What Does $50 Buy These Days?

My hard-earned dollars seem to buy less and less. Today I spent $56 on a single purchase! Any guesses what is was?

• My groceries for a week?
• Two seats in Section 210 for the Los Angeles Kings vs St. Louis Blues on St Patrick's Day?
• 10 mornings started with a Decaf Venti Non-Fat, No Whip Peppermint Mocha at Starbucks?
• 4 nights of skating at Toyota Sports Center (including skate rentals)?
• 5 Chipotle Burrito Bowls with sides of chips and guacamole?
• Movie tickets for myself and 3 other friends?
• A new Brighton necklace for my collection?

No. I got this.


A single tank of gas in Pasadena, California.

I won't be having much fun this summer....

Tweets From 400 BC

Informal learning isn't a new concept, but it is garnering more attention from professionals in the learning community.   The concept of informal learning is pretty simple -- one critical part of how we learn is the moment when we apply knowledge, whether that application is doing a task at work, learning a new hand craft or playing a sport.  In short, you learn by doing.

What is new in the professional learning community is finding ways to leverage technology, especially social technologies, to support application of knowledge.  I've been reading up on the subject for some projects at work and came across this quote at the beginning of one of the chapters.

"One must learn by doing the thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty, until you try." - Sophocles

Sophocles - photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user Shakko

So not only is informal learning not new, it's been floating around since the 4th century BC!  And interestingly enough, Sophocles wasn't a teacher, he was a writer.  A playwright, in fact.  So learning from others outside the "education" community isn't new either.

But my real revelation came when I posted Sophocles' quote to Twitter and realized it's exactly 121 characters, including the quotation marks and attribution to the author of the quote.  So communicating with a big impact in 140 characters or less is just the same thing we humans have been doing all along too.

Everything old is new again.

What's The Big Deal About A Little Thing Like Hair?

A friend of mine was complaining the other day about hearing the news that her hair stylist was moving, and how worried she was about finding someone new to manage her head.  I can totally relate.  Having moved more than a few times in my life, finding a good stylist is always a source of anxiety for me.   Luckily I haven't been in that boat for twelve years, and I can't even handle the thought of having to do it again, although I know the day will come at some point.

So why is hair such a big deal?  It's only hair, right?  I think most people obsess about their hair because it's the one thing we're given genetically that we can change easily if we don't love it.    Changing your eye color means wearing contacts.   Making your lips fuller requires collagen injections.   Modifying your cheekbones, your nose or something more substantial means full blown cosmetic surgery.  By contrast, hair is simple, and you can change it as often as you want with few harsh side effects and no long term commitment.  With your hair, you're in control -- at least relatively speaking.

I've been battling for control of my hair my entire life, and it's not a one person job.  It takes incredible amounts of time, numerous hair products, and a large chunk of my discretionary income.  Patience and stamina are also paramount.   My current hair dresser jokes that doing a blow-out for me is her best aerobic workout, since it takes close to an hour.  She should probably be sainted for dealing with my head all these years.

You see, my hair has a mind of it's own.  I've got a ton of it, and it's naturally curly, which equals unruly most of the time. Always has been, always will be.

Take second grade, for instance.

My mother spent all morning wetting my hair down and spraying it into place so it would look nice for my school picture.  During my walk to school on a windy day, it took flight and went it's curly way.  If I remember correctly, she cried when the photo proofs arrived.

Then there were my early teenage years.

As if simply BEING a teenager isn't awkward enough, I had to do it when the Mullet was in style.  I looked back through my high school yearbook the other day, and half the girls in my class had some version of this hair cut.  The only reason I'm smiling in this picture is because I had just gotten my braces off.

By my senior year of high school, the Mullet was gone.

That's about the only good thing I have to say about this look.  If it wasn't for the pearls, I'm pretty sure I could be mistaken for a really cute boy.

For most of my college years, my hair looked like this.

Kind of a longer, softer version of the high school cut -- short on the sides so my hair kept out of my face, but long in the back where it mattered.  My hair product of choice in those days was Aussie Sprunch spray.  Ah, that magical purple bottle!  It was sticky as hell, but my hair didn't move.

Then I graduated from college and moved out on my own.  My first major move away from college took me to Virginia Beach, Virginia -- home of sun, fun and cute Navy guys.  I lived four blocks from the ocean and my apartment complex had an Olympic size pool, two perfect venues to change up my look and try out a fine little product called Sun-In!

The look I was going for was sun-streaked highlights.  The look I got was orange hair.  I thought I was a babe, and the Navy guys didn't seem to care, so I didn't care either.  Until I went to my first legitimate hair dresser and she explained how much that crap was damaging my hair.  She said if I wanted to lighten my hair, foils were the way to go.  Despite my concerns about the expense of going with "real" hair color, my vanity got the best of me and I started going blonde.  In the process, I experienced a religious hair experience in the form of my first blow-out.

