Live from Toronto: seduced by life on the Gold Level.

I've had sort of an Inception trip to Canada this week - a business trip nested within a pleasure trip. 

Tuesday I flew to Toronto to meet dear friend Jenny and her family and was treated to an exquisite, serene birthday dinner at The Globe Bistro.  Then a pre-dawn flight Wednesday to Vancouver for an amazing executive education conference (UNICON).  What a city!  Got to know the team better, met lots of great new exec ed colleagues from all over the world, and was served the freshest sushi ever by the cutest Japanese waiter ever (sorry but it's true).  Then back across the continent yesterday to Toronto for aforementioned friend's 50th birthday party, which happens tonight, and back home tomorrow.

Hotelwise, it's been an all-Fairmont week.  The convention was at the Fairmont Vancouver, my own hotel was the Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver, and at the moment I have been hogging a wing chair all morning in the Gold Level Lounge at the Fairmont Royal York here in Toronto (Chicago's closest correlate would be the Drake).  Candice has just brought over an unsolicited pot of tea and a macaroon.  Oh, and now she's handed me a recipe for the macaroons which have evidently been made here since 1929.  Proper old-school macaroons with about a 5:1 ratio of coconut to sugar.  Classical music is playing, it's nearly empty in here, and the only thing that would make it perfect is my husband sitting in the other wing chair nearby.

Rough life:  To do list = ice the champagne.

My most pressing task today following through on the foolish promise I made to procure a bathtub's worth of ice in order to chill the 30 bottles of Veuve Cliquot Rose champagne that have been purchased for the party tonight in the Governor General Suite.

In my former life as a consultant, I frequently had the opportunity to travel this way (minus the champagne, unless John Stanek was along).  It has been many, many years since I have been treated in this manner for several days in a row.  Not surprisingly, it is extremely comfortable, relaxing, and pleasant.  So seductive, in fact, that you begin to question why you shouldn't have attractive, friendly people bringing you tea and macaroons and bacon all the time.  You can see how, over time, this might skew your Weltanschaaung. (1)

Although I haven't been away from home this long on my own for a very long time, I do like to take advantage of forced solitude to do things I wouldn't normally take the time to do.  Or sometimes, NOT doing anything, which is nicest of all.  It's been a great week and will be capped by a wonderful birthday celebration tonight, in a beautiful place, with people very dear to me.  And tomorrow, I will be aiming all my energy straight out the front of the plane as we aim toward Chicago where my heart seeks its answering call in Sean and the kids.   Here's to taking opportunities when they arise, being grateful for them, and then being able to come back home with a similar sense of gratitude.

(1) I am trying to shoehorn "Weltanschaaung" into common parlance since it makes you sound obnoxious and is really just fancypants for "worldview."  Also "zeitgeist," "germane," "converse" (not the shoes), and "corollary."  I would LOVE to start using one of my friend Tracy's pet words primarily because of its rhythm in German - "Kraftwagenanlage" - as soon as I can determine what it means.  But it might be fun to just start peppering conversations with "Kraftwagenanlage" just to see what happens.  Conversely, I would like to encourage people to ramp down usage of "plethora."  There are, in fact, a plethora of people of saying "plethora," and it's really gotten old.  Time to pick some other obnoxious words.

PS - A guy who looks pretty much exactly like Salman Rushdie just came into the Gold Floor lounge and made himself comfortable.  Wonder if he likes champagne?  Maybe he could crash the party.

this week's good/bad thing ratio: 13:6.

13 good things:

1.      Upgrading from contract status to a legit, full-time gig as a program consultant for Kellogg Executive Education.  The get-a-job dance appears to have worked again, thank goodness.

2.       Discovering the wondrous Bookman’s Alley bookstore in Evanston.

3.       The 1844 Bureau of Indian Affairs “ American Red Man” book on sale therein.

4.       Taking a paid lunch for the first time in years.

5.       An abbondanza of good lunch places in Evanston, including Pret and the over-the-top Edzo's Burger Shop (27/30 Zagat rating).  Parenthetically, next time you're tempted to say plethora, stop and say abbondanza instead.  It's saucy.

6.       Homemade strawberry shortcake for dinner.  I do it once a summer,  and today was the day.  Yum.

7.      Discovering the NeilMed Nasal Rinse (cousin of the neti pot) is indispensable for flushing Sour Cream 'n' Onion Pringles out of one's nose.

8.      Watching Cabaret, loaned to me by my friend Tigh, Mr. “Video Junction.”  He is my TV dealer, responsible for my Mad Men addiction.

9.   Attending a raucously fun block party of some friends of ours and surprising myself by downing an entire bottle of prosecco.

