The significance of 8 in the year of 2008

I tend to get reflective this time of year. I go into hibernation mode and reflect upon the nature of things-usually over the past year. Recently as I was reflecting, I discovered that the number eight had appeared in my life a great deal. Some of 8′s in my life this year include:

• the place i’m spending time now is closely connected to the number eight.
• the phone number of my only place of employment this year had many eights.
• a  baby born to a friend in the 8th month.
• the last deposit to my banking account contained many eights.
• that number has popped up a lot this year.

It is symbolic and i believe i have divined the meaning of its significant appearance in my life this year. Here’s my reading.

• In math, eight is a power of two: my year is ending in a power of two, in my work i am part of a power of two.
• In nuclear physics, eight is the second magic number and in many philosophies and world myths it is the beginning and it is lucky.

That’s how I’m feeling about my life and work right now. Things are at the beginning and many of us are lucky. It’s not great times right now for everyone, I recognize that. I’m not saying let them eat cake. But we have a reason for hope. There are some amazing things happening right now in our world that have the power to make life better for more people than ever before.

8 in 8 ad infinitum. The beginning of lucky.

What things have you noticed in your life this year that might be trying to tell you something? It’s a good thing to think about.

Transitions and Trips

Traveling changes your perspective. It doesn’t matter so much where you go to get that change because it comes from the change in a daily routine. Some destinations are much more inspiring than others. I’ve spent some time here in NYC this week and it has been helpful in changing my perspective. A refresh, if you will. I was stuck in a MN winter rut. I feel that when I go home I can do that with a new approach and a renewed energy.

Comical Customer Service-So Bad it’s Funny

I don’t want to be specific about where this happened, but it should not happen at a company that is well known for such “amazing customer experience”.

It’s not easy, I know. And sometimes, you just get a situation where everything continues to go wrong, so much so that at some point you have to start laughing about it. Now that it’s at a stopping point, I wanted to share it with you dear readers.

I purchased a new consumer product on New Year’s Day. It was a very exciting purchase that I felt was going to enable me to stay organized and stylish now that I was leaving the house for work. I went to the store and made the purchase. They made it pretty difficult though because of a new process that had just been put in place. I went to the store with my cash in hand hoping to just give it to someone to get my new product, but I had to work pretty hard to get someone to let me buy it.

2 weeks later a new accessory becomes available for my product. I decide to go on my birthday and get this new accessory. They don’t have any and nobody can answer my questions, but they have a number system before you can talk to anyone so I got to spend an hour of my birthday sitting around waiting to be told I can’t be helped. I’m a customer that just had to pretty much wrastle an employee to the ground to buy the product and then when I wanted to keep giving them money for my shiny new product, they still weren’t interested.

I was told the only way to get what I needed was to call someone and they could help.

I knew it would be an experience that would require much patience so I waited a week and a half to make that call. Today was the day. I was also reminded today that sometimes things really just were meant to be comically bad from beginning to end.

After two specialists and one hour and twelve minutes I got the information I needed.

Great customer experience and it’s not quite over yet, but it’s definitely reached the comical stage. So I’m laughing and meditating on what universal lesson I should be walking away with from this situation. I’m sure that will reveal itself when it needs to be known.

Magnetic Fields (not the band)

The magnetic field of my body makes watches stop. It started when I was in my 20′s. I had several watches I really liked (and that was the time of the SWATCHWATCH for you oldtimers) and then one day I noticed the watch had stopped working. I didn’t think much of it, but it kept happening. I finally gave up and chalked it up to me having some freaky chemistry that hated watches. I never ever met anyone else that this happened to.

So today, I was walking with a couple of ladies in my information architecture workshop. We were on break and checking out the spa facilities. We got on the topic of watches because there was a $10 store next to the spa. (gotta love Vegas for these things…) Lisa started to tell a tale of watches breaking and time stopping. Then even stranger, the other women we were walking with also confessed to this time stopping ability.

So i have this weird anomoly, I’ve never met anyone with it besides me and in one day three of us with this special watch breaking/time stopping magnetic field came together. Not only did we come together, but we managed to discover a random detail such as this about one another.

Gosh, the universe is really freakin weird.

Special Needs Pets

We just found out this week that our second dog, Pascal, has diabetes. It seemed like such a sad thing at first until we realized it only means one of us has to be home every twelve hours. Over three decades into my life this is my first ‘real responsibility’. My little doggie needs his shots and that’s not negotiable. So as my husband and I work toward finding that magic time every twelve hours in our day, I think about how grateful I am that I live in a time and place that makes it real easy to cope with something that could have taken him away from me in another time and place.

