This Girl

Shoes tell a story Of everyone you meet What people wear To hide their feet Boots to make you sturdy Sandals to make you free A holey pair of slip-on shoes Will do just fine by me --Tina Kovach (now Henne) I wrote that stupid little poem in high school.  My English teacher thought it was a catchy little ditty and wanted me to expand upon the already quirky rhyme. She even threw in her own take on shoes. While I appreciated the feedback, I refused to alter my then-masterpiece for the following reasons: I thought her added lines were dumb I was in the thick of the "you're not the boss of me" 15-year old bitch phase and just wasn't having it I felt that eight lines was more than enough to express my feelings about shoes The deeper meaning of my poetic genius lies in the observation that we are, at times, books that can be judged by our covers (for added cliche bonus--we wear our hearts on our sleeves, our lives are open books, march to the...

 Like most people, the mass murder of children makes me physically ill. With every news clip, every tweet, every Facebook post, every banner scrolling across news pages related to the tragedy in Connecticut, I feel like I got punched in the gut. There is a reason why our reactions strike at the core of our beings--most of us actually give a damn about other people. Most of us actually care about the children. Most of us do see ourselves as our brother's keeper. So seeing these events unfold elicits a visceral response that leaves us in tears, or angry, or confused, or wanting to do something at a time when for all intents and purposes, we are helpless. We each have our own reasons why we react so personally to tragedy states away. The common denominator is that we have a moral compass--a gauge inside of us that says, "This is the most extreme form of wrong I have ever seen." Aside from that common denominator, our reasons stem from our personal life experiences. For m...

" I never met a like I didn't like." --Roy W. Rogers Okay, so I made that quote up. But when you think about it, who doesn't like a like? To humans, the need to be liked is so visceral. It is a means to achieve inner peace. It is the necessary feedback to assess whether one is on the right path or should consider the options. There are different degrees of "like," though, and sometimes it is difficult to tell if a person likes you likes you, or just likes you. And if your counterpart particularly is adept at putting on the poker face, it can be quite a hardscrabble to determine if there is any liking to be had at all.

I recently came across this article on Yahoo outlining "10 Things You Should Never Say at the Office." I'll admit that I expected to see a list of swear words, variations on the use of F-bombs and derogatory comments about bosses. While these were noticeably absent, the list did provide a nice snapshot of terms that business rookies may encounter in this wonderful world of new words designed to dress up old words to lessen the blow they are meant to deliver. Ms. Harris' list is not exhaustive, though. Given this degree of disconnect, I'd like to leverage my meager experience on the cutting edge in order to reach out and socialize with you, dear reader, so that you may be armed with some game-changing, value-add anecdotes, in the event that this whole thing goes viral and you have to circle back to it is what it is.