The Ramblings of a Beautiful Mind

2006-06-21T04:44:00.000-02:00

Steve Jobs Speech

The simple speeches inspire you the most!

40 THINGS YOU WOULD LOVE TO SAY OUT LOUD AT WORK or on the PHONE

2006-05-06T14:05:00.000-02:00

1. I can see your point, but I still think you're full of sh*t.
2. I don't know what your problem is, but I'll bet it's hard to pronounce.
3. How about never? Is never good for you?
4. I see you've set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public.
5. I'm really easy to get along with once you people learn to see it my way.
6. Who lit the fuse on your tampon?
7. I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message.
8. I don't work here. I'm a consultant.
9. It sounds like English, but I can't understand a damn word you're saying.
10. Ahhhh. I see the screw-up fairy has visited us again.
11. I like you. You remind me of myself when I was young and stupid.
12. You are validating my inherent mistrust of strangers.
13. I have plenty of talent and vision; I just don't give a shit.
14. I'm already visualizing the duct tape over you mouth.
15. I will always cherish the initial misconceptions I had about you.
16. Thank you. We're all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view.
17. The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you're an artist.
18. Any connections between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.
19. What am I? Flypaper for freaks?
20. I'm not being rude. You're just insignificant.
21. It's a thankless job, but I've got a lot of Karma to burn off.
22. Yes, I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.
23. And your cry-baby whiny-assed opinion would be?
24. Do I look like a f..k.ng people person to you?
25. This isn't an office. It's Hell with fluorescent lighting.
26. I started out with nothing & I still have most of it left.
27. Sarcasm is just one more service we offer.
28. If I throw a stick, will you leave?
29. Errors have been made. Others will be blamed.
30. Whatever kind of look you were going for, you missed.
31. Oh I get it, like humor, but different.
32. A cubicle is just a padded cell without a door.
33. Can I trade this job for what's behind door #1?
34. Too many freaks, not enough circuses.
35. Nice perfume. Must you really marinate in it?
36. Chaos, panic, and disorder. My work here is finally done.
37. How do I set a laser printer to stun?
38. I thought I wanted a career; turns out I just wanted a salary.
39. I'll try being nicer if you'll try being smarter.
40. Wait a minute --- I'm trying to imagine you with a personality!

One best friend 20 flight hours away

2006-05-03T04:55:00.000-02:00

Yesterday, at 9 a.m. one of my best friends in the last year has departed for Australia.

He was here for 11 months, gaining more friends than one can gain in a lifetime. On the other hand this is Romania......friends are everywhere !(just kidding, Brettles darling!)

We started our careers in BRINEL together, last year on June 13th. Lucky day!
He was starting his 6th year in Marketing and I my first one. I remember thinking in our first day spent together, after work, while "savouring" a Marty pizza that he must be the most timid and quiet australian in the world. Boy, did the following months prove me wrong!

I truly believe that these eleven months of my life would have been completely different if it weren't for him. Different as in me missing all the fun in the world and not experiencing a completely new dimension of friendship.
He also made me proud of my career choice when I was still pending between Marketing and Human Resources.

I'll miss terribly his overly cheerful "Hello Darling" in the grim winter mornings, the neverending jokes about the romanian lifestyle that always seem to make me so angry, the endless arguing about whose turn it is to make the coffee, and the little pranks we used to play on Georgi.(which by the way were - for the record- all his ideas). He was one of the reasons I found great to come to work for. No matter how bad some days got, he always seemed to find the right silly tricks that would make me laugh.

I'll especially miss "the prompt and good advice" Brettles, the little energy drop Brownie (especially after work and on weekend nights) that gave a new meaning to the word fun and living.

He was the first person to give me the "get up, you lazy trooper" treatment after my car accident. It mostly consisted in all kinds of "this is just an excuse to get out of work" jokes as I was lying in the hospital bed. He actually managed to launch a trend in this direction, while after two months since the crash, I am still the subject of these jokes, now made by all my friends. I can honestly say, that laughing at my situation was one of the most important things that kept me going in a pozitive and optimistic way. And of course, let's not forget the Chinese noodles and the music selection he made for me.

His leaving left me without a very close friend that taught me valuable lessons about self confidence, standing up for myself and about the beauty of being your crazy self even even when the rest are locked up in standard behaviours.

I guess the most important thing that he taught me was that life is to be lived intensely, without being permanently caught up between the past and the future. Because life has a way of working things out eventually.

You'd better get your ass back here as soon as you can, Brettles because Raddles is missing you terribly already!

