7 Quick Takes Friday #61

See more 7 Quick Takes Friday contributions at Jennifer Fulwiler's Conversion Diary.

I have not posted for quite some time to the 7 Quick Takes Friday -- for a month, give or take a week or so, it would seem. So, this week I figured I would pull out the most salient of the experiences of the past weeks.

1. Burying Biseh. The little cat who purred like a trible (for those familiar with Star Trek, the original series) and whom we brought back from Jordan five years ago for our grandson Nathaniel was hit by a car recently. Biseh, which means "cat" in Arabic, had wandered around our campus in Amman as a feral cat for some time when I found students kicking her, so Donnie and I adopted her. Bringing her back was quite easy. Surprisingly, for a feral cat, she slept peacefully all the way home under my plane seat. Nathaniel quickly bonded with her and loved the way that she became overexcited when she was petted and began to make high-pitched rumbling sounds (just like the tribles on the Star Trek episode, "The Trouble with Tribbles"), so he was quite distraught, so our son Shane let Nathaniel decide what we should do with Biseh's body. Since Shane and family live in a rented house, Nathaniel decided he would like to bury her under our tree and come visit her often. So, that is what we did, and that is what he does.

2. Meeting little tigers at a birthday party. Noelle and her roommate (who moved in after Ray died) recently adopted two tiger-striped kittens (orange tabbies, one each). One is named Angel, and I forget the name of the other one. (No, it is not Devil!) Not long after Ray, Noelle's husband of ten years, died, her cat, Prince Shadow, died. It was definitely not a good year for her last year. So, it is good to see that she has found a diversion and a way to love again, even if it is one of the smaller of God's creatures.

3. Old Mission stuff. Once a year Old Mission has a fiesta to raise money for various projects and needs. The Mahlou family is always one of the cleaning crews. We were the first crew this year because I had quite a surprise for that day. A few days earlier I got a call from a mutual friend who told me that the woman, Lida, with whom I had often stayed when I was doing consults in Uzbekistan in the 1990s, was in town, her first visit ever to the USA. She and her granddaughter and local relatives came to the fiesta, so for once I only worked for one shift and then enjoyed a very special day with a very special friend. (For more details, see my earlier blog about this: Our Amazing Modern World.) The following Sunday (last Sunday) was confirmation for the 16 kids who were in my catechism class last year. As is traditional, the bishop came for the confirmation, and the kids in my current class, hosted the cake and strawberries that were served in the mission gardens after Mass.

4. A threatening visit. Our office had quite a threatening visit from headquarters last week. An inspection team came for the purpose of deciding which of our branches/programs would be closed because of lack of money. (Yes, the economy is hurting us, too.) We all prepared assiduously, rehearsed our presentations multiple times with the CEO coming around and murder-boarding all of us senior leaders. We showcased our products and our people and opened the door to all our activities. Following our wonderful CEO's non-defensive attitude, we welcomed the team hospitably, and even held a very nice formal reception upon their arrival at the CEO's home. Well, by the end of the week, they said our programs were all super and they would look elsewhere for budget cutting. Yes!

5. Picnic with an enemy. I invited one of the people in our Washington office to a BBQ at our new home while he was visiting here with his family. We have had to coordinate closely over the past 18 months. Prior to that, he had worked here locally (about three years ago), and he and I were not on good terms. Actually, I was on okay terms. However, he and his supervisor did not like me much because I always "seemed to get [my] own way" when we disagreed on how things should be done. Essentially, I was simply concerned that my trainees got the best possible training, and I did know more about that particular kind of training than the two of them did -- but they were unwilling to admit that, did not have particularly good ideas for the training, but felt the need to "win" at all costs. In leaving the BBQ, my colleague noted, emotionally, how wonderful it had been to work together the past 18 months! I love it when enemies become friends -- and breaking bread together never hurts!

