Common courtesy in hotels

Recently during one of our mini vacations, I noticed that some people feel that they are entitled to do things differently than others that are staying at the same hotel. What I am talking about is how people act while they are enjoying a free breakfast that is offered as part of the price of the hotel room.

Here are some examples of what I am talking about:

• They come in and get their breakfast and enjoy it but then get up and leave and don't remove the dishes from the table. The idea of a self-serve breakfast is there is normally an area allocated where you are to put your dirty dishes. By removing your dirty dishes, you are making the table available to someone else.

•  Some individuals come down and they grab their coffee and then go and take a table for four people, and there is one person and they decide to sit and read while enjoying their coffee. It might be fine when the breakfast area isn't busy, but when it gets busy maybe it's time to find another location where you can enjoy your coffee and read your book. Where we were staying, they had a couple of small sitting areas which would have been great for sitting and reading a book.

•  Of course, there are going to be other individuals that pile their plate full of stuff and only eat part of that plate of food and then remove that plate from the table and proceed to go back and get another plate of food. Why didn't you eat what you got the first time. I think it's better to take a bit of food and then have to go back and get more than take piles and not eat it.

• A group of four people but they have to take up two tables where four people each could sit. If there are four of you it is only considerate if you could take one table for four people leaving the other table available for others.

I understand that there are going to be times when situations are different but remember that there are other guests in the hotel that what to enjoy their breakfast and they also need to find a spot where they can sit down and enjoy their food. It is nice when a hotel offers a free breakfast as it is a great start to your day, especially if you are heading to work while out of town or you are going to be starting another travel day.

Knowing that if you are able to have a quick breakfast in the breakfast area and leave it clean for the next guest can go a long way. Understanding that keeping the area clean makes a big difference as the staff try to ensure that the food is hot and available for the rest of the guests when they come down to have their breakfast. A free breakfast during a hotel stay is always so nice to have and we all have to remember that this benefit could go away quickly if too many guests just take it for granted and feel they are entitled.

Taking pictures of your meals

Something that I haven’t figured out is why do people have to take a picture of their meal when they are out at a fast food or restaurant. To me, it feels like if I don’t take a picture, I really didn’t have the food. That is probably wrong, but it is always funny when I see someone taking a picture of their plate before they start eating. It’s like their phone/camera needs to have the proof of the food.

To me, when my meal arrives, I look at it and then the next thing I do is start to eat it. My phone/camera doesn’t need the proof of what I had to eat, and I am not going to share it on social media, most of the time. There have been a couple of times when I have taken a picture of something we are having because I want to share the size of something that we got.

In my case, I wanted to share a picture of a Texas Donut that we got at Mariposa Market in Orillia, Ontario. Now this donut isn’t your normal size donut, and it is something that you will probably be sharing with someone you are with or it’s going to take you some time to eat it. I took two pictures of this donut as the first picture doesn’t show the size of the donut and the second one is with a man’s hand for comparison. As you can see the document is a good size and we cut it in half and we both enjoyed a half.

I understand that if you were a food critique you would probably take a picture of the meal that you are writing about. For the average person, how many people want to see what you have for a meal when you are at a restaurant or fast-food location? I know that I don’t want to see what you had and you probably don’t want to see what I have when I go out.

Taking pictures of your meals is something that I don’t understand unless it is something that goes above and beyond expectations and it is very special. Seeing a picture of your steak or salad isn’t something that I want to see. So, when you are out in a nice restaurant remember that other people are going to see you taking the pictures, will probably wonder why you did it.

What makes me feel happy and what doesn't work each week

For someone that does a lot of crafting there are going to be weeks when one project catches my attention and then another week it just doesn’t seem to work for me and I have to accept that.

Recently as someone that normally does a lot of cross stitch in a week, I have been finding it a challenge to even think about picking up one of my projects. I am certain if it is because of the projects that I am working on or what it is but wanting to do some cross stitch hasn’t been a priority for me.

What I am talking about is finding what makes you happy and not stressing about letting something else slide for a week because it just isn’t catching your attention. This has been something that I have been dealing with because for so long I would cross stitch every day of every week and that is what I was telling myself was important. Well, I discovered that forcing myself to stitch everyone day even if I project caught my attention or not wasn’t going to work for very long.

After realizing that I was putting too much pressure on myself to make sure that I did a specific technique each wasn’t something that I wanted to do so things need to change. What needed to change was the pressure I was putting upon myself to cross stitch each day no matter what I was really wanting to do on a specific day.

Over the last little while I have been trying to focus on each day instead of a week and figuring out the project that I want to work on that specific day. It has helped a lot as I have now been able to see some good progress on a few projects and very little on other projects. I might end up on a given week saying that what I worked on wasn’t what I originally planned on working on but at least I have been able to make some good progress. I know that I have lots of projects that I can work on, but what I have accepted is I need to work on a project that brings me job each day or each week and I have to just let it happen. It’s been a challenge to figure out what I want to work on and what makes me happy, but I think I am finally starting to see the smile come back on my face.

Yes, what makes me happy each day or week might vary but I have to know that it’s ok to see that I am not focusing on one technique during a week. Being able to allow myself to be happy is the most important thing and we will see how things go moving forward.

Do What Makes You Happy

There are so many times that I have heard people say that you must do this and you must do that without thinking about those things might not make someone happy. There have been times when people have told me that I need to do a specific because that will make me happy. Well, honestly you don’t know what will make me happy. I know some of the things that make me the happiest and there are some things that don’t make me happy at all. 

Sure, your partner will probably be able to figure out what makes you the happiest and they will probably encourage you to do what that specific thing is. For me it’s my stitching (either cross stitch or English Paper Piecing) and what I hear is “Go stitch your mind back together.” This is my indication that I need to find a little bit of time to do something with my hands to regain my focus and my relax.

