Races Like a Girl

…a pox on both your houses!

I’ve managed to pick up my second cold of the year. Unusual for me since I rarely get sick. Or, rather, when I get ill, I get seriously ill. But that only happens about once every 10-15 years or so.

So, here I am, semi-horizontal, alternating between feeling sort of okay and feeling like garbage. My sister has introduced me to Gan Mao Ling, a Chinese herbal remedy for colds. I can’t say it’s helped with the malaise, but it has kept my head from turning into a phlegm machine. I’m sure it’s loaded with something like benzine or mercury or formaldehyde. Being from China and all.

Sister and niece are done with the rounds of colleges and are off gallivanting in the city. I skipped the Sarah Lawrence tour on Friday since I got sucked into three hours of phone meetings, then decided to go for a nine mile run. I’m sorry I missed it, because it sounded hilarious. It’s the most expensive private university in the country, with a tuition of $57,000 a year (that’s not a typo). The kids take three (three!) classes a year, one option of which is Playground Games. Yes, they actually play dodgeball, etc. with each other as part of the curriculum. The student tour guide also touted the vegan bar and its once per week availability of avocadoes. It’s hard to believe that Rahm Emanuel went there (dance major, no less), but truth is often stranger than fiction.

It’s actually probably good that I didn’t go, since I’m sure I would have had giggling fits and embarrassed my poor niece. So, it’s settled now — NYU is her first choice, Barnard second, and she’ll apply to some California schools as backup. I’m pleased that not only did she get the wanderlust gene, but that she’s wandering in the direction of New York. I think she should not stop here, but continue straight on to Europe. But it sounds like she’ll have ample opportunity to do that for a bit if she ends up at NYU.

I felt so crummy today that I decided I may as well do the work that’s been hanging over my head like a Microsoft Office-based sword of Damocles for the past few days. I have to give a presentation to an executive on Tuesday morning about my progress on a project that deals with a knowledge area in which I have very little understanding. In other words, I must do the corporate equivalent of faking my way through a tap-dancing audition. This is the second time I’ve been put on this project at my contracting gig at Massive Nameless Global Corporation. The first time around, I failed spectacularly (or at least I thought I did), but here I am, putting on my tap shoes again. I think it’s just that no one else wants to deal with it. At least it paves the way for another 12 month contract renewal for 2009.

Anyhoo, my PowerPoint presentation is done, my pithy speaker’s notes written, and the whole pitiful mess sent off to my manager for any last minute critiques. In other news, I had a nibble of interest on a content strategy/writing project at Huge Well Known Non-Profit Foundation — something that’s been dangling in mid-air for about four months. I figured it was dead in the water, but, no! It lives!

Also — I like to bury the lead — I hired a running coach. More on that in an upcoming post…

Filed under: everyday life |