6. On Monday, I went up against our CEO's new staff action coordinator. I need to replace my assistant who is leaving on Tuesday, and the new SAC was unwilling to replace him. I would need to jump over him and go to the CEO if he did not budge, but first I had to deal with him. He spent an hour demeaning me, arrogantly making comments about what I do or do not need (he has not been introduced to any of my programs; he cannot possibly know what I need and do not need), pointing out that I was a poor leader because I had not replaced my assistant (but he is the one standing in the way of my replacing him; I pointed out that he was being disingenous, calling me out for not replacing him when he would not let me replace him; he stopped the berating for a minute at that, mainly, I think, because he did not know the meaning of disingenous), and otherwise trying to demonstrate that he was the #1 person for making decisions about what goes on in our organization (i.e. trying to wear his boss's position -- not the first time I was to encounter that this week). I really wanted to deck him, but fortunately there was a table between us! The bottom line is that I won, and the paperwork for my assistant has been submitted to headquarters -- but I am still trying to determine at what cost. At a formal ceremony yesterday, the SAC deliberately snubbed me. Not that I care, but it will be a long two years (the length of his appointment here) if we cannot work this out. While I would like to take aim at him, I guess I am going to have to do what I tell my junior managers to do: learn to love him since he, too, is God's child. Yeah, really, somewhere inside is that God-seed. I wonder how long it will be before I can remember this without deliberately reminding myself. I guess this requires more loving impossible people!

7. Insubordinate subordinates. Usually, I have no problem with subordinates, but this week something went really, truly awry, and I spent most of the past two days trying to bring peace back to my small part of the world. First, my budget manager submitted the budget changes for the remainder of the year without consulting with me; in doing so, he made some major decisions about expenditures and priorities that differ from what my philosophy is and decisions would have been. I had to pull the budget back, which, of course, embarrassed him. I also had to counsel him about not putting himself into my position, i.e. not wearing my hat. He argued for the decisions he had made, but I ultimately had to tell him that my opinion is the one that had final sway. He pouted but made the changes. Later, he wrote me a note of apology and promised to "stay in [his] lane" in the future. I hope this is a watershed experience because he has, at times, intimidated some of my senior managers by implying that he is speaking for me when he is not. Second, likewise, one of the center directors who works for one of the senior managers who works for me often intimidates his employees by referring to a personal friendship between him and me, implying that if they are not happy with his leadership, that is just too bad because no matter what I will be supporting him because of our personal friendship. I have counseled him on this before, noting that one must earn respect on one's own authority and that his orientation is very different from the servant leadership approach that I advocate. (Managers who are not familiar with servant leadership concepts might like to read some of the literature on the topic. This link contains a list of a number of helpful books: servant leadership books on Amazon.) The most blatant recent (yesterday) thing he did was to move, without asking, into the office beside me even before my deputy had finished packing out. He talked my deputy into letting him move in because his office was being remodeled. However, there is an office in another part of the building where his employees are located, but he prefers to rub elbows with the senior managers, which he is not, and that creates more problems between him and his employees. I had to tell him to move out, to move into the office with his employees, and, on Tuesday, the person will be serving temporarily as my deputy will move into that office. Meanwhile, yesterday his employees posted a sign on their office door that said, "la bastille." Obviously, he has created a hostile working environment, so now next week I am going to have to gather them all together along with the center director's supervisor (who works directly for me) and see if I can restore a reasonable working atmosphere. Sheesh!

And to make matters worst, at the end of a week that started not all that well (with my accidentally bringing a small, fliptop can of cat food [instead of tuna] for lunch and ended not all that well (with employees fleeing "la bastille" by none of those in that center showing up for work today), I picked up some fruit at our local grocery store this evening, and the bill came to $6.66. Not that I am superstitious!

Wishing you all a great weekend, including the upcoming Fourth of July holiday for those living in the USA.

7 Quick Takes Friday #47

See more 7 Quick Takes Contributions at Jennifer Fulwiler's Conversion Diary.

It must have been a really full week, and yet it did not seem so. However, as I sit here, trying to remember what I did, I cannot remember a thing except eating turkey yesterday at Old Mission and cleaning BIG pots and pans afterward. Oh, well, I will start with that and perhaps the rest of the week will pop back into my memory. Senior moments already? Or, just an overfilled memory?? (Ooh, I hope the latter...)

