Rolled Coins

Today I read an article on line about how blogging can get you fired. I was intrigued at how a person could innocently make an anonymous remark and then end up canned. OK, fair warning. This blog will not contain any work related items going forward. However, since that is where I spend my time, things could get a little dry. Not that anything worthwhile is happening there anyway.
I needed to refill the postage stamps that employees can buy for personal use, so I add up the change and on my break go next door to Shaw’s to get a couple of books of stamps. There is a young girl at the counter. Her name tag reads Meghan. I hand Meghan the envelope with the exact change for three books of stamps. In the envelope is a roll of dimes. Meghan looks at the roll of dimes and sighs heavily. She then disappears into the back room, returns shortly and makes a phone call. I presume the call is to her manager. She says she has a customer with a roll of dimes that she’s taken out back. It doesn’t appear to weight the right amount for a roll of dimes. She listens a moment, then hangs up. She tells me she can’t accept rolled coins. “OK” I say and open the packet and count out the coins and place them on the counter in nice little piles of one dollar each. She is completely annoyed, steps aside and waits on the next customer. When she is through with the woman behind me, she picks up the phone again and tells the person that I have opened the roll and have the coins laid out. Is she to accept them? I can’t here the response, but Meghan is not happy. Now she has to count each little pile of dimes. I finally get my stamps and a receipt, which is handed to me in a not so nice manner. Meghan doesn’t realize that she has just become the victim of my returning often with lots of coins for her to count.
I head down the other end of the store to the Dunkin’ Donuts counter and get a large iced coffee, cream no sugar. Meghan has me feeling like I need a rush of caffeine. The girl at the Dunkin’ Donut counter is pleasant so I leave feeling much better.
This day has me feeling a little blue. I miss my friends and the breaks in my day that used to be filled by them. I made some good friends here and I plan to stay connected as long as they’re willing. So it was a pleasure to receive a call from my good friend Lee this evening. He’s riding the Blue Ridge Parkway, including the Tail of the Dragon, with his buddies. This 11 mile stretch of road is motorcycle heaven for those who love the twisties. It can also be deadly. Lee, however, seems to have survived unscathed, not only one way down the tail, but back and down again. He admits to seeing a few accidents and a Goldwing being hauled away on a flatbed. We chat a few minutes about his vacation and then he’s off to supper with his friends.
I know that every day can’t be filled with excitement and adventure, but I miss the full busy days I used to experience only a short time ago. I believe that there is more for me, and new and exciting opportunities just around the corner. When the time is right, these opportunities will present themselves if I remain alert and have faith. Despite this bit of blue I’m currently under, I still believe this to be true. For now, I will practice patience. I’ve recently been introduced to a new concept in patience I hadn’t been aware of before. I have written about patience as it’s been a life long struggle for me to come to terms with. I shall post my thoughts on that next.

The 95 year old me.

Today if finished reading Marshall Goldsmith’s What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. It was well worth the read. At the very end, on the very last page, Marshall leaves his readers truly thinking about where they are in their professional lives. His words washed over me in a most powerful way, especially in light of the recent lab closing.
Mashall conducted a research project in which 200 high-potential leaders from 120 companies were asked this simple question:
“If you stay in this company, why are you going to stay?” The three top answers were:
1. “I am finding meaning and happiness now. The work is exciting and I love what I am doing.”
2. “”I like the people. They are my friends. This feels like a team. It feels like a family. I could make more money working with other people, but I don’t want to leave the people here.”
3. “I can follow my dreams. This organization is giving me a chance to do what I really want to do in life.”
Marshall encourages us to ask ourselves questions from a view point of a 95 year old “us”. To look back from our old age selves at a life we hope to live. Then follow that dream to the future us.
The question foremost in my mind is why I am looking for another job with the same job description that I have now? Will I just be changing the address of where I work? If I use Marhsall formula above, number one no longer applies under my new circumstances.
In number two, all of my friends have been scattered to the four winds. Would changing address give me the opportunity to build a “new” family? A group of people I will look forward to supporting each day? There are no dreams left to follow as I see it now. Is my vision short sighted? Are there still opportunities here that I haven’t yet tapped? If there are, they are not readily evident. Number three then, is questionable. It is clear that there is no longer a love for my work that I had for several years. It’s time for a change. I want to make a contribution, feel that I am making a difference, using the skills I have to help a company grow. I need to find a company that allows me to follow my dreams. Under those circumstances, my new employer would need me to write. Content possibly?

