I suddenly have an office team that’s firing on all cylinders. It’s kind of unbelievable. I’ve forgotten what this feels like. It’s been a long, long, long time.

My salesperson has gone from being nice and persistent, to being a full-on advocate for what she feels will get deals closed. It’s like she’s a different, related, more driven cousin to the person who was here before. I said to her: “Where the hell have you been this whole time?”

My office coordinator loves the high-speed focus of creative staffing: and she’s the first person in 11 years of running my own firm that I’ve allowed to write material that’s gone online. It’s an interesting thing, giving up iron-fisted control over creative output. If my Father could have done it, I think he could have had small empire… so I’ll try to do it, and make him proud in absentia.

Since we’ve reorganized, we’ve closed deals that were open for ages, gotten client testimonials that just rock the house, and have generated a flood of new business opportunities

The energy here is just amazing. Getting to this point was really hard, and it took me five months to figure out just what the hell was going on… but I’m pretty psyched now.

We’re still running in the red, but I’d bet on us now.  Oh, wait.  I guess I am.

We’ll see how this translate into dollars. And, God help me, I am painfully aware that these words can come back and bite me on the ass at any moment.

Love to all. Even you, the lady who laid into me at 7:45 this morning, for reasons I still don’t understand.

It stormed like hell in Manhattan today, just when I was heading out to the bank.

I got soaked. I got splashed by a cab .  I’m wearing a t-shirt in my offiice right now, because my shirt’s totally wet.

BUT!  I got to escort an impeccably-dressed young lady to her office.

I was waiting to cross the street, just having been splashed by a cab, and the woman caught my eye in that “holy shit, I was just drenched” moment and laughed at me.

I said: “What?  I don’t look fabulous?”

She said: “I have a meeting with my boss right now.  I have to get to work but I can’t get wet!”

So, in a torrential downpour,  I held the umbrella over her head for a block or so.  When we approached her office door I said, “handoff in three, two, one…”  and immediate turned and walked the other way the moment she was in a dry area.

As I turned to leave, she said:  “You’re my hero!”

I smiled, but didn’t look back.

Love to all.  Even you, the grumpy tan guy in the pink shirt.

What follows is a somewhat risky email I sent a  client who had requested candidates, but wouldn’t provide details on the jobs at hand.  This was after phone calls and emails were unanswered for about 8 days:

 Hello!

We really appreciate the job orders…. and we’re delighted to be working with you on them!

Here’s the scoop: we have some questions about the positions, which nobody is answering. Having them answered would allow us to send you candidates tuned to your specific needs, vs. best guesses – although our guesses are significantly more “educated” than most agencies.

I realize that a lot of agencies are CV Pushers, but we are not.  We are passionate about tailoring our talent to suit your needs.  One of the core parts of doing that is understanding the details of the job at hand.

I’ve left voice and emails asking a few basic clarifying questions about the type of candidate you need:

[questions deleted for blog-reader sanity.]

If you could answer these questions, we could do what we do best.  If you don’t have time do answer them,  I understand, but it puts us in peril of being average, which is antithetical to our way of thinking.

I realize your time is valuable.  So is ours.  If you’d like us to work on these positions, we’d be truly delighted.

Just tell us what you need.

Happily, we got a response in 4 hours.  Sometimes it pays to advocate for oneself.

Love to all.  Even you, the dentist who said the procedure would be “easy.”

I never thought I’d have three children, and I sure as hell never thought I’d have a kid like you. You’re fascinating, intense, hilarious, and silly. You have such a temper. You growl. You can wiggle your bottom like nobody’s business. Your eyes are brighter than the room you are in.

You’re a generative force, young man. I love you SO much.

Happy Birthday, kiddo.

Love to all. Even you, the lady with the implications that are the opposite of her demands.

Well, the party is canceled due to icky weather.

I was thinking there would be a huge upside: we get to have some kids over for a playdate with my youngest, and I get to chill out at home and catch up on cleaning my office, getting ready for the week. I could even review resumes, and queue people for interviews. This would ease the transition into Monday SO much…

But, no. We’re going to the zoo. Because God forbid we move at the speed limit, instead of 125mph all the time. I realize that the in-laws are here, but shit: is it really necessary to do this? We rescheduled the party for Tuesday, so why the rush stay so busy?

