Marketing

Sunday night, Lydia woke at midnight and we were up until 3 a.m.; I don’t know if it’s stomach distress, teething, the mysterious “something else” or a combination. It’s a good thing she’s so wonderful.

Monday, I get up at 6:15, get dressed. Lydia and I take the 7:02 bus to her day care. I take the 7:25 bus (running late) to the Y, play two games of racquetball (poorly), go to work and have a bowl of cereal.

Do some work, mostly in preparation of a market research class. Ate lunch, did some research. Take the 4:25 bus to Schenectady, which takes over an hour – the value of reading material cannot be overstated.

Teach the class from 6-9 (with 15 minute break). Take the 9:20 bus back to Albany (which is 10 minutes or more late), but is less traveled, so I get home about 10:20.

And I’m so wired that, instead of going to bed, I’m e-mailing Fred Hembeck after reading his column, commending him on his unique angle on Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Lydia wakes up around 11:20. I don’t want her to get up, so after I give her something to hold, I stand perfectly still for 10 minutes until she goes to sleep, trying to avoid the previous night’s event. You know how the contestants can stand for hours on a small platform on “Survivor”? I’d be the first one to give up.

Then I go downstairs and see all of Washington’s scoring, as they beat Dallas 14-13. Watch the news, and get to bed sometime after 1.

Today, I’m up at 6:25, and still catch the 7:02, play lousy rball, and get to work exhausted.

So, three things:

SOME RULES FOR RIDING THE BUS

1. Let people get off the bus before getting on the bus. More room for you.
2. Consider allowing the elderly, the infirm and those overloaded with packages a chance to sit down.
3. Notice that the bus is filling up and stop sitting on the inside seat when the outside seat is empty. This is not a private vehicle, it’s public transportation.
4. Realize that not everyone on the bus wants to hear your face-to-face or cell phone conversation.
5. Recognize that on a very full bus with a dozen people standing, the chance of you finding a seat is fairly slim, so don’t bother try ing to bulldoze your way to the back on this vain effort.
6. Conversely, when the bus has standees and there are a half dozen people sardined near the front line, back up and make room.
7. When you need to get off the bus, consider starting to move towards an exit before reaching the stop.

Another thing: if you have some obscure reason for wanting to see my PowerPoint presentation on marketing (which isn’t nearly as good without my sparkling personality, but what can you do?), please e-mail me. It is geared for this area in particular and New York State in general, but you might find it of some broad use.