Our First Holiday Season

We stayed up till 2am decorating our house for Christmas last night. For a person who normally sleeps by 11pm, this is a huge deal. But, it was all worth it. All that are left to buy are wreaths and a bit more Christmas lights.

I know it's not quite Christmas yet, but there isn't a whole lot of decorating that you can do for Thanksgiving... And, given the amount of time and energy it takes to decorate the house, we might as well leave the decor up for a bit longer. (The tree you see on the left took us more than an hour to set up and at least 3 hours to decorate...)

But, I'm so glad that the holidays are finally here! :)

Complete Randomness

I can't believe I woke up at 7:30am on my second day being unstaffed. Spending time on the bench is one of the perks of being in consulting. Not too many jobs pay you while you recuperate from the last project. One of my clients once told me that the client team has it worse than the consulting folks, even though we work the long hours, because at the end of the day, the clients are the ones who will have to live with the end product... Anyway, the point is that I'm supposed to be in bed till at least 10am and not worry about staffing till a few days later. (Though my HR rep would beg to differ on this.)

Anyway, I woke up really missing the Sachertorte from Hotel Sacher, Vienna... The rich chocolate cake that is not overly sweet with a thin layer of apricot jam in the middle and whipped cream that has been whipped to perfection on the side... Is it crazy to think about visiting a city again just for its desserts? There really isn't anything like it.

I know that my chances are slim and that everyone will think I'm insane for doing this, but I started searching through the role db for any project in Austria... I'm starting to wonder if I woke up because I miss this cake too much...

After finally dragging myself out of bed, I went through my daily routine of reading through the news headlines and personal emails. And, here are the interesting things from today.

• Fat? Blame your granny (Read the article yourself)
• According to the scientists from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, a pregnant woman's diet affects not only her unborn child's health, but also the health of her children's children.

• Warm weather wrecks bears' winter slumber (Read the article yourself)
  
• Insomniac bears are roaming the forests of southwestern Siberia scaring local people as the weather stays too warm for the animals to fall into their usual winter slumber. There really is no way we can deny global warming, can we?

• O.J. Simpson to Open Up About Murders (Read the article yourself)
• In his new book If I Did It, Here's How It Happened, O.J. talks about how he murdered his ex-wife and her boyfriend 12 years ago - if he had actually murdered them. Isn't this just the strangest thing? This goes a long way to say anything can happen in the States if you have enough money. (Can we put him on trial again if we find new clues from his own book...?)

OK, so I don't pay too much attention to the war in Iraq... but, it's just been going on for WAY too long. I don't need the news to tell me that more innocent people have died or that the soldiers have gone crazy and committed inhumane acts...

I found out about the "The Five Love Languages" quiz from a friend's blog this morning. The Five Love Languages is one of the really popular books that my premarital counselor suggested to another couple. It's a pretty interesting read, but there really isn't a point if we don't put what we've learned into action... Anyway, so here are my results:

The Five Love Languages

My primary love language is probably
Quality Time
with a secondary love language being
Words of Affirmation.

Complete set of results

Quality Time:		11
Words of Affirmation:		8
Acts of Service:		5
Physical Touch:		5
Receiving Gifts:		1

Information

Unhappiness in relationships, according to Dr. Gary Chapman, is often due to the fact that we speak different love languages. Sometimes we don't understand our partner's requirements, or even our own. We all have a "love tank" that needs to be filled in order for us to express love to others, but there are different means by which our tank can be filled, and there are different ways that we can express love to others.

Take the quiz

The End is Finally Here!

Even though I was dead tired when I dragged myself out of bed after working all day and all night yesterday, I started my day with a smile on my face. This project is finally over! As I have predicted, they don't have the budget to keep me on, even though my boss has tried really hard to do so. I am very happy to put this project behind me - from more than just one perspective.

Career
While I was commended for my ability to pick up new stuff very quickly and hit the ground running, this is definitely not a consultant's role... This has been a huge step down from my last role where I was managing a small team of my own. Oh well, this is what I get from taking a long vacation during a critical phase of the project. And, getting roles at the end of the year is never easy. Things are always slow around the holidays, so I wouldn't mind some unstaffed time. Hey, what beats spending the day doing what you want while getting paid your full salary?

Health and Marriage
Working a minimum 14-hr day everyday for the past month has taken a toll on my health and marriage. I'm not getting enough sleep; my metabolism is slowly down; I'm getting fat; the dark circles that have disappeared for a little while have crept back in my life. And... he and I hardly ever talk to each other during the work week.

So, net net, finishing up this project is definitely a good thing. Just have to hang in there till it's all over this evening. ;)

Fresh New Look (Continued...)

My hair grows incredibly fast, so it's already much, much, much longer than 2 weeks ago, but here's what I look like now. :)

2-Month Anniversary

I can't believe it's been 2 months since I've been married. Time really does fly... But, I guess between the 2 wks of honeymoon and his 2 wks in Beijing, we've only truly lived what you may call a normal married life for 1 month. To be honest, I can't say married life is too different from my single life though. We've merged our finances a long time ago, and I still hardly ever see him before I go to bed at night...

We have an effective 4-hr time difference (i.e. I sleep at 10:30pm or earlier, and he, 2am or later), so you can imagine how much time we get to spend with each other during the work week. Sometimes, I think it may be better for me to go back to my traveling lifestyle... If I were on the road all the time, at least we wouldn't have to bend our backs finding time to have a very late dinner together, or have him wake me up when he crawls into bed at 2am or later... With my Cisco project finally wrapping up next Monday, this may be a workable plan...

Speaking of spending time apart, I heard a very interesting report on the radio this morning - many married couples now actually choose to live apart because their lifestyles are too different. Has being married really gone out of style? Homes headed by married couples have now dipped below 50%, and of those who are married, I would argue that most have a very non-traditional take on marriage. A lot of people have blamed this on female financial independence, but I think it's probably because people are taught to put what they want before everybody else.

Anyway... gotta go back to work now... :(