Garden of Words

Recess in the Recession: Press

Well, I'm doomed. Floricane LLC has now found its way into the newspaper, which means there's no turning back. Not that I wanted an escape hatch.

NEXT STEPS, the new Greater Richmond Chamber program that I developed and will be facilitating in February and March, landed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Henrico Citizen today. More press is sure to follow -- no one is offering the sort of space we're creating to help recently unemployed workers pause and take stock before wading back into a very challenging employment market.

The Henrico Citizen essentially quotes chapter-and-verse from the press release distributed by the Chamber:

The Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce next month will host a four-week pilot program designed to assist workers laid-off by Chamber member businesses.

NEXT STEPS, a four-week pilot program developed in partnership between the GRCC and organizational consultant John Sarvay of Floricane LLC, will launch at the Greater Richmond Chamber offices at 600 East Main Street on Feb. 16.

The Times-Dispatch piece is a little more in-depth, though it misses its opportunity to tout my new enterprise:

Monday mornings can be pretty discouraging if you don't have a job.

To ease the burden and help keep people motivated, the Greater Richmond Chamber is starting Next Steps, a pilot program to support workers who have been laid off.

The four-week course will challenge participants to acknowledge their strengths, seek out career options and pursue job leads.

Up to 32 people will be accepted in this session.

The hope is that participants will act as a peer group and keep each other motivated and engaged, said Stephanie Brenner-Kirksey, the chamber's executive vice president for programs and services.

"It's so easy to get discouraged, which is getting the best of some really talented people right now," she said.

The program will consist of four two-hour sessions, each focused on a different topic, such as taking stock and crafting a vision.

At some point, all of these posts will make their way to the new Floricane website. Because you want to go to four different weblogs to find out what I'm doing.

Recess in the Recession: Looks Like Recess Is Over

This just went live. It's going to be a fun engagement, and will hopefully lead to some amazing opportunities to help individuals work their way through some meaningful transitions. It's official. I'm in business.

The Baby Factory: Walk to the Water

One of my favorite songs arrived in my consciousness on a mixed tape made by my friend Julia back in the late 1980s when I'd ride my bike 10 miles with no designs -- just to sit on a roof with a girl and watch the stars. It was a rare U2 b-side, "Walk to the Water."

She said it wasn't cold
She left her coat at home that day
She wore canvas shoes
White canvas shoes
Around her neck
She wore a silver necklace
It was given to me by my father, she said
It was given to me

The song has danced through my head for almost two decades now, almost every time I find myself alone -- or quietly with someone else -- on a beach. It alternately makes me think of Julia, and of my father, and of others who have drifted -- partially or fully -- from my life.

She took the back way home
Passed the lights and the summerhill
Turned left onto the north strand
And on, and towards the sea

Now, it makes me think of being a father -- and of the memories Thea may one day carry through her own life of me. And the memories she will create within me as she explores the beaches and shores of the world with her mother and me.

I saw you that day
Your lips were cherry red
Your legs were crossed
Your arms wide open

Your hair was coloured gold
Like a field of corn
You were blown by the wind
You were blown by the wind

Walk, walk, walk...to the water
Walk with me a while
Walk, walk, walk...to the roadside
Walk me in the light

Happy nine-month birthday, Thea.

Thanks, Julia. Did you even realize what a gift a song can be?

Recess in the Recession: It's Official

I'm not sure why waiting for the friggin' State Corporation Commission to process my paperwork has been driving me batty. Maybe it's because until Floricane is officially declared a Limited Liability Corporation I'm unable to get a business license from my friends at the City of Richmond, or open a business checking account.

Well, the SCC finally sent an official package to the house yesterday, notifying me that effective January 10, 2009, Floricane LCC was a recognized business.

The web team got busy on Friday, making design plans and helping me move my domains (floricane.com and northrichmondnews.com and sarvay.com) to a new host. A new business site will sit at www.floricane.com in a few weeks.

On Monday, I'll receive 2,500 business cards. I saw a finished sheet of them on Friday, and they look utterly amazing.

On Tuesday, I'll quietly slip into City Hall at the crack of dawn to register my business with the mayor.

And in the spaces between, I'll continue to plug away at the five jobs that have landed in my arms before I even got my act entirely together. I've got training to develop, workbooks to design, strategies to plan and communities to build.

My goal is to have a dozen clients by springtime.

My head tells me to build slow. My gut says go fast.

I think it's a good time to listen to my gut.

The Baby Factory: Stand in the Place Where You Were

It's frightening to think our baby can stand on her own. She can't go anywhere on her own just yet -- barely crawling in reverse, taking wobbly steps as she grips our hands -- but it's only a matter of time. As you can see, she's just as surprised as we are. And a bit more full of herself than I was at her age.

The Baby Factory: Prune Face

The best thing about pureed prunes is that they look like poop once their smeared across the face of a small child. That, and the fact that since Thea hates them she may never eat them again in her life.

Nikole has been making most of Thea's food, except for the prunes and carrots, which apparently are deadly if prepared in the home kitchen by an untrained chef. Or they have high levels of nitrates.

Not only is it amazing how few containers of apples you get once you cook down a three-pound bag of organic apples, but it's also surprisingly affordable when compared to the tiny jars of organic baby food you'll find at the store. (The prices are insanely variable -- we've seen the same food at prices ranging from 79 cents a jar to $1.39 a jar.)

After several months of easing into solids, Thea is a full bore vegemilkatrian -- subsisting on rice and oatmeal cereals, breastmilk and assorted fruits and vegetables. She's a lover of all things orange -- carrots, sweet potatoes and peaches. Apples are another favorite.

We've been given the green light to start giving her bite-sized chunks of cooked vegetables on her journey to an all-protein diet. By 12 months, I expect her to be subsisting on a diet of raw venison and parboiled duck.

The Baby Factory: Six Teeth and a Night of Sleep

I'm sure there has been plenty to report on the baby front, but I don't remember much of it. We decompressed like mad over the Christmas/New Year's holidays and it was a bit of a jolt to find myself back in the thick of work this week.

But we had an even bigger jolt Sunday night when Thea slept almost seven hours uninterrupted. I woke at 12:30 in the morning, wondering why she was so quiet. I let the dog out and went back to sleep. Three hours later, I actually went in to check on her. There she was, splayed out on her stomach sound asleep. A bit after that, some senseless babble rang out over the baby monitor for about two minutes, and she was out again.

We didn't expect a repeat performance on Monday. A good thing, that. I had a meeting in the evening, so Nikole spent much of the early hours struggling to get Miss Fuss to sleep. I took the 9:00 to 10:00 shift, and she woke three times. The third was the charm, apparently, because she then slept soundly until 3:30 in the morning. It was bit hit-and-miss afterward, but I'll spend the day basking in the glow of a baby who has demonstrated the ability to sleep for long chunks of time.

On another unexpected front, we'd been watching as Thea's two top front teeth begin to push their way through her gums. Watching, and wincing as she gnashed her two bottom teeth in frustration.

We were so focused on those two emerging teeth that we didn't even notice her eye teeth -- until the one on the right poked out all shiny and white yesterday morning! Three teeth in and three on the way. No wonder she's so exhausted at night.