And then, there's a bearded fetus.

Y'know, there's enough bands in the world that I don't usually resort to it for my subject lines, but whenever I get stuck on a new one, it's nice to know that the Foo Fighters and Duran Duran are always there for me.

It's Thursday, and that makes it game night! I'm looking forward to it, as I did some work yesterday and again this morning, so hopefully the game will go well. I think I'm all ready for it. Tomorrow, we have the boss battle of Frostmaiden. I'm pretty well prepped for that one, though. I just have to remember all the features of the villains. The drawback of high level games is that your monsters have extra turns and cool features, and none of them work if I don't remember them.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day on the phones. I don't mind it at all. I feel like I'm helping people again, which is nice. I'm settling into a bit of a rhythm finally, though I still need more practice to fully get there. Good thing is, I'm going to get plenty of it over the next 3 or so weeks. Though, my trainer is talking about cutting me loose a little early, so it might only be 2 weeks.

She has to keep me until I have my own Epic system (it doesn't get downloaded onto your computer until you pass the final class), which will not be until after my class on 4/19. Normally, she'd keep me for the week after, with me working 100% on my own system, and then I'd be sent out on my own. But my trainer was talking about not doing the full week.

It's a little bit of a relief that my trainer has that kind of faith in me, and that she thinks I'm doing so well. After 911, where I did relatively well in class and then was a wet fart on the phones, I was a little worried. But no, I'm doing well. Further proof that 911 was just a shithole of a job.

The goal is 40 calls a day. Yesterday, I did 28, though I also took a little while to do some pre requisites for my class tomorrow, so it wasn't a full day. Today I'm hoping to do more, but we'll see!

Okay, time to figure out what I want for breakfast. I got some corndogs from Aldi, so I'm thinking maybe those. Everyone have an amazing Thursday!

Apparently the stomach bug wasn't quite done with me, or whatever the hell it was. Last night, I was back to being nauseous as hell and having a headache. I'm still a touch queasy this morning, so we'll see how that goes.

Yesterday was meh. Even before I started feeling punky, the shadowing was boring as hell. The guy I was shadowing with was very nice, but he did things very differently that I will, and it made it difficult to stay focused. (Moreso than usual, that is.) Better still, in the afternoon, he was doing scanning, which was doubly boring. Not even patients to listen to.

It was probably for the best, because less than an hour after I went back from lunch, Dad started bitching that his thigh was chafing. Jess pointed out that they couldn't put him back solo, and he whined and then wen't full drama "I guess I'll crawl back, then." Seeing as I wasn't doing anything I let the dude I was shadowing with know that I needed a minute, and we hurriedly put him back to bed. His thighs are chafed, and honestly, I'm not sure what to do about it. We've been using aquaphor liberally, but there's a spot on his thigh that looks like the diaper gave him a paper cut. And he's really chafed. I feel bad for him, but the drama was a bit much.

Today my trainer is back, so we'll be doing the final two radiology modalities, and then we'll see what we're doing the rest of the afternoon.

I'm still not feeling 100%. My stomach is a little queasy and crampy, and my head hurts.

I'm also still in hyper fixation mode, trying to figure out whether we could work it to move out of country when dad passes. From everything I've seen, the answer is probably, if we move to Mexico. We're looking at the somewhat touristy town of San Miguel de Allende. More expensive, but also fairly safe, and a decent expat community. I've spent the last couple of days doing research on various neighborhoods. We probably can't afford the Centro Historico, but the suburbs are possible.

Tomorrow, I will spend my morning doing some prep work for my Thursday and Friday night games this week. Friday is pretty much set. I just need to remember to use all my bad guys' features. Legendary actions! Lair actions! It's meant to be a hard fight, since it's a boss battle. Thursday it a little more intensive prepping.

Okay, time for me to get my ass together. Everyone have an excellent Tuesday!

The mild nausea I had yesterday morning, continued, along with a particularly vicious headache. I went back to bed and took a nap, and while I was laying there, the power went out. This is less than ideal, because of Dad's oxygen requirements. I headed upstairs, and switched the regulator over to a new tank, and set that up. I really need to show Jess and Shelly how to do that in case the power ever goes out when I'm out, or when Jess and I are out.

