I am going to start a petition to create a new law in this country. I've been thinking about this for a while, and I can't see any down side - I believe this would be a win-win for our country, both in terms of the economy and our empathy.
Everyone, regardless of race, creed, or financial status, should have to work in customer service for at least one year.
I am talking here about entry-level, need-to-ask-permission-to-take-a-bathroom-break kind of customer service. Out there on the front lines, working the floor and serving the people. I believe that if more people were forced to experience being yelled at for a store policy they can't control, they might have a little more patience with the clerks, wait staff, and baristas they encounter on a daily basis - because they would know what it's like to be on the other side of that counter. Gradually, there would be fewer people yelling and more people sympathizing and - dare I say? - caring.
Personally, I have been there and done that. I worked for 2 years in high school in the shoe department at Mervyn's. During my time there, I saw it all. I watched parents turn a blind eye while their child tore apart a neat row of shoeboxes I had just straightened. I found old, beat up and very smelly pairs of shoes ditched inside new boxes. Angry customers demanded to "speak to a manager" more times than I can count. I was told by an older gentleman that I was "worthless." I was also hit on by a guy who only spoke Spanish (he gave me his phone number - but what would we talk about?), and another guy who looked like the bridge keeper at the end of Monty Python's Holy Grail (ie, probably an escaped mental patient) - but that's another story.
And that's only my first customer service job. I also worked for about 4 years as a Barista (and later, Shift Supervisor) at Starbucks. One thing I learned very quickly is that people take their coffee VERY seriously. Once we were out of white chocolate and, upon hearing this news, a customer yelled, "Well, this is just the worst day of my life!" and stormed out. I once had a freshly prepared 20 oz raspberry mocha spilled on me by a customer, and when I immediately made her a new one, she didn't apologize or thank me. I had a very large and intimidating man berate me loudly and ferociously because I wouldn't let him return a dirty, used, and cracked French Press for cash without a receipt. I was burned multiple times by oversteamed milk, I sliced my finger open cutting pumpkin loaf, my shoes were always sticky with syrup and my clothes always smelled strongly of coffee and sour milk.
I took more mental, emotional, and physical beatings than I can count in the name of customer service. And it would be easy to read this and think I was bitter....
But then I think about all of the good things. The camaraderie with co-workers immediately comes to mind. I remember singing and making up crazy voices with Lonnie while stocking shoes early in the morning. I remember how I became known as the "Mismate Queen" because of my talent for finding the mates to lonely shoes. I remember marking Starbucks drink cups in fancy, elaborate script to entertain whoever was working the espresso bar. I remember turning up the music in the store after we'd locked out the last customer and dancing around singing while mopping the floor. Also, I remember how we would stick up for each other. I remember the ladies who hugged and encouraged me when that man called me worthless. I remember one of my managers at Starbucks sticking up for me when a customer was being unreasonably rude and downright abusive (she was a regular and this was a pattern for her - oddly enough, she was much nicer after that).
I also think of the times I was able to go above and beyond for customers, and how good that felt. I once called about a dozen stores in the area to help a bride-to-be find the right sizes of clearance shoes that were just perfect for her bridesmaids. She was so grateful! I remember learning what drinks regular customers would order so I could ask them if they'd like "the usual." People really enjoy being recognized and known. I remember the smiles I would get when I took an extra moment to put a little extra flourish on someone's drink. I remember also being empowered to "make things right" by re-making a drink or giving someone a free drink coupon if they'd been waiting a long time.
Everyone, regardless of race, creed, or financial status, should have to work in customer service for at least one year.
Here is the problem with my law......to be able to learn valuable life lessons by working in customer service, you have to CARE ABOUT PEOPLE. And as Coach Steve is fond of saying, "you can't put a gun to people's heads and say 'care about people!'" It has to come naturally, it has to be real, and it has to come from the heart.
I was disappointed last night by an experience we had at Macy's. We were looking for a set of sheets on a wedding gift registry, valued at $59.99 (according to the printout) as that was at the top end of our price range. A polite older woman offered to help us find the set, and we did find it. However, it was priced at $75. When I asked her about this, I was told that the item must have been on sale when they registered, but it was not now. However, if we came back the next day, it would be on sale again for that price. Frustrated, I asked if they could honor the price from the registry, especially given that it would BE that price again in a few hours. She just shrugged an said, "Well, back when we were Meier and Frank, we could do that, but now that we're Macy's they don't' do that." She didn't call a manager to see if they could make and exception, she didn't even offer to put the item on hold, she just shrugged indifferently.