We started this morning (our time is 6:30). That’s why I’m blog posting at 8 am on a Saturday. Oh dear, I think I may have turned that corner from young to old. I’m not even having a problem being up this early on a Saturday…..

Ace is the Place and Other Late Night Vacation Ramblings

I’ve been preparing for an art show of my work at my neighborhood coffee shop. I had an idea about displaying some photos in magnetic frames that I could attach to one big piece of metal. I dropped my husband off at work this morning because on our family vacation we hit a deer and he didn’t have a car. On the way home, I stopped at Ace. I found what I needed and they helped me make a really nice metal piece to attach the photos to. Sort of like a piece of your refridgerator on the wall as an art back drop. They cut holes in it for me and even helped me find material to use for hanging and fastened it together for me. And the ‘labor was free’.

It worked for a piece I’ve been working on that finally came together entitled ‘American Gothic Barbie’.

It’s been a crazy week or two. My computer died last week as I was trying to prepare for vacation. Needless to say I left work with a couple of things hanging, but what’s a computer geek to do. When a hard drive goes, it’s gone. Luckily, I’m a true geek and it was backed up, but it’s a massive disruption. In the middle of it my husband and I decide to drastically change our phones. I still don’t have the info from my old phone transferred to the new one. There was a vacation in the middle of everything. So it all stopped (supposedly). But, on our way to the vacation, we hit a deer. We were 4 miles from our destination. We were ok. The car needs some serious tender love and care. We had just switched to Progressive Insurance and I’m thrilled we did. They made it extremely pleasant. The cabin we were at with my family was so far out we didn’t have cell phone access. They took care of it even though they couldn’t consistently contact us, they kept moving things forward. Our car was towed back to the Twin Cities for us and will be fixed and returned shortly.

When we got home from vacation many email and other activity awaited including the fact that I need to prepare to show my work at Cuppa Java the coffee shop in my neighborhood. Somehow I got on the list to show my work. I didn’t sign up, it’s a mystery. I got a call last month from Bob, the owner of Cuppa Java, if I was ready for my July show. I was very confused and as we spoke further, we concluded I should try to show in August. Bob was able to cover July and the August artist disappeared, so I’m up.

If you are interested in checking my art out, please stop by the coffee shop after August 1st.

My photos and paintings:
Cuppa Java
400 Penn Ave S
Minneapolis, MN
55405

As for the deer, it was over immediately.
And my computer still doesn’t have email.
And my gmail in box has over 100 emails I have to read.
And my podcast is woefully overdue.

Digital life takes maintenance and it’s impossible to maintain when the computer is out.

I guess the lesson here is, always have a spare computer?

Rock and Roll Photographer

I’ve been getting more serious about my photography hobby. I’m going to my last session of the workshop I am in with artist Wing Young Huie in the morning. I’m reflecting a bit on what this workshop has done for me in terms of advancing my skills, abilities and interests as a photographer.

Tonight I went to see my friend Leslie Rich play his guitar at the Acadia Cafe in Minneapolis, MN. I decided to take my camera along as it seemed a very good opportunity to find some fantastic photos. I’ve been working on conquering a fear of asking people to take their picture. Strangers always present fascinating photographic possibilities. Sometimes you need to ask them if it’s ok with them that you take their picture. I had not been able to do that until tonight. I asked these two young ladies in coordinating hats if I could take their picture. It was great. They were really something to see together. I did not do them justice in my photos, but the last one I took they were emailing me so I could send them the pics. That one turned out pretty well. I’m posting the pictures on flickr and sending them the link.

I also had a really interesting idea about how to illustrate all the fear that surrounds us. This could be a fascinating photo exploration. I’m having all kinds of ideas. It’s a very exciting and creative time for me and my photography.

Oh and you were probably wondering about the rock and roll photographer. I was one tonight. I was outside with my friend Les after he played and I was wearing my camera. A person standing outside with us called me the personal photographer of the musician. Which technically makes me a rock and roll photographer.

Update on It’s Best to Be Patient……

The car saga continued the next day. I was very excited to go out to my new car and get in and drive the next day. I got in the car and the emergency brake…..was STUCK. Of course in a rental car there are no manuals in the cars as to how the parts of the cars actually work. (being a user experience practicioner let me tell you-cars are the worst for usability….so a manual is essential in some cases)

Nice.

