Caught in the Act

Despite very obvious character flaws and quantities of impatience and rudeness in the amounts to rival the aresonal at Fort Knox, I would like to believe that I am still a nice person and look brightly toward the future and have a relatively positive outlook. I know I'm not that person though, and tell everyone that I'm not a nice person, but I am holding out a sliver of hope that one day, the sweet Amy that once existed will emerge again. But today I realized I might be too late for that.

Today I was caught being rather pessimistic - and said it outloud:
"This box is half-empty, I'm going to send it over to the Dossin".

And I immediately was horrified by the way it sounded and with the type of person that made me sound like. As if I'm not already in the middle of a personal revolution, that definitely was a battle wound I will remember.

Successes and Failures

Success:
The Dossin greeted 4,141 people this weekend. Awesome. And we pulled in more donations than the Main's re-opening which saw twice that amount of people. Awesome.

Failure:
For Lent this year I decided not to give anything up but rather set a goal for myself. Last night, it ended in misery, heartache, fear and tears.

Result:
A migraine headache and 7 hours on the clock doing almost absolutely nothing.

Damn right.

Today

I went from being called a genious today to feeling like a complete idiot who can't do anything right. There is nothing like bringing work home to complete and not being able to do it because I can't load the freakin price gun the right way. UGH.

High tide is in. I have tomorrow to get my area at the Dossin set up and looking presentable. And I don't even have a full day to do that. It's really pitiful.

Hopefully, it will pay off this weekend. By the way, metro Detroit readers should go.
This might help convince you: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070320/BLOG07/70320040/1118/rss

Protest

Today is St. Patrick's Day. Whoop-di-do. I'm not celebrating. I feel today is for those who only wish they were Irish. Me...I am Irish everyday. My raging temper, alcoholism and belief in Leprechauns (okay the third one is a lie) is celebrated daily, not annually. To say I just don't get it is to sum it up in the least.

So instead of getting pissed off at the drunken idiots in a smokey bar that will give me a headache, I'm watching Hockey Night in Canada and finally getting around to baking those cookies that I have so many orders for. All of this with a little rum on the side. Ha.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, beats Don Cherry in a Shamrock and green beer tie with a green plaid suit. Nothing. God Bless the happy Canadians. AND the Leafs/Habs game is full of fights. Go Hockey!

Seeeeeeee, I told ya!!!!!

Yep, this is me

I - inspiring courage
R - radiant spirit
I - infinite wisdom
S - soulful joy
H - heart of gold

couldn't sum me up better!

Crunch Time

I am 95% done with the budget for next year. Considering I found out on Monday that I had to project revenue numbers per month for my entire department as well as expenses, I don't think I did a half bad job. I just have to finish writing a narrative on why I projected the expenses and I'll be ready to hand it in. And since I have the biggest and most important department (think about it, is anything more important to a museum than its visitors?), I think I've done a pretty good job. But we'll see what the big bosses say about it.

I am about to kick the shit out of the marketing guy. Don't ever say anything negative about my potential visitors. It will not be pretty.

I have awesome things for the gift shop at the Dossin! I am super excited. Thanks to my awesome boyfriend , I'll be carrying Higdon lighthouse prints there. The order arrived yesterday and I have a personalized thank you note from "Randy." It's all very cool. I'm excited about taking over this gift shop because the inventory is related to maritime history and the exhibits. I have ideas to track it better and to display it. I can't wait until next week when I can put it all together. Woot! Now that the budget is done, it's time to have fun with the Dossin. It's just a shame that I am probably the only person on staff who actually gives a shit about that Museum. Ah well.

That's it for now. Probably won't blog until the Re-Opening festivities are completed. Later.

Nothin Quite Like It

Opening windows in your office to let the fresh air in is great.

Coming home and opening windows in your house to let the fresh air in is even better.

Knowing that snow is in the forecase for this weekend is just priceless.

Gotta love Michigan weather, eh?

Daily Grind

I passed a car on Woodward this morning and recognized it as one that I've passed before, probably several times. It was kind of strange. And little did I know it was a sign to the way the rest of my day was going to go...

I had to turn on the exhibits this morning because we had an early tour and I wanted to make sure everything was on before they got there. I discovered how rusty I am now at a routine that took me about 10 minutes tops to do when I was in charge on the weekends. It didn't surprise me though, I can barely cash the drawers out without asking my VSAs what to do next. I kind of miss that aspect of the job and if I had to put up today's course of actions, I would go back to it in a heartbeat. Well, maybe...

I'm a big manager now and have to mediate the actions, reactions and consequences when tempers flare and frustrations ignite. I'm protective of my staff and will defend them if I know they are right. Lucky for me, they are wise enough to take responsibility for wrong decisions and unwise moves. Unlucky for me, not everyone whose job interacts with visitor services reports to me. Miscommunication happens and messages don't get relayed. Today, policy wasn't followed and I had two grown adults talking to me in tears because they were completely frustrated with each other and the new policy that has obvious flaws in it. It was a learning experience for all parties involved, especially for me. I was reminded that just because my staff thinks the same way and has the same goal, not everyone in the Museum does. While it is something they strive to achieve (excellent service to our visitor base), they are so far removed from it on a daily basis that they have no idea what it is like to serve that visitor every minute they are in our facility. Everyone is going to have a different opinion on how to accomplish that which is more than fine by me, but not everyone is going to have to implement that idea. Drafted policy that fails horribly should not cause a complete disruption in the work day and result in tears. But it happens sometimes. Everyone's frustration is going to build up and eventually be taken wrongly by the receiving party. And who gets to handle it all and still stay on top of things, me. Days like today will happen from time to time and I'll come home feeling exhausted, but I'm not upset about it. Time to revise, problem solve and move on. And if the world blows up again, I'll repeat the steps and use this experience as a problem solving tool. Isn't it fun being the boss?

I had 15 minutes to take a break and eat my lunch in between meetings and mediating. That bottle of Jack never looked so good. But first, I have to finish cooking dinner. Adios.

Ain't No Rock 'N' Roll to Me

As I ventured into the depths of Ohio - further than what Cedar Point and the Turnpike can provide - I am convinced that my digusting prejudice regarding that state is blatantly obvious. As well it should be - everything about the state sucks. Except one thing, they can bring Kevin Smith to a rickety college town, and that is pretty cool. But that's it. They can't even get rock and roll right. Hardly a "hall of fame" from any standard definition of the word, it is more like a generic museum with very cool subject matter. Expecting the impact to be far greater than almost a disappointment, I can say I've been and won't go out of my way to go back. I won't even make it a point to suggest it to anyone. I learned more about rock and roll history in my own backyard than I did in that building in Cleveland. I'm disappointed that the Mather is only a seasonal museum, seeing a sister site of the Dossin would have been far more cool and probably the highlight of the mini-vacation to the dreaded Buckeye state.

Now it's time to shift my focus to the Dossin. It opens March 24 and it's a really exciting time. I got the gift shop displays I wanted and Higdon prints to sell - I'm going to be proud of it. Hopefully we have an outstanding opening weekend similar to what the Main museum experienced back in September. And the only thing cooler than 305 years of Detroit history is Maritime history.

Now I return to my domestic duties to tap my Irish roots and make shamrock cookies. Yummy...