They lost a sale that night. We were willing to buy the item at the sale price, but instead we left the store. We went to Crate and Barrel, and I'm happy to report it was a great experience. Multiple store clerks offered to help us as we wandered around (admittedly, a little lost) with their registry, and ultimately one woman made a few helpful suggestions when she could see we were having trouble deciding. She offered to hold one of the items while we kept looking, and then (as is their standard) when we'd made our selections they were all neatly wrapped up in one box, ready to bring to the wedding. That is a company that values service, and I will be back.
I suppose one result from my years of customer service is that my standards for good service are pretty high. I refuse to personally punish a clerk for a store policy they did not set and are responsible for following. I understand that they are real people who have bad days, and I can't possibly know everything that is going on in their lives. However, if I find that a store's policies are not customer service-friendly, I might choose not to shop there anymore. And I have little patience for employees who have decided very openly that they do NOT care about serving their customers. When you take that kind of job, you take on that kind of responsibility, and in that case there is just no reasonable excuse for not caring.
However, when I find great service out there in the world, I can't help but be ecstatic. Experiencing good service is something that spreads - it puts you in a great mood, and then you transfer that onto other people. It's a butterfly effect that makes the world smile.
Sometimes I'm almost tempted to go back into that world with everything I've learned.....
On second thought......maybe not!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Timeblocking the Reactive Day (still working on that article)
Another Step: Use Your Calendar
If you're an assistant to someone, chances are you spend a LOT more time in someone else's calendar than your own. In fact, you may not even realize you have a calendar of your own! But one of the best things you can do to keep yourself on track and using a Timeblock is to put it in the calendar, and look at it every day. This will prevent you from overcommitting yourself in any given day, and will also enable you to plan ahead so you can make the best use of your most precious resource: your time.
Another Step: Timeblocking Each Individual Day or Week
As different situations arise from week to week, you may need to block out more time in a given week to work on a short-term project, or prepare for a big meeting. It is a good practice to review your week's schedule either first thing Monday, or the Friday before, to see if you may need to add more focused time to your Timeblock for the week. You may even decide this happens frequently enough that you need to add "Project Time" to each week. You can designate how this time will be used from week to week, but by blocking it out you will be able to commit that time on a regular basis.
Sharing Your Timeblock
The first thing you will need to do to make your Timeblock a reality is to share it with others. First, you will want to share this information with your boss or supervisor. You will need to have their buy-in and support if you're ever going to make this schedule work, because it is all too tempting to let them pull you off task because of their position of authority. If they have no idea that you've committed to the importance of running reports from 8am-9am on Tuesday mornings, they will continue to drop by your desk or send you emails and expect an immediate response during that time - and you may feel guilty putting them off or disappointing them. But if you help them to understand how it benefits them (or the team as a whole) to allow you to stay on task during that time, then all you'll need to do is quickly remind them: "Hey, I'm timeblocked to work on reports right now so I really need to focus, but if you send me an email I'll be happy to get back to you on that when I have some white space at 9:30am."
The same rule applies to your teammates and co-workers. If someone from the sales team repeatedly distracts you, or the girl in the cubicle next to you frequently stops by to talk, just remind them about your timeblock. If you've shared it with them, and asked them to respect it, then you can avoid a lot of frustration or hurt feelings, or the temptation to get pulled off-task yourself. In fact, once your teammates see the benefit of your Timeblock, you can ask them not only to refrain from distracting you from it, but you can ask them to go one step further and hold you accountable to it. Ask someone you trust to keep a copy of your timeblock handy, and to remind you of your commitments and ask you if you're sticking to it.
Another way in which you may choose to share your Timeblock is to educate your clients. This may or may not be appropriate, depending upon the type of clients you work with. I have seen this done effectively by utilizing the wonderful modern technology available with voicemail and email auto-reply features. For example, you may record a daily voicemail, stating the times that day that you will be returning calls. This is especially useful if your day is compressed, and your response time limited. If you will be in a meeting or working on a large project that will take up a large part of your day, you may also opt to implement an email auto reply. Here's an example of a script you could use:
Dealing With Urgent Needs: Slide
As I mentioned before, when your role is a reactive one, it's unavoidable that much of your time will be spent.....reacting. And sometimes, even with a great level of commitment to your Timeblock, you will need to put it aside to deal with an urgent need. Before you do so, ask yourself, 'Is this truly urgent? What will the consequence be if I do not take care of this right this minute?' If the answer is yes and you cannot live with the consequence, then you absolutely should go take care of that situation.
