Some days, all I seem to do is go from meeting to meeting. I saw this post recently, and the author, Gina Imperato (who is quoting Michael Begeman at 3M) has some really interesting points about the dreaded meeting.

I liked the section about small talk's place in meetings. I hear complaints from our Type A people who want to get in and get it done. (Whatever "it" is, and sometimes, they don't quite know.) They don't want any chatter or anything not on the agenda.

This is an interesting article. I hope you have a minute to look at it.

Happy meetings and happy Friday!

We had a terrible thunderstorm hit yesterday afternoon at the height of rush hour traffic.  I got up this morning, and it was 72 degrees. It was amazing. I was stunned at how great it felt! We have had a streak of 15 days of triple-digit temperatures. People were getting cabin fever, and the heat was bothering everybody.

I've had some strange conversations this week. I don't know whether to blame it on the weather or the communicators. (There was a full moon last week too...)

Last week, I pulled into an honor parking lot in downtown Richmond. Parking is at a premium in some areas of town, and even if you do find a spot, there's usually a hike involved to get to your destination. I pulled in this lot, and I was thrilled that there were plenty of spaces. Before I could get out of the car to pay, a man in a golf cart knocked on my window and said, "Jehovah's Witness?" I wasn't sure what he was expecting as an answer. He filled in during the long pause where I was thinking. He let me know that there was a convention in town, and they had reserved all of the lots around the facility. At least that explained while he was asking about religion at 8:00 in the morning in a parking lot in the middle of the state capital.

Then I got a call from a co-worker last week. I picked up the phone, and he said, "Somebody said that you were top row Fed Ex."  I wasn't sure if that was slang. It might have been a compliment? It took a couple of seconds for me to figure it out what he was saying. He was asking me where our seats were for the Redskins games at FedEx field. He was going to buy tickets for an exhibition game, and he wanted to know about the seats in the top tier. (For my husband's 40th birthday, I got us season tickets to the Redskins. I knew it was in the top section, but the row letter was mid-way in the alphabet, so I didn't seem that bad. When we got there, our seats were in the last row at the top under the lights. We could have waved to the blimp if it went over. The bad part was that when they turned the lights on, the moths hit us in the head. We ended up exchanging them for some in another section.)

Then I got an email from my sister and dad. She was writing to him, and it started out, "built stilts." Then it went on to talk about every day stuff. I thought she had some new euphemism or code. I wondered if she was trying to bypass some email censor by swearing in code. I kept reading. It turns out that in his email, he had given her a clue to one of his rhyming word puzzles, and she was providing the answer.

Context is everything! Have a great weekend!

I heard this story about Bob and Jeanne Donald on NPR this evening. They lived in Valdez, Alaska 21 years ago. They relocated to Gulf Shores, Alabama. This reminded me of the story of the McLean family who left Manassas (where two Civil War battles were fought near the property) for Appomattox. The war followed them, and the surrender took place in their parlor
on April 9, 1865.

NPR entitled their article "Double Jeopardy." It's fitting...

I just finished the following, and I thought I'd share...

I loved Murder Boogies with Elvis by Anne George. (I have to read anything with Elvis in the title.) I loved George's two (over-40) Southern sisters. Their interactions are very funny. I was sorry to see that Ms. George passed away in 2001. I plan to read her other works. Her novel exudes charm and fun.

I also read Judy Fitzwater's Dying to Remember. It's about a thirty-something's high school reunion and some sins of the past. Her characters have interesting careers and interests.

I finished London is the Best City in America by Laura Dave. It's great chick lit. Take this one to the beach and then share it with a friend. I couldn't put it down last night. I had to finish it before going to bed. I like the dynamics between the siblings and their friends. The crazy family members that show up for the wedding weekend are very funny. I'm interested to see what else Dave has written.

I was at a conference a few years back, and a couple of the speakers referenced Noah Lukeman's The First Five Pages . I bought it and read it. It's great for highlighting the pitfalls that writers encounter. He divides the book up into three areas: Preliminary Problems, Dialogue, and The Bigger Picture. He also has great examples of the good, bad, and ugly.

