Short & Sweet

In our house, the roles are reversed from the conventional mom/dad scenarios we're all used to. Mommy is the primary bread-winner and daddy is the primary caretaker (including heading up the bulk of the homeschooling duties). I could talk for days on end about what a great benefit this is to our two girls, and how it is shaping they way they view the world and their places in it, but I'll save that for another day (or you can email me and we can go on and on...). I also travel a lot for business, so as far as my girls know, working means that sometimes you spend time in your home office and sometimes you spend time in your far away office. We've developed some nice traditions around this sometimes unstable schedule to help the girls feel more involved and not make any of this seem too strange.

Enter my stylist and my speech writer. When I'm packing up my clothes to start a trip, Mizan (aka Ms. Fashionista) will insist on certain items of clothing that will help me "look pretty" and "be confident" and will "help with my meetings". After my clothes are selected, we then move to hair styling. This often results in me standing in front of the mirror with clips and bobbles dangling from my locks in a glorious array of pinks, purples and yellows (apparently these do NOT need to match my business attire, this is fashion). But the primping doesn't stop there. Even though most of this prep work takes place several hours or even a day or two before my departure, Mizan still insists that I put on jewelry, deodorant, lotion and the perfume of her choice right away...for practice you understand - the dress rehearsal is critical to a good performance.

I have often explained to the girls the high level elements of my job - mommy meets with different people to learn their business and then offer them a service that her company provides that can help them and the people they serve. This is where my speech writer comes in. Adachi (aka The Academic) has asked me, "Mommy, during these meetings, do you have to make a speech?". I tell her yes, only we grown ups often call it a presentation. She prefers speech. Well, lucky for me, she's an ace at writing speeches, and many times she will write one for me and tuck it into my laptop bag. I truly marvel at the way her mind works; she takes all the complexities of what I do, and what I'm being asked to communicate and boils it down to the very basics. Here's an example of a recent speech she wrote for me.

Let me know if you'd like to employ their services. I have it on good authority that they will work for strawberry popsicles.