JawsBlog

Been very busy this weekend and past few days…

Among other things going on…basically about to launch a new company. It’s already had a quiet launch, but now it’s time to make noise…

Finished a Power{oint presentation for a conference on Friday
Trekked through the snow, up hill both ways to pick up marketing materials
Doodled a successful website design and layout
*insert break for Diet Pepsi consumption*
Spent some time at Barnes & Noble flipping through some computer books forideas
(The library was closed at that hour–B&N is the next best thing)
Helped the doctor out with his computer
Got inquiries for data
*more Diet Pepsi*
Read boring Medicare NCDs and LCDs
Fixed a computer at work

You can sort of get the idea….

It’s going to be an exciting week….

Now more importantly, how soon till the football games start?

Yom Kippur has come and gone for another year.

Fasting itself wasn’t as difficult as anticipated or as it was in years past.

Alas, I awoke Thursday morning with what seemed to be the makings of a upper respiratory infection (allergies?) Going into the holiday was thus less than pleasant with a mild case of laryngitis. But I survived. Just a case of bad timing.

I’m feeling better now though..and it’s time to prepare and shift my focus to the next chag!

Didn’t feel like doing much today. Don’t know why.

Spent the time working on a Revenue Cycle Management project I have. Tedious? Indeed it was. Yet, I found a lot of revenue at the same time so it wasn’t a complete loss.

Oh well….back to the regular job tomorrow, and it’s going to be a busy one.

What a weekend it was.

Left Friday to Penn Station to get a train down to Philly for my cousin’s Aufruf.

While waiting for the train to board (around 2pm) the Sister and I get a text message–the wedding which had been scheduled for Sunday is now postponed to Monday night. Good thing I packed an extra pair of clothes!
(We later found out that the caterer had cancelled because of the weather forecast)

Get to Philly after a very, very crowded train to Trenton–and to the destination. Get to shul, have dinner, etc.

Get to shul on Shabbos, then after davening–the rain begins. Luckilly, the shul has an abundance of ponchos for everyone! Hooray! Had lunch and more speeches from the Cousin’s friends.

Motzei shabbos we head up to the Middle of NJ (where the hotel is). We’re driving through the outer bands of the hurricane now. Not fun–nor was it fun to be scrunched in the van surrounded by who knows how much luggage! Get to the hotel and find a place to eat (I was hungry).

The hurricane comes and goes overnight–the bark was much worse than the bite!

Sunday is a cloudy to sunny day. Most places near the hotel are closed and apparently a bunch of the roads are out. A cousin and the sister went out to get coffee and donuts, and it took them an hour to go back and forth down a 1 mile road! (The coffee was cold–double boo). Nor was anything open and I was starved.

Sunday night the Groom and Family arrive at the hotel and we all decide to go do something. We head over to a nearby bowling alley–and despite the fact that the staff is in there–they close the place and waive our party of 15 away!
[What else were we to do?!?!?!?]

Monday comes, and it’s a beautiful day (go figure). Some roads are still flooded. The wedding took place in the evening and the chuppah was held outdoors. It was really pretty. We all felt bad for the couple as we knew they had to get a new Ketubah and all the benchers and pamphlets had the previous day’s date. Though in the end all that matters is that they’re now a happily married couple-and my grandmother was very, very happy which is the most important thing.

Monday night though after the wedding there was a problem with The Sister and my transport home (car service) and to compound the problem the Sister had a bit too much to drink at the wedding…

All in all though it was an adventure–but one with a happy ending.

Posting has been light because…..I’ve been relaxed!

No really!

Since starting the “New Job”, I am dramatically less stressed/pressured and feel significantly more at ease than I have in a very long time.

Perhaps a bit too relaxed for the time being, but considering how far out I was on the other end of the spectrum….I’ll take it!

Now if only I could retrain my body not to wake up when the sun rises and let me sleep in…

Had a decent day at work. Only complaints was that the office felt too cold (the thermostat said 69 deg!) and that things are still going a bit slow.

Then again, I shouldn’t complain–I should just enjoy my “down time”.

I survived my first day at the new job.

It was a slow day today. It was so slow, that it was extremely disorienting for me! I’m used to Mondays being the complete and total opposite! I even was able to leave at 5…the last time I did that was…er…um…

Anyway, today’s commute to work was dramatically easier than my previous first day of work. For my previous job, I woke up in Cleveland, went to CAK, flew to LGA (w/ 2 suitcases and a laptop in tow), went from LGA to The Sister’s dorm when wheeled my suitcases to the office.

Today’s commute was much, much easier (though it involved a detour to 7-11 for coffee).

This week is expected to be a slow week (or so I’m told)–so I’ll just keep learning the ropes at the new place.

Or should I say feats of stupidity?

Today I told the my new boss I was headed to Costco to get some stuff, and asked if the (new) office needed anything.

Turns out they needed a coffee maker. So, I decided I’d schlep one home. (as the new office is very close to The Apartment).

While at Costco, of course I found many items that I needed (read as Diet Pepsi, yogurt, Kosher cheeses, blueberries, apples just to name a few). So here I was lugging home a coffee maker and 3 huge Costco tote bags with me, 4 blocks south and 2.5 avenues over to the bus!

A few of strength or stupidity….you decide….

[I did accomplish the mission though!]