We only had the one tank, which we figured was good for five hours. Then, we watched the app, and watched the time of restoration keep climbing. The call went in at 8:54am, They assiged a crew at 9:40, and then we waited. And waited. And started getting nervous. Finally at noon, I got dressed, still feeling like ass, and went to the hardware store to rent a generator. As I handed him my credit card, I checked the app, and the crew was en route. By the time we'd loaded the generator into our car and stopped for gas, they had arrived. We left the generator in the trunk, figuring that we could pull it out if needed.

It was not needed. The power came back on around 1pm, and we jubilantly plugged dad's oxygen back in and I went back to bed. We're taking the generator back this morning.

Today, I feel...meh. Not as bad as yesterday, but not awesome, either. I've got a bunch of stuff that I need to do, and it's going to be a challenge to get them all done feeling less than 100%.

Much as I hate to do it, I may push the oil change out by a week, and maybe do it on the 6th. According to my car, I still have 11 days to do it, so that wouldn't be bad. But I really just want to get it done. I will think about it.

It's not that I feel horrible, just seriously blah and my stomach just isn't 100%.

We'll see how I feel after I take the generator back this morning.

Then tomorrow, it's back to work. Tomorrow, I'm just shadowing, since my trainer has an appointment. Then Tuesday, I learn the last two modalities and then I start taking calls.

Okay, I'm going to go get myself together for when the store opens to return the generator we didn't use. Everyone have a wonderful Sunday and a very happy Easter to all who celebrate.

New contender added onto yesterday's list of places to go if the US gets sucky? Portugal, where you can get a temporary resident visa for a year, renew it for five years, and then get a permanent resident card. After a year of that, you can apply for citizenship. I think it boils down primarily to either Mexico or Portugal. We'd be able to afford more in Mexico, but my lord, the heat. Portugal would be more expensive, but the temperature is more comfortable. I mean, we'll see how things go, but I feel better knowing that I have options.

As I was saying to Jess, I feel like even if the US drastically improves, it might be worth it. I've spent my entire life in the same 1/2mile. I started out in this house, we moved to an apartment around the corner, and then we moved back when I was 18 to help take care of my grandmother. I've never lived on my own or anywhere else. The longest I've been away was on the 10 day Disney trip. It might be good for me to go somewhere. And of course, if you get EU citizenship, you can basically work anywhere in the EU.

Yesterday, the systems were down at work, so I spent the first two hours reviewing my notes, and generally fucking around. Eventually it all came back up, and then I shadowed one of my coworkers for a few hours while my trainer's computer was fixed. It was interesting to see how people do things differently, but I was happy to go back to learning in the afternoon.

Today is Friday! This means an hour lunch, but super early at 12, because my trainer has a weekly hour long meeting. We're working on MRIs today, which I've been assured is a bit of a killer. I'm looking forward to it.

Then, it'll be the weekend! Whoo! It's not a horribly busy one. Though some grocery shopping will need to be done at some point, so that'll be fun.

Okay, short one today. I'm going to go forth and consider some pants and maybe some more coffee.

It's Wednesday, which means that it's payday and that is always a good day. I didn't have as much OT as I had last check, so it's a little sad, but it's still equal or more than I made with 911, so I'm happy. And it was a three paycheck month, so I have a little bit extra to put away and to splurge just a tiny bit. I think I'm going to get a portable second computer monitor for D&D. poisontaster got one and her descriptions of being able to have the PDF on one monitor and the Roll20 site on two different screens sounds lovely. Also, more socks. They just seem to disappear a little at a time.

Yesterday, I learned a bit, and then for the afternoon, my trainer gave me control of her screen and I worked Epic and the phone system while she talked. She's trying to figure out how to drag out what is basically a 2 week training for four weeks. The rule is that I can't go on the phones til I have all the Epic classes. I have two more to go. One is on 4/5, but the other isn't til 4/19. Once that's done, I'll be on the phone supervised for a week. So I will be in training until 4/26. My first actual day solo on the phones will be the 29th.

