QueensCare Leadership

Today was going to be meeting day all day long. First there is a Strategic Retreat in the morning for four hours at the FRB and then another 4 hours Leadership Summit for QueensCare with lunch after that. I didn't know how I was going to sneak out to get Johnnie at 4:30 PM for his Spanish class. Fortunately, it was his teacher that asked if we could move today's class, as if the Universe was intervening to make the day easier for me. No need to rush home after the last meeting. As it was I dropped him off at the gate at 7:55 and still made it on time for the 8:30 AM meeting. Yes it did feel like the Universe was making things go my way today. As far as the meeting themselves, the Strategic Retreat was already different because Eloisa's style of leadership is much more inclusive and input-driven than Barbara's was. Yes, Barbara would ask for opinions but no one offered any. It was like the leadership she had was not really conditioned to provide that level of input. Certainly I didn't feel like contributing any. This morning I did.It was all about the business decisions the Health Centers were needing to make. And it was already a welcome thing to acknowledge that past goal-setting exercises were no more than working backwards from a desired point and simply settling on a number as if from thin air. At least Eloisa wanted to engage us to find a methodology. I liked that. And then after this meeting, which at least had some follow-up items to be discussed at the next Director's meeting, we went on to the Leadership meeting. I remember the last one I was starting my new eating patterns way back in April. Today I have at least settled on not too extreme. Meaning I am eating meat again. And right before lunch I actually got a nice work out in too at the FRB gym, just like I do on Wednesdays. And for lunch it was a nice roast chicken with raspberry dressing on a salad. Worked for me. We actually did some icebreaker exercises too. The first one being how to get some random materials to create something that would keep an egg from breaking when dropped from about 6 ft. My team leader didn't get many materials. But we did manage to get the egg in a balloon and then get THAT in another balloon. Too bad our egg broke though, after I was sure our minimalist stragegy was going to work. Oh well. The rest of the afternoon was spent on QueensCare history, which made me feel more connected to the mission. ANd then on financials for both Q and QHC. Funny that I was looking at the corporate structure of QueensCare and all the parent companies and intertwining LLCs and i was thinking this was how rich people do it. No wonder lawyers play prominently. Hope it didn't look like one of Trump's organizations was all I could think of. Anyway I did get through the entire day pretty much sitting on my ass. And i still managed to get 5000 steps in by the time I headed home. And I was still able to get home before 5 PM, just in time to pick up Johnnie. I had let Lisa know there was no Spanish class today so we would just simply be going by her office at 5:30 PM to have dinner. The plan was to finish Johnnie's Family Treasure Chest project tonight all together. A nice thought for a family night. Except that Lisa booked an interview with a dentist candidate. Perfectly understandable since she had been looking for more than a week now. She told us to just get some food and she would call us when she got done. I do not like that level of uncertainty coming from Lisa. More often than not I simply get left having my time hostaged. We went to get Johnnie Panda Express teriyaki chicken and rice, and then got Lisa and me some tostada salads from El Pollo Loco. And then already almost 6:30 PM, we simply went to Lisa's backyard to have dinner there. We tried to wait for her. 7 PM. Then 7:30. Then 8 PM. I got tired of waiting so Johnnie and I simply finished the assignment without her. And when she called, it was already nearly 8:30 PM. We were already heading back to my apartment. See? My time got hostaged again. Lisa being Lisa. At least she was in a good mood when she called. Apparently her dentist interview went very well. She even said it was sweet that we went to her house and waited for her with food. Yeah it was sweet alright. I just shook my head and took Johnnie and Claire back to the apartment. The trick is not to show Johnnie how disappointed I was. So I focused on the treasure chest that we brought back to the apartment with us. That he's going to take to his school tomorrow. I was very much excited about that. And so was Johnnie. We made some flags too for all the countries he has cultural connections too. 6 countries in all. Pretty impressive really. I got to bed early again. It had been a long day. But the tough part of the week is behind me. And I am ready to cruise the rest of September away.