Tomorrow is my final day at my current job. I’ve been with The Company for a sliver under 5.5 years now (yikes!) so tomorrow is going to mark a dramatic change for me.

Granted, this week has been anything but downhill for me. I’ve had to train numerous staff members on what I do (and alas, that won’t even be able to be completed). Teach a new staff member the billing software and the basic intricacies of our provider contracts. Handle my usual workload, all insurance verifications/authorizations (since the person who usually handles that is out) and handle more phone calls than usual (also due to absences). Plus tying up some last minute projects for other staff members.

That sad, tomorrow is the big day…and rather than it just being easy going…I’ve got a lot of work to do.

I think I’ll treat myself to a Slurpee after work though!

Off to Jersey for the afternoon for a combination Graduation/Birthday (x3) party for my cousins.

Much fun is to be had!

Things have been quiet here lately for good reason. I’m in the midst of a personal transition.

I’m changing jobs.

The reasons and the specifics for my decision are not going to be shared here, nor are the identities of my current or future employer going to be shared.

All that I’ll say is that I’ll still be in the City, in a managerial role.

In as much with all these transitions taking place, I’ve been busy with writing up training documentation for work and corresponding with friends who have just heard the news.

So that’s where I’m at these days….

So what did I eat after Pesach as my first Chametz?

Pizza…no
Slurpee…no
Sandwich…no

Can of tuna…yes!
(It wasn’t marked Kosher L’peasch though!)

/Will go to the grocery tomorrow. Didn’t feel like it tonight.

Unfortunately, I’m stuck going into the office again today.
I’ve still got work to catch up on from the past week which my employees spectacularly failed to cover me on. Plus, since I’ll be out the next two days for the end of Pesach, I’m going to get through some other work.

However, first, I have some more important things to tend do–such as getting some fresh produce for the upcoming week–yay Costco!

So I had a 453 mile commute to work this morning (thank you Google Maps for the distance estimate). Woke up in Shaker Heights and am now back in Manhattan.

Not very happy when I returned to work to find out that none of my employees stepped-up to help do some of my (non-managerial busywork). What made me even angrier were the extra hours I’d spent (many outside of work) writing up detailed “how-to” documentation (with screen shots no less). The documents weren’t even looked at. Nor did my superior even bother to show them. Needless to say, I’m surprised that I didn’t snap.
(Must have been the Kosher L’pesach bottle of Diet Pepsi I have at my desk).

So now I’ve got to try to catch up on 3 days worth of work (which I was already behind on!)

Sigh…

Flying back to Ohio tonight for the first 2 days of Pesach.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take off for the full holiday, so I’ll be back to work Thursday. I’ve been told I’m “too important” to be gone. (Not sure if that should be taken as a compliment?)

Anyway, i think I’m long overdue for a break from everything anyway.

So “The Powers That Be” in the office are rewarding our department with a breakfast tomorrow, in honor of our significant increase in business last month.

Last week, I’d bought my staff muffins (from the Kosher Costco bakery) which they didn’t touch. [The rest of the company's employees raved about them--fwiw].

I’d sent an amail to my staff about the muffins last Sunday, and so my supervisor shot me an email that same day asking:

“Did you make them from scratch?”

Being an individual with (occasional) creative reckless abandon, I saw that email as a challenge.

So for tomorrow morning’s breakfast, I’m baking brownies. In my kitchen. By myself. (No idea where the Sister is at today either).

Here goes nothing!

I’ve already been given my challenge for the week from my boss.

Work less…

How I”ll accomplish this goal…well that’s to be determined. Though I can tell you that I definitely don’t mind it at all!

Plus I have a big new project taking off this week to focus on too

Another week, more challenges.

I’m setting a simple goal for myself to accomplish tomorrow. To actually find the time (if only 5 minutes) to actually remember to east my lunch. I’ve been so busy that I failed to do so on Thu or Friday of last week.

It sounds a lot easier than it is….

When the girls who sit around me at the office start to chit-chat, I’ve learned that >95% of the time it’s best for me to keep my mouth shut. Often, it’s because I’ve got nothing to really contribute to the conversation. Other times, it’s that I just know better than to open my mouth.

The “highlights” of this morning were:

–Discussion of Lent and strange Lent practices.
–One girl claiming that you don’t have to follow the Bible’s rules because “The Bible was written by a man”
–Certain things that the Catholic Church regards as sins are hypocritical because of the church-pedophilia scandal.

Now as a good Jewish boy, I don’t have much of anything to say about Lent, Mass, Ash Wednesday or the Catholic Church and it’s politics. I did find the comment on the moral-relativism of the Bible to be silly and immature, so I just ignored it and went on with my work.

Then as the girls conversation progressed (apparently they don’t have enough work to do?) It turned into a “you know the UN has a special department for speaking to aliens…and Obama knows it, but the reason he can’t tell the US is because people can’t handle it”.
[Note, this came from a big Obama supporter too. It's not piece of wingnutry].

That was a juicy quote to take a swing at, but I exercised enough self restraint, and instead just sat chuckling at my desk, shaking my head.

Tomorrow is The Father’s Birthday.

In his honor, I have decided to make tomorrow a day of doing things that “build character”. This includes waking up early to exercise, drinking Diet Pepsi while hard at work. I’ll forgo the questionable hairdo though.

Happy Birthday to the Father.