Intercept the Mailman? (A Mama Kat Writing Post)

This post is based on the following Mama Kat prompt:

Write a post about an argument you recently had with someone from the moment of conflict to the moment of resolution in 15 lines or less. 

Barb (my mother in law, who is blind (a fact that matters for this story)): 

Suzette [a relative who was helping out] accidentally requested the order be shipped to 721 Roseberry Street instead of 771.

When she realized the mistake and called Lands End, they said there was nothing we could do…...……..except try to intercept the postal deliverer and tell them to deliver the package to us when it arrived.

Me:

Wait a minute, Lands End, home of “Guranteed. Period.  ©” said the only option was to intercept the mailman?

They want a 77 year old blind lady to stand out on the street, catch the mailman, and explain all this?

Why didn’t they just ship an order to the correct address?

Barb:

I don’t know. Can you see what you can do?

Me:

Tweet to Lands End – "I have a consumer issue and need help." [no response received]

Email to Lands End - [it would take more than 15 lines to replicate the email]. The short version was, "why can't you just ship a duplicate order to the right address instead of asking the blind lady to stand outside at the mailbox and try to intercept the mailman?

Response from Lands End - a generic "email received" stating it could take 2 business days for a response.

Instant Message Attempts #1 and #2 to Lands End – the representative and I introduce ourselves to one another, after which I am cut off (which may have been my browser).

Lands End:

Email response back (received within an hour of being sent!), "Well, she can order a new one and we’ll send it."

Me:

Why can't you go ahead and send the duplicate order? When and if she receives the original order, we will make sure you get it back.

Lands End:
We don’t have the new address so we can’t send it out.

Me:

It is 771 Roseberry Street. Can you please resend it?

Lands End:

[Via Email] We are sorry to hear you did not receive your original order. A new one will arrive within 5 to 7 days.

Me:

[Tweet] - Kudos to @LandsEnd for great customer service.

And that, my friends, is the end (the Lands End) of the story! The package arrived as promised within 3 days. Who knows where the original package ended up?

Light Paperwork Duties as Assigned

I love soft skills.  Soft skills are used by customer service representatives, especially in a phone call setting where neither party can see the other, to add quality to a call.  Voice tone is an example.  All of us have heard a contact center representative with awful voice tone -- maybe they sound like they'd rather be home watching "The Hills" (or maybe they sound like they are watching "The Hills") while trying to simultaneously serve you.  Soft skills are an art.  If your contact center is trying to sell something, the rep who gives me accurate information with nice soft skills is more likely to get my money than the rep who gives me accurate information without.  And the rep who gives me inaccurate information may cost their employer the human resource time involved in me calling another rep to make sure the information I heard the first time was right.

But tonight's blog isn't about a phone call.  It is about this:

"This" is the machine printing out my receipt at Subway yesterday.  I am glad Subway gave me a receipt for my purchase.  I am glad my "Sandwich Artist" used great soft skills to take my order.  What I am not so glad about is that, although she used great soft skills, she provided the following instruction to me as the receipt was printing out:

"When the first receipt prints out, you can just take it."

Now, it may seem trite to quibble about being told to rip off my own receipt.  She appeared to be the only Sandwich Artist on duty and a line was forming.  Before I complete my mini soapbox rant, here's the Sandwich Artist position summary:

Tasks and Responsibilities:

1. Prepares food neatly, accurately, and in a timely way.
2. Demonstrates a complete understanding of menu items and explains it to guests accurately. Exhibits a   cheerful and helpful manner when dealing with guests.
3. Checks products in sandwich unit area and restocks items to ensure a sufficient supply throughout the shift.
4. Cleans as directed.
5. Greets guests and prepares their orders, uses Point of Sale system/cash register to record the order and computes the amount of the bill, collects payment from guests and makes change.
6. Understands and adheres to all quality standards, formulas and procedures as outlined in the Operations Manual.
7. Accounts for all forms of money, bread, etc. during the shift
8. Understands and adheres to proper food handling, safety and sanitization standards while preparing food, serving food, and clean up.
9. Maintains professional appearance and grooming standards as outlined in the Operations Manual.
10. Performs light paperwork duties as assigned.

Ostensibly, her goal was to comply with the "timely way" required in task #1, and that took precedence over the "light paperwork" in task #10.  (And task #5 does not specifically say that the Sandwich Artist should provide a receipt for a Point of Sale system transaction, just that it should be used to record the order and compute the amount of the bill.) However, in the time it took her to instruct me to tear off my own receipt, she could have done it herself. 

