"Because you're hot."

Best tag line ever.

For Secret. (Remember? "Strong enough for a man, but made for a woman." This is MUCH better.)

I just saw this on an ad and it makes me want to change brands so badly. Because I want to be HOT! The whole look of it is also very appealing - a frilly, floral, sophisticated line-art style thing.

It's the kind of line that makes writers smile and then quickly grimace with a sigh, "wish I'd written that."

Iced Tea Time?

Iced tea is one of my all-time favorite beverages. When I am out, I usually order it unsweetened, and then the add sugar myself, along with a squeeze of lemon.

“Sweet Tea,” made lovingly by proper Southern Ladies and Gentlemen, is usually a little too sweet for my tongue, but I’ll drink it when offered, to be polite.

A few years ago Lipton came out with “Cold Brew” tea bags and that is the only kind I make at home now. For my pallet, a two-quart pitcher takes about ¼ cup sugar and sometimes I’ll also add a little less than a ¼ cup of either Country Time lemonade mix or Tang.

Yesterday I had lunch out and ordered iced tea. I came home inspired to make a pitcher, but I was in a quandary about it – is it too late? It's nearly October and something about making iced tea felt… wrong. Like wearing white after Labor Day. No, different than that, but still, wrong. Is it wrong? Does iced tea have a season or at least an outside temperature range? It's in the 70s (was in the 80s yesterday). I can drink iced tea, right?

Does anyone add milk to their iced tea? I’ve never seen that. Iced coffee usually has milk, but not iced tea. Wonder why.

This all reminds me of a song by The Cowboy Junkies called “Cold Tea Blues.”

If I pour your cup, that is manners.
If I add your milk, that is friendship.
If I stop there, claiming ignorance of taste, that is tea.
But if I measure the sugar to satisfy your expectant tongue, then that is love.
(Sitting untouched and growing cold.)

And thus the difference between ICED tea and COLD tea.

Survey says...

Since about 60% of my known readership has responded, I figured I could post a follow-up today.

My estimate was near DB’s. I think only 3% of people in big corporate machines are actually thinking about the customer.

In my experience (four companies in about ten years – two XL, one M, one XS), it was a rare moment when I would be in a room with people excited to work on something – I mean REALLY work – sleeves rolled up, sweat dripping, sleep deprivation, poor nutrition, etc. In that ten years, I think it happened about 3% of the time, with 3% of the people.

I love that Jenn and Jodee believe in people and have experienced something different. Hope lives.

Anonymous Waffle House Person is far too early in his "career" to chime in on this (one summer internship does not a career make).

Regarding DB’s question about what is the “right” answer: My problem is that I am so manic that of course I want 100% of the people to be focused on doing what’s right for the customer 100% of the time. Anything less disappoints. That’s why I am SO well-suited to the independent life. Here in the BDO that’s an easy goal to achieve.

Survey question

What percentage of people in a company are more focused on their own personal career path than on the ultimate good of the consumer/customer?

I’ve had this discussion twice in the past week. Needless to say, cynic that I am, I think most people in a company are so worried about where they are going next, they forget to do the work at hand. And in many ways, the work at hand is irrelevant to them, because before any project reaches fruition, they’ll be on to the next post. “Impossible,” you say. “They have to have some sort of results to prove they can do the job!” Sadly no, because the people who should be paying attention to these sorts of things are also firmly fixed on their next roles so they will pass along any fool who expresses interest.

This is yet another reason why I’d rather not ever go back. This and the windows thing.

I won’t reveal my guess at the percentage until a few others chime in. I don’t have many readers, so not sure if that will even happen (but if it doesn’t then I don’t need to reveal my estimate). Of the two people I discussed this with, one is in a corporation and one is independent, like me. Actually they both agreed that most are mis-focused, but we disagree on how dire the situation is (based on the percentages we assign to each group).

Buildings with windows that don't open

If I was forced to go back to a traditional employment situation, the thing I would miss most would be fresh air. I suspect it’s not just me. Today I had to drive a proof over to someone’s office. It was around lunch time and I had to maneuver my vehicle very carefully through the parking lot to avoid mowing down the many small clusters of employees walking outside. They were all decked out in their office-casual best with little ID badges hanging from breast pockets and waistbands.

