Need I say more? Well, I suppose a little explanation... it was the best day ever career wise. Which for me is saying a lot. I have had some pretty stellar days if I do so say myself. I work REALLY hard, I put a lot of pressure on myself and my team to perform well. And today in front of the top 12 members of the executive management team of my company I was called out by 3 separate departments and given kudos. They said our team made a real difference in their ability to hit their goals and that they couldn't have done it without us. I was personally called out by one executive to say that I had risen above and beyond expectations over the last 2 days of meetings. That makes me feel see damn good. I'm not a person who toots my own horn, by nature I am humble. But on the anonymity that is the internet I feel a little more free to celebrate my successes. I KILLED it today. I want to be a part of this executive level team. I want more kudos. I am so in the right position at the right time in my life.
And now I'm going to call it a day because tomorrow is day 3 of this marathon of strategy meetings and I want to knock their socks off yet again. Which means I need a good night sleep. 2 1/2 glasses of Cabarnet Sauvignon means it's early to bed tonight. Cheers!!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Traveling.
Tonight I'm packing and prepping for my first business trip since Little One was 2. That trip was so hard (Vegas for 2 weeks for a company conference) I that I was searching for flights home after only 3 days and trying to figure out if "missing my baby" was a legitimate reason to head home 10 days early. It wasn't... I suffered through. Luckily this trip is only 3 days long and an hour and half drive away. Plus the fact that Little One is 7 makes a huge difference. She'll be in school most of the time.
I did have to hire a sitter for Monday afternoon/evening since Joe has a class that runs until 8pm. Luckily our little town is home to a private college that is ripe with wonderful babysitter candidates so one of our favorites will be getting Little One off the bus and handling the normal routine. Little One is excited to have a break from the after school program and get to head home right after school on the bus. That's a rare treat for her with our schedules.
One other happy coincidence that made this trip easier is that Joe is done with his 12 hour clinicals for the quarter. So this Tues and Wed he's home all day and can handle mornings and afternoons. Thank god. I don't know how I would have made it work. Have a sitter come to the house at 5:30am when he would normally leave to get Little One off to school? Then have them come back from 3-8pm? I guess that's what I would have had to do but I'm sure glad it worked out this way.
I'm going to miss Little One and am a bit nervous about the series of meetings I'm attending with the uppity ups at my company. Amazed at all the info I normally keep in my head that I had to put down on paper for the sitter and Joe. Homework, what day is what special activity and requires an art smock, gym shoes etc., appropriate snacks, dinner menu all planned out, what day Little One has chosen to buy lunch so don't send a packed lunch. Plus of course I decided the house has to be perfectly clean for the sitter (like a college kid will even notice that, ha) and all the laundry had to be done because surely they can't survive 3 days without every piece of clothing in the house being clean.
Off to bed I go! Hope they survive without me...
I did have to hire a sitter for Monday afternoon/evening since Joe has a class that runs until 8pm. Luckily our little town is home to a private college that is ripe with wonderful babysitter candidates so one of our favorites will be getting Little One off the bus and handling the normal routine. Little One is excited to have a break from the after school program and get to head home right after school on the bus. That's a rare treat for her with our schedules.
One other happy coincidence that made this trip easier is that Joe is done with his 12 hour clinicals for the quarter. So this Tues and Wed he's home all day and can handle mornings and afternoons. Thank god. I don't know how I would have made it work. Have a sitter come to the house at 5:30am when he would normally leave to get Little One off to school? Then have them come back from 3-8pm? I guess that's what I would have had to do but I'm sure glad it worked out this way.
I'm going to miss Little One and am a bit nervous about the series of meetings I'm attending with the uppity ups at my company. Amazed at all the info I normally keep in my head that I had to put down on paper for the sitter and Joe. Homework, what day is what special activity and requires an art smock, gym shoes etc., appropriate snacks, dinner menu all planned out, what day Little One has chosen to buy lunch so don't send a packed lunch. Plus of course I decided the house has to be perfectly clean for the sitter (like a college kid will even notice that, ha) and all the laundry had to be done because surely they can't survive 3 days without every piece of clothing in the house being clean.
Off to bed I go! Hope they survive without me...
Thursday, September 22, 2011
I need caffeine.
My brain hurts a bit today. Not sure why, just feel a bit in a fog. I think I need a nap.
