건축.
작은 아버지부터 고모들, 고모부들은 물론, 큰 아버지, 동네 아저씨들 등, 다들 내가 무슨일을 하는지를 알아 내는 순간에 그들 입으로 나오는 말이 있다: “그거 여자가 하기엔 힘들텐데..” 하며 다른것을 해보라며 권하기도 하고 그냥 걱정해 주시던 때가 있었다. 오히려 나는 그 말을 들을때 마다 내 자신은 다른 여자 들과 다르다는 생각으로 (더 강하다고 믿었기에) 고집 꺽지 않고 여자들도 할 수 있다고 보여주고 싶었다. 그 때가 대학교 시작하기전 여름이었다. 지금은 7 년 후..
so today, i really felt like i understood what they were saying: “as a woman, working at an architecture firm is hard”.
here i go.
it’s been about 4 months since i’ve been on a 32 hour week schedule. a week and a half ago i went back up to working 40 hours a week from a 32 hour week. last week and this week, each day seemed longer than ever. perhaps i must have gotten used to the old 32 hour week schedule. perhaps because i’m putting more of myself at work to really absorb and learn, and stay awake to do the work. i feel exhausted and hungry at the end of my work day, as if everything in me had been sucked out right before i start heading out the door. for me, hunger is not just hunger. apparently i have a mild case acid reflux. so the doctor told me to eat on time and don’t skip a meal: that i should eat right away when i feel hungry. otherwise, it’ll bring discomfort..
so here i was, driving out of the work parking lot to the notorious I-285. the clock was indicating 6:15pm and there i was, sitting in traffic in hunger, knowing that it’ll take me an hour to get home.. plus, the fact that i told myself that i would do my devotional right when i get home before i do anything else for the evening definitely would delay my dinner… which meant that i would be eating around.. 8pm? if i had decided to cook something for the night, the dinner would have to wait until 8:30 or 9pm.
that’s when i realized that this work hours and atlanta traffic, combined together, are not heej/working wife/working mom friendly. you would be wondering why i categorized myself with moms and wives.. and here is why. so when i become health conscious, just wanting to shed off some pounds, my appetite becomes very tamable. for some reason, i can say no to bad foods easily and control my mind on diet. so being in that state of mind, i definitely would like to eat more healthy foods and cut off any fast food options. that gives me options of eating out at a sit-in restaurants or cook for myself. because cooking food for myself is budget friendly and i have the full knowledge of what goes in the dish i get to eat, i prefer cooking in for sure. besides, i’m hunting for recipes that i can easily cook, that is also healthy and reasonably priced. somehow, i’ve been into cooking. hah.
so picture yourself as a working woman who has to cook: you get off at 5:30 or at 6pm, and are stuck in traffic for a hour, then cook as soon as you get home, which takes about 30-45 mins on average, then voila! your dinner is at 8pm. it doesn’t end there. imagine that you have a kid to pick up from a daycare or some place, how much hectic will your evening become? so here is a tip that i got from my own self haha. when i’m married, i prefer to live closer to my work rather than the husband’s work so that i can come home quicker and get right away with dinner preparation. unless… i become a fan of mass production and cook week’s worth of food during the weekend (which.. is not an option for now).
so.. who was i to underestimate my relatives’ widsom? i apologize dear family, my insight was short at that age, and i give my full respect to uncles, aunts, moms, dads.. adults. i definitely didn’t understand my family’s point at that time since i was about to start college, so i didn’t know what college life would look like or what working life would look like. while in college, i didn’t care what i ate or how little i slept so i was able to endure through. but now that i’m trying to sleep 7-8 hours of sleep a day, eat right, and focus at work, it definitely is draining me out. i’m glad that i realized this while i’m single, with neither husband nor kid by my side. i’m pretty sure that if i had realized this after i got married, i would’ve blamed it on the lifestyle of a married woman.. and think that this evening battle naturally came with the role of a wife.
besides that aspect of this blog, why did i choose to write this long entry? i was just frustrated, weak and tired to go home hungry and the fact that dinner ran late for days!!! and whose ever idea was it to build GA400 exit so close to the roswell road exit on I-285 E? well you are pretty stupid. come and see for yourself what your nifty road plan is causing!!! geez.
last thursday morning, i was listening to “VertShow” from atlanta’s ‘popular’ radio station called Qu100. it definitely has been a while since i used to listen to it frequently. maybe a year?
again, in my opinion..) This documentation process can go hand in hand with my itch to take photographs 
