Rainy New York

I really really dislike rainy New York. It rains all day and night without an end in sight, and with no prior warning. Like my Mom says, in the US you cannot trust 3 things: weather is one of them; I fail to recall the other two! It is dark and gloomy all day, and not a single umbrella will hold up. You spend $10 on an umbrella and it will fly in the first gust of wind. You would think the country would get that one thing straight (umbrella), never mind the other advancements. Indian rains are worse, but at least you know when to expect the rain.

I am sick of the weather. Its mid-April, and it is still cold and rainy. New York is not even a mountaineous region, nor close to any large water body. Why the rain and humidity, then? We have 6-8 months of crappy weather, and just 3-4 months of decent summer. But even in this weather people will go out, have fun, and tourists will come visit.

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Complicated relationships…

Have you ever felt like someone has reached out into your heart and squeezed it so hard that it feels wounded, hard to breathe, and so full to bursting… I feel that way today. My limbs feel lifeless, and I don’t feel like eating or doing anything. Relationships are so complicated. Sometimes I wish for a simple life; no ambitions, no desires, just simple life that you live with basic expectations. Why is life so complicated? What is the purpose in life? We work, come home, eat sleep, and then go back to work. Is that really the purpose of life? There are the occasional pleasures, but other than that its routine. What is my purpose? Why do I feel so sad sometimes? Why do relationships cause such deep pain, that it is hard to get out of and move on from them? Why does the heart desire so much more? Why does one want so much more from life?

Sometimes I want so badly to be a free bird… free to fly far far away with nothing to tie me to routine life… I would just fly fly away in the sky and feel the wind on my face and through my hair… take pleasure in the sunshine feeling grateful for freedom… Sometimes I wish my soul could just leave my body and fly. I would leave my body and fly far far away, see new places, and come back before anyone knew about it. I would go visit my family… I would just fly away whenever I wanted to…

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Vendor rants

In my previous work life as a vendor, I always thought that clients were not as smart, and vendors know more than clients. Now as a client, I feel like vendors don’t want to do anything and keep pushing back because of the number of clients they deal with. You have to keep following up with them and do some of the work yourself. I try to find a balance between pushing them and motivating them.

Potential vendors are the worst. There should be rules for vendors when dealing with clients, mainly potential:

• DO NOT ADD ME TO YOUR FUCKING EMAIL LISTS: The most annoying aspect is when new potential vendors add you to their email lists and you receive their weekly/monthly emails. It pisses me off to no extent because I have to keep unsubscribing. Now I send them emails telling them DO NOT add me to your email lists without my opting in. And every different person of that specific agency who contacts me will add me to that email list. Its so disrespectful to the client. Vendor emails should be opt-ins too, and we should have the same rules to guide those as for consumer emails.
• DO NOT CALL ME AT 9AM; I HAVE WORK TO DO: Some vendors are so effing desperate that they will call at 9am and start selling services.
• DO NOT INVADE MY PRIVACY: One crazy vendor actually brought up my LinkedIn and Facebook pages and photo on the WEBEX screen that was shared with another colleague of his, and asked me “Is that you in the Facebook photo? Is that your profile?” I was embarrassed as hell and annoyed. Total invasion of privacy, because I had NOT added that vendor to my networks. I quickly changed my profile settings… He probably thought that he was breaking through the clutter; he sure did. I have NEVER responded to that vendor again, and will never return his emails or phone calls. Creepy is the word.
• DO NOT BE DESPERATE: One vendor used to call me EVERY SINGLE DAY and email me sometimes. It was crazy – I stopped picking up the phone when I saw his number. One day I told him that there is a fine line between pushing and promoting services. Stop calling me every single day. If I am interested I will return your calls and emails.
• DO NOT CALL ME: Have you heard of email? Vendors keep calling instead of just emailing. I will respond to emails when I have the time and if the services are of interest. I usually respond to most second emails sent. I have to screen my calls because of the number of them I receive. Why call me and bother me when email will do just fine?
• DO NOT COME TO MEETINGS UNPREPARED: Have you had vendors come to meetings without anything and just say “I will open up the floor for discussion”… What? Then why did you come? My boss, boss of boss, and boss of boss of boss are in the meeting, and you open it up for discussion? Great! Why don’t we just talk about the weather?
• DO LISTEN: When I say “the agenda for the meeting should include x, y, and z”, do not ignore that and make the call about scheduling another call and waste my time. And my manager’s time, who is not going to be pleased WITH ME. I will never get you face time with my manager again.
• DO NOT SEND AN 8MB FILE AND FILL UP MY MAILBOX: Some vendors that I have never met or spoken to send such large files in their INTRODUCTORY email. Send it to me in the evenings and it will directly go into trash because I cannot archive from home. Potential vendors probably think that clients will open their large files. Wrong. Don’t send me such large files that I stop receiving critical emails from work. Don’t send anything more than a max of 500K. A simple email introduction will go more places.

If you do need my attention, just email me. If I don’t respond probably because I am busy, email once in 2-3 weeks, and I will respond, schedule a call, and learn about your services. And I will let you know upfront if we have the budget for your services. You can email me every 2 months for top-of-mind awareness. Do send the occasional invite to your events and relevant events – I may attend because I like networking. Please be respectful of my time, and I will be of yours.

