"It wasn't meant to be"; "Everything happens for a reason";"Everything works out for the best in the end"

Forgive me but all of these sayings are a load of crap.  They are generally platitudes people say when they hear about another person's misfortune.  Don't misunderstand me.  I do believe that things generally work out well in the end.  However, all of these sayings are actually blaming fate instead of taking responsibility for what has happened and meeting the challenge with an equal and opposite reaction.

A few years ago, my sister challenged my way of thinking and asked me to answer a simple question:  where do you see yourself 5 years from now?  Through a battery of intrusive questions she helped me formalize my goals and determine the best strategies on how to get there.  At the time, I thought she was crazy as she reinvented herself and got out of her comfort zone.  Hey, I thought I was the big sister here and had all of the answers but she has been teaching me through her experiences.

When the opportunity came up for me to take a job in Seattle, I thought about the conversation we had several years ago and realized the dream she helped me create came true.  Was this fate?  No, it was living through a challenging time in my career and taking action.

My advice of the day:  when you get knocked down, get right back up and focus on how you will respond.  It is through times of trial where you will be admired for how you handled the situation.

I am spending my final weekend in Bonita Springs saying goodbye to my friends.  Last night, we had happy hour with HMA friends.  It is bittersweet to say goodbye.  I feel sad to move away from friends and family but excited at the same time about my next chapter.

Meet a new person everyday

My time off from work has helped me realize that I have been so busy with work that I would often get irritated with idle chit chat and strangers who would try and engage me in conversation when I would go shopping.  I just wanted to rush and get what I need and be on my way.  All the while, I would complain about the snow birds, wonder why the store couldn't staff more people, and sometimes just abandon my cart and leave.

Today, I was shopping for moving boxes and supplies at a storage facility.  There was a gentleman behind the counter who pointed to the corner of the store to pick out what I needed.  Not more than 2 minutes later, a lady came up behind me a said, "can I help you?".  I turned around and this older lady with Tammy Faye makeup smiled and said "where are you moving to?"

Under normal circumstances, I would give a short answer and continue with my mission.  But today, I took the time to talk with her further.  She easily could have sold me all of the expensive moving boxes but she shared some inexpensive alternatives and some helpful reminders.

1.  Rather than buy the dish pack set, she told me to buy styrofoam plates to line the inside of the boxes before packing the glassware.  When packing the plates, put them on their sides and use the styrofoam plates in between.  Put the bubble wrap in the bottom and the top of the box.

2.  Rather than buy the glassware kit, stop by the liquor store and get boxes from them.

3.  Only use small and medium boxes.  They are easier to handle and will restrict you from overpacking and making them too heavy.

4.  She recommended the bags to protect the mattresses.

5.  She gave me an inventory list with dimensions for all of the available boxes and encouraged me to measure before purchasing the large boxes.

Bonus- she will let me return boxes that I don't use.

She moved here from New Mexico about 2 years ago and had her mother living with her until she passed away.  We talked about getting organized and I shared my tip about taking clothes to the Clothes Mentor.  She was pretty excited about getting money for her clothes instead of just giving them away.

This chance encounter helped me get jump started on packing up the kitchen dishes.  I am so glad I took the time to meet a new person to keep me motivated.  This packing business is starting to get old but the more we do ourselves, the less money it will cost to move.

Bring the Band Back Together ?!?

Back in 2001, I was part of a garage band with friends from the MIS department.  With me on vocals, Tim B. on bass, John M. on keyboard, Tim P. on guitar, and Chris Gentile on drums, we were known as "TARP".  Today while packing, I came across our demo CD.  We used to get together in Chris's garage out in Golden Gate and jam.  Fun times!

Sadly, Chris Gentile passed away.  His death was very tragic to all of us because he was stricken with a heart attack while working in the computer room at HMA.  Finding this CD made me think of him and the good times we had.

RIP Chris

Preparing the kids for the trip

Dan and I don't have a traditional family but our children are 3 pugs:  Precious, Bella, and Jeter.  We have been researching a number of options to move our dogs to Seattle.  Because of their snub noses, they are not able to fly in the cargo area on an airplane.  They are also too big to fit underneath the seat so driving them is the only option.

I was very concerned that Precious would not be able to make the trip because of her rheumatoid arthritis.  The vet cleared her to travel but she is getting to a point where we might consider putting her down.  She has been suffering for 2 years and the arthritis has crippled her so badly that she can't walk.  We started a new course of treatment and we will make the difficult decision over the next 2 months if she will make the trip.

We are taking Bella on the trip but we decided to adopt out Jeter.  Jeter joined us about a year and a half ago when we rescued him from a shelter.  We nursed him back to health and have given him a good home.  He is a lot younger than Precious and Bella and he will do better with dogs his own age while he is still active.  In addition, we have struggled with finding a place to rent in Seattle because most places have a two dog limit.  The Pug Rescue will be picking up Jeter this week and placing him with a good home.

We found a carrier to put Precious and Bella in the back seat.  I think they like the accommodations.

Throw Back Thursday

If you are on Facebook, then you are well aware of what TBT stands for.  Today, I found my high school yearbook and couldn't resist posting a picture of my high school softball team and tag all of my teammates.  Most are on my Facebook profile so lots of fun to see the comments.

During one of my breaks packing, I read through my yearbook and the many kind notes my friends wrote to me.  It is so funny how similar the process of saying goodbye to my friends in high school is to saying goodbye to my friends at HMA.  Between last night and today at lunch, I was able to see two dear friends.