Losing my best friend

2006-04-30T19:47:00.000-02:00

“The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.”

My best friend........In the last few days I had a revealing conversation with my best friend.....so revealing actually that it kinda kept my entire mind busy ever since.....The topic of our revealing discussion was our friendship, the way we perceive each other, the way have related to each other lately.

There were some hurtful words thrown into the conversation, maybe even some painful truths that will probably be verified in a couple of years. The bottom line turned out to be the fact that we don't know each other like we used to, that we have both changed up to a point that we can't understand each other anymore.

Strangely, what I most took pride in our friendship was the fact that I still thought her to be that one person I could relate to without having to explain myself.....or even speak sometimes. And she was that person throughout most of the significant times in my life. We all have that someone that really listens when we speak, that remembers all the important things about us, that sees our true being behind all the masks we put on. And the simple fact we can be ourselves in her presence is most comforting and relieving.

Investing all your trust in such a valuable friendship is the least you can do. You really believe that no matter what life brings, no matter what changes might occur this friend is always going to be there by your side, because he's the one who's supposed to understand everything you're going through. This is the person who is the first to believe in you, the first you share your experiences with, the first to tell you the truth in every situation, and most important of all, this is the person that no matter what you do, supports you in your decisions, and does not judge you, even if there are times she doesn't agree with you.
As I see it this is the first thing the sets the foundation of a real friendship: trusting and accepting each other. And when these are gone, you can't hardly call that person your friend, little less your best friend.

Friendship has to stand some severe tests over time. A fragile friendship can easily fail tests such as time passing, living in different environments, different people that leave a significant mark in your life. It's natural to grow as a person, to sometimes loosen the ties that link you to your family, to the people you once knew, to the places you grew up in. You might lose some friends on the way as well, but you can always count on your best friend being there.

I strongly believed that. It might sound childish and very idealistic but I always thought I could leave a part of me with my best friend for safe keeping. That part of the "real me" who few people in my life actually get to know.
What I didn't expect was for that part to disintegrate in very small pieces that, as time goes by, get lost on the way.

Even though my best friend and I kept up with each other's lives, it seems it wasn't enough to keep our friendship alive. Because we got to that point where we look at each other and we see strangers. We started judging each other, questioning our life decisions. For several years now we seemed to have drifted apart, a little bit each day, not paying attention to what was happening.

We are different personalities, and we've always been that way. In all these 4 years, living in different environments shaped us in the persons we are today. Persons that are even more different than we initially were. But the beauty of our friendship consisted in the very fact that we accepted each other's different ways. We were never afraid or reluctant to be ourselves around each other. We also shared common views, but always accepted our differences.

Until now, apparently....

So I am standing now....asking myself if the very foundation of our friendship stands exclusively in the common things we shared and if that foundation is completely wrecked right now...And where is that point where we gave up understanding each other and started to make judgements?

Friendship is the most lasting relationship you can have with another human being. It lasts though time, and space, and other people in your life. And when you lose that you lose a part of yourself. A piece of you that you can never replace and that is priceless.

At this point I guess our friendship is somewhere in mid air......while we didn't talk things through.

I am still glad to have had such a best friend, a best friend that is so hard to say good bye to......
....even though she leaves my soul somehow cripled.....

Time for a new test little ones.......I discovered my true meaning in this life... :o)

2006-04-03T07:53:00.000-02:00

Your Superhero Profile

Your Superhero Name is The Captain Flower

Your Superpower is Mathematics

Your Weakness is Color Purple

Your Weapon is Your Thunder Rocket

Your Mode of Transportation is Rocket

What's your Superhero Name?

This one goes out to The One I Love

2006-04-02T18:24:00.000-02:00

....I was preparing for the last few days to write this post......I had so many feelings overwhelming my heart and mind, so many things I wanted to say.....But my worse fear was that they wouldn't come out the right way.....the way I feel them ....

Somehow, tonight, I thought I will just say what I have to now........however senseless it may sound......otherwise I'll just bury these feelings in.

These last two weeks I've been at home, in my bed-the place I've dreamed so much of getting to ever since the accident. And I was right: once I arrived everything changed. Just not entirely as I expected.......

All this time, there was only one person completely responsible for my well-being at home.And I don't think any of us realizes what it means to have somebody depending entirely on us, like I am depending now on this person. We don't live with the thought that someday we'll have to choose between our normal life and our usual priorities and taking care of someone else. And I am convinced not everybody can make such a decision. I was fortunate to have a person strong enough to make it......

