Extra Work Now = No Work Later
July 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment
I have been working extra hard this week to get ready for my FOUR DAY WEEKEND this weekend. This means that I am not only working my typical work week in four days (it’s a “flex week” – work all of your hours in 4 days, get Friday off!) but I’m also running around at night to get all of my usual weekend chores done, so I won’t have to do them on my time off.
Hello, I’m cleaning the bathroom on a Wednesday night instead of Saturday morning!
It only occurred to me last night (in the middle of the above bathroom cleaning, laundry swapping, bill paying and other nonsense) that I’m doing this in preparation a weekend that I’d actually have MORE time to do these things, not less. Then I wondered why I don’t just do all of this extra work during the week every week, so that my weekends are always, always free from chores.
Then I collapsed on the couch at 9:30, almost missing So You Think You Can Dance in my “get it all done!” hysteria, and realized that I just don’t have the stamina to to do this all the time. What can I say, I have to pace myself.
Doogie Howser, DVM
June 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment
This weekend we took the cats to their new vet in Louisville for their annual booster shots and exam. Our experiences with our Chicago vet were less than stellar, so I was a bit anxious meeting the new doctor and staff.
The vet building was a bit older and more well-worn than we had anticipated, but the flowers in front were well-cared for, so that lent a vibe of “we care!” to the exterior, which was promising. Inside, we were greeted by two extremely jumpy dogs who were there to be groomed. While a vet tech tried to transfer the dogs from their owner’s leash to the temporary grooming leash, one of the dogs broke away ran into the depths of the office.
Mr. Martini gave me a look, and whispered, “Well, that doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.”
We didn’t have to wait long for our appointment, and we were led to an exam room almost immediately. We waited for the doctor to arrive, reading the signs on the wall and advertisements for various medications.
Then two people entered the room. The first was the vet tech, a man in his mid-40s or so, wearing blue scrubs.
Behind him was a skinny 16-year old playing dress up in a white lab coat.
Or at least, that was my first impression of the vet. I swear, I have never, ever before looked at someone and thought, “You’re too young to be [insert professional title here]!” For many years, I was always told I look much younger than my years, and it always drove me crazy. I always swore I would never say that about anyone.
Until this weekend, when our vet looked like a 16-year-old high school student.
And while I didn’t come right out and say, “Oh my god, Doogie Howser!” I think I may have involuntarily done a facial reaction to his introduction as “Hello, I’m Doctor O.” Because there was the briefest pause while his name just hung there in the air, and I wrapped my head around the idea that this kid was an actual medical professional.
As it turned out, he was great. He and the vet tech handled our squirmy, headstrong cats with finesse and did a great job explaining every step of the exam and which shots the cats were getting. By the end of it, we shook hands and I was really impressed with the job he and the vet tech did.
Still, though, I’m sure it can’t be easy for him to look young and be taken seriously. He definitely had a super-mature demeanor that was all business, which I’m sure helps get past the initial reactions he receives.
But wow, he really, really, really looked young. Is this one of those signs of getting old that I need to worry about?
Ruby didn’t care how old the man with the needles looked. She was just so happy to get home.
It Might Be Another Four Years Until We Go Back
June 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment
It was hot this weekend. Very, very hot. Like, in the upper 90s with a heat index in the triple digits hot. It’s going to be a long summer.
On Saturday evening, Mr. Martini and I decided to treat ourselves and go to Olive Garden.
(Wait! Wait! To all of the foodie folks, I know, I know. Olive Garden is not high-end, Italian cuisine. I know it doesn’t replace local Mom & Pop Italian restaurants with the olive oil on the table and the rotating one-of-a-kind specials. I know. But let’s face it – they have pasta and cheese and sauce, and it can be yummy if not completely authentic.)
We actually managed not only to find a parking spot at Olive Garden, but we were even seated immediately. This was amazing, as I swear the Olive Garden hires seat fillers a la the Oscars, to ensure that it is always, always filled to capacity and necessitates a 40 minute wait on the uncomfortable lobby furniture, for no other reason than to keep the general public feeling like they’re getting away with something when they get seated sooner. I know that’s how I felt.
