Holly Via Gorski

I am tremendously bad at networking. This is ironic because I love to talk and usually have no trouble meeting people. As anyone who knows me in person or from Twitter knows, I can talk about my kids, my pets, books, what’s on TV, yap yappity yap yap all day long. Yet put a business card in my hand and I clam up. (I’m trusting you not to use this knowledge for evil, a.k.a. tell my husband.)

I have a difficult time talking to people if I want something from them. I feel and act awkward: I don’t know how to go about it. I love Avon products and have tried to be an Avon rep twice, but I can’t do it. I feel bad asking people to buy things.

All this is groundwork for me asking you to do something (but it won’t cost a dime): join the JobAngels movement. JobAngels is an online network of professionals, each committed to helping just one person find a job. It was started less than a month ago by HR professional (and Twitter friend of mine) Mark Stelzner over his morning bowl of cornflakes. Not one of us can individually fix “the unemployment problem,” but each of us could try to connect one unemployed person with a job opportunity. Imagine if all of us did just that.

Earlier this evening I contacted three people (current and former colleagues) and asked them directly if they knew of job opportunities in their field on behalf of a JobAngels job seeker. This was a huge step for me, but I know people who network so naturally they could do that with one eye open while hitting the snooze button at 6:00 AM. Are you one of them? Could you help one person find a job?

Will you?

Twitter – Follow @jobangels and search the #jobangels for work opportunities or people in need of their own JobAngel
Facebook – JobAngels on Facebook
LinkedIn – JobAngels Group

I mentioned this on Twitter when I discovered it a few weeks ago: Clocky, the alarm clock that runs away from you. I can't stop thinking about it.

For several weeks it seemed that no matter how early I set the time on my alarm, I would not get out of bed until 7:00 AM. This past week I've nudged up to 6:45. Waking up is painful.

I think I need Clocky, but I don't want it. First of all, if I were willing to pay more than $25 for an alarm clock I would have bought one of these long ago. Secondly, I think Clocky would annoy me to the point of criminal activity. I'd wake up wanting to kill something every day. Finally, the floor around my bed is usually covered with clean clothes waiting to be folded. Clocky would be trapped by my socks and underwear. Actually that last one might make it a little easier to take.

I'm not going to drop $50 on the World's Most Irritating Alarm Clock, but I need to do something to make mornings easier. Go to bed earlier? Bah! So pedestrian. Maybe I could move the coffee maker to the top of my dresser and program it for 6:00 AM. Anyone tried that?

I had a gray eyebrow hair.

I plucked it, along with those few dark hairs at the corner of my mouth; the beginnings of my grandma moustache. While there I noticed a real laugh line running from that corner up to the outer edge of my nostril. It’s deeper in some spots than others.

No one notices because I smile so much, but here in the mirror at 11 PM, face slack, I see it. And I wonder: why don’t I have dimple wrinkles? They get the same workout as the curve that made that line.

I’ve had a box of supermarket hair dye on my bathroom counter for ten months. In my twenties I colored my hair for an afternoon’s amusement, for a change.

This is the first box I’ve purchased to stop a change.

Keep it the same. Ignore the gray hairs I’ve earned in the past four years. When I use it, it will cover my gray — fool them all like a great bra.

No aging here; move along.