Not so fabulous fabulous day
Today should have been a perfect day. My case team was having an offsite event at a golf resort in Virginia, where we were to do some work in the morning, golf in the afternoon, and have a fabulous dinner to cap off the day.
As we all know, and despite having my own set of golf clubs, I am no golfer. I approached the day with trepidation, though Katie's success story about her recent work golfing day with a bunch of non-golfers was inspiring. My plan was to hangout with some of the younger people on my team (most of whom do not golf either), and stay positive...
I think I must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Per my last 2 month routine of getting up god awful early (~5-6am) to work (DD would be proud... where has the sleep monster gone?), I was planning to finish up my direct marketing review and get ready before my car pickup at 7. I had to switch on the light to avoid sleeping through another snooze at 6:15, and by the time I turned on my laptop, I only had enough time to download my email. Scrambling to at least have a strong tea before I rushed out the door, I found that we were out of milk. In these circumstances, I have found that vanilla ice cream can work very well. As this was also not available, I resorted to using a creme liquor, and felt like I was a closet AA. Thank goodness Christine was still sleeping!
So the direct marketing review wasn't done. I had to pull that together quickly in the morning after the flight, but seperately had met a nice lady from Victoria Secrets Beauty at Teeterborough (sp?) flying down to Columbus for Limited's quarterly analyst presentation, so that made my morning better.
The golfing part of the day, however, was less than wonderful. Christine had outfitted me perfectly (I don't even own a pair of khakis anymore) from head to ankle, but I wore my own running shoes. My running shoes are great for running and walking, because they are made from a lightweight mesh fabric - excellent for breathability. On a wet, cold day like today, my feet were completely soaked within 10 minutes of walking around on the green. Yuck! I had to make a phone call and work some things out with a client just before our tee off, so I didn't get a chance to warm up on their driving range. My plan to golf with the young'uns fell through because most of them were still stuck in a meeting, so I ended up golfing with three fairly good golfers - the main partner (who is intimidating though tries to be nice), my case manager (who was nice, but had to really babysit me and tell me how to hit, which club to use, how to drive the cart, how to get out of a sand trap, etc...), and a new associate (who is sarcastic and semi-ugh!!). I decided to call it a day after 9 holes. I was starting to hit better from about hole 3 to 7, but then stopped being able to even make contact. So embarrassing. My last conversation with my case manager went something like this..."so I hear the driving range at Chelsea Piers is really good...they have special events, discount nights,..."
I got back to my room, took a nap, and then headed back down to dinner. Instead of a nice steak dinner, we decided to watch the game (poor Yankees!) in the resort's sports bar. Again, like a fish out of water, I had to avidly pay attention to something I have between 10-20% interest in. When pressed for which team I was rooting for, I tossed a coin in my head and said NY. While I admired Boston's uniforms much more (the red stockings are adorable!), how could I justify being a Red Socks fan, knowing nothing about them besides that they're cursed.
All in all, it wasn't a terrible day. It's nice to be out of the office, and doing minimal work. However, it is also quite clear that there are some key skills that a business person (or aspiring business person) needs to develop.
1) Proficiency in key sports
2) Working knowledge of professional sports (gag me with a spoon)
3) Non-work work wardrobe (or have roommate with excellent selection)
These are all obvious points, and things that have been on my to-do list for quite some time. Today was just a big reminder of why they are so important.
As we all know, and despite having my own set of golf clubs, I am no golfer. I approached the day with trepidation, though Katie's success story about her recent work golfing day with a bunch of non-golfers was inspiring. My plan was to hangout with some of the younger people on my team (most of whom do not golf either), and stay positive...
I think I must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Per my last 2 month routine of getting up god awful early (~5-6am) to work (DD would be proud... where has the sleep monster gone?), I was planning to finish up my direct marketing review and get ready before my car pickup at 7. I had to switch on the light to avoid sleeping through another snooze at 6:15, and by the time I turned on my laptop, I only had enough time to download my email. Scrambling to at least have a strong tea before I rushed out the door, I found that we were out of milk. In these circumstances, I have found that vanilla ice cream can work very well. As this was also not available, I resorted to using a creme liquor, and felt like I was a closet AA. Thank goodness Christine was still sleeping!
So the direct marketing review wasn't done. I had to pull that together quickly in the morning after the flight, but seperately had met a nice lady from Victoria Secrets Beauty at Teeterborough (sp?) flying down to Columbus for Limited's quarterly analyst presentation, so that made my morning better.
The golfing part of the day, however, was less than wonderful. Christine had outfitted me perfectly (I don't even own a pair of khakis anymore) from head to ankle, but I wore my own running shoes. My running shoes are great for running and walking, because they are made from a lightweight mesh fabric - excellent for breathability. On a wet, cold day like today, my feet were completely soaked within 10 minutes of walking around on the green. Yuck! I had to make a phone call and work some things out with a client just before our tee off, so I didn't get a chance to warm up on their driving range. My plan to golf with the young'uns fell through because most of them were still stuck in a meeting, so I ended up golfing with three fairly good golfers - the main partner (who is intimidating though tries to be nice), my case manager (who was nice, but had to really babysit me and tell me how to hit, which club to use, how to drive the cart, how to get out of a sand trap, etc...), and a new associate (who is sarcastic and semi-ugh!!). I decided to call it a day after 9 holes. I was starting to hit better from about hole 3 to 7, but then stopped being able to even make contact. So embarrassing. My last conversation with my case manager went something like this..."so I hear the driving range at Chelsea Piers is really good...they have special events, discount nights,..."
I got back to my room, took a nap, and then headed back down to dinner. Instead of a nice steak dinner, we decided to watch the game (poor Yankees!) in the resort's sports bar. Again, like a fish out of water, I had to avidly pay attention to something I have between 10-20% interest in. When pressed for which team I was rooting for, I tossed a coin in my head and said NY. While I admired Boston's uniforms much more (the red stockings are adorable!), how could I justify being a Red Socks fan, knowing nothing about them besides that they're cursed.
All in all, it wasn't a terrible day. It's nice to be out of the office, and doing minimal work. However, it is also quite clear that there are some key skills that a business person (or aspiring business person) needs to develop.
1) Proficiency in key sports
2) Working knowledge of professional sports (gag me with a spoon)
3) Non-work work wardrobe (or have roommate with excellent selection)
These are all obvious points, and things that have been on my to-do list for quite some time. Today was just a big reminder of why they are so important.
posted by cat & elvin @ 10:15 PM
2 Comments:
At 6:46 AM,
C said…
Aww, poor gg. And while I suppose I agree with you that those are important schmoozing skills, it really blows that you need to develop talents that you have only 10-20% (or 0%) interest in. For all the talk of diversity in the workplace, we're still churning out cookie cutter consultants (or other business people) with linear thinking and interest in golf and pro sports that wear khakis and collared shirts. Boo. They should have work things where you do arts and crafts and the dress code just says 'ribbons mandatory.' Now THAT'd be fun. :)
At 6:48 AM,
C said…
OH, and I forgot to comment on the closet AA issue. CAT!!!
FYI, Mom (aka I) bought milk yesterday.
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