Author: Jennifer Kuntz

We’re back from War of the Wings and trying to get back into the daily routine.  For me that means getting home and making it out again in time for water aerobics.  Between trips and recent bouts of illness, we’ve been MIA for almost a month and I don’t think      tiernen‘s going to make it tonight as he is currently home with a cough and sore throat.  I will endeavor to get there tonight and Wednesday.  I have promised myself that I’ll do some real exercise before I sit down for more World of Warcraft.

Well, we took the plunge. Got World of Warcraft for the compruter and had the cable boy come and add the high speed cable modem again so we can play it. However, we have an important and much anticipated event this weekend that we are definitely NOT going to NOT be ready for, so looks like a lot of the free time for the rest of the week will be going towards War of the Wings prep. (I hope). Now, if we can only convince Tiernen of the importance of being ready *crosses fingers*.

I apologize if I have been blowing people off lately (especially this past weekend). I have been sick and busy lately, but that’s not a good excuse or explaination. I am trying to get back on top of my life and finding it to be increasingly difficult to find enough motivation to keep up with the things I have to do. If you could see our house right now, you’d completely understand. I am endeavoring to get focused and start cutting through the distractions. So, please bear with me while I straighten up and fly right.

On the road. Or more accurately, NOT on the road, but in fact dividing my time this week between the Ramada Inn, the hospital library at Walter Reed and various and sundry eating establishments in Silver Spring, MD. On the up side, I’m learning a lot about our library systems and stuff. So the trip has been very worthwhile. On the down side, I’m sick with Tiernen‘s cold of last week, so I’m not very comfortable and taking lots of OTC stuff just to keep my symptoms bearable. But I figure, if he could stick it out at work, I can do the same. I’ll be heading home tomorrow. Taking the train, which I prefer even though it eats up a whole day just for traveling. Much more comfortable than flying and safer than driving. I’ll post again when I get back home. Hopefully we’ll be online at home by then.

The place I work in (a military hospital) is making a concerted effort to improve the overall customer service in the facility. This effort is especially aimed at the civilian workforce who interact with the public daily, ie. receptionists, physician assistants, nurses, etc. The impression I get is that while the average level of customer service is pretty good, there are some areas that are particularly dismal AND this is coupled with a difficult (read sick people) customer base that is especially likely to complain (most people don’t like to fool around with their healthcare, so I can’t blame them).
The training module they have selected is based around a scripted model where you have a more or less standard group of things you say in each given interaction with a customer. I’m not going to give my opinion (unflattering) of the chosen model but instead pose the point that perhaps the reason that some of the employees around here give such poor customer service is that they have never had good customer service modeled for them. Or at least not often enough for the light to dawn. The average level of interaction with service personnel in this part of the world is pretty darn dismal. This has been brought into particularly sharp relief coming back from a vacation where almost everyone bent over backwards to make sure we had a good experience. This is an increasingly rare commodity and difficult to perfect without lots of practice and reinforcement (and a sincere desire to be polite and helpful). Maybe sending the troublemakers to a 5 star hotel or resort for a seminar and directing them to take notes and learn from the example would be more effective in the long run than hours of generalized training that insults and bores the effective people and misses completely the people it’s aimed at. There is no easy way to teach empathy and understanding.

Yesterday the powers that be arranged for me to visit Walter Reed next week from Tuesday to Saturday to learn how to run my library from their example. Very fast work as everything was decided and approved within the span of about 2 hours. I guess making quick decisions comes naturally to medical folks. I like travelling but I hate to leave Tiernen right now as he is kind of sick with a cold. I hope our friends check in on him and I’ll have to make sure he has lots of soup and NyQuil and tissues before I go.

I’ll be staying in Silver Spring, MD and I’m taking the train up and back and using public transportation to get around, so any good recommendations for things to do around the Walter Reed campus?

Gotta get packed and the house cleaned up this weekend. Good thing I have Friday and Monday off to work around the house and do errands.

