Is It July Yet?

June is only four days away and it is already fully booked. I cannot believe the professional and personal commitments that are already on my calendar for the month. Has this happened to you? I am trying to figure out if there will be any “down” time for me.

This is Memorial Day weekend – the unofficial beginning of summer. The weekend is a true reflection of what this summer will be like – it has been hot, humid, soupy with the sun and clouds playing peek-a-boo. The roads are crowded, as are the supermarkets and bakery. As most Americans, today I will be grilling steaks and potatoes; with that we will have a corn, pea and green bean salad, coleslaw and sautéed mushrooms and onions. We have two desserts with the requisite beer, wine and sangria. Let summer begin.

But, as I put together today’s festivities my mind is going over all that is beginning in the next few days and will continue right up to the 4th of July. I have three weeks in a row in which I will travel – in some instances I will really only have a day and a half at home before I am out the door again. I have no one but myself to blame.

This week I fly to Minneapolis on Thursday to attend the in-person Visual Communication Industry Group Board Meeting. I will conduct my standing Project Management meeting on Thursday then head over to my cousin’s so he can drive me to the airport which is only 20 minutes from his home. I will get into Minneapolis at 10PM and we begin our meetings on Friday at 8:30AM – same for Saturday and then I have a 6AM flight out of Minneapolis on Sunday – since I am flying back to my local airport there will be a connection and I will not get in until 11:30AM.

Next I will fly out to Monterey, CA to review the hotel which is the venue for our conference in October; but, that will not happen until I support our Annual Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday, June 7th. There will be anywhere between 800 to 1000 people at this meeting and we will also be awarding exemplary personnel from each of the 15 hospitals. This meeting is scheduled to begin at 4PM and end at 6PM; however, I am guaranteed that I will not be able to leave the venue until 7PM. There is no flight that evening – so I will be driving to Newark, staying overnight and leaving my car there as my flight leaves Newark at 5:30AM. Isn’t it a good thing that I can generally fall asleep on an airplane before it even takes off. My return flight is the red-eye on Saturday night.

I then leave the following Tuesday for Las Vegas to support the VCI-Group exhibit booth at InfoComm with my friend and fellow Board Member, Catherine. As soon as we arrive we will need to head to the exhibit center to set up our booth – we begin our manning duties on Wednesday at 9AM. We do have one great thing planned – it will be Catherine’s birthday while we are out there and to celebrate it I am taking her to see the Jersey Boys show. We will be taking the red-eye home on Friday night and then that Saturday evening I head off to my cousin's to celebrate my niece’s 29th birthday.

That is all just personal and VCI-Group work. On my real job at North Shore I am busily reading two RFP responses for managed services – although tomorrow is a holiday and technically we are off from work I will be doing a synopsis of both responses and making my recommendation for which company will be awarded the contract.

We finally have signed our Verizon web ex/instant messaging contract and during the month of June we will be transitioning our 50 pilot Users to our production site with Verizon, giving this service to an additional 400 people and having them trained on the product.

I also have two job postings and am conducting interviews for those roles – I want to fill them as quickly as possible.

And lastly, is the annual budget process – we are beginning to put together our budget for 2013. Last week we had one of our first meetings to discuss the operating budget – it all seemed simple enough; but, once the spreadsheet has been completed we will need to do our power point presentation for it. Next will be the capitol budget – this one is always much more difficult as we are trying to determine what equipment needs to be purchased, what it will cost, etc. It also requires a justification unlike the operating budget which is generally a carryover from the previous year.

I am almost looking forward to July 1st – I have a wedding to attend for a work colleague and my thoughts are that generally things get a little slower at the Health System in July and August. So for now I have my running shoes on, I am making sure that I take my vitamins and I am watching what I eat so that I might survive June.

Let’s not forget what the real meaning of this long weekend; it is NOT that it is the unofficial beginning of summer – it is a time to give thanks to all of our service men and women who have given their lives for us and continue to do so.

Let’s Give Thanks to our Service People.

Enjoy the Pain as There is a Gain

This week two things to discuss; first whoever said that weekends were to relax, kick back and not do anything??? And the other is who ever said that pain wasn’t good.

