Holly Ann Fisher

My child’s hair fits her so well – wild just like she is. She talks nonstop, is fearless and independent – most of that she gets from her Daddy. The hair, well, that’s a combination of what my hair looked like when I was that age and the Charleston humidity.

Here we are again, old friend. We’ve been meeting up for 34 years now. Isn’t it hard to believe? Doesn’t it seem we’ve been doing this for only 25 years or so? I swear, every year your visit comes faster. Sometimes, I welcome it as a time to celebrate, reflect and look ahead. Some years, I review my accomplishments, my friends, my family, my life and feel blessed. Other years, I spend two weeks dreading your arrival, like a house guest whose visit is awkward and embarrassing. I worry I didn’t get enough done since our last visit and vow to check off more to-dos before you come again.

This year, my feelings are mixed. I couldn’t keep you from coming, so I accept your visit and hope it’s a pleasant one. I don’t roll out the red carpet, but I don’t barricade the front door either. I simply welcome you with a cordial smile, a familiarity and a hope we’ll sit together for a few brief hours on this date for many years to come.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could let another person into our heads for a just a little bit? I know it sure would make it easier to explain why I feel the way I do.

I hate a conversation that ends with:
Person A: Does that make sense?
Person B: Well, not really.

It’s Read Across America Day — and Dr. Suess’ birthday. So, in honor, I post this quote from “I Can Read with my Eyes Shut!”

The more that you read,
the more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
the more places you’ll go.

Truer words have never been written. There’s nothing like the power of books.

As a lefty, I had to take a moment to read this New York Times article about how more Canadian hockey players are lefty shooters on the ice and more Americans are right-handed shooters.

Here’s one quote from the article: “It’s probably a cultural quirk,” offered Brian Tran, a hockey-playing sales clerk at Cyclone Taylor Sports, a Vancouver hockey store. “Everybody’s doing it one way, so you follow along.”

Interesting.

I’ve been paying attention to my daughter’s holding of Crayons and forks lately to see if she’ll be a righty or a lefty. So far, she tends to favor her right hand. While I hold fast to the fabulous notion left-handed people are incredibly intelligent and creative (it’s totally true!), I have to admit it’s tough being a lefty in a right-handed world.

For those of you who have never had to think about this, here are few examples to help you appreciate the challenges we lefties face:

• Scissors. As a child, I had a pair of lefty scissors, but as I got older, finding adult-sized left-handed scissors was near impossible. I’ve learned to cut with my right hand, which probably explains why I couldn’t cut a straight piece of wrapping paper if my life depended on it.

• Credit card machines. The pens are typically on the right, although now I am pleased to see more with the pen at the top of the machine.

• Doctor’s office clip boards. These are always positioned to the right and often those little pens that are secured to a desk are on the right-hand side. This also applies to a delivery person who hands you a clip board to sign – it’s positioned to the right and you have a help them turn it to the left.

• Notebooks. When you write with your left hand, you bump into the spiral ring on the left-hand side. This is why notepads that open from the top – or legal pads – are a good option for lefties.

• Video cameras. The strap you use when filming is on the right side and the view finder opens on the left. It would really be great if the strap were on the left side so I could hold it in my left hand and be a little more controlled in my shooting.

• Sports. Think golf, shooting a gun, buying a baseball glove (your selection is going to be limited).

• Dining with others. People always want you to sit on the outside of the booth or table so you don’t bump elbows.

• Computers. Like most people, I use a computer mouse with my right hand because as you learn to use a computer, the mouse is always on the right side so you just go with it.

Whether it’s playing hockey or everyday living, we lefties do face some challenges that right-handed people never think about. But, we don’t really mind that much – we’re too busy basking in the glow of our superior creativity and intelligence.

This week I had my 15 minutes of fame when I was included in a story for The Wall Street Journal. I was featured in an online graphic about “How the Great Recession Shaped the U.S. Job Market.” Check it out here. It was part of a larger story both in print and online titled “Even in a Recovery Some Jobs Won’t Return.” Unfortunately, newspaper reporter/editor jobs are among that mix, with the industry having lost more than 73,000 jobs.

And while I think it would have been more fun to have written the story for the WSJ, it also was cool to be included in the article. And maybe I was able to put a human face on the many job losses people have faced over the last couple of years. For so many of us it’s not just about the loss of a paycheck, it’s about the loss of dreams and goals – and that’s truly the greatest tragedy of this recession.

As last year’s holiday season rolled around, I set one goal: support more local businesses. A community organization, Lowcountry Local First, promotes buying local and has encouraged consumers to participate in the “10 percent shift” – shifting 10 percent of spending to local businesses. It also hosted a Buy Local Week to promote the idea of buying local.

So as I looked at my holiday shopping list, I wanted to shift more of my spending to small, local businesses. I’m happy to report I was fairly successful. Yes, I still purchased items at Wal-Mart, Target and Amazon.com. But … I also:

• Purchased two toys at Wonder Works just around the corner from my house. They have several of the toys set out for children to play with, which is a great way to see what piqued my daughter’s interest. They also offer layaway and free gift wrapping.

• Bought a gift basket at Ted’s Butcherblock in downtown Charleston, a great little gourmet food and wine store.

• Ordered three sets of cookie tins from Charleston Cookie Co. for my husband’s family in Arkansas and Texas.

