Unmemorable Memories

It was a whirlwind of a Christmas. The last thing I remember was I was anticipating its arrival, and now it’s all gone. Where did it go? Was Christmas just a dream? It couldn’t have been. The expanded waist line, the new Remote Control Stunt Car, a brand new sturdy tripod, a dual screen portable DVD player are a few evidences that Christmas came this year.

When I wasn’t eating, I spent time putting together Caitlin’s new toys, watching Chris read “iWoz” which was my gift to her this year, and spending time with family. Being connected to large families, there were many parties to attend. The most enjoyable of them all was the cousins get-together where Theodore’s Nintendo Wii was a hit (literally, as the controller hit the wall and some furniture, fortunately no toddlers have been harmed).

Now the new year is here… it’s time to join the bandwagon and lose the holiday pounds.

In a previous post I wrote about making a pilgrimage out of my business travels by visiting Apple Stores. Well, this time I’ve done what Apple fans dream of doing: visiting the Apple headquarters in Cupertino.

Now I can say, “been there… done that… got a T-Shirt that say’s ‘I visited the mothership’.”

I have nothing to blog about.

Rabbit! Rabbit!

I’m not the kind of person who likes to travel a lot. I like to travel… occasionally. To my disappointment, my work has recently required me to be away from home a week at a time once or twice a month. And with a fast growing 19 month old daughter, I really would rather be at home watching her grow, come up with new antics, make me laugh, and just plain bring joy to our family.

About the only thing I like about my travel situation now is that, I get to visit New York City. Now, I don’t particularly like New York. Crowds, pollution, hustle and bustle, bad taxi drivers, feeling of inadequate safety… I could keep going. So what is it I like about New York? Ever since Apple opened their flagship New York City store at 5th Ave, and 59th, I treat my New York trips as a pilgrimage. The store is simply awesome, with its glass cube entrance and underground store, with spiraling glass staircase, and cylindrical elevators. I’m at the store now, typing this entry. I’m in geek paradise.

We returned from our short vacation to San Francisco, and L.A. last Tuesday. In the back of my mind I knew I needed this vacation. But it never occured to me how MUCH I needed this vacation. It wasn’t until Chris, Caitlin and I were enjoying being together as a family, catching up with old friends, and seldom seen relatives, that I realized how relaxed and carefree I was. As I compared my state of mind then, with my state of mind before the vacation (and now that the vacation is over) I realized how stressful my life has been. Stress is like rust. It slowly builds up, without us realizing it is there. It starts in the smallest corners and crevices, unnoticed. Then all of a sudden something breaks and we wonder where all the rust came from.

Vacations are like checkpoints. They allow us to look back at the path we have taken through the maze of life in order to give us a chance to make course corrections, so that ultimately we arrive at our destination.

This vacation has made me realize that life is too short to be wasted working away trying to provide for the current and future needs of my family. Sometimes we get too busy doing just that, that we forget to enjoy the precious God given gift which is our families. It is good to provide for the current and future needs, but that should not be done at the expense of enjoying that which you are providing for.