Listen up!

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you remember me relating the "Monday Morning Meetings" of our management team and how they're full of hot air, repetition, football talk, and very little content. The silver lining is that, save one in July, we haven't had one of them since March. (They have been replaced by Sub and Ob bustling into Boss's office and shutting the door behind themselves.)

You also may remember me saying how I was ignored during those meetings, so that I quickly learned not to bother opening my mouth. (Side note: during a company training a few years ago, we did a role-playing scenario in which some of us wore hats with words on them, and everyone else had to treat us the way the words instructed. After the second time everyone ignored what I said, I knew that the instructions for the participants were, more or less, to treat me the same way that Boss and my coworkers do, so I just kicked back and let the session go on around me. At the end, the facilitator started with the person on my left and proceeded clockwise, reviewing everyone's thoughts. After the person to my right was done, the facilitator skipped me and continued on. I guffawed so loudly [I'm generally not afraid of laughing out loud in public] that I startled some people. They had no idea how true-to-life the situation was for me.)

Imagine, then, how I felt yesterday during a day-long planning session yesterday for the Las Cruces Metropolitan Planning Organization, for whom I serve as NMSU's member on the Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities Advisory Committee. When I spoke, people around the room looked at me and (get this) listened. The note-taker even wrote down what I said! It was downright eerie. Even worse, it was so contrary to what I am accustomed to, I thought it was wrong.