TMI Tuesday: Baby Needs Space

Yes, the Swingline stapler went with him.

Not really a TMI post but it is still about the baby so here you go…

As the days and weeks have passed, our son keeps getting bigger and bigger. This seems to be happening way too fast (we were warned that this would happen). While he has yet to reach the 3 month mark he has already grown out of most cloths that bear that same marking and is now well into the 3-6 month items that fill his dresser.

While he is a bit chunky like his daddy, much of this outgrowth is because of his length. Because of this the swaddles that he once seemed to swim in are now too short to accommodate his outstretched legs and the bassinet that has remained beside our bed can barely contain him. His rapid growth forced us to make the switch over the weekend finally moving him out of our bedroom and into his crib in his own room.

So far he seems to like the privacy and I can’t say I blame him. While he can still hear much of what is going on in the house, he no longer has to hear the snores echoing off the walls (although this amazingly didn’t seem to bother him before). He has his own space in his own room… it really is amazing how fast things seem to be changing.

We have watched him slowly take over more and more of the bassinet over the last couple of months and now that he is in his crib it seems as though we have hit the reset button. It is a large crib and our growing boy seems lost in there. Thankfully, the transition was harder on my wife than our son as he is enjoying the extra room and the slightly softer sleeping surface. I guess we will now get to watch him slowly take over and outgrow his new bed.

I must admit that I do miss hearing him sleep on the other side of the room. I enjoyed the brief time when I could just lay in bed and listen for his muffled snores (and sometimes little farts). It was nice knowing that he was right there. Although it is much easier for me when I come to bed as I don’t have to worry as much about waking him up. He is already growing so fast and now he has his own bedroom and his own crib (where he takes advantage of the extra space by spreading out when he is not swaddled) with his mommy still watching him on the monitor from her side of the bed. Some things just aren’t going to change.  

No More Energy At the End of the Day

Lately our weekends have been full of check lists, errands, and generally trying to get caught up on all the things that have been pushed back during the week. This translates to Monday morning not being the easiest day to roll out of bed. Today that was particularly true as I was laying there a little longer than usual not looking forward to the day that was spread out before me.

This weekend was so full of activity from lodge and office work to gift registries and simply getting caught up on my email that the list of things that had to get done first thing this week kept growing from the time I walked out of the office on Friday evening. I know that the weekends aren’t always like this and lately they have been a bit crazier than usual but, right now, the beginning of the work week is something that brings a sense of dread to my tired mind as I close my eyes on Sunday night. Right now we push and soon things we even out. That has always been the case it just might take a little longer this time around.

So, right now I am sitting at my desk stealing a mere ten minutes from my chaotic day to write this brief blog. Following a morning commute that took twice as long as it should, I got to the office a little later than expected so I had no other choice than to put my head down and work until my eyes became too heavy to continue. After a quick break, usually to take a call or replenish my coffee, I continued the push to try and pull together all of the final points on projects that have been slowly developing. Now I am taking a few moments to write and relax before returning to the deluge of communications.

Of course, following my unusually full day at the office, there is a networking event which, fortunately, is located half way between the office and the apartment. These are the beginnings of the week that seem to run on for hours long past the time when I usually close up the computer and head home for the day. This week, this is the first of three such nights. That is the current schedule but, as has been the case lately, things could easily change between now and the end of the week because, right now, my energy is low, the nights are falling to fast, and the day is nothing but a brief glimmer during the waking hours.

Invasion Of The Large Sticky Notes

We all have memories, at least those of us over a certain age, of the blackboard being filled with what at the time seemed like an endless list of information. While it was nothing more than routine at the time, in hindsight it was actually a great tool to make sure that everyone was on the same page and, for me, it kept my wandering mind on task. While I see this as my mind being occupied by an overflow of thoughts, today it would most likely be seen as ADD which, to use a technical term, is crap.

Moving on in my academic life, the chalk quickly stepped aside and the grease board became a more prevalent wall decoration. I recently found out that I am older than I thought as the term ‘grease board’ is no longer used. Even after my undergraduate years, the white board was something that I tried to utilize for the same benefit that I got out of the chalk board in my youth. There is something about writing down a task, monitoring progress, and finally crossing it off that is oddly satisfying in a way that I have not been able to achieve through digital means.

Now, I find myself taking a step back as the back wall of my office is constantly covered with large sticky notes. For those of you unfamiliar or just can’t picture the process, these bloated sheets of paper are a cross between a Post-It note and wall paper. There seems to be a temporary state of permanence with these scribbling broad sides that force me to make progress on the variety of projects that I have going on at any given time. Working on multiple accounts and numerous projects, this is an essential process in place that keeps my mind from focusing on one task too long or straying off and concentrating on a non-priority.

So now, between the random pieces of paper pinned above my desk and the large swaths of note paper stuck to the wall behind me, my office is resembling a chaotic collection of thoughts and tasks that may be foreign to some but I have found is quite common for those in my line of work. It’s basically like a sane version of “A Beautiful Mind” with a less socially awkward cast of characters. Of course, we all have our days when reality takes a back seat to whatever scenario we find ourselves in or requests that we receive from clients. I guess you could say that the most insane part of this job and the way my office looks is the volume of work that it represents.

