The end of March. It has been coming in like a lion. Hopefully it will go out like a lamb! Getting a bit warmer, especially in Washington, DC. On Saturday, the yearly kite festival was scheduled along with the peak bloom and official start of the Cherry Blossom festival. Unfortunately I was scheduled to work on Saturday, so I was not able to attend.
Actually I have been working quite a bit. I was scheduled to work Saturday, and on Friday I got called in to work at another facility for another company that I applied to last Fall. It is a very small rehab/nursing home near my old workplace. I signed up to work on call since I knew some of the rehab staff members and figured it would be a nice way to stay in touch. Some of my previous coworkers headed to this facility for full time work. Turns out their OT assistant was leaving for another job so they needed some help. I spent Friday morning at my water aerobics class, and then drove over to work after lunch. I was surprised to see the OT assistant that was leaving was a fellow co worker from my St Agnes days about 22 years ago. She was actually leaving to work at St Elizabeth's-an Assisted Living Facility next to St Agnes hospital where she used to work. I also worked at St Elizabeth's when our St Agnes rehab department was hired to run their rehab department. I really liked working in the facility, and I also assisted with their Adult Day Care program, St Anne's, for our fundraiser when I paddled for the Erickson Dragon Boat team. So once again they hired another contract company to come in and provide therapy services, and Brenda was asked to come back to work. Which meant they needed more help at the facility she was leaving and hence I got the call.
I really don't need to work extra hours, but as I said, I thought it would be fun to spend more time with previous coworkers. And it turns out the staff at the facility are all really nice and I like the small, homey feel of the place. On Friday I spent some time getting oriented to the facility and their computers and paperwork. I treated one patient and enjoyed some banana bread that Brenda made for her going away luncheon and then headed home.
I was also scheduled to work on Saturday at my full time job as I mentioned, but when I showed up in the morning I was surprised to see another therapist there and no schedule for me. I figured my boss had made a mistake and missed my name on the calendar. Since I had already dressed for work, I split the patients with the other therapist. I was also expecting Allison to drop by at lunch to help me set up an Alexa in my workplace. I thought it would be nice to have some music during our exercise groups. Allison was able to set up a few options on my phone through the internet to play on the Alexa Dot.
Imagine my surprise on Sunday morning when my boss emailed me to complain that I was not supposed to come into work on Saturday! She worries about staff working overtime. I wanted to know how I was supposed to find out if no one told me the day before. Apparently they let people know at work on Friday if they have to come in or not. Since another on call therapist was scheduled, I did not need to come in. But since I did not work there Friday, I had no way of knowing. If I had known, I would have called in on Friday to see if I needed to work. Also, I have only worked one other Saturday and I was the only one scheduled. The rehab director and staff are not used to my Mon to Thursday work schedule.
Although I did mention to the tech that I was scheduled to work Saturday when our team got together for dinner on Thursday night at a local restaurant. Our supervisor decided to resign to go off and do something else after 1 year of working there. So we decided to all go out to dinner together and gave her a going away relaxation gift with a massage gift card.
So I was a little annoyed at the situation since Allison and I would have enjoyed attending the DC kite festival instead on Saturday morning. Oh well. Turns out I mentioned to my boss that if anyone was going to work extra hours, it should be me since I rarely work overtime (over 40 hours). And I usually don't go looking for extra hours(I have plenty of work hours!). Plus I am cheaper than the on call staff, so in the long run I save them money. She agreed! But from now on she is going to make sure she calls me on Friday. However, she is leaving next week so I guess I will have to call the office from now on!
So I did not have to work, but I did. And since I worked, we decided to visit the Cherry Blossom Festival on Sunday. Allison thought it was a bad decision since it was a bit chilly and supposed to rain all day. I thought it would be nice to park at the National Zoo, spend some time walking through the zoo and then take the train down to the tidal basin by the National monument to walk around the cherry trees. Turns out we did not have any rain, and it got rather sunny, although incredibly windy. Actually a very good day for a kite festival! Tom was not able to join us as he headed off for work in San Jose, California. Instead, Allison's college roommate Jen and her boyfriend Tyler joined us. We had a wonderful day walking around the National zoo and then caught the train down to see the Cherry blossoms. There were a ton of people there, but probably not as crowded as Saturday. And the train was not as crowded since we came in from the zoo. I also learned that you need a permanent card now to ride the train and you add on funds rather than buying individual paper tickets like before. We enjoyed a quick walk through the trees and listening to a Japanese Drum show. We still had a little time to tour part of the zoo on the way back since they closed at 7pm. It was a wonderful outing but an exhausting walk, including up and down hills.
No comments:
Post a Comment