However, your Timeblock does not need to go "out the window" just because you have to take care of something else in that moment. If something in your Timeblock is truly that important, then you need to learn to SLIDE. What I mean by this is, you should not cancel, delete or erase anything of value on your Timeblock. Find another time, and slide that appointment.
One of my highest payoff activities is my weekly meeting with each of my coaches. If this meeting doesn't happen in any given week, our communication suffers. When our communication suffers, our clients start to see a negative impact on their experience. So, it is of prime importance that I make sure those meetings happen. This doesn't mean that we always need to move heaven and earth to make the meeting happen at exactly the time it was originally scheduled (though it usually does). But on those occasions where it can't - an important meeting needs to be scheduled, one of us is on vacation that day, one of us is not feeling well, etcetera - we find another time. The meeting slides to the afternoon, or the next day, but it HAPPENS.
If you're an assistant to someone, chances are you spend a LOT more time in someone else's calendar than your own. In fact, you may not even realize you have a calendar of your own! But one of the best things you can do to keep yourself on track and using a Timeblock is to put it in the calendar, and look at it every day. This will prevent you from overcommitting yourself in any given day, and will also enable you to plan ahead so you can make the best use of your most precious resource: your time.
Another Step: Timeblocking Each Individual Day or Week
As different situations arise from week to week, you may need to block out more time in a given week to work on a short-term project, or prepare for a big meeting. It is a good practice to review your week's schedule either first thing Monday, or the Friday before, to see if you may need to add more focused time to your Timeblock for the week. You may even decide this happens frequently enough that you need to add "Project Time" to each week. You can designate how this time will be used from week to week, but by blocking it out you will be able to commit that time on a regular basis.
Sharing Your Timeblock
The first thing you will need to do to make your Timeblock a reality is to share it with others. First, you will want to share this information with your boss or supervisor. You will need to have their buy-in and support if you're ever going to make this schedule work, because it is all too tempting to let them pull you off task because of their position of authority. If they have no idea that you've committed to the importance of running reports from 8am-9am on Tuesday mornings, they will continue to drop by your desk or send you emails and expect an immediate response during that time - and you may feel guilty putting them off or disappointing them. But if you help them to understand how it benefits them (or the team as a whole) to allow you to stay on task during that time, then all you'll need to do is quickly remind them: "Hey, I'm timeblocked to work on reports right now so I really need to focus, but if you send me an email I'll be happy to get back to you on that when I have some white space at 9:30am."
The same rule applies to your teammates and co-workers. If someone from the sales team repeatedly distracts you, or the girl in the cubicle next to you frequently stops by to talk, just remind them about your timeblock. If you've shared it with them, and asked them to respect it, then you can avoid a lot of frustration or hurt feelings, or the temptation to get pulled off-task yourself. In fact, once your teammates see the benefit of your Timeblock, you can ask them not only to refrain from distracting you from it, but you can ask them to go one step further and hold you accountable to it. Ask someone you trust to keep a copy of your timeblock handy, and to remind you of your commitments and ask you if you're sticking to it.
Another way in which you may choose to share your Timeblock is to educate your clients. This may or may not be appropriate, depending upon the type of clients you work with. I have seen this done effectively by utilizing the wonderful modern technology available with voicemail and email auto-reply features. For example, you may record a daily voicemail, stating the times that day that you will be returning calls. This is especially useful if your day is compressed, and your response time limited. If you will be in a meeting or working on a large project that will take up a large part of your day, you may also opt to implement an email auto reply. Here's an example of a script you could use:
Thursday, April 12th - I will be in meetings for most of the day today, with very limited access to email. If you have an urgent need, please call our office and another of my talented associates will do their best to assist you. Otherwise, I will reply to your message as soon as I am able. Thank you for your patience!
Dealing With Urgent Needs: Slide
As I mentioned before, when your role is a reactive one, it's unavoidable that much of your time will be spent.....reacting. And sometimes, even with a great level of commitment to your Timeblock, you will need to put it aside to deal with an urgent need. Before you do so, ask yourself, 'Is this truly urgent? What will the consequence be if I do not take care of this right this minute?' If the answer is yes and you cannot live with the consequence, then you absolutely should go take care of that situation.
