Color

There are a few key elements to making footwear - research and development, project management, fit/wear testing, color, calendar - and I love them all. Each one fulfils an emotional or personal need for me, draws on a strength and offers an incredible challenge. This week we've been reviewing color-ups for an upcoming season. We start with about 6 colors from our colorist and work down to 2. Sometimes it's an obvious process and sometimes there is some effort. The cool thing about the current situation is that everyone in the building participates. It doesn't matter if you do customer service, marketing, or are the President or CEO - you sit in on color reviews and offer your opinion. Being small opens up some great opportunities for level of involvement. At other companies the interns always construct the physical color palette - pulling the chips out of a book and glueing them to the paper. Today I got to do it and this seemingly mundane task took on a new meaning and I felt really connected to the palette; I started noticing associations; I thought about each color, it's name, it's Pantone number - turning the words and digits over in my head. All while listening to Joni Mitchell's Hejira. It was really calming. No, I wasn't stoned.

41 for 41...Maybe Next Time

Setting a goal and not reaching it just plain stinks. I'm not a very destination oriented person, but I do sometimes set ridiculous goals so that I'll get myself motivated to accomplish something rather than just sitting in my comfy chair eating chocolate covered pretzels all day. 41k did not happen. More and louder Fugazi cannot always overcome a lack of preparation. There are all kinds of factors - my lack of any real training; my ratio of fast twitch to slow twitch muscle fibers, didn't eat/drink enough, whatever...but one legitimate factor was the cold. When the temp drops near or below the 0 degree Fahrenheit mark things begin to get very slow. The rudimentary physics go something like this - when your ski base runs over the snow there is a very subtle melting process that occurs. It's a blink of an eye type thing. The ski runs on these momentarily transformed molecules. Too little melting (cold temps)and everything gets static-y and goes into slow motion. It becomes a time to shift expectations or continue on in frustration. It becomes a good day to bundle up, take things easy, and enjoy the view; or kick really hard and drive yourself utterly into the ground; or go inside and make soup. I definitely saw my expectations shift as the day developed. I remember the first few hours being borderline OCD, seeing my goal slip away from me. It took most of the day to realize that it's really just about having fun. If I wanted to accomplish something I could always go to the office and switch on my computer. All that being said, a really fit, talented skier could tick off 40 or 50k on a day like that. So, it was a tough day on the emotions. I keep coming back to the fun factor. It's gotta be fun. Don't get me wrong, there is a time to push and train - but not when it makes me feel like a gerbil on a wheel. I had a job as a deckhand on a boat. When I first started I struggled with the lines making these ugly coils while coming perilously close to catching and breaking my ankles. That's when a fellow (female) deckhand told me to handle the lines like I would handle a woman. In other words, stop struggling. "My yoke is easy and my burden is light".