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Average Jane, Wine Fan

I do a lot of socializing with my groups of friends and one thing they all have in common is that table that gathers a nice selection of bottles of wine by the time everyone has arrived at the party. Thus, sometimes I forget that not everyone is an enthusiastic social drinker. This was emphasized to me on Saturday night when I went to a party with my husband and brought a bottle of wine.

It was a lovely dinner party with great food, and our host asked if we'd like some of the wine we brought with dinner. Well, sure! But then it turned out that no one could find a corkscrew and I knew that I'd found another one of those households.

The same thing happened last year at a book club meeting. I brought wine only to discover that the hostess didn't have a corkscrew. We had to call one of the guests who was still on her way and prevail upon her to stop and buy one. Then I sat through the book discussion drinking my wine from a juice glass and feeling like the wino of the group, despite the fact that this same club has met at a local winery for book discussions more than once.

At this weekend's party, someone eventually produced a wine opener and even wine glasses, so it wasn't quite as extreme, but it was a lesson that perhaps I should consider dropping a corkscrew into my purse when venturing into uncertain social situations. 'Cause if I bring wine, I want to drink some of it.

Photo credit: Jessica Petersen

February 3, 2013
Average Jane On Another Blog
Good afternoon! Just wanted to pop in and report that there's an interview with me at TheNotMom today. If you're visiting from there, welcome!

I thought this might be a good time to talk about 2013 conferences. Although I've strayed away from social media in my work life, I'm still planning on attending a couple of blog-oriented conferences.
- BlogPaws – This will be my third year at BlogPaws, this year held May 16th-18th in the Washington, D.C. area. I'm going with my friend Spyder again and we're both looking forward to hanging out with our fellow pet bloggers. If any of my D.C. area pals want to get together while I'm there, I'll probably be around Thursday through early Sunday.
- BlogHer – I'm also planning on going back to BlogHer after taking a break in 2012. This year it's in Chicago, July 25th-27th. I'm hoping to catch up with as many friends as possible and, of course, meet new ones! I'm thinking about taking the train there, so that means I'll be in town relatively late on Thursday but available for breakfast and lunch on Sunday if you live in the area and want to get together.
What are your plans to meet your favorite bloggers this year?
February 1, 2013
Average Jane Lives Life Offline

Aaagh, I've been so terrible about blogging lately that I'm probably just talking to myself at this point.

Between work, volunteer work, reading lots and lots of books, being in a new band, and trying to remain a good friend/wife/sister/pet owner, I'm finding myself with a lot less time for composing coherent blog posts. Thus, I'll be inflicting another less-than-coherent post on you.

At work, I'm on a week of rotation with our Innovation Lab. That means that I've been grouped with three other people from different parts of the company and, aided by two of our techie bretheren, tasked with coming up with a technology-based solution to a client need.

In addition, we're also being taught some basic technical skills. One day at lunchtime we learned to use an Arduino and a breadboard to make LEDs blink.

It turns out that my ability to follow directions is questionable, but I got it to work after a little correction and then managed to add a second LED and get it to flash at a different rate than the first one. Today blinking lights, tomorrow the world. Or something.

I got a cool shot of the building across the street from my office while I was heading home the other day. It's a map company and they had a guy handpainting their new sign onto the brick:

On the volunteer front, my husband are having great success with improving the foster cat, Tinkerbell. She's gotten to where she greets us at the door when we come into the studio and she has a lot to say.

If it weren't for the huge menagerie we have downstairs, we'd be tempted to keep her. I hope she finds a good home soon because I don't think she'd be happy back at a pet store.

The band is coming along nicely. We have more than three sets' worth of material selected. It seems likely that we'll have everything polished and ready to play out by early spring. (Keith – I think I've gotten the band to agree to do a Slade song, by way of Quiet Riot.)

On the reading front, I've made it to the fifth book in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. They're quite a bit more romance-y than my usual fare, but I like the historical fiction aspect and the fact that they involve time travel adds an extra dash of interest.