Joie de Vivre

The phone startles me awake and I grab for the receiver. No one calls this early unless it’s an emergency. It is my youngest daughter. “Did I wake you?” she asks. She is surprised that I’m still in bed at this hour. I have no idea what time it is. I squint at the clock. The clock is only one foot from my head. It has those big huge numbers that astronauts can probably see from space. I have to squint because I’m nearly as blind as a bat. It’s 8:30. Hmm, I usually don’t sleep this late. My daughter wants to know what my plans are for today. It’s hard to think when you are just jolted awake. Oh yes, tech support is supposed to call me in the morning and then I wanted to visit the Verizon Store for a new phone. I tell her about the tech support call. She wants to know if I want company. I always like company. I don’t get very much of it. My siblings think I live on the moon or something and rarely come. If she comes for a visit I will get to play with Aiden. That will be a bonus. I tell her to come on over. “Yeah” she says. She has no idea how wonderful that one word is to her mother.
As I hang up the phone, I can feel that my head is pounding. Why the heck do I have a headache? I was also having a bad dream, so I’m glad she woke me. Andy makes coffee and I sit around drinking coffee and reading e-mail and tinkering with the laptop until 10:00. I finally get dressed. I start to make the bed when I decide it’s time to toss the spread and blanket in the washer again. I wash the spread first and then wash the blanket. As I pull the blanket out of the washer little bits of blanket are falling all over the floor. Darn! The thing has finally given up the ghost. Now I have to get a new blanket. I liked this one so much.
Kyla arrives around 11:30. It’s just Kyla and Aiden because Tim has to work today. Aiden is excited about the big yard. He’s making little gleeful noises and is running here and there. I get the ball out of the house. He takes to that right away and picks it up and tosses it over and over again. Kyla, Andy and I have a time of it just keeping up with him. We have to chase him down to make sure he’s not going over the embankment or getting run over by the teens barreling down the road. His joie de vivre is palatable. Soon his little cherub cheeks are rosy from so much exertion and we carry him in for lunch.
The morning has come and gone and the promised call from tech support has not come. Kyla and I decide to ride into Nashua to check on phones and get a blanket. I want to go to my favorite Verizon store. The owner is from India. He is friendly and gives excellent customer service. I always choose to go there and give him by business whenever I can. I miss the turn at the light and have to go to the next. When we swing back by, the store front is vacant! What happened to Miki! I’m dismayed. Now I may have to drive to south Nashua. I try to avoid that whenever possible. It’s further from home and the traffic is frightful. As I’m lamenting this fact, Kyla suggest we just head to Target for a blanket. Maybe the Verizon guy just moved. I ask Kyla to keep an eye out. Sure enough, as we make the turn for Target I spot the familiar sign in the plaza across the street from Target.
When I added a line to my account less than a month ago, the sales person told me I was eligible for an upgrade. I’ve reviewed the models available and know which one I want. I enter the store, chat a minute about finding them missing, and my moment of panic. Seems there was some sort of mailing. Maybe it’s in the stack of mail at the post office I had held for vacation that I haven’t picked up yet. I tell the clerk my plan to upgrade and activate my current phone for Andy. “Why haven’t I fixed the existing phone?” I’m asked. We talk a few moments about the price of repair. I decide to upgrade. I will save the old phone for “insurance” in case Andy looses this phone. A repair would be $50 which would be cheaper than a new phone. The clerk is looking at my account and I am not eligible, he tells me, until the end of August. I’m confused by this and tell them how I was told only a few weeks ago that I could upgrade. Evidently, each store can offer what they wish and I added the line at Circuit City. I violated my own policy about staying with Miki and this is what I get. The clerk calls Miki into the conversation. He tells me what he can do for me today, but if I wait until the end of August, I will save $70. It’s a no brainer. I guess I will be leaving messages only for Andy since he can hear people, but they can’t hear him.
We finally get to Target and find that they have absolutely no blankets on the shelf! “It’s summer” Kyla says. “People use blankets in the summer!” I insist. We aren’t going to get a blanket here, so we are off to Wal-Mart since it’s on the way home. Wal-Mart has two blankets of the shelf. Geez! I get the better of the two, which isn’t saying much. Kyla points out how inexpensive the blanket is and when fall arrives I can get a blanket I like. That makes sense to me, so I toss the blanket into the basket.
It’s getting late in the day and I’m thirsty and hungry for a snack. We go over to the grocery section and toss a can of almonds into the cart and look for fruit leather for Aiden. We hunt all over to no avail. There is a woman sitting at a table offering samples of the new Pop Tart flavors. We pick one out for Aiden and Memere chooses one for herself too. Aiden seems to enjoy the Pop Tart. The woman is smiling and making small talk with Aiden. As we depart, I prompt Aiden to say thank you to the nice lady. Aiden of course doesn’t have too many words in his vocabulary, but he understands pretty darn well. He looks at the woman, smiles, flashes his dimples and bats his eyes. That’s a pretty fine thank you if I do say so myself! Kyla and I toss a couple of drinks into the basket, check out and head home. Aiden is tuckered out from all the excitement and is fast asleep before we get too far down the road.
Kyla and I move Aiden, intact in his car seat, from my van to Kyla’s car without waking him. We chat a few more moments. She says goodbye to her Dad and she’s off. I speak with Andy and relay the information about the phone and the blanket. It’s now 4:45 and I decide it’s time to call tech support for the laptop again. I get a woman this time and her accent is so thick, that I can’t understand her very well. I ask her to repeat her name a few times, but give up trying to make out what she is saying. We start the process all over again. After 30 minutes she tells me that because my laptop is so new, that there is no record of it in the system. I think that I will be on a bit longer while she enters it in. What she tells me next does not please me. I will have to call back in a few days, after it has been entered. “What day?” I ask. “What?” she says. “What day should I call back? What day of the week?” I reply. “Please call back in one week.” she says. I’m trying to figure out how a few days equals one week. She indicates that when I call back they will arrange for me to send in my laptop for repair. I don’t know why they don’t have places locally where I can drop this thing off. I realize I’m not going to get any further, and say goodbye. Why is it that everything I touch these days, is falling apart, not going well, or delayed? This routine is getting old.