A Formatting Insight and Brunch in Everyday Ramblings

I finally figured out that the format here on the Box is all about the look on one’s cell phone. That appears to be where the emphasis is. My posts look odd on the page but on my cell phone they look great.

Anyway you guys know I like to take photographs that look like paintings. I think I succeeded in that here. I took some pictures of this lone tulip earlier in the day with my phone but the light, angle and quality of the picture just didn’t do it justice so I just ran back over the few blocks from my place and took this one with my camera.

This morning I walked over to the theater near Powell’s Books that is in a converted armory for the annual volunteer appreciation lunch for the hospitals I both work for and now volunteer at. It doesn’t get any easier as one gets older I am discovering to go to a big social event where one knows no one. I have met the volunteer coordinator team a few times so they at least knew who I was.

And just as I walked in the door one of the women at the sign in table said I looked really familiar and they she blurted out, “You did the receivables training! I snuck in the back.” She told me her name. We thought she hadn’t been able to make it. And were trying to figure out how she knew what to do a few days later.

She is quite impressed by Saint Joe. I told her I called him that. She asked if he knew and I said yes. She said his response time and professionalism were amazing. I didn't say this but inside I felt proud because a lot of this is, ummm, the way I trained him. I am going to recommend him on the strength of her spontaneous outburst for the staff award I won in secret.

Our Director is in Africa for three weeks on vacation and so I was amazed when her admin asked me the other day if I wanted a $50 Amazon gift card or a full paid day off for winning the award. It is still kind of a secret but now at least I have it in writing and a certificate for 8 hours off on my refrigerator.

Work is still being weird. My take no prisoners’ boss is into this “Lord of the Flies” thing with the local supervisor and our new Financial Analyst, a very bright young man. The guys all like Saint Joe, (he is bigger than any of them), they tease him mercilessly, all of which he takes good-naturedly. The office has been so female focused for so long it is very interesting to watch this male bonding, hunter he man thing going on. But it is completely unhelpful in terms of actual communication and work processes.

Week after next we are all moving upstairs. I’ll be next to the bright young man who has never made eye contact with me or spoken to me since he started. My boss avoids me and only speaks to me when he feels he absolutely has to. It is very quiet up there. Unnaturally quiet. It will be interesting to see how it plays out but I left the office Friday feeling that I was unlikeable, that folks used a completely different standard when interacting with me and that I desperately needed a new job.

I don't think there is much hope for that but I am going to try not to despair at the thought of five more years of this. Thank goodness I teach yoga right after work on Fridays. I enjoy it so much and my Friday student values the work we do highly. She was telling me after class that she thinks I have found my calling.

I chatted with an apprentice firefighter today (getting ready to enter paramedic training) who volunteers in adult ER and in the Diabetes Center. She has Type I Diabetes that was diagnosed when she was 10 and it is super cool that she talks to kids that are diagnosed now about what it is going to be like for them. She told me a component part of Mr. Fine China’s seizure during our recent snowstorm was probably brought on by the cold.

Not that any of you reading this are handsome eligible young men but I tell you that a volunteer brunch is a great place to meet gorgeous healthy young women going into the health field. Wow. We had three young women wanting to be RNs at our table, one works on the same unit as I do but at a different time.

I went over to the Athleta store before the event and finally signed up for the 30% teacher discount. They need to see a class schedule and your teaching certification (she was willing to look at a picture of it on my phone) and identification. I like the quality of their workout clothes.

Maybe when I take my secret prize day off I'll go shopping… oooh.

Oh and to go with the beautiful tulip, my niece managed to get my sister to a long delayed eye doctors appointment and my sister's eyes are significantly better! She didn't need her shot. The combination of addressing the inflammation and getting total nutrition was really good for her retinas. She is thrilled. How nice to find some good news in this oh so difficult period of treatment for her cancer.