The phrase “I don’t know how” hasn’t been in my vocabulary lately. How can anyone say that when there are so many resources at our finger tips? Wouldn’t everyone’s life be much simpler if they would just “Google it”?

For some reason, I was able to escape college without ever having learned Microsoft Excel. I was happy at the time, thinking I would never have a job that required knowledge of the program, but I was wrong. I had to create a spreadsheet on the first day of my very first “big girl job.” Being the stubborn woman I am, I could not admit my lack of knowledge to my boss, nor could I bring myself to ask her for advice. After all, who needs advice when there are video tutorials on the Internet for just about anything you can think of?

After watching several videos and seeking advice online, I successfully stuck by the fact I originally had no clue what I was doing. I have actually become quite experienced in the program, and I think I learned better by teaching myself than being taught by someone else.

Nevertheless, If I ever have a question someone around me doesn’t know the answer to, I turn to Google. Although you have to be careful when it comes to the reliability of things on the Web, it’s definitely a good starting point. The benefit to doing this is that generally, at one point, someone else has inquired about the very same thing.

So, what does this mean for future generations? Will they inevitably be smarter than us? According to noconsensus.org, “Not only will future generations be smarter than we are, but five more decades of technological innovation will equip them with tools we haven’t yet dreamed of.” After all, who would have imagined 20 years ago that someone would be reading this story on the Internet rather than in a newspaper, book, or magazine? I can only imagine the tools children will have available to them in the future.

I could not hold it in any longer and admitted my lack of Excel knowledge to my boss. She was surprisingly very proud. Of course, she said I could have asked her for help, but she thought it was an admirable trait that I would go searching for the answer myself. Maybe there’s always a benefit to learning and teaching yourself something new after all.

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Kara Vass is the Catering Assistant EKU Catering/ARAMARK. She can be reached at Kara.Vass@EKU.EDU.

I was a virgin until today.  I had never been to the polar bear plunge on Super Bowl Sunday.  I’ve been avoiding it for the past 10 years and today, I was there, freezing but there!

“I can’t believe you’ve never been here,” said my friend, Madeline.

Every year, since 2001, thousands of people throughout Long Beach and now the world, come to Riverside Beach in Long Beach, NY. Some wear bathrobes, some wear layers of clothing and others just wear shorts.  The temperature outside today was 24 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill making the real feel like 8 degrees.  And each year at the strike of 1 pm, thousands of people strip down and run into the frigid Atlantic Ocean.

When my son and I got to the beach at 12:30 pm, the beach was already packed.  We stood on line to get our annual sweatshirts.  This year, they are kelly green.   (Every year, they are a different color.) As we were standing there, volunteers told us that there were only extra, extra large and 2XL left.  We didn’t care.  No one else did either.  We all just waited.  When we got up to the counter, the woman had one extra large available. “I’ll take it,” I said, practically pulling it away from the guy in front of me. (I felt bad but not that bad…)

After we got our sweatshirts, my son and I sat on a bench and waited for our friends to meet us.  A few minutes later, they arrived and we walked onto the beach.  The wind was blowing so hard that it burned my face and yet, we continued to march down to the water.

David, my girlfriend’s older son said, “okay it’s time to go in…” And with that, everyone in our party who was going in, took off all their clothes right down to their bathing suits and took a run into the water.  My son was right there with them.  When they were in, they made sure to dunk their heads as well.  Moments later, they were out, freezing, and trying to get dressed as quickly as possible as not to get frost bite.

The thing about the Polar Bear Club of Long Beach is that this annual event raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Make a Wish Foundation.  It really is a great cause and who knows, maybe next year, I’ll get up the nerve to go in…

I’ve heard of “Wedding Crashers,” but never “Bar Mitzvah Crashers!”

My son had his Bar Mitzvah this weekend and we celebrated with a nice party.  He had several friends that he invited, so many that I can’t even keep count of them! We prepared ourselves and carefully organized a bus to transport the kids from the temple to the catering hall.

Just after the bus left, my daughter saw a cab pull up and a child step out. “Someone missed the bus!” She ran to catch up with the boy and told him to come with us to the catering hall.

He got into the car, and I figured he was just another one of my son’s new friends who just ran very late. My daughter was friendly to him.

“I have a gift,” the boy said.  “I’m giving $10 dollars.”

“That’s very nice,” I told him, as I wondered why he arrived so late. The invitation was VERY clear about the time.

After the party, my son came up to me and said, “I didn’t invite him…”

The sit down restaurant industry has always lived and died by reputation. Diners go to a restaurant because they heard from a friend who has eaten there that the food was extraordinary, the service was impeccable, and they both came at a reasonable price. It is because of the fact that word of mouth has been the typical avenue for restaurants to get the word out to potential customers that the dining industry and social media have become friendly bedfellows.

