Knowing the Signs

There are always tell-tale signs. They are things we notice, register...but decide to catalog for later.

I'd certainly seen the red flags waving...but they looked like small red flags. Nobody's perfect right? I was having so much fun, traveling and going out all the time, and dreaming up a new life...that I just let them wave for a while.

It wasn't until I took a moment to step back that I realized all that red was about to blow up in my face.

Observe just a few of the reasons I should have cut and run sooner:

1. His BlackBerry is like a third arm.
Oh yes. Never without his BlackBerry. Now, I love to be in contact with my friends, family and a few esteemed associates, but I'm of the school that no one should call anyone before sunrise unless there is a TRUE EMERGENCY or CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER.

Yet his BlackBerry would ring at 5:13 in the morning, and he would answer it every time... In a voice louder and more nasal than I thought was humanly possible. A voice loud enough to wake the dead, not to mention my roommate, who has a reputation for sleeping through earthquakes and the Indy 500.

He's not a surgeon. He's not an advisor to the President. He's not even a bodyguard.

He's in HR.

HR!!!

So why does anyone in HR need to be reachable 24/7? Oh wait, he doesn't. Next time, I'll take a lesson from Shania Twain's "That Don't Impress Me Much" and call it a day.

By the way, I bought my roommate dinner to apologize for the fact that she was woken up by "Yes, George...well I'll be covering this very topic in my seminar later this week..."

Which brings us to #2...