There are some days when I think I made a good decision leaving my old job for this new one. The hours are regular and consistent. My commute is an 8 block stroll. I am learning a lot.
Then, there are other days like today when I long for poking sharp things into veins. As often as it was frustrating (and it was often enough) it wasn't literally crazy as some of my callers are. I have answers when asked about GI upset or knee pain. I can gather information that is somewhat useful even when I don't have answers frequently. But, occasionally, I don't even know what to ask. A mother (who I truly do feel badly for) called for her son (who is 37) who was having GI upset of a sort (I will save the detail as they matter little). She could not wake said son because he was 'sleeping.' Normal if we are talking of an infant, less so when we are speaking of a man nearing middle age. I offered an office visit today with a provider, but she couldn't get him in because of his 'emotional problems' that would necessitate hours of prep time, so she scheduled for tomorrow. When I talked to the doc in question, he was not willing to see the patient and wanted the pt to see his former doctor. I called the woman back and informed her of this (a shitty job since the doc put me in an awkward position), she admitted that it was her other son, also severely emotionally disturbed, who the apt was actually for. Her 39 yr old son whose emotional problems were so severe he didn't even want his mom to mention his name for the apt. The thought was that they would 'reveal' this swap at intake during the apt. What the (insert expletive here)!?!?!? I then had to relay this to the doctor as well. Suffice to say, it was not the most lovely way to spend an hour. The rest of the day was just heavy call volumes and finished with me trying to find out why an elderly dementia pt was 'afraid to stay in her apt' by herself (I was unable to discern this of course). I spend better than a 1/4 of my call volume dealing with a handful of nutters, drug seeker, and the demented.
So, what life lesson can we pull from this? Well, in essence, primary care will likely not be where you find me embarking on further matriculation. I definitely see my focus moving more into research or education instead. If I am going to spend the time, effort, and capital, I shouldn't do it to be miserable.
Off to bed so I can try to forget today and hope that tomorrow is more sane. Or at least that I am.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Head full of sand
This has been one of the rougher weekends for my allergies unfortunately, and am currently failing miserably on a few types. Kind of ambling about the apartment with eyes varying between crimson and an iritated pink. I feel slow and sleepy. Actually just awoke from an extended and unanticpated nap. Debating prednisone............but having a hard time pulling the trigger this late in the day when I KNOW that it will mean twitching like a tweaker and pacing the apartment until the early AM hours. Sucks, because I cannot stand it when my allergies control what I can and cannot do.
Thankfully, the prednisone performed its magical steroidy magic and my allergies are much more under wraps today (Sunday), though I still have little energy. I guess its good that it happens on a weekend because I dont miss work.........on the other hand, way to ruin my weekend!
Work was exceedingly rough this week. I am ever reminded that I have so much to learn. For every GI issue that I understand, there are alcohol rehabs, pinworms, and psych issues that I do not. I don't expect that it will get easier for some time..........but it is a learning process so I don't expect having the triage title necessarily imbues me with some heretofore unknown medical knowledge. Trial and error and learning as I go is the name of the game. Some weeks the game is just easier to play than others.
Not a whole lot else to say. No new restaurants tried or fun drinks to be had. Pulling for Tom to get better after his surgery and trying to eat away time until vacation..........coming soon, but seemingly not soon enough.
Thankfully, the prednisone performed its magical steroidy magic and my allergies are much more under wraps today (Sunday), though I still have little energy. I guess its good that it happens on a weekend because I dont miss work.........on the other hand, way to ruin my weekend!
Work was exceedingly rough this week. I am ever reminded that I have so much to learn. For every GI issue that I understand, there are alcohol rehabs, pinworms, and psych issues that I do not. I don't expect that it will get easier for some time..........but it is a learning process so I don't expect having the triage title necessarily imbues me with some heretofore unknown medical knowledge. Trial and error and learning as I go is the name of the game. Some weeks the game is just easier to play than others.
Not a whole lot else to say. No new restaurants tried or fun drinks to be had. Pulling for Tom to get better after his surgery and trying to eat away time until vacation..........coming soon, but seemingly not soon enough.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
New car!
What happens when 2 people decide to go Sake tasting on a weekend and test drive a few cars along the way? Well, a new car of course!
