My life the last month

Work, work, work, work, work, travel for work, travel for work, travel for work, work, work, work, work, family plans, wine, work, travel for work, travel for work, work, work, travel for work, travel for work, flight cancellation during work travel, work, work, work, work, work, travel for work, travel for work, travel for work, work, work, work, day off, sisters wedding, laundry, work, work, work, work, travel for work, travel for work, travel for work, work, work, day off to prepare for Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, FREE WEEKEND!!!!, Work, Work, Work, Work, Work, Work, Sunday OFF!!, Work, Work, Work, Travel for Work, Travel for Work

Any that is what my life has looked like for the last month and next few weeks...

How did they get the MD license?

So as a meeting planner for a medical education company, I interact with a lot of doctors across many different specialties - Emergency Physicians, Cardiologists, Neurologists, Endocrinologists, Orthopedists, Plastic Surgeons, Ophthalmologists and on and on and on.  

Every year, I have at least one meeting that is for Chicago-area primary care physicians (Internists, General Practitioners, etc.).    IT SCARES ME!  

They aren't scary people or anything - it just scares me that these people practice medicine on the general public. You know how the few bad eggs spoils your view of a group?   Well unfortunately, this is more than a few "bad eggs", its more like a few "good eggs"...

Here is a small sampling of the situations encountered with these folks last weekend - and sadly, these really aren't the worst of the situations...

Situation #1:

Standing at On-site Registration, which is at one end of a line of 6 tables

Me: Are you preregistered?

Registrant: Yes

Me: Okay, its all alphabetical by last name starting with A at the other end

Registrant: (still standing in front of me) Okay, well I'm B

Me: (Silence)

Registrant: (still standing in front of me) Oh – I have to go to the other end

Situation #2

Last years meeting

This Asian lady comes up to registration and starts yelling at myself and a co-worker because it was apparently our fault that she couldn’t figure out how to get from the parking garage to the meeting, and therefore ended up being 15 minutes late, even though all 500 other people got there early/on-time without any issues.   She also couldn’t read the sign that said R-Z with a left arrow and On-site with a right arrow and went to On-site…

Fast forward 17 months

An Asian lady comes to the meeting 30 minutes late, registers on-site and goes into our overflow room (because the main room is PACKED).   5 minutes later the lady walks out and comes up to registration:

Asian Lady: Can I have a question card

*Question Cards are exactly that, cards that people right questions they have for the speaker on it, and after each presentation, we go around and collect them and bring them up to the moderator.   Much better than having people yell out their questions and trying to get over quick enough to give them a mic, and then have them hog the mic.   We also get to ignore the stupid questions this way - Don’t believe people when they say there is no such thing as a stupid question J

Registration Temp: (hands her a question card from the pile sitting right in front of Asian Lady)

Asian Lady: (with a SHIT-LOAD of attitude) I can only have one?!?!

Registration Temp: No, you can have as many as you want (picks up a handful and gives them to lady…by the way, did I mention the pile is RIGHT IN FRONT of the Asian Lady – so much so, its closer to her than my registration temp)

Asian Lady: (Storms off with attitude into the room)

20 seconds later

Asian Lady: (lots of attitude) Can I get printouts of the slides?

Registration Temp: These are downloadable from the web, a link was sent out prior to the meeting and will be sent out afterwards, plus we have internet access in the room

Asian Lady: (tons more attitude) Well I didn’t bring my laptop

Registration Temp: Im sorry about that, but there are notes pages inside the book, or if you wanted, you could go to the FedEx Office on the 2^nd floor and print them out from there, but that will cost money

Asian Lady: (storms off into the room)

20 seconds later, walking out with pocketbook

Asian Lady: (LOTS AND LOTS of attitude) Where is the bathroom?

Registration Temp: (pointing to the corner behind our table to the left) The bathroom is in that corner right there.

Asian Lady: (again – shitload of attitude, but yelling now) WHAT CORNER?

