lost in transition

31Dec08

after a recent trip to DC, I realized that apparently there were some small pieces of me that got lost in my transition to TX.  now granted, while i may have lost a few things along the way I did manage to pick up a rather unhealthy obsession with House and a knack for making cakeballs.

so thanks to my recent enlightenment there are a few things in the new year that I’m going to make sure and not lose or lose sight of:

  • taking care of myself
  • my thoughts on conscious consumerism
  • my ability to not put up with “crap”
  • my ability to keep my blog up-to-date
  • how much i enjoy riding my bicycle
  • how skilled i am at riding in traffic (and not being scared.  apparently i became a wuss when i moved)
  • the need to socialize
  • my love of exploring and doing things on my own

i’m sure that more will come to me as time passes, but i figure putting this stuff on the interweb is the one way i can make sure i don’t forget about it.


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how to explain the maker faire?

17Oct08

all you nerds, geeks and crafters out there - any suggestions on how to explain the maker faire to someone who’s totally out of the loop?

i heard it refered to as a “do-it-yourselfer convention” recently and  thought that was amusing.  for me, it brought up images of folks in home depot aprons running all over the place.  nice!


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nerdfest (aka maker faire) here i come

17Oct08

today, i’m like a little kid on christmas eve!! i’m heading to austin this afternoon for the maker faire.

if you know me at all it probably won’t surprise you that i’ve already printed off the schedule (which they seem to be updating every 5 mins) and have highlighted the stuff i want to go to.  i’m super excited about some of the how to demonstrations.

i’ll take lots of pictures and will probably blog about my trip over at the work blog.  can’t wait!


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hiking/biking trails in Allen, Texas

10Oct08

before moving, I did my due diligence and researched biking and running trails.  I remember finding a map of all the trails in the city of allen pretty easily.

now that i’m actually here, i’ve been trying to hunt down the map which seemingly disappeared from the city’s and the county’s websites.  today, i called the parks and recreation department.  keith was super helpful - he emailed me the map.  it’s quite possibly the most difficult to read map ever, but it should make biking a bit more fun.


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you just can’t play a sad song on the tambourine

25Sep08

i’ve made it to texas and i’m finally all situated.  furniture is in place, boxes are unpacked and i’m back in thegrind at work as well.

now while there are a LOT of differences between DC and texas, mostly i’ve come across things recently that only happen in DC that you’ll never see many other places.

you know?  big protests, snipers on the top of the building across from you, the climate ride, the capitol building — those sorts of things.

i’ve started to discover quite a few things in texas that you’ll never see in DC.  parking lots for one, but last weekend i came across the best so far….

james helped a family friend out last week who hosts a hobie race every year on lake tawakoni.  i spent the day with my family, but james invited me to join him out at the lake on saturday evening because the host family insisted that stay to listen to the cover band and to drink cold beer.

i got out to Mimleach Beach which was actually a very nice little place.  i’ve never really been around any boat racing crowds, but i do know these folks have a decent amount of smarts and dough in order to own and race their own boats. smart people?  yes, we have those in dc, but wait…

james and i are listening to the band and having a few miller lights.  there are a few middle-aged women dancing by the stage which are quite amusing, but all of the sudden one of them leaves the dance floor.  she walked behind us up to where most of the cars are parked so we didn’t pay much attention.  that is, until she came back with a tambourine.

i know very little about tambourine’s, but this was no church choir tambourine.  we couldn’t quit laughing.  she was playing along with the band and actually doing a good job at it.  but who does that?  seriously!  are there BYOT parties that i’m unaware of.

we were talking about it later at my house because james and my dad decided they both need tambourines.  i mean, what party doesn’t get better with the addition of a tambourine?  and seriously, no one is gonna mess with a guy carrying a tambourine.  my dad had the best line of all though as to the possible reasoning behind her tamobourine… “you just can’t play a sad song on the tambourine.”  which unlike willie nelson’s song “you just can’t play a sad song on the banjo” is totally, totally true.


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oh yeah, i’m moving

11Aug08

in case you missed my:

it’s 2008, people.  there won’t be any change of address cards going out in the mail, but there might be a mass email.  i’ll keep you posted.


