I am standing with Chase, the beekeeper, and Jeff, the building owner
the rooftop farm of the Acumen building in Long Island City
“Me, I’m more of a big time enthusiast, “ said Chase. He spoke reverently of the serious bee people who drive around the country doing bee related activities. His involvement with this sweet little industry was a few hives at most. “I’ve seen honey go for $15 a pound. And all this, “ he waved towards the beehives at the far end of the roof. “will yield a good couple thousand dollars.”
You have to love people who love what they do. Especially bee keepers.
What about you?
Now I have been a worker bee in many former lives so I am very familiar with those unmistakeable signals from your inner soul that tell you that it is time to make a change. If you are not eager to start everyday doing something you love, you may notice the following about yourself:
1 You hate Sundays
That stomach ache that announces Monday. Your shoulders slumping as you think about the week gaping before you like a black hole.
2 You hate the rest of the week
Rinse and repeat.
3 Caffeine doesn’t work
No amount of Joe gets you going. You are dragging your heels, physically and spiritually.
4 You are not curious about anything
There is nothing that seizes your imagination and allows your mind to visualize solutions or scenarios. This is very bad because eventually you become satisfied with accomplishing less.
5 Graduate schools look appealing
What does grab your attention is the opportunity to learn something new to enable you to do something else. You are already out the door and searching for the next thing.
I have spent a lot of time working with people in the arts who have all kinds of challenges making a life of making art. But one thing they supremely and confidently revolve around is their inner buzz. Their passion for what they do. Their life is their art. Their work is what they do to support their art.
Life is too short to be unhappily employed. I say do what brings you the most happiness.
Penelope Trunk has a twist on common career advice. Here’s her advice: Do not what you love; do what you are.
The weekend thread on Corporette offers some tips on changing jobs.
And if any of you are intrigued by the thought of working in a library, Josh Hanagarne can tell you all about his career as a librarian and what he loves about it.
Think about it carefully: doing what you love and doing what makes you happy are not always the same thing.
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Four women were having a conversation. Sounds like a joke, doesn’t it?
We were talking about having affairs, cheating, and amazing sex.
“I loved Arnold and I feel so betrayed!”
The woman looked at me and I actually believed her anguish. “There was always something about him that I liked, even when he was Conan the Barbarian.”
“Well HELLO – that was a body to love!”
“What was he thinking?”
“Well, that’s just it. He wasn’t thinking, his little brain was thinking.”
Now all of the mothers riding the schoolbus with me turned around with something to say about Arnold. If any of you have had the experience of chaperoning a class trip with thirteen year olds through Brooklyn and into Manhattan on a school bus, you know that all conversation becomes a yelling match.
“Can you imagine him bedhopping between her and his wife?
“Look, he was in a position of power, maybe she really fell for him.”
One of the women leaned in, her eyes flashing. “Imagine how hot the sex must have been.”
Well, that was it. We did not talk about anything else except sex for the rest of the trip.
“Oh my God, the passion!”
” – like make up after the fight sex…”
” – the danger of getting caught…”
” – temptation, forbidden fruit…”
” – can you imagine how wild and hot it must have been?”
” Hey, open that window, it’s getting hot in here.”
Women are more interested in the power of the attraction that could make a man lose everything in a moment of passion.
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On the first Saturday night at Boulud Sud, we descended with an unexpected crowd of eight.
Mais sans doute, it was a typically magnifique! Here we are, moi, Daniel and Mikki.
It is tres difficile for me to imagine the life of a successful restauranter as he continues to build his empire without wondering what the secret sauce is.
What is it about Daniel Boulud that brings him success, the three star Michelin rating, his restaurant’s ranking among the best in the world?
The vodka gimlet elegantly served in a slender carafe?
The Lamb Cleopatra that was simply delicious? The accompanying roasted beets in pistachio yogurt?
How about that Turkish pudding surrounded by some kind of rhubarb swirl?
The edgy grapefruit sorbet? The mint chocolate pave with pine nuts, jasmine flower and chocolate sorbet? Yum!
The smartly attentive staff?
All that, and Daniel himself, working the room and making all of us feel extremely especiale and enchantee. Of course, the food and the service are exemplary. The ambience is chic and inviting. But I think that intuitive ability to connect with with his guests is the cherry on the cake. It is what makes an evening out with friends memorable and it is what makes us his best word of mouth warriors.
Boulud Sud. The new star in the empire. Ask for Michael, the guy with the cool tie and glasses. He will make sure your evening is heavenly.
Bon appetit.
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You are at some important fancy schmancy place with all kinds of people you need to impress and what do you do? That’s right, you put your Louboutin right in your mouth and say something that offends the person you are talking to.
