Tuesday, December 29, 2015

My Son Is a Great Example, Thank You


This has been bothering me for an entire week…

My first reaction was to scream into a pillow about how asinine people can be. Then I wanted to post something on Facebook, but I didn’t want to embarrass my son (who is no longer active on Facebook but his friends are).  And it was only about a week ago that I made a #yesallwomen post on Facebook about an ass that catcalled my 23-year-old daughter in a suburban neighborhood and followed her for about a quarter mile in his truck.  I didn’t want to start to look like a ranting mom.

But damn it, this is really bugging the s#!@ out of me.  So, I’m sharing here.

First you need to know that my son, who is 20 years old now, is genuinely a nice guy. I was going through old report cards and teacher notes as I winnow down paper files, and the theme was consistent:  “…nice, quiet boy who perhaps takes too much too heart, very sensitive. Lots of friends. Happy child.”

Okay, so, there you go.  That’s my son in a nutshell.

Then there’s this:

He and I were just casually chatting about the world and how people can be real jerks sometimes.  Then he and my daughter, who both worked in a local supermarket (he has for the last 3.5 years, she only could stand it for about a month), said, “Mom, you have no idea of how often the people around here (West Windsor, NJ and Newtown, PA) are rude and condescending.” And then they each proceeded to tell me a string of “bad customer” stories.  His included a few doozies, including one where customer threw a loaf of bread at one of his friends behind the bakery counter because she didn’t know where to find capers.  The guy threw a loaf of bread at her and called her a “stupid bitch.”

I myself worked in a supermarket, a different one, as a part-time job when my full-time job wasn’t paying me enough to live on early in my career, and I do remember how rude some people can be.  So I started to tell both of my kids that yes, there are a lot of rude people, but so many more people who are nice, but we tend not to remember or remark on the nice ones, because, thank goodness, they are in the majority, and we only remember what is terrible and unusual.

And then my son shares this:

“Well, you’re probably right, but when I was just starting working at the store, and was going to school and working there, some man pointed at me and said to his daughter, ‘Do well in school or you’ll wind up like him.’”

So, my son, who was working to save money (he was in high school at the time) while going to school was made an example of what not to do.  There are sooooo many things wrong with that-- it makes my blood boil.

First, and most personally, my son takes things to heart, even when he says he doesn’t. I’m sure that while he says the man made him angry, there was a part of him that was hurt, too.

Second, who the hell puts down someone working for a living?  When is someone working EVER a bad example?

Third, I have a number of friends who work in retail. The snobbery inherent in the comment made by that man is disgusting.  I wonder what he does for a living that has warped his brain to the point that he believes it is correct to look down on someone and, worse, share his stupidity aloud.

Fourth, what a terrible father he is.  If his daughter was older, she was surely embarrassed, or should have been, by his commentary. If she was younger, what a sad example she has for a father.  Poor kid either way.

Fifth, and on a more positive note, this story made me think of my own father. He had a tough life. His father died when he was very young, during WWII. His mother had to send my dad and his siblings off to live with relatives while she found a job and had money to support them. According to stories he shared over the years, during that time he lived without a lot of supervision.  He met a lot of people, some down on their luck, a few very well off, and a lot in between, though mostly not well off.  Remember, it was during the Depression years. He was exposed to all kinds of people and their behaviors during a tough time in our nation’s history and in his own. 

Yet, my father came out of it all with a true appreciation for individuals and the paths they take, the choices they make, and how their lives evolve.  He always said to me, “I don’t care what you do for a living, just do it well.”  (I love too that he taught me early on that I could have a career—pretty ahead of his time.) 

He would talk with the garbage truck drivers as easily as his colleagues at the office. He would show equal respect to police officers, street sweepers, and doctors.  I grew up really truly believing that every job exists for a reason and that people gravitate to work they can enjoy and feel good about.


So, I promise not to rant to often about the stuff that happens to my kids as they become adults and have to deal with the crap the rest of us are dealing with on a daily basis.  But I couldn’t keep from commenting about the jerk in the supermarket who had no right to make my son feel less than when, in fact, my son is so much more than.  

