...I say, that's where I'm going.

Another tale from a trip better left unmentioned. But here I am talking about it anyway. Originally from August 9, 2007

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I arrived at the airport yesterday heading to Philadelphia. A typical occurrence these days – except this time, no connecting flight. Philly was my destination.

I booked at the kiosk, it said my flight was running on-time. I was skeptical, of course. A flight to Philly that runs on-time happens about as often as a Congressman says, “No thanks – I don’t need your campaign contribution.”

But, skeptical as I might have been, I had hope. No one seemed to indicate anything different. I made my way through a light security line and heard in the distance an announcement for a flight, to Philadelphia, in final boarding.

Odd, since the last flight should have left two hours ago, and my flight doesn’t leave for another 45 minutes.

But as I rounded to corner into the left side of the terminal, sure enough, there’s a flight bound for Philly still boarding at Gate 6.

I approached the gate agent and had to ask, “Which flight is this?”

“Flight to Philly that was supposed to leave at 5:30.”

“And why is it still here?”

“Everything in Philly is on a two-hour delay.”

Just as I figured when I checked in. Wouldn’t it be nice if the bastards actually updated flight statuses when there was a TWO HOUR delay?

“Can I get on this one instead of the 7:40?”

“Sure, we have seats because of all the other folks that had to re-ticket.”

Lucky me. Once in a while, things to work out.

I had a great day up to that point. It was nice I didn’t have to sit at the airport for two extra hours.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Today hasn’t been nearly as good as yesterday was. Perhaps that will change tonight when I meet a couple more on-line friends that I’ve been looking forward to meeting. Meanwhile though, I work and try to distract myself from thinking about you too much…

The job here in Philly has gone as expected so far. No major hang-ups despite this customer has not really put too much attention into this project. We have extra services to work on. No big deal. Just means some longer days here.

But as I sit around these offices, I’m reminded of a time when I too worked in an “office.” Not my home office where I spend time alone for the most part. Not on the road which usually includes long days of solitary work, and nights alone (usually) in hotel rooms. But an actual office.

Daily commute.

Working with the same people, directly, every day.

All the good and bad that goes with those environmental dynamics.

The interoffice politics, back-stabbing, flirting, affairs…

….the daily drama of it all.

At times I miss that. But here, in this community hospital, I’m reminded that for the most part I don’t miss it a bit.

Hearing the conversations in the cubicles. Who did what… who said what about who… who is doing what to who… why a certain job isn’t this person’s responsibility and who is to blame for the latest faux-paus.

Is faux-paus French for, “Fucked it up?”

It seems even a bit more catty here. In a community hospital, dedicated to serving the immediate community which, where I am, is for the most part impoverished. Explained to me by the local staff – the hospital is always in financial straits. The client base generally can’t afford the care they receive here. They try to attract the brightest and the best doctors, nurses and other staff, but can’t afford to compensate well enough to attract the staff they desire.

And you know damn well it won’t attract clientèle from outside of the inner city. Who would dare to lower themselves to be treated here if they can afford to go somewhere else? Somewhere they perceive as better?

At least they’ve finally come up with the money to invest in this product – something that can really help improve the care they give. It’s a step I know they’ve wanted to take for a number of years – I’m glad I can be here to help them get it in place.

The people I’m working with are very pleasant. I was warned they can be abrasive and unfriendly but I haven’t found that to be the case at all.

Funny how that seems to work in most cases… the people I’m warned are not friendly tend to warm right up to me. I’m told, “Oh, but you’re in IT – you’re used to dealing with unfriendly people, aren’t you?” That’s a perception thing. Not sure why, but I have my suspicions.
Usually though, it’s not the IT people who create the most interpersonal conflict. They tend to be completely apathetic towards these projects and with that apathy comes complete cooperation because they just want it done.

No, the nurses and admins tend to be the biggest obstacles. They see these implementations as “me” changing their jobs. As the vendor changing their lives – and they resist. They put up a fight and make things as difficult as possible. Those are the ones that need to be won over. And generally, I do win them over.

I guess that is why the vendor likes me on these jobs. Even if things go wrong, and sometimes things do go wrong, the customer never comes back to complain that I didn’t do a good job or wasn’t willing to go the extra mile.

That makes me feel better about what I do. I take pride in my work, I honestly do. Seems to be as rare a trait these days as… an on-time flight to Philadelphia.

As part of my “extra” services on this job, I’m installing two servers - one in production and one in a mirrored testing environment. The second one is actually a virtual server, and is running slower than… air traffic through Philadelphia?

Ok, I’ll stop beating that metaphor to death.

But it gives me a chance to get some of these thoughts down.

These are actually my thoughts. I’m trying to distract myself from other thoughts. This is the best I can come up with, but if I didn’t come up with this, I’d go crazy. Consumed with thoughts that would best go under the “Why? Why? Why?” header in my journal.

I wish I had answers to all the why’s I need to ask you. I need to know, I really do.

Yet, I know you might not even have the answers yourself.