And then, there's a bearded fetus.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's going to be a mostly quiet day for us. My sister has lunch at her in laws, so I'm going to probably noodle around on the internet and maybe do some prep for upcoming games.

We decided not to do the big Cracker Barrel dinner, since it'll just be Jess and I. We were just going to do plates from somewhere, but then we were in the Sam's Club and they had smoked turkeys, and before I could stop to think about logistics, or how many leftovers we'll have, it was in my cart.

For sides, we went with Fogo De Chao. We have a delicious looking Cesar salad, and some mashed potatoes and desserts. Much less fussy than Cracker barrel. And nothing that needs the oven. The turkey probably wouldn't fit anyway.

My sister decided that she would like to exchange presents after all. We had originally decided not to do Christmas, because we needed shit for the apartment. But since we've mostly gotten all of that, she'd like to do some small presents. She immediately bought the tablet I've been planning to get. Which is not really a small present at $80. So I've gotta figure out what to get her.

I'll get there eventually, I suppose.

Tomorrow, it's back to work, where I'm assuming it won't be too busy. Then Saturday I'm working for the morning, again assuming it'll be dead.

Okay, I'm going to go consider pants and breakfast. Everyone have an excellent Thanksgiving!

We survived Monday! It wasn't horrible with the holidays. Steady, but not overwhelming.

I spoke with my manager, who said they had no idea that results were going to go out like that. They'd planned to speak with everyone this week, and give them the news. I mentioned that I'd love to get some feedback as to where my deficits were, and how I could do better next time. He said that he would think on it, but to give them a little time and bear with them a little bit longer. Not quite sure what that means. If you just made the decision, you surely know why you hired someone vs someone else. But I like my manager, so I will be patient and see what he says.

I realized a little after lunchtime that it was almost exactly the 10 year anniversary of my mother's death. I had feelings of a sort. Not so much about her, but about the feelings of that day. It was a rough day. I still have trauma from it, whereas I don't for dad. Mom will always elicit complicated feelings in me. After the teenage years, I was never the golden child, but over the last decade of her life, it got worse. And the last two years were hell. She would deliberately bait me until I either snapped or ran downstairs sobbing. If I snapped, she would go into her "I guess I'm a horrible mother" schtick, which would inevitably send me downstairs to cry. It was bad. Life was so much better for me once she was gone.

Last night, while talking to people about a one shot I'm running next weekend, I had a plot bunny for an oops all evil characters one or two shot. And a lot of people want to play. So I'm doing two all evil games. It should be a lot of fun, I think.

Okay, time for me to go forth and get myself together. Everyone have an outstanding Tuesday! (Which reminds me, time to take the turkey out of the freezer!)

I'm a little tired and grumpy this morning. Yesterday, I had a brief thought that maybe the system had pended the job since it had been 2 months since it closed. But that is not the case, I got the official we're not hiring you email in my inbox. Still peeved, because I really feel that people deserve to know what they need to work on for the next promotion. I feel like we deserve at least that much. Again, I'm not angry about not getting it--I'm a little sad, but I always figured it was a long shot. But it feels disrespectful to your workers to let them learn by a portal update or an email.

Oh well, we'll see what comes tomorrow.

I have very few things I need to do today. I'll get the clothes together to be picked up and washed. I'll run my sister to the hospital to see her friend who's having her gallbadder out today. I'll pick up said sister, and then, I will play our Sunday game. Somewhere in there, I'll stop at the pharmacy and pick up all my prescriptions. Which are definitely needed.

On one hand, not getting the job will mean keeping my early morning schedule. Had I gotten it, I'd have been switching back to 9:30-6pm. Which would have been a bit of a pain in the ass with scheduling for games and what not. But it would have been off the phones, which would have been nice. Oh well, it wasn't to be this time. Maybe next time.

Okay, time to get my ass together to go to the pharmacy and pick up all my shit. Everyone have a stupendous Sunday!

It's Friday! Whoohoo! Another day of hoping for an answer on the job front. I know it's probably too soon to hear anything, but tell my brain that. Every time my computer makes a chat or email sound, I'm pouncing on it. It would be nice if they put us out of our misery today, so I can either celebrate or drown my sorrows this weekend. I still don't truly expect to get it, but hope springs eternal.

