~Thursday~ I forgot to mention yesterday, that on the way home, on that 8:15 bus, the Waffle House Lady was on her way to work. I always see her in the morning on the way home from work. She looks happier in the morning going home. I’m just saying…
Just now-christened Diarrhea-of-the-Mouth was on board this morning and talked non-stop the entire bus ride. Loudly. And I mean LOUDLY. She sat in the back and talked to two guys. Did I mention non-stop??? I thought, OMG if I lived with this woman, I’d be christening myself Turning Two Deaf Ears.
I taught a “Lunch & Learn” today called, “Twitter: Basic Use & Professional Use.” I was off my game a little, mostly due to the mistake of loading a back level copy of my presentation, which I didn’t realize until I hit the “Forward slide” button to not find a slide I thought was going to be next in the presentation.
Five affirmations were received afterwards from class evaluations received from attendees. The biggest affirmations to me, though, were the three people who came up to me after the class to introduce themselves to me. They were three other people who tweet on behalf of the university and follow the @ncsu_oit twitter account that I run for our organization.
After that, I had a late lunch in a restaurant that had a large-screen TV broadcasting the transporting of Ted Kennedy’s casket from Hyannis Port on Cape Cod to the J.F.K. Presidential Library in Boston.
A college co-ed being seated at a table next to mine said to the people she was with, “Ted Kennedy died???” I thought, “Uh, YA-AH. Like two DAYS ago. Whose bed has your bootie been in for the last two days, girl?”
I received several affirmations today, the first being in an instant message with my friend and colleague, Jen. I met Jen in grad school, and she put in a good word for me in getting my job here at the university. She’s in a “sister” department of mine.
(2:36:46 PM) ncsumarit: hey, can you let me know when you get back?
(3:21:32 PM) NCSUJohn: back now
(3:21:36 PM) NCSUJohn: ‘sup?
(3:21:58 PM) ncsumarit: I was going to have you look at something I wrote but now I’m not sure it’ll be needed
(3:22:03 PM) ncsumarit: will you be around tomorrow morning?
(3:27:25 PM) NCSUJohn: i’ll be here tomorrow and i’ll see you tonight
(3:27:35 PM) ncsumarit: oh awesome
(3:28:01 PM) ncsumarit: John you always cheer me up and I gotta tell you, I’ve been bummed lately- I’m so glad you’re coming to Mitch’s!
(3:29:28 PM) NCSUJohn: thx.. and i’m so happy to be working with you
(3:29:36 PM) NCSUJohn: in two weeks it’ll be a year!
(3:29:52 PM) ncsumarit: Wow, goes so fast!
(3:30:10 PM) ncsumarit: Seriously- I loved you being the STC prez and now I get you every day!
(3:30:26 PM) NCSUJohn: thank you, jen. i appreciate you.
(3:30:31 PM) ncsumarit: Oh, and I really wanted to tell you that things between out units have been better since you got here
(3:30:58 PM) ncsumarit: I think you’re a great intermediary (spell?)
(3:31:19 PM) ncsumarit: so in every way the communications in and out of OCC (Outreach, Communications, and Consulting, our organization) have improved
(3:31:40 PM) ncsumarit: I thought about this awhile ago and meant to tell you but forgot
(3:31:42 PM) NCSUJohn: wow.. NOW you’re making me blush!
(3:31:48 PM) ncsumarit: it’s made a HUGE difference, really
(3:31:53 PM) NCSUJohn: thanks!!!
(3:32:05 PM) ncsumarit: It’s all true, buddy. You’re welcome
(3:32:08 PM) ncsumarit: It should be said
And an affirmation from my friend Jeff, the artistic director of Manbites Dog Theater and fellow board member on the Manbites Dog Board of Directors, about my recent work on organizing our board of directors agendas, meeting minutes, and action items:
| John – This is excellent organization on minutes, etc. Thank you so much for all you are doing. xoxo Jeffrey |
And, finally, to end the John Martin Love Fest, I had an e-mail from a woman who has a PhD in Communications who said this about those absolutely tedious minutes I put out yesterday:
| You did such a nice and thorough job with the minutes. I felt like I was there. 🙂 Thanks. I know what’s involved and I very much appreciate your work. |
Sweet.
It’s been a hell of a work week, and after getting off the bus at home at close to 6:00, I took a nap from 6:00-7:30, and then headed over to Mitch’s Tavern for the combined STC Networking event and a celebration of my good friend Kim’s birthday.
Her sweet boyfriend, Carlos, had arranged a surprise party there, and we had a cake glowing with a dangerous number of candles on it when she came into the back room reserved for the events. My birthday card to her was a big hit.
It was great to catch up with a bunch of folks, as well as talk to one or two of the new folks coming into the Master of Science in Technical Communications this semester. One such conversation was with a guy named Neal, who had done an internship with The Onion, which I just found fascinating and had a lot of questions about. It reminded me of a podcast that I listened to a long time ago about the meeting in which all the writers sit around going through the many suggested headlines from which to write stories.
Also embedded in this soirée was five-sixths of the Salon—all but Anna present.
That hat-trick soirée ended at about 10:30, and I met Alex down at Flex for Trailer Park Prize Night. I never go there that early, but since I was so close to downtown and it wasn’t worth running home to go back out at my usual time of 11:30, I just went early.
However, to that end, by 12:20, I was wiped out and left before the 12:30 show started.