Montgomery County has put 264
photo/albums in DTS Facebook. Just FYI as the following link. The
video version is also posted in YouTube
Janice's Retirement Party Video is
posted in the following YouTube:
Montgomery County Department of
Technology Service’s photo/album facebook:
The following is picasa link - 96
photos, in case you can't access Montgomery County's Facebook link
Hello everyone, Ivan, Tom, Sing and
all my co-workers from ERP, DTS, Payroll, OHR, and BIT:
Surprise, right? If you are
not, I certainly am. I still can’t believe that I am here today to
deliver the final retirement speech for myself.
Have I ever been here in Montgomery County for nearly 27 years today?
That sounds like a long time. See, I started in 1986 as a Computer
Programmer Analyst hired by Charley Brust and Ed Rinehart when my daughter was
about 8-year-old and my son was nearly 1-year-old. Both of them were the
graduates of Montgomery County’s Dependent Care program, which I installed for
the past ten years. How do you know that 27 years later, my daughter
decides to promote herself to be a new mother and I, of course, automatically
become the senior mother with the fancy title of “Grandmother” on September 4th? Ironically,
today, I am still the computer programmer, but with the fancy title as “Senior
IT Specialist.” But, when you love both jobs so much, one is
dealing with computer codes to make sure all your paychecks; pensions and other
benefits are mathematically controlled with the logic and formula
computations. However, the grandma’s duty is mainly dealing with the
newborn human behaviors without any logical sense at all. All you
have to do is mixing the formula, changing the diapers, when you are getting
pee/poop all over, cooing him to sleep and playing when he is all fed and has
nothing to do. But, deep down in my heart, I was grappling the dilemma of
either keeping the fancy title of “Senior IT Specialist” or promoting
myself as “Senior Nanny” of my lifetime. Thank god, when my
daughter called on September 4th about the new arrival of the baby boy, that changed everything.
My family, Ben, my husband and my son, Eric made a visit to
see my daughter’s new baby boy of 30 days old on October 5th. Wow, from what I could tell
there, it was ”chaos” in the household. It’s the nervousness of my
daughter and son-in-law, totally oblivious of the piled up unwashed dishes in
the sink and laundry room with all kinds of stuff. This family definitely
needs extra hands. So, I made the BIGGEST decision of my life after a
serious of family discussion that week. I have to admit, it’s not because
I do not like computer codes, and it’s my bread and butter for all these years.
But, the timing is just mature and my family means so much to me now.
OH, becoming a grandmother is so wonderful. You wouldn’t believe that the
greatest happiness is actually coming from this little size. That feeling
is almost like when DB2 Payroll system was converted without any Y2K hitch from
IMS data base on 7/16/1999. I shared the hi-five with Jim Dodson of
Payroll Manager then, when I had my ”TEST CHECK” in my hand in the Computer
Center after nearly two years of testing. And the same with ERP Oracle
Payroll system successfully installed in production from Mainframe HRMS Legacy
System for 1/1/2011 pay check. I remember I had told Amanda of
Payroll Manager, then, that Payroll and Personnel systems were my babies from
Montgomery County Government where I was hired for in 1986 and my hard work of
27 years is the same as 39 weeks of hard labor of my daughter as a new mother.
I was really overcome with the feeling of ecstasy. The systems and
the baby, yes, it’s beyond description with words.
I have been so privileged to have the opportunity to work with you folks, DTS,
Payroll, OHR, BIT and other Departments. The good management and the
friendly user community definitely make my workplace a close-knit
organization. You all have always helped me utilize my expertise and
allow me to tackle my projects no matter how hard they are. I still have
the horrible memory of working straight 3 days and 3 nights on February 26,
2010, my daughter’s birthday, literally camped in my 13th fl office for that infamous HHS
extra pay check issues. Michael Toney, the Payroll manager and I
single-handedly resolved the problems. Remember? I was so hungry in the
middle of testing and wondered if we were going to make or break it, because I
had never generated a dual Payroll checks from Integral System before.
Luckily, my own confidence and your trust helped me through. We not only made
850 HHS employees happy with their advice/check directly deposited on time for
Wednesday’s bank reconciliation before noon time deadline, but the rest of 9
thousand plus employees were all intact. Boy, was I relieved!
I could see my hands visibly shaking when I was ready to hit the
execution key. My stomach was groaning and churning with hunger
pangs. Michael said he was going to find some food to eat. I told
him ‘Chop Stix’ was right down the street. Anyhow, You couldn’t find
Chopsticks, because it had been closed down before we all knew about it.
