Changes

The past week has been more of the same – work continues to be wonderful and I am blessed with a great team that gets along very well. They “GET IT”, with it being that what we do has a direct impact on how our Clinicians are able to serve our ultimate customer, the patient. What we enjoy the most is that for us no two days are the same – we can be at different facilities, meeting different parts of the hospital whether it is Talent Inquisition, OB-GYN, dentistry or the Executives. The diversity of our jobs is what keeps it interesting and challenging.

We will soon begin our busy season as after Labor Day many video meetings begin their sessions again. Our Residents and Fellows join us at that time and video conferencing is one of the many ways that they receive some of their education. You can understand how important it is to have this work every time.

Last evening my niece, Siobhan hosted a party at Annie Moore’s in Manhattan for her father’s friends to say good-bye to him. It was a “surprise” party and for once he was truly surprised at seeing what had been pulled together. He couldn’t believe that not one of his friends, his son nor I had ‘spilled the beans’ or even hinted at it.

This coming Tuesday I will stop at my cousin’s house and will take him, his daughter and son-in-law to a restaurant we have wanted to go to for the past year. With Gerry moving to Delaware on Friday it will be a while again before we have this opportunity. I believe in fate and this time it came in the form of Groupon – there it was $85 for dinner for four with 2 appetizers, 4 entrees and 4 glasses of sangria at Sofrito, a Puerto Rican restaurant. This is a fantastic price given that this meal would normally cost $200. Not only does the restaurant focus on Puerto Rican food; but, the last name of the Head Chef is Maldonado – same as my cousin and our mother’s maiden name. We are all looking forward to that time together.

Then on Friday morning I will head to Gerry’s house and be there at 7AM – I will drive down with him to help first settle his wife, Eilish in the new nursing home and then we will go to the house he is renting to get him settled in. He will stay at the rental until he sells his house in New York and he can have the house built in Delaware. Siobhan and her husband will come down on Saturday and we will stay with Gerry until Monday morning when I will come back with them to head back to work on Tuesday.

I keep going on to the Port Chester school district web site to find the 2012-2013 school calendar. I am trying to figure out when the boys (Gerry’s grandchildren) will have off so that I can plan a day off from work and take them down to visit their grandfather. As I said there are many changes happening – the one that will probably be most difficult is that Gerry is used to seeing his son and grandchildren every Sunday for dinner – this will no longer happen. I am hoping that we can still have our monthly family dinners if we can arrange them around the boy’s time off from school.

I am fortunate to get 27 days off per year – I also am able to work from home on Mondays and Fridays so I can easily take the boys down to visit their grandfather on Thursday evenings and head home on Sundays; or, if Gerard joins us on Saturday evening he can drive the boys home on a Monday and I can head home Sunday on my own. We will figure out a schedule that will work.

Regarding the Visual Communications Industry Group (VCI-G) we are entering the final phases of conference planning. We just need to confirm some panel speakers and become aggressive in our promotion to get individuals to come to the conference. This week we will start a “calling campaign” and I will need to place some posts on the various Linkedin groups that I belong to that are industry related. I know that we have pulled together a strong and interesting program – NOW to get the message out to everyone.

Lastly, I am looking forward to meeting up with two friends. One of them we will go away for a weekend – we haven’t decided whether it will be to a beach site or we may go to Rhode Island and visit the mansions. My other friend we will meet in the city and find a Broadway show that we will both enjoy – the new Broadway season begins in October so there will be much to chose from.

Well, I want to let you know now that I will not be writing a blog next week. As I mentioned I will be in Delaware with my cousin, his daughter and son-in-law coming home on Monday.

Enjoy this last unofficial week of summer, get the children ready for school and have a wonderful Labor Day.

What Happened to Summer Being Slow?

I was originally told that the summer would be slow at the Health System. It was last year; but, it is not this summer and in a couple of weeks we will be at full strength as everyone comes back from vacation and most programs begin again. So what happened this year?? When did it become so busy??

I guess that being busy is a sign of success; OR, at least I want to look at it that way. We currently have several projects going on from some very straight forward, very simple video conferencing installations to a massive boardroom for the Executive offices in Manhattan. It seems that every day we receive a request for a video conferencing system within the Health System – but, there are some challenges.

We are always asked for a quote that has “the works”; unfortunately, when our client sees the cost of what a video system with “the works” costs – they then provide us with what their budget is and that is usually one-third to one-half of what we have quoted. We are a non-profit and we really watch the dollars so it has been a trying week to ensure we can provide the needed system features at the dollar amount that the customer has.

Besides the new systems that we are quoting and installing we are also fixing some rooms which have not worked well for several months; and, in one instance several years. It is a case of fixing one thing and then seeing what else isn’t working. I am fortunate in that I have a very strong team – the last member of my team joined us on Monday and each one of them has very quickly hit the ground running and has made an impact on the Health System and what we offer to our clients.