Our table was in a nook separated a bit from the rest of the dining room, which was perfect for us. As we were scanning the menu, I noticed that I wasn’t cooling down as I normally would indoors. I didn’t think much of it (it was 98 degrees outside, after all), and we went ahead and placed our order with our spunky waitress. When Spunky Waitress came back with our drinks, she informed us that it would be a few minutes for our salad and breadsticks. “The exhaust fans in the kitchen aren’t working,” she said. “It’s pretty hazy and hot in there, and I’m pregnant, so they won’t let me in there.”
Mr. M and I looked at each other, but figured we didn’t have anything to worry about, since we weren’t being told to leave or anything. It just meant we might be a little warm in the dining room, no big deal.
Our salads and breadsticks arrived, and then our dinners. We dug in happily. It was only after we started eating that we heard a waitress say to some other patrons in our section, “Yeah, we had to open the kitchen doors to air them out. Your lucky you’re back here, because the rest of the dining room is getting pretty hot.” That’s when I glanced at the rest of the dining room, and saw a grey haze hovering like smog over all of the other diners. “At this point, we’re not seating any more customers.”
The servers started moving in fast-forward, trying to get food out to the remaining diners a quickly as possible. Then, the power went out. It was still well-lit in the dining room thanks to the windows, but the sudden silence of the cheery Italian music was a little eerie. The power outage was the cue for the table next to us to request to-go boxes for their dinners – they were out of there. I didn’t see Spunky Pregnant Waitress for the rest of the meal, so she must have been sent home.
Mr. M and I stayed and finished our meal. We were almost done anyway, so it seemed silly to rush since we hadn’t been asked to. There were still diners being served meals, so it looked like business as usual in the rest of the restaurant. The power did come back on, but the haze in the dining room just got thicker, and eventually made it back to our section as well.
By that point, we were done with our plates. We paid for our meal and as a thank you for sticking around and not kicking up a fuss, the server gave us extra mints. I think I was more excited about the extra mints than I should have been. I love those things. I’m betting she was trying to get rid of them before they melted. I should have offered to take the whole lot of them with me.
That was our Olive Garden dinner on Saturday night. A little lasagna served with a touch of heatstroke. And I’m still happy about the mints.
Feminism and Etsy and Crafting, Oh My!
June 16, 2009 | 5 Comments
Last week I read an article that frustrated me. It was all about Etsy.com, and feminism, and I’ve written about sixteen different responses in my head since then. I think my inner voices will only be quieted if I finally commit these thoughts to the keyboard.
For those who would like to read it, here’s a link to the post. Below I’ve listed the points that are the most important me that I need to express, and beyond that I’ll leave it to the other bloggers out there to hash it out (like the undercut pricing debate). We all have out hot issue triggers, and here are mine – your mileage may vary.
Before I get into the article, here is a brief overview of what Etsy is: Etsy is a site where handcrafters can sell their goods online. In exchange for paying posting fees (20 cents per items) and selling fees (3.5% of the sale price) to Etsy sellers receive server space, forums, and access to the built in audience Etsy can provide. Etsy is a for-profit business, and for it to stay profitable, it needs more sellers to post more items and sell more goods. It is in Etsy’s best interest to bring as many sellers and buyers to their site as possible.
OK, now we can get to the article.
The article’s author, Sara Mosle, starts out with a description of Etsy very similar to mine above. But her sticking point is that the number of female sellers on Etsy far (far, far) outnumber the number of male sellers. Which leads her to the following conclusions and theories:
1. Due to the disparity in the number of male and female sellers, Etsy is a “female ghetto.”
As Inigo said to Vizzini in The Princess Bride, “…that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” To imply that Etsy is a female ghetto insinuates that the women populating the site are there due to discrimination elsewhere, that they are forced there because they can’t escape from Etsy to sell their crafts on other online handcraft selling sites. If that’s the case, point me to this alternative, discriminatory handcraft selling site, and I’ll gladly edit this paragraph to reflect it.
