Waiting For That Rocket

I love gadgets. Anyone who knows me can probably attest to that. I love cell phones and smart phones and computers and cameras and whatnot. I can’t tell you much about how things work, I can’t give you the tech specs on what has what and how much of it. But trust I can tell a newcomer how to send an email or personalize their phone.

Since I graduated from college I have had a series of smartphones. My initial foray was a Palm Treo 650 (Palm OS), and damn if I didn’t love that thing. TV and I used to duel with them all the time. From there I got a Blackberry Curve 8310 and it was love at first email. Oh my word. The keyboard, the functionality, the petite-ness. Just. Splendid. However, being a gadget geek. I had to try out the holiest of holies. The iPhone. And test it out I did. I bought a refurbished 8gb 3G a couple weeks ago and since then have been giving it a test run. The phone is….meh. There are some things that I love – Phase10. Spite&Malice. MLBatBat. The full integration of MobileMe (yes, I like MobileMe).

However, there are some things that kill me. For one: call me lazy, but the amount of work that has to be done to get the cursor where you want it to be just so you can make a single letter lower-case is a pain in the rear. The inability to take a quick glance for spell check is tres annoying. However, for me, the lack of menus is my biggest pet peeve. I have never appreciated the BB button more than when trying to figure out spell check or copy/paste or options on the iPhone.

I understand that there are going to be some things that I’m going to be giving up going back to BB (no-need-for-a-trackball, good camera, and 3G chief among them). However, I like RIM software and hardware better than the iPhone.  Take away my Apple Fan-Card. But it’s just the way it is.

editors note: I am fully aware I do not *have* to sacrifice no-trackball or 3G in going back to BB. Alas, finances dictate that the Bold is out of my reach for now…someday, though. Someday…

For the past two weeks I have been working at the new gig. There have been many adjustments needed to be made – schedule, tasks, product, coworkers…I may or may not have been making this transition less than gracefully. Or so I found out this morning.

Turns out my struggles to regulate my schedule and reconcile my new role with the old has been very evident to my new leader – try as I might to hide it from her.

Well, I guess we all realize what I need to do…take an acting class! No, in all seriousness I need to get my act together if I want to make a career of it. No more excuses. I just have to bear down and fake it til I make it..

Hopefully this ends up being even a fraction as easy as it sounds..I’ll let you know as things develop…

I started this post three days ago. Three. Days.

I was going to write something incredibly different. The weight of my “potential” – the “potential” I’d been hearing about since the first grade – was weighing down on me. There are so many directions that a bright, engaging, young adult can go in that I was losing my head a little. That’s what I was going to write.

Today I still feel the weight of my potential, but it has eased up considerably. In the time from when I first started this post and today, I was offered a full time job for a company that I am extremely passionate about. A company that, at the tender age of 25, I can see myself retiring from thirty (okay, more like forty) years down the road. Granted, this job shall not be the most glamorous, nor the most lucrative, and it (hopefully) isn’t the last stop I make, but it is a HUGE first step and that is as invigorating as any cup of coffee or brisk swim could hope to be.

I had planned to write an introspective post analyzing the pros and cons of potential. Instead, consider this my virtual sigh of relief. I hope to return to the normal turn of events soon. But for now? I’m taking this awesome feeling to the bank so I can remember it for always :)

I hadn’t realized how long it had been since I had written a new post. Sorry for those of you who actually read what I write!!

A couple retail related notes/tips for those of you who shop out there.

1. When your cashier asks you how you are? Chances are good the cashier doesn’t actually care, so please do not take the opportunity to expound on kidney cleanses, your dog’s mange, or your latest trip to the OB/GYN. Guess what. We don’t care.

2. If you have to count to see if you are under the 10-item limit for an express line, keep on walking because chances are good you aren’t.

3. If you are using cash, please wait for, and HAND IT, to the cashier. No shoving, gesticulating, waving or throwing of the money should have to be tolerated.

4. We get it, every card swiper-reader-station-thinger is different. Get over it.

5a. ((WF specific)) We’re all pretty intelligent people. I promise we won’t put your Rice Dream Ice Cream in with the hot Rotisserie chicken. We get that hot > cold.

5b. I also promise that we won’t put the eggs, bread or grapes on the bottom of the bag. We get that gallon of orange juice > loaf of bread.