We had been discussing, living in the Pearl, reducing our car ownership by half. Both to save money and because owning 2 cars when you walk most places is kind of silly. Tia's car is paid off, mine not so much (about 3 years left of payments). I liked the utility of Tia's car (a 2006 Subaru outback), but not the way it drives (kind of sluggish and soft) and conversely Tia hated the way my little Rabbit handled (much more 'rough' for lack of a better term). So, the wise move would have been to sell my car and to keep her car. What we wanted to do, however, was to find a car we would both be satisfied with. So, the big key was getting rid of my car and her car for fair market value and finding something that met both our wants (needs?) while dropping our monthly payment below what we are paying on my car now. In that regard, we were successful.
We initially test drove a Volvo c30, an Audi A3, and a VW GTI. We both disliked the GTI (far too rough riding), found the Audi a bit too refined (read: adult), and adored the quirkly styling and supple yet sporty ride of the Volvo. The downside was that the Volvo is, while somewhat polarizing stylistically, quite high in demand. They are not willing to bend much on the price and, once you add the niceties to it, you are darn near $30K. We decided to seek out a slightly used one. What we found is that they are indeed quite rare. We did locate a nice 2008 with less than 4K miles, but they were offering us almost nothing in trade for my car or Tia's. Basically we would have had to finance our way out of it. Being the researchy type that I am, I knew that was patently ridiculous. Dealer trade-in should have netted us about $7-800 dollars. Not much, but not upside down. Private sale, we would have netted another $12-$1500. Long story short, the numbers weren't adding up.
We then decided to test drive the Ford Fusion Sport and SEL, which we both disliked both in styling and in ride. We looked at some Subies, but none really thrilled us. We debated the Nissan Altima coupe as well, but we scared off by the price (also near $30K) and weren't sure about a 2 door car. So, we ambled over to the Mazda dealership to look at the Mazda 6 and ended up not liking the look enough to drive it, but really liked the Mazda 3 hatchback. Ended up driving it, and really finding it a nice happy medium. It was sporty, but not overly rough. Spacious, but not overly large. Functional hatchback, but all sorts of fun bells and whistles like dual climate control, IPOD interface, Bluetooth and heated leather...........all for much less than we were going to spend on the C30 without any of those things.
Tia is a tough TOUGH negotiator (and it helped that the Mazda 3 is more plentiful and near the end of the model year), so we even got the price we wanted both for the car we bought and for the two cars we traded in........always ready to walk if the numbers didn't match up to our expectations. Plus, Mazda is running a 0% financing deal. So, ultimately, we didn't save any money per se over our original plan of keeping the paid off car, but we did end up dropping our monthly payment under $180/mo, getting down to the one car, and saving money on our car insurance. All told we will 'save' about $200 a month, which is pretty nice considering the new car is nicer than either of our old ones.
Can't wait to Zoom Zoom around. But, of course, I still prefer my commute to be on foot.
We had been discussing, living in the Pearl, reducing our car ownership by half. Both to save money and because owning 2 cars when you walk most places is kind of silly. Tia's car is paid off, mine not so much (about 3 years left of payments). I liked the utility of Tia's car (a 2006 Subaru outback), but not the way it drives (kind of sluggish and soft) and conversely Tia hated the way my little Rabbit handled (much more 'rough' for lack of a better term). So, the wise move would have been to sell my car and to keep her car. What we wanted to do, however, was to find a car we would both be satisfied with. So, the big key was getting rid of my car and her car for fair market value and finding something that met both our wants (needs?) while dropping our monthly payment below what we are paying on my car now. In that regard, we were successful.
We initially test drove a Volvo c30, an Audi A3, and a VW GTI. We both disliked the GTI (far too rough riding), found the Audi a bit too refined (read: adult), and adored the quirkly styling and supple yet sporty ride of the Volvo. The downside was that the Volvo is, while somewhat polarizing stylistically, quite high in demand. They are not willing to bend much on the price and, once you add the niceties to it, you are darn near $30K. We decided to seek out a slightly used one. What we found is that they are indeed quite rare. We did locate a nice 2008 with less than 4K miles, but they were offering us almost nothing in trade for my car or Tia's. Basically we would have had to finance our way out of it. Being the researchy type that I am, I knew that was patently ridiculous. Dealer trade-in should have netted us about $7-800 dollars. Not much, but not upside down. Private sale, we would have netted another $12-$1500. Long story short, the numbers weren't adding up.