2. According to Mosle, the average Etsy seller is in her mid-30s, with a college education and an above average income. Which prompts her to ask, “These should, in sum, be highly employable women. So, what are they doing, often pursuing hobbies, or working only part-time, on Etsy?”
Maybe because I craft in my spare time as my hobby, this seems to be a no-brainer to me. I suspect that many of these woman are, indeed, pursuing their hobbies and selling their products while maintaining full-time jobs, either as stay-at-home-moms (a full time job if ever there was one) or out of home in the workforce. Just because you see a seller on Etsy doesn’t mean that it is their only source of income or employment.
3. The idea of creating and selling crafts as a well-paying career while raising children in the home is a feminist “promise” that cannot be delivered, therefore making this promise a fantasy.
This is the one I just don’t get. It seems to me that the feminist promise is the equality for a woman to pursue her life as she chooses, without restrictions based on her gender. That promise casts a wide net, allowing women to choose to craft items to sell while the baby naps, or have access to a private place to breastfeed between meetings, or pursue a career instead of having children without prejudice. Saying that the promise is not delivered, and therefore a fantasy, because not every woman has the ability or drive to sustain an online craft business from the home while raising a family is incredibly narrow-minded, in my opinion.
4. Etsy perpetuates and “peddles” this feminist fantasy.
As stated above, Etsy is a for-profit business. It is in Etsy’s best interest to maintain and grow the number of sellers on their site. They want their sellers to be successful, because they have a stake in each item these sellers post and sell. Etsy offers articles with topics on how to establish a full-time crafting business through Etsy, or spotlights sellers that have been able to pursue their craft business full-time, not to peddle a feminist fantasy but because it’s good business for Etsy to keep sellers on their site and successful. In fact, it’s in Etsy’s best interest to attract sellers of both genders, because it only increases their profit-base. Etsy knows this, and has tried to attract more male sellers to the site, unfortunately with little success at this point, but I will bet that they are looking for new ways all the time.
5. It is not likely that most sellers will be able to pursue a full-time, highly-profitable storefront on Etsy. Women have been so taken by the fantasy outlined above, that they’re still selling on Etsy despite the lack of profitability. Men, however, have done the math and found that Etsy isn’t profitable, and that’s why there aren’t as many male sellers on Etsy.
Well, if that point doesn’t make all of the female sellers on Etsy sound like they have quilt-batting for brains, I don’t know what does. This is the point that really got my blood boiling, because it makes it sound like women are suckers who are unable or unwilling to evaluate the business prospects of Etsy, and make a rational decision whether or not to sell there, while men are too smart to even set up shop there if the profits will be so low. I’m not even going to spend time refuting this, because I know all of you reading this are smart enough to know that it’s a load of BS.
I will concede the point that not all sellers on Etsy drive large sales and generate huge profits. But let’s not forget that while many people would love to make a full-time living crafting, just as many people craft for pleasure or artistic expression. While many people feel their crafts are valuable and worth selling, they may not want the pressure of selling full-time, because that’s not the driving force behind their hobby. Maybe some Etsy sellers love their day jobs, and the security and benefits these day jobs provide, and wouldn’t be comfortable being their own boss and depending on their handcrafts for full-time employment. I know I wouldn’t, and I love crafting.
Then why post on Etsy? Because maybe their friends and family are up to their ears in quilts or handmade jewelry. Who knows. Who cares? The point is, not everyone needs or wants to be a full-time craft seller.
Or just the opposite, some people may be so successful that they don’t need to sell on Etsy. Sure, some people have worked hard to create successful Etsy stores, and that’s great! But some sellers have seen that because they list so many items, or sell so frequently, that it doesn’t make good business sense to continue to pay Etsy their fees when they have the web-design, marketing and entrepreneurial skills to open their own storefront elsewhere. Or they’ve seen such a rise in the number of sellers on Etsy, that they’ve seen a decrease in “foot traffic” and have found they don’t need Etsy anymore for that reason (I’m thinking of Splityarn’s Caro and her post regarding Etsy). And I’m betting there are dozens of reason I’m not even thinking of that business-minded men AND women have based their decisions to not sell on Etsy.