School is reaching a fever pitch for Joe. He finished his clinical hours for his ER rotation yesterday. So for the next 2 weeks his Tuesdays and Wednesdays will be free which is AWESOME. Well, by free I mean he'll have that much more time to work on his homework which he desperately needs. His next rotation is in pediatrics at Children's Hospital. That will start up in mid-Oct after their fall break. I love when he starts a new rotation, good stories always come home.
He was sad to end his ER rotation, I know would like to apply work in the ER after graduation next spring. Some cattiness reared it's head amongst some of the nurses he worked with though. He reported some serious sterile technique violations that he was witness to and it ruffled a lot of feathers. He also reported some poor bedside manner issues that a nurse he was working with demonstrated toward a child and their parent. That did NOT go over well and apparently his preceptor shared his concern outwardly with the nurse in question. Nice. So he's got a great reputation with the dr.'s and some of the nurses, and some of the nurses HATE him. Ugh. That's how life has always been for him. He's a super over achiever and very strict rule follower, his expectations and standards are so high that he will often call out those who aren't living up to them in work situations. And now in nursing he feels obligated to work to the highest standards because the health of the patients depend on it. I just hope it doesn't hurt his chances of working in that dept.
I have 3 days of off-site strategy meetings next week for work. Sort of looking forward to them, sort of dreading them. I'm part of a group of 10 people attending that are all much higher in position then myself. I was invited by my old boss as a way to expose me to how these meetings work and the upper mgt team as I work my way up in the company. No pressure to perform or anything. And as of this Monday I have a new boss. My old boss is still with the company they just pulled the creative portion of the business from under marketing so we're under a new supervisor. I hate change. I really really really had a great relationship with my supervisor. So I'm sad. She didn't go any where and I know her door is always open to me but it still makes me sad. She was/is my #1 supporter and cheerleader, she knew how to challenge me in ways I would never challenge myself and when I made a mistake or a flub I knew I could turn to her without any concerns and we could work through it together. She let me work completely independently and was purely there as a support. Loved that. I learned so much from her about how to be a good manager. So I'm bummed. Pity party for one... I'll bring the whine.
We're headed on vacation in two weeks. We're renting a cabin in the mountains in NY with old friends from high school. 2 of my best friends from high school and their husbands and I have been getting together over the years for a group vacation. My husband went to the same high school and was buddies with these 2 friends as well. And all 3 of the husbands get along great. It's been 2 years now since we've gotten together and one of the couples has a little boy that is 1. Yay, our Little One won't be the only kid in the group this time. She's going to LOVE having their little guy to play with so much we probably won't even need to bring toys, he's enough of a toy for her! She loves kids and babies.
Time to go get an afternoon cup of coffee and see if I can kick this headache to the curb. Gotta get some work done.
School is reaching a fever pitch for Joe. He finished his clinical hours for his ER rotation yesterday. So for the next 2 weeks his Tuesdays and Wednesdays will be free which is AWESOME. Well, by free I mean he'll have that much more time to work on his homework which he desperately needs. His next rotation is in pediatrics at Children's Hospital. That will start up in mid-Oct after their fall break. I love when he starts a new rotation, good stories always come home.
He was sad to end his ER rotation, I know would like to apply work in the ER after graduation next spring. Some cattiness reared it's head amongst some of the nurses he worked with though. He reported some serious sterile technique violations that he was witness to and it ruffled a lot of feathers. He also reported some poor bedside manner issues that a nurse he was working with demonstrated toward a child and their parent. That did NOT go over well and apparently his preceptor shared his concern outwardly with the nurse in question. Nice. So he's got a great reputation with the dr.'s and some of the nurses, and some of the nurses HATE him. Ugh. That's how life has always been for him. He's a super over achiever and very strict rule follower, his expectations and standards are so high that he will often call out those who aren't living up to them in work situations. And now in nursing he feels obligated to work to the highest standards because the health of the patients depend on it. I just hope it doesn't hurt his chances of working in that dept.
I have 3 days of off-site strategy meetings next week for work. Sort of looking forward to them, sort of dreading them. I'm part of a group of 10 people attending that are all much higher in position then myself. I was invited by my old boss as a way to expose me to how these meetings work and the upper mgt team as I work my way up in the company. No pressure to perform or anything. And as of this Monday I have a new boss. My old boss is still with the company they just pulled the creative portion of the business from under marketing so we're under a new supervisor. I hate change. I really really really had a great relationship with my supervisor. So I'm sad. She didn't go any where and I know her door is always open to me but it still makes me sad. She was/is my #1 supporter and cheerleader, she knew how to challenge me in ways I would never challenge myself and when I made a mistake or a flub I knew I could turn to her without any concerns and we could work through it together. She let me work completely independently and was purely there as a support. Loved that. I learned so much from her about how to be a good manager. So I'm bummed. Pity party for one... I'll bring the whine.