1. So, okay, yesterday. Old Mission Church puts on a feast for the entire town with donated goods. It looks like we fed about 400 yesterday, which, counting kids, would be 25% of the town. It is a good place and time for everyone to get together. The mission is the center of the town's life, and Fr. E is pretty much considered the town's father. (I think he looks at it that way, too.) Doah and Noelle came; Shane and his family had their own event in a nearby town with Lemony's family. I was able to snatch a couple of pictures. On the left is Donnie, Noelle, and Doah with a family friend, Bennie, who was working the serving line. On the right is Sr. Delores, who lives at the local convent for Sisters of the Atonement (Franciscan order) along with Sr. Maria, whom I have mentioned before. Sr. Maria was not in town; she went to the central valley to be with her biological sisters. It was, however, nice to have Sr. Delores, Sr. Catherine, and Sr. Mary Catherine with us at the feast. I believe some of the friars came down from the monastery at the retreat center since they usually do, but I missed the first wave this year -- had to pick up Noelle and Doah -- and so may have missed them. Saw some folks from there at Mass earlier in the morning, though.

2. Ah, now I remember Wednesday. It was a day of rubbing elbows with all the folks who work with me, which is really great. Too often I am at meetings at headquarters or at meetings in other cities. Being in Seaside the entire day of Wednesday and in and out of my office gave a different color to the day. All morning, the junior managers presented their programs to all the senior managers and some visitors, telling us of their accomplishments during the last quarter and their concerns for the next. That was a good discussion. The day ended with an all-staff meeting to welcome new faces and say goodbye to old friends moving on to other jobs through promotion or new positions.

3. It's working! Now I remember Tuesday! Tuesday was hell day. I had no less than THREE meetings scheduled at the same time for every hour of the day. None of them were my meetings, i.e. none that I had scheduled for my staff and could therefore postpone or cancel. Some were at headquarters (a 20-minute drive) and some in my building. Some were mandatory financial and personnel meetings; others were entertaining high-level visitors. I passed to my deputy all the visitors. That took me down to two meetings simultaneously, and I found other senior managers to take over those. Whew! Talk about exhaustion! (My sister says that she really likes the idea of triple-scheduled meetings because it gets them out of the way faster!)

4. Monday was a meeting day, as well, but also one of crisis resolution. My boss was grumpy, which did not help because he was trying to solve problems in ways that I knew were not supported by regulation. So, I had to maneuver around that approach. Also, one of my best and most essential senior managers had his pay level (which is about 50% of what he could make elsewhere) attacked by the head of the personnel office who is trying to remove the retention bonus I gave him when he was offered a job elsewhere at double his currently embarrassingly low salary. It seems to be a personal vendetta, and I am still working on trying to fend that off. I was really happy when time came for our prayer group.

5. Our prayer group is as much a faith formation as a time for prayer. We include both, as well as singing. We have just finished reading and discussing Richard Rohr's Things Hidden, from the point of spiritual direction (the co-leader of the group is a trained spiritual director which is likely why we have moved in this direction). We liked doing that so much that we decided to try out another book for the next few months, Warren's The Purpose-Driven Life. Has anyone read this book? It turned out that everyone in the group had the book at home, but no one had read it yet. Good candidate for our meetings! On Monday, we had a new member show up who was really hurting because of very recent trauma in the family. We spent most of the time, then, in prayer with and for her. It was appropriate timing and probably not a coincidence.

6. Sunday -- yes, I am remembering now -- we had a meeting of the Secular Franciscan Order at the St. Francis Retreat Center nearby (well, nearby for me -- I could almost walk the distance, but most members come from much farther away). I brought some sugar-free baklava (yes, there is such a thing -- order it from shilla.com), which everyone liked, especially the thought that it was not causing bad things for diabetic systems. Sr. Delores (yes, the same person pictured with Doah above) is our relatively new spiritual advisor, and she led a beautiful prayer service at the beginning of our meeting before we got into the experience sharing, Franciscan rule discussion, and baklava eating.

7. And then there is Saturday, and I am still pulling a blank. It would have been great had I stayed home and vegged out, but that is not me. Staying home is a vacation; the only time I get to do it is when I take a stay-cation. There is no better place in the world to be than in San Ignatio Since where I really was remains a mystery, at least for now, I am giving you a couple of pictures of San Ignatio to enjoy.

Wishing you a pleasant week -- and one that you will remember!

