A blog theme ....

My husband giggles his little maniacal laugh of victory as I sit starring at the computer saying ... "I need to find a theme for my blog." He is delighted with himself for warning me that I should not start writing a blog without a theme and is now relishing in my frustration as I try to find something to write about each day.

But I think I have an idea at last ... a word of the day blog. Yes, since the goal of this blog is to force me to write somewhat more creatively than my hum-drum work emails, I thought it might work if I formulate my blog in the same manner that creative writing exercises are formulated. The plan: I will use the word of the day dictionary to provide an input stimulus for the day's blog, and see where that takes me. Let's give it a week and see where we end up!

http://www.reference.com/wordoftheday

Today's word: penchant \PEN-chunt\, noun
Inclination; decided taste; a strong liking.
Origin: Penchant comes from the present participle of French pencher, "to incline, to bend," from (assumed) Late Latin pendicare, "to lean," from Latin pendere, "to weigh."

As I am sure will not surprise you, today I have a penchant for coffee - although today differs from most days, as today I have not had any coffee [audible gasp from the audience]. I've decided that the addiction was a bit too strong recently and that I should take a short hiatus from my regular java and switch to tea for a few weeks. The result has been a very subdued Carolyn - it feels a little like I'm swimming through my day. My husband of course keeps asking me what's wrong; this less perky version of his wife is odd to him. We'll see how long this experiment will last, as "The penchant is strong with this one."

To sleep or not to sleep that is the question

Saturdays are tough for me. Despite waiting all week for the weekend, the lack of structure and the potential for a full day of ambiguity tends not to rest well with me. And although consultants are trained to deal with high levels of ambiguity, when it comes to my personal schedule, I like to have a plan. If there's no plan, I get bored, and then I typically just end up sleeping.

And I'm a great sleeper.

My sleeping has recently acheived a whole new level, thanks to the new polar fleece bed sheets we received this xmas. They are the fuzziest piece of heaven you will ever find. But they exacerbate my inability to get out of bed on even the best of mornings, and with no plan in place, Saturdays become a special struggle. The fact that Eric just yelled "It's cold out today." further amazes me that I am actually out of bed as we speak. Next step for the morning, the transition from bathrobe to actual day-clothes .... my trials and tribulations continue ....

Why do the banks of the world's economic leader suck?

The biggest difference we have found in moving from Canada to the US is banking. Banking in the US sucks. The reason it sucks is that the US was slow to consolidate its banking - and so they had lots of little banks with little money (ah the irony) to invest in innovative banking projects.... banking projects like "on-line banking".

Yes. The US is new to on-line banking.

You could imagine my surprise when I first saw Citizen's Bank's newest advertising campaign - "We NOW have free on-line banking." Seriously. That was their new ad campaign. Can you believe it? I was agast, although much less surprised when I found out that their ATMs are also still in dot-matrix font. And so I find myself somewhat frustrated today as I try to pay my MC bill on-line only to be told that I need to set it up at bank (which incidentally I have tried to do twice already) and in need of a good rant about the incompetencies of the banks. Good thing they aren't running the world's economy .... oh wait ....they are .... [insert looming sense of doom here]

Plans thwarted ....for now.....

As any good consultant, I have approached my "80 postcards to Adolph" project with true dedication and some good thought put behind it.

I've set an objective.
I've mapped out a timeline.
I've engaged key stakeholders in the process.
I've enabled my team with tools (see fun tracker on your right).
I've motivated my team with my energy and commitment to the work.

Yes, I've laid out a perfect project plan that should undoubtedly execute without flaw!

HOWEVER ....

Like any typical client, my father has thwarted my perfectly sculpted project plan. Yes. You will note that the tracker has not yet moved since yesterday. Why, you might ask? Monday should have a boom of new mail, you say!? I was expecting my postcard to arrive by Monday, you spout! And, well, it is possible that your postcard has arrived; but of course I cannot provide you with an accurate project update today (bad consultant, I know!) - because you see - Dad never bothered to check the mail. [gasp!]

Yes, there was a sale on sheets today at the mall. And apparently a sheet-sale trumps mail-checking in the hierarchy of prioritized to-do items. Of course, as is typical with consultants, once again I have clearly not understood the prioritization of my client's needs, and thus have failed to adapt my plan accordingly. And so we must wait until tomorrow for the postcards to be received. [exasperated sigh]

The Genesis of the blog ....

Why have I started writing a blog, well, I would be hard pressed to say that it is because I don't write enough in my day. In fact, I write an obscene amount of emails every day. And when you begin to write that many emails, not out of pleasure but out of necessity, you begin to find short-cuts to facilitate your communication. My short-cut is:

"Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns."

I write this one line dozens of times a day. In fact, I will often find myself having written this line three or four times in the same email. I then have to go back and edit it - I take out the "please", or I substitute "questions" with "comments", or I flip it to say "If you have any questions, please let me know". I effectively entrench myself deeper in my shortcut, and I find myself unable to write anything else.

And so, I have started this blog to push my ability to write by focusing on the pleasure of writing rather than the necessity.... well, that and I wanted to create a fun little postcard tracker for my dad's 80th birthday. Unfortunately, I haven't been structured enough to come up with an actual focus for the blog, and unlike my husband, I'm okay with that - I'm sure I'll come up with a theme soon enough. Suggestions welcome!