Kids are funny

Eva sent me a picture of a note her little nephew wrote to his mom after a heated argument with his older brother. It is classic. So funny!


Here's a link to her blog post about it.
The note

Job Insecurity

I went up to Seattle this past weekend on a trip for school. We specifically went to visit companies committed to sustainable business practices.

There were 20 MBA students with various interests in Sustainability, Sports and Entrepreneurship in the group. We left Wednesday afternoon and returned today, Saturday. It was an insightful trip as we visited several companies based in Seattle; companies I knew very well and companies that were just emerging, or at least trying to. We visited nine companies in all and while all of them shared the same message of sustainability, all also shared a more grim sentiment.

Over the three days I spent in Seattle, the newspaper headlines followed a theme: unemployment. On Thursday morning the headline was about Boeing and Washington Mutual layoffs. Friday morning, the 5,000 layoffs at Microsoft. And on Saturday morning, the front page headline was about the prospective 1,000 layoffs at Starbucks, of which I found most ironic.

Just the night before, my group of aspiring MBAs were huddled in a conference room at the Starbucks headquarters. We had just heard about all of the surprisingly unknown social and environmental goodwill of the otherwise criticized coffee company, the company's LEEDS Gold certified corporate building, its plans to upgrade all of its stores to LEEDS Silver certification, etc. It was impressive what the company was doing to help the environment.

We were then visited by a couple of Starbucks' human resources representatives. They greeted us with smiles and complimented our endeavors. They spoke highly of the company and what it was achieving in growth and innovation. Then, with the same sort of cheeriness, they told us they would love to have us with the company, but that they are not hiring nor were they taking any interns, but that they would love to have our resumes in their database. It was depressing. Then as we left and walked into the parking lot, I noticed all three news vans from the three news networks in town and automatically I knew, Starbucks was likely to announce layoffs.

Such was the same story at REI. And Weyerheauser. And all of the other companies we visited.

The best part about these visits was that it was suggested by REI that we work the retail sales floor to "get in" and by Starbucks to start out as a barista as a great way to work up the chain. It was insulting and depressing.

I think the state of the economy is finally hitting me. I have always seemed to ignore the world around me and very selfishly fail to realize the circumstances of my surroundings unless directly affected. The largest companies in Seattle are making enormous job cuts for the first time ever and all at the same time. It's happening all around us and I wonder how much worse it will get. It is a scary time. Being in school, I have little to fear in the immediate as I do not have a job to lose and as a student, I am resigned to being poor, but I do worry about the state of employment in a year and a half when I will be out with the masses searching for a job.

How close are we to circumstances like the Depression? I do not worry that we will ever be that destitute, but for the families and individuals now affected, who have lost their jobs and who will only find it more difficult to find work again as companies continue to make cuts, I can only imagine the struggles they face.

Not so Normal

"They wanted to get married there because it was the place they liked to be."

I saw this story on the news tonight. A couple in Normal, Illinois got married at their local Taco Bell because they enjoyed being there.

Here's an article with video and some pics: http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2009/01/10/news/doc49681e80735c5391961609.txt

That is just wacked. I don't even like going to the Taco Bell for a cup of water, let alone create a huge memory of it for my wedding!

I suppose that if I HAD to have a wedding at a fast food joint, it would definitely be In-n-Out Burger. Nothing beats animal style hors d'oeuvres.

My coo'ing niece

This is my niece. She is the best newest addition to my life.


And yes, that is her real hair. At just two months she can already wear little hair clips!


She is just a sweetheart. She coos at everything fuzzy. She's just another pea in my pod and I kind of love her a lot.

No one likes a tissue that leaves pieces behind

I saw this commercial for Charmin Ultra Strong bathroom tissue today and I couldn't believe what I was seeing! Seriously, folks. Really? Seriously? Seriously. Bits of tissue? Must that really be addressed?

Winter in SoCal

I used to complain that Los Angeles had no more than two seasons and that December was not December without snow. But after this past week and getting reports from friends in other parts of the country and Canada with weather temps from 2 F to -15 F, I am perfectly happy where I am on break here in SoCal. Sure, 55 F is chilly, but nothing to complain about at all!

I went for a short run yesterday down by the beach in Santa Monica and it was a beautiful day! Especially since it has been raining, the skies were mostly perfectly clear and the sun was warm despite the slight wind. It was a most excellent Southern California winter day.

Crafty

For this year's friend gift exchange the theme was: Homemade.

Barf.

I mean, I'm a big fan of gifts from the heart, but knowing what I was up against (girls who sew, paint art, draw pictures and sculpt), I knew that I couldn't just whip up one of my fun magazine cut-out cards and call it good. I liked the idea, but I knew it would be tough. Plus, homemade gifts take time and above all, talent! Who has either these days?!

On top of that, school was such a beast that fitting in "craft time" was the last thing on my mind. I know everyone is busy, but add the fact that the extent of my crafty talent went about as far as hand-print turkeys and 3-dimensional cubes, I knew this would be quite a challenge. I would have to put in some real time and effort, but having neither, I had two choices: pay Dana to make something for me or employ the power of the one true ingredient of all great things made by hand: love.

At first, I wanted to make an apron. Like a really pretty one, with layers and ruffles and cool patterns and colors like pink and brown. But after too much thought, the whole process became overly complicated to me and sewing it all by hand just seemed really annoying.

So then I thought I would make a blanket. In my mind, I envisioned a very easy blanket to make. Totally doable. So I went to the fabric store thinking I could just stick two pieces of fuzzy fabric together then sew satin ribbing around the edges, but as I walked the wall of felt, fleece and fur, I became so overwhelmed with all of the patterns, textures and colors that I started to hate all blankets in general. Fabric stores are very intimidating if not totally confusing. Plus, exact measurements are dumb.

So then I reverted back to an idea my sister gave me. In her mind, she thought as simply as possible, "What could Miriam possibly make?" She gave me the initial idea that lead to what you see below. Originally, it was supposed to be white dishtowels made cute with ribbon sewn on them, but after 20-minutes in the ribbon section, I was once again overwhelmed with the array of choices. Before I knew it, all of the hundreds of spools of ribbon were morphing into my worst personal project nightmare that I soon found myself in the iron-on section of the store. Then from the iron-on section I discovered my choice tool of trade: puff paint.

I must say, my little crafty skills really came to life! I think the dish towels turned out pretty nicely and I was actually proud to show them off. Best of all, Natalie liked them and that's all that mattered!






I made something pretty! Who knew love could be so powerful?