It was kind of cool, finding that I could mostly keep up with the trainer. We of course, immediately had some very complicated scheduling, because that's how it goes. But that just meant that I learned more, which was cool. I feel a little bad, because the schedule for anything more complex than an xray is busy as hell. So you might find one appointment within a week that someone cancelled, but the majority are going to be later in April, or even May. That's going to be tough to tell people.

Today there will probably be more of that, and maybe getting into some of the different modalities of radiology. Or, we might stretch that out. my trainer is a little frustrated that of all of her students, I'm the one with the fucked up schedule, since I actually make notes and refer to them, making the stuff she has to teach even shorter, because I mostly do not have questions. Once in a while, I'll say "Just to be clear, _______?" And since I'm usually just verifying that my notes are correct, it doesn't take long to confirm. But generally, no, I don't have questions because I'm paying attention.

I really have no idea what we're going to do the rest of this week. We're at slide 42 out of 64 on the powerpoint. She's started giving me an hour for lunch to stretch things out. (Not complaining, mind you!)

I have flipped my banks on my paycheck. 85% goes on the credit union card, and 15% on the Tmobile card. That'll be enough to keep it solvent for recurring payments like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney, all that. If I need to, I'll kick a little extra into there for stuff like the phone bill.

Looking forward to the weekend for KPot Hot Pot and Korean BBQ for lunch on Saturday, but the rest of the weekend will be random adulting. We've got doctor appointments in the morning on Saturday, and I've got to go get an oil change, so that'll be thrilling.

I'm sure after the doctor's appointment, I'll have more random adulting to do. I've been having problems with my left shoulder (stretching hurts, reaching hurts, decreased range of movememnt, all that good stuff) so that'll probably be an MRI, plus a mammogram, plus labwork, plus cologard. The joys of getting older. The mammogram doesn't have to be done until August, at least.

Okay, time for me to go forth and get dressed and all that shit. Everyone have a wonderful Wednesday!

It's ass o'clock and I'm upright, so it must be a weekday. Today I start my real training (finally). I'm a little nervous, but I think I'll be okay. Still have some leftover trauma from 911, where the training went fine, and then I got on the phones and it was all shit. I mean, I won't be on the phones for a few weeks, but anxiety isn't rational. It's all about what if I can't focus, and I get kicked out, and then someone says "I always knew you were going to suck."

It's totally not going to, but anxiety is not rational.

We ended up leaving Philly early, and stopping at the Cracker Barrel in Elkton on the way home. They weren't at all busy, which kind of surprised me. I expected it to be bugfuck, even at 9:30am on a Sunday. Breakfast was pretty tasty. Their berry cheesecake french toast was excellent. Traffic was a breeze and we were home by 11am.

After watching the new Road House on Saturday, Jess admitted that they'd never watched the original, so we're working on that. We paused last night because of too many interruptions, but will pick it back up tonight, maybe. We shall see.

It's funny to see the difference from the original. It was very much a product of the times, with the random nudity and slurs. It's amazing how much movies have changed since then. I don't have to worry so much about the F-slur being dropped randomly. I'm still enjoying the movie, but things have definitely progressed somewhat since then.

Now I'm looking forward to next weekend, post payday, when we're going to go out somewhere fun for lunch. Right now, we're leaning towards going to Kpot for hotpot and Korean BBQ, but Fogo is also in the running. They're currently having a special for $44, which would be about the same price as Kpot. Both sound really good to me, so I am 100% neutral. Unless I get a serious hankering for steak between now and then.

But first, work.

And now I shall get myself together for said work. Everyone have a wonderful Monday!

Probably a short one today, since we are preparing for departure.

It was an eventful morning here at the beanside house. Dad had critical colostomy failure with all the mess that entails. Thankfully, all three of us were awake to do a coordinated effort of getting him cleaned up. I felt bad for the dude, because it's not his fault that his body betrayed him.

Yesterday was thoroughly boring. I'm so glad that my co-trainee is being released to go on the phones on Monday. I feel like I haven't really learned a thing the last week, and it's been chafing. I mean, sure, I watched her work, and maybe picked up a few things, but not a whole lot, and nothing that won't be covered in training presumably. I learned a few things I don't want to do, which I guess is something.

