At the last minute I started to dread this year’s Fourth of July celebration because last year was so wonderful, just hanging out with people on the Esplanade, listening to the Boston Pops, watching the fireworks from really close, and developing friendships. This year was different because Kelli and Kevin hosted a barbecue beforehand, which was fun even if I was a bit out of my comfort zone with all of the new faces that I didn’t know were attending. Kelli was kind enough to get me a cookie cake for my birthday, which was really thoughtful of her, all things considered. I got into my groove a bit more when I started hanging out with Igor and Alex and Jaina inside, but they all split off to go see the fireworks.

The remainder of us met up at an apartment in Kenmore Square to sit on the roof and get a relatively unobstructed view of the events. Pretty good, considering we didn’t have to stake out a spot in the heat for the entire day! Going up the fire escape…sort of scary though. Afterwards we went downstairs and hung out with the very nice new people, which I started to enjoy a lot more, at least until it started getting way past my bedtime, at which point I started getting upset because my very finnicky sleep schedule, which I’ve finally started to stabilize again, was getting all out of whack. Amazingly, despite getting home at 3am and not falling asleep until 4, I did manage to wake up at 10, which gives me hope that I’ll be able to quickly get back on track.

I think I went into the whole thing with the wrong attitude, and, in retrospect, enjoyed myself in spite of it. Were I to do it again, I would behave differently, and I hope I get another chance to hang out with some of the new people.

I’ve posted photos of the night on Flickr, you can also view a slideshow.

I spent some time in New York last week seeing my parents and sister Shaina, who is staying there for the summer while attending a program at NYU. Kevin was kind enough to offer me a lift and we saw two shows, Rent, which I’ve now seen three times and continue to enjoy quite a bit, and Altar Boyz, which was a hilarious spoof/take-off on Christian boy bands, staged as if it was a concert. The songs are annoying in that boy band kind of way but incredibly catchy and funny, and I find myself listening to them over and over. Highlights include the love song where the hunky one sings, “girl, you make me wanna wait,” and the acceptance song where the obviously gay one sings about how terrible it is to be tormented and made fun of for being Catholic. And what good Christian boy band is complete without a Jewish member who writes all the lyrics?

With the family I saw Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, starring the funny John Lithgow along side Norbert Leo Butz, the hunky star of Last Five Years with a silly name, who steals the show with his wacky physical comedy. Sherie Rene Scott, also of Last Five Years fame, along with things like Aida, plays the love interest, while Joanna Gleason is uninspiring as a side character. I didn’t find the book wonderfully inspiring, and the groan-inducing jokes rubbed me the wrong way much of the time, but it was a feel-good romp with a slighly unpredictible ending and some really, really funny moments.

I’ve posted some photos of the trip on Flickr, you can also watch them in a slideshow.

A little while back I had a sidebar item called “currently” that gave a short account of what I was currently up to. It’s been down for a while, but here is a post for today.

Currently reading System of the World, listening to Weird Romance, specifically the song where she asks him if they’re getting divorced (“And do I say that I spend the night/Among miraculous particles of light/And can’t miss a single minute passing by…”), watching Avenue Q (meaningful), Altar Boyz (hilarious), and Dirty Rotten Scoundrals (campy), thinking about life, change, and wasting time, taking bad photos, yearning for the gym (among other things), and missing Indian food.

And that, as they say, is that.

Staying at a hotel, I am given the benefit of seeing a newspaper that I would never otherwise be caught dead reading — _USA Today_. In this morning’s edition, two front-page articles are about such incredibly obvious phenomenoms that I can only hope it is simply shoddy _USA Today_ reporting to blame, but I expect that these two items are making news all over the place today. What a sad world we live in.

“Health spending soars for obesity,” we learn from a new study. This comes on the heels of two phenomena observed over the past few months and years. First, health costs are rising *a lot*. No one quite knows what to do about the health care “crisis” in America. Second, more and more people are becoming obese. A recent study, widely misinterpreted among the press, revealed that there is very little difference in life expectancy among those who are overweight, for a few reasons. First, our expectations of weight in this society might be a bit low, meaning that people who are just ten or fifteen pounds overweight might be just fine, thank you very much, especially older people, for whom a bit of extra fat serves as a protective cushion, so to speak. Secondly, we have developed medical ways of managing health conditions that are often the result of high weights, including diabetes and heart disease. While the nightly news saw this as a sign that people should stop worrying about weight, because being overweight is healthy (ha!), the real conclusion was that treating these associated ailments is *profitable*, and so the health care industry is having a field day.

So let us put these two things together, shall we? People are getting increasingly heavier, by eating bad foods, not getting enough physical activity, and not caring about their health. Because of this, society and health insurance must bear the increasingly high costs of keeping these people alive. At the same time, health care costs and premiums are spiraling out of control. Wait, you’re saying THERE’S A CONNECTION? That’s what _USA Today_ was kind enough to report on this morning. Not that there aren’t other factors. Notably, the way we manage old age and our reluctance to allow terminally ill patients to die is another MASSIVE factor leading to incredible health care costs and public health burdens, but obesity is certainly one major factor to consider. And now a “study” has officially “found” this to be the case. Hooray for us. Does someone want to do something about it yet?

Item two is even more straightforward, so I’ll spend less time obsessing over it. In short, companies have started to realize that in this complicated connected world with increased competition, lower prices, and more consumer choice, being *bad* to your customer hurts your bottom line! Airlines, hotels, and other businesses are FINALLY realizing that keeping the customer happy helps to inspire brand loyalty and keep customers, which is much cheaper than more and more advertising to try and catch the elusive new customer. Keeping people happy means they come back, they tell their friends, and your bottom line improves! Shocking!

Scrappy startups like JetBlue apparently were some of the first in this new era to empower their front-line employees to resolve customer complaints by actually changing things, apologizing, and offering incentives in the form of free meals, gift certificates, and free merchandise. This “new” “approach” is called “service recovery,” and it means training and empowering the employees on the ground to actually take the time and make the effort to *fix* the customer’s problems and make the customer happy. Amazing! Innovative! Powerful! Thank goodness someone finally figured this out.

I’m the first to admit that the customer is not “always right,” but generally when you’re paying good money for a service, you have a right to expect that service to be delivered. If a company messes up, it is easy for you to walk away. If they make that extra effort to fix the problem, the customer feels like they are being cared for and becomes more loyal to the brand. Sometimes its not about getting something free or a perk, sometimes it is about a sincere apology and someone actualy working to resolve the issue quickly. After all, if you’re on a family vacation, which would you rather have? Four hours of inconvenience and a $100 gift certificate, or an attentive staff that fixes the problem in five minutes and has you on your way? Your time and your happiness are often more valuable than perks. Companies would be wise to realize that delivering what they promise and keeping the customer satisfied is the best way to keep a customer, and its cheaper than quick fix approaches. I hope this trend will continue, and we will start to reach a better equillibrium.

And thank GOD that _USA Today_ was there to report on this amazing and innovative new marketing trend! A trend that so many of us might just call “common sense.”