FROM JODI
It’s another full moon. I can’t believe that last full moon I was on the other side of the world watching it rise and set over the Adriatic Sea. I am thankful the full moon comes mid-month because it gives me a reminder to review the month so far and to make sure that I am set to finish the month strong, or at least to get my act in gear so that I feel I made some progress.
We are continuing to evolve as a virtual firm. After a year and a half of remote work, we realized our Team needs to come together for in-person face-to-face interaction to feel connected and moving in the same direction. We have now instituted mandatory monthly in-person Team meetings at the end of each month dedicated to our Team dynamic and support for the remote workplace. The day is centered on fun and connection but also learning how to work together remotely better. Of course, there is a full day of good food, followed by an early happy hour to unplug and unwind. It’s a reminder that we really do have each other’s backs even if we aren’t always physically in the same place.
Our last in-person meeting we developed our Year End Sprint. 4th Quarter is an intentional, concentrated stretch of time devoted to achieving results. We have each counted the number of work-days we have left in the year, and we have made a commitment to sprint each work-day toward our year-end goals, both firm goals and personal goals. Everything we want to get done by the close of business on our last day of 2021 and our Top 3 objectives for 2022 are set out on a chart, and each day the chart guides us in discipline to check off the tasks and make progress. The Year-End Sprint is a great exercise individually, and as a Team effort it is extraordinary. We know what we need to concentrate on so that we are not distracted. It’s motivating.
Speaking of Year End, this is the time of year we create our annual New Year’s Card and theme for the next year. It’s my favorite project of the year and I am so excited with what we are working on for 2022. If you receive this newsletter, you are on our mailing list for a New Year’s Card, so here is your annual reminder that if you have changed your mailing address in 2021 or if you have not received our card in the past, please email us back your preferred mailing address so we can update our list and make sure your card gets to you. I have heard from some of you as recently as last month that our 2021 card and mask finally made it to you. We don’t want it to take that long!!
We have exciting projects brewing for 2022. In January, we will be rolling out Lazar Law Mediation Services. Attorney Alyson Falk has spent the year training as a mediator, and we are thrilled to add family law mediation services to our professional services offerings starting next year.
And in line with “getting together,” I am feeling the need to connect myself. So, when our new Client Services Manager, Aubrey Rosenthal reaches out to you to schedule some in-person time with me, please say Yes. And reach out if you want to get together; don’t be shy. It’s time to see each other in person.
Be Curious,
Jodi
@lazarlaw
FEATURING AUSTIN
AUSTIN CENTRAL LIBRARY
Living and working in a one-block area downtown, I have come to appreciate what the Austin Central Library offers to the urbanite on a much needed fresh-air-grabbing walk around the block. A quick walk down Second Street over Shoal Creek to the gorgeous Austin Central Library building, you don’t even have to go into the main library to experience a mood-shifting joyful experience. On the street level on the Second Street side is Cookbook Bar & Café, where you can grab a coffee and a pastry by Executive Pastry Chef Mary Catherine Curren. The current fall menu offers sweet pastries including Poached Pear Frangipane Tart, Dark Chocolate Tea Cake, Walnut Olive Oil Cake and Apple Streusel Danish, as well as savory brioche and quiche.
If you’ve got a little of bit of time on your hands, wander into the Central Library’s gift shop, APL Shop, on the 2nd floor. Austin Public Library Gift Shop offers Austin Public Library branded merchandise, book themed products and unique, locally sourced gifts. I love the Library Card Socks as a baby gift. APL Store is now stocked with puzzles for gifting season. All proceeds benefit Austin Public Library.
Once inside the Central Library, it’s hard not to get drawn in to the six-story atrium staircase. It’s meant to make you want to walk the stairs and encourage active behavior. On your way up, you will see CAW, by artist Christian Moeller, a 37-foot-tall kinetic sculpture resembling a gigantic cuckoo clock overtaken by blackbirds. Head up to the rooftop terrace or out to a reading porch–the top level takes advantage of the breeze off the lake. And did you know the Central Library has a collection of board games and puzzles that can be played in the library?
Heading back home, experience great public art along Second Street commissioned by the Art in Public Places Program in and near the Central Library. Crullers, by artist Sharon Engelstein, are three sculptures of a family of creature-forms with Big Mama Baby and Little Mama patiently waiting outside the entrance to the library for Tall Solo who has wandered away around the corner at 3rd Street and West Avenue. Power Picket, by artists Nader Tehrani and Dan Gallagher, is art installation composed of pigmented precast concrete pillars on the north and south sides of the Austin Energy power substation and perforated metal panels on the east and west sides. Across the Butterfly Bridge stand Kempelen’s Owls by New American Public Art — two 7 foot tall Texan great horned owls whose movement is triggered by visitors.
Of course, you don’t have to live downtown Austin to experience the Central Library as a destination. You can even go for happy hour!
Cookbook Bar & Café
At the 2nd Street entrance
Monday-Saturday 10-6
@cookbookatx
APL Shop
2nd Floor of the Central Library
Monday-Saturday 10-6
FEATURED BLOG
MEDIATING YOUR DIVORCE OR CUSTODY CASE
Mediation of your divorce or custody case in Central Texas should not look like that infamous scene in Wedding Crashers. So what does a successful mediation look like?