Otherwise, we're slowly getting in a groove with dad. Jess makes sure he's got pants and shoes on by the time I get off for lunch, and we haul in the sit/stand and get him up and into the wheelchair, so he gets some upright time. He stays there until I get off work, at which point we put him back in bed. I'd rather he stay up for dinner, so maybe we'll work towards that.

It's not quite as long as I'd like him to stay up, but it's a start.

I've been outvoted on PT, as everyone feels that we should give him another try. All in all, I'm not impressed with this home health agency. The nurse has called a few times the day before, but most of them seem to call and give like an hour's warning. It's just not good. I need a schedule, so we'll be ready for them. We've got a dog to corral, and it's not easy when the timeline is "whenever."

The weather is not cooperating with our getaway. It is raining rather spectacularly, and I am not looking forward to driving in it. But for 30 hours of freedom, I will manage. At least tomorrow, it's supposed to be relatively nice.

My computer glasses came, and seem to work well. I can see the screen quite well, which will make life much easier. I may still get a pair of reading glasses once I have my exam, but we'll see.

Okay, now it is time for me to go find clothes and start getting ready to go. Everyone have a lovely Saturday!

And we're creeping ever closer to the weekend and mini vacation! I got an email from Windsor Suites yesterday, offering me the chance to purchase all sorts fo extras. I skipped the larger room or balcolny or any of that, but did spring for early check in. That was my main issue with us getting there early--either we were carting a bag, or we were going to be leaving the bags with the front desk. But with early check in, we can leave about 9:45am, get there around 12:00, and check in at 12:15. Then we can have an hour and some change to get settled before we go to Reading Terminal Market for late lunch.

I'm looking forward to being away for a little while, and having some good food and especially seeing some good friends.

It's funny, I've been to Philly fairly regularly, yet have never gone to Reading Terminal Market, which is definitely on all the top ten lists of places to go. I'm looking forward to checking it out and getting some tasty noms.

I continue to shadow the other trainee at work. She's really sweet, but watching her is frustrating as hell. First off, it's a bit boring. I'm struggling to focus for the entire day. Second, she doesn't really listen to the patient. Yesterday, there was at least three concepts/pieces of info that were offered that she didn't listen to or pick up on. All three led to frustrated customers.

The trainer was very attentive the first day, and has withdrawn a bit each day since. I feel like she is also having trouble paying attention, and when help is needed, she's slow to respond, and usually needs a recap (which is frequently given incorrect info due to the prior issue.)

I know I have a ton to learn yet, but I really just want to get started, but I have no clue when that is going to happen. I should probably ask that this morning.

All in all, it's not bad, I'm just frustrated and struggling to keep focus sometimes. And the frustrated is mostly that I'm impatient and a bit type A. I keep feeling like "I could do this better." Which is probably not true at this point in my training.

Yesterday, I was very productive. Today, I will not be. I plan to be a lump. Maybe I'll do some packing, but we'll see.

Okay, time for me to go forth and get my ass in gear. Everyone have a terrific Thursday!

I am very tired for absolutely no reason. Got to bed on time, slept reasonably well. Not quite sure why I'm yawning. I'm giving serious debate to my current schedule though. I don't technically need to get up at 5am. I do it because I like the hour of solitude. But goddamn, it's early. I'm thinking that now that I'm back on the 9am-5:30pm schedule, it might be better to get up at 6, or even 7. That would still give me a couple of hours, which would be nice. I don't know, I'll have to think on it. It just seems silly to be up this early, even for the peaceful time. Maybe I'll do some testing.

I'm back on a 9am-5:30pm schedule. I'm going to have to get used to it. I'm back with the trainer for my department, and so we're back on standard breaks an lunch. So long hour lunches and 20 minute breaks! Now I'm back to two 10 min breaks, and one 40 minute lunch. The downside is that we get dad up on my lunch break. We can still do it, though I only have about 20, maybe 25 minutes to eat by the time he's up and settled. I cannot put him back to bed on my break. It's possible that I could, but generally, it would take just a tiny bit too long. So he's stuck staying in the wheelchair until I get done work at 5:30. He's not thrilled about this. but he's going to have to suck it up.

