Comments on: DITL: Some days are better than others

By: Links to love, get excited | Grumpy rumblings of the (formerly!) untenured

Links to love, get excited | Grumpy rumblings of the (formerly!) untenured — Sat, 03 May 2014 12:45:33 +0000

[…] on Laura Vanderkam’s blog trawl, also […]

By: nicoleandmaggie

nicoleandmaggie — Thu, 01 May 2014 13:43:25 +0000

In reply to Laura. p.s. Where I live in the South, both Religion and Politics are absolutely Verboten (at least between "town" and "gown"). I think people are less likely to get shot that way.

By: Laura

Laura — Thu, 01 May 2014 01:16:02 +0000

In reply to Louisa. @Louisa - I like the idea of leading with a positive declaration. I may put that in! Then, as N&M says, the person can choose to volunteer what he/she wishes.

By: ARC

ARC — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 17:39:20 +0000

@Laura, I had to laugh at the whole thing about your husband using your office for a phone call. Now that we have separate offices, I am always PEEVED that hubby chooses to drop random items he can’t find a home for in my craft room, or “borrow” some tool and not bring it back. And his reason is always “well, you have all this extra space in here”. Grrr.

By: ARC

ARC — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 17:33:44 +0000

In reply to Chelsea. Oh yikes! I guess that would be a more unusual time log for Laura to read, though :)

By: nicoleandmaggie

nicoleandmaggie — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 14:19:13 +0000

In reply to Liz. Tornadoes + basements = no big deal Tornadoes + no basements = terrifying

By: Chelsea

Chelsea — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 13:28:17 +0000

Living in Wisconsin, I feel like every casual conversation I’ve had recently has been about the weather – either the extremely cold winter or the chilly, rainy spring.

One helpful conversation starter I’ve heard is to ask people, “What keeps you busy during the day?” which can be answered any way from working for XXX to homeschooling my kids to looking for jobs to enjoying my retirement.

As far as disastrous day in the life records go, I started one a few weeks ago that was going to record how wonderfully productive I was working and caring for a toddler during my first trimester and ended with me recording vomiting in the car, having to clean up said vomit, being incapacitated for the rest of the evening while my wonderful husband kept everything together, and eating a tiny handful of jelly beans for dinner at 8pm. Not exactly the model day I was going for!

By: Liz

Liz — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 13:26:36 +0000

In reply to Nicoleandmaggie.

“I miss basements.” I never had one, growing up in a coastal swampy area. The only people who had basements also had serious mold and flooding risks. My grandmother had a basement, in western NY state, and it was fascinating.
…. This would be a fun small talk conversation. 🙂 Kinda works with Louisa’s rec below, to have a positive/neutral declarative statement as a starting point.

By: Louisa

Louisa — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 12:08:05 +0000

I look for something positive to say about either the environment we’re sharing (“The sushi rolls are great! Have you tried them?”) or about the process of getting to the event (“I listened to a very funny interview on my way here”) A declarative sentence about something that’s potentially common ground seems to work. Note, positive! Otherwise you can get into a back-and-forth ain’t-it-awful session about commutes, traffic, Amtrak, etc.

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 01:54:19 +0000

In reply to sarah @ little bus on the prairie.

@Sarah – good question! When I analyze a time log, I’m adding up hours in certain categories: sleep, work, housework/errands, exercise, reading, TV. I see if the person ever works from home, or if she does something personal during “work” hours or something “work” during personal hours (i.e. is it a flexible schedule?) I record some demographic info — married or not, ages of kids. I’m also making note of anything interesting or unusual (e.g. someone wakes up at 5 to exercise — that would be worth noting as a strategy).