Seeming invisible

Lately there have been times that I have felt that I am invisible and people around me don’t seem to see that I am around. This has happened quite a few times and I am going to be highlighting a couple of these instances to show that I have been around but just not seen.

1. I opened the door at a fast food restaurant to enter.
1. The result of this was the person that was going to exit thought that the door automatically opened, so that they could leave, and they didn’t see that I was entering. I did let them know that I had opened the door for me and they just needed to wait.
2. Attending a monthly IT event and seeming invisible to someone saying hello to my business partner.
1. This has happened a number of times and this individual will walk over and reach past me, invading my person space, to shake hands with my business partner. This individual would say “Hello Sir” and doesn’t understand how he is disrespecting me.
2. I have finally called this individual out because this has happened a number of times and he needed to leave that saying “Hello Sir” doesn’t acknowledge me at all. His comment was, I said “Hello Sir” so I was saying hello to everyone.
3. Working a booth at an IT Security conference.
1. Here is another instance when I have found that I have been invisible to an individual even when there are four of us working at the booth at the same time. I must say that the individual that I am talking about is the same individual that attends a monthly and does see me. This time there were four of us at the booth and he made sure that he shook hands with the other three individuals of the booth but avoided even acknowledging me. I was standing between two of the gentlemen that were working the booth with me. One of the gentlemen noticed how I was avoided and asked why that was. My only reply was, I am not certain but maybe it’s because I’m female.

Something that I have noticed over the last little while is it depending on the individuals that you are dealing with. I have found that some individuals will acknowledge me without any issues at all and then there are the few that seem to think I don’t deserve to be respected. When you are at events or even out in public remember that everyone should be treated with the same respect.

Vendors - why they can be frustrating

 Today, I received a phone call from a vendor that I met at a trade show a few years ago. I had wanted to find out what they did, and through my investigation I figured out that they weren’t a match for our business. Not every vendor that I talk to ends up being someone that I want to work with moving forward.

After that show, I received several phone calls from this vendor, and they kept telling me how great their product what and I should consider working with them. I very nicely said that it wasn’t a match for our business and would they please remove me from their call list. Some vendors are great about removing you from their list, and then there are the ones that don’t seem to understand the please don’t call me again.

Today the business phone rang, and it was this vendor again. I was trying to be very nice to the person, but it started to get frustrating, especially when he said that he had looked at our site, and he wanted to know what type of consulting that we did. Of course, it says within the first line of our website that we are an IT Consulting firm. He then continued to ask me questions about what type of work we did and were we getting into working with Cloud products. I did say yes, and he immediately asked who we were working with, and I said it was none of his business.

During the call today, he told me that I should look at their company because I need to know more about them. Of course, I have continued to look at their company, and it still doesn’t meet our needs or our focus. By this time, I was getting very frustrated, and I finally said that I had asked to be removed from their call list quite a few times. The guy said, “Well, when was the last time someone called you from here.” I don’t keep track of all the vendor phone calls that we get, as it would be rather long. I said I didn’t know, and he said it was in 2021. He at least knew when they had lasted called, but what he didn’t respect was I said, “do not call me, I will call you if I need more information about the company.”

I ended the call today, letting him know that they were to remove me from the call list effective immediately. Yes, vendors can be very frustrating, and they have to respect that if someone says “Do not call me, I will call you.”

Why are you the most important?

 This blog was written after a shooting in Niagara Falls.

Over the last couple of days, I have seen some people demonstrate that they feel they are more important than anyone else. We have been out spending time walking around and seeing things, and it has been a lot of fun.

We did run into an issue, and that was due to a shooting that happened within a 10-minute walk from where we were staying. The shooting happened after midnight, so we didn't know about it until the morning. This shooting took place on Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls and all the locals are shocked because this doesn't happen very often in the tourist area. Due to the shooting and the investigation, it meant that this entire street was closed for hours. This street besides having lots of restaurants also has lots of attractions and is also one of the ways you can walk to see the Falls.

I know it did change our route on Friday, but it was something that we just dealt with and continued with our trip. We did hear a few people a little upset in the morning, but everyone seemed to handle it well. Later in the day, we walked back over to see if it has reopened, but it hadn't. This was 5pm, and some people were upset they couldn't either go to a restaurant for dinner and walk down the street to the falls. We got to hear lots of comments and here are a few.

• We drove all the way here and couldn't do anything

• What is taking them so long to clean it up, it's only a shooting

• I want to go for dinner and can't

• How am I supposed to get to the falls?

• Why are the restaurants and attractions still closed?

• It was supposed to be open in 15 minutes, but that was a couple of hours ago.

What bothered me was people thinking that they were so important. What so many people didn't think about was that possibly three families are dealing with victims of the shooting. All the victims were under 18 years old, and one was killed and the other two seriously injured.

Sure, the shooting impacted a Friday on Clifton Hill, but it also impacted families that are going to be impacted for more than one day.

Respecting others

We live in an apartment building and there are times that I think some people figure they are the only ones that live in the building.

Lately we have been dealing with some noises that have been a lot nosier than normal and it is frustrating. We have had a little child that lived above us and they figured it was ok to let them run around the apartment and jump up and down all the time. It sounded like that they would run around the apartment and then jump onto some furniture and then back off the furniture and this would go on for hours at a time. It didn't seem to be just at one time during the day it varied when it happened and there were times it was around 11pm when this was happening.

Now, the people above us moved out and they are renovating the unit for the new tenants. We found out they were doing renovations when we saw a couple of the guys on the elevator going back up and we made a comment. This was a day where we ended up going out because of all the banging that was going on. The renovation was a total renovation of the unit so they were pulling things off the walls and taking up the flooring. This happened a couple of weeks ago so we figured that it would be the most noise we heard through the entire renovation. Well, you guessed it we are still hearing lots of noise as they do the renovation. It would have been really nice if the apartment management would have let us know about the renovation and roughly how long it was going to take to complete. We could have arranged our schedule differently if we had of known about the renovation.

If you live in an apartment building or condominium it is important that you remember that there are other people that are around at various times. Not everyone goes to work everyday and not at the same time as you do. For us, we do some of our work at home and both of us have been known to be doing the work into the evenings as that is when it can be done or when for me the thoughts seem to flow.

Remember when you are doing something that makes noise there are people in most cases above and below you. Try to respect them as well because making noises are all hours of the night isn't appreciated by most of us as we are trying to sleep.

Well time to go and see if I can get out of here for a while to get away from the noise from above.