I took a little break in between books four and five to read Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story. It was the first biography of his that I've read and although I found it interesting, a lot of it felt awfully speculative. I also wished that the biographer hadn't brushed off all of the books that followed "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" because I was a fan of the entire series, not just the first book.

And that's what I've been doing with my time lately. How are things with you?

January 27, 2013
Average Jane’s Illogical Band Pairings
This train of thought lacks much-needed context unless I first tell you that I went and jammed with a band this afternoon. It's a classic rock band with the guitarist and bass player from my last band along with a drummer and keyboardist/guitarist. The whole thing went pretty well, so we'll see if it lasts.

So anyway, while we were talking about songs we'd like to do, I was reminded that for some reason, my brain likes to group bands in pairs. Usually they're similar in some way, but not always. Generally they're bands that I learned about at around the same time and occasionally it extends to confusing their songs.

Here are a few of the bands that are linked in my head for no readily apparent reason:
- Journey and Styx
- Foreigner and REO Speedwagon
- Extreme and Damn Yankees
- Candlebox and Tonic
- Poison and Cinderella
Does anyone else do this or is it just me?
January 13, 2013
Average Jane’s Open Letter to State Farm
This has been bugging me for a couple of weeks and I needed to get it off my chest. I haven't sent it directly to the company yet, but I probably will.

Dear State Farm,

I have been a customer of yours for more than twenty years
and I have been generally very satisfied. Recently I had a claim after someone
broke into my car, which was handled by your representatives quickly and
satisfactorily except for one thing: all correspondence and shipments from your claims services partner were sent
in my husband’s name.

I know that my husband’s name is on my policy (and vice
versa) and that his last name comes before mine in the alphabet.

However:
- I’ve been your customer since long before I ever met
  him.
- It’s my car.
- I pay for the insurance from my bank account (my
  husband pays for his separately from another bank account).
- I filed the related police report.
- I filed the claim.
- I made all the calls and emails related to the claim.
- I met with the adjuster.
My husband was not in any way involved in the process and
yet when my replacement car stereo arrived, his name was on the box. He couldn’t
even imagine what it was and was surprised as I was when he opened it to find
my stereo.

Later I received two emails to my email address that began “Dear
[husband’s full name],” despite the fact that I had initiated the conversations.

As I said before, I imagine that this is a database issue
that has more to do with the alphabet than deliberate marginalization, but it
certainly feels like sexism. I
recommend that you have your claims services folks review their processes to make sure they’re more 21^st
Century-friendly in the future.

Sincerely,

Average Jane
January 11, 2013
Average Jane Takes the Train

After taking the train between Kansas City and St. Louis this weekend, I've decided that my personality makes me well-suited for train travel.

My dad paid for business class seats, which I highly recommend. The leg room is beyond the wildest dreams of airplane travelers and the seats actually recline enough that you can take a nap. The ticket includes a free soft drink from the cafe car (which is pretty comparable to a concession stand at a high school sporting event) and there are convenient power outlets next to each pair of seats.

Yes, it takes longer to travel by train than to fly, but there is so much less hassle that your patience is amply rewarded. There's no need for early arrival, no baggage screening, no waiting in line. You show up at the station, sit in the waiting room until the train arrives, go outside and get on board.

The train stops briefly from time to time, but bypasses any stations on the route where there's no one interested in getting on or off.

On my trip out, it was dark most of the time so there wasn't really anything to see out the window. I read an entire book and goofed around online with my phone when we were close enough to a populated area that I could get phone service.

On the way back, it was full daylight so I spent some time looking at my surroundings. It turns out that it's very difficult to tell where you are from the train, even if you're in a familiar area. There are almost no signs for train passengers except when you're near a station, so you have to look for distinctive landmarks. I read another whole book on the Kindle app of my iPhone and started a second one.

