My Blog

I work at a company that's very "virtual". We are a real company, but many of our people are not together in a physical office. We have locations in Austin, Boston, New York, London, California, and Houston (at last count, four in Houston, I think). Then we have lots of folks at home offices. Or airports, hotels, bars, anywhere with a good reception and connectivity.

So we end up talking a lot on the phone. I am starting to recognize folks by their voice; at one point, I hope to even meet some of them. Sometimes, the conference calls are quite large, approaching 10 people.

Inadvertently, I've been using a tagline as I hang up: "thanks to all". It's simple, and so far, I haven't heard anyone else using it. I'm hoping that t becomes a signature of sorts.

I am in a Raymond Carver story. We've recently moved to a new city. We're lost.

I opened a safe deposit box the other day; it came with my new bank account. I finally dropped some things in it.

• Small gold cross pendant on a chain. This belonged to my maternal grandmother. She lived in LA and is buried in Rose Hill. I used to wear it years ago but haven't worn it in 10 years. When he is old enough, I will probably give it to my son, who inherited a part of his Korean name from her.
• Small collection of maybe-rare coins. Over the years, I have pulled out some older coins that have circulated thru my hands. Nickels before 1964 and the like.
• Hand-made wooden set of "yut" sticks. These were made by my paternal grandmother. They are traditional shape, each with a flat (inside) side and a curved (outside) side. Each piece has 3 scorch marks. Whenever I see these, I think of how my grandmother used to do lots with her hands. I didn't leave Korea with these. I think these were sent to us as gifts, perhaps fashioned from an old broom stick. At one point, my father wet back to Korea shortly before my grandmother sold her house. He brought lots of things back (his old stamp collection), but I think the yut sticks were not part of that cache.
• Recent pictures of my children.