Tuesday, March 23, 2010

No Spring Kitten

Dear Madonna,

According to the chart in the vet's office, my cats are about my age - in cat years. But unlike me, they haven't made any age-appropriate lifestyle changes. Nor do they floss regularly.

Poor, toothless Zouk.

Julie




Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Pulling Up My Big Girl Panties

Dear Madonna,

I was at the Chicago Classic last weekend and actually made Finals in both the Advanced and Masters divisions of the Jack & Jill contests. Unfortunately I missed that one line in the Sunday schedule that said "All J&J Finalists must check in with the Head Judge (a.k.a. "God") between 9:00 am and 11:00 am." I showed up at 11:05 to the news that I had been "scratched" from both competitions.

In quick succession I went through several of the stages of grief: shock, pain, anger, depression -not to mention getting on my knees (literally) to "God", tearing up in front of one of the event directors, and pointing the finger of blame towards others - and the system - rather than accepting responsibility for my own oversight.

Thank you, Crystal, for your empathy and encouragement to "move on". It was indeed a learning opportunity - for me and hopefully others.
Until next time,
Julie








Saturday, March 6, 2010

Narcimasochism

Dear Madonna,

My mother used to say that men had no idea how much money women spent to look as good as they do. She was pretty "low maintance" herself and would be shocked at my indulgence in professional blow-drys and regular mani-pedis.

Then there are the services and fashions that not only cost money, but involve some serious discomfort - or worse. History is full of examples: from Chinese foot-binding to Scarlett-O'Hara-esque corsettes synched to the point of "swooning". Even those SATC staples, Manolo Blahniks, must have some pretty painful repurcussions.

You know that feeling of getting your hair yanked through a rubber cap with a crochet hook? And don't we all look forward to those bikini-waxing appointments?

I'm happy to report the swelling is going down.

Julie

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Linked Out

Dear Madonna,

Are you on the (popular social networking site) Linkedin?

I opened an account a couple of years ago with my ConferenceDirect email address. Since then CD has changed the format of our email addresses, replacing the "underscore" with a "dot" between first and last name: julie.epplett@conferencedirect.com

My bad: I neglected to make the change on Linkedin so am effectively locked out of my account, although I keep getting "updates". I've finally broken down and opened a *new* Linkedin account but am not convinced that my problems are over.

Julie