Yesterday was a little slower. I had a class in the morning that 100% should have been a training module. They demoed this new system we're going to be using, and I think I know what we're doing, but it would have been much better if they had built a little thing where we could use it to do little training things. I'm pretty sure half the class will need to be retrained when the system actually debuts--and that's no shade on them. It was pretty counterintuitive.

I was annoyed at the end of the day. I had a customer who was all kinds of pissed off about me. They called in, that their doctor had ordred a type of abdominal MRI and wanted to change it to a different kind. So I look at the order, and there's two different kinds of MRIs. One still abdomen, one abdomen and pelvis with a special prep. If it was the one, sure, we could switch it, but the second has to be on a weekday while the nurses are there.

So I explained this, and set up the new appt so we could do both. Then, I hung up with him and went back to cancel the original appt. And I saw that the person doing the inbox had scanned the order to the original order, and changed it to one of the orders. And I was like "shit, did I screw up?"

So I checked, and no, I had not screwed up, so I went ahead and canceled the original appointment. And the patient called back angry, because he didn't understand, apparently. So that was fun.

So today, I will try to be more clear about things when I'm going to cancel an appointment.

Okay, time to get ready for work! Everyone have an amazing Friday!

My cat is sadly honking at me. I believe she is ready for her second can of food. She will definitely get one. Her appetite is inconsistent. She'll eat really well for a few days, and then she'll not want to eat for a day. The vet said it's probably just because she's older, and her labs were excellent, so he's not worried about it, but it freaks me out every single time.

Yesterday went really well. In what I think was a good sign, I bored the hell out of the person who was shadowing me. She told me this, right before she started playing Final Fantasy on her Switch while laying on the floor in her living room with the cat on her. She told me that I had too much common sense to mess up, and left me to it.

The morning was doing administrative tasks, like sending out error notifications, and helping to find people appointments. None of it was particularly difficult, actually kind of meditative.

The afternoon was fairly slow. I took questions, but there were only a couple of early ones that were tough. I knew the answer, but I wanted to verify it with her. But by the end, I was trusting my instincts, and got them all correct. Also, I interacted well. I was kind and probably gave more info than I needed to, but the people I answered seemed to appreciate it.

Actually, one of the people I helped had a patient whose appt had been incorrectly scheduled. And I looked at it and agreed that it had been improperly scheduled. Then, I stated what they'd need for the appt and confirmed that it couldn't be done at the time. But I also remembered that when I sent a message to the site earlier about getting a patient in, the site closest to her had a bunch of appointments. So I pointed that out. And the patient was so thrilled that she insisted on talking to a supervisor and giving the coworker a compliment. And I was like "Mah duckling." I was proud to have a hand in it and to have helped get her the kudo.

The shadower did let slip that there are three of us who are getting this tryout. And from her surprise and boredom, I get the feeling that the person yesterday needed more direction.

The last person goes today, so I suppose I could get an answer soon? I have no clue.

Okay, time for me to consider getting myself together. Everyone have an excellent Wednesday!

It's Monday again, and I am tired. Not horribly so, a little coffee should take care of it. I slept really hard the last two nights, just completely crashed. We put on a McElroy podcast each night and I just went out. It was lovely. I do have a bit of a headache this morning, but I've already got ibuprofen onboard, so that should improve.

Yesterday ended up being a good day. Jess and I had a 9am game with coyotegestalt and co. which was a lot of fun. It's an ongoing series of one shots. This was our obligatory beach episode, which was super fun. We didn't really engage with the plot til the last 25 minutes of the game. Instead, we fucked around and did beach resort things. I switched out my token to be my character in a bikini, while Jess said their character was "looking respectfully, yeah." I don't normally flirt in character with my spouse, but these two are adorable. Jess is playing a drunken master monk, and I'm playing a beer domain cleric. Truly meant to be. Anyway, that was super fun.

