And then, there's a bearded fetus.

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!!

It's Friday! My new chair is supposed to come today! I am very excited by this, but also thinking that I might need to bring it in in pieces as it weighs over 60lbs. It doesn't appear to be very difficult to put together, but we'll see! Famous last words. The temporary chair has worked well, but it's not quite ideal. My back doesn't hurt in it, but it's not really comfortable. It has a very prominent lumbar support, and it means that I'm not able to sit all the way back. Like I said, it's okay on the back, but I'd like something a little less prominent.

Below are the contenders, cut for size. ( Read more... )
They're both nice chairs, but I'm hoping the Steelcase Leap V1 is good for me. It's supposed to come between 11am-3:30pm. It would be nice if it showed up right at 12, when I'm on break, but we'll see.

Today is the last day of Patient Access Training. Aside from being on camera and having a live microphone it's been not horrible. Though, the last couple of days, we've been doing scenarios, where one person plays the patient and another is the calltaker. It's not horrible, mostly just mildly annoying on the surface. The problem I'm finding is that I've kind of taken to the computer system easily, and others haven't. So I find myself having a hellacious embarrassment squick for my coworkers. Some of them just have no flow at all, and I am having anxiety for them. One in particular, I had to stop watching when I wasn't the patient, because I just couldn't.

Dad seemed a little uncomfortable yesterday, which of course worries me. As I said to Jess, we're at the newly home phase where I'm paranoid about him getting sick again, so every little "eh" is a potential emergency.

Also, with the training, I spend all day with the "polite, helpful work" mask on that by the time I click the camera off, I'm exhausted and a bit fried. Next week should be a little better, I hope. I won't have to be on camera, which should help. Also, Tasha, my departmental trainer is a little more informal. All in all, it should make it a little less tiring.

It's a weekend of games, which will be awesome. First up, I'm running a game tonight. It's from the Keys from the Golden Vault book, and seems like it'll be fun. Tomorrow and Sunday, poisontaster is running games. It should be a fun time!

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

It's supposed to get up into the 70's today! My office is going to be roasting. Definitely going to have my fan on. I'm in the front of the house, which faces solidly South East. This means that the morning/early afternoon sun hits the window, and turns my office into a tiny little hotbox. When the heat is on, it can get really warm. Fortunately, today we'll probably turn on the AC, since sunny and 70 would translate to at least mid 70's in the house.

My Patient Access Training continues. Yesterday was all about Empathy and Tone of voice. Y'know, in every customer service job I've ever had, we had a little on empathy, but I don't believe I've ever done an entire 2 hour class on it, complete with not one, but two tear jerker videos. First one was about not knowing what other people are going through and the second was about Hopkins, showing some of the cases we had, and how the doctors' and nurses' empathy and caring makes their lives better. They were very effective tools, and I'll probably remember the class when I start interacting with patients.

I continue to be a little stressed about background noises while I'm on microphone. I don't think it's picked up much of anything, but I worry.

My stress however was soothed by getting my paystub yesterday. I expected to be making about $1200 a pay period, figuring all the deductions that are going to be taken out. Health insurance is kind of pricey. Much to my surprise, I will be receiving about $1450. This will make things much easier financially.

It's weird, we have no game tonight. People are out of town over the next few weeks, so our gaming schedule is decidedly light. I'll miss it, but sleep is also nice.

Ten days til Philadelphia! We're working on where we're going to have dinner. Right now there's an Indian place, a Japanese BBQ and an Irish Pub in the running. All of the above sounded amazing.

Dad had his doctor's appointment yesterday. Which went well. The doctor was surprised to see him sitting up in the wheelchair and seemed very pleased. His lungs sounded good, pulse oxygen was good. He'll see him again in 2 weeks, just to follow up, since he's been. in and out of the hospital.

I ordered a white noise machine as well as a headset with a noise cancelling microphone. Our trainer has it and she literally clapped in front of her face, and we heard nothing. That should be here tomorrow some time.

All in all, pretty boring here at casa beanside. And now it is the time of day when I debate the merits of more coffee now, vs when I start work. Everyone have an excellent day!

And just like that, goodbye weekend! It was a nice weekend, even though we didn't do a ton. This is going tb be a quiet week, no games til Friday. Hopefully life cooperates in that quiet. It would be nice if one week could refrain from being stressful.

