Thursday Highlights - September 20, 2007

Well, as I sit here looking out the window at a perfectly perfect Michigan September afternoon I have to admit I’m having trouble concentrating on the task at hand. Or any task. What I really wish I was concentrating on was a book, as I sat outside in the warm – but not hot – sunshine, sipping the season’s last lemonade.

Boo.

I hate this desk job.

Today I actually woke up basically ready to face the day. The windows were open, so the air was just the tiniest bit chilly, but refreshing. The hardest part was really that it was so dark – the worst part of fall.

I would like to say that I was highly motivated by my work for the day, the opportunity to contribute to helping Steelcase be the most powerful contract furniture brand in the world, or even the chance to be a loving example to the most adorable baby boy in the world. But no. What got me to throw back the covers and hop in the shower was the prospect of a morning meeting at the Learning Center where I could get free coffee…and that someone on our team is celebrating a birthday, so there would also be free breakfast snacks. That’s a little pathetic. But hey, it worked.

Langston was playing coy and just kind of looked at me when I went to pick him up out of his crib. He was all…yeah, I’m awake, but don’t expect me to cheer for you. I got some extra delicious snuggles in before stripping him down for his shower.

He’s taken to rubbing his hands in his hair as he’s eating. That meant that last night’s cantaloupe and avocado had given him some nice matted sections to his hair. Into the shower with Jeff he goes! He actually doesn’t mind this too much – except for the part where he goes under the spray to rinse out the shampoo. But oh my word, when I grab him out of the shower with a big, fluffy towel he is irresistible. I just can’t stop myself from pinching those adorable buns and smooching the bottoms of his pink feet.

After dressing him and feeding him and throwing him back in his crib so I could finish getting ready, I turned on the Mary Poppins soundtrack. Since we play music for him at night when we put him to bed, I purposely turn on his “morning music” loud, keep the light blaring, and try for something more danceable, so as not to confuse his “cues.” Man, I should write a book or something. It’s this kind of thoughtful parenting that is making Langston the well-adjusted child he’s become! Anyhow, whatever I play for him in the morning will be in my head for the rest of the day. So, all day I’ve been hearing “spoonful of sugar” in my head.

Work started with an intro to Second Life. Steelcase has a “store” there and one of the guys who works on this gave us an intro to not only Steelcase’s store, but the concepts behind Second Life. OK, that is whack. The fact that millions of real dollars are being spent in this “virtual life” is just crazy! But, it was pretty interesting to hear about – even if I do still wonder why we care if a bunch of freaky virtual lifer’s learn about Steelcase. But, then again, I’m old.

Mmmmm. The French Roast coffee was so good. So was the coffee cake at the birthday party. Yum, yum.

I went back to my desk to log onto the earnings conference call only to remember that I had organized a conference call of my own for the same time. OK, I’m officially a moron. Fortunately, everyone else was late, so it seemed like everything was planned. Jeesh, get it together, Hill.

Lunch was the weekly order of chili…sitting in the sun…thinking that I should have maybe just gone home and started dinner. I’m not very good at providing good, healthy meals for my family. Pretty much, the dinners have been feeble.

I went through phase of cooking crock-pot meals in an attempt to not only make a good home-cooked meal, but also to not have to come home from work and cook an entire meal. That resulted in several week’s of meals with very similar scorched, mushy, unappealing results. So, I gave up on that.

Discouragement led to many take-out meals, turkey sandwiches, jars of spaghetti sauce, and frozen pot-pies.

But I’m back, folks – with fresh enthusiasm and a new plan. I went on the Southern Living “freezables” recipe site and printed off like 10 that looked good. I figure that if every other week I make 4 meals…and eat only about 1/3 of each meal at a time and freeze the rest, then I’ve cooked 4 meals and got 12 for my efforts!!! Pure genius, I tell you. In just a few week’s time the freezer will be packed with nutritious, delicious meals!! So…last night I made a big pan of macaroni and cheese and tonight I am planning to get home and make some meatloaf. I can’t guarantee that I will be able to maintain this energy level – but, like I said, this could be the key to one week of work yielding three weeks of meals. We’ll see.

Since it’s so beautiful out I am also hoping for a long walk with baby and husband. This time of year I feel like we can’t waste even one nice day.

PS - it's my wedding anniversary on the 23rd -- so the photos are in honor of the blessed event!

