What I Learned at Life Today
Social Molting
(This is a repost from my earlier blog, dated March 4, 2014) I don’t know what I was expecting when I posted the above photo to Facebook the other day, but the response has prompted me to consider what I’ll just call “social molting.” Some background: my office was overdo for a cleaning the other […]
On Switchboarding
In a more concerted effort to track how I spend my time, I’ve learned that I spend up to an hour each day “switchboarding.” When someone reaches out to ask for a connection, a reference, or a suggestion, I take it as a challenge to find the person, the place, the thing that best meets […]
Job Search as Mini-Memoir
I suppose it’s time to come clean—I started this “30 blog posts in 30 days” challenge while looking for a place to park stories as part of a career transition process. A transition is an opportunity to look back and learn what our evolving stories have to teach us about where we should/can go next. […]
Knocking on Doors
I know that knocking on doors is usually used in metaphor about exploring opportunity. However, in this case I mean literally knocking on doors. Thousands of them. Over the past 6 weeks, I have been lucky enough to have a short-term position in which a colleague and I knocked on 2,377 doors for a proposed […]
Planning a Funeral with Google Docs
Sometimes life requires us to become event planners, often in heightened emotional circumstances, even if we have no experience planning an event. The host of a family/community holiday party has to step down suddenly, but the show must go on. A landmark birthday or anniversary is coming up, and you’re the one to make it […]
A Craigslist Rideshare Adventure
(This is a repost from an old blog dated August 17, 2007. It feels like cheating, but heavens to Murgatroyd, daily blog posts are tough to keep up with!) As the first real vacation in almost two years, I decided that the trip to Turkey via California and Belgium should be a good one filled […]
How to DIY Magnetic Poetry
One of my favorite rainy-day activities is making custom magnetic poetry from old magazines. It’s a fun way to use already-read periodical issues to create a fridgeside craft that keeps on giving. Does your magnetic poetry collection include the words “bodice-ripping” and “anti-displacement?” Mine does! Here’s what you’ll need to get started: A cadre of […]
What a Team!
Often in interviews, I have found myself saying that I don’t want to just take a job, I want to join a team. What I don’t have time to explain in an interview setting is what I believe a good team looks like. When I moved to New York City after college, I ended up […]
An Ode to Public Libraries
If I could be granted a few wishes, here would be one: all public libraries and bus stops would look and feel like small palaces. When you walked up to a bus stop or into a library, my wish is that you would feel like your attendance was the best possible decision you could have […]