life hereafter

Age is one of those things I absolutely hate talking about at work.

As we were wrapping up a meeting this morning the woman we were talking to asked us our age. I sort of froze as the question came out of nowhere and looked around the room. A colleague answered that we were ‘in our twenties’. The woman than asked, “late 20’s?” To which he replied… some of us… Next thing I know this woman’s voice became high pitched, and she said “oh my God” and walked away sounding like she was crying.

This is honestly one situation I have never had to deal with. The individual we were working with went out of the room and came back a few minutes later saying everything was okay.

This is why I am not a fan of discussing age at work. It becomes a very sensitive topic when you are many years younger than the indivuals you may be evaluating or providing recommendations. A large amount of the time people correlate experiance with worth and value. Those things are not always correlated as well as people think they are.  You can have a very old and experienced individual who just plain sucks, and a rather young but smart individual who can provide valid opinions and value.

Age should not be a topic discussed at work…

Adagio teas is one of my favorite discoveries on the Internet(s) although I feel really behind the times. The site has been around since 1999, but I only stumbled upon it last week. I ordered some loose tea on Monday and it arrived Tuesday. That’s pretty awesome, oh and the tea is great too. I highly recommend you check it out.

I have been in St. Louis, MO for the past week on business (training). I really underestimated the freaky weather they get here. On Sunday it was snowing, on Monday it was sunny but cold, Tuesday brought warm weather, Wednesday was raining and very cold, and Thursday was just plain foggy.

St. Louis has been… an… interesting city. It is home to the International Bowling Museum! Really, this place exists, and it is in St. Louis, MO! So pack up the kids and come check it out.!I’m sure there are some great pictures, and statues, and…. bowling balls in there… I’m not quite sure, I didn’t go in…

While you are here, you can see the largest man made monument in North America. The St. Louis Arch! Gateway to the west. The Arch is actually pretty cool. In the 1960’s they built an elevator into the Arch which will take you to the top. The only thing is that people in the 1960’s must have been a lot smaller than people in 2008. The “pods” had seats for five people, but in actuality, they really fit about two average Americans. The view from the top was really amazing. On the one site you have a great view of St. Louis and Clayton, MO. On the other, you have a rather boring view of East St. Louis, IL. It’s funny how a river can really socially depress part of a metropolitan area.

On Tuesday night we decided to check out the local casino (Lumiere Place). Apparently in Missouri there is a law on the books which states “an individual may not have a net loss of more than $500 in any odd numbered hour.” This boils down to the casino giving you a card which tracks your winnings and losses at each table and slot machine. If you approach $500 in any given odd numbered hour, you are flagged and must wait until two hours for the card to reset.

Talk about a State making it hard for it’s people to gamble their lives away!

I forgot one of the most important rules of business travel last night. If you are 1,000 miles from the nearest ocean, do not order the seafood. That was the grossest lobster ravioli I have ever had.

On another note, it was quite disconcerting this morning to notice that my shower head was different than my shower head yesterday.  Yesterday, it was black and had one head. Today it was silver and had two. Really threw my newly developed morning routine off.

episode 31 of in treatment feels strangely familiar.

Well, at least the State of Pennsylvania received my tax return. I realized this as I saw my check has cleared the bank. Unfortunately tax refunds don’t happen as fast as tax collections…

Where’s that rebate check…

is only exciting when you don’t make enough to have to actually owe anything.

I finally filed my return on Friday. It was an extreme hassle this year. Basically the IRS has some silly little rule that says you can’t e-file if you worked in more than four states. Funny thing is, TurboTax doesn’t tell you that until after you have paid for the software and filled out all the forms.

This resulted in my printing over 57 pages of paper forms to file with the five states The Firm made me work in this past year.  I gathered together what I think was appropriately sized envelopes and a ridiculous number of stamps and placed the letters in the mail. Now I wait, hoping I don’t get any “return to senders,” and that the good ole’ USPS doesn’t lose what I sent to Uncle Sam. The only real way I will know that everything got where it should go is when I see that canceled check.