Ramblings Only

Last weekend was crazy with the Women's Conference planning. A little bit of procrastination and somehow every single deliverable was pushed to the same week. I dont know how I survived  the past two weeks.The stress, the chaos. All the time I felt my body was not in sync with the mind. Mind wanted to race, body lagged behind, tired, sleepless. Mindw as pulled down along with the body.

Some super inferiority complex, lower self confidence, the next day I decided to dress well, dress in red, put on an inch of heels to give me some confidence. And it helped. I got a charming women who is a new VP in company to be my mentor! She was so charming, she is Irish, super friendly, super smart. Looking forward to my first 1:1. And I was hugged by a CIO. I gave her a bag of chocolates and she hugged me tight thanking me. :--) 

I met a friend whom I have known since 2003 time frame when the world of blogs started, known as weblogs. She was visiting CA and wanted to see BSK. :--) More than me. She dropped by only for a couple of hours and it didnt feel like I was meeting her for the first time. It was super nice. Her accent is to die for. French. Her boyfriend was also super nice. The first kidless couple that bonded so well with BSK within the hour of   visiting. They sort of stooped down to her level, made funny faces, talked in animated tones and amused her and slowly BSK gave smiles, they played with her and finally spoke with her and colored with them too. Super awesome. Since this friend has seen so many pictures of BSK, and has always wanted to meet her, knowing BSK I thought she might never warm up to stranger but how wrong I was!! I am glad she got to experience BSK in her real form. :--)

Yesterday we went to the NASA Ames Open House. Oh the crowds and the long lines made me feel like I was in Six Flags or some other amusement park. Lot of walking but it was a nice visit. We saw as much as we could with a cranky three year old at her nap time. A lot of screams in the middle of the lines, and in the middle of someone talking. What else is new with a three year old :--P

Oh oh, I participated in a Flash Mob. :--P It was a sort of marketing for the Women's conference. When else will I get a chance to dance? So we shook our booties to the tune of Gangam style in our Cafeterias. What fun it was. Thankfully not too many folks I wouldnt have wanted to see me dancing saw me, so I am happy :--P Now I can say I was in a Flashmob too!

The conference experience, I think I was a little scared to deal with VPs, the other woman was much more comfortable, just treat them like normal people. I wondered multiple times, why am I like this. And then the realization struck me. This is a lesson for me. I am pretty sure the next time I will do much better. Lot of learning. The other woman was French. A bit tough to work with, not collaborative if you know what I mean. Everything is a learning experience. There is going to be a retrospective meeting later and I am pretty sure a lot of things I handled have lot of learnings :--P Oh well. I think this was a case of biting into more than I can chew. My work work is sort of unpredictable and I didnt take it into consideration at all. I had so many things on my plate I just dropped the ball on a lot of things. But everything worked fine in the end, so all is well that ends well I guess.

Oh, I was also the responsible for inviting the subsidiary companies. A lot of fire fighting there, to give strict instructions and then get a VP to totally overthrow my decision :--P like 2 days before the conference. And some email threads going "This is silly" and "This doesnt make any sense" to a VP. Gosh. Humiliation central for the heart. But then thankfully the head took control and realized the real reason why we are doing some things. Finally everything turned out fine again, so all good. 

At the end of it all, I made some good contacts, learnt a lot of valuable lessons, people skills, to have a thick skin, all essential skills to survive in the corporate world :--P

The day before the conference we were doing a dry run. When my fav VP came to see how things were. The girls flocked near her took pictures and generally introduced themselves. I was stressed out and sort of had lowered confidence so didnt even introduce myself inspite of having spoken to her in great length about her speech on phone. That night I kicked myself so hard. The next day, backstage as she was waiting to go talk, I told her I am totally inspired by her and that I have been following her since two years ago when I heard her speak somewhere else. She was super nice and said "let me know if you want to meet for coffee sometime" Reallllly? 

So much drama, so much emotion, so many feelings, chaoes in the heard, and chaos in the heart.

Life is supposed to be back to normal this week. 

Diwali is around the corner! Advance Diwali Wishes to my dear blogger friends.