Of course, if she had done it herself, or even if she had not mentioned the receipt, I probably wouldn't be writing about Subway tonight.  In a sort of "inside out" customer service way, she should get kudos for talking me through the process and ensuring I had documentation of my visit.

But still..........if I am spending money at your business, you should complete the transaction, not me.  In almost 16 years of working at Healthy Kids, I have found myself frustrated when I have had to ask families to do some of the follow up work for problems not of their own making (I am sure they felt the same way).  I know I have provided customer service that did not meet my own exacting standards. 

Rebecca Morgan's blog cites examples of customer service delight, including the fact that Burger Kings in Brazil clandestinely take customers' pictures and then produce those pictures as a surprise on the customers' Whopper wrappers!

I wasn't asking for my picture on my Subway receipt, just for my Sandwich Artist to do her own "light paperwork duties as assigned."

I'll "run" into you next week, readers! 

Carrie On Without Us

The morning drop-off process at Roberts Elementary School is conducted with military-drill precision (usually). 

Here's how the procedure is supposed to work:

1) As you approach the drop-off zone, you pull as far forward as possible (there are usually five staff members lined up along the drop off zone). 

2) If you end up stopped at the beginning of the zone, or the middle, and traffic is not moving, your child is supposed to go ahead and exit the car and approach the school.

That was not happening with us. 

I started realizing that Wayne was procrastinating getting out of the car, even though he was ready to go and had everything he needed.  Then one morning when I pulled up, a morning when Tenley was with us, I was greeted with this smile and someone who remembered Tenley's name even though it had been three years since she had been at the school:

Honestly, I think Wayne had been holding out for the waves of positive energy that Carrie Washington emits .... no matter how rushed our morning had been (they all are), how much the kids had been sniping at each other (they almost always are), or how preoccupied I was with the challenges I was already anticipating in the day ahead ...... one thing was for sure ..... for about 30 seconds we would all get a warm greeting and a wish for a happy day.  Even if I am wrong about Wayne's motivation, I started to count on it and hope that the regimented precision of the drop-off process somehow deposited us at Ms. Washington's position.

In doing a little research, Carrie's supervisor said she is not unlike LaVida, who I wrote about in March.  She does her job with an aura of joyfulness that suffuses even mundane interactions.  Her supervisor also said, "She loves working out there in the mornings" and "She will go out of her way to help anyone."  Throughout the school year, she was also responsible for transporting a hearing impaired student from Madison County and working four hours a day in the cafeteria. 

I made my last drop-off ever to Roberts Elementary last Friday morning (Wayne is moving up to 6th grade at Montford Middle School). 

The Kigers won't be there anymore to bask in that morning happiness, but other families will.

"Carrie" on, Carrie!

And we are put on Earth a little space, that we may learn to bear the beams of love. --William Blake

My "4 am Project" Blog

Looking for the magic on 4/4 at 4 am!

I wonder if there is a "Blogging While Fatigued" equivalent of "Driving Under the Influence."  If so, the beautiful thing is the worst thing I can do is not make sense; no one will get hurt!

A couple of weeks ago, I started seeing mentions of "The 4 AM Project" appearing on Twitter.  The goal of the project, now in its second year, is to capture images of the "magical" time of 4 a.m. worldwide (technically, the time window is 4 a.m. - 5 a.m.).  I can't put my finger on what attracted me to this -- it certainly wasn't the prospect of losing sleep!  I think it was the "world-wide-ness" of it.  And as I prepared for bed last night and exchanged messages with people in London and other European cities who were taking their 4 am pictures, then again this morning as I exchanged messages with the Canadians who were just getting their chance, I felt a cool kinship with these people who I am unlikely to ever meet. 

Here are a few images of my project:

1.  Setting up my blog!

2.  Uh-oh.  I don't think my humble point and shoot camera is going to excel at dealing with a foggy Tallahassee morning. 

3.  I think it's so cool how the newspaper landed in a way that showed "Passion Play Marks Easter" face-up.

4.  I had bigger plans to rig up some bunny ears or something on this sign, as if the Easter Bunny was peeking over the sign, but decided to let the sign speak for itself. 

