The Run Away Business Meeting

In light of recent events, Mona and I decided we needed to have a business meeting.

The way this business meeting came about, is the same way most business meeting happen...

I went home on my lunch break and I found Mona sitting in our living room with her bags practically packed telling me she's running away RIGHT NOW!

Me: Can we wait until I get done with work to run away?

Mona: Well, I was going to run away without you, but I was to lazy and now you're here.

So, I got out of work early, we canceled our evening plans, cashed in our coin jar ($83 dollars!), downloaded a playlist, and hit the open road.

We rocked out to Nero/Skrillex 'Promises' and set out on our path for Milwaukee.

We ended up in the Historic 3rd Ward District. Super cute area of Milwaukee we have never been before. It has lots of cute little shops and restaurants!

Our "business meeting" was held at the wonderful Cafe Benelux. I loved the look and atmosphere of this place. The food was unique and good!

www.cafebenelux.com

We had  the pork belly satay, sesame cilantro slaw, peanut sauce, for an appraiser and then we split the  sprocket, which is a burger on a baking pretzel bun with bacon, cheddar, duck fat fried egg, garlic aioli, and tomato jam. We also had the traditional frites and the sweet potato frites along with the roasted garlic and red pepper aioli dipping sauces.

Wonderful!

I wish we had places like this were I'm from. It was very inspirational setting for our meeting.

We talked about where we are and where we want to be when it comes to opening our own coffee shop. And getting out from under The Man or in our case The Man-dy.

The ways things have been going with our coffee boss, Mandy, right now, is highly motivating. It's forcing us to kick start our own shop into high gear.

One of the tricks I learned in business school is to set a definitive and measurable goal. Using numbers and deadlines.

So, our goal is to save $60,000 and open our coffee shop by the end of 2015.

We are going to have to save 2,500 to 3,000 every month for the next two years to reach our ambitious goal. It's going to be a lot of hard work and cheep meals, but we can do it!

We both have two regular jobs. We both get tips. We both dogsit.

I am going to start donating plasma again and try to sell some of my artwork.

Mona is going to find more paying gigs for her music and she is going to try and win jingle contests (she already has a few in mind).

Once our lease is up we are going to move to a cheaper apartment.

We are going to completely get rid of our TV bill by cutting even basic cable and cutting down our electric bill by making sure to shut off lights.

And we are going to eat as many meals at my parents as we can without them realizing what we are doing.

We are going to save every possible penny. 

After dinner, with our stomachs full and our goals set, we took off for the Miramar Theatre on Oakland Ave to hit up their Tuesday open mic night.

There were quite an assortment of musicians and poets.

One skinny, nerdy looking white kid unexpectedly wrote rap lyrics.

Another rapper (obviously rap is popular in Milwaukee) reminded us of how Tom Haverford from Parks and Recreation and how he would act if he tried to rap.

One musical looper was having technically difficulties so he tried to do a comedy routine. Not good.

And a poet was talking about vaginas and whores fairly explicitly and then apologized several times afterwards for if he offend anyone.

You could say the experience was interesting. 

Mona was by far the best person to preform and I don't say that due to bias because she is my sister or the fact that I helped write the music.

At first she was a little thrown because she had never played on an actual stage with lots of bright lights and all before.

Afterwards she said she didn't know how to act because she couldn't see the crowd and get people's reactions, so she felt like a fool.

I, of course, agreed with her 100%.

No, she did an awesome job and even gained a few new fans!

By this time it was after 10, and being the party animals and expert runner away-ers that we are, we headed home and went to bed.

meeting madness

Most people hate meetings. They find them long, boring, and unnecessary. Who really wants to sit and listen to people go on and on about something nobody really cares about in the first place?

Numbers and stats, policies and procedures. Boring! You could be somewhere else. You could be at home already or actually doing work. You whine and complain and try to come with as many excuses as you can to get out of the meeting. "My two year old has a football, homework, parent-teacher conference that happens just once a year all the way across town at that exact time! I'm so sorry, I really wanted to be at that meeting!" 

Sometimes you will even try to convince the meeting leader that you already know all the information and you don't even need the meeting. That can backfire. They could say, "Oh! That's great! You can help answer questions and add your input. I will make sure to call on you for participation!" That is the exact opposite result of what you were trying to accomplish, in fact it is now worse.  

Finally, after all of your last ditch efforts for meeting avoidance have been employed, you suck it up and go to the meeting. 

It is everything you dreamed it would be and more. You have a hard time concentrating on what the speaker is saying because you notice that she has a stain on her left sleeve and you are wondering what she had for lunch.

You start to doze off as they talk about department numbers because the numbers remind you of counting sheep. If your name, by chance, gets mentioned it jerks you back to reality and you pray to God they don't ask you anything in regards to what they have been talking about. And when the meeting finally adjourns, you jet out of there like the place is on fire. You realize, you were right, it was a complete waste of time. 

People, I am here to tell you that...I am NOT one of these people. I am one of "those people". You know the ones I'm talking about. The ones who love meetings. The weird and crazy people who get excited at the idea of an informative gathering.

Who like to hear what's going on and be in the know about the company. The ones who ask all the questions and make the meeting drag. The ones who are awake and alert with a smile on their face. Yes, I am one of "those people". I know it makes me weird and not a lot of people understand me.  Hate me if you must, but I can't help it!  I love meetings!

They are informative (I like to be a know-it-all), they are like mini vacations from normal work (breaks up the monotony), you get to see everyone (cubical like life can be very lonely), they can help you do your job more efficiently (this will make it all around easier for you and get you in less trouble), and sometimes they involve treats (come on who doesn't like treats?). Call me weird if you must, but I do not apologize. I like to embrace my weirdness! 

So, wherever you fall on the scale of the meeting madness, love it or hate it, take it or leave it, just remember it's okay to not follow the norm. Differences are what make us special. You don't have to fall to peer pressure You don't have to do or think things just because "everybody else is doing it". Be your weird, unique self, and don't be ashamed of it! Even if you get dirty looks saying "shut up and stop asking questions!"