The Right Words

My best friend stopped by tonight.   She has a presentation for her annual review tomorrow with her chairman and wanted to talk through some things.   Typically we do the talking through bit during a run but we’ve run into challenges making that happen, this morning being a her stuck with a nauseated child and a reasonable bit of exhaustion.   I knew she was really tired when she asked if we could walk instead of run.   She hates walking.   I convinced her she might be better served getting back into bed and resting instead of getting together and when she agreed, I knew she was more tired than she was letting on.

This evening she messaged me close to nine o’clock saying she was still at the office but could she stop by for a bit to go over some of what she was planning on talking about tomorrow.    People prepare in different ways, for me I think about the points I want to discuss in higher level bullet points or talking points but never talk it out.   If I rehearse, even once, it never comes out the same way again and I seem to be better the first time through.

My best friend is the rehearsing type.   We’ve been running partners for some years now and when she has a presentation or a meeting coming up she likes to talk through it, come up with the best words via discussion and then work through them again and again.   Tonight we worked on the goals she wants to achieve for her office—making them sound like opportunities instead of complaints.   It’s a fine line listing something as a “weakness” or “area for improvement” without making it look like you’re pointing out all your shortcomings.  

We came up with some good phrasing and hopefully she feels better about her meeting tomorrow.   But I did consider punching my husband  when he commented that I was so good at phrasing I’d make a good politician.

The Big Boy Update:  My son is missing a disc.   It’s a component to a multi-part transformer he got over a year ago.   Today he spent a lot of time going through containers of toys looking for the single part.    I came up to him a few hours later telling him I was very impressed because every area he looked in he cleaned up after he was done, putting everything back into the closet or bin.   I guess years of keeping on him to clean up after pulling things out is finally paying off.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to have a party today.   I didn’t think much of it until my husband came out on the porch where I was taking a call to tell me she had brought friends over—multiple friends that hadn’t come over before—to have a party in the basement.    My husband inflated some balloons and they seemed to have a good time until everyone was called home for dinner.   I was impressed at how quickly she threw the party together.   I’m going to let her plan her next birthday party.