It is hard to believe but at the Health System we are a collaborative team – we all work to make the organization successful and as my very best friend would always say, “there is no ‘I’ in team” and we exemplify that. Each of us has worked for Fortune 100/500 companies and it was never for the greater good of our client; but, to ensure that we satisfied the stakeholders, the Wall Street Analysts and ensured the CEO received his salary and extremely inflated bonus. At the Health System we are beholden to our ultimate client, the patient. Our jobs are all focused to ensure that the patient’s experience is excellent so we do what we can for the Clinicians, the Hospital and the Administration to ensure that they can provide that excellent experience to our patients.

As we managed the various challenges posted to us this past week, my team and I also enjoyed a wonderful lunch with my boss in Manhattan. We were all in the city on Wednesday and my boss offered to take us out to lunch. We went to Le Train Bleu which is located on the sixth floor of Bloomingdale's. It is decorated like a train car and serves French food – we enjoyed a wonderful meal, lively conversation and were labeled, the “white glove team”.

That was work this past week – a good week that had its highs and then showed us some things we need to work on.

On a personal level it has been a very quiet week – my instructor who teaches the High Intensity workout was on vacation so the classes were not held; instead I took a Zumba class on Friday, did my aqua aerobics class on Saturday and this morning another Zumba class. Tomorrow it will be back to normal and I will be at High Intensity at 7AM. I do have to mention that the knees are beginning to ache – don’t know if it is from the jumping in Zumba or if I should just be lying in the Jacuzzi tub a couple of nights a week allowing my muscles to be stimulated by the jets.

We are getting prepared for my cousin, Gerry to leave us and be the first to go to Delaware. He leaves on Friday, August 31st at 8AM and has found a place to rent until he sells his house here in New York and can have them begin to build a house for him in Delaware. I will miss him – I am hoping to take him, his daughter and son-in-law to dinner next Friday at a Puerto Rican restaurant in White Plains called, Sofrito.

I am now looking at my great nephews' school calendar to see when they have some days off so I can take time off and take them to visit their grandfather in Delaware. Our monthly family dinners will now be focused on the holidays.

Lastly, on Friday it would have been my mother’s 77th birthday. All day I thought of her; and, taking Zumba that day was in honor of her. My mother loved to dance and had no problems (like I do) of moving her hips and sashaying her body to the music. So when I dance I think of my Mom and how she loved a good party.

Do that which you enjoy, makes you happy and lets you smile.

What a Week with Requests and Life Changes

I am sorry for not writing last night; but, we were celebrating two birthdays in the family – mine which was last Monday and Callum who will turn 4 this Wednesday. I left the house at 3 in the afternoon and didn’t get home until after 8 in the evening after having spent a morning of doing my Zumba class, running to the cleaners, the bank, Toys R Us for wrapping paper and a gift bag and to the bakery to pick up a specially ordered cake with a “Mike the Knight” stencil on it. Hopefully you can understand my reason for not writing.

The week has been hectic and focused on various projects at work. Many things have been creeping up to do which have been totally unexpected. I was very happy to have completed instructions with pictures on how to use the SmartBoard in our conference room; only to find out that our VP would now like instructions on how to connect a MAC Notebook to the SmartBoard and what are the settings. WHOA!! I don’t even own a MAC Notebook – and I know I need a dongle to connect the MAC to the VGA cables. I spent a good deal of my Thursday morning tracking down the lone departmental notebook and finding who might have a dongle that I could borrow so that I could connect to the SmartBoard and detail the instructions for our End Users.

If that wasn’t enough this same VP has decided that we should go out to RFP (Request for Proposal) on the current video equipment that we purchase. I spent several hours on Thursday and Friday putting together a spreadsheet with all the devices that we order for each of our conference rooms – I was never so happy as to get that off my plate.

Then Thursday I was trying to help one of our Dentists put together his Web Ex account so that they can start their lecture series this week. I was able to set up his account and show his team how to use it – the kicker is that he will not be there for the lecture series and I will need to be a “host” on his account to support the meeting this coming week. I received the instructions on how to do that – now I need to set up a meeting to show his team how this function works and on Thursday I will be at his offices at 7AM to set up the first lecture. What is wonderful is how well everyone has embraced the technology and can see its value in their everyday business lives.

On a personal note a lot is changing. For the first time one half of the family will no longer be in New York. Both my cousin, Gerry and his daughter (Siobhan) and her husband will be moving to Delaware. I am happy for both of them as it will bring to them a better life style at a much lesser cost than New York. The difference will be that they are no longer 40 minutes away – no longer can I use their house as a “potty break” on my way home from work and I will now join the many individuals who travel to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with their families.

What I love is that Delaware is the state that I would like to retire to – I know the type of house I would like to buy and the community I would like to live in. The weather is temperate; but, not with the terrible winters we can experience in New York. But, I am not looking to retire for another 10 years so in the meantime I will get a taste of life there through them.

Oh, I do have to tell you about my Saturday. I met a friend who I have known for more than 25 years for lunch in New York City. May and I used to work together for Citicorp’s Remittance Services (Official Checks and Money Order division) back in the early 1980’s – I had not seen her since my 50th birthday party seven years ago. We chose to meet at the clock in Grand Central and we went to Chelsea Market hoping to find a place to have lunch. The Market was crowded with people just touring, having lunch and there really was no place to sit and enjoy a leisurely lunch. We decided to walk on 9th Avenue for a couple of blocks until we came across Serafina’s and since it was getting hot out we decided to eat inside the restaurant. We had brunch and caught up on the past 7 years of our lives: who had married, graduated from colleges and dispersed throughout the US. The various jobs we had during that time period, etc.