It doesn’t matter what the thing is as long as you are able to spend a bit of time doing something that makes you happy that is what matters. I know that there are people that exercise makes them happy and others it is a specific craft or spending time outside or reading a good book. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as you are doing something that makes you happy.

Everyone needs to figure out what makes them happy and what helps them relax because that is what matters and it doesn’t matter if someone else doesn’t agree with you. You need to do what helps make you happy and no one can say you shouldn’t be doing that unless it is something illegal then they do have the right to say that.

Sure, someone else might suggest something else that they think might make you happy but really you are the only one that I can figure out what does. I have heard so many times that I should be doing this or that and, in most cases, they aren’t things that I enjoy or that make me happy.

Making sure that you know and do what makes you happy is the most important thing. If you try and do what everyone else things you should be doing you aren’t going to be happy, and you are just doing things to make others happy. Remember, when it’s your downtime you need to ensure that you are in your happy place even when others don’t agree with you.

English Paper Piecing

When someone said to me that I might enjoy English Paper piecing, I immediately said that wasn’t going to happen because I don’t like hand sewing. Well, I guess I am going to have to say that English Paper Piecing (EPP) has changed my feeling about hand sewing. 

There are some simple things that I can say about EPP:

• It’s relaxing
• It’s repetitive
• It’s meditative

These are just three things that I can say about EPP and yes, it is all that are more. It is bringing back a technique that was popular many, many years go. Making things using the scarps of fabric that you had was something that people did. You could end up with a quilt that was for a bed, and it could contain parts of shirts, dresses, tops, etc. and it was a way of repurposing something that either didn’t fit any longer or parts of it were worn out.

The difference between EPP many years ago and now is we cut up good fabric to make it into the various quilts or other items that we want to make. Yes, sometimes a quilt or throw can be a memory quilt, and it is made using the shirts, etc. of someone that has passed away. I am currently working on three memory quilts from shirts from my stepfather. Yes, it can a bit of a emotional challenge when you think about the various shirts but at least knowing that you are able to make something out of the shirts is a good feeling.

I started trying to do English Paper Piecing in 2019 and then really started to do it in 2021 after my stepfather passed away. It then mostly went away while I was dealing with my mom having health issues and passing away. Now that things are getting back to normal, I have found myself reaching for my EPP more than my cross stitch which for me is so different. EPP has brought a calm to me and that is what is making me happy.

I don’t know how long it will be something that I pick up first before something else, but I am going to enjoy the joy and I know that there are things that I have learned in the last couple of weeks that have made it work even better.

Being the head of a booth

There are so many times people will look at me and think that being a head of a both has a lot of extra benefits, but I am going to tell you there aren’t the benefits that you think might be part of the job. In my case, being the female that is a head of a booth at a cybersecurity event there are going to be challenges as that is just the start of it. 

So being the head of the booth has the different roles and responsibilities that need to be done, these are the external roles:

1. Ensure all the booth staff are registered as both booth and briefing pass.
2. Ensure that all obligations are met and provide the necessary proof.
3. Ensure that the information able for the website is completed when the website is made public.
4. Ensure extra pass has been given to someone that will be able to benefit from the pass.
5. Follow-up with the event staff to ensure everyone is being completed and any questions answered.

Internal roles

1. Ensure that a team is available to help with the booth during the event.
2. Register everyone for both the booth pass and the briefing pass (you may need customer support to help with this.)
3. Communicate with the team to ensure everyone is up to speed with what has been happening.
4. Send out a message to get everyone to select the sessions that they would like to attend making sure ask for priority because it never fails all the team wants to attend session at the same time.
5. Schedule everyone for both time at the booth, sessions and breaks and be prepared things might happen that will affect this schedule. (I have seen this happen and it can be a challenge).
6. Set up the booth with the help of the staff to ensure that it is ready the day before the show opens as this is an event specific requirement.
7. Communicate with the team the location of the booth and the schedule (flexible schedule) for the event.
8. Attend the event and deal with issues and know that you will get through it.
9. End of event, make sure that you pack up your booth within the allocated time and know that you will be probably doing it again next year.

So, yes there are a lot of responsibilities that are required when being the head of a booth, but at the end of the two days, there is the joy of walking out of the booth with the team that has been there and saying we did it and are you ready to do it again next year?

Don't compare my world to your world

There are times when people think that everyone is dealing with the same thing and I will probably be the first person to say you don’t know what anyone else is dealing with. I have heard too many times someone say to me, “I know what you are dealing with” without hearing what I am dealing with as they just assume that they know.

The overall thing that everyone needs to understand is that we don’t know what the next person is going through and we have to be there as an individual that can be there to support them and listen to their challenges and help them when possible. I know that I have had individuals come up to me and they just want to ask questions and see what my experiences have been.

What I have learned through this is I have to be there to listen to the individual and maybe tell them my experiences, but the biggest thing is I need to be there to listen and support them through what I have learned. I would never compare what we have been through for what someone else is going through because each journey is different.

Yes, I can give advise on how I handled some of the challenges but again it is each family’s journey and challenges that they have to deal with themselves. I will let people know to ensure that there are power of attorney personal and financial that there should have and then also make sure that there is will in place and make sure someone has access to the bank account. (Warning, make sure that the power of attorney is also not the sole beneficiary of the accounts)

Each journey is so different, and you cannot compare your journey to anyone else other than to say it’s going to be a very long journey. We are currently just under two years after my mom passed away and we are currently waiting for the clearance certificate to arrive so that we can finally close her bank accounts.

My biggest piece of advice is never to tell anyone “I know hat you have gone through” because unless you are part of what they have done through you don’t exactly what they went through or going through