And then, there's a bearded fetus.

Somehow it's already Sunday again. Go figure. The weekend goes super quickly when I work half a day on Saturday, but on the other hand, money.

Today, I'm going to try again to donate plasma. I could use the extra few $$ this week. We've got three days to payday and we're out of butter, low on creamer and could possibly use a little bit more in the way of meat. I can stretch it if I need to, but if I could get a little something, I'd like that. I'd kill for a hamburger. I tried to donate a long time ago, but was turned down because I was on pain meds for my neck and head. I'm no longer on them, but on the other hand, I'm on a lot of other new shit, so it may not work. But I'll try. If it goes well, I might do it more often. It wouldn't be a ton of money, but every little bit helps.

Yesterday was a good day. I worked (though of course, I got the 11:59 call, and the pt was a total wench. I did not have any appointments available, and she was unhappy. I felt for her, but I also couldn't materialize what I didn't have. She decided she is going to call on Monday to complain. so I'll shoot Josh a message first thing Monday. I was too disgusted to deal with it yesterday. I'm not worried. I was sweet as pie, and told her repeatedly what I had option wise, and offered her different sites and was empathetic and not at all impatient. She was the one being borderline verbally abusive.

While I was working, my other server crew was like "I don't want to wait for next week for game." And I looked at the schedule and said fuck it. So we agreed to play from 4-6 to get in a quick one so that they didn't have to wait. Honestly, this game is SO good for my ego. Having my players so excited to play that they're trying to make games happen is kind of awesome.

The movie went a bit over, so we probably only played for 90 minutes, but we managed to pack a lot of trauma into that 90 minutes. I brought two more players backstory into the plot, which was fun, and they're on the boat to the risen undersea kingdom with a naval battle looming. I've added some more shit. If anyone wants to gawk at my nerdiness, the campaign can be found at: https://app.kanka.io/w/310530

The movie itself was really good and fun, though there were parts that Bucky's characterization was wobbly for me, and he wasn't in it as much as I'd like. It was really Yelena's movie. Fortunatley, I like Yelena, so I still enjoyed it. And Bucky had some really good beats that I enjoyed. Verdict, 100% back on my Bucky Bullshit. I love him stepping up and taking a sort of leadership role. The downside was on the way out of the garage, there was a long line, and someone ahead of us was smoking up hardcore. The pot smell gave me an instant headache. I butched through it for my afternoon game.

After the first game, I made the mistake of relaxing and having dinner, and the pot headache roared back. I ended up cancelling the second game, which pissed me off, but I was nauseous and having trouble with looking at bright things, of which the computer screen is one. I'm sure the oncoming storms didn't help either.

I discovered that for the most part, in the new place, storms don't really bother me as much. I'm not freaking out that if the power goes out, there's dad's oxygen to keep going, or his bed getting stuck in place. It's just...maybe our power goes out. And we play on our phones til it comes back. Whoop. I fell asleep during the worst of it, I'm still not fond of them, but it's not as bad as it was by any stretch.

Tonight we have another fun game, where I'm going to get my ass kicked a lot. poisontaster has us in a dungeon where one wrong move could be a big problem.

Okay, time for me to maybe put on pants and do some housework. Everyone have a stupendous Sunday!

I love this song, but the video makes me a little sad. It's after Freddie's AIDS diagnosis, and you can see the decline starting. Tomorrow will be Show Must Go On, which breaks my heart. I like to think he'd like what they've done with the touring version of Queen. I think Adam Lambert would have made Freddie happy, both for his voice, and his out and open personality.

It's Friday! We've almost made it! I've got a busy couple of days planned. First up, today is work, and then game. Tomorrow, we have the Thunderbolts, and then game. Sunday, we have a game, but nothing else. I need to bake something, because we have nothing sweet in the house. I'm leaning towards cake, because I'm low on butter, and cake uses oil. (I really want oatmeal cookies, but I definitely don't have enough butter for those.

Yesterday's baby shower was okay. I'm not bad at baby trivia, which, after 15 yrs as a medical assistant is not shocking. I kick ass at the names of baby animals. And I'm useless at translating emojis into nursery rhymes. I also cannot guess how many hershey's kisses are in a jar. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't how I'd spend my time otherwise.

Next week's check is going to look good, since I've done a lot of overtime. Two Saturdays in a row, plus staying late a couple of nights. I'm looking forward to it.

And now, I shall get myself together for work. Everyone have a most excellent Friday.

It's Wednesday and we're halfway through the week!

