Life's a Beach

So what do most people do when they sell their house and only have 21 days to clear out seven years' worth of crapola?

They pack up a cooler, grab the sunscreen and novels, and hit the beach.

Then they rinse, lather, and repeat.

So yes, instead of rushing to SB to pack our lives away, Jack and I opted to spend Saturday and Sunday at the beach. This was with mixed feelings, for we ALWAYS spend holidays with the family. We even have a yearly Memorial Day menu that we always share with them. Since we'll soon be leaving SB, we felt the need to do a holiday on our own. And we figured it needed to be fun to keep our minds off the fact that we could have been lazing around on pool rafts with the family!

The beach was actually a lot of fun. We figured out that a gorgeous Lake Michigan beach was only about 20 minutes from my house (granted, traffic made it about 30, but who's counting?). It's in a residential area...surrounded by stunning beach front houses, we made our home on a deserted patch of sand. We read, we ate, we played, we swam (albeit, briefly. I have a thing about lake water...and the fact that steel mills line the NWI coast...and Cook nuclear plant is around the corner...etc.). We had such a great time on Saturday that we felt compelled to return on Sunday. It was 15 degrees hotter and the beach wasn't so deserted, but we still played football in the surf and caught up on our lives. When we weren't beaching at Lake Michigan, we were lazing around on my deck, just existing with each other and playing "Would you rather?"

While lazing around, we did a mental inventory of all our belongings in SB. So even though we didn't physically start packing, we did some mental packing!


*The above photo was taken from the beach on Saturday.

Quote Journal: Rowing

Sister Lourdes taped a quote (from her desk calendar) to my office door yesterday:

"If there's no wind, row."

At first, I felt a little weird. I love when people think of me when they see good quotes. But that particular quote made my somewhat-still-insecure self wonder if I wasn't doing something right or if I was pushing too hard on a couple issues near and dear to my heart. Was she telling me to work harder? Work smarter? What the heck? We about collided in the hallway and I asked her what it was regarding.

Her response? "The picture of the Caribbean was pretty and peaceful and I know you like the beach." Then she said, "Oh, was it a good quote?"

Yes, it was a good quote (a very good quote, actually), but it gave me a complex to find it taped to my door!

Sold!

Jack and I sold our house today! Well, it took about a week, four viewings by the prospective buyers, and a counter-offer, but we received the signed contract today!

This is a HUGE monkey off my back. Having two homes (and two mortgages) is tough while the move itself will prove fun (isn't moving always fun?), I'm relieved that this two-time-zone existence is just about over. Plus, just HAVING the house on the market is stressful. Well, at least it was for Jack because he's the one who always had to show it.

EEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

We didn't get the exact profit we were hoping for, but we didn't lose money either. This is good.

So pending all successful inspections, we'll officially be leaving SB and becoming Chicagoan residents on June 19.

Life's Toughest Questions

I read this article over my coffee at 5:30 a.m. this morning. It tries to answer life's toughest 25 questions....it offers snarky, yet oddly appropriate answers. If I had more energy, I'd try to answer them, too. So I'll just pick one:

Question: "Where do traffic jams come from?"

My answer: "Everyone leaving Chicago to go to their cabin on Lake Michigan!"

I have so much work to do; I'm taking my laptop back out on my deck and getting to work! :)

YOU'RE My Boss?

Have you ever been playing softball with a bunch of your chums from work, go up to bat, hit a line drive right back to the pitcher, and hurt the pitcher a little in the process? Then you realize the pitcher is the one direct report you haven't met yet and your first interaction is when you scare the bejezzuz out of her and make her take a ball to the knee?

Yeah, me neither!

She's okay and we had a good laugh about it. However, I have a feeling it'll be water cooler talk tomorrow morning!**

I played my first softball game of the summer tonight. We won (a first, we had a perfect record of no wins last summer) and actually played a pretty good game. I played shortstop and fielded a couple of double-plays and line-drive catches. Yes, I'm patting myself on the back here because I HAD to make up for my crappier-than-crap batting. It was awful.

I've always had problems hitting that slow, arching pitch. I like fastballs; the fast the better. I just can't hit these slow pitches. I struck out my first two times at bat, popped out in short center, then snuck a grounder by the second baseman (another one of my employees).

It's very weird to play ball with your staff, especially because I'm so young. I seem to catch people off guard when they meet me, like my phone voice or email style doesn't match my appearance. I've had two directors ask Elvis if they can report to me. I don't know if I should be flattered becuase they think I'm good or offended because they think I'd be easy.

I'm earning my stripes, though. The managerial thing is already going full-tilt. I've already had an HR situation with an employee, received rogue invoices to approve, received positions to approve, been asked to help redesign the surgeons' block time (really?) and had one of the newer managers ask me to sit in on the interviews when she tries to hire a new RN.

I'm just internally shrugging my shoulders and pretending I know exactly what is going on.

Confidence, right? It's all about confidence. But it might help if I didn't try to beam my employees, either!


**It occurred to me that I need to figure out pseudonyms for my direct reports (in case things happen that are blogworthy). What about Sesame Street characters? The Shirt Tales? The cast of Disney's Aladin? The girls from the Babysitters' Club?