You brought back something edible. I know Michael didn’t eat
anything. The gnawing pains in my stomach were obviously overtaken by the
exulting happiness. And there is another one, that Nor’easter
blizzard of January 26, 2011 night, dumped the heavy snow and darkened the
whole Rockville area. Michael and I and two Computer Center staffs were
hunkering down in the Computer Center, trying to print 13,000 employees’ W-2s
before January 31st deadline, so we wouldn’t get penalized. But, that DTS
out-dated printer just wasn’t cooperating at all! When we somehow made
the printer cranking, we left the Computer Center around 7:30 pm. The
drifting snow was so deep up to my knee. I trudged myself on the road
across the street, covered with deep snow, with umbrella on to cover the snow
coming down so heavy, stumbled and fell a few times from the Computer Center to
EOB. I was so lucky to have the security guard escorted me, with
his flash light on, to the 13th floor trying to retrieve my belongings, so I could catch the
last bus home. I remember that I went to the bathroom with the door open.
And poor Michael, there was no way he could make it to Baltimore
home, so he had to turn around at Twinbrook Road and checked into the
hotel. Yes, I have quite a few memorable events that I could still
remember vividly. All and all, It’s like one moment you are a ‘tiger mom’
taking care of your beloved children and systems, you think you are all wise
and influential. But, next, you can be pre-historic, and legendary.
My daughter was telling me ‘Mom, everything you did was 35 years old-wife’s
stuff, please do not put my baby to sleep on his tummy, it’s swaddle time
now!” Yes, ‘Swaddle,’ you wrapped up the baby this way and that way
with his both hands tied neatly just like a ‘Barito.’ I was stood
on the sideline, trying to learn from these two new parents’ system of raising
their own kid, while I already had two grown-ups from my way of bringing them
up. But, of course, I could not tell my daughter this, she is going to
throw me out of her house if I do. And Sravan from the ERP contractor, is
the same - got his fingers flying so fast on the keyboard with Oracle commands,
and I told him, ‘Hey, Sravan, slow down, slow down,’ ‘that was the way I
got my fingers flying as well with COBOL and SAS codes!’ He would say to
me, “Janice, that’s mainframe, it’s gone now!” ‘Yes, it’s gone now!’ Because
the next generation Y comes along and you’d better watch out, they are really
much more intelligent and powerful than you can imagine.
Come to think of it, of course, there are ups and downs along the way.
But, don’t you think that’s part of our life, one challenge after another?
Now, yes, saying goodbye is always the hardest part. But surely, letting
go and passing the baton is one way to close one chapter and spending more time
with my family is opening another.
I have been asked about what I’m going to do now. I will tell you, I am
going to have a satisfying and productive life working as a ‘full time unpaid
super Nanny’ in Ventura County, CA at ChangCole’s family Government, with my
daughter as my boss and my son-in-law my pseudo-boss.
Sometimes, the heartfelt sadness of not being able to be a part of your
day-to-day organization is aching me when I have my daily morning walks in the
bright sunny day at my daughter’s beautifully landscaped neighborhood.
But smelling the lovely roses of different kinds and touching the avocado,
oranges, lemons and fig fruits hanging on the trees in the nice gardens make me
realize that what lies ahead of me are really something I have been missing
before.
I want to pay tribute to my colleagues for your support, friendship, and
sharing of resources. Yes, you are the one who taught me how to serve the
County and help all my users with faithfulness and humbleness. Our shared
laughter, joy, as well as our struggles will be in my heart forever.
Especially, the passing away of Charlotte Sweet on 7/11/2009 and Eric Wallmark
on 12/9/2012 hit me the hardest. You will never know how fragile the life
is and how unpredictable it can be. The day we all were working side by
side, and the next day, they were all gone just like that! Thank you for
the never ending encouraging words in your e-mails, And Ivan’s stacked up high
of all ‘appreciation notes’ from my projects and that $5, or $10 Pot Belly
coupons, come in handy when my always hungry, grown-up son Eric, came home from
college. But, he said to me one time, “Mom, I have to add in more money
from your coupon to get my lunch order!”
So lastly, your sincerity and trust is what gets me going all these
years. A mere “thank you” speech is not enough to express what I have to
say to you. Jim, Ivan, Tom, Sing, Michael and other folks, your
“get-well” plants, flower baskets and cards arrived at my house when I was
lying at John's Hopkins Hospital bed in April was just touching and it’s a show
of how much you have meant to me in my life. I am forever grateful to you
all.
Well, folks, I will leave you this thought. I'll tell you, you and I have
always been a working family together with each one of you a unique character
inside. Nobody is perfect or better than anyone of us. But, up
until now, Janice is still working on finding the best of her. She will
never rest, and it will be an on-going life journey for
her.
So, see you and come to visit me in Ventura CA, when you happen to drop by
southern sunny California one day. My grandbaby, Forest is just adorable.
And my daughter’s big lemons all year around and the tiny oranges in the
backyard will be plenty for you to take home.
Again, DTS folks, Shelly, Deb, Valencia, Helen, Ivan and Tom… thank you for
putting such a wonderful party for me. You guys really put me in the dark
for getting all so fancy and organized, I am just surprised!
See you all!
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