10.   Pulitzer Prize-winning Tribune columnist Mary Schmich wrote me back today.  I think she might be my new girlfriend.

11.   Lounging on our new patio furniture on our new patio.  I napped so long a bird almost pooped on my cheek.

12. The weather turning human again!

13. A chocolate soda.  And then another one a few days later.

Funny how many of the good things have to do with food and drink...

6 bad things:

1.       Laughing with a mouth full of Sour Cream ‘n’ Onion Pringles and inhaling them into my sinuses.  That seasoning stings something awful.

2.       Learning that Bookman’s Alley will close sometime in August.  Wah!

3.       Andy Griffith died.

4.       Ernest Borgnine died.

5.      The inescapability of Joel Grey's creepy Cabaret face.  He haunts me night and day.

6.       Daring to drink my out-of-date skim milk at work.  There will come a day of reckoning, and soon.

Sad but true: why women still can't have it all, in today's Atlantic.

Have feminists sold younger women a bill of goods? 

An outstanding article causing much buzz in today's Atlantic, worth the several minutes you will want to set aside to read, on why women still can't have it all, by Anne-Marie Slaughter, first female policy planning director at the State Department under Hillary Clinton. 

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-can-8217-t-have-it-all/9020/

Speaking as a mom trying to balance life and work since forever, I found hard truths on every page.  See what you think and let me know.

20120315: this week in random awesomeness

Every week yields its catch of random awesomeness (or awesome randomness), for which I continue to be thankful to the universe.  I humbly offer you the catch of the week, and bid you the awesomest of weekends...

work: my month in retail

I have just concluded a monthlong stint as a cashier at a local office supply store.  It has been a profoundly humbling and eye-opening experiment in work.  After going quietly nuts in the house, I walked in and applied for a job.  Amazingly, it took three interviews to land a job that paid well under $10 an hour.

The experience taught me a few things:
1.  There is dignity in all work - as much dignity as you bring to it.
2.  The two hardest jobs for me, hands down, have been retail and waitressing - far more difficult than anything I have done as a consultant.  I have nothing but respect for the people who do those jobs cheerfully and well.
3. People will follow a good manager; a bad manager, by contrast, makes everyone jumpy and miserable.  The fact that this is news to me means I have been very fortunate to have good managers until now.
4. Many of my coworkers were young single parents who did not have the luxury of walking away.  I applaud them for working and trying to get ahead, but I couldn't help feeling that for some of them, this was as far as they would get.  My heart goes out to them.
5.  My favorite part of the job is connecting with each customer, if only briefly...even the crabby ones.  If I can bring them around, it's a win.
6.  Retail hasn't changed much in the 30 years since I worked at Zehender's Pharmacy in Oak Park.  It's still standing, serving customers, putting away inventory, cleaning, etc.
7.  I am not physically cut out for standing up for 6 hours at a stretch.  Ultimately, that was the dealbreaker for me.

So last Friday, I turned in my uniform shirt and thanked the assistant manager for the opportunity; I will resume my role as a happy customer.  I am grateful to have had the chance to get out and experience that kind of work, if only for a short period of time.  It doesn't pay enough to balance out the foot pain, and it doesn't use enough of my skill set to be satisfying long-term, but it is always useful to push myself out of the comfort zone.  I have no regrets.  Now the real job hunt begins!

Work: What's the "Mom Job" Worth?

ALL parents, not just Mom, do countless unpaid jobs.

Something hit me like a ton of bricks after posting recently about needing to find steady work.

The jobs I currently do are dwarfed by a huge job--a career, really-- that I somehow completely missed.  I chose this career over 16 years ago and currently work a minimum of 71 hours a week, with 24/7 on-call availability, for no pay.  It's by far the most important, rewarding, challenging, and fulfilling job I have had the privilege of doing.  I'm a mom of four school-age kids.

What's it worth financially?  SalaryWizard's "mom job" salary wizard gives options for stay-at-home moms, working moms, and dads.  Given the different jobs I do as a stay-at-home parent in the 60630 area code, if this were a paying gig, I'd apparently pull down over $128,000 a year (see my paycheck below).  That's pretty sweet to contemplate.

It helps greatly to be reminded, in the midst of my work angst, that choosing to be on deck for our families - whether we have outside jobs or not - is real work, as valid a choice as any other, and that for me to forget about or discount the value of the choice Sean and I made long ago to have one of us always home to raise our family would be a major mistake.

PS - Many thanks also to friends who sent helpful work-related links my way - much appreciated and thank you for your kindness!

It's that $88,000 of overtime I love to see.