How Cool is This

So, I sent my child abroad with a small inexpensive camera to gather the one thing I wanted from her trip, pictures.  I love pictures and since I do not have the time to travel myself that's the only thing I ask for as a gift when people travel.  My mother already has this part down.  The next time I see her after a trip she hands me a flash drive full of pictures.  So, the child hands me the camera upon her return and I plug it into my computer and this is what I find.

Well that concludes the areal portion of the trip.  There were many more of these, some with an interesting array of morning fog, but you get the idea.

We move on to some street shots.  Some with commentary some without.

Cafe mademoiselle?

tres francais

Now to head inside.  There were a ton of indoor shots.  Lots of artwork and detailed architecture I only chose two to show because we'd be here all day otherwise.

okay one more

Although I'm starting to see why there was a revolution.

My daughter had a wonderful trip with many stories to tell.  She now has the travel bug and is looking forward to traveling in the future.  My job is done.

There is one other picture I have to show that she took.  It is here because when I was looking over her photos for this post it struck me that I'd seen it before.  I had to check the date stamp on the camera as well and it was taken in France not England.

okay on further inspection no, the picture I'm thinking of is more suburban with a bunch of young gentlemen walking across.  The question is does anyone know which picture I'm thinking of?

Being a Nomad

The last 6 months have been an incredible journey for me. My work life has changed drastically, but for the most part it has changed for the better. I previously tried to keep my work life out of this blog. I can't do this this time because the change in work status has greatly affected my home life, again mostly for the better.

I was, for 12 years, the supervising pharmacist in a single store of a large chain. I worked up the business over these 12 years. When I got the store it was literally on the chopping block about to be closed. I worked it up to a sizable clientele over the years despite some of the partners of questionable temperaments I was given. I hear by the way, they are still doing well.

I was given a lot of song and dance about 6 months ago about performance and company markers not being where they were expected to be and was given options as to my placement in the company. A side note here; I have since pulled everything apart that was said and do have it on paper. This exercise was more for my piece of mind than regaining my position. The way things were handled it would be impossible for me to return to my old store now or in the future. Which brings me to the options given to me. The 2 stores offered were not options on many levels. The last option was to "float" which is what I chose. (A "floating" pharmacist fills in when staff pharmacists go on vacations/call in sick etc. I have always hated the term, but I have to admit in some cases it is appropriate, and read anything into that statement you want it's probably what I really did mean.)

I won't lie to you, when the store thing fell apart I was devastated. Words cannot describe my feelings, unless I wanted to be typing them out for days and even then I'm sure I'd miss some. Then I started doing the floating gig and it was like a whole new me emerged. I was no longer tied down to the responsibilities of anything other than doing my job. I am responsible for implementing corporate policy and procedures but since I'm only in a store for a day or two at most in any given week, I am not responsible for store figures. I no longer have to be on conference calls or go to home office meetings on my days off. I do not have to go into my store any longer to make sure people are doing what they are supposed to or wondering what problem I am going to walk into on my next day that someone has deemed an "SP" problem. I am free! Free to be my happy cheerful self. Free of the stress that this project or that project is not going as fast as it should and that I may have to go in on my day off to complete it. I don't go into work knowing who is working with me and knowing ahead of time what the problems will be completing the day with these people. What tasks will lag due to the particular staff issues. I have found that the only thing I miss about my store are my patients and helping them. In 12 years I made many friends along the way. I do occasionally see some of them. I work in many area stores near my old one and some of my closest patrons have left on their own seeking pharmacists "more like me". One of them told me she looked for me on facebook recently, unfortunately I'm not there anymore. I may need to update that situation I really do miss the people I served over the years.

I have never been a fan of Machiavelli. I have never believed that the end justifies the means...ever! In this case though I have to admit the man had a point in limited scenarios and I will make this one exception. I have met a whole world full of people and shared experiences with them and had a grand time doing it. My name was new to the Nomadic roster (refusing to use the term floater to categorize my status) so many techs didn't know what to expect from me when I showed up. As SP for 12 years most of the SP's of the stores I went to recognized my name and at least new of me. There were many questions as to what happened that I tap danced around at first, mainly because at first I wasn't even sure what had happened. Now I just tell them I needed less stress and decided to do Nomad work for a while till I got my bearings straight again. I have to say I will never get tired of hearing, "oh thank god they sent you today, we like working with you." or "we saw you were coming and got excited." Nope, it never gets old.

