Anny’s World

End of an Era
(It was officially announced today so I can talk about it.)
When Ricky called me last week and said, “I need to talk to you.” I knew it could only mean one of two things: new job or new girl. He wouldn’t tell me over email or phone so I had to wait until I saw him yesterday to find out. I guessed it right. It is an end of a era because he is the last of the original ATM Banking Platform Management member to leave the team. The original team that was before built the entire process of software releases to our ATMs from the ground up and made documentation of the projects, screens, flows, FSDs/SOWs, etc. simpler and more efficient. I still remember those days when different groups were working on projects affecting the same screen and there were multiple versions of the same screen floating around, where Ricky and I stayed until 10pm during those nights to fix things for a deadline we already missed or when the Vietnamese font wasn’t displaying properly and the translations had political/sexual conotations and we had to re-do the translations or when the Korean font was messing up the Chinese font.

But we’ve also had our share of fun tho. There were the watergun fights, where no one was safe to roam the aisles and all of our documents were soaking wet. And the days where we were stuck at the windowless ATM lab and during lunchtime would go to the Metreon to play EyeToy for an hour. And the classic: We got the team who decides on the initiatives in on a little April Fool’s joke we played on the President of ATM Banking. We proposed adding flavor on all the ATM Envelopes and called the project “Flavalopes.” Our market research team vowed that they think it would work. We collected ATM Envelopes from all the different banks and had everyone lick the envelopes for a taste test. Then we pretended that we had custom-made Wells Fargo flavored envelopes for everyone to try. (In reality, it was flavored chapstick that we applied on the glue.) The president totally fell for it. Good thing he had a good sense of humor and none of us got fired.

But one by one, we all moved into greener pastures leaving the team now with a bunch of new faces, who are now running the business with the processes that we had set in place. The new faces are good because they bring a fresh perspective and I know they are working on a lot of new and exciting ideas. But of all places to go, Ricky is moving to Bank of America ATM Banking. I think it will be a wonderful and great opportunity for you Ricky!!! Congratulations!!!! (Of course, my being selfish…the first thought that popped into my head was, “who’s going to walk home with me after work now?”)

San Francisco Limbo
While reading the Chronicle today, I saw the headline “Should I Stay? Should I Leave? San Francisco Limbo.” It caught my eye and I thought it was funny because it is written by my favorite columnist at the Chronicle, Mark Morford. He always writes about things that are in my mind and that I can relate to. He writes a lot of sentiments about our fearless Commander-In-Chief Shrub that I share. Today’s article was about San Francisco.

He writes: “This, then, is the big conundrum. Because a city like San Francisco, well, it gets in the blood. It is difficult to shake. I want to get out, but I don’t want to leave.”

I had to laugh because I have thought about leaving San Francisco so many times already for some of the reasons outlined in Morford’s article (can’t afford a house here, the streets are horrible, you smell pee in the streets, etc.), but then as I’m driving and seeing the San Francisco skyline or as I’m walking in the financial district or as I’m passing by Union Square, especially during the holidays, somehow I know that there’s no way I can leave. There’s so much culture here.

Here is his article in case you want to read it: When The City Eats Your Soul Where do you go when you’ve had enough of the urban grind but still crave it like heroin?
(They titled it differently online than on the actual paper.)

Super Ho:
Here is another episode of Dumb and Dumber:

I received an email today from Niece, cc: Dai, that said:
Hi Aunt,
My twin wants a super ho. Do you know any ho? Hehehehehe.
<3 Niece

I was slightly confused, so I scrolled down and read an email from Dai to Niece:
Hahahah oh good, try not to hold grudge. Who knows if I’ll meet a super ho guy on the plain. Do you want anything from Taiwan?

After reading that part, I was thinking, sadly to say, I knew what Dai was trying to write. She was trying to say, “Who knows if I’ll meet a super HOT guy on the PLANE.”

Dai is going back to Taiwan in January…I’m sure she’ll be able to meet a super HO guy on the PLAIN who is just as FOBBY as she is…

For more Dumb and Dumber stories go to: Dumb and Dumber
For Book of Cindyism go to: Book of Cindyism

My Office:
I know most of you probably won’t get a chance to visit my office, so here is a picture:

If you look closely…what do you see on the wall behind me?
Here, let me zoom in for you:

My hubby Gavin Newsom, of course!

Other perks of my floor: When you first walk onto the floor and in the reception area, it has marble floor finishing, the rest of the floor has hardwood floor, our largest conference room has huge leather boardroom chairs and instead of a cloth screen, there is a huge huge flat screen projection tv that we use to load powerpoints and you can even watch tv on it, all the outside offices have flatscreen tvs and our other two smaller conference rooms have flat widescreens.

