I have reached an age where I know for a fact that technology is outpacing me. As my husband and sister read this, they are cackling because I am the least tech-savvy and tech-interested person in their families.
I have mentioned to friends and strangers that one of the deep-seated reasons I support the Women’s Employment Network is because I am convinced that I am going to have to utilize their amazing services if this dream business I share with my sister ever fails. The main reasons: I really don’t know how to make a PowerPoint display, and I can get easily tripped up on implementing calculations in Excel. Clearly, I will need to be trained for today’s workforce.
Unemployable in today’s society. That’s me.
Thank the goddess I am an entrepreneur.
September starts our busiest four months of the year at STUFF. Right now, I am buried up to my eyeballs in paper, cardboard, pricing labels and spreadsheets. Casey, my partner in crime, is buried in artist product, display ideas, and training of current employees and possible new hires. It is a killer month that we love…and live through.
Last month in New York, on our morning walk to work, I saw two men sorting – by color! – empty glass bottles. The street on which they had set up shop was closed due to the construction of a new subway stop. They had found a tree for shade and were color-sorting glass and stacking it. The sound of their endeavors caught me first and found me fumbling for my camera. Not only were they helping to save the planet, they were working quickly and efficiently in a makeshift work environment. What the end result of their work was, I do not know and did not ask.
My mind raced to these images yesterday when I had set up a work station for myself on three cardboard boxes right outside my office door and was holding the papers from blowing in the fan with a tack into the cardboard. An hour later, I thought of those men as my sister climbed the stairs with her hand drill, cell phone, stuffed file folder, and cup of iced coffee. She, too, was setting up shop and getting to work where she needed to be, which was not at her desk.
She amazed me because she had brought her phone to work. Mine? Well, mine was way over there next to the keyboard of my computer, being charged. Someone had forgotten to charge it over night. Understandable. She must have been really busy.
p.s. These men had me mesmerized. Look at how tidy their work space is. The boxes are lined up perfectly and practically squared to the curb. Right there on 35th Street just west of 9th Avenue.
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I wouldn’t want to buried at work with anyone else but you, Sloanie.
I will happily donate my powerpoint or excel skills from years as a corporate geek for the wonderful sake of Stuff. It’d be a privilege to give that little bit back for how your store has enriched my life over the years. I wouldn’t offer if I wasn’t serious — you have my email 😉
Cassie:
Your note about my blog touched me deeply! Isn’t it funny the fears that can come along and possibly trip you up?You are a sweet woman and I am keeping you in my old-fashioned Rolodex for when I need REAL help.
Thank you for reading our blogs and loving our store as much as we do. – sloane
those guys are getting those bottles ready for recycling. they get 5 cents a bottle…..and it looks like they have been to the local bars.
i personally went to albany a few years back to lobby our state legislatures to pass the “bigger better bottle bill.” it passed and now it includes beer bottles, water bottles, juice bottles, etc. these bottles are now guaranteed to be recycled and the funds not collected by the people go back to an environmental fund.
i love to see this….people making money and recycling. awesome.
how is that?
P. Claire: This is fantastic. This used to be true in Missouri when I was a kid. I think Iowa as well. Glad to see the world being made better. I have to say, they ran the cleanest recycling “center” I’ve ever seen. Impressive. -sloane
yeah, well i am going to be right there with them when i get old…the crazy bottle lady on the street, because my SS is not going to be enough.
haha
oh and one of the bigger recycling centers for the city is near there.