The One Question I Didn't Ask....Damn

I would have been a lousy executive. I remember interviewing for a bank executive-trainee program right after college for Bank of Virgina I think. I had made it to the second round of interviews and I remember I had to travel to Virginia from PA for this interview. Let me tell you the ending so this doesn't get too long winded. I didn't get the job and I know why I didn't.

We were asked to do role-playing so that the people judging me could tell something about my decision-making skills -- that is, my ability to collect relevant information and based on that, make the right decisions. The scenario they gave me had to do with my being a store manager, whose job was to enforce the merchandise return policy. Some lady wanted to return an item (a pair of shoes) that was not within the terms of the return policy and had insisted on speaking to me. Long story short, I interviewed the lady and gathered all of the information. She had made the purchase 60 days ago and our return policy was 30 days. The shoes she wanted to return had obviously been used. No she did not have a receipt, but yes, it WAS our store brand. After carefully weighing all these and similar pertinent facts, I basically decided to tell the lady she was NUTS. Not only I would not accept this as a return item and refund her money, I would not even give her store credit for a portion of the cost. I was tough. I made an executive decision to turn her down flat. This executive decision making thing was pretty easy!

In my exit interview (where I was NOT asked back) I found out where I had gone wrong. The lady was the daughter of the owner of the store. She was our biggest customer. She had purchased about $10,000 a month in shoes from my department. Hmmm. Never asked about THAT. Yes, in retrospect, I suppose it might have been important to know WHO this lady was...

What does all this have to do with cancer you ask? I guess the bottom line is that I haven't learned much in the intervening 30 years.

My sister Jane is an RN. Since being diagnosed with cancer, I thought she would be a good resource and sure enough she is. Jane seems to know all the latest drugs, etc. In fact, when she heard I was having Navelbine, she was the one that suggested a port would be the way to go. Anyway, tonight she and David came down from Philadelphia. We picked them up at the Ft Myers airport around 6:15 PM and went to dinner in Sanibel at 7:15 PM. At dinner I was telling Janie about today's chemo treatment. I had told Tammy, the nurse who was giving me my drugs today, that my sister the RN suggested a port. Tammy asked me "what kind of a nurse is your sister?" And I said, "she is an IV nurse; she gives IVs to people in their homes". Apparently that was the wrong answer and might have been partly right 10 years ago. Since then Jane's speciality is ONCOLOGY! She is an oncology nurse working at Leigh Valley Hospital, one of the largest oncology centers in PA! Hmmm...another case of not getting all the facts. I guess her knowing all these cancer drugs should have been a hint! If I could just stop talking long enough to ask one more question -- I might have known the right answer! Oh well, Janie thought it was funny, but I thought it was embarrassing! I wonder if I should ask her how much she makes? (Just kidding!)

Anyway, Jane and David are here and we are going to have a good time till they leave on Sunday. We got home from dinner at 11 PM..they are pooped and in bed. I am on steroids and decided I would blog something about tonight as a way of entertaining them when they awake in the morning. It also helps make you, the reader, part of the weekend.

The place that we ate was Dolce Vita (an Italian restaurant where Yoko and I went about a month ago). The food was excellent. They have live entertainment, so it was a little noisy. We had a nice time visiting on the way there and on the way home. Tomorrow we head out on Brunderman's boat, which they have so kindly offered. The plan is to go to Boca Grand....head to a Jimmy Buffett kind of restaurant only accessible by boat...have lunch...hang out on the beach till sunset and then make our way home. The weather should be sunny and warm....a nice brake for Jane and David, who had to dust snow off their car before leaving home!

TO BE CONTINUED