I know at some point I will want to set some roots down and have a store of my own to call home but today is not that day. I like the fact that the most stressful part of my day is figuring out where the store I'm going to is located. Let's here it for online mapping sites! It also probably helps that I love to drive. Although, I have to admit my scheduler is wonderful and she keeps me pretty local most of the time.

So, for the people who read this blog on occasion that have been wondering what has happened to me I am alive, free, happy, and doing fine (and my family likes me a whole lot better these days too).

Remember Me?

Wow, it's been a looong time since I've written anything here. Fear not, I have not been turning all my attentions to the facebook page I have either. That page is almost as barren as this one. I've just been absolutely speechless most of the summer. Work has been crazy-busy this summer and I've had little energy to devote to writing it all down. Not that you would have seen it here though since I try to leave work out of this page unless it's something special. I am looking forward to my week of vacation coming up. I will have the week of Squee's birthday off. She will be 13 and she is almost taller than me. I figure by Christmas she will tower over me. This was to be expected though given that her father is 6' 3". Luck for me, this year she has decided to be a black cat for Halloween. A black cat with pink hair to give it an anime flair I should add. Nothing normal in this household by any stretch of the imagination and that's the way I like it. I also like the fact that I won't have to break out the sewing machine this year or spend hours working on the costume as I have in years past. All I need is a black turtleneck shirt and we will be good to go. In the event we don't get to the store to get her one I do have one or two of my own for the cause to pick from. So, all I have to do is brush out her wig from last year and we will be good to go. It will probably come as no surprise that I already own ears and a cat tail from one of my previous costumes. I usually dress for Halloween when I'm at work. The little one's that will be missing Halloween because they are sick really like it when the pharmacy staff are all dressed up. It's like they didn't miss all of the fun. I'm not sure if I will be dressing up this year, I haven't given it much thought. It's on Saturday this year which is a short day for me so I most likely will. I'll probably just use my gypsy fortune teller costume from last year. If I could wear it for 14 hours last year I can certainly wear it for 10 hours this year. Well, I'll try to keep you posted on that one. Time to go. I have a Squee child to annoy since she's home from school now. Take care!!

Why?!

Why is it that I can get onto the internet from anywhere in the house except from 6 feet away from the router on the love seat? I can move 5 more feet away to the far side of the couch and it works fine. I can go to other rooms and it works fine. I just can't use it unless I put it within point blank range if I want to sit in my favorite computing spot. I can't even blame it on interference from other electronic equipment because I'm usually all by myself when I get online so the TV is off and nothing else is running. I just don't get it.

Goodbye Specialsgurl you will be missed

I try not to write about work here but today is different. My lead technician, whom I have been graced with for many years has finally gotten a greatly deserved promotion. She arrived at my store, as several have over the years, coming from a difficult situation in the store they had been hired at. She was labeled as a troublesome employee that they had neither the hours nor the desire to train. Funny how I end up with these girls and the only thing I see is an intelligent young woman that is trying to do the best that they can in my store. In all cases where this has happened I have had no problem training these girls. In fact most have far exceeded any expectations myself or the company could ever had. The only thing I can figure is that with these girls you have to explain why certain things have to be done in a certain way. In other words, they don't just do what they are told because a higher up says it needs to be done. Once they learn the why's about a task, they are more than willing and able to get the job done the correct way.

When Specialsgurl came to me she was still very much a diamond in the rough. I could tell she was very strong willed, but she was very intelligent as well and I can work with that. She was still in her teens (around 18 years old) when I transferred her to my store and still had a bit of growing up to do, but who doesn't at that age. She was "just a technician" when she arrived, which was the top rank among non-pharmacist staff at the time. Shortly thereafter the role of "lead technician" started to be thrown around at our company. A new National certification exam had become available to technicians that gave them letters after their name and something to put on a resume. Our company had been trying to promote all technicians taking the exam so they came up with this new lead technician position. My partner and I finally got Specialsgurl into the exam and she passed it without a hitch, as we knew she would. That is really where she began to shine. She started to blossom into the person she is today. Giving her that little bit of responsibility made all the difference in the world. It didn't stop there. Many of the ideas she and other member of the staff had were tried out in our store and if they panned out she submitted the ideas to the tech trainers and district managers depending on what the idea was. Anytime we had an issue that arrose that needed fixing even if I had my own ideas I sought out hers or would tell her mine and we would brainstorm on will this work, how will it work, and can we make it better. She also worked as my bridge between my partners. She was there monday
through friday. Pharmacists rarely work on the same day in a two man store so they never see each other. Specialsgurl passed messages between myself and my partners making our store run smoother. She also kept a tight reign on the other technicians so I didn't have to worry about it. This last part was very handy during the times I had less than stable partners (and I've had a few of those).

