I woke up this morning, knowing that today couldn't possibly be as thrilling, but I had no doubt that I would still enjoy myself. I went through my usual morning routine: shower, breakfast, dog walk, etc. Everything was just as it should be. Because I had come home late last night, I had to move my car out of the driveway so that Mom could leave for work this morning. I started the car on the second time, but that wasn't completely out of the usual. I mean, it's an old car. Sometimes it takes a try or two to get it going. Once the engine was rumbling, I backed up out of the driveway and into the road. I had done a surprisingly good job of getting my car close to the opposite curb as I waited for mom to pull out. That's when it happened.
All of a sudden, without any warning, my car died. The engine stopped, engulfing me in a silence that stung of failure. My eyes darted to the headlight switch, which was turned to "on." I had not turned on the headlights to back out of the driveway. My lights had been on all night.
I burst into tears. Before Mom could drive off I jumped out of the car. (I can only imagine what she was thinking at this point.) I explained what happened between sobs. I felt so stupid. How could I have done that? Actually, I know exactly how. It was late last night when I got home, and I was tired and clearly had turned off my brain.
So I called my dad and he said he would call a towing company to come and jump my car. But then Poppy came and said he could do it. So he pulled his car up to mine and got out to get the cable. Somehow his car managed to lock itself so that when he went to open the back door, it was locked. This was turning into quite a comedy. Poppy had to go back inside for his spare set of keys, and Mom had to keep an eye on the clock because she had to get to work on time but needed to make sure I would be okay before she left.
Poppy returned and connected the cars and we spent most of the next ten minutes attempting to get my car to start. I have to admit, I had my doubts. I was so shaken about the whole thing. It was such a relief when the grumbly engine on my car finally roared to life. It worked just in the nick of time, too. Mom was able to leave for work, I called my dad to tell him we were back in business, and I was reminded by everyone not to turn off my car for a while.
To be honest, I left my car on until I departed for work, and only turned it off once I was happily in my parking spot.
The moral of this story, while slightly off-topic (sorry about that), is that I have an awesome family. Poppy was fantastic to come over and help me. And everyone was really concerned about my well-being. It was amazing how everything came together right at the perfect moment. I was so grateful. I still feel badly for stressing everyone's morning. It was not how I had planned it.
Setting the, shall we say, excitement of the morning behind me, I gladly got in my car and went to work. When I arrived, Breanne set me up in Cathy's Conference Room to help organize the notes from the Focus Groups. As I was typing, Steph came by to say she'd made Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars.
A mid-morning snack? Yes, please! I don't usually eat things with peanut butter (just not a favorite of mine), but this was darn good!!! I went back for seconds, which made the ladies in the kitchen happy. Steph had put the pan in what I like to call the "party kitchen." I have dubbed it thus because all of the ladies in that kitchen get along really well, and they're always making something exciting. (Perhaps I've told you about the party kitchen before. I'm feeling a strange sense of deja vu, so I apologize if this is redundant.) But anyway, the party kitchen ladies told me to take as much as I wanted because they eat all day and they don't need to eat it. Trust me, they did not need to tell me twice! If I've enticed you enough with my description, the recipe is below. It's super easy!
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Peanut-Butter--n--Jelly-Bars
Cathy and I chatted while we worked. I actually really liked being in that room because I had a ton of natural light and everyone came into to Cathy's kitchen to use the Keurig coffee maker, so I got to meet a lot of people.
At about ten, AuBrei called Breanne and me to come to the kitchen and help set up for Panel. Panel is when the lucky workers of McCormick get to stop by the sensory kitchen and taste whatever product Steph is whipping up. Yesterday (I started typing Thursday evening, but am finishing it Friday morning) it was Buffalo Chicken Quesadillas with Blue Cheese dressing. The tasters sit in these little booths (I'll try and take some pictures today) and answer questions up on a computer screen. In the kitchen, we prepare the food, place it on a tray and slide it through to their side. They slide it back when they're finished.
It was awesome to be a part of this because I finally got to cook!!! We had a little assembly line going with Steph and I cooking the chicken, AuBrei measuring and filling the quesadillas, and Breanne delivering the quesadillas to the trays and sliding them into the booths. It was fun!
Once all of the employees had come by, Steph asked Breanne and I if we wanted to taste them. We had a meeting to get to in the T.I.C. building, so we kind of had to rush, but it was great! I'll say that I thought the spices were a little hot, but it was lunch time and I had meetings scheduled until 3:30, so I happily scarfed down my quesadilla. (Once again, I didn't have to worry about getting lunch. I could get used to this!)
It's really sweet because if there's leftovers, Steph will make them for the other people in the sensory department who weren't around, write their names on it, and leave it in the kitchen for them. She did that with the Aloha bars for us on Monday, and I just think it's the nicest thing!
