Wednesday, January 23, 2002

eXtreme dog walking team members...with the most photogenic dog in the world

"Les choses que je conte
Sont des mensonges vrais."

Jean Cocteau, The Journals of Jean Cocteau, quoted by Wallace Fowlie in the introduction

Some days you wish something dramatic would happen. Instead of the dragging on and on. The easiest thing in the world to change in organizations is the official reporting structure. The hardest thing to change is what makes a company succeed or fail: flexibility, reputation, talent. (I stole that out of an article in The Economist. At least the last three nouns.)

People see different realities. Perceive different histories. Even one person sees things differently, day to day. I like to believe that I strive to tell the truth. I'm, in fact, obsessed with the truth. To the point of trivia. I don't want to tell you a house was on the left if it was on the right. (Of course, right now, it's only me telling me...since I haven't opened this to the world. But one day I probably will.)

Work. The same old, same old, reported as new and revolutionary. It's so obvious that these products go with these other ones. Only it was once equally obvious that they went, naturally, of course, with others.

Work on my presentation goes not so well for a while. Then I'm really into it again, thinking it is a good thing. Getting some good info from others, doing good research. Yeah, right.

Lunch. Z'Tejas. Radio Shack. SuRu wanted to go to Eddie V's which I said wasn't open at lunch and she said we'd go to Z'Tejas if it wasn't. It wasn't. We got salads which in spite of the price ($3.95) were huge. We got an appetizer sampler we shared. We couldn't finish it. The salads are a bargain deal I'll have to remember. Especially if they always bring corn bread.

Our social schedule is about to pick up dramatically but tonight there is no event. However, FFP wants to go to our club and eat dinner and we do. My appetite is still not what it once was (yea!) but I enjoy the Salmon Wellington and vegies even though I don't finish it. I do my part on a 1998 Greg Norman Shiraz.

"I though Greg Norman was a golfer," I say.

"Yes, he is." both FFP and the waiter assure me. Same guy apparently.

I try to draw FFP's attention to the teenagers sitting around the club's bar and grill, eating calalmari and shrimp cocktails, signing for their food. Later he says that yeah he noticed and no he didn't grow up doing that at his parents' private club. "One of them said he was pretty sure calamari was squid," FFP says.

So after eating do we go home and get after the things we need to do? Nope. We go sit in the bar at Four Seasons and listen to Rebecca. I drink a bottle of sparkling water. We stay later and later and then I order a sherry. Then FFP orders a pizza.

"We had dinner," I point out. But I eat two pieces.

Early to bed, early to rise, they say. I won't be up early tomorrow, I suspect.

Lately I seem to be my usual unfocused self, flitting from one thing to the next. But, in the meantime, I do concentrate on one thing in a way that I haven't been able to do in a while. With energy and interest. Things are fun. Everything. Even things that should be a bore. It's weird.

I'm also experiencing a new relationship with food and drink. This morning FFP made bacon for his breakfast. I picked up the one piece that was left on my way out the door. It made me feel really full. I'm paying attention to what I eat and drink although I'm not denying myself anything I really feel like having.

JUST TYPING
Patience.
Observation.
Creativity.
Lead to success.
You need all of them.
And. Even then.