I joke with Romeo Sierra and my friends about my completely irrational, dramatic, and over-the-top reactions after tough sports losses. I revert back to the 8 year old Delta Whiskey, the one who wants his way and blows a gasket when it doesn't work out. And this past week stung. So one of my tactics is to shut down all media consumption related to Sports. It keeps the painful reminders out of sight, out of mind, and I can move on mentally. It doesn't mean I forget about it, just means I'm not going to keep revisiting the pain. Another of my tactics is the Web, which allows me to vent in short form (twitter, facebook) as well as long form (Adventures of Delta Whiskey).
A challenge with throttling down my sports consumption is that I need to surf the FM side of the dial or my iphone for entertainment as I travel back and forth to work. Normally, my ride consists of toggling back and forth between Mike and Mike (National Sports Talk Radio) and Mully and Handley (Local Chicago Sports). The Local show is where I spend most of my time, and I get a kick out of the 'experts' who like to solve all sorts of problems on the field in the radio booth. The hosts do a nice job of giving callers space to blab about all sorts of problems with the current state, ideas about a target state, and proposals to close the gaps. Most of the proposals involve firing someone, spending lots of money, or getting rid of players. Just interesting how much blaming of people go on, without looking at the results/data to validate those observations. And of course, this is Chicaaaaaago, home of da most biased, one-sided fan base on the planet. Those bits on Saturday Night Live are not too far off from what you'll hear on the airwaves.
So back to my radio dilemma, I spent Friday morning bouncing around the FM dial and landed on the old reliable, Lin Brehmer and 93 WXRT. This is what my alarm clock at home is set to, its the #1 preset on my radio, and its the most complete station on the radio. In addition to the best variety in music (Past, Present, Future?), their On-Air personalities are insightful, funny, and seem to love what they do. I remember riding the bus to junior high with Mr Bruss behind the wheel, hearing Lin Brehmer and all sorts of interesting music blaring out of that tiny speaker next to his seat--and I continue to enjoy what Lin and his gang pull together in the morning. Lin himself is also a golfer, a die hard sports fan (Cubs/Bears/Bulls/Hawks profile), and a guy who seems to "get" the important things in life.
One of my favorite features is "Lin's Bin", which occurs on Friday mornings, when Lin tackles a listener question. Lin's responses are always very well written, with accompanying music in the background that highlights key points and messages. So yesterday, I jumped in mid-stream to hear Lin talking about Mothers, and figured I'd add my $.02 about Moms, and my mom in particular. If you'd like to hear Lin's entire entry (and hear old ones), you can click here.
As you'll hear Lin describe, moms do so much that we forget as we age. Every thing they do, starting at pregnancy, is intended to help us grow into living, breathing, human beings. That's a big job! And in my case, my mom had that job times 4 kids, aged three years apart. So I wanted to give a brief shout out to moms, as they are one of the primary reasons we are who we are.
Throughout my life, my mom (aka "Ma") has been the beacon of support and helped me learn (sometimes painfully...for both of us) at every stage of my development. I've interviewed her on the blog, which you can access that interview in my archive (over there to your right), or just click here. Reading that interview was entertaining for me; and good gosh are those photos of me (and siblings) awful! I don't need to rehash everything from that interview, but much of what she taught me is reflected in her responses.
What I thought about as I re-read that interview was how she was able to cram so much into every day, with four kids running around the house, involved in activities, and at different stages of life. She spent time with all of us, taught us much about what is important in life, how to treat others, and how to work hard. And for those lessons, I am and will forever be eternally grateful for her. We still talk a few times a week, mostly about things like upcoming family events, work, pets, and the like, and anyone who knows my mom knows there's always a "movie I've gotta see." And I know its not just me she spends time with, she continues to be a source of inspiration, support, and guidance for all of her kids.
There is MUCH happening in my world, so I will segue into a brief update on other topics and news/notes in the world of Delta Whiskey.
The World of Work
Work has been unbelievably busy over the past eight weeks or so, and the gas pedal will be coming off the floor in the coming weeks. I've been working on all sorts of interesting things and am psyched about work these days. It has not been easy, and I am challenged daily (sometimes every hour), but I am enjoying the people I work with, the work I do, and the impact it has on the world.
This week, I spent time with a team of doctors, nurses, administrators, and IT people to define how we need to improve the use of a patient "portal", which allows as a patient to access their records, send requests to their doctor/staff for things like prescription refills, and see upcoming appointments. As you can probably imagine, technology offers an opportunity for us to streamline processes, reduce the time for patients to get what they need, and access any information they may want to see from their chart.
