# of planes missed, lifetime to date: 3 (or is it 4?)
# of trains missed, lifetime to date: too many to count
# of meetings/appointments I've been late for: WAY too many to count
Basically, I'd rather be 2 minutes late than 5 minutes early. Yesterday, though, that philosophy cost me 5 1/2 hours in the airport and an extra day of PTO.
My flight to Alabama was at 1:11. I could have left at 11am, but thought I could push it to 11:30. After all, security lines, especially in Terminal 2, shouldn't be too crazy during the middle of the day - WRONG! It was 11:40 by the time I headed out to drive to my secret parking spot at the Irving Park Blue Line. When I parked, I briefly thought, "I should probably take a cab from here. Okay, if there's a cab coming, I will take it." But, the only cab I saw just kept driving on by. So, off to the "L"...at least that will save me 15 bucks! At this time, it's 12:04. Yes, it's times like these that I am living life by the minute...watching the clock every second, thinking about what my Plan B is. I think, "If the train hasn't come by 12:20, I'll definitely go back down and get a cab." But, the train came at 12:09 and we get to the O'Hare stop at 12:33 (exactly a 24 minute train ride...mental note for next time).
When I get to the terminal, the main security line is the longest I've ever seen it. So, I proceed to the "secret" security line at the far end of the Terminal 2. No luck: Security lady says it's closed. But, it was only closed in the "grocery store lane" sense...people were still going through the line, they had just turned off the light to any new customers. This is where I made my key mistake...I should have begged and pleaded for them to let me in to that security line. Alas, I headed over to the next "secret" security line in Terminal 1. Immediately upon entering that security area, which had a long line that was only getting longer by the minute, I texted my mom (at 12:39, 22 minutes before boarding cut-off): "May have pushed it a little too close today...security line is LONG."
During the very long 21 minutes in the security line, others and I observed a bunch of (ie, 8) TSA employees standing around, not appearing to do much of anything. Had I not been afraid of going to airport jail for taking a picture of the security area, I would have a picture of these folks to post for you. Yes, these agents may may have been on a legitimate break or had reached the end of their shift, but it's not good for customer perception to be standing around while we waited for service in a long line that only had ONE lane open.
Once I get up to the one guy who's checking boarding passes and ID's, it's exactly 1pm and I ask if I can sneak in to the "Employee and Military" line, which he kindly allows. But, I'm in Terminal 1 at this point and need to be in Terminal 2, so by the time I get to my gate, it's 1:06 and I ask "Is it too late to make the flight to Huntsville?" The gate agent responds, "Yes, it is. Are you Jennifer Morrow?" Why, yes, yes I am THE Jennifer Morrow. Who just arrived 5 1/2 hours early for her 6:54pm flight =)
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Laundry Day
The upside to not having laundry in my unit? Having 8 washers and 8 dryers just an elevator ride away! And, whenever one of those washers or dryers is broken, you just have to put a note on it and it gets fixed the next day! I've been putting off doing laundry for 3 weekends, and since I'll be in Alabama next weekend, there was no more procrastinating. 9 loads of laundry (5 loads were sheets and towels) and only 3 hours later, I'm done! Now it's time to watch Giuliana & Bill, Desperate Housewives and Mad Men season finale. Ahhhh.....Sunday nights.
Annie Liebovitz
Last week, the documentary "Annie Liebovitz: Life Through A Lens" was on PBS. I am cleaning out my DVR today and I wasn't sure I wanted to spend 90 minutes watching this, so I considered just deleting it. SO glad I didn't! Aside from showing a ton of her awesome photographs, (which happen to be so much more than celebrity photographs) it was a history lesson and also a life lesson: on family and love, opportunity and mistakes made and corrected.
Great photographs can stir so much emotion and provide so much food for thought...a picture really is worth a thousand words.
Great photographs can stir so much emotion and provide so much food for thought...a picture really is worth a thousand words.
Friday, October 15, 2010
What to do?