However, your Timeblock does not need to go "out the window" just because you have to take care of something else in that moment. If something in your Timeblock is truly that important, then you need to learn to SLIDE. What I mean by this is, you should not cancel, delete or erase anything of value on your Timeblock. Find another time, and slide that appointment.
One of my highest payoff activities is my weekly meeting with each of my coaches. If this meeting doesn't happen in any given week, our communication suffers. When our communication suffers, our clients start to see a negative impact on their experience. So, it is of prime importance that I make sure those meetings happen. This doesn't mean that we always need to move heaven and earth to make the meeting happen at exactly the time it was originally scheduled (though it usually does). But on those occasions where it can't - an important meeting needs to be scheduled, one of us is on vacation that day, one of us is not feeling well, etcetera - we find another time. The meeting slides to the afternoon, or the next day, but it HAPPENS.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Timeblocking the Reactive Day (beginning of an article)
NOTE: This blog entry is meant to be the start of an article I want to write....so I deeply apologize if there is not as much entertainment value as you have grown accustomed to.
Why is it so difficult to timeblock your day when you are in a support position?
For me, a typical day often looks like this: I arrive at work with one thing on my mind. This ONE THING is something I will get done today, if I do nothing else. I will tackle this thing first. Just as soon as I check my email for anything really urgent. I dive into my email, just to assess the things that really need to be done, and the next thing I know an hour has passed. The phone rings - it's a client who has a session this morning, so I really need to take the call. Then I listen to my voicemail, and realize there is someone I really need to call back - and if I don't reach them this morning, they will be out on vacation. I get their voicemail. The phone rings - it's a client and I'm not sure why they're calling, but I take the call so I won't have to play phone tag. While I'm on the phone with them, I miss a call and have another voicemail to return. I check my email again - 8 new messages have popped up. I start to tackle those messages when I realize I have a meeting in 10 minutes and I have not prepared. I scramble to get a few things together - the phone rings - and I make it to my meeting only a few minutes late.
After the meeting, I realize I only have an hour and a half before my lunch break, so I resolve to do the ONE THING right now. Just as soon as I listen to the three voicemails that came in during my meeting. As I'm about to return a call, the phone rings and it's the person I called earlier this morning - gotta take that call. As I hang up, I see an email pop up on my screen that I've been waiting for, so I handle that situation next. Then I notice an email that I really need to answer, as a client has been waiting for my response. The phone rings - I pick it up without thinking and realize it's my mom. I spend five minutes trying to get her off the phone while I answer email at the same time. I hang up and suddenly realize I'm 10 minutes late for my lunch break. I grab my workout bag and head to the gym.
After a frantic workout, I eat lunch at my desk while I catch up on a few emails. 30 minutes later I have more email in my in-box than when I started. I decide to push email aside and work on my ONE THING. The phone rings - it's someone who is very hard to get a hold of, and I take the call. This leads to an hour-long crisis mode as I try to solve the problem that came up in my conversation with them. Just as I am finishing up with this, one of our salespeople stops by my desk to talk about a client who needs to be scheduled. I promise I will take care of that right away, and so I set aside the ONE THING and call this client. 30 minutes later I have resolved that situation, but then I realize that I have only 5 minutes to prepare for my weekly afternoon meeting with one of my Coaches. I scramble to get ready and am relieved when he is 5 minutes late getting off the phone. We have a quick meeting, and then as we wrap up I realize I have only 30 minutes left in the day to get my ONE THING done. The phone rings. My email flashes at me on the screen. The day is over, and the ONE THING I was going to do today......did not get done. I decide that tomorrow, definitely, I will do the ONE THING.
When you work in a customer service/support type of role, it's mandatory that you handle things as they come up. If you constantly put off helping your clients until it was most convenient for you, they would not feel they are getting good service. It's the nature of the beast - there is no way to entirely avoid interruptions and being in a reactive mode.
However, I believe you can minimize interruptions to help yourself stay on task by adhering to a flexible timeblock and by using "white space" in your day.
STEP ONE: Bookend Your Day
Everyone has a typical (if not fixed) start and end time to their day. Maybe this fluctuates depending on the day of the week, but it is set. Place boundaries around this time on your calendar, to remind yourself that this is the workday that you have to work with. You might put your commuting time on your calendar before and after your workday. OR, schedule the first and last 30 minutes of your day as something along the lines of "Prep Time," "Email Follow-up" or "Daily Review." This serves as a reminder that with most days you will need time for departure and re-entry into the flow of your work, so you avoid finding yourself walking out of a meeting with just five minutes to wrap up for the day.