My son is a very handy example of a real man.  I’m proud of him everyday.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Sparking the Spirit


When I was a kid, I accepted that my grandmother, who loved a clean house, had a small, ceramic Christmas tree on a table in her living room.  It was a Christmas tree, so there was acknowledgement of the holiday, and also acknowledgement that her children were grown and the primary reasons, as far as I could see, for anyone to have an elaborate tree, had grown up and moved away, creating little reasons for trees of their own.

Like so many things in life, I never imagined I’d not have a Christmas tree in my house.

2012 was a very challenging year for me on many levels.  Among so many other things going on, I felt overwhelmed by the notion of dragging out the Christmas decorations, trying to decide between tree options (live that could be replanted, live that was giving its life for our amusement, and fake), and decorating the tree. 

You need to understand, too, that my kids are very creative and every year, decorating the Christmas tree is NOTHING like in the movies.  At our house, it turns into a constant, fluid, flowing set of skits, rifts, impromptu roasts, and sometimes-hysterical chaos.  So yeah, I wasn’t up for it in 2012.

But at the last minute, two nights before Christmas eve, I was enveloped by a sense of nostalgia and guilt.  How many times did my parents not feel like “doing Christmas?” I wondered.  So in the freezing cold we drove to the place we always got our trees and in the howling wind, I pointed to a pathetic foot-tall thing and insisted we get it into the trunk.  The kids protested.  I overrode them.

We got the poor relative of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree into the living room and I hand-selected the few ornaments that were so special that it wouldn’t be Christmas without them.  Then we attempted to decorate the little bastard.

“Ow!”

“Ouch! Damn it.”

“Son of a bitch!”

“I told you this tree would suck!”

“What the hell?”

Apparently, the tree was part cactus.  We were literally bleeding all over it trying to put the ornaments on.

We laughed so hard we were now crying on the Cactus-mas tree. 

Game over. 

We left the ornaments on that we managed to airlift and drop onto the sickly branches and called it quits.

Then, in 2013, we were in our new home.  We went to the Christmas tree farm and picked out a beauty.  A cut tree, 8’ tall.  Picked it out in 3 minutes flat.  It was perfect.  It was placed neatly in “the perfect spot” in our living room and remained up for several days after Christmas.  It was so pretty.

And then came 2014.  It has been a crazy, roller coaster year.  Mostly good, but not all good, and certainly even the good was not streamlined.  It’s been a year of learning, let’s leave it at that.  Translation: it’s been an exhausting year.

So I asked the kids (who are 19 and 22), do you care if we don’t have a tree this year?  I mean, I’ll get a little tree in a plant stand so there’s “a tree” but do you care?  I texted this question so they replied in kind.  “No, we don’t care.”

Except they did care.  So on December 19th, they both said they thought it over and really wanted there to be a tree here. 

But you have a tree at your dad’s house, isn’t’ that enough?

No, we need a place to put all the presents, and we need it to be under a tree.

“Do you care if it’s real or fake?”

“No, but it can’t be that 12” thing you tried to pawn off on us in 2013.  It has to be tree height, not a pseudo bush.”

Marc volunteered to go to the storage unit where he was convinced we had a fake tree.  He returned with a big plastic box marked “Fielding Christmas” but there was no tree.  “Hon, I think we sold it at the garage sale,” he offered.  I told him I thought he was right.

“Can you just go to the store and pick up a small, table-top, fake tree,” I asked him.

“Sure, I’ll do that,” he said.

So on Sunday, December 21, I woke up and emptied out the plastic box of its Christmas decorations, placing them just in the kitchen, dining room, and living room, sparing the rest of the house.  I was pleasantly surprised that Marc had brought my two favorite decorations:  the 3 wise men and a ceramic reindeer.  The two things that I would feel badly about not having up at the holidays, despite my apathy.

And strangely, the Christmas spirit started to take root.

I worked for a few hours in my studio and when I came down, I noticed Marc had bought the two remaining grab bag gifts we needed for my brother’s house.  I thanked him, and then he said, “Did you see the tree?”  I’d completely forgotten that I’d asked him to pick it up.  I figured it would be in a box for me to inspect.  Nope.  He’d put the little tree up on the living room table in the same bay window where the massive tree had stood the year before.  He’d decorated it and put a pretty tree blanket beneath it, covering the tabletop.  I was so strangely gleeful.  I said, oh, you decorated it too.  Thanks for putting the decorations in the bag on the tree too.

He looked perplexed.