7 Quick Takes Friday #37

See more 7 Quick Takes Contributions at Jennifer Fulwiler's Conversion Diary.

This week seemed to sort itself into themes. Here are seven of them:

1. Reading short things. I did not read any novels this week, but I read many short things, starting with Mass last Friday. There were two readings, a long one and a short one, and I had to choose on the spot which one to read because the regular reader was absent, in which case I often end up reading but without preparation. I chose the short one. Fr. Thomas had prepared his homily based on the long one! He adjusted! Then I gave away the most recent translation of one of my favorite Persian poets, Rumi, the original whirling dervish. His poetry is delightful, and I was able to read most of the new collection before handing the book over to a visiting employee from our Georgia office. I had told this employee, who hails from Iran, that I had recently acquired this book, and when I saw him salivating over that information, I offered to loan him the book. When he arrived earlier this week, he asked if the offer was still good. It was, and he got the book. I told him I would pick it up next year when I am scheduled to once again go to Georgia, but if he keeps the book, that is fine. The poems were short; I have read most of them. Then there were memoes, articles, concepts of operation, proposals, reports -- for some reason, many more than usual this week. Some non-critical ones, in fact, are still in my email for next week! I probably did read a novel this week if you put together all the paperwork and all the topics within them; in fact, it would have been quite an engaging novel!

2. Love. Love flooded this week, beginning with Mass on Saturday. I walked in just seconds before Mass was to start. Everyone was lined up to proceed down the aisle; they were just waiting for the song to be announced. I slipped in the side down and walked to the back of the church to pick up a song book. Fr. E caught the movement, got out of line, met me partway, hugged me (as he would have anyone walking through the door at that moment), then returned to the line-up. At the back of the church were three of my catechism students, deciding where they would sit. Hugs all around! Then, as I made my way to the pew where I usually sit, several people reached out and squeezed my hand as I passed. That is why I am devoted to Old Mission and to San Ignatio. The town swims in love.

3. Humility. One does not usually talk about humility with one's employees. Work performance, sure. Achievement, certainly. Development, yes. Needs, you bet. Skills, yep. Family matters, yeah, sometimes. Humility? Now that's not your everyday boss to supervisee topic, but it was an important one this week. Since it is a rather long story and I already posted the details on Modern Mysticism, I will let you go there if you wish to read all about it: Humility.

4. Caring. Another topic I became involved with that I blogged about earlier this week is the situation in Pakistan and the efforts of an acquaintance of mine in Karachi to help her fellow countrymen, along with the details of how we can help her if there is interest in doing so. Details are here: Come Along on a Journey to Help Pakistan One Family at a Time.

5. Fellowship and fun. Where can greater fellowship and fun be found than at a pizza party? A dozen employees from six different regional offices came to town for some training from an exceptionally famous guru. I grabbed them over lunch to reacquaint myself with them and their concerns, share recent developments here locally, and bond a little. For bonding, we needed some "glue," so I ordered pizza. Just the thing! By the end of the noon hour, there was a considerable amount of camaraderie, which was especially delightful because some of the individuals had never met, e.g., those working in Hawaii and those working in Georgia or Maryland. Great fun, smack in the middle of the week!

6. Trust. One successful way I have found to build bonds, team spirit, and trust is an annual reverse evaluation. I recently asked some outside experts to evaluate our evaluation. In telling my employees about this, they pointed out how much trust has developed from the reverse evaluation, so much that perhaps it is no longer needed in the way it was earlier. People feel free just to send critiques and concerns directly to me or to their managers through the email with their names attached. Of course, we will continue the reverse evaluation. It is one of the primary tools that has changed my workplace in a mere four years from a dysfunctional workplace full of suspicion and hostility to a loving, supportive, spiritual, TRUSTING place where even I like to come to work every day even knowing the number of challenges that will have to be addressed to complete our tasks and missions successfully, given how far-flung worldwide our operations are.

