will be pushed back to the team and wait until I come back to the office. Well, that’s too bad my friend, you may need to get some of this work done while I am away.
During my downtime, I look for work pants for my husband. They are very hard to come by. He is a big guy and likes the stretch type of pant that he can move in while working. The regular working pants are like jeans, nice and stiff. Not ideal for him. So I’m looking at a bunch of stores online and looking for ones that we’ve purchased in the past. Of course the ones that he likes are out of stock. So I am looking for similar ones that aren’t going to cost a small fortune. I’ve tried Amazon, even they don’t have what we are looking for. I eventually find a pair at good old walmart. They are described as the stretch type and look like they are nice and light. They are in the hikers section. Hopefully these will do.

It’s Friday and TGIF!! I’d really like to get some more sleep in the morning. Last night we were again at it with the piping for the house. We’ve updated all the majority of the piping outside. My husband took out all of the old pipes and replaced them with new ones and the little one and I were his helpers. We were outside with the lights on for a long time. We get a bunch done and then go in and have dinner. Yay, we can finally shower and use the sink to wash dishes. No more bucket. Everyone takes a shower except for me. It is getting late and I need to get my beauty sleep. I’ll take my shower tomorrow. Turs out, I overslept and got up just in time to get to my wfh laptop. I take my shower during my lunch hour instead. I’ve work comfy pjs until then and then I get dressed and presentable for work.

This afternoon I have a class and am not sure if we will be on camera or not. Anyway, I am ready. The course is on Personal Branding. It is a three hour long course, hopefully I will learn something from this course that will help me along in my career. I am looking to advance in my career at my current employer and taking these sort of courses will hopefully help me out. I find out that my personal brand is “Isabel uses her knowledge and creativity to empower herself and others.” I’ve learned that speaking up is a good thing. In my past home life, I’ve always been told that I should be seen and not heard, especially as a child. Now as an adult I continue to have that information ingrained in me and it is something that I need to be removed from my brain.
After the course I have a meeting where I am showing my team one of the sites that I work on. I show the team how I get the work done. But don’t have the answers when I am asked why things are done the way they are. The site is very pretty but the backend is very convoluted. I have to add html to a page that should not need html added to it. If anyone is to work on these pages, they need know how to do html as well as work on a content management system. When I am away in a couple of week there may be something that needs updating and I don’t think the person who is covering for me knows exactly what to do. I have created a how to page but it’s not easy to describe exactly what needs to be done. Job security for me, I suppose.
I end the day at five and have dinner. We then get out and go to the hardware store. We need more pipes to do the pipping over the weekend. While my husband is in the store, my daughter is taking a nap in the back seat of the car. What a great idea, I think. And I take a little nap as we wait for him. He took a little while longer than anticipated as bought a ton of extra thing we may or may not need for the set up. After the hardware store we get to play PokémonGo. We will need all day on Saturday to get the plumbing done. Might as well play a little bit while we are out.

It’s Saturday and we get up earlyish. It’s eight thirty and we are having our morning coffee. We will begin our work shortly after breakfast. The little one is still sleeping and we do not want to wake her. We’re going to have to make wholes in the walls and make a whole ton of noise. Meanwhile, we make bacon for breakfast. My husband has a bagel with cream cheese and bacon. We talk about how he is not a fan of lox. I like lox on my bagel. I’ve had it before and it wasn’t too bad. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure if it was actually lox or if it was just plain old salmon. Not smoked, just plain. I’ll have to go to the bagel store one of these days and ask for it. Really see if I like it. It’s funny, but I’ve worked in a bagel store when I was a teenager and I never tried it when I was there. I tried everything else, but the lox was not appetizing to me at that time.
After breakfast we get working on removing the old pipes from the basement. These are about sixty years old and are really tight in there. They have to be removed using a machine. This machine makes a ton of sparks and smoke as it’s cutting the old pipes. We are surprised the fire alarm doesn’t go off. Some of the piping comes off but other pieces are really stuck in there. They are being hammered out and being broken into little pieces. This is going to be a messy clean up. And of course the clean up crew is me and my two little hands. This is going to suck! lol
Later in the day, as we are working, we learn that ex vice president Joe Biden has become the President Elect and will be the 46th President of the United States. My congratulations to him and his team. My Democrat friends are very happy today. As for my Republican friends, not so much. There is a lot of debate on my social media sites. All in all, I wish the future becomes brighter for everyone no matter who the winner has become or what party you root for.
By five we have done all we can do for the day. We need to go back to the hardware store to return all of the items that were not used and to purchase more items that are needed to complete the job.
I stay home so I can rest and try on my new jeans that came in the mail. One pair of jeans fits just right, the other not so much. That pair will be going back to where it came from. And there is the pair of shorts that I got on sale at Old Navy. These fit right too and will be going right to the basket with gifts for Christmas. It’s almost that most wonderful time of year. And I am getting ready.

Until next time
Stay safe!
-Isabel

It’s Monday again and I’ve woken up ready for the work week. However, I stayed in bed until the last possible minute before nine this morning. I started my day in my comfortable pjs. I eventually changed into my work clothes and was ready for the day. But prior to that, I was in my comfortable wear. During my lunch hour I made my bed and had my breakfast. I’ve taken only a few minutes for lunch as there were meetings to be had and lots of work to do.
I’ve been doing some holiday shopping. For now it’s for myself so the family doesn’t need to worry about getting me anything later on. I’m in the need of a new pair of jeans as the the ones that I currently have are either too tight or too loose. Need new ones to fit me right. So, I’ve been shopping at Banana Republic, the Gap and Old Navy. Looking for sales. And for the items that fit me that are actually on sale or even better; clearance. I’ve found a few at the Gap, but then I couldn’t find my Gap credit card. I think I gave it to my husband the other day so he could get some clothes for my little one. I’ve asked him about it and he says he knows nothing about that card. I think he lies lol. He just just doesn’t want me to spend any money. We’ve been saving up so we could do some projects around the house and he doesn’t see any need for me to be buying any clothing at this point. I have plenty of pairs of pants for work and do not need anymore! But I do need jeans to work from home. The ones I have look terrible. Maybe TJMaxx has some. I have gift cards for the store that I haven’t used and maybe I can get these for zero dollars.
Anyway, work was filled with well, work. All day, I’ve been playing tennis with the developers and the business teams. The business asks questions and I ask the developers questions in return. I test on my end, things don’t work. Then I get to talk to the business and developers all over again. Table tennis maybe, as it was all a little fast. We kept on emailing each other at the same time with our findings or answers to the questions asked previously. Email has become snail mail over here. I will need to go through our instant messaging system in order to speak to people in real time. This is a little too crazy for me still. I’m sure I’ll get used to it, eventually, but for now, I’m used to working at a slower pace in order to get things done. I’m used to working with systems that take half an hour to talk to each other. I post the content and then, only half an hour later can I get some of the work done. Since, I’ve been talking to developers and business all day long, I haven’t had time to do any of my marketing work. So here I am, way after five o’clock posting content to our extranet sites. I will eventually have dinner, maybe.
Tonight’s dinner is one of my husband’s favorite. Chicken hearts and livers. Not my favorite. Even the smell of these types of pieces of meat make me dizzy. Not a fan at all. Instead, I had leftover skirt steak with black beans.

