cat is away...pentultimate persuasion class

So sad! Chris took the kids to Kansas City today. I really didn't want them to leave. I was savoring every moment with them this morning - it actually made me a little more patient with them as I was helping them get dressed.

During my class I have devoted each and every break during the past two weeks to being "efficient" - usually working on one of the papers that I have do. Today, I felt like taking a little break and actually going out to lunch with folks, which I never do, but noone was up for it, so on a whim I decided to go over to the gym and do yoga. My practice has deteriorated during this intense class and finals time, so I thought I'd take advantage of the longer lunch "hour" - it felt so good to practice - even if it was only for 45 minutes. However, I didn't have time to eat lunch, so I grabbed a bag of trail mix out of the vending machine and took it to class to eat as my lunch.

Normally, after class I go immediately home to see the family but today? So wacky to be liberated. So what did I do? Go to a bar? See a movie? Soak in a hot tub? I went to the library! I'm living on the edge at Harvard, that's for sure. Actually, it felt good to take a chunk out of my work before heading home - usually, I can't start until after I put the kids to bed, and it was nice to see Mark and other friends at the library.

However, that meant I didn't get home til 8.30 - fortunately, just in time to see The Office and to eat some leftover frozen quesadillas (the ones Chris had made for Liam's birthday party - thanx Chris, for making my dinner even when you're not here). Well, the result of not eating all day was an incredible headache - it probably didn't help that I had gotten my period today and haven't slept more than 4-5 hours/night for the last month or so.

non-journal journal...
In the middle of a mock job interview with a classmate, my cell phone vibrated in my pocket. I ignored it like I do when I'm in class, but it rang again - which is usually my signal with Chris that it's urgent - so I excused myself and picked up. I was worried that something had happened on the way to the airplane or Chris needed something from me to get on the plane....no, he was in an understandably great mood 'cuz they had made it onto the airplane and was calling to say "hi" - well, I had to quickly tell him I couldn't talk because the deputy minister of the treasury department of Canada was interviewing me...

Today, right before we were going to make our second (revised based on feedback) two minute pitches/speeches, I went to the bathroom and realized I had gotten my period. I was running late and thought about ignoring it - uh, thank god I got some sense buried in my brain, so I ran to my locker, got some emergency tampons out and went to class. This should be one of our persuasion principles - never try to persaude someone while giving a speech with a blood stain on your pants.

JOURNAL
I've also been loving the persuasive practice exercises - the job interview was helpful. I got really lucky and was paired with an astute interviewer who gave me a lot of feedback, but what I noticed off the bat was that I seemed to forget all about our principles and just reverted back to what feels comfortable. Just like yesterday during our group exercise around the infrastructure versus education debate when everyone in our group seemed pretty defensive. I guess that's something Gary said the first day, that this stuff just takes practice before it becomes part of our being in roles where we tend to revert back to our body's mold that is in our comfort zone.

It was great to talk about the presidential address today - though we have done other real life examples, it was helpful to analyze something so in the moment. In some ways, it helped me realize - again - how much these persuasion principles come up all of the time - not that we are going to give presidential addresses or just analyze presidential speeches yet it was amazing how obvious these principles are, as you pointed out the first day, but even someone as powerful as a president, is not using them.

Need to analyze further in journal: the carter racing case study/writing exercise - great to be able to work on it immediately/redid speech - did soso - hard to get excited again with same audience....