A beautiful, early fall night in the city. A cool breeze whispers above the rumblings of the bus on South Charles Street while the chattering rotor blades of a police helicopter puncture the night sky. With that I start another entry, albeit nine days since the last one.
I took Izzy to her Daisy meeting tonight. That's the kindergarten version of the Girl Scouts. I volunteered to design their newsletter. But between work, the AIGA board and family duties (this would be one) plus teaching, I may be a bit overloaded. I think it's important for Izzy and that's the main reason I'm doing it. I want her to have every opportunity to make good friends in the neighborhood. My biggest fear is that she'll be left out or get picked on because she's so sensitive. I hate to say this because it sounds so damn elitist but it's better to make friends at an early age, because after that cliques form and are hard to break into from the outside unless you have an exceptional personality. I'm not saying Izzy isn't capable of that but I'd rather not put her through the potential struggle.
Tomorrow is Erev Rosh Hashanah and I think we are all going to go to the serivces at Hopkins. They are short, about an hour, and come in both reform and conservative flavors. By myself on Saturday, I will go to the conservative service but for Karen and the kids, I will go to the reform. Exposing the kids to Judaism really is a goal of mine. Despite Izzy's going to Catholic school, I feel it's important that she know just as much about Judaism. I don't feel that I have been doing as good a job as I can with that. But I've spoken to Shira about spending the holidays with her family and she thinks her parents would love the opportunity to share with the kids. So, while it's a bit late for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur for this year, I think I'll set something up for Passover. That's a good family holiday to start sharing with and I actually miss doing a Seder.
On the work front, it seems as if I'm struggling a bit with managing my direct report in NY. While I do have the disadvantage of not being in the same office, I also think I've been too laid back about certain things and really just need to get more assertive and proactive. It may get ugly but that's the price of leadership. What's the quote, it's better to be feared than loved? From Sun Tzu's Art of War, which I've only read once but really need to re-read. It has some great stuff on strategy that is quite applicable to the business world. And it's definitely one of the great texts of all time.
I've found the way to design my own site and get out of this template stuff, but it may have to wait until teaching is done because my time is short and I'm really going to start trying to get to bed eariler instead of my staying up until one and two in the morning.
Good night, shalom, peace.
Posted by robdesign at September 28, 2003 12:54 AM