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the lost art of customer service

11Aug08

on August 30th, I’ll be packing up a U-haul and heading out of dc.  i’m definitely excited, but i’m a bit nervous as well.  there are just so many things to do before the end of the month:

  • finding an new place to live
  • buying boxes
  • reserving a u-haul
  • packing boxes
  • cleaning
  • canceling my utilities
  • canceling my gym membership
  • changing my address with the usps
  • starting all my new utilities
  • showing my apartment

needless to say, i’ve spoken to more customer service reps in the last 2 weeks than i ever thought existed in the world.  only problem is, only one person that i’ve spoken to so far has had even the slightest grasp on customer service!

i’ll be honest, part of the reason i chose my apartment sight unseen was just because the girl i spoke with was soooo extremely helpful and friendly.  now mom did go check it out for me so don’t be too worried if you don’t hear from me after Sept 1.

yesterday, i had the worst of all customer service experiences to date.  admittedly, michael warned me about using U-haul, but i’d never had any problems before so i ignored him like usual.  :)  2 weeks ago i reserved a truck to take me from dc to texas, but at that point i wasn’t exactly sure where i was moving.  yesterday i called to edit the reservation to let them exactly where i was moving to and to add a trailer to the reservation because we’re now planning to haul my car (the moldmobile definitely isn’t drive-able that far).  the women i encountered was horrendous.  she actually told me that there’s no such place as allen, texas. this after i had spelled it to her 18 times.  i offered her the address of the closest U-haul location in plano, texas, but she couldn’t find that either.  my favorite part of the conversation was when i asked to speak to a manager or just someone else and she refused to transfer me to anyone.

immediately after hanging up on her, i realized that i might not still even have a reservation.  honestly though, i doubt she knew how to cancel the reservation even if she wanted to.  i asked my father to call the number again and he was able to edit the reservation successfully, after spelling “plano” to her about 18 times as well.

after my phone call, i immediately filed a customer service complaint on uhaul.com.  now i know all of this make me sound like a whiny, hormonal female, but really - a little bit of extra communication can go a long way.  a “please” and a “thank you” really aren’t all that hard.  i know that she probably didn’t want to be at her job on a saturday and i can’t really blame her for that, but she’s representing a brand and company.  i don’t want to be hand-held (in fact, when people are overly nice it’s a bit creepy), but common courtesy would be nice.


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hello, eh

22Jun08

hi mom, i’m in canada.

today marked the start of Social Tech Training in Toronto. my involvement as a facilitator at STT is thanks to the fabulous folks at web of change - as you know, i’m a huge fan.  it’s been great to reconnect with folks and i’m flattered to be involved with such an intelligent groups of individuals immersed in social change.  once i’ve had the ability to take it all in and digest, i’ll post my take-aways.  so far: packed agenda, packed room, lots of brainstorming, great food, great people…


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to connect or unplug? that is the question.

18Jun08

it’s amazing how much less stress there is in my life since i realized that occassionally it’s ok to unplug.  people do it.  not my friends, but i hear there are people out there who don’t email, blog, twitter, facebook, or myspace on a normal basis, if at all.  believe it or not, they still manage to be normal, functioning members of society.  granted, they probably aren’t very well connected, but i guess it’s a either/or kind of thing.

i tried unplugging - evident by my recent lack of blogging - but i couldn’t do it.  i couldn’t quit it all at once.  i can’t imagine life without email, but vacations and weekends are definitely more enjoyable without email.

this realization makes me think a bit about the work that i’ve been doing - helping clients focus on bringing constituents into their ladder of engagement.  getting to someone who doesn’t want to be connected is a huge challenge.  if you do get to that person, is it any benefit to your organization?  think i’m going to have to sleep on that one.


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playing tour guide

08May08

this evening my sister is coming to town.  i’m super excited!  she’s been to dc to visit me once before, but it’s been quite a while.

now, while i’ve served as a pretty good tour guide before, this time it’s a whole new ballgame:  my sister is 8 mos pregnant.  while my happy hour planning skills are pretty tip-top, i’m not going to be able to lean on that to pull me through this time around.

i found out that the national cathedral is doing a light show this weekend - that looks pretty cool.  i drove her by it last time, but i’m thinking we’ll visit the inside.  she wants to go to the national portrait gallery bc it was closed before.  any other suggestions?


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