Black-eyed Susans invading my lawn, originally uploaded by dunrie.
We’ve got black-eyed Susans flowering in our back lawn, and they’ve crossed the fence and are working their way towards our neighbors’ garage. My garden is colonizing our and our neighbors’ lawn. I have been meaning to do this myself (dig up turf, replace with flowerbeds)–how interesting to see that the plants have decided to take on the task themselves.
A weed is a plant growing in the wrong place. These are garden, not weeds!
At a small place, one cool thing is that individual positions can be tailored to the innate talents of the staff. A downside is that jobs that are built around an individual are not readily handed off to others. People have different skills, this is a good thing. It does interfere with interchangability, though.
It was interesting wrapping up my job for delivery to someone else. As I left my previous job, I parcelled the work I had been doing into a few pieces.
I had coped with a small staff by taking on several responsibilities myself. This strategy got things done in the short term (faster to do it myself than explain it sometimes, I was able to fill in gaps that I recognized).
Over the long run, however, I think that playing several roles it helped us stay smaller longer, that I actually delayed the piece I needed (bigger team). I also think that I interfered with myself playing any single role as well as I would have liked, multitasking is a myth.
I have every confidence that my replacement will do great things there. She’s a professional project manager, and a stronger one than I am. I think that as my old employer grows, and it is growing fast at the moment, more specialization and delegation will have to occur. And I know she will put that in place.
I don’t know if that means that I am suited to a more “entrepreneurial” than a “mature” phase company. I’m a generalist, a bridge person between specialists. I’m also wondering whether my versatility helps or hinders. Probably both.
I have been taking a bellydance class at A2Yoga. I took it partly because I simply cannot figure out the shimmy we sometimes do in Nia. When I looked at what I had going, and what my Nia teacher had going, I knew there were entire muscle groups I wasn’t using or I wasn’t relaxing, or something. I heard that the bellydance teacher could break it down for me.
I also took bellydance because it was completely overbooked the first two sessions, and because of the way the students clinked, ultra-femininely through the hall on their way to class with a scarf tied with metal coins around their hips.
I have an extra ticket to a dance performance next Saturday, let me know if you’d be interested in accompanying me!
If there are more takers than tickets, I would think we can get more from the Summer Festival box office.
Update 6/20/07: extra ticket has a home.
Definition of a lazy person’s load: carrying too much at once to avoid the second trip.
Beast of Burden, originally uploaded by Roger Smith.
I heard this phrase from a former coworker, Susan, I think she attributed it to her mom. Wise woman. Years later, I still repeat it to myself as a caution. I notice I often try to “lazy load” stacking and carrying too many things at once. A teetering pile of stuff might, now and then, make it to its destination, but, more often than not, I will drop something and then need more time to rearrange, fix, whatever, to make up for trying to overload.
