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.

The most beautiful thing

This morning, as I was walking to my car, I saw the beginning of daffodils... just the leaves out of the ground, but between that and the warm weather, it is probably one of the most beautiful things I have seen in a while. I am excited to see the city as it comes to life this spring, including the beginning of street cleaning! Happy early spring!

I Thought We Were Supposed to Support our Neighbors

I was driving home last night and listening to my local NPR station give a report on the Catholic Charities of Washington DC, who have suspended all spousal benefits because Washington DC just approved gay marriage. And as we all know, according to the Catholic Church, being Gay is wrong.

I guess in this case, it also means that you don't deserve equal rights. I wasn't alive in the 60's when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marched on Washington DC and gave his amazing "I Have a Dream" speech, but I would equate this blatant inequality as the same thing.

Being raised Catholic, it became clear to me when I was about 13 that I would never be able to commit to an organized religion that didn't do two things: 1. Treat people equally (women and men, gay people and straight people) 2. Respect my right as a human to make choices that they may not agree with, but instead of condemning me, respect that I have made the choices I made for a reason and that I am not inherently evil.

I am continually discouraged by the Catholic Church and its inability to see the forest through the trees. What did Jesus teach? He certainly didn't teach turning your back on someone because they were an outcast.

The Catholic Church will soon find themselves an outcast, and I wonder if they will find solace in the arms of the people they have oppressed because those people know what it is like and instead chose to follow the real word of God and love thy neighbors as they themselves would like to be loved.