On a good day I’d love to name paint or crayon colors.
On a bad day I’d like to select the scratchy music health insurance and other companies make me listen to in order to get answers that are not on the list.
Hope you’re having a great day! Cheers, Dee
Posted in Editorial
I remember tastes and smells from childhood, but also music. My dad played the violin and had me take it up very young (not as young as Montessori does now) so I grew up with classical music but big bands, Frank Sinatra (my favorite), and others.
When I think of moving near Washington, D.C I know the monuments, and all the weekend educational trips we took. I was too young to be hip but fell in love with Dave Mason, James Taylor, Carole King, Elton John. John Denver, even Johnny Cash who I adore now.
I remember standing in my mod kitchen, white wallpaper with funky daisies and a mod table and twirling chairs, and singing my heart out to “Tiny Dancer.”
Then it was Bad Company and Dave Mason, big time. Also Beatles.
In college it was ELO, Art Garfunkel, Jerry Jeff Walker, Pure Prairie League, Marshall Tucker Band and, wait for this, The Best of Bread. That was the girl thing we did in the dorms. Also we line danced, in the hall, best teacher ever from our B-Ball team, to who knows what. But all the gals danced.
Luckily I’ve evolved/devolved from that. As a former acoustic guitar student, started at age 50 with private lessons, I lean to Pete Seeger, Johnny Cash, Joan Baez (but can’t get the chords yet), Bob Dylan, CSNY, and even have an old song book from Peter, Paul and Mary.
Of course I’m limited by what I can play, but keep music I can’t play and even print out lyrics and try to map out the music. But I tend toward songs that tell a story, ballads if you will. With two or three chords came Puff, The Magic Dragon, or my first guitar song, Mockingbird.
Many years ago I led a tone-deaf trio singing Day is Done and Teach Your Children. Stupid kid got ahead of herself and tripped. Now you can give me a song and I can play it, provided I know the chords to play. I just see it in my head.
Should one play orchestral music for one in the womb? I wouldn’t know, except that my dad has always had a talent for music and the arts, and my mother became adept at cooking, never loved it, but was expert in accounting and near the end of her life doing volunteer work helping senior citizens do their taxes.
It’s funny that my husband and I have never talked about alternate lives, probably because we’re pretty stable together, especially given the circumstance of him being laid off last week.
Since I was five I always wanted to cook. Or be a lawyer. I never imagined the path I took or the man I met and married.
If he would have not been MENSA material (yes he’s been invited, never joined) he would have stayed on the farm but his parents made sure both sons went to college and got off the farm. They wanted a better life for their sons. I love them dearly for what they’ve put into these men, these leaders of people, their sons.
There is no loyalty these days with corporations, so there’s a brief blip here and young people (yeah, you’re really reading my blog) know that whatever you do, whatever you post, will be out there forever. Aside from dealing drugs, please try to do something you’re passionate about. If you learn animation Pixar may hire you. If you know math and science you’re headed to college and a great degree. Trust me. I tried to take shop in the 60’s and was forced to do home ec. Dee
I burst into tears several times today, for seemingly no reason. I’ve been very upbeat since the layoff six days ago. When my husband asked why, all of a sudden it came to me that all day he’s on the phone on interviews thinking of the future. New job, new town, new adventures.
I’m mired in the past, dealing with all the things he can’t because he’s busy finding a new job. I have to file for unemployment, find out how to keep our health insurance from running out at the end of the month, et cetera.
The information we received from his former employer was riddled with errors, including telling 25% of its IT force that they can’t call the company who will handle COBRA until AFTER their health insurance has lapsed. Great for a family with a sick child (not us, just a hypothetical). It’s not true, I called that company and got an estimate for monthly COBRA payments so we know our burn rate.
All in all, it is not fun. How much of one’s life is tied up in a corporate identity that all of a sudden goes “poof!” Since the first question of a new acquaintance is “What do you do?” it’s hard to say “Looking for work.” My solution, for myself, is “feminist homemaker.” People get a kick out of that one.
So for now we’ll just pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and start all over again. Cheers, Dee
Before last week’s layoffs I wanted to make mincemeat tarts and even have mincemeat in the pantry, but my muffin tins are in storage half a country away. Before, I would have bought muffin tins. Now, I won’t.
We’ll work our way through the frig, freezer and pantry as that’s what people do when there’s no income and expenses remain the same. I don’t know that I can get it down to $10/day but that was years ago. Maybe $15? That’s just grub.
My husband bought me a fur Cossack hat before Christmas and it doesn’t fit and I’d love to send it back and get the money but he says no. That was before.