You know, the ornaments in the bag in the plastic box.

Still he looked puzzled.

Then I looked more closely. The ornaments were just simple silver balls.  So I thanked him and went to the plastic box and pulled out the ornaments in a small gift bag.  Just a fraction of the many ornaments we’d collected over the years.  And here’s the Christmas miracle part…the ornaments that he’d put in the bag were my very favorite ornaments:  the bumble bee, the wire heart, the rose heart, the ornaments with the kids’ names on them, and probably my favorite, a dough wreath with a photo of my favorite pet ever, Addison, the boxer I had when I was first married.  That ornament was a gift from two of my colleagues at work.  It was the one thing, besides the reindeer and the wise men, that I was feeling badly about not having in the house for Christmas.  And now, there it was on the tiny tree in the window.

I’m reading a lot about being and staying balanced, and trying very hard (seems oxymoronic) to balance my chakras, particularly the first and second ones.  At Christmas time, I was feeling stressed and trying to calm myself by taking things one step at a time and trying to choose wisely between what had to get done and what I could live without.

How grateful I am that the man who means the world to me knew me better than I knew myself.  That in simply simplifying the madness of the holiday season down to a few decorations, a tiny tree, and a handful of ornaments, I could reclaim my vitality and a sense of joyfulness in the world around me. 

I now understand what my grandmother knew all those years ago:  the longer you live, the less you need to rekindle the Christmas spirit.  You just need a few special sparks.


Sunday, December 14, 2014

I'm Terribly Sorry

A friend’s father passed away Monday, so on Wednesday I ordered a gift tower of breakfast treats from Harry & David to be delivered on Friday when she and her husband had people staying at their home.

On Friday, I received a call from Harry & David telling me they were sorry, but there was a delay and the gift tower would be there on Saturday morning instead. Was that okay? I said it was.

On Friday evening, I received a voice mail from Harry & David. There was also an email.

The voice mail asked me to call because they needed more information to process the order. The email said the gift tower was no longer available. Which was correct? Keep reading…

I called and was told that they were “terribly sorry” but the gift tower was indeed still available and would ship out “expedited” at their expense for arrival on Monday or Tuesday. [That means Tuesday.]

I said that was unacceptable, as my friends’ family members would be gone by then and now I had to go out [time expense] to purchase something for them to replace what Harry & David had promised to take care of for me. She said she was “terribly sorry.”

I said that I didn’t understand the repeated delays. That’s when she shared “what really happened.” Make sure you’re sitting down because this is good…

To paraphrase this robot who kept repeating sorry-ness on behalf of Harry & David, “You see, we’re on the west coast and that’s where the package is. But the sympathy cards, well, there are no more here, they’re on the east coast. So we’re waiting to get them here so we can ship out the order.”

I said, “Are you kidding me? So you mean to tell me that at Harry & David there is no one who could take a piece of paper that looks anything like a card, write the note I typed into the computer form, and send it in the package?”

“No,” was her response.

“So Harry & David would rather disappoint a customer, i.e., me, who orders from you quite frequently, than to take the extra step to fashion an expression of sympathy to go in the package.”

“I’m terribly sorry,” was the response.

“Okay then you leave me no alternative. You don’t sound ‘terribly sorry’ and I have no confidence that the package will ever arrive, so please cancel the order and send me an email confirmation so I know this has been done.”

“Yes, I can do that,” said the robot, and she added, according to her program, “I’m terribly sorry.”

“Well, I will be saying something about this online and I won’t be ordering from you anymore because it’s not just the package that didn’t get there on time. It was the way I chose to express my condolences and the timing of that expression that I was entrusting to Harry & David —that’s what I purchased. I was counting on you to deliver on your responsibility, and you didn’t. I now longer trust Harry & David and won’t be purchasing from you anymore.”

“I understand and I’m terribly sorry,” the robot said as we hung up.

By the way, there was no offer of anything monetary to express apology for the botched order. In fairness, it wouldn’t have changed my mind, but for the record, there was no offer to go along with being “terribly sorry.”

The cancellation email didn’t arrive so I called the next day. Another customer service person cheerfully said she would send the confirmation email and apologized for it not getting to me.

“Did you get it yet? I just sent it,” she said.

“No.”

“Wait a few seconds, it should be there.”

“Nope.”

“A few seconds more, any second now…”

“Nope.”