We arrived back in F-ville last night around 10:30 PM. Pretty good time considering we left Bayonne, NJ at 11:30 AM. No stop at IKEA (sigh).

The end of the cruise was fun. We walked around most of Old San Juan and saw a lot of St. Christobel and El Morro fortresses. These are both US Parks Dept. sites, so very informative and well preserved. Tiernen didn’t care for San Juan beyond the fortresses, but I liked it even though we were hot and tired. Labadee, Haiti was an interesting experience. It’s a private resort beach owned by the cruise line, so the food is free and the amenities are provided by the cruise company. However, the local people work there and are authorized to sell local handcrafts at the “Haitian Flea Market” (should be “fleece-market”, I’ve never been so thoroughly hard-sold in my life). If you have no sales resistance (like me) don’t go there with more than $20 in your pocket (in small bills). We had fun swimming in the ocean despite the “waves, rip currents, sharks, barracudas, sea urchins, fire coral, jellyfish and sea lice” that they warn you about. We saw cuttlefish and sea anenomes as well as the fish and coral we have been getting familiar with throughout the Caribbean.

The food on the trip was definitely a highlight. The passengers were from all over the world, so there were a variety of Asian and European offerings in the buffets and meals. I had a lot of fun trying new things and Tiernen got to eat steak (or some beef based dish) every night at dinner. Our server never forgot the ketchup or his “Tom salad” of iceberg lettuce, tomato and cucumber with ranch dressing. We had some delicious soups, especially cold fruit soups, that I’m going to have to find recipes for to make at home.

I’d definitely cruise again. Although I’d like to wait a few years before we go again. Next time, I’d like to try Alaska or maybe the Panama canal. I want to go to Jamacia, but I don’t think Tiernen would care for it.

All in all, i’m happy to be home and I’m just waiting for the land to stop moving up and down so I can walk straight again.

Hokay, we’ve been out since Sunday. We spent two days at sea running around the ship and eating ENTIRELY too much. Food so yummy, can’t stop filling plate. Monday we were at St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands), very nice snorkeling tour. We saw sea turtles and lots of fish and coral. We went there and back on the “pirate” ship Bones, and got Bones temporary tattoos. We also had unlimited rum punch as well, so last night was pretty hazy. I know we went shopping once we hit the pier as there is more stuff in our stateroom than we arrived with. Today, St. Maarten/St. Martins (the island so nice they named it twice) more snorkeling and lots of shopping. No rum punch, so we had to go and get our own rum. It’s less expensive here than water, so we’ll be bringing some back. Tomorrow San Juan, PR and then Labadee, Haiti. Then two more sea days and back to NJ and the drive home. I’ll post more later. No pirates yet. We’ll keep looking.

We got off to a bumpy start as the train from Fayetteville was stalled on the tracks south of the station for over 3 hours. We finally had to give up on the train and take a taxi home and get in the Saturn and drive here. 9 hours through NC, VA, MD, DE and NJ to the terminal. Then we parked the car and just made the boat with about 1/2 hour to spare *whew*.
We had a super dinner with the parents and family in the big dining room and then explored all over the ship. It was WINDY, but we had a lot of fun running around and finding everything we had been reading about.
The library on ship is a little pathetic. It looks like most of the books are things the former passengers left behind (very eclectic). I’m going to see if they have a person who works there and if they get to select the books. Cruise ship librarian wouldn’t be such a bad job.
Today we had room service breakfast, then I finished my skirt for the formal night (tonight) and Tom went swimming. After a nice buffet lunch, we went to the pool and then we came to the e-lounge to do some internet surfing $.50 a minute, so updates will be short.
One more day at sea and Monday we’ll be in St. Thomas.

It’s been a pretty darn productive day. I’m now officially ensconced in the boss office (gotta bring in my tchotchkes). I have OCLC search software and passwords to make it work and I can find and download item records to the catalog. Life is good.

Now I have to spend $20,000 on books by next weekend. Can we do it? YES WE CAN!