I'm here...

Yes, I really am.

My nickname of “Martha (Stewart) with a toolbelt” has never been more true. But I’m jumping ahead… It has, after all, been four days since I lost contact with “my world” and a status update is in order. Flights were fine (if you call 20+hrs strapped in a steel cylinder at 30,000ft… “fine”). My planes landed where they were supposed to, when they were supposed to, and - for those who know the story - ALL my luggage arrived with me. (Say it with me, folks: Hallelujah!)

Coming to Dalian is like visiting my old college town or somewhere I used to live for a short time. After all, I’ve been here 3x more than my beloved San Jose this year (no comments from the Dining Divas, please!). There’s great comfort in being able to point your way to the office in a town where none – not one – of the taxi drivers speaks your language.

Work has been – well… absolutely frantic. Doing business in this environment is so much different than I have ever experienced. You can’t OVER-anticipate enough, and yet there are still things you just never imagined to consider. It has been a tough two days – one of my buddies who is here from our Bangalore office wrote another colleague in the States and said “Tonya’s not happy…” Made me laugh when I heard it, because the majority of you know that popular phrase: “When mama ain’t happy – ain't nobody happy!” Well, just call me MAMA! :-)

So my worldwide outreach on Martha (Stewart)’s behalf continues. I nearly ripped the drill out a Chinese tradesman’s hands, doled out instructions on toggle bolts through a translator, licked my finger and smoothed uneven caulk edges – all just part of my global goodwill campaign to teach the finer details of home craftsmanship to the masses. [wink!] I haven’t done thisssss much micro-managing in 15 years. Well, truth be told, it’s hard to micro-manage when the folks doing the work are so much smarter than you – so I guess the last 15yrs don’t count because I’ve been surrounded by mental giants who tolerate me romping through their technical forests.

So – meltdowns have been contained, the Dragon Lady is retreating to her campfire (“Long” = “Dragon” in China – but I swear they only call me the Dragon Lady out of affection!) I’ve washed the drywall dust out of my hair and tomorrow is the big day. From February to now, this has been on my “to do” list. I’m a little sad to see it get checked off the list, but am definitely thankful to have worked on this project. I’ll have far more uninterrupted nights (i.e., fewer 3am conference calls) – but sad that since my work here will be completed I won’t have as many opportunities to visit in-person and work face-to-face with the people I’ve grown to adore over here. Well, I suppose that’s what IM is for.

Enough rambling. Here’s your special-interest headline of the day: “Smiles are a universally accepted language.” Cheesy? You bet! But so so true in the majority of cases. I’m still amused at how a few (appropriate) hand gestures and a smile will get you through the ordering process in a restaurant where no one speaks your language, or for a taxi driver to wait (just a minute) while you grab money out of an ATM. I’m not insane – we all know there are GRUMPS out there. (And I’m talking real grumps – not you, WB.) But the majority of humans respond to a smile (sometimes accompanied by a small dose of patience). I now know this to be true because in China there’s no “Southern Factor” attached to me. They hear my accent as just some eager chick from the States, so no one decides I’m slow/harmless/”sweet” because I sound like a George Peach (with razor blades buried under the skin – tee-hee). So try it – bite your tongue or you cheek or whatever it takes to exercise an extra dose of “happy” this week and see if it makes a difference. Heck, we could make this a global experiment and who knows how much more livable the world might be… one smile at a time. (Cheese-filter now removed and tucked away. Back to work - the US should be waking up now!)