My friend called me a week ago to ask me what I was planning this past weekend.  Confused as to why he thought I would be doing something, he informed me that my birthday is coming up.  Nah, couldn’t be.  I would have definitely remembered that!  Right?  Sure enough, I look at the calendar and realized he was correct.  How did I forget that?

I think I can guess why.  February has been a crazy month for me because of how much time I was putting into my capstone project (which is also my excuse for not updating as much this month).  You see, this is my final semester in graduate school and in order to graduate I have to complete a project for an organization of my choosing.  I decided to help the organization I’m currently working in with strategic planning for our committees since they needed help with that anyway.  Hey, why not kill two birds with one stone?

What I didn’t realize was how quickly I had to get started.  I technically had until May to complete my project for school, but for work I had to prepare, present, and facilitate the strategic planning process for 15 committees (4-6 members each) by late February!  In other words, I had about 3 weeks instead of 12 weeks to get my act together. 

Needless to say, I was STRESSING this month.  The night before I had to give my two hour presentation to all the committees, the entire staff of my organization, and all the board members was the worse.  I stood in front of a mirror at my hotel rehearsing over and over again until my brain melted.  The night sort of progressed in this fashion:

11pm…

1am…

3am…

Fortunately, I was alone in the room.  I wonder if people outside my doorway thought I was going crazy?

You really don’t understand how worried I was the next morning.  I kept imagining freezing up in front of everyone, irreversibly ruining myself and having to leave the company out of shame.  No kidding, this was a real fear on my mind and I couldn’t shake the dread for the life of me.  This was going to be my very first presentation I give to the company and I knew how crucial it was for me to leave a good impression, especially to the board members.

So, how did it go?  Thankfully, it went smoothly!

Not only did I get through it all without messing up (whew!), I was lucky enough to impress a few people in the room as well (weee!).  In particular, a committee member came up to me afterward and told me that she has seen other people present on the same topic before, but mine was the best she has ever witnessed.  Yeah, you bet my jaw dropped right there!

She asked me to send her a copy of my powerpoint, which I did.  A few days later, I received congratulatory emails from my executive director, my section’s executive director, and a few other higher ups after they received a email from the national evaluation committee praising our section and district.  Say what?

It turned out that committee member that came up to me used to be a part of the national evaluation committee (which I didn’t know).  She proceeded to send my powerpoint out to the current chair of the evaluation committee, who wrote that what I did was “very impressive”.  She then sent it out to everybody else and the rest is history. 

To think, all I was hoping for before was to not bomb.

Such an unexpected but great way to end my 24th year of life.  Come March 1st, I will officially be a quarter century old.  I sense a lot of big changes coming up, but you know what?  I have a good feeling about this year.

I was cleaning up my room at my family’s house the other day when I came upon my high school senior yearbook, something I haven’t seen for many years.  Like a lot of the senior class, I bought myself a personal page in the back.  Would you like to see my page?  (Sure!)

Alright, I like your enthusiasm!  First, here’s the entire page:

Oh boy, there’s a lot I could say about this.  Let’s take it one section at a time.

The first section had a poem my then girlfriend wrote for me.  Did you notice the hidden message (hint: look down the left side)?  She was also the one who put in those extra words and heart.  Ain’t I a sexy beast with my fobby hair?

The second section had a letter written to me from my best friend (who’s still a good friend now, although we haven’t been able to hang out as much due to life).  He’s the only person I know that ever wrote “haha” and “hehe” as “jaja” and “jeje” (apparently the Spanish version).  It is nice that we’re still fairly close after all this time.  Random picture comment:  I really thought I was such a bad boy taking a picture of myself loitering next to the no loitering sign.  Oh yeah, rebellion yeah!

The final section was my letter to my closest high school friends.  Before you get on me I KNOW, it’s pretty cheesy that I borrowed the phrase from the MTV show Diary up there (I thought it was clever at the time!).  It’s interesting how I’ve changed so much since high school and yet other things stay akin.  That “sweet is not as sweet without the bitter” quote is still one of my favorite quotes and obviously I’m still using the Roadlesstaken moniker.  Oh, once again my then girlfriend added more personal touches here *cue gagging*

You know, for something I did as a high school teen I don’t think my page turned out all that bad.  I’m really, really glad I didn’t make the mistake of dedicating it entirely to my girlfriend like I knew other couples did.  Talk about awkward turtle when a lot of those couples broke up in between making the page and when the yearbook came out. 

How did your high school yearbook personal page look like?  Do you think it holds up well after all these years?

It has been a little over a half a year since the last NYC meet up in July.  What, you don’t remember?  Here, take a look before I continue:  http://roadlesstaken.xanga.com/730716362/a-big-recap-of-the-big-ny-xanga-meet/

Looks fun right?  Sad you missed it?  Well don’t worry, we’re going to do it all over again!  Here’s the details:

What’s Happening?

Your Hosts

Airbornerose, EmpathyandReason, Cakalusa, TheBigShowatUD, & Roadlesstaken

When is this?

What’s happening?
Still working out the exact details, but here are some ideas that we had in mind:

Lincoln Center (Good meet up place rain or shine!)