• Bought two sweetgrass baskets from the lovely ladies at the Market in downtown Charleston.

All told, I spent more than $200 with local businesses. For the 2010 holiday season, I think I can do even better.

As we get older, our capacity for imagination tends to lessen. We live in reality – a world of mortgages, schedules, responsibilities and deadlines. But there is something about having a toddler in your house that helps you see things in a different way.

As Kate and I were eating guacamole the other night, she decided the Tostitos Scoop looked like a crown and started to put it on her head. I laughed and did the same. In fact, it did look like a crown. And so, thanks to my daughter, I occasionally get to take a break from reality and use my imagination.

Clint is away and, as you can see, I have lost complete control over the household.

I took a look back at my last blog post of 2008. Last year was by far the hardest year I’ve ever encountered and I was certain 2009 had to be better. In many ways it was, yet the challenges have remained. My great challenge has come in the final months when Clint accepted a work assignment in Africa. He left at the beginning of November for the yearlong assignment with only one visit home near the halfway point.

We didn’t make this decision lightly. We knew the extra pay he would receive would help us recover from the financial strain of my job loss in 2008. We knew it wouldn’t be easy. Clint would be living on a Navy base in Djibouti, Africa: his small room a converted shipping container; his workweek six or seven days long. It wouldn’t be a picnic.

I would be at home, essentially a single parent responsible for the household, a toddler and my own work.

The last seven weeks have been extremely difficult, and I have a renewed appreciation for single parents as well as those whose spouses are in the military or otherwise working away from home. I’m grateful for friends who have stepped in to help as it’s extra tough when you don’t have any family nearby.

I admit I’m not looking forward to 2010. It will be struggle and I miss my husband dearly. Yet, we’re trying to think long term, making a sacrifice now that we hope will pay off in the long run.

Some random thoughts on parenting:

* Could there ever be a situation in life that is filled with more ups and downs? Literally, an “up” moment and 60 seconds later a “down” moment.
* I find things I truly enjoyed before I became a parent now are no longer fun and take too much energy (and I have so little to spare).
* Having Clint working in Africa right now gives me a new appreciation for single parents. How do they maintain a shred of sanity?

I read this Bible verse this morning and it really touched me. I just had to share:

…When I was in great need, He saved me. (Psalms 116:6)

A simple verse with an incredibly powerful message, one we sometimes forget. God is here to save us, to help us, to comfort us. All we have to do is ask.

The future of the news business was on everyone’s minds during the recent Society of Professional Journalists Convention & National Journalism Conference. Even though I devote a large part of my workdays to public relations and marketing, I spent more than a decade in newsrooms around the country and have been a SPJ member for 14 years.

I remember taking an oath to “uphold the ideals of the Society of Professional Journalist” as a sophomore at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. My journalism career was barely beginning and I hardly knew a lead from a nut graph (I’ll let you non-journalists Google those terms).

Through the years, SPJ has played a significant role in my life and career – teaching me about the profession, deepening my love for a job that truly has the power to make a difference, giving me lifelong friends bound by that similar oath.

This year we marked the 100th anniversary of the Society – not to mention the 40th anniversary of when women were admitted to the organization. SPJ has roots as a fraternity, first named Sigma Delta Chi. In many ways, we remain that fraternity.

This year I think I felt that fraternity spirit more than others. We all pulled together for those who’d found themselves on the other end of a pink slip. We collectively expressed our concern over the dwindling number of newspapers, the shrinking newsroom staffs, the buyouts and the furloughs.

And yet at the end of the convention, we raised a glass a champagne, toasting the last 100 years and looking ahead at 100 more. Because journalism can come in many forms – print, TV, radio, online – but the people who report the news, who keep a watchful eye on government, who tell the stories that need to be told, well, we’re not going anywhere. We took an oath.

It’s hard to believe it’s been nine years since Clint and I stood before friends, family and God and entered into that sacred bond of marriage. In many ways, it seems like only yesterday. Other times, it is hard to remember my life without my sweet husband.

So, today, in honor of our ninth anniversary, I list nine things I love about my husband:

1. He is a handsome devil! (Especially when he has a little 5 o’clock shadow going on.)
2. He can make me laugh – sometimes when I don’t even feel like laughing.
3. We have inside jokes and stories. I can mention a catch phrase or a place we’ve visited and it’s a memory only he and I share. (Like, eating at the table where the bear ate sugar packets.)
4. When I gained 35 pounds of baby and looked like a beached whale, he told me I was beautiful and looking into his eyes, I knew he meant it.
5. He works hard and provides for our family.
6. He loves our baby girl, and I love watching them read books together on the couch.
7. He sticks with me, even when times are rough or I’ve hit a hard patch of life.
8. He tells a great, unabbreviated story about how we met and fell in love.
9. He is just the kind of husband I always wanted – committed, faithful and loving.

I could go on, but you get the picture. I have a great husband and look forward to many more years together.

I’m guest blogging again:

My first real foray into the land of Web 2.0 was a blog I started in fall 2005. It was mainly a way to record and share the moments in my life with friends and family. Since then, I’ve jumped on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. I feel immersed in the world of social media and its capabilities as a personal and business tool.

But earlier this month, I discovered an entirely new use for social media and the Internet when a professional colleague and friend passed away after a battle with brain cancer.

Read more on the Step Ahead Inc. blog.