My mind wanders

I have had a lot of random thoughts in the last hour. Hopefully they don't escape me as I try to blog them all down.

We had a company golf tournament today. I left work before lunch, barely worked 3 hours before hitting the links. Sounds great right? It so happens to be the first business day of November and I communicate a lot of info to clients on the first business day of the month usually. I don't think the golf tournament is a worthy excuse to fall short of our goals in servicing our clients...so after the tournament I showered up and headed back into the office at 7pm, wrapped up around 9:30pm, went jogging in Newport Beach, and here I am showered up again. I am consciously going the extra mile at work. It says something when clients receive emails from you at 9pm.
I am driven and inspired to work super hard. My mom is one of the hardest working people I know. So is my older sister. I was really inspired when I went to the Philippines and saw the house my mom and her family grew up in. It was poverty by US standards, but maybe not by Philippines standards. I can't really say my mom came from nothing, but she definitely didn't come from privilege, and she had some very lean times during her upbringing where food was scarce, but there are people in the Philippines who are much worse off and never are given opportunities. My mom had opportunities, and she went after them. She was blessed and she gave thanks by lifting it up. She came from so little and has created so much. She raised my siblings and me. She has given us opportunities. We could have still been living in the small house in the Philippines but the family worked their way out, no easy task. Indeed, the people next door when I visited were my mom's former neighbors over 30 years ago. That could have been us. But since my mom was blessed with opportunities, she was able to create more opportunity for us. And so I have been given opportunities and incurred some luck, and I am obligated to work hard. It is almost a matter of family pride. This is what drive me.

A lot of people probably think I am a money hungry SOB. Admittedly, compensation and recognition are important to me. But I think the main thing is that someday I want to provide for my family. I don't want money to be an issue. It is an issue for so many families and it takes away from time spend just enjoying each other.


I have a few more random thoughts, but more brief than the essay I just wrote.

I love music. Sometimes I close my eyes, listen, and feel moved. If I can experience this, why am I such a bad dancer and an even worse singer? Shouldn't the passion rub off a little into a glimmer of ability?

Tomorrow is election day. Why do people aspire to be President? I would rather go to the dentist everyday for two years than be on the campaign trail for two years.

What drives other people to work hard? I know what drives me. I spoke to a guy today who said in his previous job he did nothing for three years ("You're kidding?" I said. "No seriously," he said).

I flew on a plane over the weekend to San Jose...on Halloween...in a banana suit.

I am excited about Christmas because I get to deck my own halls. I want to buy a Santa suit.

I have had some pretty great luck. Life is coincidental.

People are doing all this grassroots campaigning on Facebook, getting the word out about where they stand on political issues. Which is great, how it should be...but I wonder if it's all hype because our age group sucks at turning out to vote on election day...we shall see. I am ready to vote tomorrow.