We then decided to test drive the Ford Fusion Sport and SEL, which we both disliked both in styling and in ride. We looked at some Subies, but none really thrilled us. We debated the Nissan Altima coupe as well, but we scared off by the price (also near $30K) and weren't sure about a 2 door car. So, we ambled over to the Mazda dealership to look at the Mazda 6 and ended up not liking the look enough to drive it, but really liked the Mazda 3 hatchback. Ended up driving it, and really finding it a nice happy medium. It was sporty, but not overly rough. Spacious, but not overly large. Functional hatchback, but all sorts of fun bells and whistles like dual climate control, IPOD interface, Bluetooth and heated leather...........all for much less than we were going to spend on the C30 without any of those things.
Tia is a tough TOUGH negotiator (and it helped that the Mazda 3 is more plentiful and near the end of the model year), so we even got the price we wanted both for the car we bought and for the two cars we traded in........always ready to walk if the numbers didn't match up to our expectations. Plus, Mazda is running a 0% financing deal. So, ultimately, we didn't save any money per se over our original plan of keeping the paid off car, but we did end up dropping our monthly payment under $180/mo, getting down to the one car, and saving money on our car insurance. All told we will 'save' about $200 a month, which is pretty nice considering the new car is nicer than either of our old ones.
Can't wait to Zoom Zoom around. But, of course, I still prefer my commute to be on foot.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
reviews
So, trying to determine if I want to take this blog in another direction or just start a new one, but I am interested in more or less documenting the time spent here in the Pearl and the many many yummy meals we shall eat. Give it a try here anyway.
In our scant 2 weeks here (has it been that long already?) we have eaten at 4 local establishments. There are many more to try of course, but that is limited by my (and Tia's) general food frugality. It is hard to want to drop $60+ on a meal out for two very frequently, so a lot of restaurants are kind of out to begin with.
Lets start with our very local neighborhood brew pub: Bridgeport. Happy hours x 2. For $20 (including tip) we had a brick oven cheese pizza, a spinach artichoke dip, and two drinks. Not too shabby and, most notably, the food is quite good.....especially for bar eats. The pizza has a nice char on it and the spinach dip is plentiful, gooey, cheesy and the chips are warm and crunchy with just enough salt. Have had both items twice and the quality seems consistent. Of lesser success were the nachos, which like many nachos fails to deliver the heat and ALWAYS look and smell better than they taste. Still, it is a screaming deal at $6 for a mountain of calories. The catfish bites were also just mediocre. A nice crisp on the outside and a little bite to the dipping sauce, but lacking in overall flavor. Great beer btw.........and at $2.75 a pint during HH, worth every penny!
Last week we were wondering around hungry with no real direction other than we didn't want to drop a lot of coin (no easy feat in the Pearl) and we happened on the local Hawaiian place: Hawaiian Time. Certainly nothing to look at, and the location gets a lot of car traffic, but it isnt exactly a pretty place to sit outside of to eat. But, for what it is, it isn't bad. I would eat there again, which says something. I thought the food was plentiful (copious actually) and reasonably priced ($8 for a regular sized plate........I am fearful of seeing what the large plate looks like). But, you have to kind of be in the mood for that kind of food since it is SO carb heavy (2 scoops white rice and macaroni salad) and meat heavy. Not for the slim of waistline. Was a bit disappointed that they offered no fish option (I prefer the mix plates when I eat Hawaiian food), but the meat offers were solid and well seasoned if a little on the tame side (they do have Siracha though, bonus for that).
Stopped at Silk, the upscale Vietnamese restaurant by the owners of Pho Van last night. It was a very trendy, somewhat loud place that was full, but able to accommodate a table of three at 7:30 on a Friday. It is more expensive than eating at Pho Van but, depending on what you order, not that much more. 3 people with a non-alcoholic drink each, one shared appetizer, and 3 main courses for about $46 is, I think, not unreasonable. The salad roll appetizer was good, if a bit small. Was very fresh and cool, but the sauce was a little strong on peanut flavor and was all sweet with no counterbalance (would have worked better if the rolls were spicy). The vermicelli bowls were both ample in size and proffered up a fair amount of meat and fresh veggies. The vegetarian curry was a bit less successful and a bit one-note in flavor. Had to ask for Siracha which improved my meal significantly. Overall, I would have to say that I have had better, but it wasn't by any stretch bad.