Central Park Zoo (close by to Lincoln Center)

Karaoke at Duet 35 (unless someone suggest a better place?)

VaneDave Comedy Show at Maui Tacos (location may change)

“Evening Activities” (To be determine )

Other suggestions are welcomed!

Flash Mob
Being a part of a flash mob has been on my bucket list way too long.  I say this occasion would be a great time to try one out!  Not everybody has to participate of course (we’ll need some people to film it), but the more the merrier!  Who’s interested?

We probably shouldn’t try for something too complicated like this dancing one, but perhaps something like an impromptu lightsaber battle or something simple as we all point up to an imaginary object in the air (probably the easiest to do).  What are some of your ideas?

Why should you come?
Hanging out with awesome Xangans in a big fun city is an amazing incentive, don’t you think?

Even if you don’t know that many Xangans (which was a concern last time) you don’t have to worry.  Meet ups like this are great ways to network and discover new people.  Just ask anybody that attended the meet up last year.

I met a lot of new people and strengthened existing relationships through this memorable experience.  I’m sure you will as well.

Who’s coming so far (as of 03/15):
1. Roadlesstaken
2. airbornerose
3. CaKaLusa
4. TheBigShowAtUD
5. EmpathyAndReason
6. VaneDave
7. NimbustheDragon
8. swtaznxtc90
9. WordsandThoughts
10. airborne_muse
11. Bengozen
12. FlipGuy31O
13. lcrazyaznl
14. scrooge0
15. infinitiNY
16. normality_dreamer
17. AlterEgo909
18. Lordv16
19. Rhia_Pyrithea
20. SexyGamerGirl
21. xkthily
22. Bodhiseeker
23. whotakethmycoke
24. Coffee_Kaioken
25. HeLLo_Bianca
26. Losertastic
27. pasaway4eva
28. Prim_Prim4488
29. jia_x3
30. LitlKittyKat
31. babychillax
32. Striemmy
33. RazielV
34. ohveryoung
35. juiCyer
36. jdrop
37. Lost_in_Reverie
38. verified_but_still_denied
39. twentyse7enn
40. schik05os
41. shuang_zhaohui
42. XoPinkHeart
43. indiechaos
44. goingbackearly
45. SerenaDante
46. heracheung
47. remiblanc2011
48. Shades_of_Athena
49. rxglasshalffull
50. Resentity
51. jmeLove_x

The maybes so far:
Trigger821
Joanna_said_SO
Marc
Behindthedimples
Finity
throughsamseyes
Passionflwr86
Yohkom
GreekPhysique
CPKviperphoenix
Linh_L
RonnyV
MacPhoto
Hollywoodfever91
fried_ryce
hardlyhandsomest
Utoppia
heyanh
Evil10
Lovesporks
Stupid_Systemus
x0_electric_kiss
sweetstache

Let me know below if you want to come!

I think I covered everything for now.  Please RSVP and leave your suggestions in the comment section below.  We got a whole 2 months to plan this thing, so a lot can change.  Stay tuned!

Let’s make it a good time!

P.S. Cakalusa and TheBigShowatUD are volunteering to be man servants for everybody during the meet.  Shhhh, they don’t know this yet!

Let me tell you a quick story that not too many people know.  A few years ago, I wanted to get back with somebody after mistakenly breaking it off with her.  I was trying to think of ways I could possibly persuade her to come back to me.  In the end, I genuinely thought it would be a good idea to do something from a certain movie we both enjoyed watching together.  In particular, it was this memorable scene from Love Actually that I found myself reenacting:

Yeah yeah I know, I was THAT guy

I didn’t do it halfway either.  I bought a bunch of big colored paper and wrote out around 30 cards worth of messages and pictures on them.  I even took it a step further and timed it to this song, making sure I ended my cards right when the song ended:

She did get back with me soon after this grand gesture, which was great, but that’s not what I want to talk about here.  What I want to do is understand how I managed to go through with all this.  When I look back at this memory, my first thoughts revolve around how ridiculous it was to do something so outlandish.  What was I thinking?  Did I really have to go all sappy/cheesy like that?

After thinking about it some more though, I began seeing my old self from a different perspective.  I still thought I went overboard with the spectacle (there is such thing as too much), but I had to admit I had guts.  It was a highly embarrassing thing to do, especially if it went wrong, but I apparently didn’t care how people might see it.  I had these strong feelings for her damn it, and I was going to express them one way or another!

I take a look at who I am now and wonder if I could put myself out there the way I used to be able to.  It bothers me that I hesitate to this thought.  I’m afraid that I might have grown more doubtful and cynical due to some recent experiences, which in turn is preventing me from being as ambitious and carefree with my expressions as I was back then.  Don’t get me wrong; I think it’s a good thing I’ve toned down in that department and I’m not as romance crazy, but I really don’t want to lose that side of me completely.  I like having that quality, as foolish as it may make me appear.

Who knows, perhaps I shouldn’t worry too much.  Maybe I’ve just grown out of practice and this part of me will come alive again when the moment is right.  Looks like we’ll just have to wait and see if I get inspired in the near future.

Alright, no more pondering from me.  Have a happy Sunday everyone.