If you’ll indulge me a second Princess Bride quote: Let me sum up.
6. The fact that there are more female sellers than male sellers on Etsy means something.
To me? It really doesn’t mean anything at all.
If the male crafters are out there selling their stuff, and are doing a good job promoting themselves, I’ll find them. If I find what I’m looking for on Etsy, I’ll shop there. If I continue to find great shops that don’t have an Etsy presence (like Splityarn), I’ll stalk them for updates. Really, I don’t care about the gender of the people behind the shops. I just want to find the handcrafts that I like and will enjoy.
Phew! That was much longer than I intended, and if you made it this far, I really appreciate your time and attention. It had been bugging me for days, and I know that writing about crafts while there’s so much going on in the world (Iran, I’m looking at you) may seem a little self-indulgent, but there you go.
If you think I’m off base, or think I missed something, please feel free to leave a comment. I’m more than happy to discuss this further if you think I missed a major point or was just too thin-skinned regarding the original article. Just keep it clean and polite, that’s all I ask.
I’m going to cross-post this to my crafting site (Almost Crafty) because I think the themes of the post fit well for both sites, and I don’t want to exclude my readers over there. If you’re one of the three people that read both sites, I apologize for the repetition!
My Week, in Several Nutshells
June 12, 2009 | 1 Comment
Nutshell #1: Fire furor has died down. I’m still angry about the cause of the fire, but that’s not going to help anyone at this point. Yesterday, Mr. M and I gathered a bunch of supplies and household items to donate to the families: clothes, new socks, soap, deodorant, a couple pairs of Old Navy flip flops (from this buying spree), and even a lamp, since we heard folks were looking for furniture. It wasn’t much, but I figure every little bit helps at this point.
Nutshell #2: We had a critter making noises in our chimney for a few days earlier this week, but the noises have since stopped. We asked the front office to take a look, but so far they have been (understandably) distracted by the other events happening in the neighborhood. We’re hoping someone can take a peek down there soon to verify that the critter escaped, and is not currently re-enacting one of the squishier scenes from “Bones” in our flue.
Nutshell #3: On my way to work this morning, I exited the parking garage and stood on the corner waiting for the light to change so I could cross the street. I caught some movement down the block in the corner of my eye, and turned in that direction, thinking it was a co-worker waving hello. Instead, I made brief eye contact with a couple of drunken rednecks waiting at a bus stop. (I’m not sure if the term “rednecks” is PC, but it’s the best way I can describe them.) I quickly turned away, but by that point they had focused their attention on me, complete with wolf whistles being hurled in my direction for the duration of my (albeit short) walk to work.
After living in Chicago for so long, I’ve built up a tolerance for all kinds of people, including pan-handlers of all shapes and sizes. But I’ve noticed I have a much stronger defensive reaction to the drunken drifters here in Louisville than I ever had in Chicago. I think a lot of it has to do with just how much more aggressive they are, as well as the fact that there are just so many fewer people on the sidewalks to witness or aid in case anything goes too far. As you can tell, I’m still a little creeped out, hours later.
Nutshell #4: I am completely hooked on “So You Think You Can Dance” and I think you should be to.
I re-watched all of the dance numbers last night before the results show, so I’d remember them. I also may have done some poor imitations of Bollywood dancing in the living room.
Nutshell #5: I got a call from my BFF Sphincter last night. Can I just say for the record how awesome she is? I love it when she calls, because she has the best stories from her work as a librarian, and she tells them with such flair that I find myself giggling about them hours later. Even with some bad news to share (she ran into an old friend of ours with some major health issues), she always, always leaves me laughing.
Nutshell #6: I’ve updated my All About Me page. I think I’ve covered all of the bases, but there’s something you’d like to know or you think I should add, just drop me a line!
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