Tag, You're It.

.Well, I guess that 3 months into my life as a blogger, I've really become on now that Mary Schmidt - who in the weird and wacky way that the blogosphere works, has become a friend - has tagged me.

Rather than redefine tagging, I'll borrow from my friend, colleague, and multi-blogger extraordinaire John Whiteside (who was also tagged by Mary). John is someone I actually know from the real world. So yesterday, so yesterday. Here's how John explains tagging:

In case you're not aware of this phenomenon: tagging is one of the ways that bloggers keep themselves amused. It works like this: you compose a post according to a formula (what are the last five songs you listened to? what's your favorite book? etc.) and then "tag" other bloggers to do the same thing. And they tag more bloggers, and so on. Kind of like a chain letter, but fun.)

Mary's tag invites us to reveal "5 things you don't know about me." Since this is a hybrid kinda blog - business cake and personal frosting - I'm going to do 5 work-related things, and 5 personal things.

Work Stuff:

1. I once negotiated a VP title and 25% raise on the basis of tips picked up from reading a book called How Men Think by Adrienne Mendell. (An oldie, but still available on Amazon.) In it, she explains that men are less likely to admit to areas of weakness or uncertainty than women, and that this can translate into viewing women as less competent, etc. Until I read that book, I always thought that admitting your weakness was a sign of strength. Silly me. Overcoming that quaint notion for purposes of negotiation was worth a lot of money to me over the years.
2. When I was a waitress at Durgin-Park in Boston, I learned the trick of carrying 8-10 cups of coffee in my hands and on my wrists. I am out of practice, but I could show you this trick. However, I would only do it if the cups were full of cold water. No scalding coffee. (Once burned....)
3. My ideal job would be philanthropist. I can think of nothing that would be more satisfying than helping non-profit organizations in human services, the arts, and the environment. I would love to read grant proposals and bestow funds. Turning proposals down would be difficult, but I could do it. Yes, philanthropy would have been fun. Too bad I wasn't born wealthy. I haven't achieved wealth. And I've pretty much given up on waiting for wealth to be thrust upon me. (Apologies to Mr. Shakespeare here.)
4. I worked for many years at a small software company - many rides on that roller-coaster before it came to a screeching halt that gave me and everybody else there whiplash. Anyway, after blowing a lot of investment money, we became clean and sober, and prided ourselves on attaining regular quarterly profitability (however mingy the profit was). One quarter, we had a verbal agreement from a customer, and a promise to send us the paperwork by the end of the quarter, but they didn't fax the paperwork to us until the first day of the next quarter. Their $100K order was the difference between profit and loss. We weren't public. Nobody cared except us. It didn't really matter, except for our own pride...The sales guy called the client to tell them what we were doing, and they didn't care, so I whited out the date, wrote in the day before, and re-faxed it so it looked like we got the order in time. (Will I end up doing time with Jeff Skilling, who began his sentence today?)
5. When I worked at Genuity, I went into the ladies' room one afternoon and found a small turd on the floor in the stall. I was going to call the cleaning crew, but then realized that would be ridiculous, so I grabbed some t.p., picked it up, and flushed it. Afterwards, I wondered whether it was an omen....

Personal stuff:

1. This should come as scant surprise, now that I've confessed my willingness to pick up an unknown turd off the floor, but I don't bother with the 10 second rule. If food falls on the floor or ground, I'm generally OK with picking it up and popping it in my mouth. Exceptions are restrooms and subway stations, where I wouldn't be eating anyway. (I overcame fear of eating off the floor when I saw an Irish mother pick the binky (or dummy, as they'd say) that had dropped out of her infant's mouth onto the filthy floor of a boat in Donegal, pop it into her own mouth to suck of the grit, then stick it back in the baby's mouth.)
2. My favorite shower songs are Different Drum, by Linda Rondstadt, and The Crystals He's a Rebel. Those detecting a pattern here are probably correct.
3. I am, for the most part a complete, unmitigated reading snob, but whenever I'm on the road, I pick up People Magazine. (Now that I'm not doing much business travel, I sometimes buy it at home.) Other schlocky things I like are the movie White Christmas. (I know all the words to all the songs: Sisters; Snow, Snow, Snow; even the terrible number Choreography.). My husband and I watch this movie every Christmas season; we'll probably watch it this weekend. We own a copy. I also own a copy of Now, Voyager, with Bette Davis, which is one of the most preposterous, corny movies known to (wo)man.
4. When I went to Confession for the second time, I confessed to the priest that I had committed a mortal sin because I had bitten my fingernails, swallowed, and gone right ahead and received Holy Communion, anyway. (This was when you had to fast for 3 hours before receiving Communion.) Msgr. Lynch told me that I was being ridiculous, and not to bother him with such nonsense. This was completely at odds with what we'd been taught. The nuns always told us that if you thought something was a mortal sin, and you went ahead and did it anyway, it was a mortal sin whether it was technically a mortal sin or not. In any case, this was the last completely honest Confession that I made. I went every two weeks, on Friday, with everyone else in my class, and confessed the same sins every week: disobey father -talkback to mother -fight with sister. I stopped going to Confession when I was in high school and started to have something that approached a real sin.
5. As far as I remember, I've never passed a chain letter or chain e-mail on. And I may not be able to pass this one on, either. I don't know all that many people who blog. I know Mary and John, and they're taken. The people I link to on this blog mostly have business-y blogs. I like their blogs (mostly: sometimes a couple of them annoy me). I've had e-mail exchanges with a few of the bloggers I link to here. Some have commented on my blog. I've commented on theirs. But they seem to be more full of purpose. Serious. They don't seem to be as loosey-goosey as marketing people - or maybe it's just that they don't seem to take off on a tangent as frequently as we do. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I should tag a couple of them. In fact there are a couple that I have in mind, even if I don't know about asking virtual strangers. Some people don't believe it, but I'm a Myers-Briggs "I" (Introvert).

One who I will tag: my friend and colleague, Sean, who, with John W is part of Opinionated Marketers. I would tag my friend Ken, who has a personal blog, but I can't find his url, which I thought was in my favorites, but isn't.