Finished up the evening with a trip to a local ice cream establishment, Cool Moon, with a myriad of pretty incredible flavors. Sampled a lemon hefeweizen, ginger cookies and cream (Tia's choice), lavender lemon, and thai chili spice with cashews (my choice). I have to say that I have NEVER had anything like it. It was cool and sweet initially, with a significant background heat, but not excessive. It lingered, but didn't send you running for water. The cashews added a nice textural and flavor component as well. Overall quite excellent. Tia's was more or less standard sweet, but with a mild, not overpowering, ginger kick. Very refreshing. Big thumbs up.
In our scant 2 weeks here (has it been that long already?) we have eaten at 4 local establishments. There are many more to try of course, but that is limited by my (and Tia's) general food frugality. It is hard to want to drop $60+ on a meal out for two very frequently, so a lot of restaurants are kind of out to begin with.
Lets start with our very local neighborhood brew pub: Bridgeport. Happy hours x 2. For $20 (including tip) we had a brick oven cheese pizza, a spinach artichoke dip, and two drinks. Not too shabby and, most notably, the food is quite good.....especially for bar eats. The pizza has a nice char on it and the spinach dip is plentiful, gooey, cheesy and the chips are warm and crunchy with just enough salt. Have had both items twice and the quality seems consistent. Of lesser success were the nachos, which like many nachos fails to deliver the heat and ALWAYS look and smell better than they taste. Still, it is a screaming deal at $6 for a mountain of calories. The catfish bites were also just mediocre. A nice crisp on the outside and a little bite to the dipping sauce, but lacking in overall flavor. Great beer btw.........and at $2.75 a pint during HH, worth every penny!
Last week we were wondering around hungry with no real direction other than we didn't want to drop a lot of coin (no easy feat in the Pearl) and we happened on the local Hawaiian place: Hawaiian Time. Certainly nothing to look at, and the location gets a lot of car traffic, but it isnt exactly a pretty place to sit outside of to eat. But, for what it is, it isn't bad. I would eat there again, which says something. I thought the food was plentiful (copious actually) and reasonably priced ($8 for a regular sized plate........I am fearful of seeing what the large plate looks like). But, you have to kind of be in the mood for that kind of food since it is SO carb heavy (2 scoops white rice and macaroni salad) and meat heavy. Not for the slim of waistline. Was a bit disappointed that they offered no fish option (I prefer the mix plates when I eat Hawaiian food), but the meat offers were solid and well seasoned if a little on the tame side (they do have Siracha though, bonus for that).
Stopped at Silk, the upscale Vietnamese restaurant by the owners of Pho Van last night. It was a very trendy, somewhat loud place that was full, but able to accommodate a table of three at 7:30 on a Friday. It is more expensive than eating at Pho Van but, depending on what you order, not that much more. 3 people with a non-alcoholic drink each, one shared appetizer, and 3 main courses for about $46 is, I think, not unreasonable. The salad roll appetizer was good, if a bit small. Was very fresh and cool, but the sauce was a little strong on peanut flavor and was all sweet with no counterbalance (would have worked better if the rolls were spicy). The vermicelli bowls were both ample in size and proffered up a fair amount of meat and fresh veggies. The vegetarian curry was a bit less successful and a bit one-note in flavor. Had to ask for Siracha which improved my meal significantly. Overall, I would have to say that I have had better, but it wasn't by any stretch bad.
Finished up the evening with a trip to a local ice cream establishment, Cool Moon, with a myriad of pretty incredible flavors. Sampled a lemon hefeweizen, ginger cookies and cream (Tia's choice), lavender lemon, and thai chili spice with cashews (my choice). I have to say that I have NEVER had anything like it. It was cool and sweet initially, with a significant background heat, but not excessive. It lingered, but didn't send you running for water. The cashews added a nice textural and flavor component as well. Overall quite excellent. Tia's was more or less standard sweet, but with a mild, not overpowering, ginger kick. Very refreshing. Big thumbs up.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
pros and cons
Week 1 is in the books. We are now hip urbanites replete with skinny jeans, throwback kicks, and tiny dogs that fit inside a handbag. Or, pretty much the same. I think perhaps the latter.