Only if you're hoping to impress someone with the glory of the United States would I not recommend taking a train trip. Much of the scenery was pretty grim: junkyards, disused industrial areas and collapsing farm outbuildings were the norm. The Amtrak galley employee said he passed the time by looking for eagles, which I could appreciate because I like to keep a hawk and eagle count when I'm a passenger on cross-country road trips.

I'm not sure when my next train trip might be, but I'm considering it for BlogHer this year in Chicago. It would be an ideal way to keep the stress down on the way there and decompress from the conference overstimulation on the way back.

January 7, 2013
Average Jane on Appreciating Each Day

I don't mean to get too Deep Thoughts-y on you, but I've been reflecting a lot lately on just how fortunate I am. It's not as though I go around most of the time wishing for more, but a couple of recent events have brought things into sharp focus.

The first was a visit by one of my husband's friends, who was in town after an extended absence during which we weren't sure what had happened to him. While we were talking to him, it became evident that he has spent a lot of time homeless over the past several years. He told us he was renting a room in the city where he's been settled recently, but my husband and I suspect that he's sleeping in his car while he's in town.

This is a guy—I'd guess he's in his mid-sixties—who doesn't drink or take drugs and has no obvious mental illness. In the past he's been a business owner, but a divorce followed by several bad entrepreneurial situations left him in debt with minimal possessions. He rations his money very carefully and does what he can to save up, but often that's just not enough.

Of course we offered to let him stay at our house while he's in town, but he wouldn't hear of it. All I had to offer was the coffee and cookies we served while he was visiting and I sent him off with a handful of free coffee and doughnut coupons, which he gratefully accepted.

I've been thinking about him a lot because he's just one of many of our friends who are in bad straits. So far the rest of them all have places to live, but the list of looming mortgage foreclosures seems to grow every day. It's so hard to know how to help. All we can do is offer to be a safety net, even if it's likely that none of them will ever take us up on it.

The second thing that happened is that my dad's last sibling passed away on New Year's Day, two years to the day after his wife's death. When he called to tell me the news, I asked if he'd like me to go with him to her funeral, and he seemed very appreciative of the offer.

We took the train to St. Louis, Missouri, and that's where I am right now. One of my cousins and her husband picked us up from the train station last night and today we'll be spending the day at her house as the other cousins come in (my aunt had seven daughters), and the memorial service is this afternoon.

When I look at my 569 Facebook friends, I wonder how many will still be around when I'm my dad's age? Can social media help encourage and maintain more ties so that people don't get as lonely when they get older? I don't know the answer to that, but I suspect that even if Facebook is long gone 35 years from now, the Internet will make a difference in keeping people connected. Still, as with the first situation I described, how much of a concrete effect will it have in people's lives?

So that's what I've been musing about lately: poverty, mortality and loneliness. Let's all go hug some people today.

January 5, 2013
Average Jane Wraps Up 2012

In the past year, I've had less to say on the blog than usual, so it seems fitting that a retrospective should be based on photos rather than solely on words.

I decided to choose one photo from each month. They aren't necessarily meant to sum up the year, but I wanted to pick images that I hadn't posted before that caught my eye while I was scrolling through.

The year was marked by unseasonably warm weather, which explains what I was doing at the Kansas City Zoo in January with nephew, niece and sister.

In February I spoke at the IABC Business Communicators Summit. I wore my pixel skull socks for luck.

In March, I chose not to cook Trillian for dinner despite her apparent willingness to sacrifice herself.

This guy and I did some sight-seeing in April.

In May, I got a chance to see the view of Kansas City's Country Club Plaza from the roof of a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed church.

June was perfect for drinks on my sister's deck.

I finally met Little Celeste. (July was by far the most photo-filled month of the year. I did several fun runs, played board games, went to concerts and generally stayed incredibly busy.)

In August, the drought broke…briefly.

I went to the Renaissance Festival in September with my niece and sister. That's my niece on stage.

Did a little antiquing in Weston, Missouri after Applefest in October.

