How to Deal

Have you ever gone into a situation completely unsuspecting and come out of it feeling like you just got hit by a truck? A really big truck?

This happened to me the other night at work. I went to discuss a case with a co-worker who we both see members of the family. Apparently I approached it the wrong way. (My client was very unhappy with her after a joint session with her and her client while I was out sick) She immediately became defensive and confrontational.

Long story short, she took everything I said as completely offensive, even the most innocent of remarks. I'm still not sure how she got offended, but she did. And in turn, proceeded to blatantly insult me professionally and personally for the next hour. Once I realized that she felt offended and even attacked by me -again, not sure how she took it that way, but she did- I apologized profusely for my poor communication multiple times.

I sat patiently and listened to what she had to say as she continued to run me over until I indicated to her that I was now feeling attacked. She stopped and clarified that I was feeling attacked, then she continued without so much as an apology or even an attempt at backing off!

I finally just agreed to continue the way she wanted to and got up and left.

I was completely traumatized.

I have never had anyone be so unprofessional or disrespectful to me, ever! And though I took responsibility for my possible communication gaps and apologized over and over, she did not give me such courtesy.

At first, I felt smaller than dirt. And then I thought- no way. I did the very best I could to make a difficult situation better but she was unwilling to listen to a thing I had to say. I have accepted that maybe she was very stressed or having a bad day, but I don't know what I could have done differently.

Now, there have been many times in my life that I have not shown much dignity or grace in these confrontational situations, but I have to say that I was very proud of myself for how I handled this. I feel like I refrained when I wanted to say a lot more. I can be quite mouthy, as many of you will attest to. :)

I guess that's all I can do.

China

Well, seeing as how it has been two weeks since I arrived home...it is about time I wrote a little something about my trip to China.

I was gone October 18th to the 24th. I went to go and inspect some equipment before we shipped it to a gold mine in the middle of Siberia. And at the risk of boring my sweet wife, I inspected a paste thickener mechanism, which helps mines reclaim much of the water they use to process the ore. Usually much of the water ends up in a tailings dam and goes to waste...we help them reuse a large percentage of that water. OK...done now.

I left for China late in the evening of the 18th. Flew to LA and then to Seoul and then on to Shenyang. As a quick note...the airport in Seoul is by far the nicest, cleanest, best all around airport I have ever been in.

The flight from LA to Seoul was 12 hours! Way to long! I ended up watching 3.5 movies and thank heavens for those cool personal entertainment thingies on the airplanes!

I arrived in Shenyang tired and in the early afternoon. Wilton Zhang from our WesTech China office picked me up at the airport, took me to check in at the hotel and then off to the shop to start the inspection. Let me quickly interject here just how crazy the driving is! Why have a turn signal when you can just lay on the horn and go where ever you please? Lane lines? Traffic lights? Merely suggestions for your consideration. I just chose to close my eyes and let the driver do his thing.

Long story short...the hotel was extremely nice with the exception of the rock hard mattress on the bed. There were even a few English tv channels. And yes, I was desperate enough to watch a chick flick one night.

The inspection went well and I now feel good about shipping the equipment. Here is hoping it goes together well in Russia.

I even got one day off to visit a mall and see a cool under ground river. See pictures below. And when I say shopping mall, I really mean two giant 5 story buildings crammed full of people and random shops and kiosks with no rhyme or reason nor organization. Fun times.

Now to the food. Wilton was a fantastic host and took me to many, many wonderful restaurants, and I tried everything they gave me. For the most part I liked everything but sadly never quite got the hang of chop sticks. I ate chicken feet, jelly fish, cow and duck tongue, cow stomach, sea urchins, and all kinds of shell fish and sea food. The only think I flat out hated was the jelly fish. It was raw, clear, crunchy and just plain terrible. But I did at least try it.

Finally the trip was over and I flew home (again via Seoul) and was thankful to arrive home in one piece aside from a bit of jet lag which stuck around for about a week.

So I'll leave you now with a few pictures. Thanks for reading.

Mark













I have already posted these picture to facebook; so I apologize to those of you who have already seen them.

Paint Colors

We are trying to figure out what color to paint the baby's new room.

Right now, it is an atrocious glowing green.

Do you think it would be bad to paint a little girl's room a light blue?

We can't bring ourselves to paint a bedroom in pink or purple, so we are thinking blue or green. But I think we want to get away from the green, even if it is a more appealing shade of green.

I love rooms that are painted in a pale blue.

Maybe we should re-think a pale purple.

Please help!!