Rewind...One Year

Now that I've officially lived in Chicagoland for one year (as of today) I reflect on the things I know now that I didn't know last May:

-How to simultaneously drive 80 mph in weaving traffic, teleconference in to work, "attend a meeting" from the road, eat a PowerBar, fiddle with the radio, and NOT DIE.

-That Central Standard Time (CST) really sucks. On the cloudiest, gray days of late December and early January, it was dark outside by 3:30. On the SUNNY days, it was dark at 4pm. Wait, sunny days? Oh yeah, we didn't have any of those.

-That Central Standard Time (CST) is brilliant. On the sunniest days in the middle of summer, it is light outside by 5:30 a.m. It's easy to leap out of bed when the sunshine beckons from beyond the curtains. Plus, it makes me feel like I'm running late, so I bound out of bed even faster.

-That I really, really, really hate snow. I admit it, I was a princess before I moved to Chicagoland in this solo gig. Jack always gave me the garage, always cleaned off his own car, and I only had to drive 2.874 miles to work every day. This past year, I scraped off my own car more than I care to remember, ruined more than one pair of dress shoes by doing the aforementioned in my heels, and suffered through 18 commutes during which I actually thought I was going to lose control of my car and be lost forever in a ditch off I-94...

...And I had very little of the "lake-effect" variety over here, too!

-That work is work. Work will always be stressful. Life, however, does not have to be. More important, is to differentiate between the two.

-That it's always about survival of the fittest. Especially when you're trying to be a hospital administrator. Dog-eat-dog is an understatement. When I'm feeling down, overwhelmed, or just not sure of something, I need to be decisive, innovative, and full of positive initiative...

...And then I must back those sentiments with a lot of caffeine.

-That I can survive in a room full of seasoned (male) executives and speak my mind coherently when discussing healthcare policy, the identity of Catholic hospitals, and capital expenditures.

-That I can live alone in Chicagoland for a year, without training wheels, a live-in chef, or personal shopper and still survive...

...Better yet, so can Jack!

-This past year in Chicagoland taught me a whole bunch about myself, my ambitions, my values, and, of course, my marriage. We made it a year with this goofy distance marriage! The year apart made us both function independently and in that terrifying way that married individuals can lose their sense of selves in marriage, we've both been able to reach toward our dreams while still supporting each other from afar.

I wouldn't recommend it, but it's possible. It's even possible to grow while you're in the midst of it all.

While things are becoming more concrete for me (i.e., I landed my ideal job in Chicago), things are still up in the air everywhere else...Jack's job, Jack's education, selling the house, our "permanent" living arrangement, and where we will ultimately move within Chicagoland. While my job-related uncertainties will settle down, I have a feeling the rest will be tumultuous for a while.

Don't you just love the word "tumultuous?" It sounds exciting!

Remind me of this sentiment when I end up in a straitjacket somewhere, sipping mocha-flavored Ensure through a squiggly straw!

Treehugger

I'm treading water, treading, treading, just keep treading.

{gurgle, gurgle}

Please throw me a life preserver, I'm sinkin' here!

Just as a warning, tonight's post is full of onomatopoeia's. BAM!

I'm actually sitting on my deck right now, soaking up the humid 89 degrees on this lovely Monday evening. I love hot weather! After I excused myself from a doctor dinner tonight, I came home at 7 and promptly set up shop on the deck, figuring I'd be productive and accomplish two analyses I was asked to present tomorrow morning.

Nope. So far I've done everything but get started on work.

Tangent! POW!

I decided that I love the expression "wrapping my head around it." I literally picture a brain stretching to accommodate a new object or two arms trying to reach around a tree trunk. Well, I'm still trying to wrap my head around a project I was asked to lead last week (Nurse Starbucks and Therese, sorry for the repeat story here). It's hairy, scary, crazy and I'm still working this out in my head. ZOINKS!

Muppetville's CMO tapped me again and this time, I wasn't able to defend myself! There was a big corporate meeting last week, in which the system execs discussed the upcoming roll out of Epic. Technically, I'm no longer invited to these meetings but have been told I can attend if they pertain to my areas or if something is of burning curiosity to me. Fine. I skipped so I could work on some strategic planning and meet with two core teams involved with our upcoming strategy retreat. Next thing I know, I get an email from the CMO (copying all the ceo's and coo's), thanking me for my help in leading the Epic care continuum project. Huh? How'd I get nominated for that?!

I instantly fought the temptation to either throw up or hide under my desk. I had to close my door, put my head down, and breathe deeply. How in the...? What in the...? HUH? Will someone please tell me what's going on?!??

I reread the email and saw that Elvis nominated me to represent the Chicago hospitals on this Epic team. There are four people total (one from each area of the system) and we are going up to EpicLand to design the clinical workflow and patient care coordination around Epic. Then we come back to the corporate execs' meeting and present our findings (current state versus future state analyses). These people are all Lean Six Sigma black belts with 10-20 years experience. Me? I'm a green belt with one and a half projects under my belt. On the upshot, they're all introverts and I have no problem presenting things to executives. I just know I'm in over my head and while I'm thrilled to be given this opportunity, it's daunting. YOWZA!