Got in one last run in November: a two-mile wilderness run. It was cold and my asthma acted up, but I still enjoyed hanging out with friends and getting some exercise.

December was all about cooking and baking. I hosted a cookie party, got together with my sister and niece for a day of candy making, and made these sugar cookies on my own time to try out the rocket cookie cutter that one of my co-workers made with the company's 3D printer. Keith will recognize the Dalek from the cookie cutters I got from him.

I'm looking forward to an equally active and fun 2013 and wishing you the same!

December 31, 2012
Introducing “The Obvious Game” (Average Jane Approved!)

My friend Rita Arens is one of those people who decides what she wants and makes it happen. Her first published book was Sleep Is For the Weak, which I still buy to give as a baby shower gift.

Now she's written a young adult novel called The Obvious Game and today is the official cover reveal date.

I'm so excited and happy for Rita as she finds more and more success as a writer and author.

There's a Rafflecopter giveaway for a copy of the book open to US, UK and Canada residents. Good luck!

And congratulations, Rita!

December 20, 2012
Average Jane, Crime Victim
This morning was a triumph of errand running. I'd had my Honda Insight at the car shop for a couple of days getting the main hybrid battery pack replaced at enormous expense. I made it to the rental car place right as they opened at 7:30 a.m., dropped off their car, got a ride to the dealer, picked up my car, stopped for coffee and a quick breakfast, and made it to my eye doctor appointment by 9.

I had a 10 o'clock meeting at work and I got to my parking garage a few minutes before that. It was pretty full, so I took an uncharacteristic parking spot and hurried in.

Later, a friend called to ask if I wanted to go to lunch. I went to my car a little before noon and immediately opened the hatch to grab a little gift for her. I saw that one of the gift packs I had was unwrapped and thought that was very odd. Surely the car shop guys hadn't opened one?

I didn't get clued in until I opened the driver side door and found one of my plastic console panels lying on the seat. I'd been hearing pieces of the broken glass from the passenger window falling, but it took several long moments for me to put it all together in my head. Someone had broken into my car, taken out my stereo, stolen my nice radar detector from the glove box and generally made a big old mess.

After calling to cancel lunch, I went back to my desk and filed a police report over the phone. It turned out that my car was one of many that had been broken into, so eventually I talked to the police in person, but they wouldn't have come out for just one break-in.

Then I called my insurance company and got that ball rolling. I still haven't heard back with a claim number, but I went ahead and got Safelite Auto Glass to order a new window for me and scheduled an appointment to have it installed tomorrow afternoon.

Big props to Safelite, by the way. They invited me to drive to one of their locations so they could vacuum up the glass and seal the window hole while I waited for the installation. I also appreciated that their appointment confirmation e-mail for the mobile service includes the name and photo of the tech that will be coming to do the work.

I started out angry and upset at first, so I blew off steam via my usual social media accounts until I felt better.

I went back out to my car and noted that my garage door openers were still there (whew!); he hadn't found my GPS; the console panel had actually been removed with a screwdriver, so the damage to the car was limited to the window; and for some reason the guy had torn off a couple of the paper towels I carry in the car for my animal rescue volunteering. I'm guessing it had something to do with the fact that he'd spilled a bottle of water I'd had in the car.

Also not stolen:
- My glasses, which I'd left in the car after my eye doctor appointment
- A CD of The Yes Album (although now that I've looked on Amazon and seen that it's only worth 50¢, I guess I can see why)
- The rest of my Christmas gift packs (they're all pretty girly and I think he only opened the one to get some of the candy)
- The book I was reading (you can see it in the photo)
So that's good.

I've already discovered that the most annoying thing about not having a car stereo is that it means I also don't have a clock in my car. I'm dealing with the lack of music by singing every Christmas song I can think of, which also has the effect of cheering me up somewhat.

It's all a collossal annoyance, but minor in the grand scheme of things. As I noted in my "acceptance phase" post on Facebook, I guess crack money has to come from somewhere.
December 19, 2012