It’s days like today that you aren’t real fond of, but it also makes you happy you work for yourself. My younger son (almost 4) and I both have colds. He wasn’t able to go to preschool (full-day) today, so he was home with me. So the bad news is I wasn’t able to get much work done. The good news was, I didn’t have to feel guilty about not working and staying home with my kid. I could check email periodically, work for about an hour after he finally fell asleep, and doze off with him while we watched Shark Tales. With his low-grade fever, cough, sneezing and wheezing, I feel like all I did was pump him full of medicine today, when he wasn’t velcro-ed to me. I feel bad for my little guy. He hardly talked today and just laid around or sat on my lap. I’m just glad I could be with him today and not feel guilty about it.
I love being a VA!
Last night I was watching Medical Miracles, which was an interesting show. It featured a woman who was suffering severe tremors due to Parkinson’s Disease and an 11-year old boy who had been blind from birth. For the woman with Parkinsons, they were able to put probes in her brain hooked up to a battery pack in her stomach. It was able to short circuit the part of the brain that was causing her bad tremors. For the 11-year old boy, they were able to give him an artificial cornea, which restored sight in his one eye that still had optic nerve functioning.
So I enjoyed the stories, was impressed by the medical procedures, but what’s the deal with CVS?? Not only did they have a blatant sponsorship of the program, “Since you’ll still have to be on medications for Parkinson’s, and it’s a financial struggle, CVS has generously donated a gift card to help you with your expenses.” But they also had a bunch of commercials. One of them featured a pharmacist who said something to the gist of: He had an elderly Polish couple as customers that had been in the War and had a hard life. Since 2 minutes wasn’t enough time to help them figure out how to take their 20 medications, he went over on his day off and spent half a day helping them figure it out.
Guess what, CVS? This backfired for me. This implies that 1) You’re not allowing your pharmacist enough time to explain and counsel your customers on their medications, and 2) Because of this, your poor pharmacist had to spend his day off (i.e. uncompensated time) to counsel this couple.
I think it shows that, while you may have some really kind-hearted pharmacists, there’s something wrong with your procedures that your pharmacists feel obligated to spend uncompensated time providing the counseling they should be able to provide while they’re on the clock.
Okay, my rant is over.
Tonight I’m going to a networking event-the third anniversary of CPAFE at Changes Day Spa and Salon. I’m really looking forward to it. I picked up my donation of a new stuffed animal to be distributed to abused children today, and tonight there will be networking, food, drink and maybe even makeup and chair massage demos. Sounds fun, right?
Right. Except, I’d be much happier if I could attend in my pajamas and my bunny slippers. I like being comfortable when I work. But when I go networking, I actually have to “clean up.” Then comes the decisions…business suit or business casual? Comfortable shoes or dressy shoes, gold, silver, or costume jewelry? I think I need an image consultant.
I’m sure I’ll have fun and look fine, but I’m just glad I don’t have to wear professional attire every day of the week.
I just got a call from my doctor’s office reminding me of an appointment on Friday. The woman was nice, but the whole way of doing business seems unreasonable today. This was what she said, “I’m calling to remind you of your appointment. You’ll need to bring your insurance card and, if you have a copay, you’ll need to pay it at the time of your appointment.”
What if I ran my business this way? I can see it now:
“Hi (insert client’s name). I’ll be finished with your project tomorrow, but before it is allowed to leave my computer, I’ll need to have a down payment and last year’s tax return so I can be sure you’ll be able to cover the bill.”
Ha! I’m sure that would go over well!
On the other hand, my dentist is great. I have to get my teeth cleaned more often than my insurance allows due to some hereditary gum disease, and if you pay cash, he gives you a 10% discount. He’s also accomodating if you have some special issues.
Now, who do you think I’m going to recommend to more people? This doctor or my dentist?
This morning I went to a CPAFE (Central Pennsylvania Association for Female Executives) meeting. It required some logistical planning to be downtown by 7:45 a.m. when my 3.5 year old isn’t usually dropped off at preschool until 8:30. but I arranged for some creative childcare. As I was getting his shoes on, I saw him looking at me with a strange expression. (My kids are not used to seeing me wear “business clothes”) and I said, “How does Mommy look today?” He says, “Not good.” I said, “Not good, why?” He said, “You look like Star Wars.” I had on a red tank and black pants and mandarin-type jacket. I guess I looked like Darth Vader. I couldn’t stop laughing. Oh well, laughing is good for your health.
On Saturday, my husband and our two sons and I decided to take a quick daytrip to NYC. We could have subtitled it the Madagascar fieldtrip. My younger son loves that movie. First, we wet to the MOMA and saw the Pixar exhibit, which was really neat with lots of sketches, busts, and variations of characters that made up the different Pixar movies, like The Incredibles, Monsters Inc., Toy Story, etc. Then we went to the Toys R Us in Times Square and rode the giant indoor Ferris Wheel. We rode in the M and M car, which was great since it’s my oldest son’s favorite candy. Then we went to Bubba Gump’s for lunch, where our Host’s name was also Kyle and made a huge deal out of the fact they had the same name and had Kyle totally cracking up. We had a good late lunch/early dinner there, walked to Grand Central Station and then took a subway ride back to the car. The boys were exhausted, but thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
For some reason it took us about an hour and a half to go 5 blocks to get to the tunnel to get to New Jersey. That was so frustrating. I can’t imagine dealing with that amount of traffic on a regular basis. But it was a great trip. My older son wants to move there. He needs to be consantly engaged in something and he was right at home in New York City. My older son just loves the fact that you can get soft pretzels (his favorite food) on just about every street corner.