Green Moves

I should have known better than to follow him into the elevator.

I should have said something when I saw him hit the button for the 18th floor.

Instead I stood there silently next to my daughter as we moved up, up, up.  The doors opened.  We stepped out to a neatly groomed, well lit hallway.  He chatted with us as he led us down the hall, leaned in past my too low cut shirt (thrown hastily on as I realized we had warm weather today) and slipped his key into the door.

He swung the door open and ushered us forward.  We stopped, momentarily blinded by the sun, and then bit back tiny little gasps.

There, in front of us, sprawled out in all of its patriotic glory was Washington DC with the Washington Monument standing there like the centerpoint in a compass.   As we stood there, blink blink blink in the sun and beauty, I quickly imagined a small group party on the 4th of July and realized at that moment we had the potential to be the very cool friends in our circle.  THE place to be on Independence Day.  

All for a the small monthly price of $3100 a month, excluding amentities.  For an apartment measuring less than 1100 square feet.

We are already thinking hard about how we can streamline. Wondering if we can make our carbon footprint a little smaller without having to expend much energy.  Looking at the book shelves that bring us comfort (and take up valuable square footage) and wondering if we move them to the low voltage e-readers we now carry whether that is the "greener" solution.  

We are picturing a network upgrade to a nicely secured Wireless-N solution with this little beauty hanging on the walls in each room.  I have a nephew dearly in need of a new PC desktop unit and I have a spare to offer him if we take it off the wall I have it hanging on as a glorified picture frame.  

A couple of terabytes of storage space stored in the den or work area of our new place will allow us, we think, to make efficient use of limited space.  Leaving enough foot space to enjoy RB 2 and stash the drums will be a challenge.  But we think we can do it.

And so we are wondering how to afford the luxuries, how to streamline our world but still have everything we love a touch away, and how, maybe, to actually recycle.  Live Green. Live Lean.  Live Full.

One thing is for sure, we are packing.  And we will be packing every weekend for the next several weekends.  Even if we don't know where we are going.

I hope it has a view.

NL

Generations

I am pretty sure that everyone in my family believes that this country is going to hell in a handbasket.

They might be right.

But this past Friday I had two separate conversations that included 3 women who are about 28 years old each and in both conversations I had to tell them to "knock it off."  

Two of them had been up until 1 am in the morning taking care of getting some deliverables to the client...deliverables they wouldn't have to be pushing through had the late 30's early 40's woman who makes significantly more money than they do done it right in the first place.

One of them slipped into my office to apologize for the trouble she caused when she let one of our internal clients know she was taking on some additional work and this woman - a 45 year old woman who is an EXECUTIVE COACH - pitched a serious fit.  KZ's mistake was simple...she's very good and everyone wants her help.

Meanwhile I'm ushering a non-productive (read: lazy) mid-30's man out of the practice because, quite frankly, his work is nowhere near the quality of anyone else AND I'm having conversations with a woman in her 50's who does good work but not good enough for the rather significant salary she currently makes.  (I did not give her that salary...I simply inherited it.)

And so, as I pondered my family's misgivings as we headed home after a wonderful day of Easter eating, the faces of these three extraordinary young women popped into my head.

Followed closely by the two college hires on the team, and two of their colleagues who joined us just a few years prior.  

What it boils down to is that I've got a great team but the best performers,  hands down, are "millenials" - and so, if we want to make sure this country DOESN'T go to hell in a handbasket then people like me need to do our absolute best to raise them up right in the workplace.

And get rid of the bad examples we don't want them learning from.

Meanwhile, here's a shout out to Lara from "The Spectrum" - another young woman who's blog endlessly entertains me and proves that yes, these "youngsters" are quite capable of writing a grammatically correct sentence.  

And to my fellow X'ers (and Boomers - I'm a "cusper") let me warn you now - get up off your lazy whiney asses and get to work.  Because these "kids" are better than you are.

For the moment.

NL

Sunshine & Edits

There is something about springtime in Washington DC that fills the entire world with hope.  Or at least the part of the world that has a chance to be in DC and is willing to give hope a chance.