It’s Tuesday, and again, I am risking it by getting up as close to nine as possible. I have been having trouble falling asleep and then in the morning, I am paying for it. I’m all sorts of groggy and not necessarily ready for work. Today, I had a bunch of meetings in the morning and then one that I was leading. This was actually a good one. I was talking to a team about something that is near and dear to my heart. My marketing sites. Kidding, but I do know the sites frontwards and backwards. I went over what they look like and how they function. I may even have gotten a project out of them. If there is a project, it will be a fairly large one. As all of the business groups would need to agree on the updates for the site. If this happens, it will be an interesting thing for me to do. Of course I will be all sorts of scared and also happy as this would be something that we’ve wanted on one of the sites for a long time. Anyway, like everything else in business, this may take a very long time to accomplish.

It’s Wednesday and I get up an hour earlier than my usual time. I take my time getting my coffee and breakfast. Lately, I’ve been running around so much in the mornings that it’s nice to finally take my time. The rest of the day was all about meetings. I’ve had a class for project management and had to leave it because I had another meeting at the same time. This meeting was with the boss, so forget the course and meeting instead. After all of the meetings and way after five, this is when I get my marketing work done. It’s becoming a norm for working after five. I don’t like it at all. But, during covid season, it’s kind of expected. I’ve been receiving emails from my colleagues at seven or even nine o’clock at night. This means I’m not the only one working way passed quitting time. This is what you get when you work salary not hourly. It’s ok, it’ll pay off in the end… Am I right?!

Thursday was a blur. Lots of work. Creating standard operating procedures, SOPs, for my colleagues and these take a long time to create. Sharing knowledge with co-workers is a lot of work. And, this is only what’s on paper. Next, we will need to meet and go over that paperwork plus do a screen share and show my co-worker how to actually do the work. After that, we’ll probably need to meet again so my co-worker can do the work and I’ll watch to make sure it’s all done correctly. I’ve already done this multiple times, so it’s not a big deal, but it is a lot of work. Last time I did knowledge sharing, it took about a month. Hopefully this time around it won’t take that long. We don’t necessarily have the time.

It’s Friday and it’s chilly in the house. It’s nice to be under the blanket. But nevertheless, I must get up and get to work. But not until a quarter to nine. Yesterday, I was up and working until nine at night, so today, I am not getting up until right before I have to log in. Today was filled with more standard operating procedure work. I’ve started the long dreaded product launch SOP. It will take many days to complete this one. This takes a long time to do and will take a long time to teach as well. But we will get there. Tomorrow is Halloween and we are doing save trick or treating from home. We’ve gotten little Halloween bags, some treats, some toys and some other trinkets for the little one. I will be hiding the bags around the house and my little one will be going tick or treating in the living areas of the house. We’re still hunkering down from covid and will not be going around town like we usually do. Every year we’d go to our cousin’s house and go around their neighborhood to get candy. This year, we are opting out and staying home. Safer that way. We will be missing our cousins this year. Hopefully this will be a fun day for the little one.

Until next time
Stay safe!
Best,
Isabel

2020 keeps on happening. Including my brain take over.
Don’t want to read my blog. Check out my video below or read it whatever you want.

Over the weekend, my depression really kicked in. I’ve been thinking and thinking over and over, if I should share this information or not but, I’ve gotten to the conclusion that if I don’t share, it’ll be in my brain and never come out. So here goes. I’ve been taking medicine for depression for a long time. It became really bad after giving birth to my daughter. My postpartum was filled with depression and anxiety and thoughts of fear and quite frankly suicide. It was awful. I struggled a lot, but continued to fight for my daughter. But, this is a story for another blog.
As for the medicine; sometimes, it just doesn’t work. I’ve been upset about everything and everything upsets me. Not being able to figure out something from work really gets me worked up and I keep on ruminating on how dumb I feel when I can’t figure something out. This something is probably so simple, that I’m having trouble getting through the hump of my depression. My husband has tried to be helpful as has my mother in law. But my brain just can not kick it out of the way. Anyone else have that issue? When you’ve got something in your head, that is probably going to sabotage your day, but your brain just can’t get over it? This is how I’m feeling over the weekend.
I’ve felt a little like this during the week as well. Keeping busy with work helps to keep me in focused mode and not think about my depression. Luckily, this will most likely pass. I’ve had this feeling in the past and then it goes away. But unfortunately, in about a month or so, it comes back again. It’s seriously annoying at times, and during this time of depression, I’m just not sure what to do with myself.
When I feel all sorts of down, I don’t want to do anything. I don’t want to go for a walk or run, I barely want to eat. Until about 5PM rolls around and my system can’t take it anymore and I need to get something in my belly before I pass out. Anyway, I don’t know how I can kick this awful feeling.
One thing that I do to get my mind out of my own head is to color an adult coloring book. I got this one for Christmas last year and I’ve been coloring it on days that I feel like this. It does not make me feel better, but it does keep my mind distracted from, well, stupid thoughts. But, then my daughter also wants to get in, on the coloring. She wants to make everything rainbow color. She’s a happy kid and wants everything happy. Meanwhile, the page that I’m working on is mainly monochrome colors with the exception of the rainbow colored section that she worked on. I’ve asked her to color on her coloring book; we have the same coloring book. Twinsies! We’ve gotten the same exact one for her so she cold have one of her own and not color on mine. But that doesn’t work on the mind of a six year old. She wants to share and color from the same book. How do I say NO to her? Well easy, right? By telling her, “No baby girl, you color on your own book that santa got for you.” It’s just that she has the personality of a persistent person. She will talk herself into anything. She is like her daddy that way. Where, she will talk and talk and talk until she gets her way. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a great feature in ones personality to have. But, I don’t have that, I’m a very reserved person and a lot of people think I’m probably dumb, because I don’t talk a lot. I’m not the mingling type. I’m more of an observer and a thinker and not much of a talker. Most of the times you don’t want to know what I’m thinking anyway as it’s probably not pretty or maybe I think it’s a dumb thought and it will not add to the conversation. Some of the times, I’m in another planet and thinking about what I need to do tomorrow or what I need to do for work, or maybe I’m thinking of what my mom would think in this situation. I, for the most part will think it’s irrelevant to the conversation and will not give my opinion.
This is one of the reasons why I have a blog. I get to put some of my thought on “paper” and release some of the tension that I have on my shoulders. Yes, some of my idiotic thoughts get to placed on here. At this point, I’m looking to get my thoughts out there and leave them out there. If it creates a conversation; great! If it doesn’t, it’s ok. I am here to get my thoughts out and maybe even help someone who feels the same way. If so, you are not alone. If you don’t get it, then, trust me, you are not alone either. Having major depression and anxiety is not easy for someone to understand if they don’t go through it themselves. I’ve gotten the version of “suck it up, buttercup” when speaking with loved ones. I know they are trying to help. And, hey, some days, that is exactly what is needed. You look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself; it’s enough. Enough of felling like crap and it’s time to start sucking it up and keep going. Life is about the journey after all. But, for me, sometimes telling me to suck it up, simply makes me feel worst. Some days, like today, I really wish I could just suck it up and go.
The worst time for me however, is when I have down time. Down time makes me think and be unfocused. I need to be focused in order to be “fine.” I need something that will keep my mind occupied. I simply need a hobby, maybe. One that I can keep up with. This is something that my oldest brother tells me. Well, my hobby right now is to write my thoughts. But I can’t do this all day long. Then, my family wouldn’t see me at all, since I am in my bedroom/office behind a closed door in order to do my blog and concentrate on what I’m doing.
I feel bad doing this blog, since my daughter has already asked me to not be on the computer so much, especially over the weekends. But this is when I have time. But, she wants to play and learn and see me. Which makes me feel loved. But, during the seasons of my deepest depression, all I want is to be in solitude. During these times I listen/watch self help videos on youtube. But during seasons like this, they go in one ear and out the other. I listen to great advise such as: “you are enough” and “today is the best version of me.” Another great advise is to “push yourself,” “be productive” or “quit living in the past.”
I place all of these quotes in my journal. And keep telling my self the same thing everyday including, “I have a great memory.” In reality, my memory is a mess. Same issue from postpartum. I was in the hospital in an induced coma and may have lost some oxygen during this time and my memory took it’s toll. But there is nothing I can do at this point but, just keep looking forward.
This afternoon, I’ve been looking through my books related to museums and artist’s paintings. Not sure why, but looking though these books make me happy when I’m feeling down. I love to see the expression that these painters had in mind when they were painting. Another book I love, if the one from the Isabella Gardner Museum from Boston, Massachusetts. We visited many years ago and I loved it so much that we bought the book they had for sale. It has the collection that Isabella has placed in her home which is now the museum. I look through it at times that I feel down.
Eventually, my medicine does kick in and I am feeling better. I have an extender for my depression medication and it’s helpful. I have to take it throughout the day in order for it to work properly. I need to do this every single day. This is my life now!
These are my thoughts for the weekend. I hope you and your family are doing well during this covid-19 season.