The girl who had never known anything but curls finally went straight!  That is, at least for a few days until I had to wash my hair.  I had dreamed and wished for straight hair my whole life, and now I knew I could have it whenever I wanted!  Praise be to the God that invented the blow dryer an flat iron!

I kept variations on the same basic color and style for years, until I moved to California.  In the process, more and more foils got added to the mix until I was finally a full blown, all over BLONDE!

Then one day, I decided I was tired of my bangs and decided to grow them out.  I don't think I've ever been more frustrated with my hair in my life.  It's always resisted anything that smacked of "training," so convincing it to lay the right way took every bit of patience I had.  And by the time the bangs and finally grown out, my hair was damaged from too many years of 40-volume peroxide stripping the color out to make it blonde.

So we chopped it shorter and did kind of a bob thing.

At the time I liked it.  Looking back at this picture, I don't know what I was thinking.   The color, the length, it just all seemed wrong.  Being a blonde was fun for a while, but I started looking washed out, and no matter what we did, the damage just didn't go away in a few spots.

So I decided my days as a blonde were done, and I've been much happier since.

This is redder than my natural color, it's the longest it's ever been in my life, and I feel the most like "me" that I ever have in my life.  It's taken a long time to get here, and the battles have been many, but I feel like I've finally won the war with my hair. 

Then again, maybe we've just reached a truce.

One Hour Forward, 3 Steps Back

Daylight Savings Time is a mixed bag.  It's awesome that the sun is up at 6 AM and it stays light until almost 7 PM now.  Unfortunately, the day we officially "lose" the hour is a huge psychological hurdle for me, and I never seem to get over it without falling on my face.

This is what I tripped over to start my day.




Let me explain.

I scheduled an appointment to get my hair done BEFORE I realized what today was.  An 8 AM appointment.  My hairdresser was kind enough to call me a couple of days ago and acknowledge we could both use more sleep, so she pushed it back to 9.  But since I lost an hour, it didn't make much difference.

I managed not to sleep through the alarm, which was a minor miracle, but didn't get up in enough time to have a decent breakfast since I was out of milk for cereal and would be late if I made my weekend omelette.  So I hit the vending machine in my building, which has Pop Tarts -- the TRUE breakfast of champions.  But when you're sleep deprived and cranky at losing an hour, "F0" (the Pop Tart button) looks A LOT like "E0."   So I ended up with white chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  I like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  I DETEST white chocolate.  Time for Breakfast Plan B....

Luckily there was a Starbucks drive-thru on the way to my appointment.  Since I've given up Starbucks, I had a decaf to ease the pain to my system and dug into the REAL reason I stopped there -- reduced fat turkey bacon sandwich.  So at least one thing went right today and I had a good breakfast.

My hair turned out great (my hairdresser IS a genius), but the rest of the day I was totally off kilter.  I napped off and on in between hockey games and generally got nothing done.  So now everything on the to-do list from today moves to tomorrow, and I'm still out of milk because I never made it to the store today.

Tomorrow morning should be interesting.  At least I get my full 24 hours to make it whatever it's going to be....

Getting Unstuck With A Little "Spring Cleaning"

I hit a wall with a project I was working on at the office today, and in the hopes of getting unstuck, I went searching for inspiration.  My first stop was a file drawer and my trusty "Idea File" folder.

There must be some inspiration in here somewhere....right?

For the most part, I'm a digital girl in all aspects of my life, but I still have a few tried and true idea generators that are in hard copy form.  However, the longer I flipped through my idea stash, the more I realized how much of it was too dated to be inspiring.  It's easy when you're busy to simply file something away you're sure you'll need later, only to find it wasn't important enough to pull out again, or quickly became out-dated when you did seek it out again.  Such is the nature of the quickly changing business environment we all work in.

Since I have a severe case of organizational OCD, I started throwing away things I didn't need.  Then I started looking at other files, then the other desk drawers, and finally moved to my bookshelves.  By the time I was done, I had two piles of out-dated material the size of this one.

Off to the shredder with you!

And a funny thing happened on the way to the shredder box.  Once my desk had more "space," my brain did too.  And all the stuff I threw out actually gave me some ideas on digital components to enhance my project!

What do YOU do to get fresh inspiration when you're stuck?

Addiction and Recovery: My Starbucks Story

My relationship with Starbucks began in earnest in the fall of 1998, when I moved from Seattle, WA to Burbank, CA.   Even though there was a Starbucks everywhere I went in the Pacific Northwest, my addiction didn't start there, because I really don't like coffee. Yes, you read that right.  Love the smell of coffee, but can't stand the taste.  Way too bitter.   Most of the people I knew in Seattle that were Starbucks addicts drank actual COFFEE.  So I never really had a reason to get hooked on the whole Starbucks experience.

Then I moved to California, and a couple of things happened.   First, there was a Starbucks right across the street from my apartment complex, next to the dry cleaners and the grocery store, so I was exposed to it all the time.  Second, I worked with a bunch of stressed out claims adjusters dealing with long commutes in crazy traffic.   Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, walked around the office holding one of those cool white cups with the green logo -- all day long.

