Random Friday

Ben and I are gonna do the Voices of Redeemer choir this weekend. Singing for this is always fun! You get to sit on stage and hear the sermon from behind Tim Keller.

Whenever I stop and think about it, it's so weird to me how used to my life I am. I am sincerely a creature of habit, and once a habit is there, I pretty much run on autopilot. Like code being added to a program. I think that's why when someone suddenly wants to engage with me during the day, I kinda need to take a second and respond. I'm not a robot, but I sure act like one for most of my waking life.

John was warning Dave (who is currently seriously dating this girl) not to propose to her on Valentine's Day because the ring would constitute as a gift and if they ever fell through she has a legal right not to give it back. Also, John says there is a legal precedent of a ruling that said a proposal made and agreed on anything but a holiday or birthday is a legal contract which means if the contract is broken then the girl would have a legal obligation to give the ring back (John is a bit of a nerd, told you he was smart)...Needless to say, I'm never taking any advice of this kind from these men.


I've built up quite a history on Mint.com. And this is showing all the restaurants I've been to in the last 6 months....wow...I can't even read it. And these are only the one's I used a credit card, the cash transactions aren't represented.

Tim Keller has an AMAZING extra sermon he gave on work for the Center for Faith and Work Open House deal. I wasn't able to go because I was at the retreat, but because I knew an insider (aka Sonja) I was able to ask for a recording. It's on the front page of the Center for Faith and Work website FOR FREE! If you work, you wanna hear this.

Sigh of Relief and Joy

I just went through my year-end review with my boss-boss (as I refer to a senior manager who doesn't really directly manage me). Someone got promoted today...ME! Well, it's just a title change up to the next level Business Analyst II, nothing too major (business cards aren't changing, and just more assignments in the future), but I'm super glad that I've been meeting expectations at work even exceeding them at some points...since these have been murky at best. Apparently, I'm doing pretty well, and I love the people I work with. I kinda lucked out in terms of project assignments.

Allow me to write about this one guy. Joel is Jewish and has a wife and kids and lives in Brooklyn. He leaves early on Fridays so that he can get home by sunset. His wife probably calls him at minimum 5 times a day. I know because he has a normal ringtone on his cell phone and I can hear his wife yelling (or that's really just how she talks) in that Brooklyn accent even from over the cubicle wall. I can also hear when his children are on the phone, so really I think he just sets his volume too high. He answers his phone EVERY TIME, like for real EVERY TIME it rings. He could be on the phone with someone else or even talking to a client, or in someone else's office and he freaking answers that phone even just to say "I gotta call you back" and immediately hanging up. He rarely brings his phone to meetings, but if it's a meeting with just our immediate team, he accidently brings it sometimes and he ANSWERS it! Not to mention, this dude is really freaking smart. He sits right by me and I ask him questions over the wall all the time. Sometimes project related, sometimes just random. I've definitely asked him "When are you doing your taxes?", "Is my tax allowance too low?", "How do I open a Roth IRA?", "What's going on with the market?", "What's the difference between client side and firm side rebates?" and he's given me detailed answers and took the time to tell me everything, even freaking offered to look over my tax return. I've even asked him "Why are you coming in on Monday?" and he doesn't just shrug me off, he gives a full explanation like I'm a normal human being...a lot of people don't do this, or don't give me a feeling that it's safe for me to ask them questions. All of these questions are out of the blue and totally spontaneous, btw. Anyway, this man is definitely not perfect, but I'm a big fan.

Btw, I really think A.O. Scott is a genius. Look at this review on the new Biggie Smalls movie "Notorious" partly produced by P. Diddy and Biggie Smalls's mom. I just love it: "'We can’t change the world unless we change ourselves.' That line occurs twice in 'Notorious,' and it’s not entirely clear what is meant, other than that the characters aspire to be better as well as richer and more famous. At times the movie seems to lump all those things together, to imply that celebrity, money, clothes and boundless sexual opportunity are not just the rewards reaped by talent but also visible signs of righteousness." Man, who write like that about a rapper movie? I like him becuase he sincerely has no boundaries in terms of reviewing films. He'll review things as stupid as Superbad and as frou-frou as Benjamin Button. What I find interesting about reading reviews in the NY times is that I more often just enjoy the critique more than I would probably enjoy the movie. I think it inspires me to strive to see the beautiful nuance within the work, whether it was intended or not. Kinda like it's acknowledging a work of a sovereign Creator instead of the individual director or actor or whomever.

Men at Work

So I work with a lot of men. I would say pretty much all my colleagues are middle-aged (re-)married/divorced/separated men with children. Of course, there are women on my floor and in this building, but I would say at every meeting, I am one of at most 2-3 women (and those women are based in NY not Jersey City). I was realizing recently how odd it is that this is probably the easiest part of the transition I've gotten used to. Maybe it's because of Stern being so male-dominated, but I'm completely comfortable (and even somewhat prefer) working with men. And these particular men all have that same self-deprecating, sarcastic, cynical point of view (at least this is how they portray themselves in the workplace). I think it's common being a professional in NYC when you're an over 30 year old man to put on this type of machismo that has both the inferiority and superiority complex going. Same tone of voice and inflection. The higher up and smarter you are, the kinder you can be...but no one ever really has that objectivity and that confidence about themselves. It's funny being able to sense the insecurity underneath and the overall unhappiness with life. The men walk around waiting for rejection, no matter how blessed they probably really are.

The only thing I am uncomfortable with is when they start chit-chatting about the way of the world. There's this one man who came into the project later. He's known as a genius for one of the systems we need to deal with, yet he seems a little bit socially awkward. We've been instructed that he never be in a meeting with certain higher ups. Otherwise, really he seems like a normal human being. He just likes to talk A LOT. And he has no tact in talking about things that he doesn't realize would piss some people (namely me) off. He likes to just say whatever his opinion is, and there's never any room for anyone to go against him without being awkward. I thank God that he doesn't really find me stimulating enough to talk to (honestly, it's because I don't know how to tell him I completely disagree with him). This is especially true when he talks about marriage. He talks about how this modern age where both sexes work has ruined the system of marriage and how family is "supposed" to work. He says before people "had to stay together", but now it's just impossible. I take issue with this, being raised by two working parents who have been going at it for 31 years, despite such a rough beginning. Maybe I agree that it's harder to take care of children, but I completely disagree that because it is now inconvenient to be married and working, then that's more reason to give up. Convenience and circumstance really shouldn't have anything to do with it. Ugh, I'd hate to get married without any real sense of what it's really for and of the God who created it.