I bought him $12 worth of undershirts for his birthday before Christmas. He bought me the hat. Zoe our dog bought me a $20 heater for the guest bathroom so I could take a bath as that room is not properly insulated. It’s where she gets a bath, too, so was not entirely a gracious gift.
Luckily we didn’t spend more than $200 on Christmas, including filet mignon for dinner, or take a vacation. Now that vacation time for three years is in the bank we just have to sign our lives away to get two weeks severance pay.
After that and insurance issues, the before is over, and our next step is 100% of our work and concentration. That’s what we strive for. As for me, I don’t ever want to think that I could afford a muffin tin yesterday, but not today.
I see the ceo of this company, $3 million dollars richer as of a week ago, cashing in stock before it plummeted and he canned 25% of IT staff and know that he’ll go about life without a care, while 57 families know their health insurance runs out at the end of the month and they only get 1-2 weeks severance. Also that in this economy and city it can’t absorb these layoffs.
We must look toward the future for ourselves and for those my husband has been taught by, and those he mentored, over the years. If I was in his field, (and not his wife) I’d like to learn best practices from him. There’s a reason MIT tagged him at age 15. He was living on a dairy farm and didn’t know what those initials meant but was in AP classes and driving his math teachers crazy, questioning everything.
After will be a good place, perhaps not in the mountains but somewhere we can thrive. In-between is the toughest place. Don’t worry, except you may hear from me more sporadically until we get settled. Cheers, Dee
There’s no crying in baseball; thanks, Tom Hanks, for that movie moment.
None here, either, for a layoff that stunned everyone including us, because after three years of hard work and more challenging assignments, my husband and 56 others were shown the exit door.
A category of fellow firees are all a bit shell-shocked, but people my husband has worked with over the years have come out of the woodwork, calling even from overseas, to help him find new work.
When he finally brought me home to meet his parents, his mother spent five days telling my how methodical he was, how difficult to live with. We had already agreed to be married (no engagement) but I needed to meet his folks and after one day, his Dad, on a heavy truck-related errand, asked him “when are you going to ask her? It’s OK with me.” His father and I don’t agree on politics but we have engaging dinner table conversations when we visit.
As to his mother, we cook up a storm together whether additional dishes for Thanksgiving or whatever we want to do. Whenever I tell her that her son is driving me crazy doing some project, she can now say “I told you.” He is methodical, but also genius, in that he can see something physical or in code and innately know how to fix it. As a kid, he put a microswitch in the grain bin to help his father, then a dairyman.
Some people stick with you through thick and thin. Thank you! Heads up to folks in Salt Lake, Houston, Austin, Scotland and elsewhere for helping us to find our next home. We’ll let you know the next episode. I know that loyalty is not something companies value, but lack of such on the corporate side won’t stop us in future journeys. Cheers, Dee
Posted in Editorial
Yesterday my husband and 56 other stalwart souls went to the chopping block, courtesy of a person who has never known hunger or lack of a roof over his head.
He waited until Tuesday to fire 57 employees using a scattershot approach, using Monday to go to his stock broker and sell off over $3 million dollars worth of personal stock at $22 per share, before it tanked to $7.71 yesterday and $7.51 today.
Excuse me, SEC, are you reading this? We’ll land on our feet, but in this economy it may take a while. One may fare better in a large bureaucracy than in a cult of personality, at least that’s what I tell my better half.
But the story is about buttons. My husband has many Stetson shirts and I send them to be laundered, because while my cooking is great, my ironing is not. They have these signature buttons that have fallen off and been replaced but now he has one shirt that makes him look unemployable with the various buttons that have been put on by the laundry.
I’ve written to Stetson several times and offered to pay for replacement buttons, because these shirts are work wear out west. So I got a package from an unknown person at an unknown address (yes, I’ve a thank-you note written and ready to go in the mail tomorrow) full of buttons! That has to be a good omen for 2012.
My husband and I don’t exchange holiday gifts but the dog did go to Bed, Bath and Beyond and buy me a $20 heater to warm the room so I could take a bath. But my best and most heartfelt holiday gift was the Stetson buttons. Thank you!
Yesterday was a tough day, with the layoffs, but we’ve gotten so many calls and referrals in less than 24 hours that I already see a light through the tunnel.
Buttons. Every call, email and letter is a button to make tomorrow a better day. I’ll never look at buttons in the same way. They’re individual gifts for which we’re grateful. Cheers, Dee
When I was young, I always wanted to find a mentor other than my parents, both very intelligent people. We moved as my father’s career progressed so I’d get to know a teacher for a year or two and we were gone.