5c. 5a/5b are null and void if the bagger/cashier is under the age of 20.

6. ((Again, WF specific)) Yes, it’s expensive and yes it adds up fast. You found that out the last twenty times you came in here, and you knew it was still going to be true today. Get over it or go somewhere else.

7. Just because it says organic doesn’t automatically make it healthy for you. It may be made of the most natural ingredients in the world, but a Newman’s Double Stuff Oreo is still a Double Stuff Oreo (see also: pizza, ice cream, candy, and chips).

8. There are questions we have to ask. Whether it’s if you want to sign up for the credit card, phone number, license, whatever, we have to ask it. It’s part of our job description. Our bosses get pissy if we don’t. As such, have a little patience when subjected to the litany of benefits the loyalty card can get you. Also, don’t act shocked when the subject comes up in the first place. Welcome to the 21st Century economy…

9. Damnit, we’re people too. This is our job. We may not be a marketing director, outside sales rep, or CEO of a major corporation, but this is what we’re getting paid to do. Envision us coming to your office and asking you to throw away our trash, throwing our payment at you in return for your services, or leaving our unwanted junk all over your cubicle. Not pleasant, is it?

It’s been a long couple weeks for me. All sorts of ups and downs and all arounds. I apologize if my rant has upset any one, but these are all the things I think over the course of the day that I can’t actually say at work. Thank you for allowing me a venue to vent :)

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I forget how grounding a favorite place can be. It should come to as no shock to anyone that Bard Coffee has become my home away from home. Since it opened, I would say that I’ve averaged about an hour a day (at least) sitting, drinking coffee, and holding court for folks that stop in to visit. That is, up until this week. 

For whatever reasons, probably mostly because I’ve needed some serious sleep, my time spent at Bard has been minimal this week. Mostly a grab and go before work, with me missing one day completely. I had either forgotten, or hadn’t even realized, how good this place is for my psyche. Everything about it, but especially the people, feels like home every time I come in. 

Tip of the day: When you find a place that is yours, make sure you hit it up as often as humanly possible. If you do, it can make your day. If you don’t, you probably won’t notice until you go back, but you will definitely notice.

Today I’m having coffee with two friends from high school. Nothing like catching up with friends after several years of sporadic communication to make you think about the choices that you’ve made in your life. I had a conversation about that with my mom last night, about the choices that have gotten me where I am today. It’s tough to make the call. There are many things that I’ve done in my life that I regret. I wish that I had spent more time on my academics – from grade school on through college. I wish that I had tried more things. I wish that I had stuck with music more. I wish that I had been more dedicated to sports. I wish I had worked harder on the campaign. These are just the tip of the iceberg. Yet. For all these regrets, I’m not convinced that I would go back and change anything. The pratfalls along the way have all led to where I am today (at an awesome coffee shop, writing next to one of my best friends) and given me the people that I have in my life. I can’t say whether I would be a better or more successful person if I had spent time on the things that I should have growing up, but I know that my life wouldn’t be as rich as it is today without AM, ER, DB, EL, KH, et al. in my life. And these people would not be here without the mistakes and miscues that have occurred along the way. So. In the long run, do I wish that I had a “real” job? Do I wish that I had more money coming in? Do I wish that my living situation were different? Yes, absolutely. But if these things were different, I wouldn’t have these people in my life and they’re something I wouldn’t trade for the world.

Originally I hadn’t intended this post to be a Memorial Day post. I’ve been starting and stopping this post for the past week, trying to figure out the best way to write it. I’ve decided to jump in, feet first. 

On a day projected to be in the 70s, blue sky and puffy white clouds for as far as the eye can see, and a day off for the majority of Americans, today presents the perfect time to remember the reason for Memorial Day. There are close to 25 million veterans in America today. All have made sacrifices to ensure that we can sit outside and barbecue on days like today. We need to take the opportunity to thank them, whether they be young or old, and remember – as politically charged as this phrase is – freedom isn’t free and we need to thank those who continue to ensure it day in and day out. 

So thanks Dad, Granddad, and Uncle Dean. Casey D., Mike N., and all the others who have spent time in the service or who are still serving. You are all people that I can be proud of having touched my life in some way over the past 25 years and, hopefully, for many years going forward.