STEP TWO: Schedule the "Fixed Points"
There are always going to be a few "fixed points" in your day or your week. A regular staff or department meeting, a one-on-one meeting, a recurring deadline for submitting reports - all of these things need to happen for you to be able to effectively do your job. Typically they will happen at the same time every day or every week. Schedule these into your calendar next.
STEP THREE: Schedule Prep Time
To extract or provide the greatest value from these fixed points, you are also going to need to allow time to prepare. Whether this is the 30 minutes right before a scheduled meeting, or an hour early in the morning to ensure you don't miss a key deadline, you should plan ahead with some time to prepare. There may be some days when you really only need 10 minutes to get ready for the meeting, or when you're finished with your reports in 1/2 hour, but if you don't schedule out the maximum time you need then you'll find yourself scrambling. Schedule this time on your calendar - but understand that this time will be flexible. It can be moved earlier or later, as long as it still happens.
STEP FOUR: Evaluate White Space
When you spend the bulk of your day operating in reactive mode, you can't schedule out time to receive emails and phone calls, because it's impossible to predict when those calls might come in. However, you can schedule the important things (Steps 1-3) and then utilize the "white space" in between to react to the needs of your clients or co-workers.
For example, you may opt not to take an incoming phone call during your prep time for an important weekly meeting. You need to focus on the task at hand, so you let that call go to voicemail. Once you are done with your meeting, you can return to your desk with white space ahead of you, and return that phone call. Your meeting will have been more productive, and even though the client missed you initially, they will appreciate your quick response.
IDEAS TO CONSIDER:
*Time tracking to identify the times when incoming call volume is the greatest - this should be white space time because you know you will be interrupted
*Time tracking to identify times when you have the best chance of reaching people - or even the quickest return call time. This would be good time to be making outbound calls.
*With both of these times identified you can also figure out when the slow times are - this is good project time.
Why is it so difficult to timeblock your day when you are in a support position?
For me, a typical day often looks like this: I arrive at work with one thing on my mind. This ONE THING is something I will get done today, if I do nothing else. I will tackle this thing first. Just as soon as I check my email for anything really urgent. I dive into my email, just to assess the things that really need to be done, and the next thing I know an hour has passed. The phone rings - it's a client who has a session this morning, so I really need to take the call. Then I listen to my voicemail, and realize there is someone I really need to call back - and if I don't reach them this morning, they will be out on vacation. I get their voicemail. The phone rings - it's a client and I'm not sure why they're calling, but I take the call so I won't have to play phone tag. While I'm on the phone with them, I miss a call and have another voicemail to return. I check my email again - 8 new messages have popped up. I start to tackle those messages when I realize I have a meeting in 10 minutes and I have not prepared. I scramble to get a few things together - the phone rings - and I make it to my meeting only a few minutes late.
After the meeting, I realize I only have an hour and a half before my lunch break, so I resolve to do the ONE THING right now. Just as soon as I listen to the three voicemails that came in during my meeting. As I'm about to return a call, the phone rings and it's the person I called earlier this morning - gotta take that call. As I hang up, I see an email pop up on my screen that I've been waiting for, so I handle that situation next. Then I notice an email that I really need to answer, as a client has been waiting for my response. The phone rings - I pick it up without thinking and realize it's my mom. I spend five minutes trying to get her off the phone while I answer email at the same time. I hang up and suddenly realize I'm 10 minutes late for my lunch break. I grab my workout bag and head to the gym.
After a frantic workout, I eat lunch at my desk while I catch up on a few emails. 30 minutes later I have more email in my in-box than when I started. I decide to push email aside and work on my ONE THING. The phone rings - it's someone who is very hard to get a hold of, and I take the call. This leads to an hour-long crisis mode as I try to solve the problem that came up in my conversation with them. Just as I am finishing up with this, one of our salespeople stops by my desk to talk about a client who needs to be scheduled. I promise I will take care of that right away, and so I set aside the ONE THING and call this client. 30 minutes later I have resolved that situation, but then I realize that I have only 5 minutes to prepare for my weekly afternoon meeting with one of my Coaches. I scramble to get ready and am relieved when he is 5 minutes late getting off the phone. We have a quick meeting, and then as we wrap up I realize I have only 30 minutes left in the day to get my ONE THING done. The phone rings. My email flashes at me on the screen. The day is over, and the ONE THING I was going to do today......did not get done. I decide that tomorrow, definitely, I will do the ONE THING.