Until next time.
Stay Safe.
Isabel

This week has been one of those weeks where I had some time off to recharge my batteries. I’ve gone to much needed doctors appointments and launched yet another product on one of my sites. Much work to be done and little time to do it all.

Over the weekend we’ve had some tragic news in the family. I’ve tried to figure out, out of the four sisters, which aunt has passed away over the weekend from covid. I’ve tried and tried calling my father’s cell phone, but he is not answering. He probably hasn’t charged the phone. He tends to forget to do that and then the battery is dead and I can’t talk to him. Either that, or he’s placed the phone in one of his pockets and doesn’t know which one he’s left it in. Well, since the extended family is in Portugal, there is nothing much we can do in the States. Over the weekend, I prayed for my aunt and the family and I wish everyone well. I wish I could get in touch with them, because when one person has covid, another may also have it as this awful virus spreads fast. I’m hoping everyone else from the family is ok.
On Sunday I did a bit of self care as my husband and the little one to a trip out to the store this afternoon. I’ve needed to get my hair done for a few months now, so I decided it was time. So I did it myself. It did not turn out the way I wanted it, at all. It came out much lighter than I wanted. I used a level 5 of color and I should have known it wasn’t right. The box stated, light brown. My hair is a darker brown, but I did it anyway, I put the wrong color on my head. And the result wasn’t as anticipated. Good thing I don’t have anywhere to go and show my face. At this point, I don’t look like a clown, but it’s not exactly the color that I should have chosen. Now I know, for next time I will go darker. From my many years of working at the beauty supply store, I understand that going darker is easy. Going lighter is the hard part. You have to make sure the hair doesn’t turn a shade of green or red. If it does there are ways to fix that. But a colorist is always the best way to go.

It’s Monday and I have the day off today from work. I’m using this day as one of my vacation days. I still have a few left and I need to decide which days to take off. Working from home and not going anywhere due to covid, there isn’t much to do besides being at home. Maybe I’ll read a book or write more blogs. Maybe read to my little one or having her read her books online. Meanwhile, I’m continuing to look for courses online for being a BA. I’ve also found there is a job posting for a Sr. Specialist in marketing for a different department in my company. I’ve advertised this on my linkedin profile. If anyone is interested, please, feel free to contact me via here, linkedin or anywhere. I can send your resume directly to the HR department. Having a resume go in through an employee will most likely get their packet seen by the HR department sooner than if it comes from the outside. Let me know if you or someone you know is interested, good luck!
As for today, I’ve decided to sleep in my little one is off as well for the holiday, columbus day or indigenous peoples day, whichever you choose. The school calendar states columbus, but we all know it’s right for our indigenous people to be recognized. After I woke up, I turned on netflix and watched Emily, In Paris. I’ve heard that it’s like the show Sex in the City, fashion wise. My take; it’s ok. It’s cute. And the fashion is just right. They do speak French on the show and it’s setting is in Paris. I’ve taken French all throughout high school. And I need to read the subtitles. They speak very fast. On the show, we get to see the sights and see the fashion and the way they live over in Paris. But it doesn’t get to the nitty gritty of Emily’s life. For example, she doesn’t speak French, but the taxi knows exactly where she needs to go. I would have loved to see the interaction of the struggle for her to get where she is supposed to go. Also, everyone speaks English, which is probably correct. English has become a second language in most European countries. I know this because most of my cousins in Portugal and throughout the world can speak and understand English. However, I do like that Emily made a friend with someone who is a nanny and speaks multiple languages. The nanny is fluent in French, English and Mandarin. I will most likely continue to watch it, though. At this point, Emily has broken up with her American boyfriend and now she is a single lady in the city of lights. She is also a social media maven and I would love to be able to do that. I want to see what comes next and will definitely continue to watch it. Like I mentioned, it is cute and it’s getting better as the show progresses.
After watching a few episodes, my little one is up and ready for breakfast. Grandma is ready to get her waffles with nutella and a cup of milk. I am having my second cup of coffee for the day and having some home made bread. My husband is the one that is the scientist and chef. He mixes all of the ingredients together and places them in the breadmaker so we have fresh bread every morning.
Today is the day that I get to make all of the health care phone calls that I need. Making appointments for my husband, calling for health care credit cards and calling all of the other places that were closed on the weekends.
Unfortunately, it is raining today. I can’t get outside and do yard work. This is normal for me. Whenever I take off from work it always rains. And when it rains, I have trouble breathing. With my having my lungs collapse right after daughter was born, I’m feeling overwhelmed with life. The fact that I’m having a tough time breathing always brings me back to a terrible time when I was in the hospital and couldn’t breath then. I hate still having this feeling years after it happened. But I’m guessing, it’s like breaking a bone. When it rains or the weather changes, you feel it. Like the muscle has a memory and it remembers the time it was once not whole.

It’s Tuesday and it’s doctor day. I’m going to the eye doctor and then to the rheumatoid doctor. The eye doctor takes forever. Checking out which new pair of glasses I want is what takes the longest. Everyone was wearing masks and at the office and there were partitions, but everyone was all over the place, a little scary during covid season. I got my eyes checked and need a higher script for my eyes. I’ve also gotten reflective eye protection for the laptop monitor. I hear it’s better for the eyes. As for the rheumatoid doctor. I was the only one in the office so it was easy not to be near anyone. The doctor checked my joints and I will need to go back for bloodwork. I’ve had a false positive for lupus and we need to check the blood to see if anything has changed. I’m hoping for no changes.
In the evening, we do homework with the little one. There is always a lot to do. And, now we are learning the common core math. It’s not difficult, but there sure is a lot of work to show. Kids can’t just guess or know the answer off the top of their head. They have to show the work and how they reached that conclusion.

