Fast forward to 2012, and well, Vegas now has some great restaurants, some nice shops but it is still the same. Problem for Vegas is that I don’t smoke, drink, nor gamble. And for some reason there is an enormous douche bag quotient higher in Vegas than anywhere else.

The only fun thing about sales and being around sales is that in a company they are the extroverts, the fun people, the better dressed and the better looking.

There were other functions there, human resources, finance, legal. You can tell who is not sales.

The sales folks also happen to turn out to have been your jocks in school, the popular guys, the obnoxious ones, not all but you get the stereotyping drift.

We were there for just three days. My body rebelled against the dryness, it is a desert after all, and the constant barrage of second hand smoke. Man I didn’t feel hydrated or clean until I took a shower nightly.

The food, however was great. I went to Nobu and Fogo de Chao. Nobu we went twice and Fogo de Chao is a Brazilian steakhouse where they walk around with crackling meat on blades and slice them at your table. There is one in Atlanta and that was where we held our engagement party. No vegetarians here.

The only funny thing that happened is that I met the Japanese hr director at my work who sent me a shrill email, yelling like a woose via email for something that wasn’t yell worthy. It’s one of this emails you get and then scratch your head and go huh? I had to read and reread the email because I wasn’t sure what went wrong. I realized, one, there might be a language barrier and two, I have since heard that he does it often. Fly off the handle.

The funny thing is I imagined a tall elegant man with thin bones and a thin skin, since he yelled vis email. At his level you expect calmness not shrill yelling. Even if it’s email yelling.

Who I met was a short husky Japanese man, not at all who I imagined. Lol. Your mind and what are preconceived notions bubble up. In this situation, not who I expected.

Anyhow, next week shutdown my team, everyone on the team is working. Tough but it’s needed.

Today we met a high net worth tax strategist who my multiple millionaire boss’ boss is using. He helps those who are worth 100 of millions of dollars. He gave us some literature to peruse through and lo and behold a whole new world has opened up! Look at all the tax loopholes one can use to reduce tax, just like what Warren buffet said! It is true! You can total pay way less tax by earning money via stocks, investments, man, you name it. Ok, we are just interviewing him but is it an eye opener. Quite. Rich people do not pay the taxes you or I do. No siree bob. Man! It was interesting to see. Why are we seeing him? He knows about pre ipo stock, he know about alot of stuff we have no idea existed. My stocks are not getting us to be high net worth but he can help us in advice for tax strategy and that is really what we are looking for. We are probably his poorest clients. Lol. We wish someone could have told us if it’s worth pre purchasing iso or non qual stocks. Etc.

Today I had lunch with my work buddy. She told me the most horrifying story of how her 2nd tier boss basically who she just transferred under said they didn’t know what she did and that her job is ending in six months. What a conversation. Let’s just say that set the mood for the rest of the lunch.

For this relationship, while it is shallow, we are not shallow people. The other coworker friend, she is a deep and thoughtful person. She has a mean nerdy streak, you know people who are smart but snarky about it. Or can be. But we never go beyond work. I did try to I vite her once to something but she declined as she was engaged. But could also be she wasn’t interested in doing stuff outside of work. Does it bother me? Clearly since I’m blogging about the whole thing. Today was the first day our lunch was troublesome and i feel bad for her. It’s almost more important to work for a boss who can protect you versus someone who is a good boss. I realize that about my current company and the different people I’ve seen come and go. All very tenuous. But all the more here.

The trouble started when I asked my Financial Advisor if I should sell.  Our long term capital gains kicks in next year but given the volatility of the market, wondered if it was worth just selling now.  My FA says, sell, sell, sell.  Apparently he’s nervous about the market, a double dip recession in EMEA.  So I find out that I’m nowhere near close to selling.  I need to do 2 things that will take 3 weeks and I’m blacked out today.  Given that there is no way I was going to make the 15th blackout deadline, I decided I would stop the madness and just rethink what I needed to do.  First I will transfer my stocks to etrade.  I’m done with the third party terrible company that doesn’t know how to help their customers or join the 21st century.

Next thing, keep my lesson I learned as a reminder to not do things last minute.  Enough said.

No snow.  How could it be.  Blame global warming.  Absolutely not a spec but you know what, it is freezing cold here.  The wind just permeates your jeans and it feels like sharp pins.

