Double Your V

I got'ch!

In Classical Latin, the sound we make from the "w" (as in water) was represented by a letter that looked like "v." 

Through the years, the sound that the letter "v" changed to the modern sound - like vapor. 

To distinguish the sound of "w" from the "v" AND the up and coming letter-sound of "u," a double form of "u" was taken to represent the original Classical Latin "v" sound which was written as "uu" - which is two of those "u" symbols called  "double-u."

November 2018 Out of Office (OOO)

I like to make feisty Out of Office (OOO) messages for my company people. I mean, who wants to read: "Hello, I am currently out of the office I will return on _____."

BORING.

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Hello friends,

I’m out of ze office for the week of November 19. I will be returning Monday, November 26 to answer you messages.

I unable to take your calls (who calls me anymore?) or emails because I will be knee deep in administering medical support for sick kittens and cats and elbow deep in making some 50+ pies in order to raise money for the Pet Adoption and Lifecare Society (PALS) 

(https://www.adoptapet.com/pals),

Not at the same time.

Fun fact - On Thanksgiving, we will have a full moon, known as the Beaver Moon (aka the Frost Moon or Mourning Moon). To celebrate this celestial occasion, it’s time to unload baggage in your life and home to prep for the coming winter.

If you have a problem that requires the local team here to help you, email them. If you need to contact the person I report to, email my boss. 

Cheers my peers,

Maddie

Training and Talent Development

Mean Girls Week: Friday

A few coworkers decided to do a Mean Girls week from October 23-26 because we all loved the movie and I was down.

Welcome to Mean Girls Week. Here are the Rules:

• Don’t wear a tank top two days in a row
• You can only wear your hair in a ponytail once a week
• On Wednesdays, we wear pink
• You can only wear jeans or track pants on Friday
• Be effortlessly plastic

You must take a photo of your outfit every day and share your thoughts.

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I got this shirt in 2011 on sale to wear while I was scooping poop as a throwaway shirt.

Somewhat lies.

More specifically, I got it for when I was working with kids who were volunteering for school credits or religious reasons, or those with various disabilities who were learning skills, or earning badges and even parolees doing community service. I thought maybe it would make me the “cool (cat) mom, not like those other moms.”

I’d be that chick who was with it. The totally relevant adult. People would want to talk to me and then donate to PALS, to foster and volunteer because we're totally hip.

And I'm in no way a fidgety-lame dictator trying to make community service and feline fecal flinging fun!

The t-shirt-plaid-skirt combo is very fetch and I think a respectable nod to the Plastics style and the characters like Janis – the anti-Plastic rule-breaker.

When I got this shirt I researched Superman so if someone needed it to start a conversation with me, I could reply – I worked with some autistic and really shy kids so having something to make connection less scary is always a plus so, I did some research.

Did you know - the “S” does not stand for “Super__” It’s the Kryptonian symbol for hope.

(Don’t @ me bro, comics evolve. As Damian sang: I am beautiful no matter what they say WORDS CANT BRING ME DOOOOOWWWN!!)

I always thought vanity didn’t fit Superman’s character, he didn’t name himself “Superman,” either. Kent picked a symbol of hope not vanity (and also looks sexy with his hair pushed back)

I wear this shirt when I’m working with last-chancers of human and animal kind as my uniform. Because…well, hope.

The word “hope” appears twice in the Mean Girls script:

• Once when Ms. Norbury learned Cady is really good at math and says: “Cady, I hope you join Mathletes.”
• The second time when the Burn Book is discovered and Principle Duvall says, “You better hope nobody else ever does see it.”

I hope you all join your own Mathletes even if it is social suicide. And I hope when venting or holding other peoples secrets, you find ways to counter with positive.

And this skirt is far too short per the dress code at my office and I don’t care.

Mean Girls Week: Thursday

A few coworkers decided to do a Mean Girls week from October 23-26 because we all loved the movie and I was down.

Welcome to Mean Girls Week. Here are the Rules:

• Don’t wear a tank top two days in a row
• You can only wear your hair in a ponytail once a week
• On Wednesdays, we wear pink
• You can only wear jeans or track pants on Friday
• Be effortlessly plastic

You must take a photo of your outfit every day and share your thoughts.

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I was so obsessed with Wednesday (like, why are you so OBSESSED with me?!) – I didn’t think of outfits for Thursday and Friday.

Mean Girls takes place in Evanston, Illinois and it looks like it's always warm and always happy. And it’s getting cold and dark here.

