Drat, Splat!

I knew it would happen. I was waiting for it to happen.

But I didn't expect it to happen so soon.

So after working until 9pm on Fri night, I met with members of our team Sat morning at 1030am to work on our presentation.

Fred, the other managing partner who is from Australia, came in and gave some "suggestions" on the presentation. He again mentioned how much he found the "new" and "next" frontier terms to be very effective. In corporate speak, this means - this is to go into the presentation.

I subtly asked my team what the management was like at the company by asking what happened when Fred and Alisher dissented on something. They said Fred was diplomatic enough that there usually wasn't any dissent, aka Fred knew the boundaries and there was no question who was boss if he wanted to keep his career safe. What about when Fred and the team disagreed I asked. One Fred trumped all the colleagues put together.

I quickly learned my place.

A bit nervous from jetlag, lack of sleep, and my new environment, I felt a bit sensitive that day. The night before after hearing Fred had gotten sick from a Turkish restaurant, despite being here for 4 years, I packed some meds "just in case". And with Fred scrutinizing my presentation that day and seeming a bit un-enthused, though this could've been from his being under the weather, I felt a bit shaky. I again reminded myself I had to rise above these feelings. I viewed his comments as a way to make the presentation better, but also that this type of dynamics and politics would be a common occurrence as I went up in my career.

I've been eating breakfast at the hotel every day despite not really being a breakfast person by nature. That day at the office, after the team had returned from lunch, I got hungry and asked if I could get delivery, a usual occurrence in NY.

In order to request delivery from the Turkish restaurant, I would've had to order 20,000 soum's worth of food. Instead, one of the colleagues said he could go get me a hamburger after I said I was craving french fries.

Excited, I took a picture of this burger and fries. I cleverly also requested to have the lettuce and tomato left out to be cautious about what I ate.

To my delight and surprise, at about this time my friend Ellie called. It was so good to hear her voice, and it was so touching to have her call me so many miles away. And in just the fashion that only women when they are close can do, I suddenly ran to the bathroom with her on the phone and there it happened: the big TD.

I downed my meds while trying to maintain my composure to my team despite feeling itchy, a bit run down, and craving nothing better than a nap or massage, and returned to working on my presenatation.

After 9 hours of working on the presenatation and becoming excited as I thought of better ways to break down the presentation, I made a huge, fatal mistake.

I accidentally closed the draft I had been working on without saving the file.

I called Farkhad, our office tech guy, and together on the phone we scoured my computer for a temporary back up file.

Nada.

*Sigh*. This reminded me of the several times I had worked on major pieces and the same thing happened. That huge 15-20 page term paper during finals period at Brown where my paper got wiped out not once, but twice despite my other exams I had to study for by the next day. The time at CREF when I was working on a pitch and the enormous amounts of hours and work put into it also disappeared in a matter of seconds.

And now this.

There was nothing I could do until the next day when Farkhad would try to come to the office to find the file.

Complicating the matter I did not yet have my magnetic card to be able to enter and leave the office as pleased.

I returned to the hotel and did what I knew best to unwind from a long, stressful day: I called the salon and asked if they had room for a massage.

Fortunately, this one thing did come my way. I received a very light yet soothing 1 hour massage from Olya, after which I went back to my room without having showered for 2 days and crashed into my bed.

Sunday morning and I have finally showered and am slowly getting ready to meet Gil, my tour guide in the lobby by 11am. I have already had breakfast, showered, and thrown up. But getting sick is a small price to pay to be here. Unfortunately, the meds have been working too well, and I am hoping that they will wear off so I can clear this out of my system.

Nonetheless, I can't wait for this to pass. I'm hoping the sooner the better, and that things have to get worse before getting better. Hopefully after this bout of sickness my immune system will have built a better tolerance for the rest of this trip.

And I quickly reminisced back to the time in Ecuador where I fell so sick and out of frustration and helplessness I cried and called home. I can't help but feeling grateful that years later I'm a stronger person and better equipped to deal with and manage these types of things.

Looking forward to my tour. I will bring my meds just in case.