5.  As it turns out, he had already visited the Waffle House (where I also played with my food and met a biker-guy (but camera shy) fellow customer).

6.  But the highlight for me was meeting manager Bruce and Server Stephanie (who wrote out a pretty cool check complete with illustrations and a Happy Easter greeting):

7.  Stephanie had been nice and helpful during my entire visit.  But when I went to leave, I left behind a little stuffed bunny that I had thought may end up being a prop on my outing but I had not ended up using.  I told her to keep it or give it to someone who she thought needed it on Easter.  That's when she said, "well, I have three kids." 

And that's why, despite my enjoyment of interacting with people in Great Britain, Bangalore, and Toronto, the most "magical" moment was the one I had with Stephanie, meeting another hard-working mom who just wants to make her kid(s) smile. 

I'll "run" into you next week, readers!

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Sprinkles

Many people believe life is too short not to enjoy dessert first, so here's the sweet ending to this blog:

Tenley's and my trip to Charleston occurred primarily so that I could run the Cooper River Bridge Run with my sister-in-law Laurie to celebrate Laurie's 40th birthday.  Tenley had come along, partially to help my brother-in-law Pat wrangle Riley (23 months) and Peyton (10 months) as Zane played his first t-ball game while Laurie and I ran. 

Tenley saw an advertisement for "Aisle Style," an exhibit of 150 years of wedding history at the Charleston Museum, and we decided to go there for the afternoon after our morning of running (me over a bridge, her after little girls).  Somewhere along the line, Tenley started fantasizing about red velvet cake and I breezily said, "gee we should be able to find that in downtown Charleston." 

The afternoon in downtown Charleston got off to a rocky mother-daughter start.  I was especially pleased that we were doing something quasi-educational instead of blatantly materialistic, especially since had I squeezed this trip into the family budget with a definite "bare-bones" mindset.  Before we even saw the first wedding dress, Tenley laid eyes on the coffee table book "Southern Weddings," and declared that she wanted it.  We proceeded to enjoy "Aisle Style," and cruised briefly through the Museum's other exhibits, and were on our way out of the museum to walk around downtown when the book issue came up again.  The problem:  the $30 book did not meet my definition of "bare bones," especially when I am a pro at finding bargain books; I would hate to spend $30 just to find this book for $12.95 at a remainder table somewhere.  When I said as much, Tenley's response was, "well, then I don't want it anymore."  For about five minutes the afternoon's entire karma hung in the balance.  My speech equating the cost of the book with the cost of a tank of gas to get us back to Tallahassee didn't really do much to improve things.  I had forgotten the intense allure shopping holds for Tenley; "browsing" without buying holds zero logic or appeal.

But we were already downtown, and still on the red velvet hunt, so we decided to keep going.  We strolled through the downtown market, where we have had bargain luck before, and in the shops in the vicinity of the market.  I checked out every street cafe menu, with not a morsel of red velvet cake in sight.  When Tenley was hungry we ate at a Subway (not a lot of local flavor there!).  She found a dress that she thought would be awesome for the 8th grade dance, and I was able to rationalize that expenditure as slightly less offensive to my "bare bones" plan, but she decided it wasn't just right.  That one little glimmer of retail hope did perk her up, though!  As 6:00 approached and we needed to head back to Pat and Laurie's house, we poked in a few more places, the last being Boutique Henrieta.  I asked the gentleman behind the counter a) if I was headed the right direction for my parking lot at the intersection of Church and Cumberland Streets (yes), and b) if he knew of any place nearby that served red velvet cake. 

I wish I could bottle the "desire to help the customer" that Joseph showed.  He said he didn't know, but that he would make a phone call.  The first phone call led to a place that did not serve red velvet cake.  At some point, someone suggested a local grocery store, the same one my sister in law had recommended.  I'm sure Harris Teeter's red velvet cake is good, but we ultimately ended up with GREAT!  Joe decided to call Jestine's, and they asked if red velvet cupcakes would do (answer: YES!).  Apparently the cupcakes are actually sold at an establishment next door to Jestine's, which had closed at 5 p.m., but Leigh at Jestine's said if we would come down she would set us up.  I started talking to Joe about my penchant for blogging about people who treat customers right (even when they aren't buying anything!), and he and I had about a five minute conversation packing in 30 minutes worth of good books, good software, and how doing the right thing usually comes back to you, along with directions to Jestine's, and Tenley and I were off.

