Rush Rush Rush Kind of Day

It seemed like I was running around all day trying to get somewhere. Which is way odd since I'm supposed to be at this Leadership conference via Zoom for most of the day. So how do I explain all this running around when I'm supposed to be in front of my computer? First let me explain what the bulk of the workday was supposed to be about. Apparently we had hired a boutique consultant shop specializing in working with FQHCs to get them to be more profitable. It was pretty well organized but I couldn't help but be skeptical about the whole thing. I mean how many times have we engaged consultants to help us turn stuff around. With that said, I remind myself that even my IS Department was turned around from being the dumpster fire that it was when I got there with the help of consultants. These particular outfit used stuff from TED talks I was already familiar with... stuff from Simon Sinek which is a particular favorite of mine and so they were practically talking my language. And by the end of the day they had gotten the team to agree on 3 pretty audacious goals... and I still remember that February retreat with USC Stevens where I learned about BHAG... Big Hairy Audicious Goals. I think maybe I need to apply this in my personal endeavors as well yes? Anyway I'm not going to get into the specific goals now but all that meant was that everything was pretty packed in from 8:30 AM all the way until 3 PM. And of course with Johnnie being home I had to devise some activities for him to do. Fortunately his teacher Ms Hwang agreed to send him some class worksheets that we could pick up. And once my conference broke for lunch, I took off with Johnnie and picked those up. And then went right to Domino's Pizza to pick up a pepperoni pizza for Johnnie and I. I of course had to hit lunchtime traffic and considering we were only given a half hour for lunch, that made for me driving fast from home to MV Elementary to Dominos on Pico and then back. I made it just in time and I hadn't even had one bite yet. But this was nothing compared to the afternoon adventure. That's because Lisa had scheduled Johnnie to get a blood test. We never did get back the results of Johnnie's swab culture and so Lisa worked her ins with Dr. Raffi the allergist to get a blood panel done. Though the lab was pretty close to us... as in right by Jack-in-the-box on Centinela, I still had to deal with late afternoon traffic to get there. And then when they asked for my insurance card, I realized I had to go back and get it printed somehow. Why didn't I realize I was going to need it??  And so I went back, sent the pic as an email and printed it at Staples. And drove like a maniac to hustle back to the lab. Finally when we got there, it was time for Johnnie to get his blood test. Mind you I hate getting the damn thing done FOR MYSELF. With Johnnie being so skinny, the nurse had to have some help locating a vein. And when she finally found one, she still couldn't get any blood. And so she had to switch arms. And of course Johnnie was already screaming about how the first stab hurt! They finally got blood flowing on his other arm. But not without the screams of Johnnie. And I have to say there is no worse feeling that holding your child on your lap and he's still screaming about how it hurts.  Fortunately, he did manage to get through it and I took him immediately to get some ice cream at the Rite Aid next door.  And then very soon afterwards, since we were already in the area, we went to Panda Express Marina del Rey to get his dinner. How many times did we come to this particular location on a Tuesday way back in the day when Johnnie was in daycare?! I mean he was barely 3 years old. Has it been THAT long?! Anyway he wanted to eat there, probably remembering we would eat at those tables outside all those times all those years ago. And by the time we were done and headed home, he had completely forgotten about the blood draw. And he was back to his old self looking to watch his Wild Kratt videos. And so that is how I spent the last day of August 2021. Didn't quite expect it to be this hectic but we made it through and I spent the rest of the evening simply breathing out, glad that the day was done...