7. Fatigue. I would be less than honest if I did not admit that this has been a very tiring week. Except for Monday, when I returned home in time for our evening prayer group, I have worked until late into the evening every day. Combine that with going in early every. I had several early morning meetings, including this morning at 0730 when I had the pleasure of spending some time with the guru mentioned above. Some days I went in early because I wanted to get ahead of the 1800 emails in my mailbox that greeted me when I opened email toward the end of the day on Monday, Monday being so full of meetings, including one excruciating 3-hour meeting going over line item by line item all of our contracts, that I never got to my email until near the end of the day. I am pleased to report that when I decided to call it quits at 7:00 this evening, I was down to only 883 emails!

7 Quick Takes Friday #36

See more 7 Quick Takes Contributions at Jennifer Fulwiler's Conversion Diary.

Well, first of all, I have to say that this has been a week of nudity, or at least possibilities for nudity, as you will see. Then, there were the travel snafus, but that is par for the course. Finally, there were some enjoyable moments with great people. All in a week's work!

So, then, here are my quick takes, with emphasis on quick since I have to get to bed tonight in order to get to the airport tomorrow to take the trip back to where I came from and get set up to do it all over again to a new location in a couple of weeks, in other words: business as usual.

1. Sunday. Well, I have blogged about Sunday, at least the part of it when I ended up late for Mass and nearly had no clothes to wear. At least, some okay-but-could-be-more-appropriate things-to-wear fell under my hand at the last minute as I was dashing out the door. (See post, On Being Worthy.) The immediate post-Mass part of Sunday was spent entertaining friends at a BBQ in our yard. Donnie cooked, of course. No knowledgeable person would ever agree to eat something I had made. (As Doah wrote in his book, Mommy Poisoned Our House Guest, "my mommy is a very nice mommy but she is a very bad cook." With Donnie behind the grill tongs, a delicious time was had by all.

2. Sunday again. After our BBQ, Donnie and I had to dash to Casa Maria, the restaurant/community center building at Old Mission, where Fr. Ed had made arrangements for all of us who had helped out with the annual fiesta (I was nearly the sole clean-up person for more than 8 hours for a crowd of hundreds) to have a special meal together. Oh, oh! Two big meals in one day! Good-bye, diet! Sunday's activities added up to a two-pound gain, so eating will be removed from my activity list for this coming week.

3. Monday. Our prayer group met on Monday, as usual, but the meeting was far from business as usual. My co-director had stumbled into big trouble: after moving and having taken on a brand-new mortgage, his overtime was eliminated and his wife lost her job. Stage right, enter panic. Stage left, enter depression. While they have been able to build stability into their financial lives beginning in 6-8 weeks and their mortgage had been taken care of up-front before moving, everyday living and ongoing bill payment looked hopeless. But, never fear, there is always hope when God's credit card is near! Everyone contributed a little bit (total $70), and I charged to God's credit card the remaining amount needed to purchase a $500 visa card for them. (See Sometimes It's Our Own for details of that decision and issues of trust related to it.) So, we met at one of the member's house to give my co-director and his wife a housewarming party and, unknown-in-advance to them, the visa card. Overwhelmed, they told us that the amount was just what they needed to make the bridge to the period of stability that lay a few weeks ahead of them. It was an emotional meeting, and as for that trust, well, the following day, I was able to get airline tickets, using my free miles, for the abused sister of a friend and her two young daughters. My friend, who also belongs to our prayer group, had only been able to raise $200, which was not enough for the tickets. When I was able to get the tickets for free, she donated the collected $200 to helping pay off God's credit card. I have no doubt that the other $210 will appear before the payment is due to the credit card company; it always does. After the meeting, I ran past Shane's house to take in his garbage cans since he, Lemony, and kids had gone fishing. (Nathaniel caught his first fish.) From the sublime to the simple! All in a day's work!

4. Tuesday. As not uncommonly happens, my trip to Georgia became instantly complicated when I arrived at the airport and learned that my plane was delayed. That created a domino effect, and I ended up stranded part-way, in Phoenix. The airline put me up at a hotel overnight, but I did not have access to my luggage, i.e. no pajamas. So, I enjoyed an evening of prancing about nude, except for some moments on the balcony when I did discreetly wrap myself in a towel. Some naughty moments in one's life can be nice.