End of an Era:
Someone called me last week and said he needed to talk to me. Today, I proposed that he walk to my building, take my shuttle back to my apartment with me, and then I would take him home in my TL. That’s what we did. He updated me on his life and the whole time I was thinking, this is the End of an Era…more to come on this later when it is officially announced…

I got out of work and stepped outside and it was raining…you know what that means….
SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tonight was Thanksgiving Dinner with the girls at Koi Palace…we did a lot of catching up and gossiping over good food…

In the beginning of this year, one of my goals was to join the Board of Directors for a non-profit organization. Before I knew it, a chain of events occurred (my switching jobs; being more involved in the community; searching for a non-profit that meets one of my causes - education, children, empowering Asians, empowering women; seeing the posting for the open board position; applying for it). And now, I am officially on the Board of Directors for a non-profit organization.

This is not just any organization tho. It is OASES. OASES has a place in my heart because it supports three of my causes - education, children, Asians, and also, 33 and I used to volunteer there when we were still students at Cal. OASES tutors kids and provides other programs to kids from Oakland Chinatown whose families have limited resources. They use UC Berkeley college students as volunteers. (You can actually get credit for volunteering.)

I still remember my kids. They were third graders. One of them has ADHD and always tells me that she eats dinner at 11pm b/c that’s when her dad gets home from work. She was pretty smart b/c with a little patience/attention and having someone simply sitting with her, she did all of her homework w/o any help. Another kid was this cute little boy named Eric. One day, I told him, “Eric, you’re so cute!” Little did I know, all of the other kids started making fun of Eric for being cute. The next week, Eric comes up to me and says, “You ruined my life. Now all the kids at school think I’m cute.” I told him, “But Eric, when you grow older and people say you’re cute, you’ll love it.” He simply replied, “I know.” ha h aha….so lesson I learned, never call a 3rd grade boy cute…and kids do not have a choice of the type of environments they are born into, that’s why I want to help them out. All of us did not choose to be born into our environments either, but most of us are lucky to have had a great childhood.

Since I volunteered, I’ve actually wondered how the organization is doing so being able to join the board has been such a serendipitous experience. Plus, not only that, but before I met with the Executive Director, I looked online to see who was on their current board. I recognized one of the names because she is an SOPi and I saw her twice this year b/c she was one of my pledge mom’s bridesmaids. Plus, I went to their board meeting last month to meet the board and I saw the volunteer coordinator from when 33 and I volunteered. He is now the president of the OASES Cal Alumni Club (OCAC). They are an organization in and of itself.

Today marks my first official board meeting for the very first Board of Directors I joined. Yes, it was quite a joyous day.

However, when I got out at 9pm, I had missed calls and messages on my phone. One of them was from Dai and it said, “Shooting at Fillmore & Eddy! Be careful!” I was thinking ‘great, that’s like the corner of our apartment…’ Living in the ‘hood can only make you stronger.

I just realized, I talked on the phone with all four of my pledge sisters today and chatted with dater online for 1+ hours…these ladies are such a huge part of my life…we’ve grown up together…
this pic was taken 7-8 years ago…the good ol’ days of vaskia…

this pic was taken this year…we still look the same right?

Help! My roommate is missing. Have you seen her? Last I heard, she turned Jamaican.

Maybe one of these people knows where she is:
-Dufus’ Site
-Niece’s Site
-PK’s Site

Thank You!! I knew you would!!!!

My ABS light has been on for the past 6 months now. My parents kept telling me to take my car in to get it checked and I finally did today. The guy called me back and said to fix my ABS they have to replace some module thing or whatever and that would cost $2,500. You heard me…$2,500. I asked him if my car was driveable and he said yeah but just be careful when driving in the rain because the brakes will lock and the car will skid. (I know most of you are probably thinking you won’t be riding in my car anytime soon.) I looked up the KBB value of my car. My car isn’t even worth $2,500. I’m not gonna fix it…

I had lunch with Shelby and Marie this past Monday. During our conversation, Shelby tells me, “Alicia told me she has all her holiday cards already done and the envelopes already addressed. She just needs to put this year’s family x’mas pictures on the cards and they’re ready to go.” (Alicia is my mentor.)

Alicia called me later that day to tell me something and then I told her, “Hey, I heard you have your holiday cards all done. Guess what, I have mine all done too.”

Alicia said, “See, great minds think alike…” I’m thinking, “I wonder who inspired me to be the way I am.”

I sent out my holiday cards today…I know, I’m a nerd but there’s a good reason why…