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Insomnia

I find it extremely hard to sleep at night nowadays, and end up waking up late. I am trying to get more disciplined in life, but now that my body clock has been set I cannot sleep till 3am. This is not sustainable, because I feel exhausted by the end of the week and oversleep on weekends to catch up. I bought a really loud alarm to wake me up – I think if I wake up early for 1-2 days my body clock should be set. The clock is really loud, so I hope it wakes me up.

I have always had a problem waking up especially with alarm clocks. In school I used to set three of them, one inside a bucket far away which was really really loud, and I still found a way to turn it off and walk back to my bed to sleep. The only people who have been successful at waking me up early are my parents. My Dad used to just take away my bedsheet covering me and that was enough. My mom, well, she never stopped nagging till I woke up. Guess I got so used to it that now an alarm is not enough!

It doesn’t help that NYC lights always seep into my window, and a nearby building contruction continues late in the night. I complained by calling 311, which didn’t help much. The least you can ask for is a good night’s rest in this noisy city, and even that you don’t get.

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Email blunder

Fandango sends me an email this afternoon about Oscar nominations. Guess what? I cannot access the site that the email leads to. Why send emails to so many customers if the server cannot handle the traffic? Wasted opportunity. And the email must have come at a cost.

Also received an email from Martin & Osa about 30% off in stores for 1/22 to 1/26. I have been eyeing M&O’s clothes for a while now and really like the quality per the photos online. Sadly no stores are nearby. I guess I will try purchasing online once and see how their clothes are. I have been curious about them since I heard that they were launched by American Eagle to reach an older audience. Their clothes are conservative and feature basics, much like my company’s. Only we are more reasonably priced.

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So many layoffs…

It seems like every company is laying people off. This is such a vicious cycle. Companies lay people off, people don’t have money to buy, since nobody spends companies go out of business and lay off more people, and so on. Vault.com has a long list of companies that have laid people off. When will this stop? On one hand excesses will be reined in, but at what cost! I feel the need to save on cab fare and walk back from work in the freezing -14 degrees centigrade. Its not that bad actually – I am getting used to the cold weather. Its kind of nice to just walk by myself, keeping an eye out for the slippery dry ice on the road. Traffic is much less nowadays going to Lincoln Tunnel. A friend who’s husband works in real estate was telling me that people are leaving the city. Figures. The city is so much quieter – in my 6 years here I have never seen it so quiet. I like the hustle and bustle of the city, especially during holiday season. Jan & Feb are so dead, till summer comes and people are out and about.

I spent the entire long weekend at home watching movies. It snowed all day long. Beautiful, but cold.

I think of and pray for all those who are unemployed and have to find ways to make both ends meet, and I am grateful to just be employed at the same salary. I cannot believe that affiliates had the budget for the West coast summit – aren’t they feeling the pinch of the economy? I was looking forward to the CJ conference this year, but I won’t be able to go due to budget limitations.

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Customary tipping or wasteful spending

I have never understood the logic behind tipping in the US. You have to tip your doorman, super, concierge, other building attendants, restaurant waiters, cab service, hair stylist, for beauty services, moving, house cleaning, parking lots attendants, etc. No wonder nobody has money anymore. Why should I tip for expected level of service in a restaurant? Even if the service is bad my gentlemanly husband tips 15% much to my chagrin. Why are parties of 5 or more charged 18-20% tip? Do they get red carpet treatment?

Beauty services in New York cost $100-$150, plus 15% tip. And if the service is good, 20% tip is expected. Same thing for hair stylists. Aren’t the prices very high to begin with? Tipping is like a punishment for having the nerve to get those services done. I don’t get a tip for my work, and neither do I get a bonus. I understand that tipping is the only form of bonus in these services, but really do hair and beauty stylists need a bonus with their exorbitant prices? Shouldn’t tipping be limited to waiters and cab drivers? And why is it my responsibility? It should be the hiring person’s responsibility to pay the right amount. Some cab drivers are willing to fight, call names, and lie to get a customer to tip. A cab driver once fought with my Dad for a tip.

While I was in India, I got all beauty services for $4 – normally it would have cost me $70 here. And no wasteful tipping. My parents joked that if I tipped 15%, they would remember me forever and probably think me crazy.

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Sick of reading about the economy

I am so sick of reading about the terrible state of the economy. And people say things will get worse – haven’t they dragged enough? I used up all my Citi card points today – what if they default points? I stocked up on Amazon, iTunes, and Restaurant.com gift cards. Retail has been so bad this year, and online is the only profit making “store” for the industry. I am a bit nervous for my hubby’s job and mine. I am so sick of the stock market volatility. Why can’t the government just shut it down for a week for a much-needed break? Just shut down the stock market till it starts going up, and each time it takes a downturn shut it down again. Investors are going crazy, and credit ratings agencies don’t help with all the downgrades. Just last week I was away from work far from this craziness. It was such a relief and so relaxing to just be away.

New York feels so dead and quiet now. A limousine service actually told me “pay what you want to, there has been no business since morning” to drop me off at work! And I paid him $5; normally he would have demanded $15. Cabs are actually available despite the NRF conference at Jacob Javits’ (I live closeby). I wanted to go to the NRF, but being back from vacation am trying to hold onto my job. While I have enough work, I arrive early and leave late to show how hard I am working! These are tough times… when will we see recovery? I do hope Obama’s swearing in will bring in some optimism.

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