Quality Life Decisions Made Today
Working from home
Wearing cashmere sweat pants
Not wearing a bra
Eating a PB and banana sandwich for lunch
Paul Ryan Says He’ll Run for Speaker if Republicans Unite
So, this is interesting:
“The
father of three young children, Mr. Ryan also clearly did not relish
the idea of spending hundreds of days on the road raising money for
Republican candidates instead of spending time with family in his
hometown, Janesville, Wis.“I
cannot and I will not give up my family,” Mr. Ryan said. “I may not be
on the road as often as previous speakers, but I pledge to make up for
it with more time communicating our vision, our message.””
On the one hand, I applaud the idea that a dad would make time with a family a priority while seeking a big job. Especially a conservative. It feels like it has the power to change the cultural message around work/life challenges.
But I can’t help but wonder what would happen to a woman who uttered that same sentence? Would she immediately be taken less seriously? There is this weird expectation that women will OF COURSE put their families first, but then they are punished for doing so, even if they spend the same amount of time “on the job” as a man might.
Art Appreciation with Maddie
Maddie didn’t have school today but Sam did. So she and I went to MoMA to see the monumental Picasso Sculpture exhibit. I’d seen it with a friend earlier in the week, which was good — it’s hard to fully take in an exhibit while also helping a kid experience it. Seeing it with her after seeing it on my own was perfect. And boy did she love it. We got her one of the audio guides. I wasn’t sure if…
Art Appreciation with Maddie
Maddie didn’t have school today but Sam did. So she and I went to MoMA to see the monumental Picasso Sculpture exhibit. I’d seen it with a friend earlier in the week, which was good — it’s hard to fully take in an exhibit while also helping a kid experience it. Seeing it with her after seeing it on my own was perfect. And boy did she love it.
We got her one of the audio guides. I wasn’t sure if she’d like that, but she really got into it. To the point that she mostly focused on the pieces that had audio. She especially loved the ones that had audio geared toward kids. At points I watched her nodding along with the audio and then saying “Oh! I see it!” in response to something the curator was pointing out.
Seeing art with a kid is a revelation. Some of her observations were just amazing. Of a sculpture of a woman’s head she said “From this angle she looks kind, from this angle she looks crazy and from that angle she looks serious.” She also noticed that the gallery that had the sculptures from Picasso’s years in occupied Paris was darker (dark gray walls, dimmer lighting) than the other galleries and that it felt “scary.” Quote: “This room is a little like dum, dum, duuuuuum …”
She was less impressed with Andy Warhol’s Soup Cans. She stood in the dead center of the room, ringed by the paintings, and declared “This is dumb” in a voice loud enough that Warhol himself may have heard her. She did like the Marilyns.
At dinner she wanted to share her experience with Sam so we played some of the audio clips from the MoMA app. One of the kids clips mentioned Picasso’s idea that all children start out as artists, that the problem was how to stay an artist when you grow up. Maddie looked at me solemnly, with the wisdom of her nearly 8 years, and said “It’s hard.”
I am now Silver Medallion on Delta. First time in my life I’ve had airline status. Of course it’s baby status. But. Still.
I was working on an
email marketing campaign for a client. After sending the final draft for
approval, the client had some interesting instructions.Client: Remove the footer and it’s good to
go.Me: Which part is the concern? This type of
footer is pretty standard.Client: You can keep the address and phone if
you want, that’s fine.Me: Well, the important part is the unsubscribe
information. I can keep it pretty small, but it legally needs to stay.Client: Why would you put that in there? We
don’t want people to unsubscribe! You obviously have no idea how this works.
Oh my.
An Airing of E-Grievances
- People who respond to your email by leaving you a voicemail
- That goddamn red exclamation point
- People who spell your name wrong when they reply to an email from you, in which your name appears, correctly spelled, multiple times
- “Warmest Regards”
- People who change the default Outlook font from Calibri to Times New Roman because they think it makes them look more professional
- “Warmly”
- People who request read receipts in the year 2015, when we all know how email fucking works
- Any other email signature that includes the word “warm”
- Injudicious use of reply all
Co-signed.
Oh Dark Thirty
It’s 4:30 am MT and I’m in a car headed to DIA to get on a 6;15 flight to IND.
I’m trying to convince myself that since its 6:15 ET that it’s not that bad.
Wednesday Check-in
Obsessing over: Our cruise from Venice through Greece.
Working on: Not much. Refreshingly.
Thinking about Should I add more spa services to my cruise? (I know. Is this really a question?)
Anticipating: A six-week sabbatical, starting in 2.5 weeks.
Listening to: The A/C. Man is it hot in NYC.
Drinking: Sauv blanc.
And baby makes four ... 