It’s Wednesday and I have a whole lot of emails that I need to get to for work. I was gone for two days and the email list keeps on growing as the time ticks on. I started with about 200 emails. It’s 10AM and I’ve received about 15 more. I also have a product launch coming up on Friday and I need to get my behind moving on getting all of the content on the site. A little overwhelming with all of the work that I need to do. This always happens when days are taken off. But, I needed those days off. To recharge the old batteries and to see doctors. These doctors are difficult to see especially after office work hours. So back to work I go and I am concentrating on getting everything done. I have another day to get all of my launch items prepared so I finish with my day at 6PM. A little later than I wanted, but the work has to be done.

It’s Thursday and I continue to work on the product launch. I initially didn’t realize there was this much content to post. There are five full pages of content to attach plus an excel spreadsheet with brand new content. Including everything else that I need to post on the sites that I am responsible for. As well as troubleshoot problems. Looks like it’s going to be another late night for me tonight.
As for my little one, she has more meetings than me today. Her morning check in, her afternoon check-ins plus another conference call for her other teacher. This is on top of all the other work that needs to be done.
This afternoon, I need to do a presentation to the developers on a new bulk upload request for one of the sites I work on. I am seriously nervous. I’m afraid they will ask questions that I don’t have the answers to. Also, the boss is going to be on the call. I don’t want to look or sound dumb to the boss. Pray for me. I’ll let you know how it goes. Meanwhile, I am listening to some melodic music, trying to see if I can calm my spirits. Youtube calls it 1AM study secession. It has some hip hop sounds and some piano mixed in. It is soothing and simply background noise. As for the meeting with the boss and the developers, this one went ok, just ok. There were a bunch of pieces of the conversation that I was completely lost in. I had to ask a few times what things meant and what they were looking for me to ask of the business. And, at one point I got all sorts of confused and needed for the boss to repeat what was needed of me to do. After a while, I think I got it.
In the evening, we were studying with my little one on how to do common core math and writing sentences. She is learning how to add with the number line and understanding the structure of a sentence. Capital letters and punctuations. We are at this as a family until about 10PM. We’ve been doing homework with her until late at night almost every night and it’s getting to be exhausting, for all of us. Especially grandma as she is with her all day long, on meetings and teaching her as well as going over everything the teacher sends to do. There has got to be an easier way to get all of this work done. As for me, I get to bed and look at my instagram feed for about 15 minutes before I am ridden with sleep. I turn the phone off and to sleep I go. It’s terrible that I use the phone to lull me to sleep, the blue lighting usually keeps a person awake, but looking at my instagram feed makes me happy. I have mainly things that are uplifting, no drama whatsoever. If anyone on the feed gives me drama, anxiety or a feeling of sadness, I remove them from my feed right away. Good vibes only. I mainly have home items on the feed. Like decorations and century old homes. Before and after’s on homes. Mainly houses and rooms as well as positive messaging. It’s good for me to go to sleep with good thoughts.

It’s Friday and my bed is nice and warm and I do not feel like moving. The window is cracked open as it must have been warm last night. My husband is the one who usually opens up the window if he feels warm. Tonight must have been one of those nights. I don’t feel cold or anything like that, as I always sleep with a blanket. I like the feel of something a little heavy, like one of those gravity blankets. The weight of a blanket, even if it is light, always helps me to fall asleep. Even during the summer, I always have something to cover me. During those really hot days, I have the bed sheet over me when I am sleeping. A little something always helps me to keep on resting.
This morning we launched a new product the imageRUNNER ADVANCED DX 717iF. This product has so much content to post it’s not even funny. But I’ve gotten it all done yesterday.
Since I did so much work yesterday, today I am feeling procrastination. I’m watching a video by Marisa Peer, on How to stop procrastination. It’s a short video and it’s very inspiring. She tells her audience to tell yourself that you “love” to do whatever it is that you are procrastinating about. Another thing I learned about procrastination, according to Peer, is part of rejection. I can relate. I’m absolutely not a fan of rejection. As I’m sure a lot of people feel the same. I’m sure you’re also not a fan of rejection. It makes me feel dumb. I don’t like feeling dumb, it really bums me out.
This afternoon I am listening to a webinar called “Empowering Leadership: Managing Projects” at my company. We are listening to an interview of a person who is well rounded and knows a lot about the business world including managing projects. He says that at times, you may be thrown into a project management position. You’ll have to manage something and all of a sudden it’s a project and voila; project manager, you are. The guest was asked “What leadership qualities does one need for a project manager? ” The answer he gave is “influencing without power.” Boy, do I know about this one. When I was a lower level at my job, I wouldn’t get answers from people for a long time or at all. I would have to get my boss to send out the message again in order to get an answer. I at one point started to send more and more messages to the same person to get answers. Was I being annoying? Maybe. But after a while, they realized I was serious about the questions and they would eventually answer me back. I had to get a relationship with that person in order for them to get back to me. Also, I started becoming friendly with their boss. This got their attention. And for sure they started to get back to me in a more frequent matter. Hey, you need to do what you need to do. In the interview he also said that as a project manager, you can’t be a pushover. There is a delicate balance. A project manager should be nice as well as persuasive. And always explain to the subject mater experts and others involved in the project; how we’re invested on this together. Also, being firm and at times, pushing back, is also something that a project manager needs to do. It was an interesting conversation. In the end a question came up; what if you’re an expert in marketing and you’re tasked to do a project on rocket ships? The interviewee mentioned to be calm and to learn as much as possible and if necessary to get outside help, like vendors. This was something that I definitely needed to hear. I am currently in a position where I need to understand backend systems, which I do not, and will most likely need to have outside help in order to understand all of the work that I need to accomplish.
At the end of the work day one of the business analysts and I had a meeting regarding an item that was not working for one of my sites. And, thank the Lord, it wasn’t something that I did wrong. There is a break/fix that we will be working on with our developers.
I continue to try and figure out if there is a course for Business Analysts. I’ve reached out to one of my colleagues who is also in this rollercoaster ride of being a BA, as he was also given the opportunity of being a BA and seeing if he knows of any courses that we can take to learn more about this subject. So far nothing. If we could find something during the workweek, that would be fantastic. I’ve reached out to NYIT as they sent me an email today about graduate school. I sent a request back to them to provide information, if any, on being a BA. We will see what kind of information they come back with. Probably nothing as I’ve already checked out their curriculum and everything that they offer. No BA. I will keep on researching.

Until next time.
Stay safe
Best,
Isabel

Wow! September is here and the Fall is coming; ready or not! I’ve been working on cleaning out my basement from items that we were going to use to make an apartment, but we’ve since changed our mind about that. We have doors and shower doors, a toilet, furniture and other random items stored away that we just simply no longer need. I’ve been working hard on getting these things out the door. But the majority of these are bulky and heavy. I’ve used up all of my arm muscles over the weekend getting some things out the door and onto the curb. One good thing is that we’ve found a home for the baby items that we no longer need. That makes me happy, that they have gone to a home who needs them.

