PEN-tastic!

“Hello. My Name is Healthcare Working Girl and I am a pen addict.”

They fan out across my desk in a veritable rainbow of inky fabulosity. Reds. Blues. Blacks. Greens. Purples. Pens are my weakness. Thanks to the technological age I’ve done less handwriting in my adult life with most of my time spent pecking away at computer keyboards but pens own my heart. I love the way a good pen feels in my hand, the way a well designed pen just screams “write with ME!” and the way my handwriting seems to improve dramatically when switching from a bland pen to one created with folks like me in mind. Folks who know pens, who will stop to examine an unfamiliar pen left at a sign in table, sniff pen tips to check the ink quality, and know the perfect paper to pair with a particular pen. I’ve occasionally, unconsciously, walked off particularly well writing pens in unusual colors laying at such a sign in table! Totally involuntarily! Tragic though, since I will also retrace my steps all across town if I misplace one of my beloved writing tools!

I’ve tried out nearly every pen on the market, transitioning over the years from ball point to gel to roller ball. A few years ago, in my past life as a hotel working girl, the daughter of the CEO of Pilot pens took a job with us as an operator. Besides causing people to think they had dialed a 900-number whenever she answered the phone with her oh-so-seductive tone, she showered me with pens in every color and variety. Even pens that had not yet hit the market! She was a pusher and I was a fiend for any good pen she threw my way! I thought I had died and gone to pen heaven!

Pilots have since been my brand of choice but recently, a co-worker gifted me a brand new, blue Sharpie pen and I haven’t been able to put it down. To me, there’s no greater motivation to sit down and write than a fine writing instrument waiting to make contact with a crisp sheet of paper. Yeah, its archaic at this point and my children will probably never understand the simplistic wonder of a pen but I’ll continue scribbling in notebooks, doodling in meetings and scrawling out my thoughts in ink. How about you? Is handwriting going the way of the dinosaur?

Go Go Gadget

Sleek laptops, phones that do everything but take out the trash, a World Wide Web ready to return thousands of options to any old random search for information . . . Working Girls today have it made! It wasn't that long ago that telephone had big spinning dials and a computer filled an entire room (yet still did not have the computer power of even the cheapest cell phone today). I heard one horror story about having to cut and paste (literally, with scissors and paste) advertisements by hand. Can you imagine such nonsense today, in 2010, in the land of Kindle?

Last year, I became the proud owner of an iPhone and just months later, I'm wondering how I survived without it. There's no doubt that technology and all the gadgets it spawns have completely changed the working landscape, allowing us to work smarter, faster and less expensively while creating new career paths and shaping our way of life.

Here are just a few electronic marvels that every Working Girl should have on her "must have" list.

1. Quick Charge – Throw your cellphone, bluetooth, MP3 player or camera onto its surface for instant charging. No wires, no need to plug anything in! My girls thinks it’s magic! Retailing around $100 bucks, its practical and affordable. For charging on the go, the RCA AirEnergy unit converts the WiFi antenna signal to DC power to recharge its own internal lithium battery, so it automatically recharges itself whenever the device is anywhere near a WiFi hotspot. If you have a wireless network at home the AirEnergy would recharge overnight virtually anywhere in your home. When you need to recharge your phone or other device you plug the AirEnergy battery in via USB to transfer the charge.

2. A Digital Notepad – Do you prefer to hand write but don’t because you need to store you data electronically? Can’t afford a tablet PC? Will, note takers of the world, your solution has arrived. Whatever you write on the Digimemo Digital Notepad, you can download via USB to your computer for filing, storing or printing! Also going for around a palatable $100.

3. Turn-by-Turn Directions – Face it Working Girls. Time is money so don’t waste it wandering around aimlessly searching for a destination. Its 2010. Go ahead and get a GPS! Garmin and Tom Tom both has decent models that do the job between $120 and $150. Even if you have GPS on your cell phone, having a freestanding GPS just makes sense. Even if you have a GPS app on your cell phone, it’s just makes sense.