I said I’d look for it later. Perhaps it was trying to sync up with the east coast system to make friends with the sympathy cards there.

After 20 minutes I called back and another customer service person apologized for my frustrations (this one seemed to actually understand that all of this was costing me time) and said that she had to go talk with a supervisor, because they don’t actually have a cancellation email.

When she returned to the call, she said her supervisor would send a customized cancellation email that would look like an order but would say “Cancellation” in it. I could hardly wait.

This person offered me 20% off my next order because apparently if you have to call because of issues, you get a discount she told me. I reminded her I wouldn’t be ordering from them again.

In 5 minutes the “customized” cancellation email arrived.

Harry & David, I’m terribly sorry for your loss.


Post Script:  Got a lovely box of truffles from Harry & David today (12/22/14).  No note inside but the label on the outside said "With our apologies, Harry & David."  Well that was classy.  I accept, Harry & David, but I don't want to waste a perfectly good post so it will stay along with this P.S.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

A Mole by Any Other Name

What's that on my neck?

I've had skin tags for as long as I can remember. When I was about 45, I started to get red spots too. Today, a black mole appeared on my neck where nothing had been yesterday.

Quick, to the bat cave. Google it. Black mole.

WebMD: Melanoma can take the form of dark colored, flat, irregular moles.

Is it flat?

Wait, there was a mark on my leg the other day. I thought it was a bruise.

Oh no! I shouldn't have joked when my daughter asked what the mole on my stomach was when we were sharing a room in NYC the other night. I laughed and said it was a tick that had to fall off by itself and I keep forgetting to put Vaseline on it. Her horrified look made me laugh and shift gears, "Rach, it's just a mole."

But now "just a mole" is not so funny. Because there's a new, black mole on my neck.

Is it flat? No. Its very rough. What does WebMD say about a new, black, rough mole?

Suddenly a series of doctor visits and procedures flash before my eyes.

What is that on my finger? What? The mole fell off! Am I bleeding? Oh this isn't good.

Wait, it's not a mole, is it? No, it's...just...a piece of something black.

Something that blew off the road while I was driving the convertible this morning.

It's going to be a very different day.

Perspective, what a concept.

Saturday, May 31, 2014

"Being" a Woman in the US

The #YesAllWomen posts from last week made me reflect on "being" a woman.

It’s very challenging being a woman in the US, because there’s so much “being” to it. Men just seem to “be” without working so hard at “being.” The messages from our society, filtered in large part by the media, are so mixed for women. Be sexual but don’t be a slut—or a virgin. Be beautiful but don’t focus on your looks. Be brilliant but not too much. Be kind but not a push over. Be strong, but don’t be a bitch, never mind, don’t be strong, you’ll be a bitch. Embrace who you are, but don’t look over 30 doing it. And on and on…

Men just seem to be able to be without any judgment, or far less of it.

Or so it seems right now.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Sadly, In America

I read something that disturbed me very much this morning. It was a news story about a New Mexican woman who was coming back to the US in December 2013 who was (allegedly) repeatedly strip searched and sexually violated by the Customs and Border Protection authorities and the hospital staff at University Medical Center of El Paso who examined her.

By the way, that’s not how the authorities are casting it—that’s my interpretation of what this woman, who is identity is being kept private—just like a rape victim’s identify is kept out of the media. According to the legal complaint the border authorities and the medical staff at University Medical Center of El Paso thought it was appropriate to:

1. Have government agents strip searched her and made a visual and manual inspection of her genitals and anus.
• No drugs found
2. Then they subjected her to an observed bowel movement
• No drugs found
3. X-rayed her
• No drugs found
4. Then THEY THEN SHACKLED HER TO A TABLE(!) inserted a speculum into her vagina and performed a rectal exam on her
• Still no drugs
5. So they shoved 2 hands in her vagina to keep searching
• Still not satisfied, they did a CT scan
6. Still no drugs
• Wait for it…
7. Even though these searches were all against the will and without her consent, the Medical Center billed her more than $5,000 for her
repeated rapes by their staff. They called the rapes “services.”

This 54-year old woman has not been able to have relations with her husband or go out in public after this traumatic series of sexual assaults.

