Long Overdue

Yikes - guess I hadn't realized it had been so long since I had updated this thing. There hasn't been much excitement going on in my neck of the world, but I suppose I have a story or two to share.

This past week, I took an overnight trip to Springfield, our little state capitol, for a work-related conference titled Work, Welfare, and Families. Having organized many a conference myself, I admit I'm pretty critical about these types of things and have high expectations. Overall, the conference was rather disappointing and not quite what I was expecting. Too few breakout sessions with two many panelists in each and not enough time to discuss the topic they were to be presenting about. However, the lunchtime speaker - Beth Shulman, was incredible. Beth is a lawyer and consultant focusing on work-related issues and is the author of The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans. I took furious notes during her presentation and will share some of the statistics from her talk in my next post as soon as I get my folder back that's currently circulating around the office. I could've sat and listened to her all day, despite the fact that she painted a very bleak picture of the American workforce. The morning plenary session with Sylvia Allegretto was good, too. Sylvia is an economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in Washington, D.C. and lectures about the state of working America. Her presentation was loaded with all sort of economist jargon and line graphs which were a bit intimidating, but she was also quite fascinating. Conference aside, I wish I had time to tour around Springfield a little more - it's really a charming, picturesque little town. The photos here are taken from my cell phone, so they're pretty grainy. On Tuesday night, the colleague who attended the conference with me and I ate at a restaurant called Capisce? that had a great view overlooking the entire city. The food wasn't that good (I'd give it a C-) but the view balanced it out. It really was nice to get out of the office and do something a little different, but spending 24 full hours with a colleague you find rather irritating can really be a test to your patience. Too much talking! I really enjoy a little quiet time when I'm alone, I suppose.

In other work-related news: things are starting to pick up just a little, which is excellent news. The new Program Coordinator (the position I put in a bid for, as you may recall) is very easygoing and nice to work with. That's also a good thing, obviously, because I would've really been irked if they had hired someone who had micro-managing tendencies, among other things.

On a different note, My Seester turned 29 this past Monday, March 6th. Happy Birthday, Seester! It seems like just yesterday that I made her bust her lip open while pulling me on a sled on our ice-covered driveway in our childhood home, but ahh.... that was many moons ago, now. And, of course, let's not forget the many attempts at playing Barbies where we'd get as far as the set-up and getting them dressed and "ready" & I'd be ready to quit. She hated that. Growing up, Seester was very imaginative (much moreso than I) and was great at acting out little Barbie and My Pretty Pony dramas, but I was really only interested in the grooming, set-up, and staging. Sorry, Seester! To this day, she still looooves to give me a hard time about on just about every occasion that our childhood memories come up. We love to reminisce.

I was checking out this blog webpage again, and discovered this link. For those of you who appreciate amazing guitar playing, you must check this out! (Attention Snappo-Dad, this means you!) I wish I would've followed through on my piano lessons I started when I was in grade school. My musical "talent" didn't get me very far. If Mrs. Freund hadn't been so mean during my piano lessons, I probably would've continued with it. When you're 8 years old, a piano teacher who cries and screams when you play the wrong notes can only make a kid stand so much, you know?