The only people I knew in Burbank when I moved were my two bosses.   I wanted to make new friends.  I wanted to fit in.  So when a bunch of my co-workers went to lunch together and stopped by Starbucks after, I was along for the ride.  When I explained I didn't drink coffee, they said "Try a Frappuccino!"  It was warm outside.  The Frappuccino was nice and cold, and it was like a delicious ice cream smoothie with that gorgeous dollop of whipped cream on the top.  Frappuccino became the gateway drug, and so my addiction began.

It didn't take me long to gain 10 extra pounds.  The pre-made mixture they use in Frappuccino is full of calories, and I was drinking at least one of these things every day.  I started with the small one, but once it started getting hot outside, the size got bigger.  I started ordering them with no whipped cream to cut the calories.

Then fall came, my body started adjusting to the California weather, and I was feeling cold for the first time since I moved, so I needed a hot drink.  As luck would have it, I was just in time for the arrival of peppermint syrup in celebration of the holiday season.  After some consultation with my barista, we determined peppermint mocha was the way to go.  For a while, I drank them with whole milk and whipped cream.  After the scale started becoming unfriendly again, I moved to non-fat, no whip.

For YEARS that was my signature drink. Venti non-fat, no whip peppermint mocha.  Hot in the winter, iced in the summer.  I practiced saying my order correctly after reading a brochure in the store instructing me about proper ordering technique:

1. Size of drink
2. Hot or iced
3. Type of milk
4. Whipped or not
5. Type of syrup
6. Extra/add ons

Beyond enjoying the beverage itself, I loved going into the store.  All the baristas knew my name because they saw me every day.  They knew my "usual" drink.  I felt important.  The Burbank store was particular fun because I would see celebrities all the time (the store was the closest one to the Warner Brother studio lots).  Martin Sheen, Jane Seymour, and Billy Campbell all stopped in.  Tons of soap opera people who I recognized but couldn't put a name to a face.  It was the "in" place to be in the morning.

When I moved away from Burbank to another part of Los Angeles, the first thing I did was find the closest Starbucks along the commute route from my new place to the office so as not to disturb my morning routine.  Since my move meant I dealt with TONS more traffic, I started making two stops a day -- one drink for the commute in, one for the trip home.

When I moved a second time, I said good-bye to my old store so they would know nothing bad happened to me.  I found a new favorite store and stopped there twice a day.  Starbucks introduced a new syrup -- Dark Cherry -- and for a while I savored a drink that tasted just like the Cella's chocolate covered cherries my Dad bought me as a kid.  When they discontinued the Dark Cherry syrup, the store manager gifted me a bottle because they couldn't sell it any more.  I went back to my peppermint mocha.

And so it went, every morning and most afternoons, for years.  I knew every Starbucks location near every office I visited, every airport I flew through, every highway and byway I traveled living out my life.  I planned my days around Starbucks stops.  A logo cup was a constant accessory to my wardrobe.  My car turned into my regular store each morning practically on auto-pilot.

And then the heart palpitation/SVT incident happened.

Even though I'd never had symptoms pointing to caffeine abuse before, I'd been drinking up to 3 Venti drinks a day trying to keep pace with my busy life.  I never felt as though I "needed" caffeine to function, but I wasn't sure I would have the energy I needed to manage my days without it.  Maybe the heart palpitations were telling me something.   Maybe this was a sign I needed to finally stop.

As I drove into work on the day I eventually landed in the emergency room, I drove past my regular Starbucks and went straight to work.  For the first time on a weekday in almost 12 YEARS, I didn't start my day with a Starbucks cup in my hand.  And even though the caffeine likely had nothing to do with my health scare, I decided to try living without it for a while.  I haven't been back since.

Luckily for me, I haven't had any kind of "withdrawal" symptoms from ending my caffeine intake.  In fact, some real positives came out of the change.  I lost 5 pounds due to the removal of the extra 750 calories a day in my twice-daily drinks.  I'm saving the $2400 a year I used to spend on coffee, which buys A LOT Of hockey tickets.  I haven't lost my energy like I thought I would.  Most of all, I feel good about the decision to remove one major bad habit from my life so I can focus on replacing it with a healthier one.

I have nothing but happy memories of my time with Starbucks and all the wonderful employees that were so kind to me over the years.  But it's kind of like ending a relationship that doesn't work any more.  Your heart tells you when it's the right time to move on.

Flower Power

Yesterday I stopped at the supermarket after a pretty tedious day at work.  I was just there to pick up some basics for the week -- milk, cereal, cheese, eggs.  You know the drill.  Errands like these are part of the uninspired, mundane list of things we all have to do to navigate our day-to-day lives and not starve in the process.

But when I walked in the store,  I saw these.

I don't treat myself to flowers very often.  When you're trying to watch your budget, flowers just seem too indulgent to enjoy very often.   But the colors were so beautiful and they made me happy, so I figured why not?  I've spent $20 on far more silly things before that DIDN'T make me happy.

Sometimes changing your outlook is as simple as adding a little color to your world.