When you work in a customer service/support type of role, it's mandatory that you handle things as they come up. If you constantly put off helping your clients until it was most convenient for you, they would not feel they are getting good service. It's the nature of the beast - there is no way to entirely avoid interruptions and being in a reactive mode.
However, I believe you can minimize interruptions to help yourself stay on task by adhering to a flexible timeblock and by using "white space" in your day.
STEP ONE: Bookend Your Day
Everyone has a typical (if not fixed) start and end time to their day. Maybe this fluctuates depending on the day of the week, but it is set. Place boundaries around this time on your calendar, to remind yourself that this is the workday that you have to work with. You might put your commuting time on your calendar before and after your workday. OR, schedule the first and last 30 minutes of your day as something along the lines of "Prep Time," "Email Follow-up" or "Daily Review." This serves as a reminder that with most days you will need time for departure and re-entry into the flow of your work, so you avoid finding yourself walking out of a meeting with just five minutes to wrap up for the day.
STEP TWO: Schedule the "Fixed Points"
There are always going to be a few "fixed points" in your day or your week. A regular staff or department meeting, a one-on-one meeting, a recurring deadline for submitting reports - all of these things need to happen for you to be able to effectively do your job. Typically they will happen at the same time every day or every week. Schedule these into your calendar next.
STEP THREE: Schedule Prep Time
To extract or provide the greatest value from these fixed points, you are also going to need to allow time to prepare. Whether this is the 30 minutes right before a scheduled meeting, or an hour early in the morning to ensure you don't miss a key deadline, you should plan ahead with some time to prepare. There may be some days when you really only need 10 minutes to get ready for the meeting, or when you're finished with your reports in 1/2 hour, but if you don't schedule out the maximum time you need then you'll find yourself scrambling. Schedule this time on your calendar - but understand that this time will be flexible. It can be moved earlier or later, as long as it still happens.
STEP FOUR: Evaluate White Space
When you spend the bulk of your day operating in reactive mode, you can't schedule out time to receive emails and phone calls, because it's impossible to predict when those calls might come in. However, you can schedule the important things (Steps 1-3) and then utilize the "white space" in between to react to the needs of your clients or co-workers.
For example, you may opt not to take an incoming phone call during your prep time for an important weekly meeting. You need to focus on the task at hand, so you let that call go to voicemail. Once you are done with your meeting, you can return to your desk with white space ahead of you, and return that phone call. Your meeting will have been more productive, and even though the client missed you initially, they will appreciate your quick response.
IDEAS TO CONSIDER:
*Time tracking to identify the times when incoming call volume is the greatest - this should be white space time because you know you will be interrupted
*Time tracking to identify times when you have the best chance of reaching people - or even the quickest return call time. This would be good time to be making outbound calls.
*With both of these times identified you can also figure out when the slow times are - this is good project time.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Ready for Spring
As I write this, it's a sunny morning and the promise of Spring is in the air. I awoke to clear blue skies ouside my bedroom window, the kind of blue that you just want to pull right out of the sky and make a sundress out of. When Steve and I walked outside, however, we could see a mix of blue sky, white billowy clouds, and heavy gray, threatening clouds. The sun carried a certain warmth, if you stood still full in its glow, but in shadows the air was still briskly cold.
We picked up some coffee at Starbucks - his usual extra ice Americano, my usual 1/2 decaf soy latte - and made a courageous attempt to sit outside. The glare of the bright sun on my computer screen, coupled with the too-cool air, was less than ideal. So now, we have set up camp inside the Cedar Hills Crossing atrium. High above me, huge skylights play a rotating show of blue sky and clouds. To my left, the new Powell's Books beckons. To my right, a gazebo filled with fake ivy and bright silk flowers houses the Easter Bunny - much to the delight of small children who pass by. The grey bunny in a purple polka-dot smock high-fives a security guard as he dances around the mall. A small blonde girl in a white summer dress and pristine white gloves giggles with delight.
Harbingers of Spring.
OK, technically March 21st marked the official First Day of Spring this year. But it never really feels like Spring until I'm able to comfortably wear flip-flops and capri pants for at least three days straight. Or until I start to expect sunshine when I wake up, instead of clouds. In short, until it's practially Summer already.