Lack Of Communication

No matter how much you plan there are some days when the phone is just not your friend. Not only for what does and doesn’t happen over the phone but because of what happens while you are on the phone. Being connected to three phone lines during the work day, there are moments when I am working on something just waiting for one of them to ring like a communications form of Russian roulette.

It all began in the morning when my cell phone decided not to ring and sent someone directly to voice mail. Understand that I always answer my phone and when this happens it is highly annoying at the least and, when it is a call I am waiting for or generally a call I should take, it bugs the crap out of me. That was just the beginning. When the phone chimed to let me know I had a message (about ten minutes later) I picked up my office line and tried to return the call… voicemail. It would have been nice to have answered the phone as I was unable to get a hold of the publication for the rest of the day.

As the no ring scenario was playing out, I was also sending meeting requests and trying to fit all the pieced together to get another call scheduled for the early afternoon. Juggling three time zones is not as challenging as people want you to believe. With all times and the dial in confirmed it was stored away on my calendar until the reminder popped up to alert me of what I had done earlier in the day. I dialed in and found that one person was missing… can’t staff an interview when only half of the people show up. So back to the beginning. It turned out to be an email issue but I think the phone put it up to the task.

Two hours later, staffing a call to help out a double booked colleague, and this time the reporter was not on the line. At this point I was getting quit frustrated having had absolutely no success on the phone. Finally, toward the end of the day the rescheduled times were coming around and my colleague, for some reason, had me cover the call again despite no conflicts during the new time. We are all busy so I dialed in and everyone was on the line!

Thirty minutes later and the other interview, the one I scheduled, was about to begin. The problem was that the first conversation was running long. Time to multitask and get all forms of communication going at once. I got the second reporter on standby and as soon as the first call ended I brought in the next interviewer and pushed through the next thirty minutes. After over an hour on the phone and multiple follow ups (mostly sending promised files/documents) it was time to circle up with my colleague to make sure everyone was on the same page.

However, there was a slight problem as, while I was on the phone, they decided to duck out the back door and not let anyone know that they was leaving. I literally asked around and no one knew where they were or when they left. It’s one thing if you have to leave a little early, I understand that, but you have to let people know that you are heading out the door (emergency situations being the obvious exception). Well, as I found out later in a 45 minute delayed reply to my text, that they had to be somewhere at 6. No emergency, no client meeting, just somewhere, someplace where their phone is rendered useless and a lackadaisical mentality is acceptable.

On the verge of demolishing most of the phones in the office, my departure for the week was overdue. I packed my things, walked away from my desk, and assisted one of the younger people in the office as they cleaned out their desk, turned in their key, and headed out the door for the final time. I know that feeling and I really felt for them as they packed up their personalized space into a few small bags. I forgot about the phone issues and the long day as I tried to offer my limited wisdom and encouragement. Sometimes things aren’t so bad at the end of the day when you know that the next day has the potential to be much better.

I Hate When Cleaning Leads To Taxes

Every once in a while my wife and I find ourselves in desperate need to do some cleaning around the apartment. With our schedules the way they are and other projects taking priority, things just seem to build up over time until we get to the point that we can’t take it anymore. It is a slow build but one that we see happening and keep planning on taking care of which in itself is a process that can take weeks.

There are also projects that keep getting put off. Mostly they involve reorganizing different areas or shifting things around from one location to another. A prime example is the reconfiguration of our kitchen. When we first moved in we set up a kosher kitchen and kept it that way for well over a year. However, in the early part of last year we decided to adjust our observance level and at that point stopped keeping kosher. Since that time we have been meaning to consolidate some of the utensils and free up some counter space. Today that finally happened.

Later in the evening, after my wife had gone to bed for the night, I shifted my focus to the office. Paperwork of any kind is tedious but especially when it is a matter of organization. I first went through the existing files and pulled out all of the items that made me say “why the heck is this getting saved” and threw it into the overflowing shred box tucked under my desk against the wall. I guess I am going to have to make another trip to Staples in the near future.

Once I was able to consolidate and sort the overabundance of papers in the filing cabinet I was finally able to focus on the piles that had taken over my desk. This is when I came to the realization that most of the papers were either paid bills or magazines. While the magazines have been consolidated into a single stack the bills were a little bit more involved. Some went into a miscellaneous bills folder but the vast majority ended up in the dreaded tax folders.

Yes, I said folders. Plural. If there is ever a reason to hate this time of year it is for the simple, yet complex, reason of pulling together all of your documents, receipts, and forms and filing your taxes. While I closely watch, track, and itemize every year I have never gotten a significant amount back. In fact, last year, I owed an amount of money which didn’t make sense whatsoever… during a financially red year the government still wanted more… more of what we didn’t have. We managed, barely, to pay the bill and now we have to go through the same process again.

Just like cleaning and organizing, taxes seem like a zero sum game but we all eventually end up having to deal with it. I can already tell that this is going to be a long first part of the year. Maybe after April I will be able to breathe… but I think that is going to depend on the financial outcome on in the middle of that month. I guess we will just have to wait and see.  

