Best of times, worst of times

Work, work, work. It has been over 3 weeks since I started this gig, and I had my first major touchpoint yesterday: I presented a powerpoint of my findings to date and initial recommendations to my boss and her boss. This is where my ability to "synthesize" multiple threads really came into play: The project is tracking 3 different technical threads across five different applications, with a core technology that people don't really understand.

To succeed in this presentation, I needed to teach about the underlying technology, THEN describe the 5 applications, THEN address each technical thread and how it crosses the five application areas. And more than that, I needed to describe why it's not working today, and how it SHOULD work. Heck, it's hard to write even generically. The core tech is the mark of the beast, the Barcode, of which I understand a great deal more today than I did 3 weeks ago. We're talking about how to scan patients and drugs to make sure the right drug is going to the right patient, then scanning the nurse to register WHO administered the dose.

This is good stuff: We want to get it right so that we can reduce medication errors and keep people healthy. But all of the interdependencies were breaking their brains, which is why I was brought in. So after 3 weeks of learning, listening, and synthesizing, I came up with my presentation.

It took 45 minutes, but by the end, everyone understood. The CIO actually said it was "the best presentation he'd seen" and was looking forward to re-reading it several times for further detail. That pretty much had me walking on air. And it was vitally important to establish that credibility, for today.

As I mentioned a post or two back, I've been dropped in to help a struggling colleague with his project. He's been working on his for over 8 weeks now, and frankly his scope was a lot more narrow than mine. His materials were almost incomprehensible - he had reams of information, but no structure. He couldn't talk to his findings, and he had to present to the same group I did yesterday.... today.

So I've been spending my evenings trying to whip his stuff into shape, and finally I was asked to lead the presentation as well, and let him offer details as needed. I did my best to assemble everything and make a coherent presentation, but I was worried - I felt like there was something very KEY missing from this, but couldn't figure out what.... and he wasn't able to help me figure it out either. Something just felt... wrong....

We did the presentation, and everyone was very polite.. but there were no followup questions whatsoever. And it hit me: We didn't answer the question they needed answered. We completely missed the point, and this guy had burned through tens of thousands of their dollars. As we walked out, the consultant patted me on the back, thanked me for helping, and said he thought it went very well. The pit in my stomach grew and I decided i needed to get some air. I visited the geese and turtles out back.

Long story short: The client was livid, the consultant will be done tomorrow, but didn't blame me. In fact, the only thing keeping them sane is that I agreed to parachute in, circle back and find the missing information. The next 4 weeks will be even BUSIER than before, but at least I bill hourly. The good thing is that I know what he missed, and I know I can get the info, and I already know all of the OTHER stuff he found out. I can pull this off.

But not tonight: I was at work until 7 recovering from this, had some dinner, and came "home" to watch a movie. Over the past 3 weeks I've got caught up on Joss Whedon's brilliant space-western Firefly, and tonight I watched Serenity, the "wrapup movie". I had seen Serenity a couple of years back without having watched Firefly and I thought it was only ok. But given the context of having watched all 14 episodes, the movie really was a capstone and a wonderful one at that.

Family: Started a new swim class with Isaac on Saturday - up to now, it has been me in the pool holding him for everything. This new level is to build independence, so they're to be more solo in the water (with the teacher). I'm still in the water, but they spend time on the steps, sitting on the edge, or floating without my help. It's a smaller class (3 kids), and the teacher actually thinks that by next week we might have the parents OUT of the water, encouraging from the sidelines. I'll have to get my wet Isaac cuddles some other way. Showers. Those are nice, and he loves for me to hold him for a cuddle in the shower.

We went to visit my dear nephew Magnus on Sunday, and I'm proud to say we brought THE CHAOS to Carrie's house: We brought Zinsser to meet Freddie the Boston Terrier and there was a lot of barking and chasing. Isaac loved "Baby Maggus" (can't quite get that "n" sound in there) and wanted to hold him a lot. Bella had a quiet fascination with the little man. And by the time we left, I could honestly say that Carrie and Scott felt that things were comparatively quiet... even with Magnus starting to squawk. Glad to help.

Oh, and one more surreal image: Last week, I was visiting the geese and turtles out back and saw what looked like a log sticking out of the water, around 15 feet out from the shore. Then a shell bobbed up - at least 2-3 feet in diameter ("big as a truck tire" said one other watcher). It was a HUGE snapping turtle with that sinister smirk they have, and he looked over at me. He stayed on the surface, and was bobbing up and down. I wasn't sure what was up with the bobbing, until a SECOND big head came out of the water from underneath. Yeah, I saw some hot hot giant snapping turtle love.

I'm telling you, South Jersey is bringing all KINDS of experiences.

More as it happens.