Category: Life in the cube

Dear Coffee, I love you

by Karen, posted in Angels, family, friends, Life in the cube, Work from Home

coffee“Before coffee, I’m up, I’m moving around, but I’m not awake,” said some wise soul somewhere. Until I typed the words, I actually couldn’t remember where I’d heard it but I just did. Peter Falk uttered this truism in one of his Columbo episodes.

Truer words (about me) were never spoken.

How did I get here?
College.

My other favorite coffee quote is from a Tom Hanks in You’ve Got Mail: 

“I love Patricia. Patricia’s amazing. Patricia makes coffee nervous.”

🙂

I have surrounded my coffee drinking with cool stuff. (Why should the tea drinkers have all the fun rituals?)

  1. A Keurig, so that I never have to wait more than 30 seconds for my coffee.
  2. Coffee straws (see picture), just because I like them.
  3. Cute mugs, like the Dunkin Donuts one pictured here. I have several of these because they remind me of my Dad (who was a doughnut maker once) and my friend Sheri (who bought me one I really wanted one year for my cubicle at work when I really didn’t need another coffee mug).
  4. My little coffee warmer. Okay, so I have two of these: one in my home office and one next to my bed. They make me happy.

My current favorite coffee is Green Mountain’s Spicy Eggnog, about which I often wax rhapsodic. Alas, it is a seasonal flavor.

So, I buy it by the case.  My friend Traci told me about Big Cat Coffees and the pricing there is FAB.U.LOUS.

Please participate in the poll below:

 

 

Comment below with your favorite coffee flavor!

Tranquilize your (winter) writing

by Karen, posted in Life in the cube, NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo2014, Work from Home, writing

IMG_9996We need to take care of ourselves while we are spending endless hours writing at our computers. Just because the NaNoWriMo has officially ended, if you’re like me, you have much writing still to do to get your project ready to see the light of day. We need to do things to keep our thoughts tranquil (OMG! My shoulder is killing me! I don’t have enough time! I’m frikkin’ starving!!) and our anxieties (OMG! I’ll never finish! This is garbage! I have to start over again!!)  at bay.

Here are some ideas for tranquilizing winter writing:

  1. 1. Get an swesome flannel sweater vest at Old Navy  that is as comforting as a BLANKIE.  🙂
  2. 2. Have you seen those microwaveable body blankets? Grampa’s Garden sells them. They are pricey but worth it. Zap for 7 minutes in the microwave and cover your desk chair with it (or slip it under you or over you if you are writing on the couch). You will LOVE it.
  3. 3. Get a Himalayan Salt Lamp. They create a nice atmosphere and ambiance when you are writing, reportedly purify the air around you (to counteract all the curse words you may be saying or writing!) and make a handy little night light if you need nap. 🙂

Every bit of heat and comfort helps, don’t you think? Does anyone have something to add to my list?

 

 

Minions!!

by Karen, posted in friends, Life in the cube, movies, Party for one, Work from Home

photoIf you love the minions and are trolling for minion products to surround yourself with happiness, I am here to lend you a hand.

Walmart has small packages of minion stickers in the card/party section and boxes of minion bandaids in the (you guessed it) the bandaid section. Both are inexpensive, under $3. The Women’s section has one-piece pajamas that are covered in minions, and it has a hood that consists of a minion head with glasses for $20.  (HINT: Makes a great Halloween costume!).

The Dollar Store has these cups (look to your left) for (you guessed it) only $1.

Target has some very cute T shirts for about $8-$9. I found one in the Women’s section, several Boys’ section (even a Halloween-themed one), and a couple in the Girls’ section. They also had some very cool knit hats and little stretchy gloves for boys, but alas, they only came in size 4-7 which was too small for my head and hands.

Pay attention when you cut the tags off of any minion clothing you buy; some of them have cool cardboard minion TAGS. I have used them for book marks, and I also have one taped to my computer monitor at work.

Why not? It’s the little things, right?