Mostly I remember my music teachers, violin and general music when it was still taught in the classroom. Also one math teacher who taught me prime numbers in about 30 seconds. And we moved.
No-one moved me at one school as I felt they were two grades behind and they needed to catch up so I turned to sports. I was the slowest leg on the relay on our track team. Also I was on the gymnastic team with less than stellar results and no mentor.
Change again, moving back nearer our roots, and within a week of trying out for the gymnastics team in 11th grade I was captain and took my responsibilities seriously. My younger sister was on the team and she gave me grief every day.
For over 20 years I’ve mentored clients and volunteers. My husband does the same. I always thought we were so different, coming from sociology and physics, but we help people and projects succeed.
You just gave me an idea. Change was forced on us today by an emperor with no clothes. One who led people to a principle he tried to trash today. The principle will live, the people you fired today will survive despite your despicable separation policies.
And change will happen for all of us, 57 families this time, over thirty more a few months ago. Do you know what we’re doing tomorrow night? Helping a fellow firee move in with his girlfriend. Let’s hope they marry soon, some stability is needed in these tough corporate times and we take care of each other. In friendship and hope, Dee
Posted in Editorial
Apparently Continental and United don’t have their act together so they’re trying to get their frequent flyers to consolidate their own miles between the airlines. Perhaps they don’t know that a software engineer could write a program to do that, but they don’t want us to consolidate our miles because then they may have to honor a flight. Aye, there’s the rub.
American is even worse. I even bought miles on AAdvantage to keep from losing them and they killed them. Now they’re sending me emails every other day saying how they respect my business and my few remaining miles, all while their holding company AMD has gone to “penny stock” categorization and will be dumped from NYSE next week.
Empty promises. My father-in-law raises cattle and he treats them better than most US employers treat their employees. There is no employer/employee loyalty, nor is there any loyalty to valued customers. Yes, even a one-time customer should be valued in a company’s eyes because that may lead to a repeat customer. That is my view.
There used to be a gold watch at the end of a storied career with a company. Now people are commodities. When one moves a family to a new job, and doesn’t know that it’s a two week “test” that if it doesn’t work it’s catastrophic to the family who pulled up stakes, but is also to the company that perpetrated the fraud because word gets around and their reputation will be tarnished.
Airline miles are just that, pie in the sky. The airlines don’t ever think you’ll accumulate enough miles or actually use them. So when people started doing so they made it impossible to get seats.
If you treat your people well, they’ll treat your clients/customers well. Just as certain things roll downhill, in the right situation the good will can go uphill and make a company thrive.
When the customers are left out in the cold without reason, one must assume that the employees have a much larger burden to bear, all because of mismanagement.
To American Airlines. I don’t expect much of the miles we accrued this Thanksgiving weekend when you filed Chapter 11. I did hope to take a trip on the miles you confiscated. Please stop sending condescending emails that our miles are safe. You never sent me emails to tell me they weren’t before they were deleted. Thanks, Dee
Posted in Editorial
Tagged airlines, business, customer service, empty promises, layoffs
When I first started this blog I researched two series, cookbooks and my essential pantry. I even made it easy to purchase out-of-print books by just clicking (my husband did that for me).
I was afraid to just write something. Now, every few months I get a hit on cookbooks or pantry and know it’s someone who’s writing a cookbook and using my research without asking. No, I’m not going to take those sites down because you may want to use them one day.
When I see that published cookbook with a list of recommended texts that is identical to mine, then I’ll worry about it and know that you know I published it years ago.
It has been a joy to write to and for you. I am not a gifted cook, writer, blogger or tech person. I tend to go off base but “cooking” with Dee could mean anything from politics to family traditions.
It has become more dangerous to print recipes because something I come up with may be in another’s cookbook I’ve never read. Mario Batali sued a Texas owner of Babbo, which means “grandfather,” for many years, for using a name he recently came up with. I heard the owner changed the name to Mario’s.
I’ve heard of what lengths certain experts will go, to keep their recipes from being altered in any way and published. In my mind, that stifles creativity and even makes me wonder if I can publish my mother’s 40 year-old collection of recipes, updating them, without my edits catching the eye of a litigious publisher.
Thus, my stories have been mainly about my relationship with food and the people who’ve nourished me, physically and emotionally, thoughout my life.
Perhaps it should be more about that. I’ll work on it along with menus for new adventures. Cookbooks should only take one part of the way. The rest is up to you. Cheers, Dee
Cooking with Dee 