In the accounting/finance line of work, recruiters call all the time with job opportunities. I'm perfectly happy in my job 90% of the time (and the other 10% are just annoyances, not anything really bad), but one job that came across my desk recently looked interesting. Which made me think, "what's wrong with my current job that makes this one sound interesting?" I've been in my job for almost 3 years now and even though there's always something new each quarter, each quarter really ends up being the same.
So, should I look for a job in a different department? Should I seek out some new responsibilities but still stay in my current position? If the latter, how long do I stay in this position? Wait until my boss moves on to something else and then try to move into her position? That would mean that I'd be doing basically the same job from now until who knows when! So, I know that something needs to change, just not sure what needs to change or how much it needs to change.
I feel silly spending all this time thinking about what needs to change at work when, at the end of the day, I have a job that I enjoy, that pays well, that gives me lots of vacation time and flexibility and that when I leave at the end of the day, I (i) feel satisfied that I did a good job and that my efforts were appreciated by those around me and (ii) a job that I don't really take home with me. Well, except for times like these when it's all I think about day in and day out.
So, basically, I've just been around the world and back during the last week or two about my job, analyzing and over-analyzing all the potential scenarios. But, I've got too much actual work to do, so I'll put this on hold until the 10-K is filed at the end of January (or until some other opportunity comes up that I think about again).
In the meantime, I'll focus on the positive and when those annoyances creep up, I'll focus on "rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man" because life is full of things that are more important than work. Like Hannah said at one of our GC nights: "Jesus wants your heart, not your accomplishments."
So, should I look for a job in a different department? Should I seek out some new responsibilities but still stay in my current position? If the latter, how long do I stay in this position? Wait until my boss moves on to something else and then try to move into her position? That would mean that I'd be doing basically the same job from now until who knows when! So, I know that something needs to change, just not sure what needs to change or how much it needs to change.
I feel silly spending all this time thinking about what needs to change at work when, at the end of the day, I have a job that I enjoy, that pays well, that gives me lots of vacation time and flexibility and that when I leave at the end of the day, I (i) feel satisfied that I did a good job and that my efforts were appreciated by those around me and (ii) a job that I don't really take home with me. Well, except for times like these when it's all I think about day in and day out.
So, basically, I've just been around the world and back during the last week or two about my job, analyzing and over-analyzing all the potential scenarios. But, I've got too much actual work to do, so I'll put this on hold until the 10-K is filed at the end of January (or until some other opportunity comes up that I think about again).
In the meantime, I'll focus on the positive and when those annoyances creep up, I'll focus on "rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man" because life is full of things that are more important than work. Like Hannah said at one of our GC nights: "Jesus wants your heart, not your accomplishments."
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Jailbait
Last night, Cindy and I saw Jailbait, a play at Profiles Theatre, the wonderful storefront-ish theatre around the corner from my house. The show is about two 15 year-old girls that sneak in to a night club and hook up with some guys in their late 20's/early 30's (see critics reviews here and here).
KEY THOUGHT #1: I mostly liked it because it was funny and entertaining, although it did make me stop and think about one thing: how plays will resonate differently with every single audience member based on what that audience member has experienced in life. Whether you are a young adult (there was a pretty young girl there), a parent of a young adult (like the one who took a phone call from her 10 year-old...see more below), family member/friend of someone who made some poor decisions in their early adult years, or if one was/is that poor decision-maker. It just made me think that you never know what's underneath anyone's exterior, what they've gone through/are going through in life.
So, about the lady (Lady A) in the last row: She received two phone calls during the show...the phone wasn't even on vibrate, it was on full ringer mode. First of all, seriously? In a 50-seat theater? But afterward, another audience member (Lady B) approached her about her rudeness and words were exchanged:
Lady B: It was rude of you to have your ringer on during the show
Lady A: It was my 10 year-old daughter, I had to answer
Lady B: Well, then you shouldn't have come to the theater then if you
needed to take phone calls during the show
Lady A: You must not have a child. And, it only rang once, so what's the
big deal?
Lady B: No, it was twice, and you actually talked on the phone to her
After they had separated and Lady A was walking out the door with her husband (Guy A) and the couple they were with, Lady A proceeds to just bad-mouth the outfit and looks of Lady B, saying she looked like a Labrador (although Cindy thought Lady A called Lady B a whore...still up for debate, I guess).
