My “Process Improvement & Effectiveness Meeting” was easy today. Cassandra’s topic of “Archiving, Retention, and Dispositioning” was the only thing on the agenda, and it took up the entire half hour.
In fact, we ran out of time with her only halfway through her presentation, so we have next meeting’s agenda all taken care of.
We had our book club meeting today at lunch, with only me, Sharon, and Suzanne attending. Books were not discussed at all.
I attended a “Roundtable Meeting” with my director (my manager’s manager’s manager) today. He hosted about 15 people, and it was basically an opportunity to ask him questions about anything that was on our minds. And there was plenty.
As often happens in these type of IBM meetings, the conversation is all “thinker” (in terms of Myers-Briggs) stuff, while the real elephant in the room is all, or at least a lot of, “feeler” stuff.
The meeting was supposed to end at 2:00, and at 2:05 we were still in there, with the people having the room after us pacing outside the window, and once opening the door to give us “the nod” that it was their time for the room.
Finally, I made the comment, “There are people waiting for the room,” to which my director made a flippant response. Back at my office, I devised, and later sent, a note to him giving him some personal feedback about it. All at the risk of committing “political suicide,” I know.
To my surprise, relief, and appreciation, I received a response from him thanking me for the feedback. His note started off with, “This type of feedback is invaluable to me, and would be to anyone who personally can do some introspection and can accept some criticism in order to (hopefully) improve.” Whew!
I stopped by Edible Art on the way home and got two slices of birthday cake for Robert’s birthday: vanilla pound cake with buttercream icing.
After that, I stopped into the combination Florist and Hallmark Shop in the Avent Ferry Shopping Center.
This is only about the third time I’ve shopped in this store, as I usually get my cards at the Factory Card & Party Outlet store (where all cards are $.59), and only get cards here when I’m either in a hurry or want a really special one for which I’m willing to pay over $3.00.
Today, I wanted a nice card for Robert’s birthday, and my shopping experience was not unlike my previous two.
When I got home, I wrote out this postcard, which I will mail tomorrow. It feels a little bit like postsecret.com.
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I came in today and your first words were, “That’s $3.73,” not “Hello” or “Welcome.” Before leaving, I did get a “Have a nice evening,” but never a “Thank you.” In fact, I said, “Thank you.” Though, for what, I’m not quite sure. This isn’t the first time this has happened to me shopping here. But, it is the last. |
Avent Ferry Florist |
I wish I could be a fly on the wall when this card is received. Some employee will probably get it, read it, and rip it up before management can see it.
Robert arrived a little after 6:30, and he opened his card and birthday gift, which was a photo calendar I had made using pictures from our Fall Colors Trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway in October.
We had dinner at Irregardless, and everything was absolutely delicious.
If you sign up at their website, they give you a free bottle of wine with dinner up to a week before, or a week after, your birthday. You get to chose any bottle of wine, from which they’ll subtract $17.00 for the price. They have several choices that are exactly $17.00, so you can get a free one. We got a Merlot.
We had their bruschetta for an appetizer, which was killer. We each had a house salad with their award-winning lemon tahini dressing. Of course.
For an entree, I had “Athena Chicken” and Robert had him a big ole ribeye, cooked rare. Both of us were very pleased with our choices, and we had some great dinner conversation.
We stopped for coffee at Helios, which was delicious, and where we found the staff even “playful,” in spite of the late hour. Yippee!
At home, we split one slice of the “edible art,” which was out of this world for some pound cake.
We got in the bed and did a very challenging crossword puzzle from last week’s Independent, and then did the TMI thing.