Jury Duty and South Lake Tahoe

Well the past month has been busy.

Jury Duty

At the end of February I was called for Jury Duty. In Santa Clara County they make you call in (or check online) each day of the week you're "on call" to see if you need to actually go in to the courthouse. In the past, I've never actually had to go in and this time I thought I was going to be lucky again, but Thursday night I checked and they said I had to be in on Friday at 8am. No big deal (I thought), as I figured I'd go in for the day and then get dismissed. Unfortunately, it turned into another 7 day ordeal. On Friday when I got there, we were taken into the courthouse where we were told the trial was the De Anza Case, which was well known by many locally. I rarely watch or read the local news so knew nothing about it. To make a long story short, there were 120 potential jurors and over the course of the next 7 days we'd go in, they'd call up a handful of potential jurors, ask them a bunch of questions, keep some, let some go, call up some more people...rinse and repeat. They finally chose the 12 jurors and 5 alternate jurors on Day 7 at which point there were only about 25 potential jurors that hadn't been interviewed (one of them being me). The interview process took so long largely because if a potential juror had heard or read about the case, the judge and lawyers would question them one on one to ensure anything they said was not heard by other potential jurors that might not have heard about the case. It would have been a very interesting jury to be on, although probably very emotional, but the case was expected to go through the end of March which would have meant a lot of time off work for me.

South Lake Tahoe

This weekend we headed to South Lake Tahoe with some friends. I'm a true Southern Cali girl, so cold/rain/snow isn't really my thing, but I figured I should get out of San Jose for a weekend and enjoy a trip with friends. We headed up Friday afternoon and got home today (Sunday). It was a great trip filled with layers of clothes (weather ranged from 32 to 44 although it didn't rain or snow until we were leaving). We stayed at a beautiful cabin which was at an elevation of 8,000 ft. Here are some pics from our trip.

View from our cabin

Me trying not to freeze on our balcony

Banana enjoying the view while staying warm on the inside

StrengthsFinder 2.0

A little over a year ago, someone at worked mentioned StrengthsFinder 2.0 which is a strengths-based approach to career development. What does that mean you probably ask? Well, it means you take an assessment with a bunch of questions, and based on your answers, it tells you your 5 top "Strengths"(out of the 34 options). I know, I know...it's just another assessment, but what I like about this one is the philosophy behind it. It suggests that you shouldn't focus on your "areas of development" which you'll likely never be GREAT at, or motivated to work on (they are you areas of development after all). Instead, you should focus on what you're good (or even great) at, and find a career where your strengths are needed and can blossom. I was skeptical at first, but after taking the assessment, and reading through my strengths I started to believe (which actually is a trait of a Maximizer). Many people at work also took the assessment, and after reading their strengths I was pretty amazed at how accurately they portrayed my co-workers. I'm not saying that every single strength was exactly right, or that every description of a strength was perfect, I'm just saying, in general they were pretty correct.

When it came time to find a new job this year, I realized my career had kind of picked me up until that point. I went to school for "Business" but I never sat down and thought "I love calculating in Excel and analyzing things all day"...it just kinda happened. This was the first time I was actully going to choose my career so I thought back to my Strengths and asked myself where I thought I could best use my strengths best, knowing that using my strengths would make me happy. Know what? It worked. I've been in my new job for over 3 months now (which means I'm officially past the honeymoon phase) and I couldn't be happier in my new job. I just feel like I'm doing what I was meant to do, and it's a great feeling.

Below are my strengths and some of the things it says about people with these strength. (Click on the image to make it bigger.) Writing in blue are points I feel are dead on about myself. What do you think?

Weekend Adventure

I had big plans this weekend, some of which worked out perfectly and some that didn't. On Saturday morning I headed down to Carmel-by-the-Sea (75 miles south of San Jose) for the Annual Dachshund Beach Party where hundreds of Dachshunds arrive and run wild on an enclosed beach. As I arrived, I realized there wasn't a Dachsund in sight. I decided to check the invitation on my phone and found two issues. 1) It wasn't on Saturday, it was on Sunday, and 2) It wasn't this weekend, it's next weekend. Luckily, Carmel is a beautiful town so we walked the beach and streets before heading home. Now all I have to decide is whether I'll head back to Carmel for the event on the right day, during the right weekend. Below are some pics of me and my boy enjoying the salty air.

Saturday night I headed out for some dancing with girl friends. The bar we went to had a band playing named Joey Jam's Love Stoned. It was only their third gig, so they were still working some things out, but overall they were a good show and provided the necessary music for some good ol' dancing with wonderful friends. While playing, they mentioned that they'd be playing at Music in the Park in San Jose, and opening for a Micheal Jackson tribute band called Foreverland. When I heard this I got super excited because this is the band that played at my work conference in May, and they were GREAT!! Since Music in the Park is only 2 miles away from my house, I know what I'll be doing the night of August 5th.

Sunday was relaxation day. The lavender is in full bloom around my house, and with the warm weather, the bees are out too (click on the below pic to enlarge and you can see the bees). I headed back to the Farmer's Market, but didn't have time to investigate a new fruit or veggie since I got there late, and had to get back to watch the final game of The World Cup. (Yeah Spain!). I ended the evening with dinner in the city (SF) which is always a fun adventure.

All in all, a very enjoyable weekend as planned....or not.

Makeover and Multitasking

I've not posted for while for three main reasons.

1. Work has been busy (in a good way)
2. I've been sick (I'm better now)
3. Nothing exciting has happened (probably because I've been working or sick)

Anyways, you all might have noticed my Blog got a makeover thanks to Blogger Template Designer which is a new tool in Blogger that makes designing your Blog a whole lot easier. Don't be surprised if my blog changes it's look a couple of times before it finds its official style.

On a completely different topic, if you're like me, it seems like there are too many things to get done in a day sometimes. Many of us pride ourselves on being able to multitask which we believe allows us to get more things done, faster. Well, according to the article How (and Why) to Stop Multitasking in the Harvard Business Review multitasking can reduce productivity by up to 40%. The author decided to stop multitasking for a week, and instead focus on one task at a time. He found that he was able to make progress on significant projects, reduce his stress dramatically, and find patience for things he found enjoyable and useful. The article isn't too long, and it's definitely worth the read. If you decide to stop multitasking, let me know how it goes.

PS. My couch is being delivered next Thursday so I'll have pictures posted soon.

Testing, Testing 1...2...3

Well, I think I've started a blog two times before this, but neither had any longevity so I'm hoping that third times a charm.