Sage Advice

A word to the wise. When speaking to a woman on the phone, and you can't figure out how old she is, do not, I repeat, DO NOT refer to her as "Ma'am". If the woman is under the age of 40, I can almost guarantee that this will offend her. Oh yes, we understand you are trying to be polite. But it doesn't matter, it makes us feel as old as our mother's are. Which is some cases is wicked old.

On that note, politeness is a lost art in an industry that is male dominated. The "seasoned" men (can't say "old" anymore) tend to prefer the "boy's club" way of doing business, and will inevitably ask me to place the lunch order or schedule a meeting for them. I love telling them "Sorry, but my Engineering Degree and three Master's Degrees say I don't have to do that..."

It is refreshing though to be treated with respect when entering a meeting room by someone standing up and shaking my hand. If I haven't met you before, don't wait for me to come to you. Stand up, meet me halfway. It's what civilized people do.

And a word to the wise, don't ask the only female in the meeting room if she'll go get coffee for the group. She'll just take offense and plot against you for the rest of her career. Well, at least this female would...

Yes, Virginia, I am a Rocket Scientist...

One of the most common questions that I get from people is "Are you really a Rocket Scientist?". My answer is almost always "Why would I lie??". It's not like being an Aerospace Engineer is all that glamorous, especially because I don't work for NASA (well, I don't anymore...I used to be contracted by them). I just happen to be a girl who knew what she wanted to do from the age of 10, after my first trip to SpaceCamp (yes, like the movie), and did what she had to do to get there.

But even more fun is the comment I normally get after my answer: "I didn't think girls really did that kinda thing"...oh yeah? Well, I didn't know that morons asked questions stupider than they are. I worked damn hard to be what I am, and I'm proud of it. Not to mention the tens of thousands of dollars my parents spent to send me to a good, dork-certified Engineering college (which for you girls is a smorgasbord of boys, although 9 out of 10 are so dorky they are scared to death of the female sex).

The second thing that is important to know about me is that I love baseball, and more specifically, the New York Yankees. I grew up on Long Island, and we weren't poor, so I was lucky enough to get to go to a large number of Yankees and Mets games. I remember the joy of the "Amazing Mets" (and yeah, I even owned the cassette single of "Meet the Mets") and catching my first foul ball, only to have it ripped out of my hands by an obnoxious, older male fan, then having to tell my dad that he should calm down before we got kicked out of Yankee Stadium.

After college in MA (yeah, those Sox fans were annoying), and a couple of years in Florida, I finally settled in Connecticut, land of ambiguity. I live right in the area that is 50/50 with Yankees/Sox fans so my loyalty is either praised or hated, depending on which side of the river you are on.

So, that's me in a nutshell...more to come...