Winter in Washington is never fun for more than 2 or 3 weeks.  Usually we have just that to get the various Christmas trees up and lit and the Nutcracker  sold out in its annual performances before the gray begins to get to us.  

This weekend is the Cherry Blossom Festival.  The trees are decked out, the sun is shining, and we are sneezing.  But still we are called to drive around top down. 

You can safely drive around top down in this area for exactly 7 weeks out of the entire 52.  They aren't all fit together.  Some happen in Spring - when it isn't raining, some happen in the summer - when it isn't so sweltering hot that you want nothing more to peel off everything you have on and run screaming naked through the streets, and then there are those glorious moments in the autumn when it is sunny, crisp and cool but not so cool that you can't throw on a jacket and challenge the air.

Of course, it was such long weekend in October that brought on the worst sick I've had in a couple of years...but who wants to remember these things?

So yesterday the sun graced us and the wind was not so bad that it could compete with the wind of top down driving.  We took the new car out for a spin.  First to Manassas to pick up Beau from the vet.  He was supposed to return to us newly suitable for continued apartment living but alas, still he fights some sort of infection from his barn living tribulations.  So we will take him back in a few weeks to try again.

Then we headed down for a quick visit with my family.  A stop into my sister's place revealed that she shares my opinion of laundry and is beyond grateful for my mother's help in this.  My mother watches my niece and nephew during the week so that my sister and brother-in-law are able to work.  For this she is paid a modest sum and everyone rests easier knowing the children are well cared for.

A pop over to my parents house meant that we visited briefly, my father handed me a book he'd bought a case of and thought I should read and then share with the most liberal friend that I have.  I thanked him, told him I'd read it but that I'd not be sharing this book with my friend and if he wanted her to read it he could enter that territory on his own.  

A stop back up to the end of the driveway took us over to my other sister's house where my brother is staying while she and her family are in England.  It was an unexpected visit but my brother is an unexpected man so I was reasonably sure we'd be welcomed...and we were.  As we walked into the house we saw immediately that he had been hard at work fixing what needs to be fixed given the previous tenants (the family who rented it from my sister first) and some then current but now unfortunate decorating decisions made by my sister several years back.  

My brother and I talked politics, about the government, and our feelings about the general state of the country at the moment.  Then I told him that he was a good man for taking care of our sister in this way.  He wants to give back to the family that I'm not sure has treated him fairly in his life.  I could see a moment of pain pass over his face and then he was resolute again.  He would do this for our sister.  Even as I remember that momentary expression I feel a surge of anger pass over me.  For this she'd better not be charging him rent.  Knowing him, he'd pay it and still give up what he had to do this kind thing for her.

A final visit to my pregnant with identical twin boys sister-in-law and my pixie'ish neice rounded out our evening and our visit home.  We caught them just as my SIL was try to wrestle her daughter into bed.  My niece will be three in June and if she keeps going the way she's going my brother is going to have to re-think his views on gun ownership.  Of the entire family, it may be this brother and his wife with whom we feel the most kinship, if for no other reason than there is a fair bit of wanderlust in the both of us.  My sister-in-law is an artist and in her home you see bits and pieces of whimsy developing.  I can't wait to see what they've come up with when the remodeling is finished.

Over the past few days I've been struggling with whether to go back and edit the various typos that appear in my blogs.  I write "stream of thought" and quickly - and the end result is sometimes imperfect but always me.  

Sort of like my family.

So I'm not going to edit my previous posts.  Because even though they are imperfect, they are fine just the way they are...and just like my family.  

NL

Multi-Tasking

I've taken to drinking VAST quantities of SlimFast. Not for the "slim" part - as evidenced by the fact I drink it with whole milk - but for the "fast" part, because it is literally a way of shoving nutrients down my throat while I continue to work or go to meetings (which aren't always one and the same.) Having to stop to eat seems like such a waste of precious time when there are things I'd much rather be doing...like working...which I actually enjoy.

This weekend I brought work home with me. Due to timing and promises I'm writing like the wind in order to get the proposal tossed back into the client's hands record time.

But we'd originally set the weekend aside to go car shopping. Could we do both?

We did. So as of 3 pm this afternoon one 40+ page proposal written and sent off for input & edit, 8 cars looked at, 5 cars test driven, and one car purchased.