Let’s start with weekends were to relax, kick back and not do anything. That isn’t my weekend – this weekend was all about getting my exercise classes in (aqua aerobics and Zumba) then doing some shopping and errands. I have a wedding to go to on July 1st – it starts at 11:15 and I am in a quandary as to what to wear. I finally found a dress that I loved; but, lo and behold not in my size at the store – run home go on line and they do not have it anywhere; BUT, they did have another style. My dilemma; is it too dressy for a Sunday early afternoon wedding as the bottom is a black lace overlay?

Sent the picture to my niece who says to me – no, it isn’t. Well, today Sunday there is an on-line sale and I ordered the dress and it is 25% less – yeah, nice deal. So I was able to go to DSW and get shoes that would look lovely with the dress.

Having that completed is a big relief. So I was able to do all the other shopping /errands that are part of my routine. To Hallmark’s for birthday cards, to Pier 1 for something to place on my dining room table, to the cleaners to drop off a pair of pants to have hemmed and to pick up the dry cleaning; and, lastly the grocery store. Oh wait, did I forget to mention to Home Depot to pick up some more flowers for my backyard?

Yesterday after doing Abby’s aqua class for an hour I come home to remove a lavender bush from my back patio. I loved that bush especially the scent that it gave while the flowers were blossoming; but, this year only half the bush blossomed and not that well. I thought maybe it had to do with the little rain we had in April and then the extreme heat; but, as I started to prune it yesterday to remove it I realized that it was primarily DEAD. I tried to be smart about things by pruning the twigs back so I wouldn’t poke an eye out with them when I went to pull up the stump. I pulled it up and tilled the area for the four hydrangea plants I bought.

What a bargain – the same hydrangea plants were $12.99 last week and I got them for $2.99. SCORE!!! I planted them they are purple and pink and I cannot wait for them to continue to grow. I also re-potted several plants – well I was full of dirt and sweat from my neck down to my feet. I even had sweat pouring into my eyes and I could taste the salt of my sweat in my mouth. At 6PM yesterday I walked myself into the shower with my water shoes and showered from head to foot.

I must be a glutton for punishment as today after exercise class and errands I went ahead and re-potted two plants that stay in the house. But that isn’t enough because I am doing a couple of loads of laundry, ironed my clothes for the week at work, watered the plants outside as it is over 80 degrees and my back yard gets all the afternoon sun.

But I am thinking that next weekend, the unofficial start of summer I will be able to lie on my chaise lounge, read a book, get a tan and have a nice cool glass of lemonade. So as they say, “no pain, no gain” and this weekend I certainly am sporting my aches; and pains from my exercise classes and from my physical labor.

So after all that there is something called “good pain” when you can see and reap the rewards of your hard work, not only physically; but, also from the beauty that you create.

Reap the rewards of your pain.

Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother’s Day. This day holds so many different types of memories for me. For most of you – I hope you are spending time with your Mother or that your children are with you for the day.

I am trying to remember back to the earliest Mother’s Day and what I did for my Mother. It was not such a prominent holiday or reason for celebrating 45 to 50 years ago. It was not until I was in my 20’s and 30’s that I heard of Mother’s Day brunches, flowers for Mom, etc.

When I was a child we always would make something in art class at school for Mom. How many of us made an ash tray (remember the times) or a card, or maybe it was a seedling that would turn into a plant is what we would give Mommy.

I can remember 1978 – that was the year I graduated from High Point College (today it is High Point University) it was the Saturday before Mother’s Day and they made a big deal about it being Mother’s Day the very next day. It was a tough day for me because my Mom was dead; but, my Aunt Irma who was also my godmother was there and watched me graduate. She also spent Mother’s Day with me despite having her own son, my cousin Gerry who was home in New York while she was with me in North Carolina.

In my late 30’s and early 40’s we would go to various restaurants for Mother’s Day brunch. It would be my Aunt Irma, my cousin’s family with his wife, his in-laws and me. There are pictures of us heading off for that day – brunch at noon which would also suffice for dinner. I would receive cards from Siobhan and Gerard and I would give my aunt Irma a card.

When I moved to Peekskill – things again changed. My aunt Irma was dead and I decided since I was the only one who was not a Mother I would host Mother’s Day brunch at my house. I would also buy each of the Mom’s a small gift – it was Eilish, Gerry’s wife, Maura, Eilish’s cousin and then in a couple of years Carrie, Gerard’s wife – we did that for a few years and two years ago things changed.