Dad is doing okay. Still coughing, but his pulse oxygen level isn't bad, and his pulse is good. He's been a little fussy, so we're watching that. His PCP is visiting tomorrow, and I have a few questions I'd like to ask, namely about antibiotics and a nebulizer. He isn't the best with inhalers, and now and then I feel like he could use a little bit of help with his breathing.

We're definitely adjusting our dinner plans for Philly. Haven't decided where we're going yet, but it won't be Parc. Instead, I booked that for brunch on Sunday. We can still get the French Onion soup, which was my main want.

This week, I have one more Epic class this morning, and then I'm into the patient access classes, which is more my practical training. At some point, I believe there's a second set of Epic training I need to do, but that's a ways off. It doesn't seem like the dude I had on Friday is teaching my last Epic class today, so that's good. One more week of classes, and then I go back to my individual trainer for department-specific training.

With dad being so stressfull this week, I've been making my little daydream plans about what will happen when he passes, and where we want to live. Jess would like to stay in MD, so that if the political climate goes to complete shit, we're still in a state that has constitutional gay marriage, which I totally understand.

I don't know where I want to live. I've spent my whole life in the same 1 mile patch, in only two places, so moving is going to be big and different to me no matter where we go. As such, I don't really have a lot of feelings one way or another. It makes it difficult to decide. So, I trawl through apartments.com, looking at places in our range. Overall, MD rent is expensive, so we definitely can't live somewhere with a bunch of bells and whistles. I'd like to find somewhere with a fitness center for Jess and in unit laundry. It's probably not happening in the near future, but it's nice to think about.

I guess when the time comes, we're going to be touring a lot of apartments.

Okay, time for me to go forth and consider pants and a bra. I hate these on-camera classes. I don't like putting on even half clothes. I could be in leggings and a t shirt, but no. Instead I have to brush my hair and wear work appropriate attire.

Everyone have an excellent Monday!

It's Saturday! Not that I have anything terribly exciting going on today. We have the second half of a game that got postponed due to two of the players (Jess and I) having the stomach bug. My biggest challenge is going to be remembering what the hell we've done. I was starting with the fever and ick while we were playing last time, so my focus was not great. I'm playing a 100% support character with no offensive spells, so I need to be on point to throw wrenches into the DM's machinations. After that, I have to go pick up our grocery order from Aldi. Then, I'm going to nap.

Yesterday was a frustrating day. I had two shorter classes, and the teacher was just not good. He spent like 45 min of the 4 hour class telling us that we needed to stay on mute and put our questions in the chat, and would give us instructions and post like a word in the chat to remind us. So our chat looked like "EPIC AC3, copy, question." It was honestly distracting and worse than useless.

Then, he spent about half an hour showing everyone how to resize windows if they were working on a single monitor. So you can not be able see two small things at the same time, super helpful. He insisted that we should all close the tabs we're not using, which were things that might be useful for the final, because we needed to be less cluttered.

The class, such as it was, was totally useless. He used up so much time on extraneous things that the material waa truncated, and we didn't have enough time to actually practice examples. We'd do one or two, he would give us a stupidly long time, so that near the end, he had to do a quick demonstration, which even I had difficulty following. To add to it, some of the people in the class were just...wow. They couldn't follow directions at all. We had one, I swear on every single step, they were needing help. Which slowed us down even more. Honestly, I felt like we didn't cover that much of the stuff that was on the test, which would be why I got an 80% on the morning session and a 90% on the afternoon.

By the end of the day, I was so tired and frustrated that I wanted to scream.

After that, I had my psych appointment. Before we move forward with medication, he wants to do an ADHD eval in his office, so that's going to wait til next month, sadly. So, I was a touch frustrated with that, as well.

At least the game was fun last night. We went way over the normal time that we stop, so I am super groggy today. More coffee will definitely be in order.

Dad seems to be doing okay, though he still has a bit of a cough, which is slightly worrisome. Today, he needs to get up and sit in his chair for a while. We let him off yesterday, but told him that today he'll need to work.

Today, I started the day with my first Rybelsus in 4 weeks. I'm glad to be back on it. I'm starting at the 7mg dose, instead of the 14mg I normally take, because you're supposed to titrate up.

Okay, time to get some more coffee and maybe wake up Dad, so his pills won't be all screwed up. Everyone have a wonderful Saturday!