Every single day I have friends stopping by my place, people who are concerned about my well being. And every day that surprises me: my "being" is well every time, however nobody takes the time to ask the person who is taking care of me how is he holding on.The person who feeds me three times a day, who washes and gives me muscle rubbs, the one who fulfills my every desire and still has time to smile and encourage me, still has energy to love me and to kiss me goodnight. The person which goes to bed at 2 o'clock in the morning at wakes up at 7, so I can eat and wash up before he goes to a business meeting he can't decline. The one who bears my sometimes moody presence never running out of patience. And the most beautiful thing is that every single moment he is by my side he CHOOSES to be there.He doesn't have to do all these things, and still he is there.

He has to make this choice every minute of every day.Choices like giving up 80 percent of his life to stay home with me, choices like not going out with his friends, giving up chairing opportunities and AIESEC conferences, in a nutshell, pretty much everything that was important in his life up to this point.

I can only hope that one day I will have the chance to give back at least a small part of what he has given me. Although I seriously doubt love can be translated into anything more than what he has proved in these last 2 months. A "thank you" somehow loses its value in this situation, but right now it's all I have for him.So Thank you,Stefan !

I have been given so much since this accident happened: a chance to live, a chance to be whole again, caring friends and family to make my life better, and a person so dedicated by my side the entire journey........

And I must ask myself......What am I going to do to have been worth all of this?

10 Reasons to Enjoy Hospitals in Romania

2006-03-31T16:22:00.000-02:00

1. Because if we survive our roomate’s farting and eating with their mouth open habbits, we can almost take pleasure in the nice neverending convesation about her aches and pains.

2. When did we ever get the chance to pee in bed without instantly awaking the rage of our parents? Well, in the nice hospitals of Romania not only are you allowed to pee but you are strongly encouraged to do all your stuff in bed. In your face, raging parents!

3. Who said peace and quiet is the first rule of any hospital? You have a green light in shouting your brains out to other patients, slamming doors and throwing wild parties on the hallway. Well, at least all the nurses do…….

4. The food is certainly a treat while beans and boiled cabbage are well known for their curative qualities.

5. You have to love the sleeping hours: you go to bed at whenever-your lovely-roomate’s -moaning-stops o‘clock and you’re gently woken up by a hard slamming door, 2 light projectors in your eyes and an obviously not loud enough “Wassssssssssuuuup!!!!” shouted by the nurse on duty at 6 a.m.

6. Free massage from the hospital specialist definitely gets you through the day.

7. My personal favourites, though, are those rare specimens of nurses I was lucky enough to meet, that are constantly present in your room praising all the different types of gifts and food you receive from your friends. My little vultures I like to call them! They usually go by the principle: What’s yours is entirely mine – especially the food!

8. Getting a free visit from the hospital priest is definitely the perk of the day – a charming person really, who goes on and on about the most recent number of deaths caused by car crashes amongst young people. Then he serenely lets you know how you could’ve avoided the accident with the latest conquests of technology (too bad you didn’t have them at the time). In the end he enlightens you with the main reason young people should go to church: because young people die too.He charmingly exits wishing you a perfectly lovely day!

9. Hospitals are definitely a place of diversity. Diversity of roomates, diverse specimens of nurses, diverse purchasing items. Yes, the commerce is flourishing in the hospitals too!!! You can buy here almost anything from lighters and dirty magazines to make-up (while you obviously need it) and miniature TVs. And the salesmen are happy too, while here is the only place where the customer can’t turn around and leave.

10. The doctor patient relationship must be the key point of attraction though. Ever since you are admitted you are taught to smile and nodd during the doctor visit, while he asks you if everything is allright. This mainly sums up everything you know about your situation, but you might get lucky and one of the less experienced nurses can explain you later, close-to-the-truth facts and prognosis about your injuries.

So there you have it, hospitals in Romania – How can you not love them???

What did I do to Deserve This?

2006-03-29T06:08:00.000-02:00

Written in the hospital on March 21st
February 16th – a day which will certainly live in my history!

Before this day my soul was in its wandering period, I was asking myself how many actual friends do I really have, what have I achieved so far in my life, am I satisfied with the way I am, where exactly am I heading, etc…………………….all the usual questions of a woman just beginning her real life. My answer to all these questions was going on a traineeship to clear my head, define my options, and get a larger perspective on life. And I was all set to go at the beginning of next year…..