5. Wednesday. The day had an inauspicious start. On the heels of the plane fiasco, one might think I had had my share of troubles for one trip, but that was not to be the case. Having received the bill under my door, I did not have to check out at the desk, so I left the key in my room, closed my door which locked it, then headed to the elevator, only to find out that I needed the key that was in yh room to open the door from the hallway to the lobby. Catch-22, a real gotcha! After wandering in a few circles, thinking that perhaps I would need to call the front desk and be released from my self-created prison, I discovered that there was another elevator. I tried that, and it dumped out into the lobby, no key needed. Whew! However, my wanderings resulted in missing breakfast. No big deal; I needed to give up eating anyway. With a major dash between the closely connecting flights once I arrived in Charlottesville, I made the final leg to August, Georgia without any difficulties. Lizzie picked me up at the airport, which always amazes me in that it looks more like a villa than an airport (probably it was at one time) and brought me to her house. I unpacked. Oh, oh! No clothes for work the next day. Ah! I remember putting them next to the suitcase but not in it, and Donnie had apparently zipped the suitcase, as it was, and put it int the car. So, the day had an inauspicious finish to match its start. I borrowed some university-professor-style clothes from Lizzie, not at all like my normal business attire, and somewhat oversized for me, and deciding that it was the best I could do, went to bed.

6. Thursday. What a lovely day! After leaving Lizzie's country home in South Carolina (see photo), I headed for the Georgia border and our office, where I made several presentations to the people in our Georgia office, met with clients, and spent some time with our director and assistant director. I only come once a year, so people are always happy to see me. It is like a reunion. Everyone had brought in their specialties for lunch, and we had a buffet together in the office. Yummy! Too yummy! So much for not eathing this week! I will stop eating next week!

7. Thursday again. For dinner, the director and assistant director took Lizzie and me to dinner at the Bonefish Grill, a local chain restaurant with yummy seafood. Oops! Too much food again! I checked my weight as bedtime neared. Yep, weight gain in lieu of the weight loss hoped for this week. Well, let's see, there is always next week...

Wishing you a great next week! (I won't be eating, but I hope you will be!)

7 Quick Takes Friday #32

Another week, another seven days of work, at least another seven learning experiences. Here are the thoughts that have accompanied this week's experiences. Thanks to Jennifer Fulwiler for hosting the 7 Quick Takes meme at Conversion Diary.Since it is not-so-early morning right now, I am going to post these without pictures this time, and this evening, insha Allah, along will come the pictures. Otherwise, I will be quite late to work, and in spite of all the disappointments there this week and last, I would like to keep my job, at least for a while!

1. The Old Mission fiesta chairman called for a final meeting to clean up all the stuff that we had just thrown into the parish educational center after last week's fiesta. Of 100 volunteers, only two of us showed up. I guess clean up in any format is not anyone's favorite activity -- except mine. I can really make a mess of some things, like cooking, but clean up is something I can usually accomplish passably well. So, the three of us had fun. It was better than the actual fiesta where a good part of the time I was the only one doing clean up for 300 or more people at a time.

2. I took Tuesday off to attend a meeting at Doah's group home about his progress at the home and at work. Well, a tad bit of progress on his part socially and at work, but the biggest expectations for progress are in the area of executive function, i.e. impulse control and judgment, which is a difficult thing to effect because we are pretty certain that his brain damage occurred in the frontal lobe area, the location of executive function. At least, his case worker is going to join us in trying to get his psychologist to work more on behavior control and less on drugging him. Finally, our voice has been heard! (The psychologist would not listen to us in the past.) (In photo: Doah loves to take pictures; he took some of the best at his cousin's wedding last month.)

3. Prior to the Tuesday meeting, I went to noon Mass. There I met two visiting nuns. Sr. Maria introduced them to me. They were all relieved when I was able to communicate with Sr. Maria Clara who is from the Goaina area of Brazil. I have spent some time there in the past, so I could speak some Portuguese with her. Folks here have been trying to speak Spanish, and she could understand them but they could not understand her very well. (Spanish is a popular second language in Brazil; I used it as a crutch when necessary while there.) Sr. Catherine, it turns out, has been living in New Hampshire and knew some members of my family! (My family spreads across the line from Maine to New Hampshire, and I went to school in both states.) It is a small world, indeed!

