I am a firm believer in everything happens for a reason. I also believe that you are meant to meet certain people and they come into your life for a reason and at a specific time for a purpose. That has been proven to me over and over again.

It happened again last weekend.

I was with my friend Sharon for dinner on the Danforth. It was a great night and we were sitting outside and talking about all kinds of things going on in our lives. Different things that were going on in each of our lives.

During the meal, I brought up something about a past post that I had written in this blog (see below).
http://yyztravelgal.blogspot.com/2010/09/stamps-in-my-passport.html
I am not even sure why this came up, but once I said what the post was called, Sharon stopped for a second and then went on. About 15 minutes later, she said that the name “stamp in my passport” was a perfect name for a website. She pulled out her phone and checked if that name was taken. It was. Okay…moving on.

A little while later, she tried again, different combinations, and came up with thestampsinmypassport. It was available, and there it began, my first professional travel blog site – http://www.thestampsinmypassport.com/
was born!

When I got home, she helped me register the site and then the next night we set up the home page and the basic layout. The rest was up to me…….to create a professsional blog about all the travel related stories in m life. Things that I talk about every day. Bits and bites of information that someone not in the travel profession would know or where to find it.

This is one of those situations where I KNEW in my head and heart what I wanted to do, but didn’t know how to really make those thoughts my reality. And there was my friend….sitting across from me at the dinner table, who saw the vision before I did.

I hope you will check out http://www.thestampsinmypassport.com/ and be enlightened about what 21 years of knowledge and experience means in a career. If there are any topics you would like discussed, please feel free to contact me at any time and I will address them.

This is my personal blog, and will continue to be my personal life stories.

Feedback is appreciated as I embark on this new chapter of my social media life.

Staying with my theme today about the “new” era of techonolgy….and the advancements…I pose the following question: How many ways are YOU connected?

Define “connected”? Well, email, voicemail, text, tweet, bbm, ichat, anyway that connects you to others, that is what I am defining as connected.

Just sitting here today I have been figuring out how many different ways I am connected.

Here goes:

Work connections:
– 4 email addresses (for the different arms of the companies I work for to separate the brands and hopefully avoid brand contamination).
– at least 5 different phone numbers for people to reach me at (only 1 extension 3209) but different phone numbers to feed into the extension.

Personal Connections:
– 2 hotmail addresses (the one on facebook is only for facebook so I don’t get hacked and viruses spread to contacts. Other one have had for years, don’t check often, used when I sign up for online updates).
– 1 rogers account
– 1 twitter account – follow me @yyztravelgal
– 1 facebook account (which has its own instant messaging, direct messaging and public posting forums).
– 2 phone numbers, home phone has v/m, cell phone does not. Moving towards a bb so PIN and bbm is sure to follow very very soon.
– 1 linkedin account – ‘linkin’ with me if we are already not linked.
– 1 blog address – which of course you are following or you wouldn’t be reading this now!

I think that probably covers all of my ‘online’ connections.

So, I guess there are no more excuses for anyone to say that they can’t reach you! And when I say you, I really mean all of us….we are all connected via some sort of social media, cell or land based phone system.

How many connections do you have?

For the last three years (July will be three years) I have had the opprotunity to work from home. Essentially my desk at my condo is like I am working in the call centre. The calls come to me the same way as if I would be working at the call centre.

For those of you who have never worked in a call centre, it is an environment that is hard to understand.

It is kind of like taking a shower in a glass booth in the middle of times square…..well, not quite….but it is that exposed and open.

You have a cubicle, where you keep all your belongings, what you need for work, photos of your kids, nieces, dogs, whatever…awards you may have won. You may have a snack drawer, which can have anything from cup o soups, granola bars, chocolate (women know what the chocolate is for and when to find it).

If you are a loud talker, which you forget that you are in an open space when someone on the other end of the line tells a joke and you laugh, or you are having a heated conversation with a loved one and you raise your voice, if English isn’t your first language and you end up screaming something that everyone can hear, but not understand. You get the picture.

And then of course…where do you eat? When do you eat? Not everyone eats PBJ on white bread with the crusts cut off. (just a joke for us Canadian folk). Cultural differences are very interesting in a call centre. They can be great at potluck time when you can sample food from all over the world.

I remember my desk at 1300 Don Mills Road when I started there in February 2001. It was the very last desk in a back corner of a ‘pod’ of four desks. Everyone said the desk was ‘cursed’. The last three people that sat there had been fired! GREAT! Well, I showed them….I loved that desk, it had a window (didn’t look out to anywhere it was on the ground floor) but it had privacy and I could work hard at my job. I remember being there on September 11th, 2001. When people will ask this year, on the 10th anniversary, “where were you”…I know where I was.

I had pictures on the walls, toys from product launches that I collected, and postcards that had been sent to me from friends and clients. Of course all the ‘stuff’ is gone now, but the postcards, I found one the other day actually. From Aviva…when she was travelling in Australia and New Zealand. I will never throw that away.

Now, in my own ‘cubicle’, I have photos on the wall (in frames now), pictures up (in frames) and still the remnants of my call centre cubicle are around….plastic trays for files and papers, brochures…yes, we still have brochures, even with the internet….and backup notes, files, notebooks etc.

I have the pleasure working from home to not have to share my printer/fax/copier and it is right at my desk. In a call centre, it is in the back room somewhere, away from your desk, and when you want to print something, you have to pray that it will be there when you go to pick it up. What about if you have to print something PRIVATE? Someone may read it when they go to pick up their stuff….

Ah…the life of a call centre employee……I do miss it at times…..really? hm…..