The great thing about Spring is that it holds such a wonderful promise. All of the Summers of my past start to melt into this one glorious season that is just around the corner. There will be picnics and barbecues, tank tops and flower-print skirts, lazy afternoons in the shade and balmy evenings. This will be the year I finally check out the summer concert series at the Oregon Zoo. I picture myself hiking and camping almost every weekend, really taking advantage of Oregon's outdoor offerings. We'll finally get up to Mt. St. Helens this year, I tell myself. Steve will grill chicken and vegetables several times a week, and we'll sit out on our balcony drinking lemonade. Maybe this year, I'll really get into gardening, and my balcony will be alive with lush green plants and cheerful blooms. For me, Spring holds the promise of an ideal Summer.
I seem to know in the back of my mind that October will come, and I'll have to tuck many of those Summer dreams away for anonther season. There never seem to be enough lazy afternoons or wide open weekends when the weather is ripe for outdoor living. At least, not in Oregon. But one of the reasons I choose to live here is that incomparable feeling you get when you have a free Saturday and it's the first really nice day of the year, and you are bursting to seize the moment and live it out to the fullest.
In a way, the weather here is a reflection of life. You never know how long the sunny days will last, and you can be sure that there's some rain somewhere in your forecast. Dreams of sunny days can tide you over when the cold sets in, and you're stuck inside. I think that sometimes we need to come inside for a while....I mean, who wants to clean house when the sun is shining? It forces us to slow down and reflect. Then, when the good days come, we are more than ready to burst forth and live life to the fullest, to bask in the warm glow and enjoy it for all it's worth.
As for me, I'm ready for the Spring, because it means my Summer is coming. And I've got some great summer clothes that have been folded up in boxes for way too long.....
We picked up some coffee at Starbucks - his usual extra ice Americano, my usual 1/2 decaf soy latte - and made a courageous attempt to sit outside. The glare of the bright sun on my computer screen, coupled with the too-cool air, was less than ideal. So now, we have set up camp inside the Cedar Hills Crossing atrium. High above me, huge skylights play a rotating show of blue sky and clouds. To my left, the new Powell's Books beckons. To my right, a gazebo filled with fake ivy and bright silk flowers houses the Easter Bunny - much to the delight of small children who pass by. The grey bunny in a purple polka-dot smock high-fives a security guard as he dances around the mall. A small blonde girl in a white summer dress and pristine white gloves giggles with delight.
Harbingers of Spring.
OK, technically March 21st marked the official First Day of Spring this year. But it never really feels like Spring until I'm able to comfortably wear flip-flops and capri pants for at least three days straight. Or until I start to expect sunshine when I wake up, instead of clouds. In short, until it's practially Summer already.
The great thing about Spring is that it holds such a wonderful promise. All of the Summers of my past start to melt into this one glorious season that is just around the corner. There will be picnics and barbecues, tank tops and flower-print skirts, lazy afternoons in the shade and balmy evenings. This will be the year I finally check out the summer concert series at the Oregon Zoo. I picture myself hiking and camping almost every weekend, really taking advantage of Oregon's outdoor offerings. We'll finally get up to Mt. St. Helens this year, I tell myself. Steve will grill chicken and vegetables several times a week, and we'll sit out on our balcony drinking lemonade. Maybe this year, I'll really get into gardening, and my balcony will be alive with lush green plants and cheerful blooms. For me, Spring holds the promise of an ideal Summer.
I seem to know in the back of my mind that October will come, and I'll have to tuck many of those Summer dreams away for anonther season. There never seem to be enough lazy afternoons or wide open weekends when the weather is ripe for outdoor living. At least, not in Oregon. But one of the reasons I choose to live here is that incomparable feeling you get when you have a free Saturday and it's the first really nice day of the year, and you are bursting to seize the moment and live it out to the fullest.
In a way, the weather here is a reflection of life. You never know how long the sunny days will last, and you can be sure that there's some rain somewhere in your forecast. Dreams of sunny days can tide you over when the cold sets in, and you're stuck inside. I think that sometimes we need to come inside for a while....I mean, who wants to clean house when the sun is shining? It forces us to slow down and reflect. Then, when the good days come, we are more than ready to burst forth and live life to the fullest, to bask in the warm glow and enjoy it for all it's worth.
As for me, I'm ready for the Spring, because it means my Summer is coming. And I've got some great summer clothes that have been folded up in boxes for way too long.....
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
