The dog days of summer

The dog days of summer are upon us....

And it's not just because I'm a cat lover, that I'm feeling a bit frustrated.

Typically, the last days of August are a bit, er, quiet around Ye Olde Silverman Group. (Let's just say I'm wearing jeans to work again with no fear of a meeting interrupting my casualness). Folks are out of town, I get it. Families taking vacations before school starts, others using up vacation days to attend baseball games or other summer pursuits left to the last minute.

So while phones aren't ringing and meetings are few and far between, we typically all try to use this time to work ahead: get press releases written, media lists updated, maybe even some desk straightening or blogging! One gets lulled into somewhat of a false complacency (not to mention a 5:01pm departure time).

However, the trouble is that within days (okay, 10) it will be Labor Day weekend and then.... the official START OF THE FALL SEASON. Sorry to yell, but every year it plays out the same. While now, virtually ever email sent out this week and next receives an "out of office" reply, on the Tuesday after Labor Day (September 7, this year), members of the media, clients (and presumably the public) are jolted from summer thoughts and suddenly focused on what's taking place September - December. (Let's not even discuss the holidays). It's time to get serious and we're all running around like chickens with our heads cut off because "September is nearly half over"! (There's alot of animal analogies in this blog, and you can see there's alot of drama in our world.)

And at the risk of sounding as though I'm complaining (which I'm not), this year, the abbreviated Labor Day work week includes not only a major Jewish holiday (Rosh Hashanah, Thursday Sept. 9) resulting in two days off work for many (Monday and Thursday) but also we've got two major events to promote that week- the re-opening of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum on Wednesday afternoon and the ground breaking for the Black Ensemble Theater Cultural Center on Friday afternoon! That will make for one crazy "welcome to Fall" week!

And in the meantime.....crickets.