Author: Michele Minehart (Page 296 of 311)

(picture is unrelated to post, but he’s so darn cute)

today, at first glancing of FB statuses i see that a large population of people are celebrating St. Patty’s day. the today show has major coverage – they even flew to ireland (really, do we lack real news that much??). it’s all the rage. i even got together with a group of girls last night (not even the real holiday!) and they made me change into a green shirt to celebrate.

why? does anyone even know the real origins of the holiday? or who st. pat was? its on my to-do list for today to wiki it (that and the history of the catholic fish fry and the KofC). but yet hundreds of people will be drinking green beer and looking for others to pinch all day long.

i have a theory. like i tell my friends, i’m not a professional, but i have great theories. my theory of st. pats is this: sometimes we just need a reason to celebrate and have fun. sometimes the drain of life is just a bit too much and we forget the many reasons we have to celebrate and enjoy life. there’s really nothing else in the month of march to do or look forward to except st. patrick’s, so we make a big deal because, well, we need to. we need something to look forward to!

i wonder if more of us made a concerted effort to find a reason to celebrate every day, what life would look like…

it turns out i have something more precious than i knew. i have a circle of ladies who i love, trust and thouroughly enjoy being around and they let me be their friend. i didn’t realize how lucky i am until i was perusing the titles at a local bookstore. there are so many books about women friendships – the friday night knitting club, the sweet potato ladies, the babysitters club, sisterhood of the traveling pants – it turns out that women of all ages are starving for fulfilling friendships!

this makes me both happy and sad. happy because i know what wonderful friends i have. i’ve had several groups of them at different points in my life (except high school… but i feel like God has more than made up for the quality of friendships i have through my time in college and my current life situation. i can forgive him for a few bad years).

but i’m sad because obviously there are women everywhere and of all ages that are craving meaningful friendships with other women.

i say this because typically the media we consume (tv, books, internet) exist because they are meeting a “felt need”. if everyone had these wonderful friendships it wouldn’t make for a very good storyline. it’s like owning a honda. not very exciting because they exist in 6/10 garages (especially in southern hardin county / logan county area). but the fact that these books on lady friends are such hot sellers, well, that just says how much readers are seduced by the idea.

one of these special friends just wrote in an email today that she wants to write a book about our friendships, and i think she has a pretty good case. not just because we’re hilarious – though we are – but because every one of those gals is a treasure.

recently i’ve been scheduled for phone interviews at work (PIs we call them in ‘biz). not just PIs, but PIs all with sales reps. and not just sales reps – pharma sales reps. and i thought dealing with teenagers took a lot out of me…

in my time conversing with these folks, i have come to realize how brilliant i am. how so, you say? well, they TELL me all the time. i ask them a question from my pre-formated interview form and they say “Great question!” and proceed to BS their way through it. who knew that “why are you leaving your current employer?” was such a great question?! then, not even 2 minutes later (7 minutes if you’re kristy and interviewing the world’s worst interviewer), i ask about their most innovative sales technique and, what do you know, it’s another great question! like i just came up with it, right off the top of my head. brilliant.

and in my quality time with these super-salespersons-of-the-year (because, let’s face it, they all have at least 5 awards telling them they are so), i have also conjured a list of words that, thanks to their industry and interviewing techniques, they have been so overused that they now lack any meaning. such as leadership. what is leadership? and how is it that every sales rep i speak with is a leader? who exactly is following? or passion. drive. team player. done, done and done.

on the upside to these exhausing 30-minute stints, i have found 2 things: a) that i’m also pretty funny, because these folks seem to nervously laugh every time i say “and tell me more about that.” also, b) i would like to add “salty” to my vocabulary, in the sense of an attitude of ill will. i had a lady who was “salty” about getting second in a contest. love it.