When we arrived at Jestine's, we were confused by the line of 30 people snaking out the door.  Was the restaurant not yet open for dinner?  How were we supposed to get in?  I realized these were all people waiting to eat, since there was no indoor waiting area.  I was a woman on a mission, so I walked on in (those 30 people loved that) and looked for Leigh, who happened to be the first person I approached.  She promised to go to the mysterious "next door," said the cupcakes were $2 each and she thought there were six available.  I told her I'd take what they had but I didn't need more than six.  She invited me to sit down and, despite how slammed the restaurant was, asked if I wanted something to drink.  I asked if Tenley could come in and she said she could (those 30 people loved that just as much as when I had brazenly walked in!).  Lo and behold, Leigh provided us with a box of four beautiful red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and technicolor sprinkles!  We slunk out past the hungry 30 and worked our way back to our car.  It's a miracle we didn't drop our treasure sneaking peeks and trying to get the box closed again!

Once we were in the car, it was inevitable we would consume cupcakes before we went anywhere!  I was still fiddling with the GPS when Tenley ate her cupcake.  "You're gonna die," she teased ......... and that's how a day that started 200 feet above the Cooper River also ended on a high note.

Thank you, Joseph, for mapping it all out for us, and Leigh for "putting the icing on the cake"!

I'll "run" into you next week, readers.

Answering the Call

Ring ring!  Ring ring!  Ring ring!

Tony Sturges was in the middle of reading a passage from Exodus 3:1-15 this morning at church. Moses had just encountered the flaming bush. Tony had just read, "When the Lord saw that he [Moses] had turned aside to see," when the cell phone started ringing. It wasn't a "ding a ling" kind of ring, more of an insistent "tech-y" sounding beep. Some readers would have ignored the ringing and forged ahead, trying to keep the parishioners focused. Not Tony. He stopped reading, and waited for the ringing to stop. My guess is that this choice was out of reverence for the word of God, not to embarrass the phone's owner. (Or maybe it was a reflex from years of teaching college and dealing with students' cell phones going off in the middle of lectures.) Whatever his reasoning was, it turned out to be divinely inspired, since the continuation of the sentence he was reading was, "God called to him out of the bush." It took Tony (and the rest of us) a while to stop laughing and to regain some semblance of Sunday morning attentiveness.

There are two other thoughts related to "God's call" that I want to share in today's blog.  The first has to do with yesterday's Thomasville Road Baptist Church 5K/10K, a race held every year to benefit the Florida Baptist Children's Homes.  Since my blog is still (occasionally!) about running and my quest to run a 5K in less than 30 minutes, here's a 2009 vs 2010 comparison:

2009 (5K) 41:28 (13.27 min. mile)  -  2010 (10K) 1:17:10 (12.27 min. mile)

The other thing I want to point out about the Thomasville Road Baptist Church has nothing to do with distances, splits, or routing (how is it possible that Tallahassee goes only uphill anyway??).  It has to do with our numbers, which are handed to us in this condition: 

Look closely at my number.  What do you see in each of the four corners?  While we all need a safety pin on each corner of our race number, only at the Thomasville Road Baptist Church race do the numbers come PRE-PINNED!!  When I got my pre-pinned number last year, I thought the pre-pinning was quaint.  This year I realized that the TRBC volunteers consistently do this.  It's an example of "customer service" that a lot of for-profit businesses could do well to take note of.  Yes, we can pin our own numbers on, but this one tiny touch of "let us make it a great day for you" is representative of an organization that wants to ensure everyone has a first-class experience.  According to Grea Bevis, the Race Director, this is a responsibility of the packet pick-up committee.  When a business (or church group) takes time to attend to little details like this, we customers notice and remember.  Nice job, TRBC.  I know you do this because you feel it is "part of your call" to serve God and community.  Next year, I'll "pin all my hopes" on racing with you again. 

While I am on the subject of things we feel "called" to do in life, especially when we feel God has a hand in it, for the second week in a row I am citing Seth Godin's thought-provoking blog.  Today, he talked about how so many huge corporate behemoths have gotten things turned around, putting the "factory, the infrastructure, the systems, the patents, the process, the manual" ahead of the "irreplaceable people, the linchpins, the ones that make a difference."  It is those irreplaceable, linchpin people who disperse a "call" throughout an organization, living out that organizational mission in every professional choice they make.