The adventure of the weekend was when we just arrived, on Friday at 11pm at the rental home and my father, looking for his keys, slams his thumb in his car door.  Blood is everywhere, it looked worst than it was.  He wanted to get stitches.  My friend looked up a local hospital that took Kaiser insurance.  There was no one there.  They did an x-ray for his thumb to ensure nothing was fractured or broken because the emergency doctor said if there was a fracture, he could get an infection in the bone.  Since he could not recall when he last got a tetanus shot, he got one as well.  It also came w/ whooping cough/pertussis and some other 2 things.

Prior to that, when they were asking for his history, his rundown of everything wrong just sounded like a bad genetic warning for me.  Diabetes, a removal of a gall bladder, removal of an appendix, hypertension, high cholesterol, and probably environmental more so than genetics is when he had kidney cancer.  My father thinks it was caused by exposure to agent orange in the vietnam war.  He said he was exposed for sure.  The americans wore hasmat suits, and masks, gloves, while anyone else such as the korean army did not.  They sprayed agent orange to cut down the wild jungle and make roads.  Apparently it killed foliage, dense jungle and made it easier to clear.

Alot of folks in the korean army now receive a settlement due to exposure to dangerous chemicals from the vietnam war.  My father being in the states, took care of his illnesses probably with his insurance and looked into claiming benefits…

suffice to say, he did not go to korea to do so.  he did get back in touch with alot of his war buddies.

Her uncomfortableness is just an indication of Korean pride.  Koreans are prideful of the weirdest things.  I’m too Americanized to feel the same but have enough Korean culture indoctrinated in me to notice.

She was a viola player.  Loved music, seemed finicky about it.  Was proud a musician who met a doctor, her words, not mine.  It took me back to recalling why I never enjoyed hanging out with the foreign exchange students from Korea.  They were hung up about a lot of superficial things.  The appearance of things, that sort of thing.  Perhaps I should care a little more about appearances.  My mother in law would love that, I think.  I probably don’t care enough.  Meh.

This episode took me back a bit to when I first met my mother in law’s friends.  Were the claws out that night?  Yes, why yes indeed.  This group was meowing to the nines.  They sized me up, they sized me down.   They looked at me as though they were wondering who this girl was that passed the almighty judgment of my future mother in law.  Who is it that has made it past the 7 quests.  I’m not kidding either.  They all heard about the carnage of the girl before me, who was not so lucky.  I think they thought I was a pretty girl, as they commented as such then, though not sure of my background and from where I descended from.  What was my pedigree, where did I go to school?  Was it an ivy league?  Were my parents alumni of their ivy league schools in Korea?  No?  What was my profession?  How old was I?  How did we meet?  It was all there, hanging in the air, so thick I thought to chuckle, thinking wowzers, this crowd is toughhhh ough.

I smiled, faked my demureness.  My quiet politeness.  Answered questions, nodded my head, felt the back of my head stiffen, which happens anytime I am being fake, and hate the feeling all the more.  It’ s not in my blood to enjoy such situations or being fake, though I knew I needed to for all practical reasons..and I tried to not show my lack of eagerness regarding the whole affair.  I can come across as smug and smirky if I’m not careful.

Kept quiet..they say even a fool who is silent looks wise.

My mister at the time said it went well.  And I thought geez, what ever does it look like when it doesn’t go well.  HA!

I was flabbergasted.  I said, are you sure? I’m not quite sure what to make of it and for the most part, I make a good first impression.  I don’t look like an evil beotch.  I think most parents tend to like me, I was always the good friend they didn’t mind their kids playing with.  I was never the one that they wanted me to distance their kids from.  I swear.

So even though all my friends, who love and adore me and are the best circle of friends a girl could ever have, said to me, pshaw no one can not like you.  They’ll all adore you…that all was measured against the words of my hubby who regaled me with the horrid details of the girls past, who didn’t make it beyond the door.  So my misgivings were not so much about me, per se, more so about the fact that no one could be good enough for my mister.  Of course not.  Unless you were a medical doctor whose parents graduated from the ivy leagues of Korea.  But it definitely made me realize how wonderful my friends were and how much they got my back.  I cherished those words as I mingled with the sharks and claws.