Then, we went to Sam's club to get some veggies and more coffee creamer. We walked through the store and got way more stuff than we strictly needed, but all of it will get eaten. The parking lot was actually not bad, and the scan as you go function on the app makes things smooth as hell. You scan your cart as you pick things up, and then pay before you leave. The app tells the system when you're approaching the exit, and a scanner checks to make sure of how many items you have, and then you just walk out. Jess said they kept feeling like someone was going to stop them, or yell stop thief. But they don't. It's just smooth and easy. I said that I would be willing to shop there once or twice a month to get staples. We ended up spending about $170, but we had so much stuff.

My CoC game was postponed due to RL shit, so I ran a one shot. I tried a module from a new game designer, and I really loved it. It had some combat, but most of it was investigation and role playing and it was really cool. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sadly they only had a few other modules, but when I get paid, I will definitely be getting them for my last minute one shot needs.

Today, presumably they'll be getting me set up for tomorrow's shadowing. We'll see. I just have to make it through Monday and I can start freaking out about that.

For now, though, everyone have an amazing Monday!

So much for my quiet day. One of my coworkers had an emergency come up for today, and asked if anyone wanted his shift, so of course I jumped for it and will be working from 8-12. Of course, equally predictable, I slept for shit after playing Strahd, so I very grudgingly heaved myself out of bed this morning.

Yesterday was really good. Not horribly busy at work and the patients were much less annoying. And then, just before lunch, I got a message from the team's trainer, asking if I was available to shadow again on Monday. Twist, I'm going to do the job, and she's going to shadow me. I of course said yes. But afterwards, I started wondering what this all means. I'm still in the running, obviously. But the way she explained it, I'll be doing it on my computer. That would mean that they're going to have to get me access to the inbox and into the RADSET system. That seems like a lot of permissions from IT for a simple tryout. So, I'm thinking I might be on a very short list at this point. And that's terrifying and exciting. It's going to be my full shift, so they're giving me a good tryout. I am 100% freaking out about it. I think I'd really like the job. It's helping my coworkers, and also spreadsheets and tracking errors that my team makes. I know I'd like the pay bump.

So that sailed me through the work day. Then afterwork, I drove over to the Local in White Marsh. My sister sold her old car to Carvanna, and got $4500 for it, so she splurged on dinner. SO much food, y'all. I ate WAY more than I should have, and as usual, Rybelsus made me pay. I'm still a bit queasy this morning, but hopefully it'll settle down soon.

Then it was time for Strahd. They did a bit of searching in the catecombs, but zeroed in on the walled off tomb pretty quickly. And then, it was time to kick of the big fight. Allies, his horse, lair actions, the whole nine yards. And with all that, Strahd still went down, only knocking one player down to zero hit points. (It was Jess. It's always Jess.) He went down to our bard's casting of Synaptic Static, and the land was free once again. It's always bittersweet to end a campaign, but that was helped by the knowledge that we have Vecna waiting in the wings.

Today, I'm going to work for a few hours, and then I may take a nap before our movie at 4.

We'll see! For now, time to get myself together for work. Everyone have an excellent Saturday!

Sliding slowly, inexorably towards the weekend! And I'm off on Saturday, so that's nice. I'll have two full days off. It's fairly light weekend for our games, with only three. Though Sunday is two games. Saturday, we have no games, as Jess and I are going to go see Red One. Yes, I know it's going to be stupid. I'm counting on it. I want it to be the dumbest, most bombastic movie ever. I want the first two transformers movies to look at it and say "damn, that was dumb." Then, I will be happy. After the last week and a half, I just want to disengage my brain and live in a world where good wins at the end.

Yesterday, patients were deeply annoying for the most part. I had a lot of people who were obviously annoyed that they couldn't make their MRI or US appointment online. (Its because certain things need to be seen ASAP, and certain studies take longer with certain diagnoses, and depending on which site you go to.) Our machines are all good, but some are older than others, and take a little longer to do their thing. So they very obviously did not want to be on the phone, which mood. By this point, it was like 3:45, and I really didn't feel like being on the phone any more, but there we are. I did my normal schtick, and I got nothing in return. One word replies, not responding to my jokes. "Are you claustrophobic? You're a better person than I am." Just nothing. And it was busy. Every time I hung up, another call (usually a callback) was waiting for me.

