7:30AM Thursday morning. I overslept like every Thursday. Mid-week exhaustion! (It couldn’t be that I HAD TO watch more than 2 episodes of The Recruit last night). Luckily, Tuesdays and Thursdays are my days away from the office. You know, the days when I take Pilates and go grocery shopping …. at least that was the plan before meetings starting to creep in.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my job. It works like magic! For 10 years, you try to find your way from the hospital garage to where you’re supposed to go and then, on a fourth Monday in May, everyone acts like you know it ALL! Employee policies, lease agreements, who can set their third cousin’s pinky finger, the quirks of Treasury and the procedures from Hopkins Legal and Banking.
Every day is not that exciting. There are days when you are feeling low like when you try to settle differences between members, and you feel like you’re too old to remember your few parenting skills. And then you have the highs like when Redonda and Charlie call you on the weekend to tell you that you should monitor the refrigeration of coffee bars’ perishables. But hey, now you are on a first name basis with the Hospital President and the COO! The real high, though is to witness first-hand the accomplishments of this board and what 55 talented women can achieve, maneuvering through times of crisis and creating new business opportunities with an impressive record to show for it: 23 million donated to Johns Hopkins and counting.
Did I mention that I love this job? I will miss it, but I look forward to oversleeping on Thursdays.