“Tell your friends” has now become “fan us on Facebook”, or “Follow us on Twitter”.  Restaurant owners recognize that Tweets and Status Updates have become the preferred method of communication for their diners and they see the need to get involved in the social networks. Porto Vivo in Huntington takes reservations right on their Facebook Fan page through an Open Table Application. Pancho Vito in Great Neck has placed a sign on their door asking you to remember to become a fan when you leave and hope you share with your network. American Roadside Burgers in Smithtown ran a sweepstakes online where one lucky fan won a Motorcycle. This surely caused an in flux of customers as well as grew the restaurant’s fan base on Facebook.

Now restaurants are also giving incentives for those who use FourSquare, an application which allows the user to “check in” almost anywhere you go with the option of automatically updating a Facebook Status or Tweet with the location. Restaurateurs are using FourSquare to spread the word about their establishment by rewarding those who check in with a discount or free item such as “free beer”.*

Whether we choose to recognize it or not, we are all living through a communication revolution on both personal and business fronts. The days when conversations took place over coffee or even over the phone are beginning to fade. Lines such as “Hey! You have to try this new restaurant we ate at last week” are now finding a home on our Facebook and Twitter pages rather than at the water cooler. From a social media stand point it is good to see the restaurant industry jumping in head first because like any trend in food, fashion or any other industry, you have to be in it to win it.

*thanks to Mashable for the FourSquare article: http://mashable.com/2010/01/16/foursquare-world/

Yesterday, I got a call from my son, “Mom, please go to Michael’s and pick up FiberFill,” he said.

“What’s FiberFill?” I asked.

“Not really sure,” he said. “But I need it for Home Ec tomorrow.  So please could you buy it?”

After work, I went over to Michael’s in Oceanside.  Surprisingly, I got a spot right in front of the store and walked in.  I saw a sales person right away. “Do you know where I could find FiberFill?” I asked.

“Aisle 6,” she said and off she went. She walked away from me so fast that I barely got to see her!

Down aisle 6 I walked and did not find any FiberFill.  The aisle was primarily a paint aisle.  I asked another salesperson.

“What’s FiberFill?” he said.

“That’s why I came here,” I said. “I’m not sure.  I have a feeling it’s a stuffing for stuffed animals but not really sure.”

He told me to follow him down the hall and showed me the area where he thought it may be.  When we got there, there were four mothers grabbing FiberFill from the shelves. There were only two bags left.  One mother picked up the bag and put it back on the shelf.  I immediately grabbed it and walked away…

If I couldn’t get the FiberFill here, where would I find it?

I am so lucky to have the most amazing staff!  I’m not just saying this.  I really mean it.  Each and every one of them adds to the entire HJMT experience of great customer service and hard work and devotion!

One person I am particularly grateful for is Kristie Galvani.   Kristie recently became a new mom.  She barely took a day off during her nine months of pregnancy and as she was in labor, she sent me a “to do” list.  Believe it or not, she even sent an email to a new business prospect!

Kristie started with HJMT nearly 9 years ago as an office manager.  From the moment I met her, I knew she would be special.  Before her, I had a rough time meeting great people to work at HJMT.  After I met her, I realized that there are people like her out there who were really dedicated and devoted.

Kristie worked her way up the ladder from Office Manager to Senior Vice President.  She did this by working hard, being loyal to the firm and to our clients and pitching in whenever and wherever possible!

She has really helped HJMT grow and I’m really glad she’s part of our team!  And, speaking for the entire HJMT team, I want to wish her happiness and good health with her new family addition!

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I started to exercise for the first time in a long time in August 2009.  It’s now been five months and I reached my goal of loosing 15+ pounds.  I go to the gym nearly every day and work out for at least an hour and yet, every day, I think how am I doing this?

It’s hard to get into a routine.  It’s especially hard when you have a schedule like mine where I run a small business operating 24/7, have two kids, and volunteer for a bunch of charities. Between my personal stuff and my professional life, I could be on the road all the time.  So fitting it in to my daily routine is tough.  It’s got to be planned ahead of time and I have to allocate the time to it.

I think the beginning was really hard.  Now the actual getting to the gym seems a little easier.  I try to either go in the morning, after I drop off my son at school or at night after work.  There actually have been times where I would scoot out to Hicksville New York Sports Club to get in an aerobic workout.

The exercise part though seems to be getting harder and harder every day.  Last night I had a session with my trainer, Dom Iadevaia.  He’s really good and really patient with me. But it was tough!  He had me doing pushups, sit ups, squats and walking lunges!  Ouch! At the end of the workout, my whole body was burning!

And let’s talk about sweat… I hate to sweat!  To me it feels dirty.  When I’ve worked out in the past prior to working out with my trainer, I never sweat. And if I did, I would stop until the perspiration went away.  Now, I’m a sweat machine!  By the time I leave the gym, my whole body is soaked!