So, with full bellies, Breanne and I drove over to the T.I.C. building. (But, on that note, I was thinking it would be way better if everyone just walked over to that building. Sure, you'd have to leave yourself about 15 minutes, but it's close enough and it would be way better for the environment. Just a thought.) We were worried that we'd be late, but we were two of the first people there, so it was fine.
As it turns out, Nancy had brought some subs and things from Wegmans. I wasn't very hungry, (remember, I'd just had a quesadilla), so I just had some strawberries. This meeting was about the data we'd captured from the Focus Groups the day before. (Though that seems like a really long time ago.) When we walked into the Create-It room, everything was set up like this:
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| From left to right: Laura and Breanne perusing the board. |
The post-its we generated the day before were all put up on the wall of white boards, and the woman leading the meeting, Amy, had written a few goals up on the board.
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| Peter, Nancy, and Melissa looking at the other side of the board. |
Amy walked us through the goals on the board, which were basically to focus in on what Millennials want and how McCormick can find its niche with the Millennials based on their behavior. Then, for the next two hours or so we did something called "path mapping." I'm not sure if anyone knows what that is, so I'll briefly explain it.
We started out with everyone going to the post-its and picking out a theme that was prevalent in all of the groups. So, one post-it might say, "they're using Pinterest to find recipes." This was a behavior that was true across all of the Millennials, so we'd move that post-it to another board with the aim of getting 30 post-its on the new board.
Then, we had to organize the post-its based on what they talked about. So we made little clusters of 3-4 post-its, which we then had to label with a title. Once each cluster had a title, we generated questions based off of the titles of the clusters. The questions are going to help Nancy so she can create studies of Millennials that will answer those questions.
It was a very structured, but also very creative process. It became clear to me that Amy had a lot of training in guiding people through that kind of process. I was, admittedly, a little nervous about being allowed to participate in such an intense and important process. For some reason, I've been having difficulty getting over the fact that they actually like to hear my opinion. But I really need to get over that because a lot of the post-its they picked for the top 30 were ones that I had written. I felt kind of honored when they would pick one of mine, especially if it was one I had been less sure about when I wrote it down. I think it just goes to show you that everyone brings a different perspective to the table. One person's contributions do actually mean a lot in this setting, so not participating would do more harm than good.
The two hours went by really quickly. I guess when you're using your mind for other things, you don't have a lot of time to watch the clock. Breanne and I cleaned up and then I went to AuBrei's panel-training session.
The panel we did earlier that day was with untrained McCormick employees. The goal there was to say "Do they like it, yes or no?" On Fridays, however, there's a trained panel that comes in to evaluate specific tastes. Before they can do that, they have to learn how to taste. AuBrei has a session with about 10 people Tuesdays through Thursdays. They've been learning since April (I think). The end goal is to get all of the panelists to be rating the spices the same way. They need to have corresponding numbers so that McCormick can trust what they're saying. The scale they rate the spices on is a 1-10 scale. They need their numbers to be within a two to three digit range (ex: between 4 and 6) or else the data isn't useful.
During the session, AuBrei would pass around "references"- liquified spices or items to smell in plastic cups. Today was all about spice blends, so she would ask "What are the attributes of curry powder?" and they would look on their list and say "Heat, sweet, soapy," etc.
We went through a lot of spices.
Some of them were things I had never heard of before. Carvone, anyone? Eugenol? Actually, I thought they should make eugenol into a perfume. It smelt so good! I need to look that up cause I don't know what it is, but it sure smelt good! There was another taste/smell called "Green." What does green taste/ smell like? Absolutely nothing. I was really struggling to get anything on this one. At first it reminded me of grapes, but the second time I tried it it was just kind of...green. I'm not sure I'd be the best trained taster.
The sessions last for two hours and the trainees are paid, so that's nice. I should also mention the frequent use of saltine crackers to cleanse the palate between tastes. I never realized how helpful that is!
When AuBrei and I got back to the office, Steph told us we had to go taste chocolate chip cookies (from Cathy's kitchen, of course!). It was a challenge, but someone had to do it. It was kind of funny because as I was in there, people were joking about how hard their jobs are. You know, that's one thing about McCormick employees: everyone is always happy.
After that the day was pretty much over. As I was leaving, Cathy sent me home with two versions of mocha frosting to try. One was the mocha they currently use, and the other is the mocha they want to try to use.
I liked the one of the left better. Though I didn't think it tasted particularly mocha-y. I was getting more of a maple vibe. I'll have to tell Cathy today.
Speaking of going in, today is Casual Day! Yay! It's like free dress at school, only it actually is free. I'm looking forward to it. I think it should be a pretty light day. There's a couple of short meetings scheduled, but other than that I'll just see where I'm needed.
Happy Friday!
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