Registration Temp: The corner right over here (pointing directly to the area)

Asian Lady: (Did I mention she has a huge attitude) Where?   Past the escalators or past the elevator? 

BTW – escalator is across form the elevator, if you pass one, you pass the other

Registration Temp: (Calm as calm could be) Here, Ill show you (and kindly walks the lady to the bathroom).

Thank G-d I was just a bystander and not the one dealing with this lady – because I would have knocked some sense into her – maybe even tried to get the stick, that is so far up her ass its stuck in her brain, out…

In case you didn’t figure it out – Asian Lady from last year is the same as Asian Lady from this year.

Situation #3

Attendee comes out an hour after the AM break ends

Attendee (wearing heavy winter coat): Is there no coffee out here?

Me: AM Break ended an hour ago

Attendee: But its cold in that room, Im wearing my winter coat

Me: I’m sorry, there is a Starbucks in the lobby if you want

Attendee (in annoying whiny voice): You don’t have any coffee out here?   Every meeting I go to has coffee throughout the day outside

Me: It’s a free meeting, so we stretch our budget as much as possible.   We only offer coffee during breakfast and break times

Attendee (yelling in annoying, whiny voice):  Last year you had coffee out the entire time

Me (clearly starting to get frustrated): Im sorry, but I ran the meeting last year as well, and I know I did not have coffee out the entire day

Attendee: Will you have coffee at lunch

Me: No, we will have water and soda

Attendee: Us doctors don’t drink soda, its not healthy and they are coming out with all these studies showing how bad it is

My Co-worker: There will also be iced tea

Attendee: Will it be hot tea

Co-worker: No, it will be ICED tea

Attendee: Well its really cold, you really need to have hot beverages around

Co-worker: There is a starbucks downstairs that you are more than welcome to go to

P.S. All the sodas were finished during lunch

P.P.S. You should know when you go to a hotel meeting, it is ALWAYS cold in the room – come prepared

P.P.P.S.   You didn’t pay a freaking penny for this meeting and you are getting 6.5 hours of CME credit, breakfast, lunch, two coffee breaks, free internet if you brought your computer and discounted parking in the city – STOP COMPLAINING!

Situation #4

Attendee walks out of overflow room to grab lunch.   There are two doors to this room – one which was closed since 7am, the other which was always open.

Attendee: Someone closed the door to the room that my stuff is in

Me: That door has been closed, but this door goes into the same room

Attendee: No, I went in that door, and now I can’t get back in

Me: This door and that door take you into the same room, so you can go in this door

Attendee: No that was a different room, and someone closed the door and I can’t get in now

Me: This door will take you into the same room, it is just a different door

Attendee: (getting frustrated at me) Someone closed the door on me, I need to get back in to the room

Me: This door will take you to the same room.

This went back and forth a few more times before the attendee just walked away from me with total annoyance and frustration.  

Situation #5

During this day long meeting, we break in the afternoon and split into 3 different workshops.   There are two timeframes for the workshops, so you can select 2 out of the 3.   It has been like this for 3 years, there is signage all around, it is promoted like this in the brochure and listed in the program book like this.   Fast forward to the break where we split.

Attendee: What are the workshops

Me: All workshops are listed on this sign and in your program book, additionally there is a sign in front of each room that says which workshop it is.

Attendee: I want to go to A and B

Me: Okay, well there are two time slots, so A is in Room 1 and B is in Room 2.

Attendee: But I want to go to both

Me: You can, we have two different workshop times, you just select one, go to that room now, and when it breaks you go into the other room

Attendee: So I can only go to one

Me: No, you select one, and then at the break, you go to the other

Attendee: So I have to split my time between the two

Me: Well there are two different times.   Each workshop will run twice – once in each time frame (pointing to signs with time frames)

Attendee: Okay, Ill just go to A (and walks away towards Room 1)

I'm afraid to ever see one of my doctors at a meeting like this.    If I do, no matter how great they are, I might have to switch doctors…

Who let the dogs out? Who Who Who Who

I have a co-worker who at least once a day has a song stuck in his head and yells over the cubicle wall to another coworker the name of the song - therefore getting it stuck in her head and anyone within ear shot (about 6 of us).   He mentioned this song at 3pm today, and its stuck in my head- and now yours...

