Inauguration prep

I was in Target this morning at about 9:00, thinking that I'd really be able to miss the crowds by being such an early bird. I was surprised to see people bustling around like they were preparing for Black Friday.

Wandering past the cash registers, I stumbled upon a morning meeting of all the employees and the store manager. Being in retail, and always curious to hear these things play out, I decided to linger a little bit near the laundry detergent to figure out what he had to say. Not surprisingly, the focus over the next few days was going to be Inauguration-related. The store manager told them to make sure all the necessities are stocked, which I suppose includes everything from batteries to cereal to warm clothes.

Just a few minutes before, he said, a woman who was staying at a hotel across the street came in to buy an air mattress (the store was almost sold-out). Perhaps all of those tourists who are cramming into hotel rooms are finding the floor a little uncomfortable. Here I was thinking that the only way retailers benefited from these things was from the Obama t-shirts I've seen all over the place.

As I was checking out, a man in the other aisle was buying a bunch of thick shirts and socks. He told the cashier he worked at CNN as a cameraman and had to spend all day Tuesday on the Mall.

Chad and I have different Inauguration Day plans. We're leaving town and heading to the cabin we visited in August. I was at Target this morning for charcoal, some starter logs and, of course, snacks. The car is packed and I'm just waiting for Chad to get off work. These people can have their crowds and their freezing temperatures and their traffic. We're outta here!

Not exactly wrinkle-free

One of my favorite quotes has always been from Mark Twain: "Wrinkles should merely indicate where the smiles have been."

I love that. It puts things into perspective. It means that there's nothing really bad about growing old because the lines on your face will simply mirror all the wonderful memories and experiences you've had. (Unless, of course, your wrinkles are from all the years you spent scowling and then, well, maybe you need to figure out how to change that.)

As I rode the elevator back up to my room in New York the other night (I was on the 40th floor of the hotel, so lots of time for thinking), I started to realize that it's getting easier to tell where those "smiles" have been. I tried to rationalize this by telling myself there was harsh lighting, I had been up for about 19 hours, my make-up was wearing off, and I was tired. But still, the outline of a few wrinkles were just clear as day to me. And I didn't like it!

Unintentional insomnia

I have been in New York City since Friday afternoon for our Annual Convention, which draws about 18,000 people and 300 reporters.

The days have gone something like this:

• 5 a.m.: Hit snooze
• 5:15: Get out of bed
• 6:15: Catch the staff bus to the Javits Center
• 6:45: Eat breakfast
• 7:15: Open up the press room
• 8:00-6:30: Talk to reporters, attend sessions, blog, walk several miles in heels, grab food on the run, hobnob with CEOs, and put out (proverbial) fires
• 6:30 p.m.: Close the press room
• 6:45: Get back on the staff bus
• 7:00: Attend a dinner or reception or both with a business partner of some sort
• 10:30: Call Chad
• 11:00: Go to bed

I am not alone, which is a good thing. Four of us from the PR team are here along with probably 50 other people from NRF. But I’m exhausted. No wonder why they call this the city that never sleeps!

Duty calls

I've never been drawn to public service. Perhaps I'm too selfish or too squirmy or just too bullheaded to pursue something like that. So I have an extra appreciation for people who do these things.

About a year ago, Janice's boyfriend, Nick--and one of our good friends, too--decided that he wanted to make a difference in a job that involved a lot of activity. He felt a call to become a firefighter. In order to achieve this goal, he went through months of exams and was accepted into one of the most difficult academies in Virginia last summer. (This is no small feat--several thousand people take these tests and only a few hundred are accepted.)

Over the last six months, he has gone through rigorous training, learning everything from water rescues to how to respond to terrorist attacks to, of course, the best ways to fight certain fires. In training, they ran through burning buildings, were tear-gassed (which would have done me in), and did a lot of push-ups to achieve peak physical condition. Additionally, Nick has spent the last week learning everything there is to know about installing car seats, a skill set that those of us who live less exciting lives may be able to capitalize upon someday.

You can read all about this journey on his blog.