4. The up and down of changes at the office continued this week. First, I was reporting to a very senior person being added to our division (in addition, to several projects being moved out because we have been so successful and grown so large), then that would person would report to me, then, the final version settled on, I would report to that person and not to my boss. My boss and that person would both report to the local chair of the board (who would report to the regional, etc.). At this point, I know that my job is to see everyone safely, successfully, and happily through the change, and I am not worrying about what happens to me personally, to whom I report, or who reports to me. These things will work themselves out, I am certain, based on my walk with God this past week.

5. Surprise! Two foreign generals visited us today - a rare experience. One of them fell in love with the dog pictures in my budget director's office. The budget director volunteers at the SPCA and works to socialize the large dogs so that they can be adopted. The general adopts wounded dogs! They talked, and the general gave my budget director a memento coin. My budget director was ecstatic since it was from a foreign military. My thought? Yes, indeed, it is a very small world!

6. I usually don't report on movies, but Bible Study was canceled on Wednesday night so I had some found time. Donnie suggested a movie, and we watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. It is such a powerful movie, about the friendship between a German boy and a Jewish boy in a concentration camp during WWII. The ending is overwhelming, but not the usual. I won't say more than that because it will spoil the movie for anyone who has not seen it and wants to watch it. I highly recommend it, but not as a mood lightener! (It was especially poignant for me because my budget director's father is the only member of his immediate family -- siblings and parents -- to survive Auschwitz. The budget director and I talk about that sometimes because the father's experience had a major impact on his own children.)

7. As for other evening activity this week, I have been chasing chairs. We are having two BBQs next week. With 20+ people expected for each, I need folding chairs. Every store we have gone to has had only a few; in one case, only one! We live fairly far from any city, so we traveled south, north, and east to acquire the chairs. I think I have enough. I would have liked 2-3 more. Maybe tonight we will go west!

Wishing you a blessed Friday (the remainder of it, that is) and a great Fourth of July weekend!

7 Quick Takes Friday #31

What a week! I am not certain that I can even recall every day so I shall simply point out the high points (or, in some cases, the low points). I decided to illustrate each point with flowers, mainly because I am feeling the need for something pretty to cheer me up as I look back over the last week! (Check out Jennifer Fulwiler's blog on the same meme; she hosts the meme on her Conversion Diary blog, and this week her post is far cheerier than mine, I fear.)

1. The week started out not at all well (little did I know that it would be downhill from there) with the announced retirement of our Director of Operations. Now, retirements are good events, things to celebrate. However, in this case, the director, who has been retired in place for a while, decided to make a point about his boss being too demanding. (Let's see: the boss demanded that the director come to work to work every day, that he show up sober, that he put in a full day of work, and that he actually accomplish work, such as meeting deadlines on supplying equipment and desks for new employees. I suppose that was pretty off-putting.) Actually, the boss can be abrasive, for which I have informally counseled him on several occasions, the problem being that he does not know when he is. The director wanted to talk to me, stated that the retirement decision was not an act of defiance but a matter of his health (he does indeed have health problems), and that he would stay to help out with making sure our ops needs for the year were met if I would ask him to do so. Well, hm, now what to say? I told him we could not put his health at risk for any selfish need. He accepted that, but I am sure that he was frustrated because this was clearly an attempt to walk back his decision to retire. However, since he has essentially done no work for six months and two bosses in a row have not been able to keep him at work for more than 2-3 hours a day, letting him follow through on his retirement, the coward's way out perhaps, seemed the gentlest thing to do. I did ask him not to leave bitter, no matter how angry he was with his boss, because the emotions associated with his last days at work may color how he remembers his entire tenure with us for years to come. He left my office not entirely satisfied.

