Lincoln over Snickers any day…

We all know my fascination with Abe Lincoln. Friday afternoon, I just needed a little break from my office so I went to our Children’s Department to look at the picture books. I could spend hours in there. I didn’t… but I could have. I sat on the floor looking for something artistic and fun and funny to get me through the afternoon. Better to read a quick book then to eat a Snickers bar  and there I saw it… a book about Lincoln.

It was called “The Boy Who Looked Like Lincoln”. I flipped through it, instantly knew I’d like it, grabbed it and took it up to the solitude and safety of my sanctum. my office. my consultation room.

There, in the privacy of my office, door closed..I giggled and smiled. It’s probably the funniest children’s book I’ve read in a long long time. Sometimes we need simple little things to give us a break from what we deal with in our lives. Life can be exhausting. Our energy is sucked out of us from our own stress and other people’s stress.

Go for a walk, get some fresh air, take a cat nap, read a children’s book. I wanted the Snickers, but I chose the book and I’m glad I did. Not too often after I eat a Snickers do I reflect and smile about it later after I’ve gobbled it down. With this little picture book I did think about it throughout the day. I checked it out and even took it home and looked at it and laughed.

Ahhh…it’s the little things…

My Office Mates Abe Lincoln and Mary Todd

My secret is out. I like to watch documentaries while I’m working. Occasionally I’ll shake it up with some Simpson’s episodes but for the most part, you can come in to my office at any given time and I’ll have on Biography or the American Experience.

I’m sure people are like “What? I’d love to watch movies while I work.” Well, it isn’t like that at all. It’s white noise to me, a background. People listen to NPR at their desks, the radio, music from their computer. I’m a visual listener. The computer work that I do is constant and to move my eyes to something else is a good distraction, both for the eyes and the mind. I’ve been doing this for years and from experience, I can’t do a movie. You actually have to watch a movie. A Simpson’s episode is good because it’s a good distraction and you can listen to it and not have to watch anything and it can still be funny but I would say my favorites have been the American Experience shows.

These are great historical episodes that are incredibly fascinating. I’ll listen to one for days. Catching new things each time or actually watching parts of it while I have my salad at my desk for my lunch break. Being the Abe Lincoln fan that I am, I’m watching a three-part Abe and Mary Todd Lincoln series that has just captivated me and I’ve been most productive in finishing up several projects to this. If Abe and Mary Todd can get through what they got through, I surely can finish up that monthly report!

When I have visitors in my office, I usually set it to pause or turn it off to conduct my meetings. On one occasion I left my office with the Lincoln series still going ~when I came back, I had a visitor waiting for me in a chair outside my office.    I invited him in and as I took my seat on my side of the desk I grabbed for the remote. When I saw what part was on so I can restart it when he left, I inadvertantly blurted out “Dang it, I missed the assassination!” My guest was a little alarmed but it became a great ice breaker and in the end he too was a big Lincoln fan. It ended up being a very successful meeting. When you have Honest Abe and Crazy Mary in the office, I couldn’t expect anything less.