Wilbur Winand (pre Toys R US times) was the giraffe mascot for our elementary school. I always wondered why it was a giraffe.

Hey Risa, is it still Wilbur? Risa went to school with me back in the day and now she teaches at that very same school. Isn’t that neato?

But I digress.

We were talking earlier about walking to school. My guys take the bus. But I was a walker as a kid.

On the way to school, one in every 10-20 houses had a giraffe sign in the window. That meant that the mom was home and you could go there in an emergency. It was a great idea, I think. Of course, back then, we all knew everyone in every house.

But still.

My mom reminded me that I stopped at one of the giraffe sign houses to go to the bathroom one day. I was probably 6 or 7 years old.

Hey, it was an emergency! And wasn’t that the point of those signs? A place to go in an emergency!?

After that ‘incident’ which lately I’ve been told was way more talked about that I’d thought at the time, I asked what kind of emergency were they expecting anyway? And that’s when it all came together. Those were safe houses if someone was bothering us or a stranger tried to get us in the car. Not just a place to pee or throw up. (I did have a friend who threw up at one once.)

And while I know this is a rambling post, I think it’s pretty nice that the community could come together with a plan to make the parents (and kids) feel safe. But I still think they shouldn’t make fun of the girl who had to pee.

It WAS an emergency, after all.

And speaking of walking to elementary school…..

In first grade, I walked with a boy from the big scary house across the street. Every. Day.

One day, on the way home, he asked to see my underwear. I never really wondered why. (I guess that’s because I knew that I had really pretty underwear.)

At any rate, I actually still remember pulling up my skirt really high to show him. Then I put it down and we kept walking home.

Little did I know that my mom was watching out the kitchen window and saw the whole thing. And little did I know that she had her friend on the phone, too.

Needless to say, I’ve heard about this incident often over the past 40 years.

Oh, and one more thing.

That same boy? He came to get me to walk to school on Yom Kippur. My mom answered the door and told him I wasn’t going to school. It was a Jewish holiday.

He never came back.

I never understood.

Especially after I showed him my underwear and everything.

Note: percentages not accurate. I mean seriously, who has time to figure this stuff out?

You know, I never really thought about that sentence much. People (mean teachers, in particular) say it all the time.

Undivided attention.

But boy, oh, boy, is my attention divided these days. I’m divided by:

Twitter
Blogging
Facebook
Husband
Children
Work
Me (no, not really)
Friends (not nearly enough)
Family (not enough either)

If these were divided equally (which they’re not) they’d each get 11% of my attention.

ELEVEN PERCENT.

That’s not even a good tip.
Not a passing grade in school.
It’s how much credit card delinquencies have fallen this month
And how many online adults now use status updates
The amount of homeowners falling behind on their mortgages or already in foreclosure in Q4, 2008
And how much Eastman Kodak’s shares fell
The amount of staff NY Jewish federation cut
And how much Yahoo! search revenues are up
The percentage of gamers who own unopened games
And the amount that taxable sales dropped in Clark County, Nevada (Las Vegas)
How much electric bills are forecasted to jump…

And I could go on.

It definitely isn’t enough attention to give to my kids, my friends, my mom, my honey. Or my work.

I really love my work. We’re creating new and exciting ways to gather knowledge. To dig deeper. To analyze more. And we’re doing it with some great tools and some amazing technology.

What I don’t love is that it never ends. We’re busy trying to get business, to keep our current clients as they lay off staff, and to create new opportunities. We’re strengthening current relationships and building new ones.

That shit takes time!

So if I’m not giving you enough, I’m sorry. I’m trying.

I was still dating my high school boyfriend, John, when I started college. Did I think it was a forever relationship? Not really. But I really liked him and he was so sweet.

He visited me at college several times. And then, because he was a bit directionless, he decided to head out to California to visit with his brother and figure out what he wanted to do.

Weeks turned into months. We talked all the time. But clearly, not about everything.

Because I got a wedding invitation in the mail a few months later…

So I’m driving this morning after getting my 10 year old on the bus this morning and I passed another bus stop. Two moms were there. One wearing pajamas and a big fuzzy robe and slippers.

I’m all for comfort. Really, I am.

But this made me laugh. Not because I thought she looked odd, though she did.

I laughed thinking how embarrassed my kids would be if I did that.

I give the mom credit for not caring. Maybe deep down, I wished I was that confident.

Well I’m sitting in bumper to bumper traffic. At Ave of the Ameicas and 6th Ave. I am so frustrated! Who could do this on a regular basis?

NOT ME!!!!!

Oh wait, now I can see the road that leads to the entrance to the Holland Tunnel.

At this rate, we’ll be home by frickin’ midnight.

What kind of urban planner would have 3 crowded roads merge into 2 lanes to go thru a tunnel?

A sadist clearly!

More about this trip later!

Just don’t tell my mom.

As I looked at the headline, I couldn’t help but laugh, since it is Lent and wouldn’t it be funny if someone gave up Excel for Lent? I know some are giving up Facebook and Twitter. But Excel? I couldn’t even do my job.

But the intent was to write about Excel. I know. Seriously geeky. But I’m all tingly thinking about what I learned.

First of all, I never took an Excel class. I learned Lotus 1-2-3 from my brother, over the phone, one night back in the mid-1980′s when I needed to cram and learn it for my job. He was a great teacher. (He is so patient!) I learned the basics. Adding, counting, graphing.

I didn’t need to know anything complicated.

Over the years, I transferred that depth (ha) of knowledge into Excel. They’re very similar. (Does anyone use Lotus anymore?) Anyway, it was plenty. I didn’t need to know anything else.

But today, thanks to perseverance (and another really patient teacher) I learned how to do some of the coolest and most time-saving-ist things ever.

I am so psyched.

And I hope this new knowledge will help me excel…. (ugh, sorry)

But when I got this solicitation from PETA, I laughed out loud.

I know! It’s not funny. But something about it strikes me….

And by the way? No duh; like who supports clubbing seals? I mean, really!

Today is my baby sister’s birthday. See how little she is? Oh wait, that is a few years old.

But isn’t that a cute picture? I found it on Nicole’s photo site. Nicole is my second cousin’s daughter. She’s a photographer (check out her work!) and she got a scanner! And boy oh boy did she scan! I can’t wait to see the rest – I’ve barely skimmed the surface. But there are pix of my great-grandparents, my grandparents, my aunts and uncles and cousins and… well, you get the picture. No pun intended.

So I hardly know Nicole. But I really like her. And I really like what she cares about. Family.

Back to the little sister.

Happy Birthday Amy! I hope your day is absolutely perfect. I love you.