Now that that's done, on to my post that has NOTHING to do with the title...

I apologize for my absence from my blog.   As I predicted a month ago, I let the busy time of year (professionally) get the best of my personal time.  

I have traveled 2 out of the last 3 weekends on business (plus another weekday business trip in there) and I'm coming up on weekend number 3 this weekend, and then weekend number 4 in two weeks.   This of course adds up to about 4 days to myself (for cleaning, laundry, errands, relaxation, long walks with the dogs, sanity, etc) in a 2 month span of time.   That little personal time makes for a not fun time.  

The good thing is, I'm actually handling balancing it all pretty well considering the complete imbalance.  The bad news is, it came to a big crash this past weekend.   Just like most people, when I'm eating well, I'm doing well on all fronts - I exercise well, I'm more organized therefore getting more done around the house, I'm more productive at work, etc, etc, etc.    After a string of working 17 out of 19 days (and going on 30 out of 33) and having tweaked my back muscles towards the end of those 19 days - I was started to "fall apart". 

I went to weight watchers two weeks in a row having lost a pound each week - of which I didn't expect to either week - and I decided I deserved a night off to reward myself.   I didn't go completely crazy, but I wasn't counting points. 

I started the next day off well, and then I ordered a sandwich for lunch in Chicago and it was GINORMOUS and I ate the entire thing.   I figured I could make it up - if I wasn't hungry - at dinner, I would just skip it and go to bed.   But then my coworker got me all hyped about going out to dinner.   In the end we were both exhausted, so I ordered room service. 

Good News - I ordered soup for my meal. 
Bad News Part A: The soup definitely had a lot of cream in it, so not healthy. 
Bad News Part B: They delivered the soup with 3 yummy challah-type rolls - and I devoured two of them. 
Bad News Part C: The dessert sounded really good to me, so I ordered it...and ate it all even though I was stuffed after the first bite.

Okay one and a half bad days - I can come back from this...

Then on Saturday, I started breakfast with a bagel at 9am after being up for 5 and a half hours already.   Not completely bad, but thats not a good use of my points.    Then the news came...our flight had been cancelled - and it set me down the wrong path.   Come lunch time I started good - I had a hotel boxed lunch, which was a veggie sandwich with mozzerella on a bagel.   I ate all the veggies, some of the cheese and a little bit of the bagel.   But then the cheesecake that came with it was calling my name and the 19g of fat was outweighed by the flight being cancelled - so I ate it...

Then my boss said that if we were all stuck in Chicago, he was gonna take us out for a nice dinner.  Do you know how hard it is not to splurge when you don't pay the bill?   Trust me - its hard!   Its even harder when it isn't even your company credit card isn't associated with it in any way whatsoever...

My boss ordered 3 apps for us to share - which wasn't that bad - then told us to order a soup or salad with our entree, and they had a lobster bisque soup on the menu.   It was so rich and yummy!!!   Then came out my seafood risotto - which was not on the menu and the chef made just for me.   Well that was delicious and although I was again stuffed after the first bite, I didn't want to hurt the chef's feelings - so I ate as much as I could...

I eventually got back on track on Monday and Tuesday, but then I fell off on Wednesday when I got turned away from weight watchers (look for future post...) and got back to the office and had a small piece of a cake a co-worker made...and then another small piece...and then another - and by the time I got home I only had 2 points left for dinner and it was too dark out to take the dogs for a walk.   So I said "F" it, and I sat on the sofa and snacked and snacked and snacked...

And hear I am today, another day started off right, and turned bad at lunch.   Not as bad as yesterday though.  I took the dogs for a walk when I got home, but now I have to figure out a LOW point dinner I can eat - like 2 points :(   I think Im just gonna eat a normal dinner and start back on plan tomorrow.   But it will be hard because I will be back in Chicago for 3 days, 2 nights, and have plans for dinner on both those nights...I just need to be enticed by the healthier options...

