Bee’s Musings

I made my first trip to NYC this week. I wasn’t there long enough to see much of anything, just my hotel, and the 8 blocks between my hotel and the office. It was definitely an eye-opening experience, both in terms of how the newly merged company works, and about NYC.

I stayed in Manhattan - the Chelsea area, I guess you’d say. On 24th between 7th and 8th. I listened to some shoe salesman when he said “You’re not going to go schlepping around Manhattan in those, are you?” So I wore these cute, comfortable heels. Cute, comfortable heels that transformed my little toe into a giant blister. Honestly, the blister was almost as big as the toe itself. On the second day, you’d better believe I schlepped around Manhattan in my tried and true Chacos.

The thing that I didn’t expect about NYC, but should have, was simply how dirty the city was. Nicola told me that every day is trash day - and she certainly was right. Every 30 feet there were stacks of trashbags on the sidewalk. I never did see a trash truck out collecting them though. She pointed at one stack and said “In that garbage, there are probably 5-10 infectious diseases.” I pulled the Purell out of my purse right that second.

I’m sure there are beautiful parts of NYC. Interesting things that I didn’t see. Parts that actually look like scenes from Sex in the City. I’m sure I’d have more fun if I were there with a friend or two, seeing the sites, and taking pictures. But for the 2-3 days that I was there, I was just more than happy to get home.

I walked into a stall in the women’s restroom at the office today, and there was a plastic spoon sitting on top of the toilet paper dispenser. I have no idea what it was doing there, but it seemed unnerving. What in the world could someone want a spoon for in the stall?

Truth is, I don’t want to know.

I spent most of this week in Scottsdale, Arizona at a sales meeting. Now I typically don’t look forward to those types of things, because I’m not on the sales staff, and I find myself tuning out as they talk about print marketshare. (OK, maybe not print marketshare. I think marketshare is interesting - I used to work with that a lot… but you get the point.)

Instead of dreading this trip, I tried to go into it with an open-mind, looking at the value I could get out of it. And that value was building relationships with my co-workers from around the country. Its so much easier to support people when you actually *know* them. When you know that their daughter’s birthday is 2 days after your own, or how they met their wife. We’re all just people, and the more I can help each of them succeed individually, the more our company will succeed as a whole.

Other things I learned in Scottsdale:

I’ve been paying a lot more attention to song lyrics lately (as you may have been able to tell by the fact that I was reading liner notes a couple of days ago…), so I’m probably going to post a few of them here that strike a special chord in me. If you don’t want to read them, just skip on past.
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I got new CDs today - Fergie because its good workout music, and Joss Stone because Tara recommended it. While I was adding the songs to my iPod, I decided to read through some of the liner notes. I hardly ever read liner notes - I just by real CDs because its easier to have real “backups” than to burn CDs from the tracks I purchase online. Now I’m starting to remember why.

When I was younger and got CDs, I loved to read through the lyrics to songs. I mean, how else was I going to know the words to the Barenaked Ladies songs?

These liner notes have the lyrics as well, but I keep finding lyrics like “Your pedestal is falling down da da da da da da da da da da.” I’m sure that the “da da”s are actually in the song, but do they need to be in the liner notes? Do they really add to the poetic quality that songs should have? Or are they simply to be a melodious enhancement to the composition?

Either way, now I remember why I don’t read the liner notes very often.

Since I’m a registered iPod owner, I get the fun, promotional emails from Apple. Despite the fact that they break every best practice that I’ve learned for designing promotional emails, (They’re all images - very attractive on the surface but impossible to read without an HTML-enabled email program… but more about that will appear on eMedia Daily) I enjoy looking at their campaigns.

The campaign for their new iMac left me wondering about the consiousness of Apple, however.

The primary tagline? “You can’t be too powerful or too thin.”

Granted, we’ve all heard that before. You can’t be too rich or too thin. You can’t be too anything or too thin. But the fact is, in our society that is driven by how thin you can be, there is such a thing as too thin. Take, for example, Nicole Ritchie, Mary-Kate Olsen, and Kate Bosworth… all good examples of how we are obsessed with weight. It goes beyond the celebrities as well. At my office we have a “biggest loser” competition, which is often populated by the people who need to lose weight the least. I’m not sure if its supposed to be motivational for someone with 25 pounds to lose to be egged on by someone who wants to lose 5.