As you know Eilish is in a nursing home for Alzheimer’s, Carrie works at Greenwich hospital on Sundays and Maura also generally works. We still know it is Mother’s Day and wish every Mom we know a wonderful day. Our day has just evolved – it is no longer a morning focused on our Mothers – we will get together – at 2PM today I will head to my cousin’s and have dinner with his children, my niece’s husband and Gerard’s boys. We will each be a little introspective and may even reminisce with each other on our respective Mothers.

We all know that we are a product of our Mother and as we get older we each have become more like our Mothers and we see those characteristics in each other.

I am fortunate and I say that all the time. My cousin Gerry has shared his family with me more than he can ever know. He shared his mother with me when mine died, he and his wife both shared their children with me and Eilish was always so gracious about letting me take her children on vacation and to travel with me. And, now they share their grandchildren with me – I have been truly lucky. I am that “Auntie” Mame in their lives who is able to introduce them to travel, theatre, books and to all the world has to offer.

So give thanks to all the women in your lives who have been a Mother figure; Mom, Grandma, Aunt, Teacher, etc. and remember you do not have to give birth to an individual to be a “mother” figure.

As a Mom or Mother figure – our love is unconditional.

It's the Small Things

We are programmed to only celebrate the major milestones of our life – or to only appreciate the big things; but, they don’t happen very often. What does happen very often are the small pleasurable things.

Each day something wonderful can happen – are you appreciating the small, simple things of life? As I walk through my community I marvel at how many red breasted robins are in my neighborhood. Or as I drive to work each morning I see a blue jay flying across my eyesight. It places a small smile on my face and I continue to drive to work happily.

Too often we wait for large events in our lives before we think it has been a good day or that we are happy with our lives. Life is short, it can be difficult – but – you have the power to make every day a happy one, a satisfactory one and one that you don’t have to wait for a promotion, raise, win an award or buy a new home.

Start your day by just being glad that you woke up and are on this earth another day. If you have ever had someone near and dear to you die at a young age you can appreciate getting older and waking up each morning. What if you woke up and the sun was shining, it was a low humidity day and the sky was a clear blue? I love those days, I feel energized, as if I can do anything and there is an extra spring in my step. But, what about those days when it is dank, gray and pouring rain? Well, there are a couple of ways to look at it – we need the rain, it has been quite dry since it was nearly a snowless winter. Also, it is a perfect day to just put on a pair of sweats and curl up with a throw to watch a movie or read a great book – for me it is the latter; I read a good book and have a mug of hot chocolate.

There are two other times that I am in awe of nature and grateful for small things. One of them is as I drive over the American Veteran’s Bridge in Croton; in the early morning when it has been cold the night before you can see the mist on the bridge and going up the mountains. It always makes me think of the musical, Brigadoon, which takes place in Scotland – as I go over the bridge in the mist I picture that this is the way Scotland is: lush, green and misty.


Then the next is the moon. I most admire it when it is either full or a crescent – and it always kind of surprises me. It generally will happen as I take out the garbage and as I turn away from the dumpster and head back towards my townhouse – I will stop to see if I can cross the street and there it is; majestic, bright, white and hanging low and large. So close it appears that I could touch it. The last time I saw a crescent moon it had a shadow around it and I thought if I was a photographer I would take a picture.

But, what gives me the greatest pleasure and for which I am most grateful on any given day is my interaction with people. The “hello” or “thank you” that we can encounter with our office colleagues, the Starbuck’s barista who made my non-fat venti latte that morning or the UPS truck driver as he leaves me a package.

Or when I see my great-nephews as I did yesterday as they came to my house with their parents for a Cinco de Mayo dinner. I had sombreros for both boys; but, Callum hates anything on his head and immediately upon it being placed on him there was a strong “NO” and he would throw it off. Ryan loves hats and had no problem putting it on. It is hearing from Ryan’s mother that he has stated, “That I am a good cook and he likes everything I cook”. It is hearing Callum saying “DELICIOUS” when he eats a piece of cake. Seeing each boy as individuals – how they progress and what is new with them from the last time I saw them – and to their hugs and kisses as they leave reluctantly.

So, don’t wait for the large events in your life to place that smile on your face, to see how blessed you are and what a magnificent thing is your life. Instead, enjoy the small items in your life every day – the unexpected compliment, the traffic-free drive to work and whatever weather Mother Nature graces us with.

Wonderful things happen every day; they are wonderful even if they are small. Celebrate them.