Do you all think I should go to weight watchers tomorrow night and see that I gained back like 3 pounds in one week?   Or should I skip it and try to make up some of it next week?

Here is to eating healthy, exercise, getting back to a good personal/professional balance and getting back to blogging this coming week!   Hope you all have a good balance and are keeping a healthy lifestyle!

Crazy Conversations At Work

I'm working a short day today, and really shouldn't interrupt it to write this - but the funniest conversation(s) just happened.   There is a lady in our office who has been working here for about 6 months.   She takes phone calls from our "customers" who want to check in on their CME credit or are having questions/trouble with one of our activities or sites.   Not sure of her title, but we will call her CME Coordinator (CC for short) for the purpose of this conversation.   After 6 months, CC is still asking everyone questions that she should know.   But then again, 90% of my office does that - why learn when the girls in program management can tell you everytime or do it for you.  

As senior program manager, and one of the girls in program management, I am the main contact person for the programs I run - which includes all of our websites that we own.   I have had the responsibility of being the program manager for these sites since April 2010 - before CC came on board.   EVERYONE knows I am the website girl - they know they can come to me for any answers.    Back in December/January, I hired someone to be my coordinator (WC for short).   I was able to hire from within, so the transition time for WC was super short.   WC's job is to take care of the day to day stuff for these sites, plus a few other responsibilities, so that I can handle the bigger picture and also still take on all the other live, print and web programs I was working on before I took on these websites.

Fast forward to today.   CC takes a call from a user having trouble logging in to two of our sites.   She is going back and forth on the phone with him, and eventually she can't help him and she yells over the cube walls and starts asking questions about logging in to these sites, and WC and I are both answering her questions and then she says (no joke) - do you guys know anything about these sites?   Maybe you can talk to him?

No - we know NOTHING about our programs/websites/activities!  That's why they keep us around and keep on sharing positive feedback with us.

So WC asks some questions, gets the guys username and password and wha-la - she is logged in no issues.   So WC starts asking CC some questions, which sadly are the common answers for the issues such as does the user speak English?

WC: Is he old?
CC: Yes
WC: (completely serious and stoic): That's your issue.

Sorry for all my "old" readers - I know this isn't true of all of you - but I can attest, this is completely true of the older users of our sites who have issues.   If someone has an issue logging in - nine and a half times out of ten its because they are typing their password in wrong - or they don't understand the site and can't figure out how to log in.


Oh - and when WC talked to the guy - guess what?   He was already logged in!!


Did I mention these people are doctors and are going on to our sites to keep up their MD license?    I hope to g-d I never see ANY of my doctors at any of my activities - unless they are the speaker...

crazy week!

The week isn't over yet and its already been a crazy week!   Last week the girl who works for me was out, and I was easily able to handle my work and her work, 2 weeks before that, my boss was out - and same thing.    All the sudden we went from "quiet" (which isn't quiet at all - just not slammed) to all the sudden this week being slammed - and Im not sure what has changed.

Well a few things changed.   The boss's son who works from the IT side on some of my programs decided this week to finally work - so the work we've been sending to him since end of May (2 and a half months of work)  is finally getting worked on.   And when he decides to work on that stuff, he can knock a lot of stuff out - so 2 and a half months of work is getting thrown back to me for review, plus all the stuff that was going on this week - plus a ton of meetings.   I think Im gonna be working 50 of the next 72 hours - and mind you most of that is the weekend - its just that crazy right now.   Once I get over this hump, it shouldn't be too bad for most of the month - but then its crazy, crazy, crazy as we get into our busy fall and then right into hawaii craziness.

Im hoping to try and post a bunch of stuff tonight (as I had a big glass of wine and probably shouldn't do much work) and spread it out for postings over the next week so I can still keep things going :)