I didn’t realize how hard it is to find a decent card to be given to someone leaving our section for a new job position (nope, it’s not me, although I’m leaving the job next week). Earlier this summer, I was asked to be a rep. for our Sunshine Club whose sole purpose is to give recognition or consoldence to someone in our section such as baby shower, retirement, or death. So, my first (and last) assignment was to find a farewell card for a black lady who’s worked 15 years for NASS, our department under the USDA agency. First, I went to a little gift shop that’s deep in the basement of our headquarters building and tried to find its respective category. Retirement? no, she’s not retiring, just moving to a new job under a different agency. Ok, “we’ll miss you!”? nope, too sappy. I looked up and down across the whole aisle and finally found the category, which was “good-bye”. Only to find out that the entire column was out of cards. Looks like I’m not the only one leaving the agency. Great, I’ll have to go to a CVS store or a similar store to get a card since the party is tomorrow or I’d look very bad at being a rep. on my first assignment.

After work, I went to play golf with Luke. Thought I’m gonna be a little rusty as I didn’t play for 2 weeks. To my own surprise, my first drive wasn’t badly off the right side into the rough under some trees. For some reason, I felt at ease playing golf, like my swing and me was one machine working in sync. In the past, I’d try to be like Tiger Woods and swing as hard as I could. Ofc, you cannot do that in golf unless you’re Tiger Woods; it’d be the opposite. The harder you try to swing, the more likely you’ll fuck up. Just ask Luke when he nearly lost his balance while trying to hit a drive. So, the key concentration here is that you’re not trying to hit the ball 100%. Try to hit it at 80% and if you’re that good, maybe 90% for a bit extra juice on the ball…

Ok, back to my ball that was lying behind some trees, I pulled the 3-iron out of my bag and hit a punch ball at 80%. A punch ball is a shorter swing to “punch” the ball low-trajectory thru the air. It went under and between the trees, landed back onto the fairway, about 15 feet away from the green. Then I hit a nice flop shot to get within six feet of the cup. I read the green and find the line. Hit the ball solidly and it fell into the cup. Par. It would be a bogey or double bogey, had I hit 100% on my second shot and ricochet off the trees.

After we played the first 7 holes, the sun was dipping fast, so we decided to skip the 8th hole, which was a boring long par 3 anyway and we’d like to grab our Taylormade R5 as much as we can. By the time we walked to the 9th hole, it got darker and we could barely see our ball after we hit it. However, I was hitting the ball beautifully all evening long that when I teed it off, I knew exactly where it went. After finding my ball in the dark, it was about 100 yards away from the hole, and it was about 400 yards long, so I had driven the ball 300 yards. I grabbed my PW and hit it at 80%. I couldn’t even see the ball as soon as it went up in the air but I knew I got it solidly and that it was going straight. I walked up to the green and found my ball lying on the fringe about eight feet left from the hole. Since it was already dark, I didn’t even bother to try to find the line to the hole and I just stood behind the ball and picked my spot and then hit it. It rolled and rolled till it found the bottom of the hole. a Birdie in the dark. At that moment, I felt at oneness with golf and nature. I didn’t have to see the ball, just knowing where it went. I’m in love with golf.

After putting my golf shoes away into my hatchback, I reminded myself to stop by a CVS pharmacy store to buy a card for my co-worker. Wasn’t exactly in the mood to find a card as I was damn hungry but with my reputation being at risk, I made myself to stop by.

Ahh, hallmark! They did their catergories much better than the gift shop I went to at the USDA building, and they had a nifty category named “Workplace”. There were four different cards—one was a snoopy card, so I grabbed that first (I’m a big fan of Snoopy, :-) ) and read the message. It looked good on the cover but inside, it said “we wish you didn’t leave us!” Uhh, okay, that sounded like we’re begging or something. Put the card back into the aisle wall. Next card was with cats all over on the front with a simple message, “You’ll be missed.” and then I looked inside, it said “We wish you all the best of luck and hope that you will find as many friends ahead of you as those you leave behind!.” Ah, that sounds much better and it does help a lot that my co-worker is indeed a friendly person. Her new job deals with workplace conflcts. Great. I held the card and looked at the last two cards. They didn’t look as good as the one in my hand. Whew, my assignment was done. Wait a minute! something caught my attention: National Boss Day. It’s gonna be on Oct. 17th. That’s the day I will start my first day at Google. My lady boss has been really nice to me all year and been supportive in my job duties. She even learned how to sign so we didn’t have to depend on interpreters all the time. Ah, gotta get a card for her too. The card choices seemed much better, perhaps because it’s being more advertised than others and that it’s coming up soon. I looked for a card that was subtle, not too gaudy or anything. Found this card with nice autumn colors in blocks that spell out T-H-A-N-K-S with a message that said “You deserve some thanks on boss’s day.” Inside, it said “A good boss can make such a difference in how a person feels about work. So today I’d just like to say thanks. It’s nice to be working with you.” Ok, that’s good enough, although it’s missing “been” but that’s fine.

I paid for the cards, went straight home, and cooked pork bulogi that I’d bought earlier at the Han Ah Rheum store. :-)

Sorry if this ran a bit too long but I guess I got into a groove and wrote on. Ah, there went my bedtime.