VIPs and Margaritas

I spent all day out of the office in a special VIP session with one of our board members/founders. Luckily, A.B. is one of my favorite people (she reminds me of my grandma) so it was more fun than work. When we send out our annual appeal letters, we have board members write notes to people they know (personalization=more money!). A.B., of course, knows the most (over 300), so my supervisor and I got together with her to help with the note-writing.

It took us about four hours to have A.B. write 65 letters. Each person has a story, and A.B. doesn't need much encouragement to tell that story. It was a fascinating glimpse at the beginnings of the organization, and public health/nursing/social work history in general. A.B., the other founders, and their friends made a signification impact on the public health sector, not just in Boston, but on a state-wide and even national level. The concept of the medical sector teaming up with the social work department--the holistic approach to caring for a patient (with emphasis on special needs/low-income, etc)--a lot of that started in Boston as far back as the 1940s.

It's amazing, really. The care my Grandpa is receiving back in Wisconsin (his team of doctors, nurses, and social workers) can be traced back to the founders of my organization.

But I digress...

It was nice to get out of the office, and the people at the mailhouse where we signed the letters were amazingly nice. I ended up finishing work at 3:30! I also happened to be in Waltham where Jon lives. So I arranged to meet him at Margaritas which as you can probably guess is a Mexican restaurant. I had one margarita at the bar while waiting for him, and I don't know what the bar tender did, but I thought I was going to fall off of my stool! I wasn't drunk, but my head sure was spinning. I couldn't believe it (and it wasn't a huge margarita, either). I was so embarrassed, and probably over-compensated for how I felt. I was sure all of the employees (the restaurant was fairly empty that early in the evening) could tell how I felt (they probably thought I was some kind of lush!).

In another weird coincidence, though, our server recently got engaged to a girl from Rhinelander, Wisconsin (a.k.a the middle of nowhere). We Wisconsinites do get around.

Well, I leave the office for one day, and all sorts of stuff (paper, mostly) piles up on my desk. I better get started...