But the technology alone is not the answer. There are workflows to service those requests and needs that aren't running as smoothly as patients would like. The team looked at everything that happens from the time a patient hears about the portal (aka Marketing) until requests are fulfilled, and identified a bunch of ways this can run better. My job (along with those who work on my team) is to help the team see this reality through facts, data, pictures, and group exercises. The team pulled together some ideas on how to 'fix' these things, which will involve both technical 'rollouts' as well as improvements to how work is done in a clinical setting. While these things won't be fixed overnight, it was a good week to set a course of action for how we intend to make things better.
The neat thing for me this week was bringing in a patient to help the team understand and incorporate a patient's feedback into the process. So often, healthcare gives an "ironclad" impression to its customer, and I really enjoyed bringing someone with no agenda into the room to help the team see and hear what he's experiencing. The patient who joined us was perfect--very blunt about what he observed, but also insightful about ideas/solutions that could make the process and our technology more useful for him.
But work like this is VERY resource intensive on me, and I've had several events like the one I describe above over the past few months. I've been working with teams on everything from pre-operative workflows to planning space needs, so needless to say there is much on the plate. Over the next few weeks, things will slow down and I can spend more of my energy on things like writing, reading, travel (New Orleans, San Diego, Minneapolis, Traverse City ALL in the next 5 weeks), and some exercise/golf.
On the health front
Most of my health concerns these days are between the ears. Keeping my stress level down, finding time to exercise, and taking it easy are important things I need to do. With less time to be spent on work in the weeks to come, I should be able to find more time to work out. For those who visit our home, you know Romeo and I are visually tracking our monthly on the kitchen chalkboard and I had only ONE workout in the month of April! Yes, I have been busy, but that is no excuse--so I will be heading down the gym immediately after this entry is complete. But relatively speaking, health is pretty stable these days...
On the fun front
All of the upcoming travel is going to be fun, and included are a few bachelor parties--one in New Orleans (never been) that will be next weekend. The trip coincides with the NATO summit in Chicago and I am glad to be skipping town during that nonsense. In addition to the bachelor parties, I'll be headed back out to San Diego to see the greatest endodontist in the world, so I can finally get my missing tooth replaced.
This weekend I am not doing ANY work (that has become a pattern) and tomorrow will be a blast, as we celebrate Mothers day with our moms (Our being Romeo Sierra and myself) and prematurely celebrate my nephews 5th birthday. He doesn't know this yet, but he's getting his own basketball hoop, which I am PUMPED to break it in with him on the driveway. One of the best things my folks did for us was hanging a basket above our garage, which provided hours of endless individual and group entertainment. In the evening, we'll be spending time at Second City with Romeo's mother which will be a great capper to the weekend.
Down the road, there are a few great concerts on our calendar (The Wall at Wrigley Field, Wilco, Lollapalooza?), a number of weddings, and some summer travel for the two of us at a location yet to be determined.
On the sports front
It wouldn't be a blog entry without a final commentary on the 2012 Bulls, so I will get this off my chest and be done with it.
Everyone gave up on the Bulls' hopes after Rose, then Noah went down with injuries. My father, who has had season tickets for 30+ years sold his game 5 tickets on the internet--a first in his time as a season ticket holder. There were a handful of believers (myself included) that thought they could make a good run through the playoffs with what they had, but as the series went on it was tough to see them competing with the Heat or other serious contenders.
In my case, I just wanted to see how far they could take it, and it stung to see a good group of guys have such a disappointing outcome from their work. It was obvious how hard they battled to get back into the series and I watched game 6 proud to be a Bulls fan. Guys like Taj Gibson, Omer Asik (I know he missed those last few free throws, but his defense in games 5/6 erased probably 18-30 points), Luol Deng (can't dribble with his left hand due to injury), and others laid it out there over the past few months. Played hurt, played tired, and played a LOT and I commend them for the effort. I acknowledge there's room for roster improvements (would not be shocked to see a guy like Kirk Hinrich return), and I believe there are learning lessons they will incorporate into future seasons.
In a nutshell, I'm disappointed and down about it, but also hopeful about the franchise, the team's nucleus, and their leadership. Titles are hard to win, but I'm confident these guys will get one with their approach and discipline. Hang tough, bulls fans....
No comments:
Post a Comment