So, we come to today. A new tech training program is being launched within the company. They have basically dissolved the current tech trainer (our area has 3 I believe or I should say had) positions and replaced it with one tech trainer. The few current trainer that applied from our region and the other nearby regions have been rejected. The District Managers were sent out to their stores to recruit likely candidates to apply for the job. Guess where they came looking. It's my own fault they came to our store. I had made sure that Specialsgurl got all the credit for her hard work and ideas over the years so that she was a known name at the regional office. Not sure I knew at the time that this would happen, but I knew my tech could make a career out of the company and wanted her options to be open. Well, they are wide open now. She went to the interview and got the job. Truthfully, if they hadn't given it to her I would have questioned their sanity on the issue. Her words to me when she told me were that I had never doubted that she would get the job, eventhough she had many doubts herself. I have worked in many of the surrounding stores of my area (a day here and there) there are only a handful that would have what it takes for this new position. Of those people I couldn't think of more than one or two that might actually go to the open interviews (and they didn't have me going over check lists of things to bring, what to wear, and what questions to expect).

I will really miss Specialsgurl. I will miss the morning "meetings" when I've been off the last few days to catch up on what's been going on in the store (and more to the point, life in general). I will miss the laughter, the banter back and forth, the powwows on how to get our store number back up when the fall, the including of the customers in our conversations, and of course the coffee (she brings me coffee every morning...probably to keep my mood up). In fact she asked me (and sounded rather disturbed about this) who was going to bring me coffee when she's gone. I assured her that after they get a load of me in the morning without coffee for a few weeks, someone will figure it out. Besides, the one who brings the coffee usually gets their lunch paid for by me. In case you are wondering why I don't get my own coffee in the morning. I work a 14 hour day most days. D&D is either a left turn in a really bad intersection or I have to go out of my way to get there. Add to that that half of those days are back to back 14 hour days, it's just not an option to start my day earlier just so the techs may live.

So, I am very pleased and happy that Specialsgurl has sprouted wings and left the nest (and a bit proud to boot). I'd like to think that I had something to do with it, although this girl would have gone far in almost any environment. I keep telling myself that this is really not goodbye, that we will still be in the loop with each other. Over the years she has transformed from the diamond in the rough into a sparkling gem. Part of me feels the joy of a mother. Part of me feels the pride as her supervisor. Most of me is beaming at how far she has come and where she is going and the fact that I can call her my friend. Goodbye for now Specialsgurl...your daily presence will be missed.

I give up...you people win

Well, it would seem that the evil facebook people have won. I have had many requests from friends and family to add myself to facebook over the last few months. I have tried hard to resist them but you people finally wore me down. I now am on facebook.

Time Fly's

I didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted. I did find A new car on my first day out. Yes, I bit the bullet and bought a 2009 Jeep Liberty. I got a deal I couldn't refuse so I went with a new one instead of a used one. I love it! It's very comfortable for me to drive and I really like the way it looks. They redesigned the body type so it looks more like the Jeep Commander. I actually liked the look of the Commander over the more rounded old style for the Liberty so this worked out as well. The Commander is just too big a vehicle for me...I'd be a little nervous driving something quite so big. So, that is the big news from the past month. Work has taken up most of my energy lately so I really haven't done much of anything else. Well, unless you count cleaning out all of my kitchen cabinets so I can rearrange the kitchen to make room for the armour that sits in my livingroom. All that is left of that project is clearing off the kitchen table so it can go downstairs and getting a breakfast bar for the kitchen. The Squee child is going to help with clearing off the table (and clearing under it) so that the big bear and I can get it downstairs. I hope he has a spot ready for it. At least then two rooms will be finished upstairs. Well, finished until we decide to redo the upstairs plumbing, but that is a ways off when we redo the bathroom upstairs. It's been a slow process but at least I feel like I'm getting somewhere now. I may even get the livingroom straighted away the way I want it by the end of the Summer at this rate. So, that's what I've been up to the last few weeks.