Minneapolis: more than I hoped for...

Dear Minneapolis,

In the past two months I have been lucky enough to have taken three trips to Minneapolis. If you read sarcasm in that last sentence you would have been reading well between the lines. Minneapolis is probably a very nice place in the summer, in fact most people that live here, swear that it's great in the summer. I, unluckily enough for me, have been here just during the winter. And it doesn't look like a summer time trip is anywhere on my horizon. All of that said, I was very pleasantly surprised at Minneapolis, even in the dead of winter, and here are a few reasons why:

Transportation: Between the Skyways and the light rail that gets me from the airport all the way downtown in less than an hour from my flight landing- all of it is awesome! Nevermind the fact that, light rail tickets are like $2. And the skyways, don't get me started! They are GREAT! I can walk for blocks in this city without ever going outside. I was here for 4 days earlier this month and I went outside twice. And the skyways still give you access to everything. I even saw an entrance to a Catholic Church, ironically, I was on the phone with mom at the time.

ATM's: I know this is ridiculous to get excited about, but ATM's here give you the option of getting cash back in odd increments. For example, in Boston, I have to get either $20,$40, $60, etc out of the ATM, but in Minneapolis I can get $30, $50, $70 out of the ATM. I love having $10 bills, they make tipping, taxi rides and general food ordering so much easier.

Weather: So, I was in Minneapolis during the coldest week of the winter. It was -14 degrees one morning. I was told by native Minneapolins that is was "too cold to snow." And that this is an actual phenomena. I later learned it wasn't, but I have to admire their positive outlook, even when it's 14 below.

People: The best thing about Minneapolis is the people. I am lucky enough to have two good friends that just moved here in August, Keith & Renee. I know no one else is crazy enough to come visit in the dead of winter, so I have had them all to myself for dinners, drinks, etc. And they will agree when I say that people in Minneapolis, friends or not, are just nice. My waiters, my hotel staff, people you see in the skyways actually smile at strangers. It's such a change from the "head down don't bother me" attitude in Boston.

In closing, I want to say thanks to Minneapolis for surprising me, in the dead of winter. Until next time...

hugs, TR

A Great Boss is a Hard Find

I have had 7 jobs since 2001. I have had about 10 bosses in that time. There are studies that have been done that say that in many cases, a great boss makes more a difference in job satisfaction than a great salary. In my current role I have one of those bosses. She expertly crafted a team of individual contributors that successfully work together to build a marketing machine that adds revenue to the bottom line.

She not only put us together but trusted us to do the right thing. And because we are all highly driven individuals who didn't want to disappoint our boss, we did the right thing. We made mistakes, but when we did we were given room to figure out what we did and figure out a way to make sure it never happened again.

Building and managing a team can be somewhat of a tight rope balancing act. Giving enough to empower but asking enough back to keep track of everything. It's not an easy role and in all the bosses that I have had, I can't think of someone better than Carol. Thank you.

One more birthday down

I love social networks. I am the geek who signed up for a facebook account in like 2006, I have a twitter account, I clearly blog. But I love the way these networks let you connect. I love that I just found my neighbor who I have met 2-3 times at another neighbors house, but now, guess what? We're friends. I love that people from all parts of you life, can find you and say, wish you a happy birthday.

Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. It's still making me smile. To all my friends who sent lovely presents, to my work friends, who brought me a gigantic cookie that is 1/2 eaten at my desk. No matter where life takes us, we will stay in touch, not because we have each others addresses, but because we're friends on facebook and that's almost more fun!

On another note, it's pretty cool to have a husband on your birthday. He not only got me my favorite gadget (iPhone4) but a headlamp and a super warm new hoodie for some upcoming hiking we'll be doing. And of course, flowers. Terrible for the environment, but beautiful. I love you!

I am going to spend the day after my birthday remembering my wedding day, b/c the photographers just posted some of their favorites on their blog: http://tullisphoto.com/blog/2010/09/19/thereasa-shane/

Think about someone other than you for a bit.

I went to a free showing of the documentary 180 South at the local Patagonia store. You can read more about what I thought of the movie over at my other blog. I will keep it short here, but it made an impact. And while I walked away more impacted by the message of the movie I still remember my heightened uneasiness with the people outside the store who bunched together attempting to get in and get a seat before the show.

Let me paint you a picture. Busy Newbury street in Boston, the end closer to Mass Ave. Doors of the Patagonia store closed, with a sign that says "closed while we prepare for the movie showing, will re-open at 7:30pm." When we arrive just a bit before 7pm there were probably 4 other couples milling around the door, not forming a line, but clearly just standing around looking at the door. As we got closer and closer to 7:30pm more and more people arrived, crowding everyone more and more. And finally when the door opened at 7:30pm to have a woman from Patagonia apologize that they were running late and quickly close the door again, the crowd surged together, stepping on toes, crushing their bodies and bags into humans that they would not normally even smile at if they were passing on an empty sidewalk on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. And yet now we were all left there, crammed together forced in this new uncomfortable closeness, when the woman next to me takes out a brush for her hair, and proceeds to brush her hair onto me. I picked some of her hair off my shirt later. Don't worry I let her jam in front of me when the doors did open, even though I had arrived at least 10 minutes before she did because I just didn't want to deal with it.

I am forced to believe she just isn't aware, which is probably the most frustrating part. It's these little ways we treat each other and the earth that are breaking all of us, slowly, we aren't aware of other people, other situations, or of the earth and what we are doing to it.

It's time to think about more than just yourself, and your family. Think about the other drivers- quit texting while driving, think about people around you when you decide to make a dead stop in the middle of the grocery store aisle allowing your cart to block anyone from getting by. Think about what throwing out that plastic bottle does to the earth. Or what tossing that cigarette butt on the sidewalk does to that new puppy who eats EVERYTHING while on his walk.

Please, just start to think.

Again with the name thing

I wrote a while back about my name and how I love its uniqueness. Now that I am married people have started to ask when I will be changing my name. Let's just say, I am in no hurry. I have an airline ticket 5 months from now, with my new name on it, but I am not going to do any of this quickly, mostly because:

1. It exposes me to the underbelly of government bureaucracy (aka: the RMV and Social Security office)
2. I don't have time to get batteries replaced in my three dead wrist watches, what makes you think I have time to spend at any of these lovely government facilities, and
3. I have had my current name for over 30 years. To change overnight seems a bit unfair to a lot of hard work over those 30 years to build a reputation tied to a brand that is me, and I have/had a name...

To my wonderful husband, do not fret, it will happen. And I really appreciate you not being part of the peanut gallery reminding me to change my voicemail, email address, facebook name, twitter ID, the list goes on...

Getting used to this Wife thing

This weekend we ran our 3rd Beach to Beacon 10k. This beautiful 10k takes place in Cape Elizabeth, the same town that we were engaged, and we got up almost as early this Saturday morning as we did that fateful day in February. Luckily, the weather is better in August than it is in February. ;-)

At the race we ran into some friends that live in Portland and I was introduced as a wife for maybe the 3rd time in my life. It still makes me smile and kinda giggle to get used to it. It still shocks Shane I think too. I hope that years from now it still makes me smile.

P.S. We ran about 2 minutes slower than last year, but that's to be expected since we started training on Monday with a 2 mile run...

Something About the Gray

Driving into the office today I had the sudden urge to just keep going West. I get this feeling randomly, but I think I may have just nailed down exactly why and when it comes on. There is something about the clouds in varying shades of gray that remind me of Oregon and makes me ache for home. I would never trade a New England Fall or Spring for that matter, but the gray clouds will always remind me of Oregon and make me miss home.