{pause as she climbs out from under the desk}

Our former surgery software just plopped itself in the middle of our clinical workflow and disrupted everything, so this process redesign is a good thing. I'm just trying to convince myself that I'll have enough time to devote to it without flipping out too badly. I know I'll flip out, I just hope it's not a terminal case! I'm not ready to go to the looney bin yet. Wait...do they have COOKIES there?

In other news, I've been acting like an administrator today (yes, this is newsworthy). I got a call from the ER when they were stuffed to capacity and had a rowdy (rude) patient making a ruckus in the waiting room. One of my managers called me to ask if she could change out a respirator mask if the ones on supply contract were not working for the department. Then I presented to 40 ER physicians about stroke and answered their questions (you can totally tell if someone is "old school" or "new school" by the types of questions they ask). I met another 15 or so employees in one of my departments this afternoon. And finally, I launched into an unsolicited litany about our legal review process and proposed that we fix it and all Nurse Jackie did was laugh and nod her head frantically. GREAT. Guess who just created another project for herself!?

All in all, I'm hanging in there. After all, I only feel like throwing up 23 times a day now! Wahoo!

Lost "Lost" Me

I used to be a Lost devotee. The pilot episode drew me in and I accepted the mysterious weirdness in the first couple of seasons…the hatch, the black fog, the polar bears, the unbelievably random back-stories of everyone stranded on the island together.

Then I decided that Lost was too weird and not only did I lose track of the story line if I missed more than 48 seconds of an episode, but the plot lines stressed me out.

I felt the same with 24 and ER. I expect surprising, stressful endings when I’m watching Notre Dame football. But regularly-scheduled television? Not so much. But in my tradition of watching series finales and formulating all sorts of unsupported opinions, I offer you my comments on Lost:

1. If they’ve been trapped on the island for years now, why is the 350 pound character still, well, 350 pounds? They can’t possibly have anything but nuts and berries on that island, right? Is that a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise I spy behind the secret hatch!?

2. I’m not sure why John Locke had such a central role. Didn’t he die in season two?

3. There are a bunch of new people on the island, folks with whom I’m not familiar. Did another plane crash on the island and why didn't that hit the tabloids?

4. I thought the Man in Black was a Will Smith movie from the late 90's? I

5. I think I understood the sideways world where it seems like everyone is in purgatory (or for the non-Catholic, limbo) and must figure out the purpose of their lives. That was brilliant and actually gave me good mental fodder while I’m waiting for my coffee pot to finish tomorrow morning.

6. I love the idea of magic island water. Where can I get me some of that? Will everything I sprinkle it on become a gorgeous tropical island? Or is it something you're supposed to drink? Nevermind, I probably already know the answer to that one!

I won't wreck the ending for you (Jack), but it was both symbolic and philosophically-pleasing to anyone who might look for something deeper in their weekday television entertainment. However, they still left about 31 unanswered questions (and those are the questions about which I know!). While there probably won't be any kind of sequel, there are plenty of unraveled threads that can be addressed in books and tv interviews with the producers!

Wink, wink.

Quote Journal: Writing

"I must confess that I have learned many things I never knew before ... just by writing."
-St. Augustine

I agree wholeheartedly! I'm glad I resumed the blog and my regular writing. Even though free time has been a scant luxury this week, the reflections are good for my mind and soul...and hopefully not too stressful for you!

Vacation Weirdness

Y'know that email forward that went around a year ago with weird ramblings like, "If Hawaii is an island, why does it have interstate highways?" I have my own list of ramblings from this spring's vacation:

1. I don't mind being sore from beach work-outs such as bodyboarding or jumping in the waves. I do, however, mind being sore from the gym and the balance ball.

2. That being said, it is much easier to work out when the gym overlooks a gorgeous pool with a waterfall and palm trees...especially when you know you have to don a bikini later that day.

3. I have bi-coastal Hurricane preferences. On the ocean side of FL, it's Grills. On the gulf side, it must be Beachhouse. And yes, both involve a lot of alcohol.

4. Signs are posted everywhere, that glass and alcohol are prohibited on the beach. So why are they selling Corona in glass bottles?

5. Florida has some weird local news stories. Every day, at least one story involved a massive snake or alligator.

6. Our personal culinary preferences generally stem from the great food Jack and I eat on vacation. Such examples include bacon-wrapped scallops, crab cakes, panko-encrusted salmon, wasabi-seared ahi tuna, lobster with Old Bay, jerk pork, black bean cakes, and champagne sangria. Are we just trying to recreate vacation when we cook at home?

7. Do hot tubs really encourage people to talk to each other? At the resort, we experienced several MTV-esque hot tub sessions that start out with collegiate questions like, "So where are you from?" and "What do you do?" I guess in college it was, "Where are you from and what is your major?" Still, we probably met 20 people in our various evening hot-tubbing. Oddly, many were from the Chicagoland area. We ended up becoming pals with several folks we met and really enjoyed that social element.

I already miss that resort (tear). I wonder if I can telecommute from my villa in Florida? And yes, the above picture is my own Corona moment from Cocoa Beach.