I spoke to a realtor, John Garbo today about putting my house on the market.  He has been used by several HMA executives to sell their homes with much success.  I was teasing him about renaming his agency the HMA Realty Agency.  He made me laugh when he said he doesn't refer to the company as HMA (because it is dead) nor does he call it CHS, he calls it "Fifty-eight eleven" after the Pelican Bay address.  I think I will use that!

I have lined up my temporary housing and I will be there for April and May.  Dan is going to fly out the first week of May so we can find our permanent home to move in June 1.  He will fly back and deal with the movers.  My goal is to downsize everything so it is ready to pack by April 1 and we will be ready to put the house on the market.  I am day 4 into this and the house is still in shambles.  It is confirmed…..I am a hoarder.

The Process of Saying Goodbye Begins

Today, I continued to working on the packing.  I promised Dan that I was going to make him proud by taking care of as much of the packing as possible before I left.  He has been an unbelievable support system especially the last few years.  Every day, he has gotten up with me and made breakfast, laid my clothes out, walk the dogs, and see me out the door.  It is a unique experience this week as roles have quickly reversed.  (I reminded him to not get used to it).  I am not quite sure how I will survive without him for 2 months in Seattle.  He plans to stay back here and deal with selling the house and coordinating our move.

There were a few business items I attended to today.

1.  I sent in the paperwork for my temporary housing.  Let's keep our fingers crossed that I don't lose out.  It is extremely difficult to rent a place from a far distance.  Seems like just when I find a place I like online, it is already taken.

2.  I confirmed with my HFMA board that they support my continued participation with the Florida chapter.  I am blessed to not only have an employer that supports my involvement but a group of volunteers who support my leadership from a distance over the next year.  Being Chapter President has been a 5 year journey and I grateful that amidst this job change I will not have to give this up.

3.  I did some more due diligence on my new employer.  Yes, even though the job is confirmed, I continue to research as much as I can so I am ready to hit the ground running.  I spent some today with a trusted colleague to learn about the differences between for profit healthcare and a faith based organization.

In addition, I started filling up my calendar with lunch appointments and coffee meetings with friends from the area.  I am starting to make the rounds with friends and say my goodbyes.  These three weeks are going to go by fast.

OCECD Cured!

What does OCECD stand for?  Obsessive Compulsive Email Checking Disorder

Now that my business email is no longer accessible, I found it liberating to remove the Outlook email from my iPhone today.  Except for one problem…..I lost my contacts.  When you delete an email account from your phone, not only do you lose your email messages, but also the contacts and the calendar appointments.  I knew this would be a problem so I took a few preventative measures:

• Exported my contacts from Outlook in 2 file formats:  .pst and .csv.  This will be helpful when I establish my new work email in a few weeks so I can import these files later.  (That won't help me right now though)
• Prior to leaving HMA, I sent an email to many business contacts and announced my last day was  Friday and provided my personal email and cell phone
• I requested that my employer forward any personal email messages specifically related to my volunteer work at HFMA to my personal email address.  They are monitoring the email box for messages instead of canceling my email account.  This concerns me the most because I am afraid they won't honor my request and HFMA messages will go unanswered for a period of time.  Senders will not receive the bounce back message that the email address is no longer valid and they might not receive any acknowledgement.

In addition to the above, I noticed that after I deleted the email account I had many text messages and phone calls that used to have the person's name populated change to the cell phone number.  I quickly scanned the messages and updated the contact information to add the person's name.

I plan to update my LinkedIn account after my start date so for now, I will enjoy the peace of not checking my phone for work email and stay focused on packing.

For those of you following my blog, you know how to reach me.

Downsizing and Packing Begins

The last time we moved was 2007 and so we have accumulated a fair amount of "stuff".  In order to keep our moving expenses as low as possible, we are trying to rid ourselves of the clutter.  However, during the "organization" stage of packing, I have come across a few gems:

• Unused gift cards.  Plan to use those for dinners later on after the dishes are packed.  Bonus!
• Winning lottery tickets.  Cashed them in and put towards gas.
• Free movie tickets.  Seemed like HMA gave these out like candy because I found about 12 tickets I never used.

My mom has been visiting me from CT this week.  We took the time to pack up my Precious Moments collection.  We had quite the production line going:  Dan dusted the figurines, I wrote down the serial number and name, and then my mom wrapped the figurines.  I have been collecting them since I was 15 but never made a list so it is nice now to have an inventory list of my 150 pieces.

Since I live in a community, we are not allowed to have a yard sale so I have to find other ways to get rid of the clutter.  I took some of my clothes over to the Clothes Mentor.  It is a high end consignment shop across from Mercato that gives you cash on the spot for your clothes.  So far, they have given me $300 for the clothes I have sold to them so it is worth the stop.  Tomorrow, I am donating a few items to the Our Lady of Light Thrift Store.

Not even close to finished but it was a good start this weekend.

Last day at HMA

Yesterday was my last day at HMA.  As I looked around the office, it is sad to see the company come to an end.  Empty offices, files in boxes, and zero emails in a once vibrant corporate office where I spent the majority of my professional career.

Only a few people are left but it meant so much to share breakfast with a few old timers who I have worked along side with the last 14 years.

I have been blessed to cross paths with hundreds of healthcare executives while working at HMA.  Each of them had an impact on my career and I hold them dear as I begin the next chapter.