[ SECTION E ]LIFESTYLEE M 1 2 3

Sunday, April 19, 2009

INSIDE

A town divided,a team united

FashionAmbushLindaRoberson andher grandkidswore babyblue forEaster. 6E

New book leads Birmingham’sWarren St. John to a cultural crossroads in Georgia

OURWEDDING 2ESCRIBBLERS 4EPETS 7EWEDDINGS 8E

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QuickTripCatch ‘To Kill aMockingbird’ inMonroeville.10E

ARTHUR FROMMER 11EAIR FARES 11E MY VACATION 12E

Keeping yourjob is great;keeping yoursanity isessential

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By MEGAN K. SCOTTThe Associated Press

NEW YORK — Sure, you’re grateful you stillhave a job.

But you’re also feeling overworked, stressedout and anxious about the future. Here’s whatto do to keep your job and your sanity:

Demonstrate your added valueAsk yourself, “How do I contribute to the

company’s bottom line?” says Connie Podesta,author of “How To Be The Person SuccessfulCompanies Fight To Keep.”

“How you respond says a lot about howyour company sees you,” said Podesta. “If yousay, ‘I’m just a receptionist,’ why would yourcompany see you differently?”

Podesta said now is the time to come upwith ideas and action plans that are tied to thefinancial stability and growth of the company.

Be sure to blow your own horn, she said.Some companies are so big, your hard workcould go unnoticed.

Network inside the companyThe person making future layoff decisions

may not be your immediate manager, saidBrad Karsh of JobBound.com.

To him or her, you may simply be a nameon a sheet of paper, he said. Or that senior per-son may have met you once and it was a dayyou weren’t looking your best, he said.

Karsh suggests volunteering to work on aproject with someone high up, or adjustingyour day so you can run into that person on aregular basis.

“If you happen to know that senior VP, thatcould be the difference in you staying orgoing,” he said.

Look for leadership opportunitiesThat doesn’t necessarily mean asking the

boss for a promotion, said Podesta.“A leader, regardless of a title, is someone

others would notice,” she said. “I like their atti-tude. I like their efficiency. I’d like to learnfrom that person.”

Companies are really looking for people whoshine, said Podesta. Show them that you are aproactive, energized person who comes upwith ideas that will take them to new levels,she said.

Be prepared for the worstDon’t wait until you are out of work to up-

date your resume, said Deborah Brown-Vol-kman, a career coach in East Moriches, N.Y.Losing a job is a blow to your self-confidenceand you may not be able to see your accom-plishments clearly.

The first thing a future employer is going toask you for is a resume, she added.

Start networking online and offline, saidKarsh. Join the professional organization ortrade association for your industry; useLinkedIn and Facebook.

“You don’t have to be proactively lookingunless you know your company is in really bigtrouble,” said Karsh. “You should be preparedto look.”

See ON THE JOB Page 7E

SPECIAL

AuthorWarren St. John discovered the story that led him to write “OutcastsUnited” while having dinner with a fan of his first book, “Rammer Jammer YellowHammer.” “It was just following up on information that I gleaned in a conversationfrom someone,” he says. “Every layer I peeled back, it just got more andmorecomplicated, and that’s when I realized pretty quickly this is bookmaterial.”

SPECIAL

While writing “OutcastsUnited,” St. John took upcycling and now races with ateam in NewYork City.“Racing is really tactical andinteresting intellectually, so it’sjust becomemy bigobsession,” he says.

SPECIAL

On a trip to Kigila, Rwanda, St. John ran into thisunidentified kid wearing an Alabama T-shirt.“Through a translator, I told him that I was a fanof that team and that it was American football,”St. John says. “He was disappointed to learnthat it wasn’t soccer.”

Small budget? Sylvia Weinstocksays let guests eat cakeBy CHANDA TEMPLE GUSTERNews staff writer

When New York weddingcake designer Sylvia Weins-tock comes to Birminghamin early May for the three-day “Style In the Sky”bridal event, she’ll talkabout more than butter-cream icing.

The woman who hasdone wedding cakes for ce-lebrities and royalty will getfrank about wedding plan-ning, budgets and guestlists.

“I’ve been in the busi-ness for 30 years, so I cer-tainly have learned a lot,and I’d like to share it withthe audience,” Weinstocksaid recently during a tele-phone interview from herNew York office.

One thing she’s learnedis that couples shouldn’t gointo debt trying to pay for awedding. To help with

costs, the wedding cakeshould be the only dessertat the reception.

“You don’t need a platewith three desserts and thewedding cake and then icecream and then a Viennesetable. It’s overkill,” saidWeinstock.

After studying a fewyears under a retired pastrychef and gaining an ap-prenticeship with a pastrychef in Manhattan, Weins-tock’s wedding cake careertook off in 1978 when shemade a cake for one of herdaughters’ friends. Insteadof putting the cake in thefridge, the friend liked it somuch she put it in the win-dow of her take-out busi-ness.

A professional chef sawit, inquired about the bakerand the rest is history.Weinstock opened up ashop and then moved to

Manhattan. She’s been ather current location in theTribeca area of New Yorksince 1983, where her com-pany, Sylvia WeinstockCakes, makes about 2,000cakes a year. (Weddingcake prices start at $17 perperson.)

Weinstock, also knownas the “the Leonardo DaVinci of Cakes” and the“Queen of Cakes,” said hercakes are made with thefinest ingredients like purebutter, heavy cream, freshfruit and imported choco-late. “We don’t cut cornerson anything,” she said.

One thing she won’t useon her cakes is fondant foricing. “I don’t like it be-cause nobody eats it,” shesaid. She prefers butter-cream frosting, and can

See CAKE Page 7E

SPECIAL

ThisWeinstock cake, more than 6 feettall, was flown to Greece in sections.

Kathy KempColumnist Kathy Kemp is on vacationthis week.