Connie Bensen

Life is about change. As Community Managers working in this fast paced online world we know that change is inevitable. Frequently we are driving that very change.

On Sunday as I was driving back from the weekend I saw the Minneapolis skyline and said to myself, “I’m almost home”. It made me realize that I have adapted to my huge transition. Many of you know how rooted I was to rural Minnesota. After forty some years of living the good life on a farm, I moved to the bright city lights of Minneapolis.

There are some stark contrasts. I went from being sixty miles from Starbucks to a short two block walk! And instead of driving for an hour plus to get to the airport, I now have a twenty minute taxi ride. Flying out of MSP has also eliminated the extra regional flight to a hub like Denver, MSP or Chicago. I am enjoying being able to fly direct.

One of the most surprising things is that I enjoy having everything within walking distance. Having Chipotle half a block away is a bit too convenient! No thanks to my sister for that addiction.

And then there is the driving! Before 2010 I had no experience driving in the metro. I learned to drive on multi-lane roads (meaning 3 or more) in the metropolis of Fargo, ND, but that’s not much more than an intersection of two interstates.

I couldn’t live without my GPS and who would’ve known how much I appreciate the word ‘recalculating’?! After a couple of months I’m starting to get my bearings and am not relying on the GPS as much. I’m starting to unplug it now as the roads become familiar. But I still experience a sense of fear mixed with exhilaration when driving in 5 lanes of fast moving traffic. And I have learned to speed up at yellow lights. My sister tried to explain that one, but I am learning. Up north they only put traffic lights in 30 mph zones and they meant stop. I am so thankful that we have Minnesota nice happening here! Overall the drivers are pretty easy-going and don’t exercise their horns like in NYC.

I have finally been in town for a social media breakfast. It was fun to reconnect with my many friends that I’ve known for a couple of years now. It’s nice to not be in the back channel anymore!

Photo credit: http://www.aquaticnet.com

Not too long ago I was at the Techrigy home offices & posted posted photos. I thought it was only fair that I share a photo of my space. I am parked in my living room.                    

Initially I had been downstairs because I had read that it’s best to not work in the main living space. Something about distractions. But it seems that I thrive on distractions so I moved upstairs. (The floor was cold down there in the winter anyway). 

So this is it. Now you’ll know I’m geeky (if you didn’t think so before).

My husband made the table out of a black ash tree that had blown down by our lake.

The two 20” monitors take up a bit of space, but I’d be hard pressed to work  with only one. The monitor on the stool conveniently turns 180 degrees to watch Netflix movies on the couch.

The two laptops on the left aren’t used on a regular basis. The larger laptop has files I haven’t transferred to the new Dell tower, because … well, you know.

And the mini netbook has a video camera & microphone in it. It’s really my traveling computer, but sometimes I video Skype with it.

Then there are the headsets: 2 usb headsets for voip, a headset for the landline phone, a bluetooth headset for the cell phone.

And my 3 in 1 printer is by my feet along with a blanket that I share with my cats. For background noise, I have a 52” flat panel tv. When it’s my choice I have the Food Network on, but I can pretty easily tune whatever is on out. And it’s muted whenever I’m on calls.

I have a lovely view of my lake. That trail going across is made by deer (which may sound nice…). But there’s a lot of cursing when they prune my lilacs when they’re blooming.

Now it’s your turn to share. What does your home office look like?

This week one of the anchors from Good Morning America was in Finland. She said that they have winter from October to April. How interesting! That’s exactly how long we have winter here in Minnesota too. Scandinavians settled here because it reminded them of home.

On that note I wanted to share photos of our blizzard this week. It snowed all day Monday, then on Tuesday that continued along with 40 mph winds. Blizzards are cozy when you don’t have to go anywhere & have plenty of food.

Our porch is almost 3 feet off the ground & the drift engulfed our steps.

We received almost a foot of snow in two days. We generally get a good storm in March. Last year the last one was in April.

It’s warm when it snows. Well relatively speaking. Thirty degrees is warm! Then on Wednesday the temp dropped to minus fifteen. I went out to take photos for you without a hat on. BIG mistake! My husband’s new snowblower takes a 90 inch cut. The snow was a foot thick so he only took a half pass at a time.

The view from behind (while my ears froze).

Our driveway thru the woods was passable by truck. I miss making tracks in new snow when I would go to work. It was always enjoyable to know when to accelerate & when to slow down to avoid ummm getting stuck.

Winter doesn’t bother me, but I’m looking forward to the snow melting in a month or so. Spring is my favorite season when my flowers come back to life.

On Saturday morning I had a long chat with Warren Sukernek (@Warrenss). I congratulated him on his new job and I realized how my life has changed to be much more globally oriented rather than isolated (and I still live in the same place!)

The recessions in the past never really affected me much here in the rural Midwest. Yes I remember the farming recession. I grew up on a dairy farm but my parents had worked with my grandparents & weren’t deep in debt like so many of our neighbors. We weathered through it. And I’m sure there were other times, but our communities had strong industries (Polaris snowmobiles & Marvin Windows).

During my 9 years of working at the library the times that I noticed financial challenges were when we were asked to contact our legislators for support. One December we closed for 2 weeks as a budget saving measure. (That worked for us though).

But now is different. My friends are spread around the globe. And many have lost jobs. Each note causes me pain. The metro areas are getting hit harder, but that’s where the population densities are at. My home town lost 100 jobs, so it’s happening everywhere.

One thing that was interesting was that the Salvation army locally raised $30,000 more than last year. $230 k total.I think that’s a great indicator of hope.

Today some jobs came to my attention. I am parsing them out to people who I know are looking & would be good candidates. It’s a small thing. Please help your online neighbors to find work.

My suggestion if you’re job hunting is to focus on that, but use the additional time to volunteer. Get involved in a community of your choice. Find a company to assist. Help others. Pay it forward & your network will grow.

This period will pass as they always do.