Musings About Mobile Monday

Yesterday was a long day but, fortunately, it didn’t feel like a case of the Mondays. It wasn’t about what had to be done at the office it was simply being out of the apartment for so long and all for business purposes. A day that began at the office ended at a Mobile Monday Conference in Philadelphia (right next to 30^th Street Station at the Cira Centre).

With the exception of running around like a mad man right before leaving the office, testing the limitations of the speed limit on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and having my patience tested when I missed the earlier train from Wynnewood by a matter of seconds, it was a great night that offered a lot of insight into the future of mobile in retail. Having recently delved into this space head first with my clothes on last month it really is a fascinating field and one that was interesting to hear multiple perspectives on during this event. It’s always fun to wade around in a pool of ideas.

During the evening it was also nice to simply get out and talk to people whom I may not have had the chance to meet during the usual course of my day. Of course, it was also an opportunity to run into a few people that I normally don’t run into during business hours including a fellow Rotarian whom I have met on a few other occasions at Rotary events along the main line. I guess if you get out and meet enough people you are bound to have some overlap here and there.

While meeting people is a great part of any gathering, the event really is only as good as the subject matter and speakers. The speakers may have seemed a bit dry to some but I found the discussion and audience interaction fascinating and the statistics definitely give you something to think about. Of course, leave it to me to be distracted by the fact that the panel moderator looked a lot like Robert Sean Leonard (Wilson from the television show House).

The idea of mobile in retail was not just something that got me thinking about the current applications and future implications (especially with the recent death null of Blockbuster) but it all got me thinking about how much things have changed in the short span of my own life. What once was advanced to play Oregon Trail on a green screen is not HD and 3D televisions and virtual gaming; what once involved taking an imprint of your charge card at the register is not a simple app that allows you to order ahead of time and pay with your phone.

It really is an amazing transformation that we have gone through in the last 20-30 year. Heck, even over the past 5-10 years. It makes me wonder what could be around the corner; what could be the next big breakthrough in technology. But, I think the main questions to be considered are whether the current technology (mobile retail included) is making our lives better/easier and whether the next step forward will, effectively building on the current innovations, will improve our lives or exacerbate our problems?

But Do You Have A Flag?

Columbus Day is almost over and it really made no difference to me. The only thing that I noticed was the fact that I couldn’t get a hold of everyone I normally would on a Monday. You couldn’t even take your cue from the government because they were closed already.

When you think about it and consider all that we have learned about Columbus over the years it makes you question why we even still have such a day. I personally think that it’s a difficult argument saying that you discovered a new world when there were people there to greet you. That’s like discovering a cabin in the woods that no one knew about, that wasn’t on any maps, knocking on their door and claiming the land as your own (if you survive of course).

To give you a little background, and save your finger from having to hit another button, here is the basic rundown from Wikipedia:

Many countries in the New World and elsewhere celebrate the anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas, which happened on October 12, 1492, as an official holiday… Columbus Day first became an official state holiday in Colorado in 1906, and became a federal holiday in the United States in 1937, though people have celebrated Columbus' voyage since the colonial period. In 1792, New York City and other U.S. cities celebrated the 300th anniversary of his landing in the New World. President Benjamin Harrison called upon the people of the United States to celebrate Columbus Day on the 400th anniversary of the event. During the four hundredth anniversary in 1892, teachers, preachers, poets and politicians used Columbus Day rituals to teach ideals of patriotism. These patriotic rituals were framed around themes such as support for war, citizenship boundaries, the importance of loyalty to the nation, and celebrating social progress.

Many Italian-Americans observe Columbus Day as a celebration of their heritage, the first occasion being in New York City on October 12, 1866. Columbus Day was first enshrined as a legal holiday in the United States through the lobbying of Angelo Noce, a first generation Italian, in Denver. The first statewide Columbus Day holiday was proclaimed by Colorado governor Jesse F. McDonald in 1905, and it was made a statutory holiday in 1907. In April 1934, as a result of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, Congress and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made October 12 a federal holiday under the name Columbus Day.

Since 1970, the holiday has been fixed to the second Monday in October, coincidentally the same day as Thanksgiving in neighboring Canada (which was fixed to that date in 1959) (note that October 12, 1970, was a Monday). It is generally observed nowadays by banks, the bond market, the U.S. Postal Service, other federal agencies, most state government offices, many businesses, and most school districts. Some businesses and some stock exchanges remain open, also some states and municipalities abstain from observing the holiday. The traditional date of the holiday also adjoins the anniversary of the United States Navy (founded October 13, 1775), and thus both occasions are customarily observed by the Navy (and usually the Marine Corps as well) with either a 72 or 96-hour liberty period.

Today seems to epitomize the fact that, given time, people’s shortcomings are frequently overlooked and their feats accentuated by historical storytelling. Truth be told, Columbus was a man who got lost on a voyage, the Gilligan of the 15^th century if you will, who, once he was given power, proved to be a tyrannical ruler and proponent of genocide. So, happy Columbus day everyone!