 

 

 

 

 

Stealth birthday party

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, friends, Life in the cube

Does someone have an upcoming birthday at work? Do something different and fun! It only takes a little bit of effort: a card, a happy birthday balloon, a quick graze-your-way-through-the afternoon potluck can make their (and your!) day.
Don’t tell the designated person in advance. This adds a layer of stealth that makes it all that much more fun. 😄

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Pi(e) Day

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, friends, good grief, Karen's Kitchen, Life in the cube

sheriNational Pie Day was January 23rd this year. I missed it. The “other” pie day is March 14. This Pi Day, the math Pi Day, is the second chance for those people who missed the first one. You know, like me. Like I do every year.

Every year for the past several years in the weeks leading up to January, my friend and colleague Sheri and I have talked for days about how we should make pies for Pie Day, how we should bring them in to work and share them with everyone. How we should get everyone else to make pies and bring them in too. How we could make both savory and sweet pies and have it be a potluck meal. How much fun it would be!

And then we didn’t do it.

So we’d start talking about the March Pi Day, the do-over chance, and why don’t we do it that day instead?

And then we didn’t do it.

Things get in the way. We’re too busy. We’re too tired. We don’t have all the ingredients. Yada yada.

This year I have been thinking about Pie Day alone, because my friend Sheri died last August. I toyed with the idea of making pies myself this year in January.

And then I didn’t do it.

As March 14th approaches, I decided that my heart wasn’t in it and I was going to let the day pass unobserved, just as I usually did. Except then my daughter came home from school and announced, “Mom, we’re going to make pies for Pi Day.”

From the mouths of babes, right?

Cardinals

by Karen, posted in Adult children, Angels, family, good grief, Life in the cube, restaurants

cardinalI recently spent a few minutes (okay, hours) trolling the Facebook news feed and something caught my eye. Someone (sorry, I have no idea who or what or when exactly) posted that every time you see a red cardinal, that is a sign that a loved one that has died is saying hello to you, or something to that effect.

That’s nice, I thought.

Then a funny thing happened. I started noticing red cardinals.

  1. My friend Christine at work has a tapestry hung up in  her cube that depicts multiple red cardinals.
  2. I went to the movies to see The Nut Job (skip this one-see The Secret Life of Walter Mitty instead) and the bad guy’s side kick was a red cardinal. A squat, mean, nasty caricature of a cardinal, but still a cardinal.
  3. Today, I went to brunch at The Good Table in Cape Elizabeth and there in the foyer was a fake tree with cardinals all over the branches.

So, maybe this is just that phenomenon that happens to you when you are pregnant and you suddenly start seeing pregnant women everywhere you go.

On the other hand, this is the time of year that my mother and father died (mom 2/29/96 and dad 3/15/98) and so I am already thinking about them.

Maybe they are thinking about me, too.

The story of Sheri

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, friends, good grief, Gratitude Journal 2013, Life in the cube, Midlife Crisis

sheri blogMy husband’s friend Bob died earlier this year.

My friend Sheri died earlier this week.

Early in 2006, Sheri became my mentor at my new job. Shortly thereafter, Sheri became my friend.

To be fair, she was pretty much everybody’s friend. She was just one of those warm, kind, caring people to whom others gravitated.

Need a hand with something? Sheri’s hand was the first one offered. Totally messed up your knitting project? Sheri would have it all straightened out for you in a snap without making you feel like you were the most inept knitter in the world (which, you know, you really were). Need support for your idea to bring in pies to work on National Pi Day? Sheri was right there, brainstorming how to help you get this awesome idea approved.

Sheri wasn’t feeling well last month, so she went to see her doctor. She thought she might get an extra day or two off from work. Instead, she got a terminal cancer diagnosis.

This is what I said to her:  Does that suck or what?

This is what she said to me: Did I tell you I got a llama? (Sheri knew that I loved llamas). His name is Lucas.

She heard about a llama that needed a home, so she put a pasture in her front yard and said, “Sure, we can take him.” Lucas came to live with them and spent time with the goats that she also took care of. One day when she went out a little late to feed the goats. they ran over to her and knocked her down. Lucas the llama saw this happen. He rushed to her side and stood there with her, watching over her, until someone came to help her up.
Lucas knows that he is a better llama for having known Sheri.

I am a better person for having known her.

