7 Quick Takes Friday #9

This has been another week of tripping. So much has sped by so fast that I cannot believe that it is time again already to contribute to the 7 Quick Takes Friday meme hosted by Jennifer at Conversion Diary. So, here goes with a quick review of this compellingly full week.

1. I spent Saturday at a conference in Maryland. In contrast to the balmy weather of the first day of the conference on Friday, where I moderated a professional discussion, snow arrived Saturday morning, enthralling participants from warm climes such as Jordan and the Philippines, but nonplussing me because I had hope to get together with Shura, who was in Charlottesville, Virginia, staying with Julie, the nurse with whom he lived there during his various hospitalizations and for a number of years following, had come from Russia for only one week. As the snow deepened and travel advisories popped up, our plans to meet mid-point in Washington DC became at first dubious and then unimplementable. Shura will be back in June, thank God, so Julie, he, and I will meet in California, where a no-snow week can be guaranteed.

2. On Sunday, I attended St. Philip Neri Church in Linthicum. Whether it was the disappointment from missing Shura, unrecognized stress from knowing that I was "supposed" to be at breakfast at 9:00 and the 8:00 mass was the only one therefore I could attend, or the discomfort of waiting a long time in the cold, I was quite impatient with the cab driver when he showed up too late for me to arrive at mass on time and immediately announced that he did not know the Linthicum area and was prepared only to take me to Baltimore. I sent him away dismissively, contacted the hotel front desk, and learned that another cab was in the area. The second cab driver, a pleasant enough person, got me to the church promptly, so I was only a little late, and I made a deal with him to pick me up afterward. I handed him a $20 bill for the $10 fare and told him I would settle the bill with him when he returned. I had some difficulty concentrating during mass because, having finally reached my destination, I realized how rude I had been with the first driver. One of the blogs I read this week (sorry, I don't remember which at this late hour) made the comment that regret is not the same as penitence. Indeed! God is wonderful in such circumstances. I got a chance to make up for my rash behavior, when, on the trip back, the second driver told me he had called the first driver and chewed him out. I admitted that I might have reacted in anger, without trying to work out a solution, that it takes two people to differ. So, hopefully the first driver did not get into trouble. Then, splendidly, I learned that the second driver was in his final week of work and was returning to Haiti to try to help develop some of the infrastructure of that country that was lacking, especially for children. Not only had God given me an opportunity to undo what I had done with the first driver, but He had also provided a second driver whom I could help. Rather than "settling" the bill for the drive to the church, I let him keep the change, and I gave him a second $20 bill for the ride back to the hotel. I am not floating in money, but I was on per diem and could eat one less meal or whatever was needed to balance my own financial accounts. One should not pass up opportunities put before one by God to help another of His children do some good in the world!

3. Monday I was back to work in California. Yes! Home is where my heart is, and being home brought a sense of gratitude and comfort. In spite of a hectic work day that left my desk piled high with documents that needed attention at the end of the stay, I did not stay to complete the work, but rather dashed off to my Monday night prayer group. I assist the spiritual director who leads the group, and he had called to let me know that he was driving in from out of town and might be late, so I would need to start the activities. However, he arrived early, as did I and Sr. M, who helped us get set up. What a pleasant ending to the day: discussion, sharing, bonding, singing (I can usually read sheet music well enough to play nearly any song), and prayer.

4. Tuesday overwhelmed me in many ways. At work, we had representatives and managers arriving from all our branch offices to take part in our annual reverse evaluation, workshops, and meetings. I believe that every single one dropped by my office to give me a hug. (We are a hugging organization.) In the evening, I had to attend a mandatory community leaders' holiday party. That made me miss the mass for Tuesday's holy day of obligation. Goodness, this week I have been rapidly building quite a confession list!

5. Wednesday started inauspiciously. I briefed a visiting Army colonel from San Diego. An easy task, the briefing simply had to be transferred from my computer to the computer in the conference room, since we had updated our organizational briefing recently. No, not an easy task! My computer told me bluntly that I was not authorized to download anything. I called the tech to work on the problem, but for the briefing I had to borrow slides from one of the managers who works for me. Thank goodness, he had them easily accessible. No, nothing thankful about that, either, it turned out. The slides were the wrong ones. Not only were they dated, but they also did not include one entire division. I ended up briefing that from memory, using markers and the easel that was in the room. Fortunately, the colonel wanted company for lunch, and the easy conversation that flowed from that not only made her 30 minutes late for her next appointment but also built rapport between us that made up for the briefing. Yes! God takes care of me. Every time that i get myself into trouble, God provides a way to crawl out of it.

6. Yesterday, Thursday, was great. I always immensely enjoy our annual reverse evaluations. While they can be uncomfortable for new managers, since they are a collection of problems that get in the way of effective work accomplishment, presented publicly by employees who are selected by their colleagues as representatives from each office, they provide me with extremely useful information about how happy employees are, what policies are needed, what practices are effective or ineffective, and how employee-management relationships are faring. I, too, am a target for complaints, but that is fine. That is what the day is all about. To keep me honest, I bring in an outside facilitator from the local community, someone skilled at facilitation. We have used the same person for three years now. He says he likes facilitating our reverse evaluation more than any other facilitation work he does because our reverse evaluation tends to be a love-in. We end up with taskings for improvement. To each task, I assign an action officer who is responsible to ensure that agree-upon changes are actually accomplished, and progress is shared with all employees at all our branch offices and our main office through an Internet site. Employees enjoy the reverse evaluation, too, because they get a chance to change the organization in ways in which they would like to see it work.

7. Friday is here! I need to go to bed! I have to get up in three hours to ready myself to attend a very important meeting at the set of offices that is 15 minutes farther away from my house than my set of offices. We have one of our most senior people arriving from Washington. At least, I don't have to do the briefing! I also have to make a lunch to take with me because we will have a working lunch. Following that, though, I get to go back to my own office where we are having a holiday party. Yes! As Doah would say, "Par-tee, par-tee!"

I hope you have had as enjoyable a week as I have had. Certainly, ending it with a party is a great way for a week to go out. I have an even greater way post-party to end the week...Sleep!!!!!