Someone in my critique group recommended it recently to another writer, so I picked it up again. It's well worth reading over and over. It's definitely eye-opening when you reread your own material.

Keep writing!

The University of Virginia  has put copies of lectures/programs by William Faulkner on its website. Faulkner was a writer-in-residence there in 1957 and 1958. I have always loved to hear writers talk about their work.

I was staring at my computer screen this morning, and I started to think about how some of the terms we use daily have changed over the last few years.

• A cursor used to be a foul-mouthed person.
• A poster used to be a picture on your bedroom wall. (Mine were of Rob Lowe and the other Brat Packers.)
• Rip used to be a hole in your jeans.
• Burn meant that you set fire to something.
• A tweet was a sound a birdie made.
• A browser was someone who did a lot of window-shopping in a bricks and mortar store.
• Backup was a direction.
• A chip was potato, corn, chocolate, or diamond.
• FAT was the opposite of thin.
• Hertz was a car rental company.
• Memory was a treasured thought from the past.
• A button was a fastener for clothes.
• A radio button was plastic, and it was a knob on an AM/FM device.
• SPAM was food in a can.
• TWAIN was an American writer.
• A virus was something you went to the doctor for.
• A worm was bait.
• Windows were made of glass.

It's too hot to go outside here on the east coast. I hope you're somewhere cool. Find a good book or movie!

I heard a co-worker lamenting recently that her daughter's elementary school wasn't teaching cursive any more. I was stunned at first. I have horrible handwriting, so I probably should be glad that it's not one of the hot subjects any more.

This is an article from USA Today  on the subject. Students have a broader curriculum now, and sometimes, the time is not there to focus on handwriting. Back in the 70s, we had a PBS show on handwriting that we watched twice a week. We had to do the exercises just like Miss Virginia on the TV. I never mastered the "color in the lines version." Some of my letters have been customized.

There aren't that many people who do speed writing or short hand any more. When I taught at a technical college in the early 90s, we were still teaching dictation and transcription. In my office, that went the way of the Dodo when PCs and email appeared on the scene.

Long hand is one of those thinks like book jackets and typewriters that's being replaced. For me (and everyone who has to read the notes that I jot, it's probably a good thing.)

I always loved field trip day, so when I get to go on one as an adult, I get really excited. 

I went with a group today on a tour of the Virginia Department of Forensics Science. It is an amazing place. I had no idea that that much analysis and scientific work went on in downtown Richmond. While we were there, the ballistics staff were firing guns into water tanks and at targets. We saw the toxicology and DNA areas. It was fascinating, and I got a lot of good CSI information (especially what's real and what's TV fiction).

The Department of Forensics Science  is downtown in the biotech area of our state capital. Parking downtown is always a challenge. I thought I was being prepared by Googling all of the nearby lots. I pulled in one this morning, and the gentleman working the lot tapped on my window and asked if I was a Jehovah's Witness. I wondered for a couple of seconds where this was going, but he cleared up the confusion when he told me that there was a convention in town, and most of the parking lots had been reserved for convention guests. I had a brief Plan B scramble to find another lot, but it wasn't bad. That led to a nice leisurely walk through the biotech park.

(There is a group working to bring a chapter of Sisters in Crime to Central Virginia, and nine folks from this group went on today's tour. If you're interested in reading or writing mysteries/thrillers and you're near the Central Virginia area, email me, and I'll send you the contact information.)

Dear Diary...

You've been with me since the third grade. We've survived biology and chemistry...and oh so much drama through the years!

I've been keeping a journal since the seventies. I've got a trunk full of them. Life and way too many other projects get in the way. Sometimes, I do journaling on my scrapbook pages. I also started journals for both of my nieces when they were born.

I was shocked recently when I opened the one on my nightstand, and I realized that I started it in 2005. It's a pretty thick book, but I've been slacking. I'm trying to be better at keeping up with it.

I found this site (Journaling Saves) when I was looking at online creativity sites. It has some neat ideas and some good writing exercises if you get stuck.

Anybody else keep a journal? An electric one?