Now that I'm working at the front desk again, Necktie Friday has returned!

I now get an hour lunch, from 12 to 1, and it occurred to me this morning that it's the first Friday of the month, and I could start going to Harborview's meditation sessions again. But I forgot about the meditation session just long enough to agree to take my lunch early, at 11:30. So I missed it today.

Then, by coincidence, Craig (the meditation leader), stopped into out clinic, recognized me, and said hello. I told him that I plan to start attending his sessions again. He replied that it was a good thing he ran into me, because the session time had been changed slightly.

It's mind boggling to me how coincidences, like that one, just happen.

I finally got the right color stripe on my badge (see February 22). It wasn't easy, though, and I'm not real fond of the Harborview ID Badge department right now.

My new manager signed my new badge request, so I could get the name of my new clinic under my name. I walked to the other side of the hospital and up eight flights of stairs to the badge office. The officer in the badge office wouldn't issue me a new badge because officially, my new manager is only an acting manager, and badge requests must be signed off by a manager or a director. I explained that our clinic is currently without a manager, so I didn't know who would be able to sign my request. The officer asked me who used to be the manager of our clinc. I answered that I didn't know - I'd started there only two days ago.

I walked back to my clinic and tried to find my (acting) manager, but she was out of the office. I ran into one of the PCCs, one who had interviewed me, and explained why I was looking for the manager. He brought me to his office and tried to phone the badge office to explain the situation, but there was no answer.

So I went back to work with the wrong color stripe and the wrong clinic name on my badge.

A little while later, my supervisor happened by, and I explained what had happened at the badge office. She took my badge request and disappeared. A little while later, she reappeared with the Medical Director's signature. My supervisor walked with me back to the badge room. (We took the elevator.)

The officer in the badge office still wouldn't grant my badge request because although the Medical Director is the head of our clinic - I don't know, I can't remember what his reason was. My supervisor explained that our clinic is planning on hiring more new employees, and if no one in our department is authorized to sign badge requests, no one is going to be able to have badges. She also said, in so many words, that although she respects the need for strict badge rules, she thought it was strange that our acting manager was able to hire me, able to grant me security access, but unable to authorize a badge showing that I have security access.

The officer read off a list of people he would accept badge authorizations from - most of them my supervisor apparently had never hear of. Then there was a name my supervisor did recognize: a high-up division head. So my supervisor and I went off to try to find the Division Head's office. My supervisor told me that she was rather nervous - one doesn't just walk into a division head's office unannounced. But we did.

My supervisor explained the situation to the Division Head's secretary, who was very willing to help us. She brought my badge request into the Division Head's office, and returned with the Division Head's signature.

I returned to the badge office alone, and the officer finally issued me my new badge - with the proper green stripe.

The officer questioned me about the orange stripe on my badge, and I told him the story, including the other badge officer asking me who I was working for - Harborview or The University? - and me answering that I'm working for Harborview, but my paychecks come from The University, just like everyone else's. The officer explained that that was the problem: our paychecks come from Harborview, not The University.

The officer was wrong. My paycheck stubs say "The University of Washington." My name and all the names of my Harborview co-workers are displayed in the UW employee directory. We were all hired by the UW Human Resource Office. We're all issued UW Staff ID cards. I've never seen anyone with a Harborview Staff ID card. Our employee bus passes are called U Passes, not H Passes. Harborview Medical Center stationary says: "Owned by King County, managed by The University of Washington." But I was too tired of it all to argue. Besides, I had my badge - what would be the point?

The latest news about the financial difficulties of The Seattle Monorail Project saddens me a lot. I worry that the monorail won't get built. I worry even more that too many people will confuse a good idea with a good idea executed badly.

I think that this monorail was the best public works idea Seattle has come up with in all the decades I have lived here. It is disgraceful that a city as large as Seattle has no rapid transit system. This city is too hilly for light rail. It is too narrow to continue adding freeway lanes through it. Metro has to keep shortening bus routes because traffic is so bad that the buses can't keep on schedule.

Meanwhile: Day two of the new job went well. They are keeping me busy - no more time to scan the geocaching forums during down time. I get an hour lunch now, but I don't have access to a computer during that hour - that I know of. I may get some books read.

The only concern I have is that I have yet to receive any formal instruction on the workings of the clinic. I don't know how much I don't know. I just hope that people remember that when scheduling mistakes show up.

Day one of the new job. They told me during the interviews that they were looking for an experienced person who could jump right into the job with only a minimal amount of instruction. They weren't kidding. I was given a walkthrough tour of the clinic, and then was invited to take a seat at the front desk. There were times during the day that I realized that I was alone at the front desk. That was fine with me.

This could be an exciting and interesting clinic. With three people at the front desk, we saw at least 120 patients today. It's pretty much a self-contained clinic, with its own pharmacy and triage nurses. It's the first clinic I've ever worked in that accepted walk-in patients.

It felt great to be back in the hospital.

As a going away present, my old group gave me a $20 gift certificate to amazon.com. This morning, I bought a used DVD of Spirited Away.

We went to a pre-parade party at Michael & Scott's condo (one block away) this morning. It was a nice enough party, but too many people in too small a space. After a couple of hours, I became really tired. As the party moved up to Broadway to watch the Gay Pride Parade, Phillip asked me what I wanted to do - watch the parade, do some geocaching, or do something else. All I wanted to do was take a nap. Phillip blamed it on too many mimosas. I wasn't so sure. I'd fallen asleep in front of the TV yesterday, after the hike - and it wasn't a strenuous hike at all - and napped for an hour.

I laid out the futon as soon as we got home - at about 11:30 or so. I fell asleep immediately. The alarm woke me up at 1:15. I still had all my clothes on - I hadn't even taken off my Birkenstocks. Phillip had gone to work (overtime), and had set the alarm for me. I had a 2:00 reservation for a computer at the library.

We missed the parade.

I used the fast connection at the library to upload some pictures to Yahoo! Photos.

I am tired.