4. Webcam/Headset – I’m still amazed at how many Working Girls are not taking full advantage of the time and money saving aspects that the internet can bring. With the aid of a webcam and headset (which isn’t necessary if you have a build in microphone), the internet transforms into a powerful networking tool that allows you to place calls for free or really (really) cheap, hold online meetings, create videos for YouTube and social networking sites and, of course, keep in touch with family and friends. Webcams range in price from around $50 into the hundreds with varying features and functions. There’s one to fit every budget and need. For shooting video away from the computer, the Flip is a winner with its High Def video quality, portable, user friendly design and, most importantly, affordable price. You can get one with a with 2 hours worth of memory for $129.

What are some of the gadgets that YOU just can't live without?

The Vacation is Officially Over

It's another Thursday morning in the office and I'm sitting at my desk clicking the heels of my boots, eyes closed and whispering methodically, “I can make it to Friday! I can make it to Friday. I can make it to Friday?”

I'm officially post-holiday and feeling the sting.

It seems that things at work are getting more and more unpredictable as the company enacts sweeping changes. I've been around longer than most, more than five years, and I've never seen it quite like this. Restructuring, administrative musical chairs, cryptic company-wide memos, nixed holiday bonuses; its leaving me slightly on edge.

I've taken to sorting my afternoon Chex Mix snack into neat categories to calm my nerves. And, despite all the weirdness, it's insanely busy.

Taking a week and a half of PTO at the end of the year has caught up with me in a tremendous way. I've made the decisions eat lunch at my desk more than once since coming back. I'm seriously wondering if time off is work the hassle once its over? The flooded inbox, the mountain of sticky-note tagged items in my chair, the multitude of voicemails that must be returned though I know that half of them probably don't remember calling in the first place. (*sigh*) But alas, I have work, which is more than can be said for 10.2% of Georgians, so really I shouldn't complain. Somehow, holiday gifts are still trickling in Mid-January and there's nothing like an unexpected jar of individually-wrapped Rice Krispie Treats to brighten up a day!

And the weather has been miserably cold. Yes, I know its January but us southerners are accustomed to mild winters with the occasional two or three day "wintry mix" thrown in just to remind us why we choose not live in colder climates. But this frigid weather descended upon the Southeast over a week ago with temps dipping into the teens. At one point, Atlanta was colder than Alaska. . . Alaska, people! No one has time to be courteous now. Southern hospitality fades at 17 degrees. It even snowed, once, and only a few inches fell but since we were below-freezing, it hung around for days. Ice slick roadways made driving, even walking, hazardous. I actually made it across the frozen parking lot at work only to step in the door and slip. The fall was legendary. Think Home Alone. I was on the ground before I realized I was falling.

No, there is not a lawsuit pending but it did get me to thinking about a very real disorder, post-holiday blues, as I lay there wondering if anyone had witness the fall. PHD is a living, breathing, palpable funk that usually hits hard this time of year after the intense excitement of the end of the year holidays, especially if there's craziness at work. The lack of energy and motivation, sticker shock from overextending on must-have Black Friday deals, the fact that the next paid holiday may not be until May and just overall bad mood can strike even the most focused Working Girls so I googled these tips for getting back into the groove:

• Exercise! Okay, you’ve probably heard this a million times but exercising does make you feel good! Start working some form of exercise into your daily routine—you don’t have to buy a gym membership; going on walks or a 20 minute run three or four times a week is good enough, as long as it gets the heart pumping. Exercising will make you feel more alert and awake, which will help you perform well at work, even if you don’t want to be there. It will also help you get to bed at a reasonable hour, which will help your sleeping schedule get back in order. And of course, it will make you look good as well as feel good!

• Clean up. Get organized and put away all holiday decorations. This will help you mentally move on and get into a better mindset to get back to work. It will also take some stress off, knowing that you get to come home to a clean environment will give you some peace of mind.

• Take time to reflect on the wonderful things you did during your vacation. You may realize that, although the holiday is sadly over, you made the most of your time off and had a lot of fun. This will make it easier to accept that it’s time to get back to normalcy.

• Don’t forget about the little ones! Adults are not the only ones that don’t like going back to the old routine—your kids feel it too! Help establish the old routines by getting them to bed early and limiting how much TV they watch. Encourage them by reminding them that school is fun and how all their friends are excited to see them again. Have a positive attitude about going back, so that your children will mirror this positivity.

• Start thinking about the next fun thing you want to do, or the next vacation you want to take, so that you have something else look forward to.