little soaps

While poking around a bookstore in London on my recent trip abroad, I came across a book about the environmental impact of tourism.  As you can probably predict, the book did not have all that many positive things to say about the environmental impact of tourism.  Maybe this will be surprising, but I had never actually given all that much thought to this issue, other than when warned that cruise ships were destroying our planet's oceans by dumping laundry detergent, human waste, and all manner of other horribleness into the water as people floated around eating all they can and playing shuffleboard or whatever else you do on a cruise.

I didn't need to read the book to realize that flying around in a jet-fuel burning jet, or staying in a hotel where they launder my sheets each day and I use a brand-spanking-new mini-soap every morning might not have the best environmental impact.  Not to mention the other dire statistics I'm sure were included about the impact on developing nations of safaris and other fun trips. 

Here is the thing.  We recycle.  We have a compost bin.  I put my green peppers right into the shopping cart rather than into the extra plastic bag provided in the produce section.  I buy the hand soap in the huge jug and refill all the soap dispensers in our bathrooms, then recycle the big jug once it's empty.  It's not like I don't care about the environment.  But.  I freaking LOVE going to a hotel and unwrapping those little soaps to wash my face each day.  LOVE IT.  Which brings me right to the cornerstone of my views on activism: Do what is easy first.

(picture of soap from a Seattle hotel from here,

which also poses an interesting solution to the mini-soap problem)

on messing up at work

(via)

Generally, I don't mess up at work. I'm not trying to be all full of myself, it's just true.  I'm good at my job.  I generally don't miss things.  But yesterday, I had a big work mess up.  It was horrible.  By the end of the day, after hours of trying to fix it, I felt like I had been wrung out like a dishtowel.  I was getting ready to pack my stuff up and head home, when my phone rang.  I stared at it for a second, then decided that since I was there, I had to answer it.  I got a "please stop by," and when I stopped by, I got two new assignments.  Small assignments, but still assignments.  For those of you keeping track at home, yes, I got 2 new assignments with one day to do them before vacation.  Blech.

A friend of mine stopped by my office today and said, "I saw you in there talking to [the guy who called me].  You looked so SAD."  It's probably true.  I felt like crap, and I don't really handle making mistakes all that well.  After I met with phone call man, I just went home.  I brought all the work with me, with the intention of doing it from home.  I just needed to get out of the office.  But the mistake of yesterday was pretty much all I could handle in one day, so I just gave up and went to bed (after drinking 2 beers and leaving my glasses at a local pub).  This morning I got up, got myself ready for day 2 of mistake fixing, and came to work.  Leaving all my notes and papers that I had brought home on the hall table by the door.  Nice one.

So in trying to do phone call guy's work today, I had to try to remember what we discussed without my notes.  Which means that I looked at the issue for New York, but forgot to look at Delaware as we discussed.  Mistake number two.

For a perfectionist, this adds up to a pretty unbearable work week.  And yet.  I am trying to keep perspective.  It's impossible to do this job without making mistakes.  So here is what I try to do/remember when I make them.

happy new year

Well, I have been a bit remiss about posting.  I guess that technically, I have kept my promise to myself, because I mentally committed to posting to this blog every workday.  And with maybe one exception, I have.  So I didn't post last week because I didn't work last week.  But I have been missing it, and I'm back at work, so here I am.  With a really, really long post.

(I struggled to find a Baby New Year/Father Time picture that wasn't creepy,

to symbolize how I tend to view the new year.  This is where it would have

gone, had I been successful.  Instead, I chose this generic, but glittery, picture from here.)

It's a new year, which means it's New Year's resolution time.  Can we talk about that, please?  I am a resolution-maker.  I am constantly making resolutions.  I'm a big self-improver.  I think it stems from the fact that I am naturally an introspective/introverted person.  It makes sense, right?  If you spend a lot of time on your own, thinking about things, you become more aware of your Self (or at least, you spend a lot of time thinking about your self).  If you are more aware of your Self, you tend to dwell on the things that you wish were different, or the things that would make you happier.  Hence, the self-improvement urge.  Maybe it is not this way for everyone who is a loner by nature.  But it is the case for me.  So I have some New Year's resolutions.

the associate interview, part II

Since I know you are dying of curiosity.  The review went fine.  I told them I got boring work that I didn't like.  They were all, "Oh, of course, blah blah blah."  Maybe it will get better.  Maybe it won't.  But at least I did it.  At least I said something. 

They did manage to work a criticism in there, but you know what?  I didn't even care!  IT IS SO LIBERATING NOT TO CARE ABOUT SOMETHING!  Now, really, I do care.  I actually try really hard to do a good job at work, even though I'm not crazy about it.  It's just who I am.  I want to be the best.  At everything.  Or I don't want to do it at all. 

But I have never experienced the feeling of having someone say to me, "You know, you could really work on X," and thinking to myself, "Oh that's interesting.  I'm not doing that."  Especially since the "X" in this case was "more weekend face-time at the office, rather than doing the work from home, just so people see that you're around."  Yeah.  That's what I thought.  You wouldn't do it either.

:-p