20 years with eyes wide shut, or It's so beautiful outside

[Julie]

I was driving this Friday and heard The Great Pretender performed by Freddie Mercury, and I just enjoyed the music. Nothing actually happened, no visions, no imaginary story, nothing. And this was one of my favourite songs for day-dreaming. I guess, I'm not cured yet, but I'm on the way. I've not been day-dreaming for almost two weeks now. I wanted to write a diary of "alternate me", or "what would happen if I continued day-dreaming", but I didn't want to do it. Reality absorbed me so much this week, it's so beautiful outside, there are a lot of problems, a lot of challenges, I need to improve so many things in me. But I always loved challenges. Like I'm awakening after 20 years with eyes wide shut.

 

Now, I've had enough sleep after a busy week and try to put down What I'd miss if I day-dreamt this week:

 

- Sightseeing. Two hours, 17 questions to answer via visiting different places, team work, I could switch off but I didn't. I discovered that after living almost 10 years in Warsaw, I know nothing about the place, about museums, theatres, bars, parks. It was always enough for me to watch a movie in my head, how could I think, it's so boring around, if it is not?  It was so funny to call to the most expensive hotel in the city and ask about the price of presidential room. It was so funny to go to the shabbiest bar in the city and ask about specialty of the day. I also discovered that unlike many people in the team, I didn't have many phone numbers in my cell phone, so I could call only two people to help me with answers via googling them. I need to work on it.

 

-  Sharing dreams as methaphors. I was thinking so many years that Pink Floyd's The Wall is the methaphor for mindset shaping. I discovered many parallels between how our company operates and Tom Lehrer's songs (yes, I promised not to check them to avoid day-dreaming, but I couldn't help myself). Now, I shared them and they are no longer dreams, I don't want to work on them any longer. After The Wall methaphor the boss of our boss (wow) said: "This is what I was thinking about for so long, but I didn't know, how to express it".

 

 - The end of brainstorming with the lead team. Our department head is taking a paper from the flip chart and wanted to say either "I will take this piece of paper" or "I will take this sheet of paper" but finally said "I will take this piece of shit". And he laughted at himself (hello, Herr Freud). He's actually a funny man.

 

- I heard about the cocktail Sex on the beach, but this week I learnt about Sex on the floor. Blue color, looking and smelling like a liquid for floor cleaning (maybe, this is where the name comes from, lol). My friend Nori is ordering the cocktail for us all, saying "I want sex of the floor. Three times". Applause. Sitcom style laughter.

 

- 60s style shopping. I went shopping with two of my collegues. I have to admit, I used to despise them a lot. Fashion victims. I learnt about so many stores, they learnt about my 60s obsession, said that 60s geometrical fashion is cool and helped to select Brigitte Bardot style clothes. Then I received an sms "thank you for shopping, have a nice weekend". I cried. Although there was a negative observation: I'm no longer European size 36 but 38 (this is American 6 and 8, I guess). I didn't notice this before. Ok, less eating, more moving.

 

- Getting a box of chocolates with Day-dreaming painting on it. I don't like the chocolates, but the box is great.

 

- Diluting my personality, like I don't exist (yeah, my dream came through, I was talking to a person and had impression, I don't exist). This is called moderating, or qualitative research. We visited one lady to do a research and to be a good moderator, you should only direct the discussion. You can't suggest, you should pretend that you know nothing about the subject. And I diluted myself. After the interview our intern asked: "Is this your first time moderating?" I said: "No. Was it so bad?" He said: "No, but you feel so excited after the inverview".

 

Our team is walking and answering the questions (I'm the second from the right):

 

Chocolates with Day-dreaming painting:

 

 

60s shopping outcome, or Being Briggitte Bardot :)