Professional Confessional

This one's dedicated to my sis-in-law Jane and her smile-a-minute memoirs.

Those who know me best would snicker if anyone voted me "Most Likely To Lead A Major Condominium Construction Project," the same way they would if Simon Cowell were voted "Most Likely To Weep For Joy." It just goes to show what powerful forces inertia and attrition are... sit on the Board long enough, and those less in the know start looking to you for "wisdom" (i.e. ability to regurgitate the past), and then for "leadership" (i.e. bald self-interest in one's property not to decay into urban blight).

So goes this summer's project of replacing $25,000 worth of railroad ties, concrete and railings around the complex. The contractor is fabulous, about my age or a little younger, and is an active communicator especially by e-mail. For years I've dealt with various roofing, guttering, concrete, landscaping and other tradesmen for whom "I'll get right on that" is the verbal version of Little Lotto - it takes an extra cup of goofy juice to seriously expect anything to come of it. So when Ryan writes me yet another quick and comprehensive note, filled with phrases like "there were trappings behind the deadmen near the frost line" I just sit at my computer grinning like a baby at a mobile - not knowing what the hell I'm looking at, but really happy that it's there.

I'm an e-mail fan. While other people are dragging their bones home from work to get away from a computer screen, I dash downstairs to start reading and writing. E-mail makes Board membership ten times easier, we get a ton discussed online which shortens in-person meetings. On the flip side, it also makes it easier for 32 unit owners to get hold of me most any time of day or night with requests and concerns. And this is where things get creative and fun for me, because I get to loosen the "professional" reins a bit when I'm away from the office.

For example, a resident recently shared her anxiety with the project to replace concrete stoops outside the condo units, which she thought would also include a new sidewalk leading up to her stoop.

If this were a work situation, I'd have replied something like:

"Carol, thanks for bringing this to my attention. Unfortunately, when residents were offered the chance to participate in the project, it was for the purchase of 'stoops' rather than 'stoops and sidewalks.' I'm sorry that you understood differently. I wish there were more that could be done."

The Condo Joe version:

"Carol, I'm sorry for the misunderstanding of 'stoops,' yuck."

What good is decorum among friends, really? If Abe Lincoln had Facebook, he'd have a little Note off to the side next to his 407,182 friends and Pieces of Flair: "Eighty-seven years ago, Ben Franklin and those other guys started America so everyone'd be free and equal..."

Dena would agree. Like at our wedding rehearsal, when I eloquently guided her ring on her finger and recited my homemade vows, and she in turn thrust my ring at me and said "Here."

Time to get less busy making syllables and more time making friends!