I've been working on a little side project for my company: A hospital in Indiana wanted someone to teach them about personal health records, the current state of the industry, and recommend a course of action based on their systems. As you may know, I lived Personal Health Records back in 2001-2002, in a project for Children's MN: We talked to parents, patients, doctors, and administrators and built a product that is still in use today. So when this hospital in Indiana called, I volunteered to do the work.
Just 20 hours of work, on top of the rest of what I do. No biggie. But I was told that the client is also very demanding and hard to please, so I was steeled for a tough run. I delivered my final report last night (21 slides, 7 custom diagrams showing options, leading products and recommendations), after two review drafts, and got back the following: "Thanks very much for the effort Jim. Appreciate the quick turn on everything and the QUALITY deliverable! Nice job on all fronts!"
Getting a little kudos like that made all the difference.
Things are going well on the main project too: I have a team, we have goals, and I don't feel like I'm spinning my wheels quite as much. I switched hotels, and got a handwritten note from the manager of the new hotel thanking me for switching, with coupons for free Naked Juice. Not bad at all.
Beth left a comment on my previous note about white noise machines: I of course downloaded the application and am thrilled. It reminded me of a rather serious "sound machine" phase Pamela and I went through back in the late 1990s: We got this machine that had 4 different "sounds" that were I think 30-45 second loops. You could totally hear the looping, but it was relaxing nonetheless. Over time, it broke and we tried to replace it, but the model we bought had shorter loops (15 seconds) and I wasn't able to enjoy it in the least. We didn't go for a third model. But now, you get an iPhone app with 20 multi-minute loops of ambient noise, and it's delightful.
Between working and sleeping, I've decided to jump in and watch "Caprica": Two episodes in and it's amazingly cool. I'll give it 2 more episodes before I decide if it's actually awesome, but boy, those first two really grabbed me. And you know I love a giant robot, even if it has the brain of a 16 year old girl in it. I mean ESPECIALLY since it has the brain of a 16 year old girl in it.
In other, more serious news, the retrial for Mark's killer started this week: I can't be at the trial, but Pamela has been representing us. It was hard to hear about the mistrial last year, and It's hard to be going through all of this again... if there's a positive, it's that all of the new information we got last time is now old information - we won't be shocked by the details (and they were hard to absorb last year). It doesn't make it better, but it somehow allows me to focus more on the procedure - making sure that if this guy is guilty, that he's convicted cleanly.
It feels like barely a day goes by without some reminder of Mark popping up. Some joke, or turn of phrase, or visual memory. It happens so often it's not painful anymore - I feel like somehow Mark's out there saying "hey - this stuff really was funny - we really did have a good time together. Go ahead and laugh, ok? You'd be doing ME the favor!"
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