If you have personally lost sight of your "call," I encourage you to use this week to look for an opportunity find joy in going the extra mile, putting the "pins in the numbers" ahead of time, and helping a coworker or friend do the same.

I'll "run" into you next week, readers!

Viva LaVida

Once a year, my mother in law treats me, Tenley, and herself to one of the Broadway series touring shows at our local Civic Center.  No matter when the show occurs, it is my birthday present for that year.  This is a cherished tradition, since we both love Broadway and enjoy spending time together.  This year, we were excited to see "A Chorus Line."  I had finally gotten around to watching the movie, and my nieces' dance recital last summer was structured around the theme of "A Chorus Line" so it was a perfect choice for the year. 

When we arrived at the Civic Center, I was standing there trying to figure out where to go.  Our tickets said "Section C", but Section C appeared to be blocked off so I was starting to walk in the complete opposite direction (which would have had me, Barb, and Tenley circumnavigating the entire Civic Center), when one of the ushers noticed that lost look on my face and offered to help.  She noted that these were the floor seats, so we had to go past the blocked off area to get downstairs via elevator.  Before escorting us downstairs, though, she overheard our discussion about getting a souvenir program and pleasantly reassured us that she would be ready whenever we were.  Once we had made that purchase, and came back, she informed us that there was no intermission, so if we wanted drinks or anything from the concession area, we needed to go ahead and do it.  More delay for her while we got ourselves organized.  When I asked about the bathrooms downstairs, she reassured me there would be a restroom stop downstairs. 

While Tenley and I were using the ladies' room, Barb and our usher were talking.  Barb learned that the usher had been working at the Civic Center for twelve years.  As she led us through the innards of the Civic Center (through which you have to travel to get to the floor seats), she chatted with us, smiling the whole time.  When it came time to hand us off to our next usher, I was kind of sad to travel out of the orbit of someone so warm, friendly, and engaged in her job.  That's when I asked her name, since I was already having an inkling of my blog topic for tonight.  Her name, she said (with a smile, of course) was LaVida. 

When I got home that night, I noted in my Facebook status how much I had enjoyed the show, but also how much I had enjoyed getting such fantastic customer service.  A friend of mine who is a certified registered nurse anesthetist said to me once, "I work to support my expensive hobbies."  The more life experience I have, the less inclined I am to settle for the "either or" inherent in that sentence.  I recently read a reference to a book entitled, "9 to 5 Should Be Happy Hour."  I also agreed with Seth Godin's closing line of today's blog, "The less a project or task or opportunity at work feels like the sort of thing you would do if this is just a job, the more you should do it." 

I was at a get-together last night for people interested in the film industry.  A young man sitting across from me, who wants to get into film school, responded to the organizer's question about his goals by saying, "I would be happy to sit in a room editing film all day."  Something tells me he's a pretty darned good editor.  I feel the same way about proofreading and editing the written word -- it's almost relaxing -- and since I take joy in it, my product is (hopefully) a win-win for everyone.

I wish I had thought to get LaVida's picture Tuesday night.  I thought about doing it as we were leaving, but she was pushing a wheelchair into the seating area for a disabled patron ........ with a smile on her face.  I didn't want to interrupt her "happy hour." 

I'll "run" into you next week, readers!

Please Do Not Disturb the Accessories

A couple of weeks ago, I made a Gatorade and hot chocolate run during a break between  Wayne Kevin's flag football games.  Grateful to have a "real" bathroom at my disposal instead of the portolets at the field, I availed myself of the facilities at the Gate Station on Magnolia Drive here in Tallahassee, where I purchased our drinks.

The Magnolia Drive Gate Station is, as convenience stores go, pretty  nice.  Many of the employees have been there for years and go out of their way to be welcoming and friendly.  I can count on the ladies' restroom being clean.  This time, the restroom was beyond clean -- it was decorated!!

I had my camera with me because I had had it at football, and my "hmmm, this has blog potential" sensor went off when my eye was drawn to the two identical signs posted on the wall.  They read:

We strive to keep our Ladies Room Clean & Fully stocked.

Our employees have also added decorative accessories to give our customers a more welcome & pleasant atmosphere.

We would appreciate it if our accessories were not disturbed, or removed from the restroom.

Thank you. 

