Motivation

I attended a motivational day-long seminar this past Wednesday. A bunch of people from work went and I managed to get a ticket through a co-worker's wife (long, convoluted story). There were some big-name speakers there (Zig Ziglar, Steve Forbes, Jerry Lewis, Suze Orman, Don Shula, Rudy Guiliani, Colin Powell). There were a couple of other people who I had never heard of before (Krishna D, Phil Town, Tom Hopkins, Peter Lowe). I won't bore you with my observations but I will give you a few highlights of the presentations that stood out.

1. Tom Hopkins was a top real estate salesman, selling a house a day for a year. He explained a bit about the art of effective questioning, and gave us some words we should never say. Question Form 1 is the Tie-Down: Ask a question that demands a yes, i.e. "We're having fun today, aren't we?" Don't use more than two of these in a presentation. Question Form 2 is the Inverted Tie-Down: Ask a question that suggests a yes, i.e. "Aren't we having fun today?" These can be used freely. Question Form 3 is the Alternate Positive: Ask a question that assumes a yes, i.e. "I'm available next Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. Which day would be better for you?" The point of these questions is that the minor victories in getting people to say yes to you eventually lead up the final victory of closing the 'sale'.
   Words never to use and what to use instead: buy - use own instead; contract - use paperwork/form/agreement instead; sign - use endorse/OK/approve instead; price - use investment instead; downpayment - use initial investment instead.
   I bet that the next time you talk to a salesman you'll notice him using some of these techniqes.


2. Suze Orman is a leading finance expert. She talked about how to make more out of less. She said everyone should have a will AND a living revocable trust with an incapacitation clause. When you make any large purchase, like buying a house, it should be put in the name of the trust. If there are two signatures on the contract and one person becomes incapacitated, then the person left will still be able to sell the property if necessary. She also said that if you own a home, make sure you find out exactly what your home insurance covers in case your house gets totally destroyed.


3. Four-Star General Colin Powell. This man had an amazing presence. By far, his was the best presentation. I can't tell you what he talked about exactly, but his face stays with me. I was very surprised at how personable he appeared and how funny he was.

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ANTM - I am SO glad they got rid of Gina! It's too bad she sucks as a model because with makeup the girl is stunning. Every week I'm surprised by Danielle. She is probably my favorite. Nnenna is my husband's favorite. She takes some excellent pictures. Joanie surprised me. She hasn't stood out for me until this week.

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My father's side is all black as far as I can tell. Everyone from his parents on up were born and raised in Grenada (maybe Mocha Girl has more info on this line).

My mother's side is quite diverse. My grandfather was a white Jamaican. His parents were some mix of Scottish/Irish/etc. My grandmother was an indian Jamaican. Her grandparents were from India. It is to them that I attribute my luxurious and sometimes bothersome hair. *Aside* Mocha, I'll make sure I shave my legs before you get here but I'm notshaving my arms! :) *End aside*

Have a great weekend, everyone!

I've been feeling quite antisocial lately. I know that's no excuse for not talking to my peeps, but I really haven't had anything of interest to say. I could tell you that I thought Jade tore it up on ANTM last week. She really redeemed herself. I was shocked though when they let Kari go instead of Gina, esp since they said all that crap about Kari being moldable. I could talk about American Idol but that's not exciting enough yet. When they get down to the top six, then I'll be at the edge of my seat. Hmm, nobody wants to read about work, do they? I've been stuck in documentation-hell for the past month and I'm trying to get out. But everytime I think I'm done "they" decide there are more enhancements/clarifications/corrections to be made. *sigh* As you can guess I did not make it to NY. That turned out to be for the best because I had to fork over $240 so far to get my AC fixed. Plus, I finally did something I've been contemplating for a while - I got rid of my unsightly upper lip hair! Yes, and I did it myself without wax. Ms J from ANTM put me over the edge when 'she' made fun of Danielle's mustache. My grandmother used to use Nair for as long as I can remember. She always told me that if my hair started to grow never to get rid of it because it would just grow in thicker. Oh well, 20+ years later and I'm putting her advice to the test. Sorry, BdaB for having to wait for you to leave to get the courage to try this. Thank you for being my friend anyway. :) My next endeavor is to get perfect eyebrows like my husband who was unfairly born with them.

Hey All!

Thanks for the well-wishes and for bearing with my absence. I've been busy, but not an interesting type of busy. You probably already read from SP that they laid off someone from our department. Apart from that it's been work as usual. Sid and I have been sick all weekend. He's on day two of his fever. I want to go to New York next weekend. My great-grandmother's niece passed away and I think it would be a perfect opportunity to meet a whole line of family I've never known. I'm reading Chele's book, Raymond's Daughters. I don't know if it's cause I'm pregnant or if the writing is just that good :) but I've found myself almost moved to tears a couple of times so far. One of my fave shows right now is America's Next Top Model. Last Friday I found myself defending the women of our department to the men, swearing that we look just as good as those girls on ANTM. We do! I also told the guy who just married that we were the best looking women at the reception. Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have said that? His reply was something about me being confident but he seemed to take it well enough. Oh well. What can I say. I'm not taking it back now. Speaking of pictures, in a few months I'm going to get some pregnancy pictures taken. One of my co-workers is a photographer and he takes awesome pictures. Anyway, I'm starving now. Gotta go feed the babies! Later.

Here's The Latest News!

11 weeks and 6 days
Length: 5.3 cm
Heartrate: 160 bpm
Due Date: 9/23/2006

This is the last one....

Ok, I know I'm belaboring the point, but when Shawn suggested I tell the guy I have a pic, little did he know that I actually DO have a picture of the half-eaten cake. lol. Click on the pic for a closer look!


I promise, promise, promise that tomorrow I'll have a better post! Trust me!