Did you know, while the girls refer to themselves as “The Plastics” they did not invent the name – Janis Ian (the anti-plastic) did. They took what was an insult from someone outside their clique and owned it. They made it their story so much it was in the Rules.

Yesterday, I got the quasi-confirmation that one of my foster-babies might have a fatal infection called Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP). She just isn't bouncing back right now. While her sudden symptoms might also be how she is gaining weight after being starved for all but a few weeks of her life, FIP couldn't be ruled out.

If it is FIP, there is nothing we can do – I just have to watch her and see if she crashes.

Since 2011, by choice, I have worked with last-chancers and those who were dying. I have fostered over 20 felines and I know exactly who I was when the 6 of them died. July 10, 2017 was the last time a baby died wrapped up in my arms. And I have fostered 7 more since then. I can't imagine a place I would rather want to be.

And I know people who do so much more than me with heroic efforts that render me speechless.

Sometimes people outside this world of rescue focus on the death. Death is not the worst thing that can happen - a life without love is.

You become the part of the story that you focus on. If you only focus on the worst parts, you become the worst parts. If you focus on the best parts, you become the best parts. To get to either, you have to accept both parts.

If this little kitten doesn’t make it, it will make her story sad and I will cry. But, that’s not her whole story and not the part I focus on. She is tiny and brave and sweet and has the squeakest meow and loves to be held...

The Plastics focused on the part of the story they wanted. Regina George literally takes the awful (mostly true) stuff people throw at her and owns it. There's a whole montage on it.

I am working from home today and this morning was totally easier to get together than Monday, even if I was working from home. I took the opportunity to hunt for non-black, winter-warm items and I made sure I added some pink accents for the Plastics.

This was a good reminder to me to focus on what I can do and own it.

I was also the fanciest cat-lady at the kitten vaccine bar!

Mean Girls Week: Wednesday

A few coworkers decided to do a Mean Girls week from October 23-26 because we all loved the movie and I was down.

Welcome to Mean Girls Week. Here are the Rules:

• Don’t wear a tank top two days in a row
• You can only wear your hair in a ponytail once a week
• On Wednesdays, we wear pink
• You can only wear jeans or track pants on Friday
• Be effortlessly plastic

You must take a photo of your outfit every day and share your thoughts.
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I don’t like pink because it is the “girl” color and I feel it’s often a one-dimensional characterization of women because it’s soft and pretty and quiet. Blarg.  I have nothing that’s substantially pink in my wardrobe.Wearing pink is outside my comfort zone and I was dreading Wednesday.

According to the rules, you only need some pink - I said to myself, Maeve (which is apparently what I call myself now), I’m going ALL out. See, the Plastics’ pink-on-pink costuming started that trend in the 2000s that made it ok for you to wear a lot of one color - mainly, pink.

Before that, it was “too much.”

There are voices and pressures that can berate us for being "too much" or "not enough" and a high percentage of that pressure is based on looks. In my experience, dress codes and presentations are directed at how women should look so we can be taken seriously and be successful. So ingrained is this rhetoric that I don’t wear pink as secret rebellion.

My inner-critic told me I should wear a black blazer to mute this pinkness, this girlishness, this unapologetic bubblegum announcement that turns "woman" into "girl"…And I stopped myself.

How brutal is that? I would never tell someone to mute themselves. What if someone really, really liked pink...?

I remembered former coworkers who have neck tattoos and gauges that needed to be muted. Or a transgendered friend who struggled to fit norms in order to be seen – she has to hide who she is to be seen. If you are going to be taken seriously - you have to follow these rules..?

(sad face)

Their skills, kindness and talents are so much more than their aesthetic could ever be. Their expressions of themselves or their moods does not limit them, it limits others. So, I grabbed this glittery necklace over a black blazer. Cause #extra.

Honestly, the areas outside my comfort zone are such luxuries and I lost sight of that while having a mini-tantrum over wearing pink. There are people who might step out of their assigned zone and actually be really hurt.

No one would ever condemn me for wearing pink.

People showing up as they are – to work, to help, to connect – can be a struggle that is beyond my flippant disregard for pink and eye-rolling expression toward those who lecture me on how I need to manage my femininity. There are people whose “on Wednesdays we wear pink” takes an amount of courage I don’t think I have.

Here is what I do know.

There is no way we can innovate in a closed system. I reminded myself to seek out and support who people are. People with unique interests, expressions, perceived or actual disabilities, methods and perspectives open doors and concepts beyond my imagination. I don’t want accepted norms (even my own norms) to become a mental cage that holds me back from making connections.