Good lord, yesterday was a very Mondayish Tuesday. The phones were crazy busy, to the tune of 54 calls. But more than that, it was the callbacks. I'm the troubleshooter for management. So I'll get shit that needs attention. Sometimes, it's because my coworkers can't be trusted to do their job. They've had problems about people going into another status, saying they're calling a customer back, and then being in that status for thirty minutes. Or with them not checking their email or responding to their email about mistakes they've made. Or being out when there's a mistake they've made. Or, and my favorite, the customer booked the appointment, and the system booked it completely wrong.

Yesterday was that kind of day. I had one from our trainer, who managed to miss the big red note on his chart that said that he had artificial hips, and booked him for a rectal mass on the 3T machine. It wouldn't hurt the pt, but the pictures would be absolute garbage. So I got to call and rebook it for the 1.5 machine. I know people are human, but this is the woman we have trainining the team, and that was a rookie mistake.

Then, it was calling because the radiologist looked at the doctor's order for an MRI, decided it was trash, and wrote it in a way that it needed to be done as two separate MRIs, with a specialized protocol. Of course, he did this *after* the patient had already booked it online. Another call to
fix something.

And then my favorite. They sent me a message saying "can you reach out to the patient and book these appts. Here's the times we want them done and where. And I was like, awesome! This'll be easy. Dear reader, it was not. The doctor's orders were scattershot at best. They were her best guess at what she wanted, but not the correct type of orders. So when I tried, I couldn't schedule. I spent a good 20 minutes figuring the shit out and booking them. I had to bypass the orders completely, book for what it needed to be, and then go back and link the orders. By the end of it, my brain was dead, and I felt like I'd been taking crazy pills. Surely the doctor can't be that clueless on how to order this test!?! Oh wait. This order can't even be scheduled off of. *headdesk*.

But then! I got to go to the farmer's market! It was very small, only about six or seven stalls, though I've been assured that it gets larger as the growing season kicks off. I still enjoyed it, and got some artisan cheese and bread and cider and really good mushrooms. I used the mushrooms in my stir fry last night, and I'm tempted to chop some up and saute them with butter and garlic for breakfast. They're oyster mushrooms, which I don't believe I've ever tried.

I'm looking forward to having more vegetables in the comming weeks, but I was happy with my little haul. The accordion music wasn't bad. It certainly added something to the proceedings, even if what it added was a touch of the surreal.

Afterwards, I went to bed early with a bit of a headache, but spent probably an hour and a half chatting with poisontaster which is always good. I managed to get an idea for a sequel to a game that ended probably a year ago. I was going to run another module, but the one that made sense really didn't work for me. So I've been debating, and I think I was about to move it to the finished campaigns section, but then while I was talking about D&D in general with PT, I had a bit of an epiphany about something that I could write and run. Lately, I've had more fun with doing that than using modules anyway. I have the kernel of an idea, and it's one that will pull the party's backstories in, and give them a personal reason to stop the baddies.

But for now, it's time for me to get myself together. Everyone have an awesome Wednesday!

And back to Monday and biopsy day. I'm working (poorly) in the morning, and then I'll be off to take Jess to the doctor's. Hopefully, we get good results that come super quickly. I've been anxious off and on all weekend, but today I'm mostly calm.

Yesterday was a day of baking. In the morning, I made pie crust dough and threw it in the fridge to rest, then I made waffle batter and sausage for our brunch. Once that was done, I kind of loafed around til game.

I will admit, I wasn't horribly sure about Strixhaven when I signed up to play. My own school experience was pretty shitty, and I wasn't sure how I'd like playing a game based in a magic school. It's really been delightful, though. We're still in the early days, but I'm looking forward to getting into it.

After that, I made banana muffins, since the oatmeal cookies are almost gone. I need to consider making some more tortillas so that I have some bread. I was considering making some eggs with chorizo this morning, and I'd love to be able to have tortillas to scoop them up with.

My players have been very complimentary about Saturday's game, and it's making me very happy. I really worked hard on it, and it's very gratifying that it engrossed people. It made me think about D&D at it's best. It doesn't happen all the time, but when it hits on all cylinders, and players have bought in to the setting, and the story is solid, it can be fucking magical. The setting and characters come alive, and you forget just for a little while that you're not in a jungle settlement that teems with life and people. And you have characters who seem almost real. Days like that, you finish a session and immediately want another.

Okay, time for me to go forth and get my ass in gear. Everyone have a wonderful Monday! And if you can spare some good thoughts for Jess, they'd be appreciated.