I know it’s more expensive to make building with windows that open, but I think it’s just depressing to be inside on a glorious weather day without the opportunity to have the outside creep in near you just a bit. Even the noises are probably beneficial on some level. I’ve referenced before in this blog that I am a few blocks from a local elementary school and I can actually hear the kids outside playing during recess. That has to be on a top-ten list of the most inspiring and energizing sounds (teachers may disagree with me there).

It was very chilly this morning. But by mid-day is was mild and lovely and I opened the window and the fresh September air slipped in and said to me quietly, “get to work!” It was great. I remember life without it and it stinks. Stinks of inside air.

That's my hair there

It looks....unpleasant, doesn't it? Like a severed limb or some creepy worm/snake thing. In another picture, it actually looks like a slug, with a smear of wetness off its tail.

I double checked, because so many people have asked, and I believe it was Fall of 2002 when I last wore my hair "short." I've been growing it out for nearly five years. Figuring that out actually disappoints me a bit, because I would have though five years would yield Rapunzel-like growth, which this hardly is. Barely hit the ten-inch mark.

Samson was wrong I think, for I feel no weaker than usual. But then again, I was no Samson to begin with, so maybe it's proportional.

Word rapture

This may be an obvious revelation given my profession, but I love words. Especially really well put-together words. Clustered into perfectly formed thoughts, written down as well-structured sentences. It’s nice when I’m the creator (rare), but even when I am not, it’s a joy to witness the phenomenon.

Today’s word rapture is brought to you by this line: “…a swirling sea of big flakes only just darker than the sky and only just lighter than the ground.” A flawless description of snow falling. It’s in chapter 13 of The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman.

We’re a bit away from that snowy time of year still. I get almost as giddy about snow as I do about tomatoes. Something to look forward to, eh?

Beginning the world

School started in the boro today. Very exciting business! Outside my window I heard the happy sounds of the elementary students eagerly rushing off to their first days of school. The crossing guard on our corner is just the best. I heard her yell at least two dozen times, "Have a great first day!" And she meant it. You could tell.

(Later in the day, out this same window, I heard the familiar, albeit less pleasant, sounds of the older kids walking home from the high school... angry screaming, expletives, general rudeness. Fascinating creatures those teenagers. Nice to know they evolve. Mostly.)

A few lines from the song "Beginning the World" by the Innocence Mission were going through my head all day. They always do this time of year.

"Aren't you bursting with butterflies
on the fourth of September?
Like you'll have to get on the bus
in your tartan dress, with your lunch box.

Though your body is twenty-nine.
Though your mind is an old thing.
I mean, don't you ever ... sigh,

I am always beginning the world, beginning the world."

Yes, Karen Peris, I do get those butterflies, though my body is well past twenty-nine and my mind is a very old thing. (Sigh.)

What’s bugging me

I get freaked out by bugs landing on me. Near me is not a problem. On me is a problem. A very large moth landed on me while I was peacefully reading in bed Sunday night. It was so large that as it approached I heard its wings flapping and when it hit, I felt a little bump. I shrieked a girly shriek and then insisted that it must die. (I’m not normally violent.) Sadly – or humorously, depending on your distance from the event - the moth escaped the vortex of the flushing toilet and returned for another circle around the bedroom before meeting his final demise.

Yesterday I shrieked a much shorter girly shriek and then laughed when I spotted a praying mantis on the deck. The shriek was because I was reaching for something on the railing of the deck and as my eyes turned to follow where my hand was already going, I saw that I was about to inadvertently grab the mantis. The laugh was at myself for being startled. I took a picture. I think they are so neat looking.


praying mantis (looking at me), September 2007

THEN, as if all these close-encounters of the buggy kind weren’t enough, last night at dinner a friend was telling us about all these ‘cicada-killer wasps’ he has in his yard. As the name implies, they kill cicadas, which are pretty prevalent around here right now. As our friend was describing the wasp, we realized we had seen one in our garage around July 4th. They are HUGE; Wikipedia says they can be up to 2 inches long and the one we saw was most certainly that large. I took a picture back then too. Creepy.


cicada-killer wasp in garage, July 2007

(Note the hyphenation of "cicada-killer wasp" is mine. It's not like that in any references I found, but since the two concepts form one thought, I think it's an important hyphen. It's not a cicada wasp or a killer wasp; It's a wasp that kills cicadas. Without the hyphen one might think it's a "killer wasp" - like a "killer bee" - which it is not. They aren't really dangerous to humans unless you grab, step on, or otherwise man-handle a female. And even then, you wouldn't die. I think I'm channeling Lynne Truss or something.)