Today is Monday and I am swamped at work. It is the end of month and at this time the IT team is working hard on getting items to go live for next month. As a BA, I need to ensure the business teams are happy with the results. This time around unfortunately, they are not. Please don’t kill the messenger…me. The developers did what they could, but it wasn’t what business was looking for, and I am the one to bring the bad news to both parties.
The rest of the day is all about preparing for product launches for tomorrow. I have four items launching and a lot of content to post on the site. I don’t have a preview page for this site, so I will have to test everything in the morning after they are live and our partners can see everything. I am currently working with the IT team on getting me a preview page, but nothing so far.
Today, I continue to work past 5PM and to until 5:30 and that is when I take my dinner break. We eat dinner; pasta with chicken, and then clear out and wash the dishes. I then go ahead and take out the garbage to the curb as tomorrow is garbage day in my neighborhood. Then I get right back to my work laptop and continue working on my product launches for tomorrow. My family goes out for a drive and I stay in and continue to do my work. It’s 9PM and my family has come back and I am still working on my product launches. There is so much content and images to add to the sites that I am still working on them. Then there are always the people who fill out the paperwork incorrectly and I have to decipher what they are looking for me to do and hopefully I post the items correctly. The teams are no longer online and I can’t ask them what they mean with what they sent, at this time of night, so I have to figure it out. I’m getting way too used to figuring out things and guessing what others want. I’m becoming an expert at this, I think lol.
At 9, I pause my work and hang out with the family for a little while and prepare everything for tomorrow. I prepare the coffee and the get the ingredients: flour, sugar and yeast, for tomorrow’s fresh bread. I get all of the ingredients from the cupboards and my husband puts them together to make the bread. Teamwork! After a little while, we say our goodnights and I get back on the work laptop until 11PM. While I am working, I am listening to Marie Forleo’s book Everything is Figureoutable. The book is just about that, you can figure anything out. Put a little effort into it and you’ll get it. By 11:30 I can’t do it anymore. I get on my pj’s and go to bed.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday have been a blur. So much work and catching up on everything at work. The product launches took a lot of work. The other requests got left behind and these days were for catching up. I then also needed to fix postings for the launches that I did. Some were me that messed up, some were the teams already making updates to the items they provided the day before. So I fixed everything that needed fixing and all added all of the other items that were on my backlog. My goodness, I am tired. Mentally drained. It’s not hard work, but it sure does take a long time to do it.

It’s Friday and where has the week gone? I have been working my tail off this entire week. Starting way before 9AM and staying online until way after 5PM. On Tuesday, I stayed on to do work until 11PM. On Wednesday, it was until 9PM. I can’t wait until the Labor day weekend. I will have a day off to relax or do something around the house that I need to do. Like the weeding or cleaning up in general. Today, I’ve been doing more and more work for the product teams as they need a lot of content posted on the sites. Some of the teams have projects in mind and I am working hard on getting these taken care of. First off, I have to decipher what they are looking for and then talk to my development team to get whatever it is that was requested. I hope I’m doing this right. Today, I finish at 5 PM and log of at 5on the dot. Today, I will not work any longer than that. I need to break so I don’t burn out at both ends. I then have dinner and then go out for a drive with the family. I need some time to distract myself from work. Too much work will turn my head into mush. No need for that.

It’s the early hours of Saturday morning and I log on to my work email and get a couple of things done so they don’t get left behind. After that we go do our shopping. We do this in the morning hours so we won’t encounter many people at the store. By the time we get home with our groceries, it is almost noon. We clean everything off with gloves and bleach and then placing the items in a deep corner of the basement for quarantine for a couple of days. My little one has her gloves on too because she wants to help as well. We put everything away and then go ahead and have lunch. Lunch consisted of a bunch of salads. Not the green stuff, but the pasta salads and shrimp salads kinds. Thank you mother-in-law for bringing those. This is a good idea. A delicious mid afternoon lunch with the family. Now we are all relaxing after a hectic morning.
Meanwhile, I am trying to figure everything out that my daughter needs for school. Like her log in information and how to get into google classroom. I’ve sent an email to her teacher asking about books. How the kids learning from home will get their books for the school year. And also asked about a schedule. The teacher is going to get back to me soon. Hey teacher, school starts in a few days what is going on? Guess this hasn’t been planned yet. lol

Until next time.
Stay safe.
-Isabel

It’s been 23 weeks and counting. As for today, I decided to take the day off. I am a little burned out from work and need a day to recharge my batteries. So a Monday is as good a day as any to try and relax. But, who am I kidding, I can’t relax, I have a little one. Hopefully she will be with grandma and do her homework this afternoon and I will do mine. I have been working on getting my certification for Agile Project Management using SCRUM and need to study a little more. I took a mock test over the weekend and got an 80 on it. Not bad, but I’d like for my score to be better. So this morning, I am studying for my certification with achy muscles and all. Yesterday, I took care of the backyard by weed wacking around the house and practically the entire back yard. When the batteries were recharging for the machine I would sweep the patio to get all of the weeds, and and sticks our of there. Then, I decided that it was a good idea to clear out some of the things from the basement. I want to make a little more room for my little one to have space to play. We have a bunch of things that we were going to use for projects that we never got to do. Like doors that we took out from the main floor and saved them as we were going to fix up the basement and we would need doors for the renovation. Well, they have been in the corner of the basement for some years now and we haven’t made any partitions and we’re probably never going to need those doors. They need to go. I notice we have a couple of old computers down there too. We haven’t thrown them away yet because we need to clean them out first but just haven’t had the time. Hopefully this week we will take the time to fix the problem and get rid of them.
Oh yeah, I still have a bunch of baby things in the basement like a crib, changing table, high chair and a few toys. I’d like to get rid of them but would like for them to go to a good home as they are still in very good condition. If you know of anyone who might need these things, please let me know and we can set something up for pick up. I also have pregnancy clothes that are like new. The bottoms are size 6 and the tops are all larges. Again, if you know anyone who could use these, please let me know.
Today, keep on studying and reading over my notes and going through all of the Agile SCRUM information that I can find. I’ve taken a bunch of practice tests and have been doing very well. I’m thinking at this point I am ready to commit and take the actual certification. Stay tuned, I’m going for it!
So, I took the certification test and I did not do well. The questions were mostly situational, such as if you are the SCRUM Master and one of the developers is unhappy, what do you do?! Good question, we did not go over this in our class. We went over the processes not the actions. I’m so bummed out about this. I don’t understand, I did so well on the practice tests how could I have done so badly on the actual test. I am feeling very down right now.

It’s Tuesday and I am still thinking about the failed test and continue to feel down about it. I get up just in time to get to work and am trying my darnedest to lighted up, but I keep on ruminating about it. Should I get a rubber band and put it on writs? Every time I get a sad feeling about this thing, just snap it. See how red it gets today? Some Fifty Shades of Gray going on, on my wrist today lol.
As for work, it’s all about conference calls and catching up from yesterday. There’s a lot to post on the sites that I work on and I am so not in the mood. But, I’ve got get the inner strength to just do it.

