Fudged Plans.

I didn't go to India today as planned.  Some sweet terrorist decided to give the world a gift that any nice terrorist would give on Valentine's Day- a bombing in the city where I was heading: Pune.  The target was actually a Western establishment, a German bakery, that the woman I was traveling with had visited last time she went.  Multiple people were killed and over 50 were injured due to the blast.  So, here I am in the Hampton Inn for another night's stay in Cleveland.  It's so interesting how the world works.  The company I work for is now halting all travel to Mumbai and Pune, unless it is "business critical" for the next 30 days.  Poof goes my itinerary and all the work that went into it over the last two weeks.


I asked the Hampton Inn to extend my stay here for at least another week and they have so kindly given me a free upgrade to a Suite!  I honestly don't know what I will do with all of the space, but I am pumped nonetheless.  It has a fridge AND a microwave...this is a big step up for me because I have really missed cooking since I started living in a hotel a couple of weeks ago.


As I won't be traveling to India over the next few days I am going to have to get creative with technology in order to interact and help the Indian team that I was supposed to go over and assist.  This is when the world starts to feel flat (in Thomas Friedman terms) - when you have video meetings with people halfway around the world.  If only there was some way that we could adjust time so that I wouldn't have to be awake at 4:30 a.m. to receive my colleagues phone calls from India and Germany.  My work/play Dingleberry (read: Blackberry) cell phone buzzed all night long last night with e-mails, text messages, and phone calls about how I wouldn't be able to travel to India due to the attack.  What a mess terrorism creates in the world - all that destructive power in a tiny little head with one gigantic ego.


Speaking of Ego...I am beginning to realize that I am not so different from my terrorist counterpart and I in fact have a rather large ego.  I have been reading this incredible book called "A New Earth" which talks about separating yourself from the Ego.  I never could completely identify with the idea of the Ego until I started reading this book and it has been a profound revelation over the last few weeks for me to read this...It's a real life changer.  I love when I find a book that seems to apply to life on some many layers, when I realize I could read the book over and over again and interpret things differently or see other beauties/artistry presented.  I hardly get finished with a paragraph before I want to read it again to see what else I can draw from it.  I feel the same way about the book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".  I found myself connecting so deeply to what was being said in the book, but knew that as I was reading it, I would want to revisit those same passages at another point in my life as a different person that could learn more from some other layer contained within the same ink on the page.


I never appreciated reading so much as I have post-graduation.  I know I eventually want to go back to school, but not until I fully understand what I want to study.  I am enjoying now reading up on the subjects that are most intriguing to me, and  not just the ones that fulfill my curriculum requirements.  I'm not devaluing my undergraduate education, but I am absolutely enjoying the current life situation I am in where I can read at my pleasure, have weekends free to leisurely read if I feel like it and not have a dark cloud looming over my head swollen with syllabus-scheduled assignments and exams.  


I just had deja vu.  I heard that deja vu happens when you are tired.  I think that is precisely the case.  It feels like I have been on so many situational ups and downs with work lately, although my emotional ups and downs are stabilizing due to the assistance provided by "A New Earth". One day I am going to Morocco, the next I am not.  One day I am doing an LCA on one product in the Netherlands and the next day I am not.  One day I am going to India, and the next day I am not.  That is business, apparently, and I am now aware that I need to develop a callous attitude towards continuous change brought on by organizational complexities.  When I know my new schedule, I'll let you know.  It is looking like Switzerland may be my first stop, as early as this weekend.


Good night and Happy Valentine's Day.