I counted nine special decorative touches contributed by the Gate employees, including this quasi-nautical/natural arrangement on top of the commode:

I'm no interior decorator (a fact as well known as my compulsive reading), but I couldn't completely grasp the theme.  The blue/aqua family was prominent (we are in Florida after all).  There was also a nod to the Christmas holiday:

Why did I find all of this blog-worthy?  There are a couple of reasons.  First, I detected in the double appearance of the sign a sincere investment on the part of the Gate employees in making my experience at their establishment "more"' than your average convenience store stop.  And a fervent hope on their part that the effort would not be negated by a thoughtless visitor. 

This bathroom decor also elicited many of the same emotions I felt about my kids' efforts when they were little:

• Gosh, I hope the effort works!
• Man, I hope no one messes up what they've worked so hard on
• Gee, I hope they aren't disappointed if something gets "disturbed"
• Please, Lord, don't let them lose the optimistic view that something they create has the potential to make another person happy
• Even if they are discouraged, give them the gumption and inner strength to try again

Thank you, Gate employees on Magnolia drive for beautifying an experience that is, to put it mildly, routine.  If your prints go missing:

Don't despair.  Maybe someone's atmosphere elsewhere was so yucky that they couldn't resist appropriating one of your decorative touches.  Maybe a two year old stowed away one of the little balls in the display on your commode (been there, done that). 

Speaking only for myself, I appreciate the effort. 

Nine decorations, two signs, and one grateful customer.

Have you benefited from an extra effort on the part of employees at an establishment you frequent?  If so, comment!

And I'll "run" into you next week. 

Today I Scanned My Coffee Cup

First, before I explain the coffee-cup theme, I need to clarify something about my blog. As my friend Velva aptly pointed out, this blog is about a lot more than running. Even when the week's post is anchored by a running event, somehow it always meanders off into parenting, finding your dreams, or other topics.

I will definitely keep everyone apprized of my progress as I claw my way out of the "Last Banana Club." Today I checked off one milestone on my slow-as-paint-drying progress toward running a 5K in less than 30 minutes. I ran one in less than 40 minutes!! The Red Cross Hurricane Run 5K at Southwood held the magic for me; the cool weather and my need to run after three days of no exercise didn't hurt.

There were several potential topics to choose from this week: the many things I learned at the QATC (Quality Assurance Training Connection) conference in Nashville last week; Stacy Mitchhart, who played guitar with his tongue at BB King's (also in Nashville); and the range of emotions our family experienced as we came together to bury Wayne's brother Chuck's ashes in Riverview to name a few.

I guess some concepts take time to bubble up in your brain. When I bought coffee at Starbucks this morning, and the cup said, "We don't just want to make your drink. We want to make your day," my burning takeaway question from the QATC congress crystallized. Being that I am responsible for the Customer Service function for Florida KidCare enrollees and applicants (at least a large portion of them), but the people providing most of the customer service are with a contracted entity, what can I as one person do to shape the experience of our callers (and emailers and webchatters and letter writers)?

I recently read a quote about how rapidly our minds and spirits can become uncentered; a transition that occurs before we are conscious of it. I have been in this job for 15 years, and it has become way too easy to say how the individuals who speak to our enrollees day in and day out "should" do it while I veered close to "settling" for getting the job done, not "Getting the job done!"

There were SO many ideas at my conference last week. It was really invigorating to participate in the session with the trainer from Coca Cola, who loves her product -- I think all of her reps do too. As I am writing this, the old Coke ad campaign, "Coke is It!" comes to mind.

Helping applicants and enrollees wade through the intricate web of their children's health coverage options and the attendant administrative details isn't as exciting as encouraging people to consume a soda they probably already love.

How, how, how do I make any positive change in a group of approximately 60 employees who have many different imperatives? Pressure to handle calls quickly, various levels of supervisory input (if the training people and the quality people tell me two different things, who do I listen to, and why is this mom on the phone crying?)

Clearly the change begins with me. Am I just "making your drink"? Am I even doing that? How do I (with my immediate staff and a whole group of people in a subcontractual relationship) get from "making your drink" to "making your day"?

It might be about as challenging as playing the guitar with my tongue.

Hopefully once I am there, though, people's experiences will be the equivalent of the rest of the text on this cup. Where Starbucks says, "It's not just coffee. It's STARBUCKS," hopefully our callers will say, "It's not just health care. It's KIDCARE."

I'll "run" into everyone next week!