It’s Wednesday and I have woken up early enough to have breakfast of some fresh, home made bread with butter; made by my husband and some delicious coffee. I am felling better today, I’ve eventually gotten over the facts of my failed certification and have decided to try and study some more by searching out situational questions online. We will see if I have the courage to take the test again. The only issue that I have with taking it again is that it is not cheap. Every time you take the test it will cost $150 dollars. It’s an hour test with 80 questions, so it’ll take about a minute or so for each question. The situational questions have a lot of words to read. About a paragraph of a situation and then another paragraph of multiple choice answers. And some of them are trick answers. Have to be very quick about it.
After I have my breakfast, I get to work. I have a lot of items launching on the sites I work on and a lot of content to post.
At the end of the day we take a drive out to the sporting goods store as my husband needed to make a purchase for work. We stay in the car as he goes and does the shopping. Once he is done, he shows up to the car with a baseball bat, some balls and a couple of mitts. Oh my good Lord, what have you done? He thinks that teaching our daughter how to swing a bat and hit a ball are a good idea. He says its good for coordination. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fantastic. But if my little one is anything like me, it’s not going to work out so well. I played soccer and have some coordination with my feet. As for my hands and arms, I am useless. Once I played catch with a friend and he threw the ball right at my face. I luckily put the mitt in front of my face to cover it, all scared and such. And BAM! The ball went right in the mitt. If the mitt wasn’t covering my face I’d have a broken nose. That was the last time I played anything related to baseball. Scared the hell out of me. Now daddy wants me to play with my little one. I don’t want to be responsible for a broken nose or limb. God help me!

It’s Thursday and I have been on a hunt to give away the crib and changing table and other baby items that I’ve had in the basement. Believe it or not, it has been a little bit of a challenge for me. There are some great organizations that will take some of my things, but not all. Plus they need for the items to be delivered. At this point in time, I don’t have the means to make a delivery. So I went another rout and put it on facebook in my community. Again, people are only interested in a couple of things. I can’t seem to be able to get rid of all of it. I’m having a lot of heart trouble with just leaving it out on the curb. I have this fear of: whatever you want to call it, that people will take the items from the curb and then try to sell them. I don’t want that. I’d rather they go to a home that needs them.
So good news. There is someone from my community that could use the baby items. This makes my heart happy. We have communicated on facebook and this person is willing to come pick the items up and best of all, to me, she actually needs them.

Yay Friday! I have been working very hard on getting rid of stuff from the basement. I am very content that today, someone will be picking up the items that I have stored away for a while. All of it is outside and ready to be taken. I am so happy that I’ve found a home for these I can’t even tell you how many happy feelings I have right now. I know I am a strange one, but this type of help gets my heart with happy feelings. Maybe this is something that I should pursue during my spare time. I will look into it. Do you know of any organizations where I can volunteer, preferably from home. I am still quarantining from this crazy virus.
As for work, there is a lot to do. Very busy these days working on both my marketing and business analyst jobs. Both are taking up a lot of time. I am also looking for courses for Business Analyst and I can’t seem to find any. I’ve reached out in LinkedIn and can’t seem to get anything yet. Any ideas?
At the end of the day we go and play pokemonGo and do a couple of raids. We got home early as there wasn’t much going on out there. Maybe its due to the weather, since there are hurricanes in the south and poor weather up here in the north. 2020 is a mess.

Until next time.
Stay safe!

-Isabel

It is Saturday and we are still in quarantine. My daughter and I hung out all afternoon at home. It was hot outside, so we opted to stay in. Not to her account. She’d like to go outside instead and play soccer or anything else for that matter. But it was in the 90’s and it was way too hot for us to be out there playing. Inside, we read a story and then painted a rock. Her Godmother gave her a painting set with a paintbrush, a few rocks and a few colors to paint these rocks. She painted one of them all white and then couldn’t figure out what else to do with it and told me that she would finish it another day. We then went to the basement and played golf with her little plastic golf set. She plays golf like the girls play field hockey lol. Once she got bored with golf, we kicked a small ball back and forth for a little while. But this was not the same as being outside and running after it, so she got bored with that quickly as well. We put the ball away and then played with her toys on the carpeted area of the basement. I wanted her to read some more today, but she wasn’t having it. So we played a little more in the basement then we came back upstairs for water. She then got out her crayons and started coloring her Hello Kitty coloring book while I went to change the sheets on the bed. All the while, my husband was watching TV and falling asleep on the couch. He has hard days during the week, so we let him rest on the couch for as long as he needs it. Besides, he woke up early this morning and made us all waffles and coffee. Of course we’re going to leave you alone. You’ve done enough already today honey.
In the late afternoon, my husband, daughter and mother-in-law go out for a drive. We do this often to get out of the house for a bit. I stay back today and tell them that I need to stay and study. I am working on taking my SCRUM certification and need to study and take some mock tests. I do just that this evening. I read the SCRUM Guide online and then search to see if there is anyone out there that recorded the guide so I may listen to it for a second time. Low and behold, there is. I love the internet! Not only does it give me a job, I work in Internet Marketing, but all sorts of good things are out there. Especially ones that I am looking for to help me with my studies. I also love the internet because it lets me keep in touch with my family and friends. It is especially fantastic in this time of covid, where you can’t be around anyone. Six feet apart to me is a few miles away…in your own house and me in own bedroom/office. So, not only am I reading the SCRUM Guide online, I am also reading and re-reading my notes from my class. If you’re interested, Nassau Community college has Workforce Development Training courses. Look for Project Management section and you will see that one of the course is for Agile Project Management Using SCRUM. They do not pay me to advertise, by the way. I simply think they are good courses to take. Since covid, they have been doing the courses online. This particular course that I took was all online. The professor used youtube to conduct the course. It was great for me. I did not have to commute back and fourth. After work, I had dinner with the family and then got online at 6PM and the course went on until 9. These courses are only for a few weeks and the professor was great. Seriously, I do not get paid to advertise this. I simply had a great experience.
I also too Lean Six Sigma course at NCC. I will be honest though, having been certified in Lean Six Sigma-Yellow Belt hasn’t gotten me further into my career, yet. But maybe, just maybe, kept me at my job. I also took this course at Nassau Community College in the Workforce Development Training. The beauty of these courses is that there is no test at the end. It is considered adult education and no test is required. The only testing is the certification, if you’re interested in having it. And, like everything else in life; it costs extra.
I needed a break from my studies and looked at social media and got bored. No one is doing much nowadays and I can’t live vicariously through anyone this year. Most years people go on vacations to parks or exotic locations and I love to see their pictures. I am always happy for my friends wen they get to get away. This year most people are home and all that can be seen are pictures of kids in their pools. My daughter wishes we had a pool, but I do not. It is a lot of work to maintain a pool. Those who have one know what I’m talking about. Sorry little love, no pool for us. These kids won’t be laughing so much once mommy and daddy tell them they have to stay home when school starts. Or some parents are going to go the hybrid way, where the kids will go to school for two days and do schooling from home for three days. All by keeping that social distancing of 6 feet apart. Maybe there are parents out there that say, forget this and are homeschooling their child this year. As for us, we’d like for our little one to be at home. She really misses her friends and her cousins, but we’re going to sacrifice this year and stay away from everyone.
Tonight I am having trouble sleeping, so I continue to study my notes and am thinking about recording them on youtube or just simply my phone. This way I can listen to them as I am doing chores, or maybe at work when I am doing mundane type of work that I don’t need to think. If I like the results, maybe I will share them with the world. We will see.

