Month: May 2011

Phone it in?

Last night I learned something from another customer who jumped in to help us convince the High Tide Restaurant to make us food when they wanted to call the food window closed and move to ice-cream-only mode.

She said that when she comes on a summer night and the line is long, she pulls out her cell phone and calls in an order!  Fair?  Maybe not, but funny anyway.  And potentially useful.

And YES they did eventually agree to make us lobsters and fries.  And YES I did have to invoke Birthday Privilege in convincing them.  And YES I realize that our children would have been mortified it they had been there.  And it was delicious.

Here is the place.  We once witnessed the “steps falling down” under full commerce it became part of family lore.

High Tide Takeout

Compulsion + Procrastination = Stress

In the past 17 months, I have many things about lessons learned.   One big thing is that there are lessons everywhere, particularly now that I am tuned in to noticing them.  That was one surprise.

Another wonderful surprise is how many people are following and enjoying these lessons.  That is what has kept me going beyond the original year.

Not surprising are two things I already knew about myself.  The first is that I procrastinate.  In 1980 I sent away to join an active group in Philadelphia called Procrastinators of America.  I knew better than to send the application back right away.  I still have it (I really do!), but that’s OK because they always counted people like me in their membership counts.  The second is that I am somewhat compulsive.  Steve says “Ya think?” so maybe more than somewhat.

So I notice lessons all day long, and I am compelled to record them and keep up or catch up with one lesson a day, but I put off typing them up until I “have time” and this has me way way behind and it bothers me.

I will now attempt to catch up before mid-year, on July 1.  Wish me luck!

 

How Not to Burn My House Down – Part 2

OK, previously, I figured out how not to burn my house down while making tea.  Now I’ve moved on to the potentially more dangerous espresso machine.  This is a great design, but it lacks an automatic shut-off switch, so it just keeps building up pressure.  Whoops.

I’ve learned to set a kitchen timer for ten minutes, when I start making my espresso.  It’s such a quick process that you might think that if I can remember to set a time, I could remember to turn the darn machine off a few minutes later.  But you would be so very dangerously wrong.  Each time the timer has gone off, I’ve said “Oh!  Right!” and been surprised all over again.  And then I turn the espresso maker off.

 

Venting: Not Just for Dryers

My father used to day “Denial is a perfectly functional response”.  The short version of this is “Denial.  It works”.    I have learned that the same is true for VENTING.  It’s functional.  It works.

Venting is a little different than complaining.  It’s different because it’s often preceded with the warning/disclaimer of “I just need to vent”, which means “I need to talk and you need to listen”.  This is an awesome arrangement, in my opinion and in my experience.  It allows the venter to process, to get it off his or her chest, to hear the words out loud that otherwise are going to rattle inside the head for who-knows-how-long.

Like complaining, which I also love in its place, venting lets us get to the heart of the matter.  Maybe not immediately, but often eventually.    The ventee can sometimes help with that or sometimes not.  Good friends usually get this right, but if not it’s usually a self-correcting process, as in “I just need to tell you this!  I don’t need a solution!”

Venting and complaining can lead to great changes and great things.

Long Live Venting.