Thursday Highlights - September 13, 2007

Well, I’m back in the office after my 4 day trip to Boston. I have to go to a professional development conference/seminar each year and in the past I have pretty much stuck to ones that focused on communications. This year I decided to do something different and go to a class on investor relations. Since I support that department I thought it might be helpful to learn a little bit more about the subject – or at least get to know the vernacular enough to fake it better in meetings.

If you’re anything like me, when I’m at off-site classes, I am certainly not dressing up for the occasion. Hey, I don’t know any of these people, I don’t work for them or with them, we will likely never see each other again – who am I trying to impress? Um…not so much with the finance types! Out of the 120 or so attendees, at least 80% of the men were in full suits…I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve been around a bunch of men in business suits – as you know, the man’s wardrobe here in GR consists almost entirely of different colors of khaki pants (the rainbow of colors that lie between “desert stone” and “nutmeg.”) paired with short or long-sleeved golf shirts. It was actually kind of cool and I found myself enjoying the care they took with this more formal approach, that indicated a respect they must have for themselves, their work, and those around them. I was kind of digging it.

But then, just as I’d settled my black cropped pants-clad behind into the ballroom chair and pressed my knit shirt against its back I took a look at the women! I would say that 95% (the percentage of the total women in attendance minus me) of them were dressed to the NINES! Pencil skirts in muted tones drew the eye down toward what had to be $300 shoes with ice-pick thin spike heels. Their clear polished nails nonchalantly toyed with strands of pearls or thick gold ropes. Tailored blouses were perfectly tucked in over flat stomachs. Smooth, conservative hair styles framed powdered, unblotched skin.

Let’s just say that I was not only the most casually dressed person there (even the wait-staff wore formal uniforms) but I was definitely among the most full-figured. Frump-o-rama in both attire and physique. Boo!!! I hated those women who are not only named Barbara and Lynn and Elizabeth and Carolyn but work out for 3 hours after nibbling on a dressing-free salad…this was definitely not my crowd.

I immediately hated and regretted every item of clothes I brought with me, wondered when I last even cracked open a package of pantyhose (I think it was in 2004 for a wedding), realized I had a hand full of hang-nails and that I could no longer breathe from sucking in my gut so hard. I also took off my name-tag as I didn’t really want anyone to know exactly who I was or where I was from.

I knew I hated numbers…why did I have to go to this seminar and discover even more reasons to hate them?

Oh well. Inner poise…confidence that comes from within…this would be my mantra for the next three days. That, and a refusal to make eye contact.

At least I had Jeff. He found all kinds of great places to explore in the evening and, in total Jeff style, we took subways, busses, hiked, all over town to get there. Among other things we ate “the best cheeseburgers in the world” in Harvard Square, souvlacki on Newbury Street, and Cuban sandwiches in Jamaica Plain. We also did a little shopping, took a tour of the Samuel Adams brewery (I’m not a beer drinker but it was kind of interesting to learn how it’s made), and watched the Cubs baseball game. He also kept me from taking things too seriously (No, you’re not a frump! No, you shouldn’t throw all these clothes away…Yes, finance people DO stink…really).

For some reason we got on the topic of “red eye” in photographs and I told him that I’ve never “red eyed” – that my eyes are just too dark – that it just has never happened. Of course he didn’t believe me and spent the whole trip trying to catch me off guard and get a picture of me with red eyes. Not only did this produce a number of wildly unattractive photos (which isn’t helping the old self-esteem, buddy) but it also meant that I saw a lot of Boston’s sites through the veil of flash-bulb after-effect (thanks, Holquist). And, I’m happy to say – he was never able to do it. He was beyond perplexed – I finally just confessed that I am, in fact, an alien and that finally explained the mystery.

Also, every time we left or returned to the hotel we had to greet/say good-bye to Catie, the hotel dog. She was a beautiful black lab, I have to admit, and sweet as could be. The hotel rescued this service dog that developed cataracts. You can take her for walks…play with her…it was actually very cute. Jeff is such a sucker for a pet.

And we had really good luck coming home. We got bumped onto an earlier flight to Chicago – and bumped into exit row seats (which on United you usually have to pay for but provide leg-room extreme!) and we also got moved to Economy-Plus (the plus is for legroom, baby) seats on the Chicago flight to Grand Rapids. I can’t really complain.