Until next time.
Stay safe!

-Isabel

I can’t believe it… 22 weeks and counting. This covid business has taken everyone for a loop. From the sounds of it, we won’t be going back into the office for a long time to come. I’m ok with it. I’d rather stay home and be safe, than go into the office and potentially get sick.
Over the weekend, we did absolutely nothing. I was going to take care of the weeds in the back yard on Saturday, then I got to playing littlest pet shop with my daughter and did not get to go outside and work. With that, I planned for Sunday to get out there and get the weeds cleared. Well, on Sunday it rained and rained so we stayed inside. We played pokemonGo remotely all morning. As we were throwing poke balls around, we were also preparing a nice Sunday dinner. We had lamb and rice. There was enough sauce to cover the lamb and rice and enough left overs for tomorrow. Now we can have leftover pulled lamb sandwiches. The house was a little hot, but it smelled fantastic. As for me, I don’t really appreciate lamb meat. I don’t like the aftertaste that it leaves in my mouth, it’s too gamy for me. I do love that sauce though, it is really good. I smothered it all over the rice and the little bit of lamb that I actually tasted. It’s good meat, but then there comes that aftertaste. Ahh, no good!

It’s Monday, and I am up early. My husband is getting ready for work. My daughter and mother in law are already up and we all have breakfast together. My little one likes to help out daddy in the morning to make his cooler for work. She likes to hand him his water bottles so he can place them inside his cooler. My husband prepares the flour, butter, ferment and sugar every evening so we can have fresh bread in the morning. My daughter has a slice of that warm bread with butter or sometimes peanut butter. She drinks her milk and he drinks his coffee. It’s a nice ritual they have together,
I’m not always up at this time in the morning, but today, today I woke up hungry and wanted some of that warm, fresh bread as well. So, I am up early and having breakfast with the family. After daddy goes to work, I change into my workout clothes and go for a walk. I do a little bit of running today, but not much. I’m not motivated enough to run much today. Once I am satisfied and sweaty enough with my walk, I then do my other exercises and then hit the shower. This months soap is a pineapple and lavender scented. I love pineapple, it is my favorite food and I love the scent. Lavender is great as well, so soothing. After the shower I get dressed and make the bed. Decorative pillows and all. I look at the clock and still have enough time before my morning conference calls for work so I make sure the mail is taken care of. I’ve ordered a belt for my husband from Amazon and it hasn’t even been a month and the belt is already ripping. So I contacted amazon and they are willing to give me a refund. In the time of covid, mail is everything for us here at home. We get practically everything delivered. And if there are any returns, through the mail it goes. After that chore is done, I still have time before my 8:45 conference call and I do my nails. I clear off the light pink chipped color that I currently have and exchange it for a summer pink. The color that I choose is clumpy, not good. I’ve have had this polish for a long time and it is time for it to see the garbage pail. It is time for it to go. I clean out my nails with polish remover and pick out another bright pink color that I have in the pile of many color. This one is good and I am happy with the results.
Shortly after, I have my 8:45AM conference call with a team from Vietnam. It is 9PM their time. They are hard workers for being on so late at night. This team is sometimes also requested to be on other conference calls later in the day. So these people sometimes are on calls at 10 or 11PM their time, and it about 10AM US time. I hope they get to start their day later than the regular 9AM start on their end. I’ll have to ask them this one day. Since this team is offshore and have a heavy accent, I am having a hard time understanding the majority of what they are saying. One of the gentlemen that are on the call; I can not understand at all. I’m sure I will understand him, eventually, but for now, I am lost in translation.

Tuesday came and went quickly. Just work, work, work.

It’s Wednesday and I wake up with a raging headache and hungry. I ate some home made fresh bread, made by my husband of course. It is delicious with a little bit of butter. Also, coffee! Best tasking coffee! Eating something and drinking a cup of coffee made my headache go away. I then went right to my conference calls starting at 8:45AM. Then another at 9AM.
I have no motivation today. Usually my early morning conference calls wake me up a bit as everyone is really nice, but today it did not work. So, I take a break from work and take a quick shower. This woke me up, especially the lotion of exotic coconut on my skin post shower. It reminds of the beach, a place that I haven’t been to this year and am not planning of getting out there while covid is around.
As for work, it’s been a little slow as our backend content management systems are not working right now. We are waiting for the developers to take care of this. I feel bad for them as this has been an issues for weeks and they can’t seem to get it to work. So waiting and waiting to getting back on.
In the afternoon there is a meeting for my daughter’s school about covid and their plan for this years school year. They are planning on going the hybrid way. Two days in school, three days remote. They mentioned that bathrooms will be cleaned twice a day and classrooms will be cleaned in the evening. As for my family, we are not comfortable with this. I’d rather my daughter go to school remotely for this year, or until covid is no longer. We may need to the homeschooling rout. Has anyone ever done homeschooling? What are your thoughts on this?
In the evening we play pokemonGo. Tonight we have raid hour and we do all of the raids that we can. We get some shiny characters and some that are 98%. All in all it was a good night for pokemoning.

It’s Thursday and I get up within 5 minutes or so before my first conference call. My call is with a team from Vietnam that I am having issues understanding what they say. The accent is a bit thick and I am trying really hard to understand. Meanwhile, I take notes of what I can understand. Mainly things that are nonsensical but I try. The next conference calls that I have this morning gives me more work to do. This is actually fantastic. The more work I have the better. Of course I don’t want to be overloaded but having things to do is a good thing for me at this point. To me, it means I am valuable to the company and the team trust that I will get it done.
I am exited to day that my company working on a Professional Buddy program with the local University and I am very exited to volunteer. When the email came out to ask if anyone was interested, I right away, answered with excitement. I am looking forward to mentoring a college student. I wish I had a mentor when I went to college. I’d probably be doing something else with my career.

It’s Friday and I finally get my behind to the treadmill. It took my mother-in-law to wake me up. Yes, I have an alarm clock and yes, I had hit snooze on it. But the fact that someone took the time to wake me, gave me the motivation to actually move my body from the bed to the treadmill. On the treadmill, I walked for about an hour and ran only for 5 minutes or so. I would have liked to have run a little more but I did not have the motivation this morning.
As for work, there are conference call after conference call. This has been my day. Busy, busy!
I am loving Pharrell Williams – Entrepreneur (Official Video) ft. JAY-Z. This video is everything right now. Listening to it over and over again.

Until next time.
Stay Safe!

