We were floating along a canal somewhere around Kloosterznde when my dad's phone beeped. "Notre Dame on Fire," the alert from CNN said. The spire had already toppled. Sixteen year old me standing in the middle of Rome, asking a guard with a machine gun "Where are the street signs?" (missing …
Grab The Windex
If soccer practice is Saturday where will you buy fish food on Monday? When you were a kid, did you ever do those logic puzzles? There would be a whole grid with boxes and you had to decide which task happened when and by whom with what supplies or some variation. Then there were the math …
Leap And The
I could not breathe the entire time I was watching the movie. I was in the Imax theater where my friends' parents and I watched Dunkirk (because Harry Styles was in the movie). Apparently Imax worthy movies require viewers to bring extra oxygen. I mean, there we were, clinging to …
Why Does This Always Happen?
I have my best business thoughts while drying my hair in the morning. Obviously I don't plan that. Who wants to think about email segments or product descriptions at 7:30 in the morning before breakfast? Not me. It happens all. the. time. though. Recently I found out why. …
Back That Thing Up
I looked at my to-do list and immediately had a panic attack. No really. I did. Just ask Steph. Then I got on the phone. Luckily I was home and not sitting across from a client thinking I had the flu. (I didn't and I don't think she knew that while I was smiling, I was internally freaking …
In The Dark Ages
I used to be the pursuer. For years and years if I found someone I wanted to date, I went after him. I never EVER let anyone come to me of his own volition. This is not a new "rules" book for women. Don't freak out. I met my husband on Match.com in 2003, the Dark Ages of internet dating. …
Room Temperature
"Oh. Oh no." It was my annual walk around for the Azalea Garden Tour. The publicity chair for the tour would drive me around and, in about three hours, we'd see all 11 gardens on the upcoming tour. I'd write a preview, hitting all the high points and telling attendees …
Dirt On The Carpet
"Would you consider a $30,000 gift to support rehanging the historic gates at the end of the garden allee?" I asked the question and then I stopped talking. You could hear a pin drop over the phone. I couldn't ask in person because the donor was in Japan or Quebec or maybe Spain. I'd …
The Easiest Thing In The World
"The decision to stay or to go was a private agony that will be publicly judged." This is a dispatch from Indianapolis, Indiana. I fled Hurricane Florence ahead of the storm, expecting my house to be a total loss. It's a mile from the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway as the crow flies. …
The More Times You Say Something
It's 4 p.m. on a Thursday and the client won't make a decision. We're two weeks out from an event and the deadline to order awards is about to pass. I've been trying to get an answer for weeks. "I need your decision by noon tomorrow so I can place the order," I say. "Oh, I can't get …
