Longevity & Happiness

Dressing for work these days is not the same as it was 20 years ago.  Back in my days on Wall St. it was about the power tie and the pinstripe blue suit.  Now in the world of techology it is about the right jeans, the coat, the shirt that goes untucked, no tie.  Yup, that’s how you dress to impress.  I remember that first day on the job in NYC when my mentor looked at my suit and told me we were going to leave early and he was going to take me to Barney’s down in the garment district.  He had the tailor fit me with two suits, some shirts and some ties, 4 pair of socks and a pair of brown shoes as well as black shoes.  He paid for it all.  I was shocked, but years later I figured he expensed it.  I appreciated the effort but dressing up was never my thing.  I always wanted to dress appropriately,  but not to impress.

Yesterday  morning I threw on my cool jeans and found one of my fitted dress shirts I had worn once before for a party.  I forgot the shirt needed cuff links and scuffled around for something to insert into the cotton holes.  I found an old box of my dad’s cuffs and picked out two old fashioned ones with Chinese characters that I could not read.  When I got to work I forgot about the cuffs.  I scuffled through a few phone calls and a slew of emails until one of our foreign engineers spotted me getting some water and smiled saying , “Long Life and Happiness”.  I looked at him inquisitively.  He pointed at my left wrist and said “Long Life” and then my right, “Happiness”.   I smiled.  That was appropriate.  I now was dressing for success. And I had my dad, the man who gave me all of my life’s rules right there to guide me.  Such simple words and yet so powerful.  On my left wrist I also wore my yellow Livestrong wristband.  Live Strong and Long Life on one hand and Happiness on the other.  It felt like those days as a kid when my dad gave me those notes of wisdom.  I stared at my wrists as I ate lunch.

Quite frankly I haven’t been happy about many things lately even as I try to maintain a positive attitude.  I feel overworked, overburdened and have very little time to contemplate, smell the roses and share some quality time with my family.  Staying up late is one of the few times I can empty my mind and take care of the things I need to for my family.  What I really need is a good primal scream.  Can you do that in a blog?  I”ll try and do it quickly.  I need to realease the tension in my life.

Please skip the rest of this entry if you don’t want to read my negativity!  I’ll be better in my next entry, but I need to do this in order to honor my dad’s wishes of Longevity and Happiness!  Okay, plug your ears and close your eyes!

1. My son’s music teacher is a complete nerd who needs to get a life!  He’s worse than an abusive sports nut coach!

2. Comcast is so incompetent!  Why can’t they just come to my house and fix the problem!

3. What the heck are the city planners doing by narrowing the boulevard I’m living on yet adding traffic?!  Someone’s going to get killed!

4. Someone want to give me a raise or help me win the Lottery? …Please 😉

5. Will my mother-in-law please enjoy life and not torment her daughter?

6.  Dear protesters, stop blocking my streets!  I respect your voice but hate your methods of communication.

7. Dear politicians, stop wasting our money and time!

8. (Quietly looking skyward) Do not put my wife through cancer again.

9.Someone out there…I need 30 hours in a day! (2 more hours of sleep, 2 more hours of work, 2 more hours to spend with my family!)

10.  Vacation Gods…where are you?

Okay.  Feel better now.  Time to go to bed.  Longevity and Happiness to all!