So I had to call roadside assistance again. They were pretty upset about the fact that the tow truck driver put the emergency brake on when parked on a flat surface. They wanted to know what tow company it was. I said I had no idea, just please help me. In the end I just had to pull really really hard to get the brake off, luckily the roadside assistance guy was patient. Even though most of the horrible user experience was due to the tow truck driver, I’m going to name names now. It was Budget Car Rental. And really they aren’t even cheaper. I’ve learned my lesson. I won’t book with them again.

It’s Best To Be Patient When You Feel You Are Being Tested

I have another story for you. The weirdest things happen to me. Things that I don’t imagine happen to many other people.

I’m currently traveling for work. I picked up my car from the rental place and everything seemed fine. It was odd that they gave me a big ass RED Monte Carlo, but you just need to go with the flow in these situations.

Everything was going along just fine. Then following an after work shopping trip to the fabulous Nordstrom’s Rack I needed some sustenance. I went to a quick serve restaurant so I could get back to my hotel and relax. When I parked the car, the key would not come out of the ignition. I tried everything I could think of. The car was in park. The dials were where they needed to be. There was no reason I could discern that was making this happen. I started to rack my brain at this point. How would I be able to leave the car? If I left it unlocked it could be stolen because the keys were in it. I couldn’t think of a way to lock it. My brain was turning this problem over and over and I kept jiggling the key in place to see what I could do. At one point the key FOB (the part of the key with buttons you push to lock the car, unlock the car, sound the alarm, etc.) came off the key chain. As I sat there with the key FOB in my hand, a lightbulb went on in my head. I can use the key FOB to lock and unlock the car. DUH, problem solved. YEA!

So I thought.

I got to the hotel and I was able to lock the car. I drove the car to work today and tried to remove the key but since it didn’t work, I thought I would try my tactic from the previous evening. I just locked the car again.

After work, I went to dinner with co-workers and when one of my co-workers drove me back to the Monte Carolo, it was lucky that she stayed until I got in the car.

I hit the button to unlock the car and nothing happened. The key FOB no longer worked. The battery was dead and there was now no way to get into the car. Thank goodness Elaine was still there. She brought me back to my hotel and we arranged a pick up in the morning. Her sage advice to me was to make the car rental company solve this problem. I quickly realized she was right and went up to my room to give them a call and a problem to solve. If you think about it, this is the place where the company has the opportunity to hook me for life as a customer or make me avoid choosing them in the future. How would they help? After all they gave me a defective product. I was willing to just get by with the defect. But the defect turned into defunct. I couldn’t do anything with the product anymore. I needed a replacement.

They did get me a new car, making me wait for 3 hours. I’m only 20 minutes away from the car rental location. When the driver finally got to me with the new car, he had no idea what was going on. He had to call me twice for directions on his way to bring me the car. The rental company had not told him anything. Not how to get here, not where the car was, not why I didn’t have a key. Nothing. This resulted in a total of four calls from the tow truck driver who delivered the car (including a call that came after he had delivered the car–I thought we were done and I could get some sleep). I’m not mentioning the company name as I think it’s enough that they won’t be getting my business in the future. I just wonder sometimes what lesson I need to learn that continues to present me with these oddly challenging situations.

I feel I rose to this challenge and am hoping my new rental car will start ok in the morning . I know it’s not a big challenge like a horrible disease or the death of a child or anything like that, but in the end it’s the little things that tear us apart. I feel lucky to really just find it amusing. (and good blog material)

Goin Fast

Sometimes you actually witness karma in front of your eyes. It’s amazing when that happens. I saw it the other day on my way to the pharmacy. I was driving down Hennepin away from downtown and toward uptown. Several cars were stopped at a red light and this very erratic driver came up buzzing like a bee to get in front. I drove at a steady pace. She was so intent on going fast. There was this urgency that made her dangerous. The car intermittently got in front of me and behind me. We were both, it seemed, headed toward the same destination. She kept weaving and changing lanes to get ahead. She had to get ahead. But it would just get her behind. Meanwhile she was blathering away on her phone and causing havoc. She was a danger to others, but that didn’t seem to phase her. I was getting upset.

(Sidenote for Context: My father was killed in a car accident so I’m particularly indignant when people drive in a way that could negatively affect other human beings. Carelessness in driving is not something I appreciate.)

As it turned out we were going to the same place. I went to Walgreen’s. She had turned off ahead of me. I went into the pharmacy and picked up my medication. I turned around and crazy driving cell phone girl was standing behind me. She was waiting. She was waiting impatiently and she was clutching her cell phone. She had no idea I’d been watching her and observing her and using her behavior to tell an amusing story about her. I have no idea who she is. It’s all just what you see when you observe.

And then I thought, there it is, Karma. Don’t see that too often.