Friday, January 13, 2017

Friday, January 13, 2017

Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2006. To me this photo is priceless. It was quintessential  Mattie! Why? Because of his Lightning McQueen slippers and the bug sticker he was wearing on his shirt. Mattie LOVED wearing stickers. In fact each time he got a sticker at the pediatrician's office he would stick it to his wooden bed frame. I can assure you the wooden frame looks like it has been wall papered in stickers. Mattie was a huge Lightning McQueen fan, so much so that Peter can recite lines from the movie. Whenever I am out and about and see another child wearing Lightning McQueen items, I think of Mattie. 


Quote of the day: Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody's power and is not easy. ~  Aristotle

This is how I began my morning! I had a licensure meeting in DC but prior to the meeting, I had to drop Sunny off in Alexandria for his grooming appointment. Grooming is an all day affair now a days! In at 9am and out by 4pm. Not unlike daycare in a way. 

In any case, I had Indie in the sink and Sunny lying outside the bathroom. Poor Sunny wasn't feeling well this morning. He was listless and wouldn't eat anything. The one thing Sunny loves to do is eat, so when he doesn't do it a red flag goes up. Thankfully tonight he is back to normal!

Prior to Mattie's battle with cancer, I wasn't as aggressive as I am now. My aggressiveness at times can set people aback. In today's licensure meeting we had our investigator's supervisor visit us. He is new to the government and as such has decided to implement new policies. Policies which impact how we can make requests to have cases investigated. I suppose it is the nature of how you spring news onto me. If he had explained why it was necessary to enforce such a change, then I most likely would have been more accommodating. But it is the tone of someone trying to regulate me and I am not the kind of person who deals with micromanagement and regulation well. In that sense I am like Mattie, we both are independent and like to have the freedom to make our own decisions that we deem are best for a situation. 

The change he came to discuss involved more paperwork. In order to get a case investigated, we now have to put the request in writing and send it to him to review. No longer can we just verbally request an investigation of a licensee with our investigator who sits in our meetings. If that wasn't bad enough, he then told me that once the written request is received he could potentially dispense the request to ANY of his investigators, not just the one who has sat on the board with me for years. I literally went ballistic. We were arguing back and forth for several minutes and the rest of the board was dumbfounded. I tried to explain to this supervisor that we are assigned an investigator who sits in our meetings for a reason. She understands how we work, how we evaluate cases and issues, and we have built up a level of trust with her. We do not have this same rapport with the other investigators. He continued to say that investigative work is investigative work. Meaning it is factual and anyone can do it and produce the same findings. I totally disagree with this, because the investigator interviews people to seek information about our cases. Anytime people are involved, this adds another layer of complexity. The investigator isn't interviewing a robot! But a person, and talking to people requires finesse, skill, and art! So I totally disagree! The tasks an investigator may perform maybe generic, but how one performs those tasks are very person specific. Nonetheless, we got no where because we did not see eye to eye. 

Needless to say, I came up with a strategy to get the written requests done within the meeting, using a standard request form. Because my biggest worry was after the meeting was over, who would write up these requests and just how long would that take to get done? I don't like things falling through the cracks, especially when it comes to an investigation. However, at the end of the day, I landed up feeling wiped out from the meeting and truly frustrated at the supervisor and also myself. Little things at times set me off. 

Before picking up Sunny today, I went grocery shopping. The check out lines were long, and naturally I picked the wrong line to stand on. Nonetheless, while I was placing my items on the conveyor belt, I overheard the check out clerk talking to the bagger. She was saying that she was very tired because she worked a long shift today and when she isn't at the store she is at the hospital caring for her mom and brother. When it was my turn to check out, the clerk asked me how I was doing. I answered and then said to her that I was sorry to hear her family members are ill and that she is working so hard. She seemed truly happy that I commented and we talked the entire time I was getting checked out. She told me about her mom who has dementia and her brother who had heart surgery. As I was walking out of the store, I reflected and said.... "I really did not select the wrong line after all." This woman needed to talk and have someone listen, so it was meant to be.