We're headed on vacation in two weeks. We're renting a cabin in the mountains in NY with old friends from high school. 2 of my best friends from high school and their husbands and I have been getting together over the years for a group vacation. My husband went to the same high school and was buddies with these 2 friends as well. And all 3 of the husbands get along great. It's been 2 years now since we've gotten together and one of the couples has a little boy that is 1. Yay, our Little One won't be the only kid in the group this time. She's going to LOVE having their little guy to play with so much we probably won't even need to bring toys, he's enough of a toy for her! She loves kids and babies.
Time to go get an afternoon cup of coffee and see if I can kick this headache to the curb. Gotta get some work done.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Kicking A** and Takin' Names!
Do you ever have those days where you just feel like you are taking the world by storm? Totally had one of those days yesterday. I had a HUGE project at work that was on an insanely short deadline. I had to rally my creative troops and tackle concepting and design of 10 new products for a major retailer that many like to refer to by it's French name, Tarjay. It was iffy at best if we could get this all done in 4 days. But my group absolutely nailed it. We pushed, and worked our butts off, and brainstormed and designed like our hair was on fire. The presentation I lead was clearly above and beyond what the group expected, our awesomeness as a creative team and my prowess as a manager and art-director was confirmed (joking, I don't really have that big of a head), and it ended with high-fives in the stairway as my team departed the meeting. We had them at "hello."
When you have those days you just have to savor them, the adrenaline, the "I can do this" the confidence the follows for several days afterwards, or until the next big project gets dropped in your lap. These are the days that I say to myself, THIS is why I work. THIS feeling, THIS validation of my creativity, THIS joy in seeing a group come together and leading talented designers through a challenging project that forced them to do more than they thought they were capable of.
And to top it off I have stayed on top of the crazy influx of paperwork that accompanies the beginning of a school year for Little One, kept the house in decent shape, managed to get a hot dinner on the table each night and nailed down a schedule for volunteering in Little One's classroom once a month. I'll be working with a total of 12-16 2nd graders to put together a small production of poem's by Shel Silverstein.
Today I am owning my Super Mom, Super Employee, Super Boss title. I know it won't be long before I'm back in the monotony of everyday work and life, and I'll get behind in some area, or all areas, and wonder how the heck I'm going to make it through the day. But for now, I'm owning it. Watch out world!
- oh crap, did I forget to pay the electric bill. Gotta go get on that! :)
When you have those days you just have to savor them, the adrenaline, the "I can do this" the confidence the follows for several days afterwards, or until the next big project gets dropped in your lap. These are the days that I say to myself, THIS is why I work. THIS feeling, THIS validation of my creativity, THIS joy in seeing a group come together and leading talented designers through a challenging project that forced them to do more than they thought they were capable of.
And to top it off I have stayed on top of the crazy influx of paperwork that accompanies the beginning of a school year for Little One, kept the house in decent shape, managed to get a hot dinner on the table each night and nailed down a schedule for volunteering in Little One's classroom once a month. I'll be working with a total of 12-16 2nd graders to put together a small production of poem's by Shel Silverstein.
Today I am owning my Super Mom, Super Employee, Super Boss title. I know it won't be long before I'm back in the monotony of everyday work and life, and I'll get behind in some area, or all areas, and wonder how the heck I'm going to make it through the day. But for now, I'm owning it. Watch out world!
- oh crap, did I forget to pay the electric bill. Gotta go get on that! :)
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Single Parent Angst.
Ok, so I'm not really a single parent, but with Joe's work/clinical/class schedule this fall it feels like I am most of the time. I can't even attend curriculum night at Little One's school next week. It's scheduled for 6:30 and kids are not welcome. I pick her up from the after-school program at 5:45 and then I have to get a babysitter, seriously? Joe is in clinicals until 7:30 so there's no way he can be home to watch her. And I feel like after being gone ALL DAY the last thing I want to do is shuffle her off to yet another babysitter. There's only so many times you can impose on your neighbors you know? And with no family locally we're stuck. I really feel for all the single parents out there that do this with no support.
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