Best Day/Worst Day

It takes a historic event to get me to come anywhere near a blog let alone write one, so all of you reading this are in for a real treat.  I've had reason this week to reflect back on the past 12 months of my life and do a lot of analyzing.  I looked back through the past year and tried to figure out my best and worst days.  Amazingly enough, they turned out to be the same day (Thursday, November 29th)  Let me explain the good first.   

I came home from work one day in October of last year and Aidan handed me a football that had a picture of a Dallas Cowboys helmet and a Green Bay Packers helmet on it.  I had no idea what this meant until he said "Daddy, would you like to go to see the Cowboys play"?  Amy had arranged for me to go see the Cowboys and Packers play on a Thursday night game in Dallas along with my brother, two sisters, and my parents.  We are all huge Dallas Cowboy fans, some more than others (myself and Kelli).    It was a whole package deal that had us flying in on Tuesday and attending pregame interviews with the players, a tour of  Texas Stadium, and of course the game itself.  I still tell Amy that it was the greatest thing she has ever given me aside from my two boys.  We had a fantastic time and it was good to be back together with my family once again.  The Cowboys won the game and I got to go down on the field and catch a TD pass from my brother and pull a T.O. on the star in the middle of the field.  

Now the BAD.... As soon as the game was over, I turned on my Blackberry and saw dozens of messages and e-mails regarding my company's logistics center in Seattle.   Now I need to give you a little bit of background about what I do so this makes sense.  I work for Cardinal Health which is a medical supply and pharmaceutical distribution company.  My company supplies everything you would see inside pharmacies from brand and generic drugs to gauze and OTC products.  I provide a consulting service to the pharmacies that buy from my company on how to run their business a little more smoothly.  My customers count on daily deliveries for all of their patient's needs, especially critical care meds like narcotics.  Anyway, the messages I received were that the DEA had come into our facility and locked up our narcotics vaults and suspended our license to distribute all controlled substances.  This completely turned my world upside down for the next 11 months.  Instead of getting these critical meds next day from Seattle, the had to have them come from Sacramento and the lag time was 2-3 days.  Needless to say, all of my customers were upset and looking to take their business to my competitors.   The reason for the suspension was that we didn't have enough safeguards in place in our center in Seattle to stop pharmacies from selling controlled substances illegally on the internet. 

After implementing many new programs, safeguards, and paying a fine of 35 million dollars, the DEA has now reinstated our license to ship controlled substances.   Friday will be the first day that we resume shipping from Seattle.   This has been the most difficult 11 months of my professional life and I know it's had a very taxing effect on my family.  I give all the credit in the world to my wonderful wife for putting up with me working crazy hours and not being there as much as I should have to help with the kids.  I don't do a very good job at externalizing my problems and tend to try and deal with them all myself.  Amy has helped me immensely through this and I couldn't be more appreciative of her.  She is definitely the glue that holds our family together and I am so blessed to have her as my wife and the mother of my children.  I don't write this to get sympathy, because I know everyone goes through trials and problems, but I write this in appreciation for Amy and all that she does for me.