I also feel like I’m in pain all the time… and yet, I keep going back for more!  I guess I do it because it really does help relieve stress, makes me feel good and you know what they say…. “no pain, no gain!”

Share some of your exercise experiences on the blog…

The other night I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep when all of a sudden I thought about a pair of shoes I ordered from Nordstrom’s.  The store didn’t have my size and ordered a size 6 from a Nordstrom’s in New Jersey.  I gave my credit card and that was that.  I was wondering if they were ever shipped out.

I went on the Nordstroms.com web site and found that I could have a live chat with a customer service representative.  Since it was 2 am in the morning, I didn’t really think anyone would answer but to my surprise, a customer service representative came on the line:

Kim J: Hello, Hilary Topper, welcome to Nordstrom!
Kim J: I am more than happy to assist you, Hilary.
Hilary Topper: i ordered a pair of shoes in Nordstrom’s in Roosevelt field
Hilary Topper: and they were supposed to be shipped from another store
Hilary Topper: but i still have not received
Hilary Topper: and wanted to see the status
Hilary Topper: hello?
Kim J: Yes, I am still here. I apologize for the wait. I was searching our system to see if I could pull up any information with this activity.
Hilary Topper: ok
Hilary Topper: i have the receipt
Kim J: That’s great! Could you provide the four digit Transaction number, as well as the four digit Register number?
I did…
Kim J: Thank you for that information, Hilary. It will take one moment for me to enter this into our system.
Kim J: Thank you for your patience. I did find this transaction! It states, on the UPS website, that you should receive your package tomorrow, January 25th by the end of the UPS delivery day.
Hilary Topper: ok great
Hilary Topper: thank you
Kim J: Is there anything else that I may assist you with this evening?
Hilary Topper: no, have a nice evening

Not only do I love the shoes that Nordstrom’s sells but I was very impressed with the customer service offered by Nordstrom’s staff.  Why can’t all department stores offer this type of customer service?

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Why do colleges and universities give their students unrealistic expectations?

The other day, my daughter called me from college.  She is majoring in Public Relations and was reading about salaries in her text book.

“The book says that a person out of college will make between $25K - $50K during their first year,” she said.  “After 10 years in the field, PR professionals make $150K.”

We both laughed.  “I interview so many people,” I told her, “and they all think they will be millionaires within a year…. It’s ridiculous! I really don’t know why schools do this.  It’s so unrealistic!”

That afternoon I went out to lunch with my Vice Presidents.  I told them about the conversation I had with my daughter and how the salaries actually appeared in her textbook.

“When I first started here 9 years ago,”  said Kristie Galvani.  “I was expecting $50,000 a year without experience because that’s what our school told us we would be making!”

“I agree,” said Lori Alexy.  “When I was searching through my papers the other day, I found my first paycheck.  It was such a small amount.”

So why do you think colleges and universities do this to their students?  Is it that they want more students to major in a particular subject so they mark up the salaries to entice more students?  I would love to hear your response.

Every day, I meet the most amazing people on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites.  The other day, I met Mick Michael Du Russel.  He started to IM me on Facebook and tell me something about a fund raiser that he was doing.  I told him to call me at work.  He did and proceeded to tell me a story about his parents.

“Before my parents got married and by the way, my father lived in the Bronx and my Mother lived in Canada, my father got a woman pregnant and never knew,” he said. “About 15 years ago, this was after my father passed away, I got a call from Walter.  It turns out that Walter was my long lost half-brother. He was dying and lived in Pennsylvania.  He had ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. My two older brothers and my twin sister and I met him in NYC. He looked more like my dad then anyone else.  We all got along so great.  That was the first and only time I ever saw my brother.  ALS took away my chances to have a relationship with the brother I never knew.”

In response, Mick will be hosting a concert on April 25 at the Nutty Irishman in Farmingdale from 3 pm – 11 pm.  Tickets will be $20 and will go directly to the Columbia University ALS Gift Fund toward research on finding a cure for ALS.

He told me that there will be cover bands as well as celebrities at the event.  “And we have amazing raffle prizes too,” he said.

This is his third year organizing an event of this caliber.  The first year he raised $1,500 for the fund and the second year he raised $2400.  “It goes up every year and this year I’m really trying to max out the Nutty Irishman.  WBAB radio is supporting the effort and will help me promote the event.  If I get 400 people, we can raise $8000 toward a cure for Lou Gehrig’s disease.”

Mick Du Russel is a graphic artist for Natural Organics.  He also owns a cleaning business called “Advantage Cleaning Service” and writes about entertainment in SpotonLI.com.  He also said he’s currently working on his first book.

It really makes me feel good when I hear about good people doing good things!