Wednesday, October 21, 2009

For the record, I'm a Ms.

So it turns out that when you go to your office for the first time in eight months? All these people decide they want to MEET with you. You know, in person.

Which, on the one hand, is kind of cool, because I like my job, and my coworkers, and it's nice to get to talk to them in person for several reasons. First of all, one thing I've noticed about being conferenced into live meetings? It's really hard to get a word in edgewise. I don't know if it's because the connection isn't good or people aren't paying attention to the phone or what, but sometimes I'll try six or seven times to say something, only to get cut off by people who appear not to hear me whatsoever. I guess I didn't realize how much people rely on visual cues in meetings that someone else is about to speak?

Plus, you know, it's nice to get some face time and see people and read facial expressions and all the rest.

But also unfortunately the fact that I'm in meetings for most of the day doesn't mean that I don't still have actual work to do, so I've been very busy. Not too busy, though, to take a break to have lunch with my sister yesterday. And then I had dinner with her too. And hopefully I'll have lunch with her again before I leave on Friday. Plus I have dinner plans with another friend on Thursday. Definitely the best part of coming on a business trip to a city you used to live in.

In the meantime, while I get back to work, I direct you to three posts by other bloggers that I found very interesting:

Angella is writing about the Miss, Ms., Mrs. question over at Work It, Mom.
Jamie is writing about her take on my recent post about fat over at Bodies in Motivation.
Swistle is writing about some common marital gripes (and commenter gripes) over on her personal blog (the comments are fascinating too).

Happy reading!

7 comments:

  1. It's nice that you are able to catch up with your sister and friend. That's a plus! Thanks for the links, now I have some more things to read while I work.

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  2. I would think it's frustrating to participate on conference calls if you're the ONLY one being conferenced in. At my company, we have employees all over the nation, so conference calls are the norm ... and it doesn't feel like people in the office get any more play time than those calling in.

    Also, for the record, I think the whole Miss, Ms., Mrs. is so ridiculously outdated that I don't consider myself any of the above. =)

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  3. Being called any of those makes me feel old! I just tell people to call me Marisa.

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  4. Aww... it's nice that you're loved!!

    I always hated conference calls. I usually just listened unless I was specifically asked a question.

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  5. The Miss/Mrs./Ms. thing was neat! I do it the traditional way, which is that if my first name is being used, I'm Ms.: Ms. Swistle Thistle (Thistle is my married name). If my first name is not being used, I'm Mrs.: Mr. and Mrs. Thistle. It makes me feel like I'm biting aluminum to see Mrs. used with a woman's first name (except in the few cases when it's appropriate, such as widowhood and divorce), but then I was fed Miss Manners as mother's milk and don't expect everyone else to know the small rules.

    If I have to check a box, I check Ms. because I don't know if they're planning to use my first name or not, and because, like you, I approve of and support the idea behind the term Ms., and wish it would become universal for adult women.

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  6. Do you get to expense those dinners and lunches while you're in town? If so, that's an even better part of having a business trip in a city where you used to live! Enjoy the rest of your week there!

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  7. I love catching up with people I haven't seen in a while too :) have a great time! Maybe you can shop around too..after all it's like one of the best things to do in the city lol

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