A friend once told me that when a girl gets stressed out, she inevitably takes it out on her hair. Whether it be a new color or a new cut, the style or the shape of her eyebrows, or who-knows-what with the nether regions, it’s always okay to make a big, bold change to hair. Because hair is safe. It always grows back, even if you don’t want it to. And when it grows back, it inevitably grows back the same as it was before you tampered with it. You can count on hair.

I’ve recently realized that when I get stressed out, I move. Most times to a new apartment, sometimes to a new city, and occasionally to a new country.

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With the current state of the economy, companies have already begun laying people off, particularly those in the middle management and even senior management ranks, often in order to make room at the bottom for new people.

I’m back in the Jing. Beijing, that is.

Being in back China gives me the strange sensation of living in perpetual deja vu. I can still vividly remember what it was like to first start living in a foreign country and learning a foreign language; it felt very much like being a child, who can’t swim, but suddenly finds themselves struggling against the strong current in a large, deep pool.

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I keep a document called Topics, which is essentially a long compilation of random statements, thoughts, phrases, and half-finished sentences that represent some larger idea that I have not yet found the time to write about.

Yesterday morning, after so many years of being a dedicated reader of her blog, I finally read Penelope Trunk’s book. There were many parts of the book that rung true with me, but one in particular was regarding “human moments,” a term I had never heard used before.

Originally coined by Edward M. Hallowell, a psychiatrist and senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School, he writes that a human moment is “an authentic psychological encounter that can only happen when two people share the same physical space. It has two prerequisites: people’s physical presence and their emotional and intellectual attention.”

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Yesterday I had the great fortune to meet one of my idols and long-time favorite bloggers, Penelope Trunk. I attended a brainstorming session with her and Jason Warner, and due to a gaffe with printing the conference schedules, only a handful of other people knew it was happening and actually showed up.

When I first arrived in China, all I could say was “hello.” A year later, on my last day in Beijing, I found myself giving an entire speech in Chinese.

I took a deep breath as I looked out at the familiar faces of nearly two hundred people with whom I had shared the most challenging yet rewarding experience of my life. As I had hoped, my audience laughed and cried along with me. During this moment, like so many before, I realized just how far I had come.

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In life, I believe ambition can be boiled down to two different types of motivation: Having the intent to exceed the circumstances from which you came, or being content to stay where you started.

My thinking is that the more you had as a kid, the more you have to have as an adult to feel successful in surpassing the standards that have been set for you.

“Hi, my name is Melissa, and I’m addicted to information.”

“Hiiiiiiiiiiii, Melissa.“

What is the first thing I do in the morning? Check my Gmail. What do I do after I blow-dry my hair but before I get dressed? Check my Google Reader. What do I do while I’m eating breakfast? Chat on instant messenger, browse Facebook, and review the Google Analytics data from the day before. What do I do ALL DAY LONG? Read Twitter.

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In the past, I’ve never been very big on using calendars, because I’ve always found the most reliable, accurate, up-to-date schedule was the one in my head. That opinion hasn’t changed much over time, but currently, I find myself using my Google Calendar to calibrate with the calendars that don’t reside in my head.

I share my schedule with my friends and keep track of all of their schedules, too. I check it almost religiously, largely for the same reasons I am addicted to Twitter: I just like to know what everybody is up to. I no longer live in the same city as the majority of my friends, so It’s important to me to retain a connection to their day-to-day lives. Having access to their calendars helps me do that.

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