And then February 16th came……..and changed everything.Talking about getting a larger perpective on life
Not only do I feel more optimistic about all those great moments yet to come, but in the same time I feel so much richer with all the beautiful people in my life, people I didn’t take time to really notice and appreciate at their right value until now….

I’m not even sure how people found out about my accident, but not in a million years would I have expected so many friends to show up in my room with smiles and flowers and all the positivity in the world.

So naturally, I ask myself: What did I do to deserve this?
What did I do to deserve a person who loves me so much that puts his entire life on hold in order to spend night and day at the hospital, holding my hand, easing my pains and caressing me to sleep every time?
What did I do to have such a strong father who has done nothing but encourage me to be brave in the hardest moments?
What did I do to deserve such wonderful colleagues and a CEO busting his head and using his personal connections so that I get the best medical care possible and the best conditions a patient can hope for?
What did I do to deserve so many wonderful friends that came and visited me so many times in the hospital, friends who filled my soul with smiles and kisses, with flowers and fruit J, greeting cards and injured teddy bears, late night calls and messages, home made cooking and so much much more.

Tomorrow I am leaving the hospital after 5 weeks of lying in bed. There were 5 challenging weeks for my family and me but most of all there were 5 weeks of good friends, love and smiles and lots of spoiling for Rada.
Thank all you guys for making my life so wonderful in these moments.

How Evil am I? (Don't answer that!!!)

2006-03-28T15:37:00.000-02:00

I just saw this quiz and I couldn't resist the temptation.
Apparently I'm close to angelhood :0).....

You Are 30% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well.

In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

The Luckiest Person in the World

2006-03-27T16:42:00.000-02:00

I always thought the main purpose of the blogs to be the sharing of meaningful experiences, stories people can relate to, something they can learn from.
That’s one of the main reasons I didn’t have a blog until now. Maybe I underestimated my life so far but I couldn’t put my finger on that one great moment in my life that was so different and unique that others can actually learn something from. That and the already proven fact that I’m not a very concise person. I could bore people to death with my writing (the ones who’ve read my 54 pages application form for the MC know what I’m talking about).

Anyway, as I don’t intend to make this out as an “Online Diary of Rada”, I just wanted to share this one experience that turned my life around a little bit, in the most unexpected way. Right here, from the friendly hospital bed…

Ah, if only thoughts came in organized chronological order…..

To start with, I never had imagined that a car crash can make you feel like one of the luckiest persons on Earth, even though it puts you in a hospital with several fractures and a 2 month bed detention period.

The strangest technical detail of a car accident is the fact that when it happens you see everything in slow motion. You don’t hear anything and you are 100% focused on the car coming towards you. You are so fascinated with that image that you become unable to move a muscle.
In my case though, I was lucky. Just before the impact something miraculous happened that saved my life. I never have good reflexes when it comes to avoid something hitting me. Somehow this time, it’s like an invisible hand pushed me towards the opposite side of the car, just as the other car was crashing into ours. And that literally saved my life.

And then I woke up. Sounds like a bad prank you play on your friends….
It was still February 16th, we were surrounded by a lot of cars and people, the ambulance was there and we also had to wait for decarceration to arrive. Not recalling exactly what had happened, one of my first worries was that Stefan and my father don’t find out about the accident, at least not until I was well enough.
When I got at the hospital I was so happy to see a man I’ve never seen before but who was the first person to smile reassuringly at me. He turned out to be one of my colleagues in Oradea and he took care of everything there, even announcing Stefan and my father about the accident.

I can only recall bits of what happened next…..I remember being confused with all those agitated doctors around claiming I had a lot of fractured bones in my body even though I didn’t feel any pain. Even so I was relieved to see a good friend’s face when lucki appeared at the hospital with her mother. It’s strange how a familiar face can make all the difference in these kinds of moments…….

I can’t remember ever feeling happier than when I saw Stefan and my father entering my room at the hospital. I was so thrilled they were there that I didn’t care about anything else. We didn’t talk about the accident; we just looked at each other with immense gratitude for this chance, simply enjoying each others’ presence.

Only then have I started to really feel grateful and to believe that really being injured didn’t matter, that the next 2 months spent in bed are of no importance whatsoever, and that all the pains that finally kicked in after a few hours of shock are there just to remind me how lucky I am to be alive…………..how lucky I am to be able to be with the one I love, how lucky I am to see my father smiling……..how lucky I am to have another chance to make the best out of this life. I felt and still feel so empowered with the image of the future yet to come…….Must be because I am the luckiest person in the world!