The People We Know, But Don't Really

October 03, 2016 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Humor, Life In Your 20's, life lessons

We’ve all been there. We meet many people in life. Often we forget their names (at least I do), but seldom do we forget their faces. And then, months later, we’re beside them in a checkout line or in the same elevator (hit the emergency button!), and we know we know them, but do they remember? Do we bring it up? Do we say hi? Or do we pretend we don’t recognize them? Or, even better, we don’t see them?

This most recently happened to me while I was at Kroger. Two guys live above me in my apartment building. We share many acquaintances (44 mutual friends according to Facebook), but we’ve run into each other about three times in the last year. The furthest our conversation has gone is “What’s up?” while one of us holds the door.

Suddenly I found myself at the self-checkout counter beside my neighbor. What do I do? Do I say hi? He’s focusing on his screen. Let me focus harder on mine. Or should I interrupt him to say hey? Am I rude to say nothing? Or is it weirder to say something?

What's Your Name Again?

February 29, 2016 by Cazey Williams in life lessons, Life In Your 20's, Humor, Cazey's Column, Young Professionalism

Because I’m an advocate of self-awareness, I’ve started asking people to tell me their names again, which works until it’s the tenth meeting and I'm like, “What is your name again? I swear I don’t have dementia.” Or worse, I have no idea we’ve met ten times until my friend interjects, “You’ve met him multiple times before!”

Me: “Why are you going to be rude and say that out loud?”

It’s also uncomfortable when I say, “Hi, I’m Cazey, nice to meet you,” and they deadpan you: “We’ve met before.”

Have we?

Review: The Southerly at the Southern Season

August 09, 2015 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Richmond Brunch Review

One of the perks of running a blog is you get approached to cover cool things. This happened recently when Southern Season reached out to Sara and I to attend a tasting tour at their Richmond location. Now I, whose foodie enthusiasm is limited to Starbucks and McDonald’s iced coffee, had never heard of Southern Season, but Sara, a Northerner with a fascination for southern things (she likes biscuits and gravy more than my late grandpa), could not reply yes fast enough. She had previously shopped there and had been wanting to go back.

I was further proved to be in the dark when my friend, Sandra Tran, decided to visit me the day of the tasting tour. Sandra owns an ice cream store in Arlington, VA (you should really stop by Nicecream Factory if you’re in the area – it’s quite the tasty show), so I brought her along. As we pull up, Sandra exclaims, “You didn’t tell me it was Southern Season! Ohmigawd, I love this place!”

Snippets of Etiquette

March 11, 2015 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Humor, Life In Your 20's, life lessons, Young Professionalism

A few weeks ago I attended an etiquette dinner. When I told my friends, I received either "I've already been to too many etiquette dinners in my life" (this friend hails from the South) and "Is that where they teach you how to use a spoon?" Me to the latter: "Please don't come if that's your attitude."

Anyhow, I will never deny free food and you never know when you'll be dining with an interviewer who's testing how you break your bread (use your hands, not a knife! Did you know that?). Also, I instinctively knew this would make for a snarky blog.

I sat with several friends – ones who had never attended etiquette dinners before (*sigh* northerners) and who had higher expectations than learning how to use a spoon (watchBeauty and the Beast). We were also joined by the Luna Lovegood of the room aka no one knew her and she wore Barbie shoe earrings. Like, actual shoes that belong on a Barbie doll.

Friend Your Mom

November 15, 2014 by Sara Woznicki in Leisure, Life In Your 20's, life lessons, Sara's Column, Tweets and Mascara

In college, lots of my professors warned about being cautious about what you post on social media. Despite your best efforts, employers can find anything they want about you online, including your social media pages. So how do you prepare your profile to be seen by people that potentially hold your future in their hands? The easiest way to to do that is friend your mom. If you don't want your mom to see it, you definitely don't want it on Facebook. That picture of you passed out after a long night of partying? Nope, momma won't want to see that. Don't put it on Facebook. That cuss-filled post sub-texting everyone on your feed? Mother won't be happy. Keep it to yourself.

I know when my mom first joined Facebook, I was nervous that she was going to be that mom who blows up the feed with "WHAT A CUTIE," and "WHO IS THAT IN THIS PICTURE," etc. But, it's actually really easy to avoid that. You know how?

You talk to her. I explained to my mom that everyone can see everything you do on Facebook, so comment sparingly. Please try not to "like" every photo in an album, especially if it's not even my album. If you have something disproving /inside joke-ish / mom-ish, please take it up with me in a private manner.

And my mom has been a Facebook gem. She comments on things, and it's always appropriate and probably only once or twice annoying. I say that now, though, and she'll probably read this and go HAM all over my wall just to be silly (hi, mom, still glad we're friends).