This is a guest post from Stacya Silverman, owner of Stacya Silverman and Associates Salon and President of Beauty Alert!

I like to think of myself as not only good at customer service, but in my off hours, I like to think that I am a good customer, too. I have been thinking a lot lately about the relationship between the service person and the customer. I am sure we all have after the Jet Blue flight attendant had his last choice words, and then got out of the plane with the emergency exit!  It was interesting to see how people viewed that incident. 

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I had the honor of serving on a jury for a trial in Seattle Municipal Court. If it had been a state superior court trial I probably wouldn’t have thought it was such an honor, but due to the less egregious nature of the crimes tried in Municipal Court the trial lasted a total of a day and half and a verdict was delivered the next day.

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This is a guest blog post by Eric Mamroth - cyclist, benefit auctioneer and wonderful husband to Arden Clise.

If you are following the Tour de France this year, you probably have an opinion on whether Alberto Contador should have waited for Andy Schleck when he had a mechanical problem.  Schleck dropped his chain while launching an attack on the final climb of Stage 15, and had to stop to repair the problem. Later, Schleck expressed anger by what he saw as a lack of “fair play”, and according to cycling etiquette, he says Contador and the other riders should have waited for him. He finished 39 seconds behind Contador, who now holds the overall lead by 8 seconds. 

There is bicycle etiquette in the world of mortal bicycle commuters too. The flow of motor vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian traffic is based on some simple and basic rules of the road. Honor the right-of-way and the flow proceeds more or less smoothly; assuming and/or preempting that right-of-way creates confusion, contempt or worse.

When you pass a fellow cyclist stopped on the side of the road, slow to see if they need any assistance. Whether it is a novice commuter dealing with their first flat tire, or a veteran commuter who inadvertently left the tool bag at home on the workbench, it only takes a few minutes to help out. 

There will always be someone faster, and slower than you. Ride right, pass left, call it out if you can and with a smile if possible. Some of us measure ourselves in the “Commuter 500” everyday; others are content to roll along taking in the sights, sounds and smells. Like it or not, this is the world we bike in.

Eric Mamroth is a regular bicycle commuter, enjoys tandem touring with his wife, and can’t stop smiling during the cyclocross season.

This depressing, unending cold, wet weather is making even the most gracious, positive people complain. I’ll be honest, it’s easy for me to complain, but I had a little flash of insight about complaining the other day while riding our tandem with my husband in the cold rain.

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I’m just thrilled Family Fourth at Lake Union will take place this year thanks to the donations of many Seattle businesses. The outpouring of support from small to big companies is heartwarming. 

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As I do every year, I watched the Academy Awards with a few friends. We meet at one friend’s house, enjoy a potluck dinner and gab about the dresses, the emcee(s), the Academy winners and losers. This year had its usual fill of beautiful and not so beautiful moments. We can learn many etiquette lessons by watching the Academy Awards.  Here are my notes on the good, the bad and the ugly moments of this year’s show.

Let’s start with the “Bad”

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I recently wrapped up my 14 week kindness “class”. This class was offered to the general public by the Puget Sound Community School, a private school in Seattle for 11 to 18 year olds. The school founder, Andy Smallman, created the class “to start ripples of kindness that will be felt in far away places, touching others and creating even more kind acts.”

Each Sunday we were given assignments to perform that week. The assignments ranged from doing something kind for ourselves, because you can’t be kind to others if you’re not kind to yourself, to doing something kind anonymously to leaving something nice for someone to find, etc.

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I’ve been asked to teach a kid’s etiquette class to both boys and girls. As I’ve been putting together the curriculum, I had to pause when it came to teaching appropriate behavior for boys for treating girls and women in this modern day. I wondered should men still be expected to open the door for a woman, to pull her chair out, help her with her bags, walk on the street side of the sidewalk to protect her from splashes, etc.?

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I just attended a small business roundtable group which serves as a forum for entrepreneurs seeking business advice and mentoring. The facilitator couldn’t be there so we were on our own to lead the discussion with a couple of suggested topics. Unfortunately that led to trouble.

We started out talking about economic projections but a couple of people moved the discussion to politics. Only a few people participated in the political conversation and they all seemed to agree with each other. There seemed to be an assumption that we all felt the same way. I was very uncomfortable and I suspect I wasn’t the only one.

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I subscribe to a few different blogs of people I admire or enjoy. One recent blog post surprised me as it seemed out of character for this blogger. It was a bit like a brag about how busy he was and why it was making him a better person. He outlined minute by minute what he was doing one day. A few times the timeline included the statement that he was chatting with people while “picking off a few emails” or taking phone calls. He went on stating how full every minute was. Even when he was alone he was doing something – email, writing, etc.  He seemed exhausted by his life while also talking about how necessary it is to work like this because he’s “out to win.” [...]