Lap lane protocol

I love swimming laps at my local YMCA. It’s a gorgeous new facility with three lap lanes.

Swimming doesn’t feel like exercise to me. It’s so peaceful under the water; quiet, clear and a great place to think. I get into a zone, I think similar to runners where your body just takes over and you don’t have to think about it.

So what about the lap lane protocol? Let’s compare to the indoor track. If you saw someone running (not jogging) around the track at a quick pace, would you walk right in front of them and either just stand and stretch or walk at a leisurely pace? No? Me neither. But somehow in the pool, people lose their common sense and are not present in their surroundings.

Recently I was in the pool and swimming sprints—-swimming a lap as hard and fast as I could to elevate my heart rate and challenge my endurance. I was in the lane that opens to the rest of the shallow pool and a woman walked into my lane. I had my head down, only looking a foot or so in front of me so I almost barreled right into her. She was standing there, stretching, looking around oblivious to me.

I don’t know if this was a lesson from the universe to slow down and take an extra breath or a lesson to be more present and aware of the world around you. At that point, I just turned around and got back into my underwater zone.

Good Morning Riverview Ranch

Camping this weekend in Bourbon, MO at Riverview Ranch. Glorious weather, gorgeous scenery, breathtaking night sky with more stars than I've seen in forever.

No service on blackberry, so truly a weekend getaway with zero technology. Finished a book, wrote in my journal, sudoko'd, sat in the river, stared at the fire, laughed with my neighbors, recharged. Deep inhale, deep exhale.

Marketing and IT BFFs?

Yes, I said Marketing and IT. Really.

With any website or CRM program that has to integrate with a legacy billing system, marketing and IT have to work together and it’s much more fun if you can enjoy the experience. Dealing with data is an exact science. Dealing with data from an old, legacy billing system that was never designed to display the data or use it for customization of any kind, is a big hairy beast of a project that requires patience and collaboration from both Marketing and IT.

I’ve spent much of my career specializing in database marketing strategies. This means I’ve spent hours and hours working with IT and learning about select criteria, data pulls, file layouts, look-up tables, queries, API’s etc. I actually enjoy it. Most data problems are just logic puzzles…kind of like Sudoku. In the words of the very wise Weird Al Yankovic, I’m white and nerdy!

In my current position, one of my biggest projects is managing our replicating websites and shopping cart. I spend alot of my time with the Director of IT. We bonded from day one. He ‘covered’ for me on this project while I was on vacation. How often does IT cover for Marketing?

So yes, the Directors of Marketing and IT are BFFs…he loves soccer, Netherlands is his favorite non-US team, he has a spreadsheet charting all the winners of Survivor, and he drinks Jack and Coke.

Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea
One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time…by Greg Mortenson

I saw Greg speak at Powell Hall as part of the St. Louis Speaker Series (through Maryville University). His talk was incredibly moving . He’s proof that any one person can truly make a difference in the world. He’s building schools for children in Pakistan and Afghanistan, with a special focus on the education of girls. His philosophy is that if you educate the people, they are less likely to be recruited by the terrorists. If you educate the girls, they will pay it forward and educate their families.

I’m not a good enough writer to do the book justice so here are a few quotes and excerpts to inspire you.

“Here (in Pakistan and Afghanistan), we drink three cups to do business; the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything—even die.” Haji Ali, Korphe Village Chief, Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan.

“Uzra (a teacher in one of Gregg’s schools) smiled broadly for the first time since Mortensen met her, and as she freed herself from her burkha, he was struck by how beautiful she still was at fifty despite the hardships she’d endured. ‘We women of Afghanistan see the light through education,’ Uzra replied. ‘Not through this or that hole in a piece of cloth.’”

Quote from a village leader at the opening of a school: “Today is the day that you children will remember forever and tell your children and grandchildren. Today, from the darkness of illiteracy, the light of education shines bright.” …”I request America to look into our hearts and see that the great majority of us are not terrorists, but good and simple people.”

Quote from Greg on the village leader‘s speech: “ I wish all the Americans who think Muslim is just another way of saying ‘terrorist’ could have been there that day. The true core tenants of Islam are justice, tolerance and charity.”

ps I also recommend the St. Louis Speaker Series (stlouisspeakerseries.org)