(tw: song mentions suicide and abuse)

Happy Saturday! It's another long day, as I have work, and then game right after. It's the first session of a new campaign, which should be fun, if nervewracking. I think I'm ready, but we'll see. I've got 14 scenes plotted so far, plus we'll need to start with downtime for the characters and selling some of their accumulated loot. Plus they'll need to get equipment and new clothes for new mission, and the fashion can be fun to role play/fantasize about, so I don't think we're going to get too far today, but we'll see.

The nice thing is that since it's an established group, We've done most of the session 0 stuff long ago. I did give warnings for the new campaign as far as things that they'll encounter, and verify that the group were okay with it.

My list looked like this:
Potential triggers
Racism
Xenophobia
Religious intolerance
Proselytizing
Canon-typical violence
Possible body horror
Water
Potential drowning

Themes:
Othering of non human species
Xenophobia
Tradition vs Technology
Religious Freedom
Court Intrigue
Backstory Trauma
Political Unrest
The Meshing of Cultures

It sounds a lot heavier than it's going to be, but they are going to visit a kingdom that was basically Atlantis. Except they sunk willingly to get away from surface dwellers. They've come back up, but they're a little leery of people. Also, there's a nation that's trying to invade that's kind of an analog for current events, so there's that nation's racism, too.

It should be fun, and I'm really looking forward to it. I hope my players like what I've prepared.

We had a game last night, run by poisontaster which was a lot of fun. I nearly died. Part of that was my own damn fault. My dragonborn wizard is resistant to fire, so he has a bit of a habit of getting surrounded by enemies and then tossing a fireball at his feet. He takes damage, but quite frequently, he can take out some enemies. This one was 100% a shitshow, ad he went down. If not for the Sorcerer/Cleric and their ability to teleport someone, I'd have been eaten by a bunch of slimes. In retrospect, I'm going to do it differently next time, because I forgot that I have a feature I can activate that would have reduced the damage to nothing. Whoops.

Boodle and my bladder were not the kindest to me last night, so I'm a little draggy. Hopefully, copious amounts of coffee will help to perk me up before game.

Tomorrow, we have another game, which should be fun as well. It's at 1pm, so I'll hav time to sleep in.

Okay, going to get myself together and maybe throw some stuff into the mixer. I was thinking about making a chicken potpie, but that's going to require some pie crust. Or, I could make the oatmeal cookies now. I will think on it. Everyone have a superb Saturday!

Another entry for Dar Williams subject week! I'm finding Dar very soothing. It's very easy to come up with a good song for the day.

The cat decided that I should be up half an hour early and began screaming at the top of her little lungs. I hurried over and checked on her, only to find that she was bitching about waiting for her food. Once I fixed that, I looked at my phone and saw I only had a smidge under 30 min, ad just got up. Wasn't worth getting comfy and having to get back up.

Yesterday was a very good, but a little bit strange day. I spent a lot of time filling in spots, and taking calls, to the tune of 49 total. Then about mid morning, I got a customer compliment which was very sweet, and made me sound good. When one of us gets a compliment, the manager who receives it will copy it and then send an email to the team. So in the morning I get a very sweet compliment, and the team will respond with gifs and "great job!" I have a folder in my inbox titled happy that I save all of them in. So that was nice, and I was happy about it.

Lunch was good. Had some leftover rice and beans and played with my new Tortilla press. I can make tortillas! I am still tweaking the recipe as far as lard and baking powder amounts, but I'm close. The tortillas I got were tender and delicious.

I came back from lunch from another message from a manager. I assumed it was in the same chain of shout outs, you know, good job, etc. But no. It was not.

Despite a bad outcome to the test I'd scheduled them for, the person I'd helped before wrote a compliment. And it was a doozy. I don't know what they do for a living, but they should consider writing.

I wish I could post the entire thing, but alas, HIPAA. I'll share the snippets that made me cry at least. I don't think I have ever had a stranger say such kind things to me, and told me that I matter quite like this. I had to take a few minutes to process before I could get back on the phone.

( Read more... )

It 100% made me cry. I got a flood of replies from my teammates about it. And most of them said that they weren't surprised that I got all this nice stuff said about me. A couple of them made me need to take another moment. It was weird.

The rest of the day felt kind of surreal. I finished work, and sat down with my warm feelings for a few before I made dinner.

Dinner was a big ass Dutch baby pancake and sausage, which was all very good.