Here’s the story I saw on Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/06/border-cavity-search_n_4907225.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

And here’s a link to the legal complaint, it’s more detailed than the 7 points above and I warn you, you will be sick to your stomach at how these agents and doctors treated this woman, what they did to her, who watched, how it was not done privately, etc. http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/Doe-v-elpaso.pdf

Oh, and I’m writing about this on International Women’s Day. How fucking lovely.

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

2013 Was a Year of Learning. A Lot of Learning...

2013 was a challenging year, personally and professionally. I learned a lot. About me. About other people. About expectations. And about assumptions. At my company, DBE, a few of us have started referring to 2013 as the year of the assumption. Which means, as we are a learning organism, 2014 will be the year of communication and understanding.

On the challenging side of the business, the changes that I started to put into place in 2011 had some positives and some areas where improvements were still needed. 2012 was a year of digging deep into myself to see where the issues that were keeping us from experiencing “real” growth lay. In 2013, I turned the magnifying glass elsewhere, and, with the aid of some new power players, kept uncovering all kinds of issues and areas for improvement.

The team is rocking and we’re about to start a wave of hiring to staff to the levels we need, in the places we need them, for the growth we are experiencing. That feels good especially when I look back on what it took to get from “there” to “here.” I’m encouraged by what I’ve learned about people. If you look hard and closely, you can find the right ones to work with you. I feel very lucky for the ones I have now—and they know who they are because I thank them just about every day.

As the year draws to a close, and not wanting to jinx anything, it looks like 2014 will be at least 50% ahead of 2013 in terms of revenue and profitability.

2013 was very stressful, even when things were going well, and it definitely was a tough year for my body. First it was a series of problems with the nerves in my mouth, requiring repeated root canals and oral surgery. Then in the spring, my digestive system went haywire. In preparing for testing, I learned that a person can develop lactose intolerance (I thought it was something one had a birth—or didn’t). Once that was resolved, I injured my left knee (ripped muscle) and then had problems with both knees (they’re on the mend). Then I had a solid week of not being able to sit, stand, or walk right from extreme lower back pain (I literally jump out of bed every morning since I was a kid…one morning, my legs were ready but the rest of me wasn’t). As the year wraps up this evening, I am thankful that I can enjoy food again, and I am walking normally on flat surfaces (stairs are still a comedy show). It makes me really appreciate the saying, “When you have your health, you have everything.” I’ve taken steps to improve how I balance my energy and have joined the gym right across the street from the development where I live.

Speaking of which, one of 2013’s stresses was the move from New Jersey to Newtown, Pennsylvania. The company is still based in Plainsboro, but the new house is about a 25 minute commute. It’s lovely here in PA and the people are very congenial. Though the move was crazy with all the usual nonsense that I’ve come to expect from moving, once we were in, all has gone relatively smoothly. The views are wonderful, the neighbors are friendly, and I love being able to cook in the new kitchen (the oven in the last house kept setting off the smoke detectors).

Wil graduated from high school and started college this year, and he didn’t like that we moved further from his part-time job, college, and girlfriend, so one of 2013’s challenges was adjusting to seeing him less because he stays at his dad’s house more often to be closer to the rest of his world. He doesn’t like driving on highways (he got his Aunt Barbara’s driving anxiety genes, which I suspect were all directly transferred from my mother who made driving an extreme sport every time she got behind the wheel) so he doesn’t stay here often, and that is a big transition for me at a time when there’s a lot of other transition in my life.

Rachel got an apartment in Brooklyn in August and that was a major stress too. Not just for her, but for me, riding shotgun. OMG. She can make me look like a calm person. I learned a lot from her apartment hunting escapades so when the time comes for an apartment in NYC, I have a better sense of what to expect.

For 2014, I’d like to keep working hard and seeing my company grow. I want to be an even better mother, girlfriend, and friend to those in my life, and I want to feel like I’m making a positive difference in the world, even if it’s only on a small scale.

I’d like to focus more on my personal—not just professional—development. I’ve learned (and am still learning) to set and achieve goals in incremental steps. Success happens best when you have the time and opportunity to reflect on the little wins along the way so that you can leverage them to win more. So in 2014, I’m going to focus on learning to meditate for health, to find time to write a little since I’m not going to find the time to write a lot, and to exercise regularly to reduce the stress that my life generates and to feel better while I’m enjoying this ride.

Good-bye 2013. Hello 2014!