But then, one of my last calls made up for all of it. It was a woman I'd helped before. She needed a diagnostic mammo, because her screening showed something. So I did a bit of work, and got her in for that, and for her MRI ASAP. And she does have breast cancer. And she was like "You helped me before." And I recognized the name. And she went on to tell me how grateful she was. That my calming nature and kindness had helped so much. And I had explained what would happen so thoroughly that she felt supported until she got to the cancer center for treatment. She said that at the time, she was too freaked out to realize what a gift I had given her, but as she started dealing with the scans, and then the biopsy and finally treatment, she said that she knew she was in the best hands, and that was because of me. She made me feel really good about what I do.

I booked the movers for 1/4, and then proceeded to have a freek out in the evening. I'm having a lot of anxiety about what life is going to look like at the new place, and leaving this one. This is only the second place I've lived in my entire 50 years. I started my life here until I was about 2, then moved to the apartments, then moved back at age 17. And here I've been since. It's a lot to think about the house not being in my life. There were tears.

There's nothing much I can do about the sadness and anxiety. I just have to wait and see how it goes. I'm not good with that.

Okay, time for me to get myself together. Everyone have an amazing Thursday!

Today's lyric is from The Adventure Zone podcast, where the McElroys are currently playing a 90's cartoon themed game, and it is delightful, no matter what Reddit says about it.



We survived Monday! I ended up taking just shy of 50 calls, but from some tough patients. By the time I was off at 4:30, I was wiped out. I mostly vegetated for the rest of the night.

Today will hopefully be a little less crazy, but we'll see.

We've got 49 days until we move, and I'm starting to get anxious. We've made some adjustments to our plan. Now we're moving on Saturday. The idea is that we can get some stuff delivered on Friday and do the assembly, so when they come on Saturday we're able to just slot everything together.

And then unpack for three years. My sister's room was a mess, with a bunch of clothes on the floor. Jess cleaned them all up, and now we're going through them to get rid of a bunch. The donation boxes in our area are going to be very happy. We've been steadily plowing through them, and we are down to 10 bags to go through and six bags to go into the donation box.

We haven't even started on the basement. We kind of need our bed out of the way before we can start getting stuff together down there.

I'm thinking at some point soon, I'm going to take an afternoon to take a couple of boxes of hummels over to the antique dealer. Or call an estate appraiser and let them loose. If I do the second, it will have to be in January, since some of the stuff to sell is over in the area the bed blocks.

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

And somehow the last day of the weekend has rolled around again. I don't feel like I've accomplished much at all.

Yesterday, I worked til 12. It was pretty quiet, but I managed to help a few people, so that was nice. After that, it was time to run to Sam's club to pick up some things for dinners and some treats. I ordrered as a pickup, which was good because the parking lot was bugfuck. Then, it was back home to unload.

The move is creeping ever closer, and it looks like we're not going to have Dad's big retirement account to help us. The company who administers it says that they don't have the beneficiary information, and the stuff we filled out right before dad died was deemed legally inadmissible. So, we have to get the will probated. Which can take months. So, we're trying to figure out finances for the big move.

We still need a few things, like furniture, so I put in an order at the rent a center. With a little luck, we'll be able to pay it off early so we're not paying too much extra, but we needed a new sofa. There was one on Wayfair that I really liked, but their payments were going to be too much. So I looked at some of the local rent to own places, and found this:



I wouldn't have said my style was gothic, but apparently, I'm a sucker for purple.

Aside from that, it was figuring out what we definitely needed and what we can wait on. The definitely needs turned out to be about only $300, so that's not horrible.

After all that, I kind of had a bitch of a headache, so I went to lay down while Jess played their Strixhaven game. My first one is this afternoon, and I'm excited for it! And nervous, as usual for a new campaign.

Other than that, not a ton to do today. If I get ambitious, I might run over to the Punjab market and get myself another couple of the good British chocolate bars. They have Flake and Cadbury, which are a nice treat.

But for now, I'm just going to sit here and do nothing much. Everyone have an amazing Sunday!