This six-month sacrifice meant waking up at 4 a.m. and getting home at 7 p.m. five nights a week. (I lament my schedule!) And it meant studying on the weekends and cutting back on social activities (ie: football) that might provoke injuries incurred during grueling daily workouts (think: running seven flights of stairs a dozen times in a row).

But it's all been worth it. Today, Nick will graduate as one of the top in his class. He is officially a firefighter, protecting all of us.

Congratulations, Nick! We all all so proud of you. And, thank you. You are far more selfless than I ever will be.

Warm welcome

Since we took an unintentional exercise hiatus over the past few months, I forgot how much I like the older man who works the front desk in the mornings at our gym. (They take your card and give you a locker key and a towel, so these people are the first ones you see when you come in and the last ones you see when you leave.) He's a soft-spoken, energetic, likable guy who calls Chad "young man" every time he talks with him. Kind of the African-American version of my Grandpa Howard.

And when you call, which I have had to do on occasion, he always answers the phone, "Thank you for calling the YMCA. How can I make you smile today?" It's very sincere; he doesn't say it in one of those this-is-how-the-corporate-office-is-telling-me-I-need-to-answer-the-phone sort of ways. He does make me smile.

And that makes getting up at 5:15 in the morning a whole lot easier.

My favorite things

It's time for me to post an update of my new favorite things. I've done this once or twice before, but I've started to notice lately that there are quite a few products I'm starting to wonder how I've done without. Among them:

Emergen-C: I got hooked on this stuff while I was back in Illinois. I swear it works. It's got 1,000 milligrams of Vitamin C, lots of B vitamins and other minerals and vitamins too. It comes in individual packets and dissolves quickly in about six ounces of water. And it doesn't taste like chalk or glue like some of those other "powders." I've tried tangerine, but I see they have raspberry, which might need to be next on the list.

Case in point: I woke up this morning feeling like a little cold was coming on and took some of this stuff and I feel fine. It's either great medicine or a placebo. Either way, I don't care. It works.

Lamp timers: Whoever thought of these things created one of the best inventions of our time. Or perhaps of all time. I got one of these for Christmas (because I had been complaining about forgetting to unplug the tree), plugged it in a few nights ago, and now our living room light turns on at 5 p.m. and off at midnight.

When I come home the lights are on (both good for crime prevention and so Lucy isn't sitting around in the dark), energy-efficient since it doesn't have to stay on all day to accomplish those goals, and I don't have to remember to turn it off at night or in the morning. Plus, they're easy to use and cheap. As in less than five bucks. How cool is that?

SIRIUS: This is my new guilty pleasure. Our Jeep came equipped with a satellite radio and we decided before I drove home for Christmas to explore how much it cost to actually activate the thing. (Turns out it's just a few bucks a month.) I still stick to a small group of music channels, but it's so nice to be able to listen to the radio without commercials or all that jibber-jabber of the morning talk show hosts.

On the way back to DC, I kept myself awake from 11 p.m. - 2 a.m. with the 90's channel while Chad slept. Then he listened to the "all AC/DC station" while I slept--or tried to. It paid for itself in about fifteen minutes, as far as I'm concerned. I can't imagine going back!

New Year's resolutions

Sitting around the table eating breakfast yesterday morning...

Ellen: So, what are your New Year's resolutions?
Chad: I don't believe in resolutions. They don't work.
Ellen: [sigh] Think of a resolution as something you want to do more or less of for whatever reason.
Chad: In that case, I want to eat better and work out more. That's my resolution at the beginning of every week. And I'm starting on Monday.

Fair enough, I thought. Here are mine:

• Get to the gym more consistently
• Find a church we really like, or get more involved with our current church
• Be more decisive
  
• Cut out the clutter--both physical and figurative
  
• Plan more meals at home instead of the current default option of going out to dinner
  
• Decrease utility bills by ten percent (a good suggestion from a Suze Orman column I read)
  
• Keep the cell phone charged
• Read or listen to a new book every month

I figure if I posted these resolutions for enough people to see that maybe I'd be more likely to keep them. If not, at least it will give us all a good laugh on December 31, 2009.