This Week...

We all worked so hard our co-founder and EVP sent an e-mail saying: “Thanks for cramming five days into four.”

At least it’s nice the leadership notices we’re all here forever!

I love long weekends.

Except I’m in the office on our day off, after two 55-60 hour weeks in a row, with no hope of freedom in site.

It’s good news though. These are “growing pains,” and those are good for businesses like ours.

(I am sickly optimistic, aren’t I?)

Valentine's Day in the News

So, a big part of my morning is devoted to reading newspapers and today — being Valentines Day — has made that part of the job a little bit hilarious. Old people and sex in the New York Times, PIs having a field day in regional papers and as a high priority for journalists, and — my personal favorite — breaking up via text in the Wall Street Journal:

Wall Street Journal
MOVING ON
By JEFF ZASLOW
February 14, 2007
its not u ... :(
High-Tech Breakups Are Quick But Inflict a Special Pain; Getting Even on ihateher.com

Rebekka Olsen is just 26 years old, but she recalls the days when people used to say: "This is not a conversation to hold on the phone. This is something we'll need to discuss in person."

That is why, when things weren't working out recently with a man she was dating, she assumed it required one of those uncomfortable face-to-face talks. Before she could arrange it, however, the man sent her a cellphone text message: "Chek yr email."

So she did. His email read: "This is getting too serious. I think we should stop seeing each other. If we could still be friends, it would make me real happy."

Floored by the fact that she was being dumped by email, Ms. Olsen ignored him. A few hours later, he sent another text message: "chk yr email yet?"

There was a time when romances often ended in one final tearful embrace. But Ms. Olsen's techno brush-off -- her former beau even skimped on the vowels -- is common and concerning. Almost one in 10 cellphone users age 18 to 34 have "texted" someone out of their romantic lives, according to a survey released this week by Virgin Mobile USA. That stat doesn't even include emailed kiss-offs.

Yes, the lack of face-to-face contact can avoid prickly encounters and get the deed done without bloodshed. But as we contemplate Valentine's Day 2007, it also is an indication that interpersonal relationships today are often less personal and more cowardly than they used to be.

The techno brush-off has offshoots, too, that relationship experts find troubling. There is the techno-AWOL breakup, where a person doesn't answer emails or instant messages for however many days it takes for someone to get the hint. Meanwhile, 20% of singles say it is acceptable to reveal details about a breakup on Web logs, or blogs, or other Web outlets, such as MySpace or YouTube, according to a survey this year by relationships Web site Engage.com.

"All the lines are blurring," laments Ms. Olsen, who works for a nonprofit educational organization in Boston. "There need to be new rules."

Tour the Internet and you will find tens of thousands of breakup tales. Some are on sites such as Dontdatehimgirl.com or Ihateher.com. Many others are posted on people's personal blogs...

Subscribe to the WSJ to read more. ; )

Stop and Smell the Roses... literally

I saw something on the Fox morning show today that I thought was really sweet.

Two sisters were on to talk to Kim Carrigan about their recently written book, “Shut Up About Your Perfect Kid,” which highlights the beauty of “imperfection.” Essentially, these women have learned to see how beautiful the world is through the eyes of their children — even if they misbehave, need therapy, have disabilities, etc. One of the sisters told a story about her daughter, who is highly functioning but autistic, that I thought was quite inspirational…

One morning, the woman asked her daughter to go get the newspaper for her. They live on top of a hill, so the driveway is a little bit long — and apparently full of adventures. The little girl stepped off the front steps and made her way to the newspaper, while her mother watched closely from the doorway. The little girl covered a few feet, then paused to picked up a caterpillar. Remembering her mission — get the paper — she put down the bug and marched on… but then a butterfly flew pass, and the little girl laughed and took a moment to chase the magical creature. A few feet down the driveway, she paused again, this time to smell the roses.

And that’s when it hit her mother — how beautiful this world is to this little girl.


Moral of the story? Simple: stop & smell the roses.

The Gears are Turning...

Last night, I was contemplating the future. I had a fun day at work; the whole week has been successful & interesting. And, as bright young professionals tend to do, I was dreaming about what’s next.

Where will this fantastic job take me? Where do I want to be in five years? Ten? What are the steps required to get there?

Flipping through The Alchemist, as I always do when thinking big thoughts about life, I had to laugh at myself. I realized that I really do believe there’s something bigger — some force, flow of events, whatever — that takes us in the direction that will make us happiest. We just need to learn to listen for it. And with it in mind, we will find the things of our dreams.

So I begged the world for a sign.

Today, I got it.

fish!

I am a Gemini.

I want nothing more than to live in a place that is warm, with a view of the ocean. I want to lounge in my hammock and pass the time reading, occasionally glancing over the pages to steal sight of the water. I don’t want to wake up to work at 9 every day; I want work when I feel like it... or at least on varying shifts so I can enjoy different parts of the day on different days of the week. I want to be barefoot all the time, I never want to brush my hair, and I want to die my eyelashes so I don’t ever have to bother with makeup. Ever.

Of course, when I had that lifestyle, I developed an unquenchable urge to wear fancy suits and work 9-5... and then some.

Sunday Sports

Sundays wouldn’t be Sunday this time of year without gruesome competition.

But, since I cant stand Peyton Manning, my preferred sporting activity was off limits.

So instead I watched far better, more intense, extremely entertaining and even more manly competition – three incredible hours of Magnus Ver Magnusson. Oohhhh yyyeeeaaa…

Smile!

Valentines Day is approaching and for the first time in several years I miss having someone to look forward to spending it with. I realize I’m not “actively looking”, as I never go out with the intention of meeting new people, and if a man dares hit on me in a bar I can tell you I’m not very nice in return. And I realize that, since the prospect of leaving is so often appealing to me, a relationship is the last thing I want.

But if it were something I sought, I realize I’d need a boy with a mischievous smile.

They’re always more fun.

Masterpiece Theatre

I’d always heard it was good. Or at least, that’s what all my “elders” said. And though I knew my parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents had wonderful taste, I never thought Masterpiece Theatre was something a 21-year-old would enjoy watching.

But — wow — PBS does a damn good job.

We have just finished watching Jane Eyre, based on Charlotte Brontë's 1847 classic many children had to struggle through in grade school. (I was not such a youth.) My mother requested we watch it, and as I switched the channel, I expected a poorly lit, poorly captured, soft-spoken recreation of some drab novel. Instead, I was drawn into the movie with such intensity I found myself getting butterflies as the characters fell in love. And Toby Stephens, the villain in James Bond’s Die Another Day, was not such a villain in this flick.

It’s a love story — one full of hope. It was a pleasure to watch — and caused my mother and I anguish when the first half ended last night, promising a conclusion next weekend (thank God we tune into both the Providence AND Boston PBS stations, so we were able to find a conclusion this afternoon). It certainly makes me want to keep an eye out for future Masterpiece Theatre adaptations — and support the station. And, most importantly, it makes me want to read the book.

I hate being sick.

And I’m really, really sick.