Then, we had our Brindlewood Bay game, and maybe still on a high, I made a daring, move in game, and told our prime tormentor, who has probably killed a handful of people to get fucked. This will one hundred percent come back to haunt me, but I can deal with that.

While I was waiting for game, I also bought a few new TTRPG maps from Czepeku. They're amazing, and have multiple versions of each map, to fit various situations. If any of my DMs are interested, hit me up and I'll send you the link.

For now, time to get myself together. Everyone have a wonderful Thursday!

Because I completely forgot to mention it yesterday, this week's subject line will be from Dar Williams. I discovered her during a depression swing, and the songs talked to me. This is definitely one of my favorites. Even when I was really down, it gave me a little light.

Of course, yesterday after I signed off here, I discovered that the pope was dead. I actually feel slightly sad about it. Though if you're the couch fucker, this has to rankle. You made your Catholic faith a bit part of your presentation as a politician, and the beloved Pontiff spent the last full day of his life lecturing you on it and telling you how bad you are at it.

Yesterday was a quiet, yet crazy day. I started out by getting an e-card with Kudos from one of the nurse practitioners at the cancer center for helping her find a time sensitive spot for a patient where there was none. Then, about midday, I got a request to help with an irate patient. The person who was dealing with her flat out refused to call her back because she was so nasty. She was pretty nasty to me, too, but I just don't give a fuck. This isn't the first time they've had me make "sensitive" calls. When a patient self-schedules for a study and they're above the weight limit, it comes to me to call and sensitively tell them that they need to go to the hospital for scanning, because they trust that I'm not going to make the patient feel bad.

For my dealing with the pissed off patient yesterday, I got a kudo.



It's a little thing, but it's nice for them to recognize when you do something extra. The points just mean that I can get myself something pretty off our website of prizes. I'm up to 7000 points, which isn't really a ton. Once you get to 10,000, you can start getting nicer shit. I can wait. Fortunately, the bosses aren't stinting with their praise, so I can expect another one soon.

I made rice and beans last night. It turned out really well, and was very tasty. I didn't have any bacon, but Kinders Woodfire Garlic Seasoning gave it a little bit of a smoky flavor that worked out really well. I may have it for lunch today as well.

Today, I ordered a bunch of food, so I think tonight's dinner will be a dutch baby pancake and some sausage. Tomorrow, though, we are having chorizo and chicken fajitas with homemade tortillas. My tortilla press comes today, and I'm looking forward to trying it out.

I got a second cast Iron pan, a larger one, so I can Make a big dutch baby and to make the fajitas in.

Today will probably be busy again at work, and afterwards, I'll be making a trip up to Sam's club to pick up some tasty food. Then, I will come home and begin the process of getting all of that food in from the car, and also get it packed away. It's going to be a lot of food.

Okay, time for me to go get myself together. Everyone have an awesome Tuesday!

It's Sunday, and happy Easter to those who celebrate.

And as per tradition, in honor of easter, The 1969 Easter Mass Incident

I have no real plans, aside from some possible baking. I may make a few cookies. The movie ran late yesterday, so I decided to make the tacos today, so I'll be heating that oil up and making fry bread. Hopefully it turns out well. I'm going to make enough that we can have some for breakfast with honey and cinnamon, too. Aside from that, we may go through a couple of boxes of clothes that haven't gotten unpacked and see if there's anything we can use for the hotter months.

At some point, I have to drive my sister to the inlaws for the Greek easter feast, but that's about it for me. Tonight, Jess has a game. I already played it, since the DM ran it twice on account of having a lot of people who wanted to play. I will make sure they have plenty of cookies for game snacks.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. We were able to go to the movies, and got to see Sinners. If you get a chance, go. It was freaking amazing. The beginning half is more drama than horror, but it was engrossing, and beautifully shot. Michael B. Jordan was stellar at playing the twins who have come back from Chicago to Mississippi to open their own juke joint.

Once the movie kicks into gear, there's a scene when the joint really kicks into gear that is kind of beautiful and moving. Once the vampires show up, the shit hits the fan. The vampires were creepy and subtly wrong. Props to the lead trio of vampires for making me physically recoil into my seat. The lead vampire, played by Jack O'Connell was really cool, and had actual menace, especially in the final battle. Other standouts were Miles Caton and Hailee Steinfeld, but really, there wasn't a single person who dropped the ball. Everyone understood the assignment and went hard.

The subtle (and not so subtle) racism of Jim Crow was every present in the movie, lending peril, and indeed a certain joy to the proceedings. In this night of music and community, even a humble sharecropper could be free.

