Went to a much needed "Time Management and Delegation" training workshop on Thursday. I'm pretty organized but I really needed some hints on prioritization and delegation (or how NOT to do work). I always feel like I have to do everything but that doesn't work. I keep having the tendency to stay a little later a work everyday. That's going to stop.
During the lunch break of the class I went out and sat in Battery Park (which was freezing and full of seagulls) and then walked around in the "National Museum of the American Indian". I don't know if I saw all of it (it was pretty small compared to the size of the building) but it was very nice. And free.
And then yesterday I came into work (it was my day off) to give blood. Woohoo! Never did it before. Piece of cake. Actually it was just cookies that they gave me but I could eat as many as I wanted so that was pretty good. In addition to the cookies (and juice), they gave me three hours of vacation time, tickets to the Bronx Zoo, and I got to show my daughter, who has been having trouble getting shots at the doctor, how easy it is. Damn that needle was big!
It's funny. Today has been pretty hectic but a couple things have made me pretty proud. Someone told me that they wish I was their supervisor. That's always good to hear. And I had several customers approach me almost solely to tell me they appreciate my help (on earlier occations) and to tell me how great a job I do. Then , out of the blue, without warning and without any obvious cause, one lady tells me smilingly that I need to work on my customer service skills. She's in marketing and "that's what THEY are doing now". I was polite. I was on the phone when she approached the desk but obviously tried to get to her to help as soon as I could, but no. I need to work on my customer services skills. I guess I'll need to talk to my doctor about getting an extra head and a few extra arms.
A timid young girl is taken out of a life of urban commoners and poverty to be raised by her wealth aunt and uncle in the country. She grows up to be a wise, respectable, reasonable, but still docile woman (perfect for the period but much too overlooked and passive by our standards) and lives happily ever after... after some rather historically traumatic experiences. It took me a while to read this in the dribs and drabs I had the time to do so but I kept coming back. A mostly entertaining story, I was mostly intrigued by the fact that the two main characters (Fanny and Edmund) would have been considered ideal specimens of humanity (at least socially) then, but would be considered extremely conservative, polite to a fault, and still very sexist now. How times change... It also fascinated me to think of the immensity of the distances crossed (that are nothing to us now).
It was very convenient that I was well into reading this when PBS' Regency House was aired, so that I was well prepared for my wife's at-the-time favourite show.
Yesterday, I took my daughter to the park. There's still a bunch of snow on the ground but it was pretty nice out otherwise and she loves the snow. When we got there, we were the only ones in the park but gradually more and more people came with their children and it was pretty crowded after a while. My daughter doesn't get to play with other kids very often so this was really good for her. I'm always fascinated by children's interactions with each other. It's so easy for some of them to make instant friends (as it is for my daughter) but then others are either afraid (which sometimes disappears in seconds) or are simply against playing with someone new.
And although sometimes she's a little monster at home, I'm always proud that she's so nice and polite and considerate when dealing with other children.
A few days ago, I was on the train going to work and I saw this woman sit down SIT DOWN! in the aisle. The (very small) conformist in me initially balked at this situation, thinking "what is wrong with this woman?" but I immediately took back this thought and realized how impressive that is. It was a crowded train, there was no free seat, it's sorta a long trip, and she was probably tired. Bravo, I say. Bravo.
Or there was something wrong with her and she just didn't think that people don't normally do that. Whatever.
Watched a documentary last night about a bizarre, untalented and often naked theatre group in San Fransisco in the 1970s called the Cockettes. Not exactly what I would have chosen as entertainment (although I like bizarre things) but the film about them was kinda fun.
One of the most interesting parts of the show was how they had been invited to New York one time and depite their incredible and undeniable success in Frisco, they totally flopped in NYC. Or rather people didn't like them. That certainly fits in with my experience with NYC. Although they claim a high level of tolerance and appreciation of the arts, sometimes people here just don't let themselves enjoy life. But I guess that can be true everywhere.
Moral of this entry : Have fun and let other people have fun too.
