Greener Grass

I think I’ve mentioned that due to Hurricane Sandy, my work location has been up in the air. My team can work between 2 locations or stay at home. One location leaves much to be desired because it’s dark and there is a lot of noise around the area. The group next to ours completely lacks work etiquette. Aside from having to hear the ipod shuffle of a person 2 row from me, I’ve also had the honor of listening into a girl’s SKYPE conversation with her mom and niece. I got to a point where nothing amazed me anymore. 

Then I ended up going to visit my old team when they were all in town for a group meeting. They were having their meeting in a conference center. Because I wasn’t part of the meeting (just visiting), I had to sit in the room next to theirs. And the room I sat in was just baffling.

There were 4 rows along this particular space and on both sides of those rows were monitors. Imagine a bunch of long banquet tables were people face each other, only to be blocked off by computer monitors for each guest. They call this the trading floor. I call it hell in an office building. The whole time I was there, I could see and hear every person in front of me, to an angle from me and to the side of me. I even got the residual noise from the people in the row behind me - not to mention the sniffing, snorting, coughing and nose blowing of the people in my arm's length. It was an extremely joyous and productive occasion (and if you can’t sense the sarcasm, I need to work on my writing)!

I don’t think I got a single thing done in the time I was there. Just after 12, I stopped in to say hi to my old team and decided to leave. I had so much to do and there was just not much of a chance of my getting it done in the environment. 

It was horrible and I can’t understand the thought process behind that configuration (except cost saving but even then, how much of a saving is it when no one is productive!). It made me really thankful for the situation I am in. Despite having to split my time between two locations, both of them now looked like a Caribbean work beach compared to that set up. It’s important to see something else from time to time because we often do think the grass is greener on the other side. Until the other side is filled with people taping away at computers, listening to conference calls on speaker phone right in front of you and a plethora of other annoying work activities! Then you realize maybe you didn’t have it too bad. 

Little Things

People have often said it's difficult to buy me gifts. While they may think that's true, I disagree. I am pretty vocal about the things I like and don't like. If people pay attention to that alone, I think they are off to a good start.

I enjoy paper and pens immensely. I do have a lot of them but they do give me an inordinate amount of pleasure. I am a big believer of correspondence. I have a few good friends with whom I still correspond with either exclusively or occasionally. It gives me great joy to get letters from these people even if it's a short note or a card. These papers and pens and cards come in handy when I write to these people! So that's why I also like them.

On the subject of cards, a really thoughtful and sentimental card goes a long way with me. If there is a personal note to go along with it, that's an even bigger plus. I love books and I will never turn down chocolate, even white chocolate! (which is admittedly my least favorite of the types of chocolate.) I thoroughly enjoy tea and coffee too.

Gift cards are also a very personal thing for me. A lot of people find that they are impersonal. But I think that if you get someone a gift card to a place you know they love, what's better than letting them choose something for themselves? I'm weird that way, I guess.

It really is at times the little things that make a big deal. Case in point, more than a month ago it was my birthday. I admit it was crushing when some people I thought very highly of, who meant a lot to me,  completely forgot about it. Life is hectic and people are busy; I understand these facts.  However one friend got me a bunch of very cute little gifts - one of which filled me with a lot of glee. It was a miniature stationery kit. In it there were small pieces of paper, small envelopes, a small pencil and a pencil sharpener. For added cuteness, there were even little stickers. The moment I received this gift, I used it to send a letter to the person who sent me the gift. Then I used another 3 pieces of papers and envelopes to send 3 other letters within the next few days. I just thought it was the most adorable and sweet gift! And it was a little gift, literally.

I know I am a complicated person. I love to discuss difficult subjects at large, especially in French. I read all types of weird books, although mostly I read fiction. I'm intrigued by ideas and what makes people tick. When it comes down to it though, I'm not that hard to please. Say what you mean, mean what you say, actions speak louder than words, dogs and babied make my day and chocolate makes the world go round.

Daily Puppy

I’ve been visiting the website ‘The Daily Puppy’ for years. I first heard about it from a co-worker who is equally smitten with dogs as I am. Every day we would check the site and then meet at each other’s cubicle and discuss how cute the dog of the day was.

Even though I no longer work with this person, I have kept up the semi-daily viewing of the website. I mostly discuss the cuteness, squishiness or adorableness of the quotidian canine with my sister or a few of my friends. What I have found in doing this is that it brings a smile to my face.

When work gets boring, annoying or stressful, I like to check into this site to put a smile on my face. (I also do this with pictures of my daughter now.) Now as scientific studies have proven, seeing or being around dogs help bring blood pressure down. I can say that I sincerely have noticed this over the years. I am always calmer (even if momentarily) after I look at the puppies on the site, or if I see pictures of my own pooches.

I think that if you like dogs (or even cats because there is a daily kitty site), it would do the whole world a brief bit of good to check out the website when you aren’t feeling at your best. Enjoy!!

Little Meatball

Every language I know has its affectionate terms for people. In French, your loved one could be ‘a little cabbage’ or ‘my little louse’.  In English someone could be your ‘cookie’, ‘cupcake’ or even ‘sweetheart’. Spanish has too many to even name here but I don’t think that they are food related.

In Italian you’ll often hear someone being called a meatball. It makes sense to some degree. Meatballs are very important to Italian cuisine and it’s meant to refer to a little something that comforting and special. (Although I’ve also heard it refer to someone who is fat and dumb but that’s neither here nor there.) My daughter actually will be christened ‘little meatball’ not so much because she tastes good or is yummy with pasta but because of a couple of events around meatballs themselves.

In introducing her to adult food, she wasn’t very fond of chicken,meat or ham. She just thought they were weird. She had no real issues with veggies and some fruits she ended up enjoying after the second try. However, the proteins have been hard. So one day I said, maybe she just needs a little something extra with the meats to make them interesting. So I thought meatballs might just be the trick.

We started first with chicken meatballs in broth. Before even giving them to her, she decided to make a little pool in one of her high chair compartments with her water. This happened mostly because she turned her sippy cup upside down. Then I cut up some chicken meatballs to give to her. She took one and put it in her mouth. She was a little skeptical of the taste. But she eventually ate the small piece. She then swept the other pieces into the water with her hand. She moved the meatball morsels around in the water and then one by one ate the bits. I guess she thought they needed to be sanitized before she could chew on them. Regardless, it was cute and she ate them and it was the validation I needed that perhaps now she would eat some protein.

A few days later I decided to make beef meatballs with some pasta. This would be the first time she would eat pasta too so it was another big milestone. I decided to make fusilli/corkscrew pasta because I could cut it small enough for her to get little bites. I gave her some of the meatballs first which she enjoyed. Then I gave her pieces of the pasta which she took in her fingers and inspected. She looked at the first piece in front of her eyes and made a face like ‘I’ve never seen you’ and she then quickly put it in her mouth. However her mouth was still full of some meatballs. So she couldn’t quite make out the taste of the pasta so she spit everything out. The gnawed piece of pasta and little bits of the meatballs fell on her bib. She then reached down with her mouth and tongue to the bib and ate the pasta piece only. She chewed it and seemed happy with its flavor. Now that she had the essence of it without it being tarnished by the meatball, she was content. She mixed together some meatballs and pasta as she completed her meal.  Finally we were eating a real meal together as a family.

Her playfulness and then acceptance of meatballs made me very happy. Up until that point, I was cooking food for the adults and mashing up food for her or giving her purees of food. We weren’t eating the exact same things. Now she was having adult food in baby sizes. And because she’s small and special and cute when she eats, she will now be christened my little meatball (although I will still call her a munchkin and a pumpkin and a number of other names).