On Wednesday, we wear pink.

And. I wore pink. (Thanks, Amazon Prime!)

Mean Girls Week: Tuesday

A few coworkers decided to do a Mean Girls week from October 23-26 because we all loved the movie and I was down.

Welcome to Mean Girls Week. Here are the Rules:

• Don’t wear a tank top two days in a row
• You can only wear your hair in a ponytail once a week
• On Wednesdays, we wear pink
• You can only wear jeans or track pants on Friday
• Be effortlessly plastic

You must take a photo of your outfit every day and share your thoughts.

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I was up late Monday night at the vet, and with worry. As I was starting to sleep, and then at about 3am the kittens sat at the side of the bed and yowled at me until they got attention - and another can of cat food.

I was totally ready to grab jeans from the hamper and be like “oh, I forgot..?” I didn’t even want to shower….or be at work on time…or do this Mean Girls thing. Or leave my foster-babies.

But one of the rules is "Be Effortlessly Plastic."

Putting this look together took effort (because I hadn’t planned it, number one) and as our front desk maven, Kelsey, snapped this picture, a lot of people told me I looked nice and liked the color combination as if I planned it.

But mere hours before this, I was cuddling fragile kittens and wearing cat food and medications as much as I was delivering it. I was rummaging through the litter box for signs of butt-worms. I was worried my foster-kitten wasn’t gaining weight, that one was getting sicker, and tht maybe it wasn’t warm enough. And I forgot to put in my Chewy order so…

AHHHH! WHY AM I DOING THIS MEAN GIRL THING!? MY SHIRT IS WRINKLED!

But, I had to look effortless.

Today was a much needed reminder that when you do everything right, people will wonder if you did anything at all. Or that when your work is flawless, people only see the success and rarely see the work to get there or the billion other things going on around you.

I reminded myself to compliment people on their dirty, miserable, heartbreaking, grinding work that was needed rather than idolizing the success alone. There are no "three easy steps" of effortless success. Being effortless is f**king hard.

Almost as hard as an American figuring out how to get .20ml of amoxicillin based on a 50mg/ml script from a 30g/60ml bottle oral suspension powder…they use the metric system in Africa, though.

So, despite a rough weekend of helicoptering-fostering nurturing my foster kittens and offering support to my fellow rescuers dealing with far worse issues, at the time of this photo, I’m was pretty sure I could take over the world in the right pencil skirt.

I even took the time to straighten my hair – I just missed that huge part in the photo. So, work in progress….

Mean Girls Week: Monday

A few coworkers decided to do a Mean Girls week from October 23-26 because we all loved the movie and I was down.

Welcome to Mean Girls Week. Here are the Rules:

• Don’t wear a tank top two days in a row
• You can only wear your hair in a ponytail once a week
• On Wednesdays, we wear pink
• You can only wear jeans or track pants on Friday
• Be effortlessly plastic

You must take a photo of your outfit every day and share your thoughts.

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I worked from home – normally I am in my PJs a little longer as I roll into the day but I got up to make sure I had time to dress the part and do my hair and makeup. I'm a Plastic this week!

Cold, Shiny, Hard, PLASTIC!

I was reminded of when I freelanced and at one point I was working like crazy and not showering and eating nothing but marshmallows with chopsticks as I slowly lost my grip on reality to the saccharine sounds of QVC in the background…

We talk about self-care as something that looks like massages and fitness and family. Today felt a little like a type of self-care that I might have been missing. In having to get dressed up on a day when I didn’t have to made me feel like I was doing it for me.

Like I did something unnecessary for myself that made me feel…nice.

The effort also changed a little of my “lazy” mindset and got me in a groove where I felt more like I could take on challenges with some sass and creativity.

Since it’s cold and my warm stuff is dark and “old lady” looking (black turtleneck and navy pants) I needed to find a way to pop it. And my choice was not by accident.

One of the bases of the costumes in Mean Girls was the mixture of retro styles such as preppy knitwear and patterns based roughly on styles throughout the 1940-1950 with tighter fits and midriff cuts that were modern in the 2000s. The concept of the Rules is based on a time when you did dress up to go to school – fetch retro.

My sweater and pants are modern-classic so I added teal. Teal was used a lot in the 1950 and into the 1960 as a color of trend. BOOM! 

Since I later had to rush a lethargic kitten to the vet – I was also the fanciest cat-lady in the waiting room…