-Isabel

It has been so long since I have seen the office. I kinda miss it. Actually, nah, I don’t miss the office. I miss my friends and the camaraderie that we had while at the office. But I now have new coworkers as I have switched jobs from Marketing to IT. It has been a slow transition, as I am continuing to do Internet Marketing work as well as Business Analyst work. I will eventually transition from IM to BA but not yet. We are still trying to figure out who will do the work. And it hasn’t been easy.
At home, we’ve been working on getting my little one to read and write as well as math. As for math, she loves it. Reading is not her thing for now. We are working hard on it, but not yet. We’ve had to take some toys away so that she’ll know we mean business when it comes to her learning to read. She’s getting it.
We’ve been playing pokemonGo as a family to keep us distracted during covid season. We stay in our car and play the game in the safety of our Nissan. My daughter love it. She loves all of the characters and the fighting and the way that they faint. So, my husband had the great idea of getting a book of pokemon. It looks like a comic book to me, but it is a large book and she is very interested in finding out what it says. So she is trying really hard to read it. Ah hah! We figured out how she’s going to finally learn to read. Good find daddy!
Meawhile, I have been working on cleaning out the basement. I have a bunch of tubs filled with clothing that I realize, I will never wear again. They are sizes small and extra small for when I was in college and running cross country. I used to run for three hours every day of the the week and was as skinny as a rail. So no, those clothes will not longer fit me. So I have placed them all in a bag and will be donating them. Actually, now that I think of it, I may just give them to my niece. She is just about my height now. I’ve been 5-foot nothing since I was 12 years old. Didn’t grow after I was 12. Very odd. I used to be one of the tallest people in my class in elementary school and then, I turned 12 and everyone grew and I did not.
Also, in the piles I found clothing of when I was pregnant. I was saving these for the next pregnancy. But that is not going to happen. One and done, as they say. So I’ve cleared out a couple of baskets from the basement and am ready to clear out some more things. I’d like for my little one to have a space where she can play with her toys. The living room is not so big and we’d like to keep it clear. I love a neat and clear room. Having too much stuff everywhere, including toys makes me all sorts of anxietal.
Today is Sunday and I wanted to get outside and clean out the yard, but low and behold, it is raining. It doesn’t look like it is going to stop any time soon. I will have to entertain myself in some other way. My family and I entertained ourselves by playing pokemonGo and did a bunch of raids remotely. Hey, it’s something to do on a Sunday afternoon. For dinner, we had lamb and rice. I am not a big fan of lamb, but the family loved it.

Until next time.
Stay safe!

It’s Monday and I am sleeping in. No getting up early, No running just sleep. My head is on fire and I am not in the mood. Today is not the day for hitting those types of goals.
I am however, looking for inner peace. I have been anxietal at just about everything and I have decided that inner peace may be the way to a better outlook on life. I’ve been looking for inspirational inner peace quotes on google, where else, and found the following “I have no desire to argue with anyone, I choose to walk away because I just want peace.” Another quote that I like is: “Never be in a hurry; Do everything quietly and in calm spirit. Do not loose your inner peace for anything whatsoever. Even if your whole world seems upset.” by Saint Francis De Sales.
While I am not looking for inner peace I am listening to Business Intelligence for Dummies. I have been given an opportunity to be a business analyst at my firm and I am working on knowing all about the subject. Business Intelligence and business analyst aren’t exactly the same, but I am learning nevertheless. Over the weekend I was watching videos on youtube about the subject of being a business analyst and learning some more about it. Interesting stuff. Being a BA is being the liaison between the business team and the IT teams. I will basically be the middle person between the two. It should be fun! At least I will make it as much fun as I possibly can. That’s what I do, I make my jobs, as terrible as they may seem, fun for me. I tell myself that this new adventure is going to be a good time and I forge forward and make it as such for me. I don’t know about anyone else, but for me it’ll be a good time.

Happy Tuesday! So this morning, my husband decided that the way to help me to wake up was to call my out my name and then shout, WAKE UP! It scared the bejesus out of me. But I sure got out of bed fast. Thanks husband, I think! I then took a sip of my coffee and looked out the front window to see if the cute fawn were outside munching on the grass. They were not. I haven’t see them is a few weeks. I hope they are ok. After that I got on the treadmill and ran for about 20 minutes. I did not do my full 30 minutes, not sure why, but I am tired today. But I did continue on the walk for 3 miles. I am thinking of doing 5k street races and need to be able to keep up for that amount of time. That’s not necessarily my goal for now, but I am keeping it up to 3 miles per day. My goal is to run for 30 minutes at a faster pace. And maybe, do a 5k under those 30 minutes. That is my goal for now. I want to be able to do that by the fall. After my run and my other exercises I get to my dear coffee! My husband places the coffee inside my jirushi thermous and it stays hot for the entire morning. I use french vanilla creamer on my coffee, that my husband was so kind to get for me from the grocery store, yummy! Thank you, husband!

It’s Wednesday and I am up and early. My husband decided that it would be hilarious to wake me up by screaming WAKE UP!! at 5:30 in the morning. He didn’t even start by saying my name first this morning, he went straight for the call. He must of been in a hurry this morning. But it worked, because, it sure work me up right away! I was initially mad at him because I thought that he would wake up the house, but then thought it was funny as everyone was already awake at that hour. Does no one sleep at this house?!
Him scaring the hell out of me this morning was like the bugle being played at the air force base to wake up the soldiers lol. So now that I was up, I get dressed and make the bed then I right away went to do my product launch for one of our large printers. The team only provided me with the information to post on the site a couple of days ago, so here I am up and early doing the work that should have been done last week, I am doing it on the day of the launch. The teams do that often and I comply. In the end, it’s just another product launch.
In the evening, we needed to bring our family car to the mechanic as the air conditioner stopped working. I don’t know what it is with air conditioners but they never seem to work out for me. My little car also does not have air conditioning. It has been fixed multiple times and it continues to break. So now the family car is at the shop and we are using my little car to go pokemoning in the afternoon. So here we all are in a car that does not have air conditioning. The windows are all down and the hot air is coming in. Also, the muffler in the car has broken in half. So the car has no AC and it is loud and sounds like a race car. My daughter was having a ball with the craziness. Since the windows are all down, she thought that our hair being all over the place due to the wind was hilarious. She also thought that the car being really loud was also very funny especially the way that it was being driven. It really does sound like a race car. We are having a heat wave in Long Island and it was really hot in the car. So again, no AC, widows down, loud muffler and all of us sweating; we were all laughing at our misery. We were all truly having a good time and laughing the entire time.

It’s Thursday and I have gone on the treadmill but did not run today. Today, I walked uphill for over an hour. I figured I’d change my routine a little bit so that there will be some sort of a nice change. I get bored doing the same things over and over again.
Apparently, my boss understands my feeling of being bored as I am no longer working in marketing. I’ve been a marketing senior specialist for over 10 years at my firm. But, now I have began to transition working as a business analyst. I have never officially done this type of work before but it seems like I will be able to tackle it. My boss would like for me to take a course or two on this and I am grateful for that. If you know of any good courses for business analysis please share this with me. Meanwhile, I will continue to do product launches and other marketing aspects of my work until the transition is complete. So for another two months or so, I will be wearing a few different hats at work.

It’s Friday, my hair looks great and I am feeling great. I left my hair in a big braid over night and this morning I have beach waves. I like it! As for work, it has been a very busy day with wearing a few hats. I’ve had a morning filled with meetings for my new position and the afternoon filled with work for my marketing position.
In the evening we go out for a drive in mommy’s race car and we continue to have a great time in our misery. It is hot and muggy but my daughter thinks that our hair being all over the place due to the wind is hilarious. By the time we get home, we all need a shower since we are all sticky and our hair needs a good washing. But prior to that, we have some ice cream to cool off. It’s been a good day.