The first ending is fitting, but not as good as the rest of the movie, but there's a cut scene that is just perfect and a little bit moving.

As I said, I really enjoyed it a lot, and they snagged me early and kept me along for the whole ride.

After that, we came home and cooked, had dinner and game and then crashed out hard.

And now, I believe I will go forth and grab a shower and get myself in gear. The frybread isn't going to make itself. Everyone have an amazing Sunday!

(warning for slightly strobing lights, blood tears)

It's Friday!! Whoo! I have tomorrow off, so we're probably going to see Sinners for an early show. Earlier, I was bitching to a friend about not having the money to afford it, and the next thing you know, I have money in my paypal, which was incredibly sweet. Then, in 2 weeks, I'm back on my Bucky bullshit with Thunderbolts.

Tonight, I need to decide what I want to cook. I'm torn between going all out and making some Native tacos, using frybread as the base or if I should save that until tomorrow. I might save it, and just fry up a couple of pork chops with gravy to go over some rice, then do tacos on Saturday. Even if we go to the movies, I'll be back in plenty of time to cook it up. I'll probably do that, just so I have more time to prep.

The stand mixer came, and I love it. It's a red 4 quart Hamilton Beach model, and I'm very much looking forward to using it. My sister got to pick a thank you gift for having been at her job for 10 years, and she chose this, mostly for me, because I've been baking up a storm, and creaming butter and sugar is a pain in the ass by hand.

Next thing we shall get is a toaster. We're slowly accumulating kitchen appliances. We didn't have anything when we started out, but now we have a waffle maker, rice maker, air fryer and a stand mixer. Mind you, the waffle maker makes a single heart shaped waffle at a time, but that's fine.

I probably won't make a big Sunday brunch, since my sister has Greek Easter at noon. She's going to need all the space she can make in her stomach.

Hm, there really aren't that many tickets left for Sinners. I'll see what Jess wants to do when they wake up. In other Jess news, the biopsy coordinator was able to secure a sooner spot for them. So now, their biopsy is on 4/28. It's still a week and a half out, but that beats 4 weeks by a lot. Also, it's on a Monday, so we won't have to wait through the weekend to get results.

My sister is very interactive today. It's annoying me. I cannot deal with news in the morning, and that's all she's been talking about. It's not that I don't care, I just need a couple of hours before I tackle outrage and despair.

Okay, time for me to go forth and escape get dressed. Everyone have a most excellent Friday!

(warning for total blasphemy and Jonestown-ish imagery. Also, goddamn, you will get the chorus stuck in your head)

It's Wednesday! We're halfway through the week! I'm expecting another busy day at work. The calls usually don't slow down til at least Thursday. Yesterday, I did 50 calls. Today, we shall see.

I'm probably getting a customer compliment in the near future. I helped a person get a scan done, and admittedly, I worked harder than is strictly my job. But the patient was completely freaked out and worried, and I felt bad for them. SO I haunted the schedules, and every time there was a cancellation, I shifted the appointment a little sooner. And finally yesterday morning, I signed in, and there was an appointment at 1pm that day, so I called them back and got them in. Total turn around from first call to appt, less than 24 hours, which I'm kind of proud of.

The patient was so sweet, they told me that I was as comforting as any nurse could be, and asked that I send them a message with my boss' email, so they could tell them how wonderful I was. I don't care about the compliment, but it made me feel good that I had made a difference to someone. They were afraid, and I was able to calm them and get them the test they needed to set their mind at ease. It's kind of why I like my job.

Also, with Jess waiting for their biopsy appt, I might have been a little bit hyper-sensitive. We're just waiting for a cancellation. I can't make that come sooner, but I can do it for someone else.

I made another greek cheesecake yesterday. I amended the recipe a bit, and nearly doubled the recipe, but kept the honey at about the same level. Then, I added a tiny bit of lemon extract to give it a sharpness. I also cooked it at a slightly lower heat for longer, just to minimize the ricotta's graininess. It turned out really well. I like the texture and flavor a lot. I think if I make it again, I'd switch from lemon extract to actual lemon juice. I think that'll be a better flavor.

Next week, I'm going to get some vanilla bean paste instead of extract. It's supposed to be more concentrated, and flavorful. I'm looking forward to experimenting with it. It's going to be a baking weekend!

My sister gets a 10yr gift from her work, so she decided to get me a stand mixer. I'm very excited to play with it as well!

Okay, time to go forth and get myself together. Everyone have an awesome Wednesday!