After our meal we walked the Highline. For those of you not familiar with New York – the Highline is between 9th and 10th Avenues and was built alongside subway tracks where the subway no longer exists. It runs from the teens to 30th Street and along the way there are plants, shrubs, lounging chairs and even a sidewalk waterfall that people dipped their toes in. I felt great that I walked over 10,000 steps and over 4 miles on Saturday since I didn’t go to my aqua aerobics class. It was amazing to see the various buildings on the West Side and how eclectic, modern/contemporary they are. I would recommend anyone who has an afternoon to do this.

May and I are looking to get together in the early fall and this time we will either see a play or go to one of the various museums that I happen to be a member of. It is always great to connect with friends and to be able to pick up the relationship where it last ended.

Well these are the dog days of summer and it is slowly coming to a close – I hope that each of you have enjoyed this wonderful season and are able to squeeze some lasting fun and memories before fall makes her debut.

Each season has a reason; love it for what it offers.

I'm Baack!!!

I’m BAACK!! Vacation is over and it was WONDERFUL!!!! Not just for me; but, for all of us.

Our flights were uneventful – the way everyone likes them nowadays and I think Ryan just got spoiled all over again by flying first class. Seattle was cold and dreary; but, we were able to walk to Pike Street Market and watch some fish get thrown around, and then we took the tram to the Seattle Space Needle and could not believe the view of the city from on high. On Monday we were counting the hours until we could board the ship; and, as expected Disney had individuals pointing us in the right direction and we got through the lines quickly.

On ship we had lunch and then Ryan had already found out that there was a party on Deck 9 as we were about ready to leave – we were all on Deck 9 dancing and laughing and I knew this was the right vacation.

Eight days later I knew that this trip was well worth it. Alaska is beautiful – it is full of intense colors; green, glacial blue and grey. We had the opportunity of going through Tracy Arms – icebergs on all sides and they are not white; but, blue. The ice is so compressed that the only light that it can absorb is blue – and, did you know that small ice bergs are called “bergies”; I did not make that up it is true. Well, leave it to us to also hit a bergie – you could hear it crunch; the part that was worrisome was when the Captain and the Engineer kept looking at the side of the ship that hit the bergie; but, we finally took off and we knew that all was good.

Other things that I learned was that cities like Juneau and Skagway only have around 800 residents throughout the year and then they grow to about 3,000 during the tourist season. Both cities are extremely expensive as everything is either shipped or flown in so a gallon of milk cost anywhere between $5 and $6. There is no doctor – he visits once a month; but, there are Nurse Practitioners and just about everyone has flight insurance so that they can be airlifted to Seattle if they had something seriously wrong with them.

If we were disappointed about anything it was with not seeing any whales – next time I would definitely book a whale excursion. Also, neither my cousin Gerry nor Ryan caught any salmon when they went fishing. The salmon were plentiful as it is their spawning season but they managed to elude their lure. In Ketchikan there were people who were just fishing on the bridge over Creek Road – a local who snared a salmon let Ryan reel him in and the smile on Ryan’s face was priceless. He also got chosen to participate in the Lumberjack show and actually won the two man saw – I have to say that Ketchikan was one of his favorite days.

Every evening after dinner Ryan and I would attend the show – it is Disney’s version of a Broadway show and it would last an hour – Ryan really looked forward to them and thoroughly enjoyed them. I think I am cultivating a future Broadway attendee.

He also enjoyed the Oceanear Lab where he would play games with other children on the ship. It gave him time to be a kid away from us and it gave us an opportunity to do adult things. Okay admittedly the adult things were drinking and Gerry and I attended three (3) tastings. The martini tasting, the wine tasting and the mixology tasting – at each you are given five (5) drinks (no food) and it only cost $15. I also signed up for boot camp and attended 2 of the 3 sessions – I didn’t attend the last because it was our day to have our Character breakfast and I wanted to be there to enjoy Ryan’s reaction. My cousin went down to the Cadillac lounge a couple of times to enjoy the piano player, talk with other passengers and have a couple of Jameson’s.

Victoria in British Columbia is a very pretty town. We had high tea at the Empress Hotel and then toured the city – I would have enjoyed being there for the day instead of the evening; but, it was still a great experience.

Would I do this trip again? ABSOLUTELY and by the way there is another great nephew, Callum who I hope to introduce to traveling and appreciating each city and state for what it has to offer.

Very quickly it was back to reality by unpacking, doing laundry and paying bills. That was home life; and, it was time to get involved in reading all the email messages, responding to them and attending conference calls. The worst of it was that I caught Gerry’s cold and was really feeling awful. I am now much better and my life is back in order. I am also very proud of myself as only back 6 days and I have already worked out 4 times – so it really did help out to walk up and down the ship’s decks.

I will have these memories for a lifetime – I will now be able to cross off my bucket list “go to Alaska”.

Now to the next item.