Things I Learned This Week: 11/18/06

Because I want to spare you from experiencing some of the things I endured over the last few days, I post “Things I Learned This Week” each Saturday. It’s educational, sometimes insightful and always pathetic. I hope that at least one item on this list will make your upcoming week much easier. So here are the “Things I Learned This Week” for the week of 11/12/06-11/18/06.

! I learned that it’s not a good idea to begin a discussion about workplace respect and tolerance with my coworkers by saying “I just want to be upfront and tell you that I am guilty of everything we are about to discuss.” It’s not as disarmingly charming as you might think.

! I learned that when I am trying to convince my 4-years olds to ride the Haunted Mansion while at Disneyland that it’s best to omit the word ‘haunted’ and ‘ghosts’ from my description of it.

! I learned that when buying lunch for a client it’s important to wait until after everyone has ordered to inform them that lunch is on me.

! I learned that even though I am virtually 100% sure I know the next answer of my coworker’s computer training lesson, I should not swear to my coworker that the answer is ‘D: All of the Above.’ Especially when the correct answer ends up being ‘B.’ I’ve discovered that it’s those types of interactions that tend to lower office moral and respect…oops.

! I learned that no matter how excited I am that the local Los Angeles adult contemporary radio station has started playing 24/7 Christmas music, not everyone may share my enthusiasm and according to my coworkers, apparently my radio does have a control to lower the volume and I should be using it more often.

! I learned that no matter how important I think the weekend finale of the NASCAR season is; to my daughters it will never be as important as whatever cartoon, movie or children’s DVD that I had to turn off to watch the racing. I hope it isn’t situations like these that get one branded as a bad father.

And lastly,

! I learned that no matter how much fun it is to have them participate, never ask your 4-year olds to help you pour a new bag of Rice Krispies into the cereal bowl. To them it’s about as difficult as trying to fit a bowling ball into a Dixie cup.