2. Sunday was our annual fiesta at the mission. Donnie, Doah, and I had signed up to be the clean up crew for the first shift, 11-1. It was fun, a nice release from a difficult week with no idea that the one to come would be even more difficult. The fiesta started with our local Indians dancing and pulling the community into their dances. Clean up chores provided relaxation by comparison. After our turn at clean-up, Donnie, Doah, and I had some BBQ chicken and prepared to enjoy the fiesta activities when I noticed that only one person had showed up for the next shift, 1-3. I looked at the volunteer book, and, gulp, there was no one signed up for 3-4 or 6-7 and only one person from 4-5. The crowd, at any given point, numbered about 300, with many people coming in from out of town. After some discussion, Donnie decided to take Doah back to his group home by himself after the two of them had spent some fun time with the games. I tracked down the fiesta chair and asked her about the empty clean-up list. She said she had been unable to get others to volunteer so she was going to handle it herself at the end of the day. That being clearly a formula for disaster, I offered to fill in for all the other shifts. I enjoyed some of the activities in the midst of cleaning and got some time to talk to a priest who had just arrived from Nigeria to fill in while our parish priest is on a pilgrimage to Europe. I dragged myself home around 8:30, putting one foot slowly in front of the other until I reached the house and collapsed on the couch, where I spent the night sleeping. Morning came far too fast, and after all the bending over to pick up trash (golly, grown people can make worse messes than kids) the day before, I could barely move but by the end of the day, I had run around so much taking care of crises that I had forgotten all about my stiff legs. Oh, right, they actually were not stiff anymore!

3. In the middle of all the cleaning on Sunday, my brother Rollie called from Ohio. It being Father's Day, Noelle had called her uncle to wish him a happy day. Then,they got talking. "Did you know," Rollie asked me, "that the doctors are planning to go ahead with amputation of Noelle's legs soon?" Ah, no. She had called Donnie that morning but somehow the conversation had not gotten around to that. It is a discussion that we have had. For years, Noelle's legs have been nothing more than impediments to her ability to move around. Her view is that she will be more mobile without them. Moreover, she is tired of having to daily clean infections; this has been going on for more than two years, with long periods of time spent on a pump. She is tired of it. As she says, "My legs are not value-added. Why would I fight to keep them when they threaten my life?" It is a reasonable question. (I will provide updates on the Twitterlets and Clan of Mahlou.)

4. Miracle! Miracle! After eight months of searching, interviews, and lost opportunities, I have a new admin assistant! Oh, blessed help! Janie showed up Monday afternoon after in-processing with Personnel. It is so wonderful to have someone keeping my calendar, doing my filing, managing people in the outside office, answering the nuisance calls, photocopying. All the things that were causing me to work until late hours in the evening so that I could do my real job during the day. Yes! I feel truly spoiled now! This was definitely the brightest spot of this week.

5. One day later, bam! There went my happiness bubble. My boss called an emergency meeting and announced that my division would be fractured into pieces, with the best projects going to a couple of my peers, leaving me essentially with the most troublesome, but visible and glitzy projects, with a higher level supervisor to step in for the glitzy part, leaving the troublesome part for me to handle. Well, there is more to the story, but since I blogged about it yesterday, I will just refer you to that post: The Price of Success.

6. The icing on this week's cake was Thursday's visitor: one of the senior members of the Board of Directors in from Washington. Brand new to the Board, he had already made his mark by firing one of the most senior people among others on the board over which he has oversight -- well, not firing precisely but rather forcing her to resign. So, at least, that is what we heard. My boss and the CEO senior here fretted about how best to receive him, nervous about an axe falling on them. As it turned out, he turned out to be quite charming. When it was my turn to present our programs, I combined the dozens of them into like groups and quickly ran through all of them. When I finished, I asked if he had questions. His response was, "No; I am speechless." Gee, now I have confirmation that I am overworked! ;) Everyone was quite taken with him, and he was quite taken with all of us. Yes! Perhaps it was that prayer I said before the formal meeting? The one where I asked for help for all of us? It would not be the first time that God came to a staff meeting with me!

7. The week ended with an hour of brainstorming with my boss on a new project we have to provide support to some programs in Afghanistan. My staff is having some difficulty getting its hands around the various things we need to do to make the programs successful. Several have visited there to gather information and provide on-site help. I will be heading in that direction soon. It was wonderfully peaceful and re-invigorating to put aside all the concern, worry, and potential frustration (I'm still putting aside frustration after having given it up for Lent this year) and spend some time on positive activity. We came up with a plan to handle one sticky problem, and I left for home a bit re-heartened.

So, some ups, some downs, and life goes on. Wishing you all a weekend filled with flowers, cheer, and relaxation!