Friday morning roundup and ramble

Environmentalists are all riled up with nowhere to go.

Really? That dolls define girls' personalities is news to me, even if there's one that apparently fits my demographic.

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There's a lot of talk about how women have trouble saying 'no' to people, to their own detriment. I'm not saying I have this one figured out--after all, my roommate chronicles show that while I said 'no' all the time, I was uncomfortable being constantly put in that position and I often felt bad about it. I also found it especially difficult because RM was especially good at phrasing the demand as if it were a given. How do you say no to "we're family!" In retrospect, I should have just said, "really? what makes you say that? because I just met you." But that's easy to write after the fact and very, very difficult to say at the time.

And yet, I think I'm better than many women at saying 'no.' I did it at work just the other day. It was the perfect storm for a 'no': someone asked me something that (1) I didn't have to do; (2) didn't want to do; and (3) didn't have time to do; and the someone didn't ask very nicely.

When you go to ask someone to do something extremely tedious that they don't have to do, you ask like my friend/colleague Bill does: "I'm really sorry to ask you to do this, but we're really pressed for time and you're one of the only people who can do this." To which I always say, "of course! it's my job."

But when someone said, "do you have time to do [this extremely tedious task]?" I said no. He said 'what about next week?' At which point his teammate said, 'let's find someone else to do it.' But I would have been in my right to say 'no.'