The sun came out. The new car, a convertible, was just itching for a run topless and, since it was raining when we test drove it off the showroom floor, it was first introduction for us as well. We felt like Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. I couldn't get my scarf on for all the blowing wind. My daughter announced it was okay but she still hates convertibles and I am left wondering "how can she be MY daughter?"

The sun ducked away and the temperatures plummeted. We stopped at Starbucks for hot coffee, bought the car it's first CD, put the top up, and headed home.

On the way home we dodged a man driving what I think was a Nissan Sentra - green - and I got a good look at him as he raced along his lane and tried to be exactly where we were...in OUR lane.

And there he was, driving too fast and typing on his blackberry.

Multi-tasking.

There was a moment on Friday when I was in a meeting with a member of my team and a client (who was on the phone) and at the same time I was running staffing numbers - unrelated to the conversation. There have been so many times in the past few months when I have stretched the very limits of my innate ability to multi-task and usually, like a good run, I'm tired but I feel good about it.

I wonder if the man who very nearly ran a family of three (and their new car) off the road also feels good about his ability to multi-task.

My friend Connie posted the following link about a police officer who had an accident while texting. It made me go hmmmmm.....

So like Ecc. 3:1 there really is a time and a place for everything - even multi-tasking. I'm going to pray every day that I never lose sight of that.

Well, and that the man who was texting while driving doesn't hurt anyone but himself.

And maybe, if I find time to do this, I'll start publishing the license plates of people who do truly stupid stuff like that.

NL

.72 on the 1.00

It seems that lately all I do is whine, whine, whine about how busy I've been.

I don't know why, when someone asks how I've been, I feel compelled to tell them that I am busy. It isn't really something I need to explain given the fact that most of these same people have noticed I'm not emailing back right away, my blog has been neglected for nearly a month, a week goes by between Facebook log-ins, and the best place to reach me between the hours of 8:30 am and 8:00 pm are at my office phone.

I also don't know why I'm whining. The fact is that I'm busy because I love my job and the work that I do and, for the most part, the people that I work with. I'm busy because I choose to be.

That doesn't mean that I haven't had my issues to deal with. A week ago today I got an email which I read, yes on a Sunday, from a colleague who was taking the opportunity to lambast me for not being "a team player." For having an expertise that apparently he doesn't have and he needs in order to win some work and build his practice.

I got mad. But I got mad because I was feeling a little bit guilty because I knew he wanted us to do this and I just DID NOT HAVE TIME to help. I held my tongue.

Then on Monday morning it hit me...how does a Sr. Consultant in Emergency Management NOT have this expertise? In short, knowledge in the area which I had, but apparently he did not, is much like someone who is an expert in Literature being expected to be familiar with Shakespeare. Frankly, it's a given. You have it because you just DO.

On Tuesday I was in a meeting with him and another colleague - a man I find pleasant but not particularly innovative or capable - and I was fighting like mad to get mid-year boosts for 3 folks on my team who have earned it. As a list of all three of our staffs sat in front of us, there - not hidden from view - were our salaries as well.

I know these men make more than I do and usually I'm okay with it. In an economy like this, I like the protection of having high value for dollar. But with recent changes my team is nearly twice the size of both of their's combined and pulls nearly twice as much revenue as well.

And the man who'd decided to rip me a new one on Sunday, it turns out, makes $32K more a year than I do.

Which hit home when my sister, who got a raise this week, told me today that she's trying to make the company take it back because she doesn't want to be priced out of the market. She thinks she's not worth it. And as I lectured her I realized that somehow - maybe because we are women - we are actually "ok" with making less money than our male counterparts. Even when they don't work nearly as hard as we do or contribute nearly as much.

So here's the truth - we shouldn't be making 28 cents per dollar less than our male counterparts. But maybe it isn't that we're underpaying women. Maybe, as is clearly the case of both of these colleagues of mine, we are overpaying some of these men.

Right now it's okay because I am very busy...out performing them 4 to 1. And I like being just that much better than them - because I am a woman and I am ROARING. :)

But maybe something to think about longer term...so that my daughter inherits a better workplace for women than I did.


NL