In other news, I put in to refinance my car. My credit is still pretty shitty, but slowly improving, so I was able to get a few points taken off my interest. It only drops the payment by about $50, but for now, I'll take it. Hopefully, I get the final info today to sign.

Actual work is difficult for me at the moment. The trainee who joined 3weeks prior to me is taking her first week of supervised calls, so I'm just listening and watching her. It's absolute hell on my ADHD, and focusing has been very difficult. I've mostly been sitting there half-watching while stimming on my cell. Which is not ideal. I really hope my ADHD consult in 3 weeks is useful. I really could use the help in focusing.

Today, I have a short meeting related to the social media dept of the con I work for. Fortunately, it's just poisontaster and I, so it should go quickly. We just need to knock out what advertising we need to do over the next 5-6weeks. The convention's not for over 6 months, so it's pretty minimal right now. Just reminding of registration.

Jess had a nasty migraine last night, so instead of being on our phones, we just talked after we went downstairs. It was nice. So much of our conversations these days revolve around Dad. When we can go out somewhere, we have that, but this weekend was so busy with errands that we didn't really have the quiet time. One sad thing we realized is that thanks to my schedule change, it's going to be hard to watch movies together on the computer. When I worked at IKEA and 911, I had days off during the week, so we could sit and watch things. But with Hopkins, I'm Mon-Fri. It's hard to watch on the weekends, because my sister is not good at sitting quietly. And it's hard to enjoy a movie when every five minutes she's showing us her social media and telling us about how the orange disaster has fucked up today.

It's another reason that Jess and I will be getting an apartment solo, and are considering moving a bit of a distance away. Once Dad is gone, we deserve some peace. I spend a decent amount of time looking at cities, and deciding where to move. I like Towson, but I'm not sure whether I want to stay in the same general area, or if we want to try somewhere else. I keep looking at various areas and trying to decide where would be good. I know it might not be anytime soon, but I want to be ready. I can live wherever the fuck I want with my job, so that gives me some choices.

Okay, time to grab another cup of coffee and try to wake up. Everyone have an amazing Tuesday!

So of course after I spent the entire post bitching, dad was much better. And it turned out that my sister had been putting the cpap on him wrong, so he was probably spending the entire day trying to catch up on the oxygen he didn't get during the night. And, I suppose he is 82, and he's going to have bad days.

So I'm slightly less overwhelmed today, even though I got up as my sister was going into change him, and went in to help her before I had my coffee.

Yesterday was a busy day, coordinating schedules. My sister had a birthday party and a haircut, Yoda had his grooming, and we had a game. Fortunately, it all worked out well, and now both puppy and sister are newly trimmed. I swear, Yoda looks like a different dog after he gets a shave. And he really likes the groomer. She's an older lady, kind of a Hon. (That's a Baltimore thing, but it basically means a working class woman who calls everyone honey, shortened to hon. We have a festival for it and all.)

Game was a lot of fun. I was playing my bard, who has no offensive spells, just support. And she somehow ended up next to the baddie, getting her ass handed to her. Finally towards the end of the battle, a few of her spells took hold allowing the other party members to seriously mess him up. I was down to 20 hit points, but everyone survived the fight against the demon rat god, and triumphed!

Today, I have a eye exam. I'm not going to let them. dilate me because it always gives me a screaming migraine. I know with the 'betes I should let them, but instead, I'll go and get the retinal picture done once every few years. It'll have to do. My flex spending card came yesterday, so if I want to order glasses there I can, though to be honest, I probably won't, unless I find an amazing pair that I must have. Online retailers have more interesting options. I'm especially interested in some of Zeelool's, though Zenni has been my go to. I may do Zenni for the computer glasses, and then try Zeelool for the everyday glasses.

Then, we have the conclusion of another "one shot." I swear, I don't know how some of these modules could ever be done in one session, unless you're doing an 8 hour game.

Tomorrow, back to work. I'm done the formal classes, so now I go back to my department and start learning about how we do things. I'm excited for it.

And now, it is 100% time for more coffee. Everyone have a wonderful Sunday!!