Welcome MidLife Crisis!

There's nothing like a luncheon to bring on a mid-life crisis. I mean, I'm fairly content in my comfortable, fairly middle-management type job. Perhaps, at 20, I imagined that now, at 40, I'd have a corner office, etc. But, you know how life is. Not as planned. I make an impact in what I do and have my own things to manage. And, I get to be home for my kids every night. All well and good until I sit down at a networking lunch last week. Topic: Successfully Doing it All. OK, I can always use some tips on that. Speaker:?? A 30-year old, former cheerleader, leading news anchor for a network station. Now, she had some thoughtful things to say. But, come on! 30??? And, I'm sure she had to work hard to get where she is, but I'm thinking that news anchor is a little different from corner office in a manufacturing company. I'm wondering if she's ever really had to go on a diet; if she's ever been downsized; has she ever been ready to "go to the next level" only to find that moms her age don't. . .go to that level? And has she ever felt her bones creak as she gets out of bed everyday at noon to go to work? Just wondering. Not that I'm all-experienced or successfully doing it all or even want to be those things, but had I been on the brink of a mid-life crisis last week, I'm thinking that Ms. Young and Beautiful just might have planted me right in the middle of one. Thankfully, I'm older and wiser and know that nothing can prevent a good mid-life crisis like a good bottle of wine. In the afternoon. During working hours. While the kids are outside playing.

Friday morning, do dads do this?

I've often mused that many men in my kind of position are at an advantage just because their lives are simpler. Take this morning, for example. I slept in because my first meeting of the day didn't start until 8:30 - yeah for me! Things started out just fine, shower, etc. Then, as I was preparing to follow my morning routine, I got interrupted by the baby waking up. Got the baby. soaking wet. change the baby, change her clothes, change the bed, start the laundry. OK. 5 minutes behind now. Restart. Oops, here comes the oldest. He woke up with a bloddy nose. Yuck! Get him settled, move him to the shower. It looks like a murder occurred in the bathroom - -how the heck did his bloddy nose create this?! Get out the cleaner, etc. Another 15 minutes behind. Change his bed, more laundry, clean the carpet, etc. Restart. Only time for a quick bite of breakfast now. And out the door. It's like I'm out of breath before I even start the workday!



My morning meeting is with my favorite CEO. We have a sleeves-rolled-up session to knock out some details for some software changes he wanted a week ago but hasn't been able to articulate. And, I can only wonder how his morning started! Or, how his mornings were when his kids were little. Sigh.



I'm lucky, though. My husband is always right there to take care of details that I point out to him and even a few extras beyond that. I just wonder how much intellectual capital I surrender to things like our dinner menus, our shopping list, when the kids need new shoes, if I sent the right stuff to school, and so on; versus the average dad. Even a really involved dad. It's no wonder that its taken so long for women to reach the boardroom! Just as they were heading there, they probably got a call from school because they forgot to send to pack a lunch for the kid's field trip that day!

I've given up trying to reach the boardroom myself. Truthfully, my son's second grade teacher is WAY more fogiving than any boss I've had and remembering to put the right kind of cookie into the box lunch seems to rank well above that sales presentation I needed to finish yesterday. And maybe that idea is what makes a working mom so different from a working dad. Or, maybe that's just what makes me so different from my favorite CEO Client!

Caucus Night

I truly miss Chicago & Illinois Politics. Mayor Daley, the political machine, corruption, payoffs. It's better that Leno! BUT, how exciting is it to be a part of the FIRST IN THE NATION CAUCUS?! Especially this year! I attended my first caucus last night, as a democrat. I've been trained to be a democrat after all those years in Chicago (in my Chicago neighborhood of the last 6 years, you couldn't find the "R" button on the voting machine!) Here in Iowa, caucusing as a democrat is quite the involvement sport. You have to stand up and pow-wow in a group; you have to physically display your commitment to a candidate. I live in a small rural precinct. WE only had 2 delegates (or 2 state-level votes). There were about 70 people out to caucus. When I walked in the door, I boldly thought I'd stand up for Chris Dodd ("these aren't campaign slogans, it's what I've done). But, the "group-think" mentality really caught me by surprise and I ended up standing, initially for Bill Richardson. He was my choice before Dodd, but Dodd had swayed me, sort of, in the last couple weeks. Surprisingly, in the first go-around of our caucus, Richardson didn't look too bad. A candidate needed at least 18 supporters to be "viable" (this is based on a percentage calculation of those attending). Also surprisingly, in the 1st go-around, Richardson had more support than Hillary! But, then, we had to re-align; that's the process where you try to get to the magic "viable" number or stand undecided or join your second choice. The sentiment in my precinct was you're either for Barama or your against Hillary. But, the Edwards core supporters were pretty impressive and articulate. I ended up standing for Obama in the end. Old Chicago Boy. But, there was some talk about an Edwards-Obama ticket and that combo, in that order can easily sway me. Of course, until March, I need to focus on Obama. I mentioned that my preceinct was small. . .somehow, I stepped in as an alternate delegate to support Obama at the state convention in March. After all the standing for a candidate and re-aligning, I'm just not sure how that happened! But, I do know, the democratic method of caucus sure makes me think of early US elections before voting machines and secret ballots. The type of election where you'd better be able to articulate why you like a candidate and be willing to admit it in public. Does it fit with the American-way of politics? I'm not sure, but I do think the method encourages a higher level of involvement and interest. And, out here in cold and windy Iowa, that's not such a bad thing.