The Goldies' Bond - EQ

"Emotional Intelligence is essential to interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships at school, at home, and at work." - McCown et al

Six beauties gathered for Sept. reading, and five made the 1st 2nd round, light chatting, possible. Our Sept. gathering ended at midnight, a new tryout and another new record.

It’s been over a month since our last reading gathering. I was truly thankful to all my beauties for their sweet understanding to move our reading from the afternoon to the evening. My forgetful and careless mind caused the turmoil at the last min. Gina & Kate, the coordinators of this month’s reading, found a very artistic place Xue Xue Institute 學學文創志業 for us. Our reading took place on the 2nd floor Bite after Bite Restaurantㄧ口一口學食堂. We and some other few girls were the only customers there to enjoy the whole spacious, artistic place.

I was surprised to see the area was extremely quiet and empty. All the parking places along the street were unoccupied. My tiny vulnerable blue car was like the only orphan deserted there. The huge transparent glass wall and doors made me wonder, “Is the place for business or for tour?”

Later my lady friends told me the Institute is not business-oriented. I was happy to see Gina, Kate, Irene, Linda and Michelle were all there already sitting in a nice quiet corner. Actually the whole restaurant was quiet. The 2nd surprise was to see the beautiful scarves Linda brought for every one of us. They were from her talented daughter’s product line. After the warm-up chat, and light food, we proceeded with our reading.

Unanimously, all beauties tonight gave the article “Emotional Intelligence” by Sushma Subramanian, more afterthoughts. Apparently, we all agreed that EQ is a very important asset to everyone. To me EQ and IQ are reciprocal. A person with both always radiates charm and charisma toward people.

We took goldies into analysis to see who fits passive, passive aggressive, assertive or aggressive communicator, the four criteria of communicators mentioned in the article. I think none of us are passive ones taking the active interaction among us into consideration.

A few sentences or statements I like are:
- There’s a different way to be smart than what’s on an intelligence test. It’s not a new concept. It’s a new term. - Roberson.
- It becomes more of a dance between the audience and speaker, and it leads to a much more powerful talk. - Steve Mitten.
- Emotional Intelligence (EIQ) is a crucial element of public speaking.
- The four pillars of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management of behaviors, social awareness and relationship management. – Goleman.
- Intelligence can contribute to success just as much as – if not more than –intellectual aptitude.

We kind of skipped the article “Speaking for the Animals” and moved on to “Nelson Mandela”. Mandela; the son of a tribal chief, a rebel impatient with restrictions as a boy, imprisoned for 27 years, started his speaking tour in 1990 after being released from the jail, is an expert on Adapting a speech to an Audience without changing his message.

After the reading came the shooting moment. Michelle just bought a new fancy, shocking pink advanced camera. We were intrigued and excited to try this camera out and posed by turns for fun. Happiness is contagious, the camera also had its moment.

To go with Irene’s idea of a crazy night, five of us went for a 2nd round after the restaurant wass about to close at 9:00 pm. Linda had to go home to fulfill her wife, daughter-in-law and mother, 3-in-one's role. We tried to look for the pub Michelle recalled, and were disappointed to find it closed for good a month ago. What a nuisance just when five devoted homemakers geared up the spirit to enjoy life more. So we settled for a coffee Shop, Seattle Coffee, serving better coffee than Starbucks for more chat. Except coffee, we got a big plate of pancakes on the house. It excited us. We were so easy to get contented and excited! Time flew fast. After covering a few topics, it was midnight, time for the store to close and time for us to head home.

We set the date and place for our Oct. reading, then called it a day. Tomorrow we shall all get back to our routine lives. The break just makes our reading gathering worth waiting.

Trini
0927

Light Food and Light Talk Just Two of Us

It was a luck by chance, Pamela and I got together on Satuday afternoon to enjoy some gourmet food at 水舞饌, a place I didn't know until being recommended by Pamela.

After starving a whole day to have the health check, I needed a good meal to reward myself, and if possible a good company, too. Pamela was sweet to accompany me and suggested a good place to serve the purpose.

I enjoyed the atmosphere, the delicacies the restaurant served, and a pleasant chat with Pamela. She has been always a great company. What a Pity that I didn't bring my camera to record the moment.

Both Pamela and I said we must make it possible to have goldies' reading gathering here someday in the near future.

Trini
0830

A Voice Tested Aug. Reading

It was the first time I saw a shop without a shop sign especially when it’s inside a building.

Michelle chose the Mr. Brown Coffee on ChienKuo N. Rd. for our Sept. Reading. I studied The map she mailed us to know the location of the coffee shop. Yet after I made two circles, I still saw no sign of Mr. Brown Coffee. I called Michelle to make sure, then Pamela’s call asking me the direction reassured me the shop is there, so I parked my car and walked in the building. There it was, strong soothing coffee smell and rows of desks and chairs, just no shop sign.

Sherry and Marian were already there. How nice to see Marian who came to join us despite the fact that she had a T/Ms meeting later at 7:00 pm. Sherry was always the first that arrives to enjoy her favorite aroma of coffee and the quiet atmosphere of coffee shops. After Pamela walked in, Sherry led us outside to take some pictures as the fountains in front the building give the building a touch of uniqueness. The water was cool, and the spray of the fountain felt so good to our feet. We played with the water like little girls. It’s Sherry, too, who always comes up with some unexpected and creative ideas to make our reading more fun and indescribably exciting.

After we were about finishing the photo taking, Linda , Lydia, Kate and Gina arrived respectively. We moved to the back bigger desk that sits also in a far quiet corner. We took a while to have our food ordered finally, too long that Marian had to leave taking the meal with her. Hope next time, she can truly enjoy the benefit of sharing and discussion with us.

After enjoying our food and grabbing some bites from others, our reading began. There was still no sign of Michelle, apparently she was caught at work and couldn’t get out of her office. We began with the article “Effective Solutions for Team Conflict. Sherry shared with us her comments first followed by some others. Before we could proceed with the 2nd one, we had to stop as it was time to leave for the 2nd program of voice testing. Lydia, Kate and Sherry are working on a T/Ms choir, and invited some T/Ms to come for the voice testing. I didn’t realize before, but was happy to go along to see how it proceeded.

It was only a few min. walk to the testing room. I didn’t expect to see so many heavy weight T/Ms came to show their interest in singing in a choir. Jorge Yen, Jorie Wu, Eric Suen, Ron Chen, etc. Michelle made it to the voice test. How interesting to see so many experienced T/Ms try out their voice like school students in front of the teacher. I was not a choir person, and was surprised to see they are loved the idea. An hour passed in a blink of an eye after short discussion of details.

I couldn’t make any promise, need to see my situation and cultivate my interest. I must salute to Sherry for her passion and enthusiasm in making everything possible. A T/Ms Choir! What a passion! What a big responsibility! Only Sherry can make it happen.

In two months or three, everyone will see the magnificent T/Ms Choir performing before the audience with their voice from heaven.

Trini
0828