You are sitting with someone in a meeting and you immediately forget his name, mispronounce it and can’t recall what his title is.
You are about to introduce someone on stage to a large audience of very smart, informed people and you have left your notes at home on the kitchen table. With your reading glasses.
Mon petit, you are about to commit le faux pas.
I am learning to love when this happens to me. Of course, I have to get over the “Mon Dieu! How could I have been so stupid!” and stop beating myself up. Since this does occur with increasing and alarming frequencey, I have no choice but to get over it quickly and find a path of grace out of the mess I have made.
This is what I do. A lot.
Admit it
“Boy, did I make a big mistake.” It gets easier the more you say it. Owning the blame also allows you to own the attention. As Madonna says, “There is no such thing as bad publicity.” Work the attention but first admit you goofed up.
Apologize
Josh, the World’s Strongest Librarian, advises people to apologize as much as you need to, then move on. Guilt does nobody any good.
Ask for help
This is an amazing way to turn the tides. People are essentially wired to share information and to be helpful to underdogs. You will learn exactly what you need to do to get back on track and they will feel like part of the solution.
Advertise your blooper
People like reading stories about how someone overcame great challenges and succeeded, or what you can learn from someone’s actual experience. You can turn your mistake into a human interest story for others to gain insights from.
Activate your sense of humor
I thought Penelope Trunk was hilarious when she said she was gifted with donkeys. You will be a more lovable person to forgive if you are able to laugh at yourself.
Allow yourself to be forgiven
Forgiveness is an awesome thing, whether you forgive yourself or someone else. Alisa Bowman issues a forgiveness challenge, a marital sin actually, which I think is kind of cool and something to aspire to in a marriage.
Human nature is consistently counterintuitive. What you think is the end of the world can turn out to be the biggest opportunity of your life. I personally think people actually sympathize with flaws and weaknesses. It reinforces our unmistakeable talent for screwing things up no matter how hard we try not to.
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At one point in my life my sister and I had studied classical piano in New York City for over a decade, from an age where all we could do was swing our legs from the piano bench and barely grasp a chord with our chubby little hands to restless college students armed with enough repertoire to take auditions in three musical cities – Paris, Salzburg and Perugia.
It was time to go to the cradle of classical music and learn the European way.
What did that mean?
Getting a visa
Getting approval from our colleges
Requesting an audition date in three conservatories
Preparing repertoire
Budgeting for a year abroad for two
Taking a crash course in German, we had four years of high school French and we figured Italian wouldn’t be as difficult as German.
Not knowing where we would be accepted
And that was before we even left the ground.
We were accepted in Salzburg and we fell in love with this beautiful city. So, now we had to:
Learn German schnell! We actually learned more Salzburg dialect than German so to this day I sound like a Bavarian local when I speak.
Find a place to live
Register for classes at the Mozarteum
Try not to get lost
Try not to eat too much sacher torte
Take piano lessons in German
What I really learned
The decision to do this was purely impulsive and reckless. Both of our colleges had no formal abroad program with this reknown music school. We had no idea how many credits we would be awarded when we returned.
But our plan was strategic and well thought out in the same way our musical education was. There were foundation studies, etudes, sonatas, scales and music theory that slowly over time created an inner universe of music. Complex pieces of music we learned and memorized at a young age became part of our growing muscle memory to be coaxed out as we matured.
That is how I memorized thirty two Beethoven Sonatas. Before I knew how to drive.
Music lessons are not about acquiring the skill to play an instrument, or to sing. Music lessons are journeys into a realm of expression that your soul can hear. This is why the decision to pick up and go to the birthplace of Mozart and classical music was indisputable in our minds. To live and play music in this rarified city where people consider music their cultural heritage was a tremendous part of the experience.
Schubert, Schumann on Skype?
I found this intriguing YouTube video on Pamela Slim’s blog in a post she wrote about how to break a big goal into smaller steps. It reminded me of how my sister and I reached our goal of studying music in Europe. OK, time to confess – as I was watching how the teacher went over step by step how to teach webcam music lessons with Skype, I was disappointed. Not once did he actually play the keys of the piano, only his keyboard.
Here is another video I found on Arianne Segerman’s blog about someone who loves to play with fire and bang on metal. She is in love with creating beautiful things by hand that can be worn as jewelry. Another soul that craves the connection of the immediate. Try Skyping the touch of silver on your skin.
There are some things in life that do not travel well. Souffles, jello, Baked Alaska, ice sculpture, and yes, piano lessons are things best experienced no more than an octave away.
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