Then Guy A is talking to some other couple as they're walking away and the three of them are exchanging words (although the Guy in Couple A could have taken Guy A easily). And then, Guy A comes up to Cindy and me, and says "Do you want to snip at me, too?". Uh, no, we're just here for the entertainment of all the grown ups acting like they're on a playground.
KEY THOUGHT #2: All of that makes me think, can't we all just get along? Yes, it feels gratifying to tell someone that they've done something wrong....we feel like we've corrected an injustice (I particularly like honking at pedestrians who walk after the "Don't Walk" sign has flashed and leaving these notes on people's cars when they don't park correctly). But, in saying and doing those things, I'm just trying to relieve myself of my anger and annoyance, but it only relieves me for a minute or two, and after that, I've forgotten about it. Or else it just leads to more anger and annoyance, especially if I continue to tell the story over and over to anyone who will listen.
And why do we even call anybody out on anything in the first place? To get them to correct their behavior? Is my honking at them or someone politely saying "You know, that was kind of rude to answer your phone during the show," going to be effective at all? Maybe somewhere down the line, at Lady A's next night out at the theater, it will. But in the grand scheme of things, it's just not worth my time and effort to try and correct everyone else's misbehaviors. Well, at least not strangers' misbehaviors...to my closest friends and family, I will still offer my opinions :)
KEY THOUGHT #1: I mostly liked it because it was funny and entertaining, although it did make me stop and think about one thing: how plays will resonate differently with every single audience member based on what that audience member has experienced in life. Whether you are a young adult (there was a pretty young girl there), a parent of a young adult (like the one who took a phone call from her 10 year-old...see more below), family member/friend of someone who made some poor decisions in their early adult years, or if one was/is that poor decision-maker. It just made me think that you never know what's underneath anyone's exterior, what they've gone through/are going through in life.
So, about the lady (Lady A) in the last row: She received two phone calls during the show...the phone wasn't even on vibrate, it was on full ringer mode. First of all, seriously? In a 50-seat theater? But afterward, another audience member (Lady B) approached her about her rudeness and words were exchanged:
Lady B: It was rude of you to have your ringer on during the show
Lady A: It was my 10 year-old daughter, I had to answer
Lady B: Well, then you shouldn't have come to the theater then if you
needed to take phone calls during the show
Lady A: You must not have a child. And, it only rang once, so what's the
big deal?
Lady B: No, it was twice, and you actually talked on the phone to her
After they had separated and Lady A was walking out the door with her husband (Guy A) and the couple they were with, Lady A proceeds to just bad-mouth the outfit and looks of Lady B, saying she looked like a Labrador (although Cindy thought Lady A called Lady B a whore...still up for debate, I guess).
Then Guy A is talking to some other couple as they're walking away and the three of them are exchanging words (although the Guy in Couple A could have taken Guy A easily). And then, Guy A comes up to Cindy and me, and says "Do you want to snip at me, too?". Uh, no, we're just here for the entertainment of all the grown ups acting like they're on a playground.
KEY THOUGHT #2: All of that makes me think, can't we all just get along? Yes, it feels gratifying to tell someone that they've done something wrong....we feel like we've corrected an injustice (I particularly like honking at pedestrians who walk after the "Don't Walk" sign has flashed and leaving these notes on people's cars when they don't park correctly). But, in saying and doing those things, I'm just trying to relieve myself of my anger and annoyance, but it only relieves me for a minute or two, and after that, I've forgotten about it. Or else it just leads to more anger and annoyance, especially if I continue to tell the story over and over to anyone who will listen.
And why do we even call anybody out on anything in the first place? To get them to correct their behavior? Is my honking at them or someone politely saying "You know, that was kind of rude to answer your phone during the show," going to be effective at all? Maybe somewhere down the line, at Lady A's next night out at the theater, it will. But in the grand scheme of things, it's just not worth my time and effort to try and correct everyone else's misbehaviors. Well, at least not strangers' misbehaviors...to my closest friends and family, I will still offer my opinions :)
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