more random thoughts

Not sure how it happened, but it seems that I have entered a phase of my life when I need to write recommendations for others. Back in August, a friend asked me to write a recommendation for his business school applications. I spent considerable time on it because he deserved to have a good recommendation. In the end, I thought I wrote him something pretty darn good.

"The problem," as Broadway pointed out, "when you do a good job is that people come back asking for more."

Which is exactly what happened. The friend was shocked at how good he thought it was and asked if I would be willing to modify it for his application to another school Then another. Now, worrying that his first round MBA applications may not pan out, he's applying to two more schools and wants my recommendation for those as well. Most of it is just rearranging what I already wrote, but every school has its own unique questions. This time around, I have to answer "If you could change one thing about the applicant, what would it be?"

How do you answer a question like that? Maybe "I wish I hadn't given him a copy of the original recommendation to read." But that's actually something I would change about myself, not him.

A former student also asked me recently to write a recommendation for something he is applying for in graduate school. I really like the kid, so again, I want to write something that deserves him. But I didn't know him all that well, so I feel a bit stressed about that.

In other news, my parents took me to Arby's for lunch today because I love their roast beef sandwiches. My dad also ordered two fries for all of us, but didn't specify the size when he ordered. The lady at the registered assumed two small fries, and my dad only realized the mistake after having already paid. He asked her if it's possible to change our order, and she kinda thought about it at the register, then without saying a word just went and filled 2 large fries containers without charging us anything extra.

When she came back, my dad gave her a dollar bill (actually the exact cost difference) and thanked her. She smiled really big.

That made me happy, much happier than if we had just ordered everything correctly the first time around. I'm glad we made her smile so big.

I also asked Broadway today what, if anything, are we going to do on New Year's Eve. He said he wasn't sure, so I mentioned this cruise thing that I had heard about (and some fringe acquaintances were going to). I didn't think he would be interested, I said. Not surprisingly, he agreed, but it didn't stop me from being curious about the cruise nonetheless.

So I went in search of Boston New Year's Eve events and found this website. As much as I'd like to bash the silly people who don their holiday dresses and go to these events, I was part of that crowd myself just a couple of years ago. Some high school friends and I went to an expensive bash down here in the South, going because it was The Ball to attend if you were anybody in this town. It made me wonder if I was over all this stuff mainly because I'm older now and don't really care or mainly because Broadway doesn't like these things.

Regardless, I visited the event ticket sites to see what there was to see ... and was surprised that there is a $25 discount on this. I would deduce from this that they're not selling that many tickets, or as many as they're used to selling in previous years. The economy's so bad that people don't even want to celebrate New Year's Eve.

Or maybe in these lean economic times, more people are realizing the frivolity of these "society" balls.