Things I learned at my seminar:

1- where the New York stock exchange is (11 Wall Street)
2-that PR people are “jealous” of IR people (PU-LEEZE! As if…)
3-that NASDAQ is totally virtual, with no trading floor at all
4-what an 8K, 10Q, 10K and proxy are
5-the importance of transparency, disclosure, compliance
6-the meaning of “buy side”, “sell side”, “ask”, “take” and “shorting”

..totally worth it, huh?

And, things I learned about Boston:

1-they love their rain boots. I can honestly say that in all my fall/springs in Michigan I’ve seen maybe two people, total, sporting the rain boot. There, it was literally every other woman! Every time I pointed it out Jeff would say, “But it’s raining!” and I would then have to say, “But it rains in Michigan and no one wears them there!” -- Riveting conversation, eh? Anyhow, I actually think they’re pretty cute and would try to start a fashion trend here in GR except I’m afraid they would be one more thing that would painfully grip my calves in an unattractive way.

2-their subway system is the oldest in the nation and I am not at all surprised. I felt like I was riding a gutted underground city bus…it lurched and squeaked and moaned and shuddered and bounced from side to side in these super narrow tunnels…I pretty much just had to close my eyes and pray for the best. Although it didn’t help when Jeff added, “and they have the most accidents as well…debris falling from the ceiling, hitting the sides of the tunnel or other trains…” Again, not surprised…and thanks, Jeff.

3-there were just tons and tons of people of Asian descent. I couldn’t really tell if they were Asian or Asian-American - just that there were so many of that ethnicity. I was really surprised – I just hadn’t realized that Boston was such a hub for Asians. Interesting.

And now, I’m back at work and happy to return to routine and, particularly, the most adorable little boy in West Michigan. I love the smell of him, the sound of him, the sight of him, the touch of him…oh, it’s good to be home!

No Highlights....None at All...September 6, 2007

I have to confess that there is NOTHING to report today. Literally nothing has happened. I could talk about the excitement of my foot falling asleep so I moved it. I could mention that I'm on my second Rubbermaid jug of water of the day. Would you be curious to note that I received and reviewed the agenda for my investor relations seminar next week? How about the fact that I changed two pictures of Langston I keep on my desk? Cause that's all I've got. Oh, and I had a bowl of chili for lunch. Um...yeah...that's really.

So, I was surfing the website of a band I like and they had these very cute little bios for each band member. I decided to copy their format and fill it in for Jeff. I mean, I'm always talking about me and Langston...but what of this mystery man I married? So...here it is...a little insight into the man I love:

BACKGROUND: A South-East GR boy by birth and pleasure, Jeff grew up the oldest of two. After challenging the sanity of the teachers at the area Christian school district, he moved on to provoke the professors at Calvin. Four years of elaborate pranks with Mardi quickly passed and he wound up at RBC Ministries, where he has remained for fifteen years. Many fix ups followed. His mother despaired. His sister donated to Goodwill all the baby clothes she was saving for a niece or nephew. Then, out of nowhere he heeded Mike’s advice and “made a move” on his friend Jeanine. The tortoise became a hare and within a year he was married and expecting a baby. Now he spends his evenings playing with his son, surfing the web, watching the TiVo, walking with his wife, and wondering what he ever did before :)
NICKNAME(s): Jeffrey, Jeffrey Lee, J-Lee, Holquist, J-Ho
EDUCATION: Degree in poly sci from Calvin College…a future county water commissioner perhaps??
ATTRIBUTES: Good cook. Family man. Determined. Funny. Home tech expert. Loyal friend.
PUNCTUALITY: His hair may still be wet and his shoes untied but he’s technically on time.
SAMPLE QUOTE: “Little boy, little boy, little boy…” often spoken to his son Langston to, depending on tone, express love, slight frustration, or a warning. “Shelly Belt, Shelly Belt!”…when you need to shut up or book it out of there.
FINEST MOMENT: Less than a year after he met her, my grandma died. The circumstances surrounding the time he knew her made it all the more shocking when he was the one, out of all of us, who cried at her funeral.
MOST LIKELY TO: Keep something. Correct your mispronunciation. Snicker at what he’s reading. Stop for a diet Coke. Turn on the sprinklers. Defend all things Apple. Sleep through anything. Consult Zagat’s. Make it from scratch. Share his opinion. Turn on the air. Quote a relative. Think it through. Go to Vegas. Buy it at Costco.