I’m so tense these days that I physically can’t keep my shoulders down. This would have been a nice break.
The challenge: not being a dick while at the zoo if I agree to go. But I’m considering not going.

Love to all. Even you, the voice in my head telling me to just. stay. home.

More weird math:

My father-in-law (FIL), having three children of his own, will always have Father’s Day Authority, because he will always have the most child-years worth of kids. If Maggie was an only child, then by the time my oldest was 19 the combined age of my kids would surpass Maggie’s age at that time, and I would have more “child-year” as a father than my Father-in-law, and MY AUTHORITY WOULD REIGN SUPREME!

But he has three kids, so this is not to be.

My FIL and his wife (SM) stayed overnight last night. He’s a good man who can be a bit gruff, but I’ve grown to love him quite a bit. I’m not what he hoped for or expected, initially, but he has since also told me that he’s very happy that I wound up being his son-in-law. We’ve developed a really interesting relationship, he and I. He’s taught me a great deal about acceptance and respect.

We’re supposed to have 20 six-year-olds to the swim club today for my youngest’s six birthday. It’s raining, and it’s cold, and I’m nervous that we’re going to have to reschedule. We have the biggest Ben & Jerry’s ice cream cake I’ve ever seen… a layer of Cookie’s and Cream followed by a layer of Cookie Dough… all encased in hard chocolate.

Oh, my.

The weather is not cooperating. I’ve already talked to my youngest about a reschedule. He’s okay with it, because he gets to pick what we’ll do today, and I promised to give him the gifts I got him.

<insert five minutes here>

Just walked downstairs from checking on the two youngest, who, like me, are staying home from Church this morning. Normally, we go to 10:30 mass, but the schedule got time-shifted due to the party, I sleep in a bit on weekends (since I average 4 - 6 hours during the week), and my youngest sleeps as late as a teenager.

In talking about the day, and Father’s day next week I realized that my youngest doesn’t remember my Mother and Father at all.

That killed me, a little. It’s been four years since my Father turned his BPD-powered sights to bear on me and Maggie… but I still can’t believe he’s rejected every opportunity to know his own grandchildren.

So it comes around again: all I can do is try be the Father I wish I had.

Which means, of course, that I have to go.

Love to all. Even you, meteorologist James Bryant of Weather.com.

I’m going to make a promise myself to write a post per day for the next month.

Work has been SO insanely busy since we regrouped that I haven’t had time for anything else, other than parental stuff.  Holy crap.

I’ve learned SO much in the last three weeks.  I’ll start sharing it in pieces.

Love to all. Even you, the parent who won’t take the time to check the schedule.

Had to take off the mask… it was way too hot, and the eyeholes were a tad too small for reading “Curious George Takes a Job.” I did wear a tie, though.

Love to all. Even you, my great disconnect.

You can’t make this stuff up. I swear.

So, I was supposed to be late to work tomorrow, because I’m wearing my gorilla suit to my youngest’s class, where I’m going to be the mystery reader. I’ll be reading “Curious George takes a job.” This makes sense, because I am in the creative staffing industry, and I’ll be in a gorilla suit.

I am nothing if not consistently On Message.

Instead of being late, though, I’m going to have to work from home. Because my car is locked inside the apparently high-security SPCA compound… because my WIFE was locked inside the SPCA compound… because she diverted from her shopping mission to look at puppies/dogs for adoption (because 2 dogs, 3 cats, and three kids doesn’t produce quite. enough. poop.), and apparently they didn’t know she was there, locked the gates, and left.

I managed to snap this cellphone pic of what appears to be either a 40-ish Irish lass making her way through the woods after circumventing the steel fence, or some kind of suburban Yeti. The jury is still out.

Love to all. Even you, the celtic blue-eyed Sasquatch.

Aesthetic takes more beautiful pictures, more frequently, than anyone I know. Sometimes, I find it kind of baffling.

Love to all. Even you, little blond kid who just wouldn’t. stop. hitting.