Either way, you can be too thin. You can be so thin that your body shuts down. And while I accept that this is just a marketing ploy from Apple to promote the thinness of their recent iMac release, it pays to be socially conscious.

In case you’re interested - I set up a photo page. Lots of fun.

Sometimes I think my blog is just turning into a whole collection of sites that I find to be interesting, entertaining, or flat out good ways to spend my time. This moment is no exception, as I proudly present Common Errors in English.

Not only does this give you the correct way to use words like to/too/two, but can also give you the history and background (as well as correct usage, of course) of common phrases.

Some examples:
Begs the Question
An argument that improperly assumes as true the very point the speaker is trying to argue for is said in formal logic to “beg the question.” Here is an example of a question-begging argument: “This painting is trash because it is obviously worthless.” The speaker is simply asserting the worthlessness of the work, not presenting any evidence to demonstrate that this is in fact the case. Since we never use “begs” with this odd meaning (“to improperly take for granted”) in any other phrase, many people mistakenly suppose the phrase implies something quite different: that the argument demands that a question about it be asked—raises the question. If you’re not comfortable with formal terms of logic, it’s best to stay away from this phrase, or risk embarrassing yourself.
Please RSVP
R.S.V.P. stands for the French phrase Répondez s’il vous plaît (“reply, please”), so it doesn’t need an added “please.” However, since few people seem to know its literal meaning, and fewer still take it seriously, it’s best to use plain English: “Please reply.” It is a mistake to think that this phrase invites people to respond only if they are planning to attend; it is at least as important to notify the person doing the inviting if you cannot go. And no, you can’t bring along the kids or other uninvited guests.

Tara and I were talking tonight about relationships - and about how fast some of the relationships around us seem to move. People go from barely meeting to spending long weekends together in the course of a few weeks. I, for one, am not really that type. Maybe its because I’ve gotten burned before, but I seem to try to take the slow and steady course. Tara’s the same way.

While we were talking she said to me… “We’re just crockpots in a microwave world. It takes us a while to get hot, but we do get there, and what happens when we are cooking is worth the wait.” First, that made me smile, because there’s hardly anything better than putting a few key ingredients in the crock pot before you leave for work in the morning, and coming home to a nice hearty, hot meal. Of course, I live in the microwave era, where if it can’t be nuked, it may not make it into my house.

It made me think though… because we do live in a microwave era. We do live in a time where even the deepest relationships are really temporary. Are people likely to take the time on the crock-pot relationships? (I said crockpot, not crackpot. This isn’t about being crazy. :)) Or are we going to have to find a way to heat up fast just to keep up?

I decided to wear cute shoes today. Not ordinary cute shoes like chacos or slightly unique flip-flops. I wore actual cute heels, that have flowers on them. (Ok, so I got them from my massage therapist who thought they were ugly, and gave them to me to sell at a garage sale. But I thought they were cute, and now they’re on my feet!) Of course, since they’re heels they’re not incredibly comfortable. But today, style mattered over comfort.

I should have known better than to wear cute shoes on a Monday. On Mondays I end up with meetings, and I end up walking around a fair amount. And I end up wanting someone to see my cute shoes. But the person who I think could most appreciate them isn’t here - she’s still in the hospital in Boulder, and she’s got bigger things on her mind than my cute shoes. It makes me sad that there’s not another person that can appreciate the fashion icon I attempted to be today. Today’s points: -1

I’m thinking about this as I stop in the restroom. Only to discover that the stall I’ve chosen is out of toilet paper. I’m not quite sure how it’s out of toilet paper at 10 am on a Monday, but it is. Luckily a neighbor passes me some TP and its on with my day. Today’s points: -1 (This could have become a -3 fairly quickly, but for the kindness of the neighbor.)

Its also supposed to be 90 degrees today, with a chance of rain. I felt a little weird leaving the house with just a tank-top on, since there was the chance of rain, so I put on a cropped button down sweatshirt thingie. (Again, fashion icon in the making.) And I’m glad I did because even with the extra shirt, my office is cold. Today’s points: -2 (because being cold is no fun at all).

Its certainly a Monday… at least so far.