I decided to ask my coworker yesterday about the cake incident to see his reaction. I didn't do it in a confrontational way; the conversation went similar to this,

ShellyP: Hey, RK, something curious happened at the wedding.

RK: Yeah? What was that.

ShellyP: Someone took a piece of cake. And it was at W's seat right after you left. Did she take it?

RK: I don't know. I'll have to ask her.

ShellyP: The bride was pretty upset.

RK: What time did they take pictures? (Note: He left at 11 pm.)

ShellyP: 11:30 pm.

RK: 11:30 pm? (He asked incredulously.)

ShellyP: I didn't want to think it was you guys. Cutting that cake was not a good thing to do.

RK: I'll have to ask her. I'll have to ask her if it was her or JW's wife. (Note: JW is our boss!) Sometimes W does things that she shouldn't.

blah, blah, blah, whatever

The rest of the day he spent making sure everyone knew that he was basically drunk before the reception even started and he didn't really anything that went on. Yeah. ok.

It Was A Nice Weekend

The wedding I attended was beautiful. SP was there and it was good to see BdaB and his wife again. Everyone from our department was there looking great. It's a nice change to see another side of people.

The wedding was scheduled to begin at 6:10. K and I zipped in, initially behind the carriage then manouvering our way into a spot, at 6:15. Fortunately the ceremony started at 6:20. It was a simple sunset wedding. I was just glad we weren't the last ones to arrive. Some others arrived with us, after us, and some even missed the ceremony entirely! By 6:35 it was done. Yes, it was a 15 minute ceremony! Not bad. While waiting for the cocktail area to open up we ran to Walgreens to pick up a card to go with the gifts we bought the day before. I know what you're thinking and you're right - we procrastinate way too much! We made it back while the mixing and mingling was still going on. It was an open bar so people were quite "toasty" before the reception even started.

The reception was fun. There were toasts from the best man and matron of honor. Then it was time to eat. I like that, not too many preliminaries to keep the people from the food, which was served buffet style.

Of course, how many weddings do you know that don't have some sort of drama? I thought this one was going to go off perfectly until 11 o'clock or so when SP called me over and showed me something I couldn't believe. She pointed to the groom's cake. I looked and there was a piece missing - the front right corner was cut out! Then she turned me around and showed me who had been eating that cake, which was left half done. It was someone from our department and his guest. They left a few minutes before she showed me. This wouldn't have been half as bad if they had cut the cake after the official cake cutting had taken place, but it happened before.

How could anyone have so little class as to cut someone else's wedding cake?? I shouldn't even say "so little class" because really they had NO class whatsoever. I was quite upset about the whole thing. All I could think about was how we could hide it so that the bride wouldn't see it. I suggested that we tell the best man. While SP was finding him, the matron of honor came over with another lady and they looked at the cake and were obviously discussing what to do. They took the bridal bouquet and laid it up against the missing corner. I was temporarily relieved until I saw them bring this whole thing to the bride's attention. Needless to say, she was visibly upset. That made me even more upset that they told her. Didn't they think about the fact that she still had pictures to take!

Other than that it was great. A memorable occassion.

Holy Matrimony

I have a wedding to attend tomorrow night. One of my co-workers is getting married. He invited the whole office! Good for him. When I got married I only invited my friends and family. lol. I really like attending weddings. I love to watch people in love making vows to each other. At least for that moment I believe they are sincere. Anyway, going to weddings makes me think of my own wedding (of course!) Not the perfect one I plan to have, but the perfect one I already had. Ok, it wasn't perfect, but it was pretty darn close, especially considering our limited budget.

Garden setting: We didn't get married in a church. I found a place in Kendall (South Miami) that had a beautiful courtyard setting. The florist even hooked us up with a bunch of free flowers because the wedding after hours had already paid for their flowers which just happened to match the colors in my wedding.

Colors: The men wore white suits, including the groom. I wore a modern, sleeveless, slim/trim-fitting white dress. The women wore long wine-colored spaghetti strap dresses.

Treats: Being an outdoor wedding I thought it would apropos to provide bottled water and chinese wooden folding fans, both with our names and wedding date on them. Believe me, they were put to good use.

Invitations, etc: I thought I was so slick doing my own invitations and programs. I designed them and produced them all on my own. When I look back at them now, I still think I was slick!

Timing: This was my only problem. Not mine exactly. I was there way early. So was the groom. The guests were all ontime as far as I could tell being stuck in my bridal prep-room. SP was there helping me keep my sanity. All I wanted to do was run out of the room and get married but the in-laws were over an hour late AND they had the Bible-bearer and flower girl with them. The wedding was supposed to begin at 10 am, before the sun got too hot. Needless to say, by 11:30 people were hiding behind trees, drinking water and fanning themselves.

Entrance: It's all about the entrance and that day it was all about M.E. You better believe it. That had to be the first time in my life that I wasn't nervous being the center of attention. In my mind, I walked out there like a queen. When it came time I recited some verses from my favorite love book of the Bible, Songs of Solomon. My groom then replied with scripture taken from Proverbs that speaks of finding a virtuous woman. I was so proud of my little production. Cameras were flashing, people were staring, and I was IT. Yes, yes, we were it.

Service: The service went smoothly. It was just hot, oh, so hot.

Reception: Being as we started so late everything had to be rushed. That was fine with me. We took some quick pictures and then it was time to eat. When we were introduced I had tied us at the waist. We've been inseparable ever since. Some friends did some beautiful renditions and we blew bubbles for more pictures. The food came out in no time. Classical music was playing in the background. Before I knew it it was time to pack up and head out. And that we did. We took all our gifts and drove to the west coast of Florida, Naples, for our honeymoon.

I know it seems I'm tooting my own horn here. But that's because I am. :)

Have a good weekend!