What I don't know could fill a room or work is good

I was sitting at my desk and out of the corner of my eye, I saw somebody reach over and grab a donut.  After our construction meetings on Wednesday mornings, there are always donuts leftover which I put in the reception area for the staff.  Something told me, check that.  Maybe it was his body language, the way a kid  radiates guilt when they’re up to something they shouldn’t be doing.   I go over and look in the donut box, and sure enough, its empty.  This happens often in my office.  Someone will take the last of something and just leave the empty box, bag, whatever, just sitting there.  I could feel my mother bubbling right up inside of me.  I had caught him red handed.  So I stepped into the office, handed him the box and walked right out.  He took it without hesitation.  He we was busted.  It’s the little moments in the day that just make you smile.

I can remember in the clinic, when a nurse practitioner or some other trained medical staff person would come up and say, “we are out of needles.  Do we have any more?”  It would drive me bananas.  Again, channeling Pearl I would say, “ and when you used the fourth to last, third to last, it never occurred to you to mention it?”  That was serious stuff and they were just so cavalier.  I guess they always worked somewhere where someone else took responsibility for everything.  EVERYTHING.  Oh, they do the same sort of thing here… leave the bathroom with no paper or towels.  Use the last ream of paper and don’t tell anyone but we’re on to them.  Now it is challenge for GM to stay one step ahead of the staff and their crazy work habits.  One of my colleagues always takes it personally.  It frustrates her to no end.  Me, well, if I made it through the stress of the clinic where people’s lives really were impacted, now it’s a game.  A challenge.  A gauntlet.  Frustrating?  Of course.  But those little moments…. Handing that donut box over, well…  How sweet it is.

Wednesdays are my best and worst days.  Those donuts mean its construction meeting day.  It also means a roomful of men angling for one thing or the other.  The architect is an absent minded professor who is basically a two person shop with no support.  The contractors are great.  Real Philly folk, complete with accents and attitude.  The project manager is a guy who is well meaning but also with a flair for the dramatic.  He gets so frustrated with the architect and how slowly he moves that sometimes he literally looks like a cartoon character with steam coming out of his ears. 

Sometimes they try to draw me in to take sides on one issue or another.  If I knew one darn thing about construction, this might work. Luckily, I don’t.  So I can’t.  I’m no fool.  For the most part it is amusing… at least when no one is yelling.  My boss tends to yelling.  We can have the most stressful, tense meeting and then the architect will tell me, “this is the best part. “  Really, THIS is the best part?  Ugh.

We’re a little behind schedule, the thickness of the walls is in question, the split system made in the US is 1.5 times as expensive as the Mexican one, the sprinkler design is off kilter, the transformer probably won’t fit into the basement in its finished form and that’s just the stuff I understand!

It is a whirlwind and the learning curve is steep.  But better challenged than bored any day.

Children’s Theatre starts next week and according to all sources it’s a circus.  And so it goes.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and to all a good night!