Some random memories of Sheri:

  • The. Best. Knitter. Ever.
  • Raised rabbits
  • Was part of the Common Ground Fair every year
  • Loved Dunkin Donuts raspberry ice tea…and their chocolate chip cookies
  • Lover, rescuer, and caretaker of animals, big and small
  • Loved to troll the Portland Farmers Market every Wednesday morning
  • Browsed the cookbooks and the knitting books with me at Longfellow’s
  • Timed our breaks so we could eat and take walks together at work
  • Put in a big garden every year and put up the spoils

“They lived and laughed and loved and left.” James Joyce

Mentoring: top ten tips

by Karen, posted in Life in the cube, Midlife Crisis, quest for the best, Work from Home

officeIn my first career, I managed a restaurant. Over the years I trained a lot of waitresses, ice cream scoopers, grill cooks,  supervisors, and even managers. We had a three step process that worked really well.  First, she watched me do it. Next, I watched her do it. Finally, she did it by herself, but I was nearby; present but not hovering, taking more and more steps back until she was efficiently operating on her own.

That was it.

Now I am in a different profession.  I have been a trainer/mentor for many colleagues over the past several years. I recently have been on the trainee side of the equation again (hel-lo) and it’s helped me remember what is helpful and what is not so helpful from this side of the table.

  1. Listen to your trainee
  2. Choose your verbs carefully: “Struggling” is unkind. “Learning” is another word that expresses the same phenomenon but doesn’t leave your trainee feeling crushed.
  3. Rookies make rookie mistakes. Let them.
  4. Tell your newbie that she is doing a great job. Tell her frequently, every day, even it if’ it’s overstating things a bit. It’s very motivating.
  5. Adult learners process information differently (read: more slowly) than they did in their earlier decades of life, and they might be coming face to face with this difficult truth in a new and uncomfortable way. Give them frequent little breaks to absorb what is coming her way.
  6. Allow a little time to debrief at the end of the day.
  7. Chocolate helps. A lot. In large amounts.
  8. Introduce some fun; fun is good.
  9. Remind your newbie that you were sitting in the same seat that she is now when you first started, and look at you now!
  10. Never forget rule #9 yourself.

Clearing clutter (continued)

by Karen, posted in Life in the cube, my one word, Work from Home, writing

I decided to take two days off from the computer and surprise! When I logged into my email today there were 97 messages.

Ninety. Seven. Messages.

I blame myself. I have subscribed to so many food blogs (for recipe purposes) and department stores and restaurants (for coupon and discount purposes) and writers and agents blogs (for writing tips and hey, maybe someone will publish my book!) that I have no time to actually read, and thereby potentially benefit from, them.

I have created a monster. With 97 legs. Now what?

Here’s my plan: If I receive an email and don’t have the time or the desire to read it at first glance, I shall just delete it. If I notice this happens more than once or twice, I shall unsubscribe.

That’s my story and I”m (hopefully going to) stick to it.

Addendum: The email count morphed up further to 102 in the time it took to write this post. Heavy sigh.

Staying in touch

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, friends, Life in the cube, local fun, relationships

Have you ever left a job and said, “Hey, let’s keep in touch!” with a fellow coworker? Or perhaps the reverse happened: a friend from work moved on to greener pastures and you were sad when you heard her say, “Hey, we’ll keep in touch!”

Why? Because let’s face it: how many of us actually do that? Especially when you don’t live that close to each other. Live, like an hour or so away from each other. Since I am a person who is ‘directionally challenged’, I don’t drive to places that I don’t know how to get to if there’s any way to avoid doing so (yes, I’ve heard of GPS. Don’t care.).

Well, I have a friend who moved on, and we have done that “keep in touch” thing. It’s been more than a year now, I think. How are we doing it? I think the credit really has to go to my friend Shawna, because her idea was for us to meet for lunch once a month.

And we have. It helps that her new job is only about 20 minutes from where I live (and is mostly a straight line to get to :)) and that there are a lot of restaurants within a five-mile radius of her office. Even if there were none, though, it would certainly still be doable. Hey, maybe I can’t find my way to unfamiliar places, but I can pack a bag lunch!

We also meet periodically for other things too: we saw a show (Legally Blonde) at the Ogunquit Playhouse (we love the plays that Sally Struthers graces!) and we go to Merry Madness in Portland’s Old Port every year (this will be our 6th year going, weather permitting). (I think).

Keep in touch with your friends. Good ones are hard to find.