Just Another Day at the Office

Today was just like any other workday. Early Friday morning on calls then a meeting on competitive analysis. After five months off, I was excited to get after it. And I could tell that I had found a work home.

In the afternoon, we went to IFlySFBay in Union City, CA in the South Bay for indoor skydiving. While my profound fear of heights will always live within me, it’s no longer debilitating anymore. Perhaps it’s because I spent an afternoon jumping off a tiny platform at the New York School of Trapeze before. Or perhaps it’s because I have rappelled down the face of a rock in Utah before. Perhaps it’s because I have jumped out of an airplane outside Vegas before. Or perhaps it’s because I have most recently parasailed off the island of Koh Samet in Thailand. I’m not sure what it was, cos none of those experiences have ever quelled my fear of heights. Anyways, I was looking forward to the experience.

I went in twice. I felt like Iceman in Top Gun. Where are my aviators when you really need them. The first time was more about practice than anything else, getting my bearings and the technique straight. The second time, I crashed against the wall a few times. That left a mark. The instructor grabbed a hold of the side of my suit, and we went round and round spinning to the top and then down and back up and down and back up and down again. I was dizzy and my core was sore. But it was exhilarating!!

The commute home would be almost two hours. Friday afternoon rush hour traffic from the South Bay to the North Bay, I didn’t expect anything less. I crossed the Bay Bridge, the sun brightly shining on a beautiful city. By the time I was close to the Golden Gate Bridge, I decided to make a slight detour to Crissy Field and spent the next hour plus contemplating the prior week back in the working world amongst the peaceful surroundings of the bridge in the distance on one side, Alcatraz and the bay in the other, with fields of green behind me.

The waters of the bay with its waves crashing against the rocks are peaceful in its violence. The smell of the air is so clean where I can literally smell the blue off the waters and the green off the trees. I am in heaven. I take it all in as all five senses are tickled pink. It was easy to reflect upon what was and what was meant to be to what is and what is meant to be.

The traffic would be waiting for me (as I catch glimpses of it above gazing at the Golden Gate).

This break was what I needed to get back to it, to mentally prepare myself for the traffic home.

So what did I decide?

Things were amazing these last five months.

What was in store for me next would be even more amazing.

My future’s bright. Time to find those aviators. I need shades.