So far I have to say there are distinct pros and cons to living down here and relying on one car. On the upside, I have not really needed a car. I walk to work. I walk to the grocery store. I walk to go out to eat. I walk to the farmer's market. I can pretty much get anywhere I need to get to regularly on foot. That is super exciting. I would give myself an environmental pat on the back were I doing it for that reason (I will give myself a small pat anyway). Honestly, the bigger impact may be from moving to a smaller place that includes far less need to air condition, heat, or maintain in general. The con is that it is hard when you just want to hop in the car and go somewhere...but the other person is using it. You end up tag-teaming a lot of errands. By and large it is not a problem.
Space: On the pro side, we cleaned it today in less than a few hours (which included putting the rest of our things away). The place has all the necessities (w/d, dishwasher, disposal, semi-large tub) as well as a few perks like the gym, outdoor common space and private wine cellar. The con is that it is pretty tight quarters and it has taken some finesse to get our diminished belongings in here. Perhaps it might be a sign that we may be able to reduce even further if we don't find ourselves in need of our stored belongings throughout our tenure here.
Overall, I am feeling far more pro than con thus far because it is far less to deal with, no commute, and less expensive to boot. Updates pending of course.
I want to write more (honestly) but I am already petering out. More to come.
So far I have to say there are distinct pros and cons to living down here and relying on one car. On the upside, I have not really needed a car. I walk to work. I walk to the grocery store. I walk to go out to eat. I walk to the farmer's market. I can pretty much get anywhere I need to get to regularly on foot. That is super exciting. I would give myself an environmental pat on the back were I doing it for that reason (I will give myself a small pat anyway). Honestly, the bigger impact may be from moving to a smaller place that includes far less need to air condition, heat, or maintain in general. The con is that it is hard when you just want to hop in the car and go somewhere...but the other person is using it. You end up tag-teaming a lot of errands. By and large it is not a problem.
Space: On the pro side, we cleaned it today in less than a few hours (which included putting the rest of our things away). The place has all the necessities (w/d, dishwasher, disposal, semi-large tub) as well as a few perks like the gym, outdoor common space and private wine cellar. The con is that it is pretty tight quarters and it has taken some finesse to get our diminished belongings in here. Perhaps it might be a sign that we may be able to reduce even further if we don't find ourselves in need of our stored belongings throughout our tenure here.
Overall, I am feeling far more pro than con thus far because it is far less to deal with, no commute, and less expensive to boot. Updates pending of course.
I want to write more (honestly) but I am already petering out. More to come.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
a few days later
Well, things are finally settling. We are here.......officially unpacked and all but the littlest ticky-tack things to put away and art that needs to be unwrapped and hung. I suspect that will be complete by the end of the week. Honestly, I didn't know if we could do it. Even with all our paring down, we still had a room full of boxes and seemingly nowhere to put them. Thankfully a little creative storage does wonders and you wouldnt know we just crammed 2300 sq feet into 1100. It still feels odd, like we are spending a week in a hotel downtown on holiday. Or, it would if it weren't for all the unpacking and still having to show up at work anyway. I am sure we will get used to it and hopefully start enjoying the benefits of our new locale soon. So far, we are both much more happy with our respective commutes (they are about the same time wise as well, though my commute is now on foot). It is weird to be able to walk to the grocery and we just had a great happy hour with some friends less than a block away at a brew pub. Honestly, that is mind blowingly awesome! Plus, I literally roll out the door and stroll 8 blocks to my job. It is all so strange.
Work continues to be off kilter. They are looking to hire a new temp full time RN (which will be a huge help), but in the meantime it can still be quite tedious (though occasionally you can't help but be astounded by either peoples general lack of even the most rudimentary medical knowledge or the absurdity of the calls......one woman's caregiver called thinking maybe the patient ate her own wristwatch........what do you say to that?). Still tossing around looking for other jobs.....though the commute is finally tempting. So tempting.
Back to it then. This is day 1 of having the internet back after having to eat MAJOR crow with Comcast (who I now loathe after defending them for so long). We had to cancel our service and pay a penalty for doing so even though we only wanted to downgrade our service (and drop the phone). Because of where we live, we can't use satellite and other internet options require contracts (Clear wants 2 years). So, back to Comcast......after paying to cancel our bundle (though in our defense, that cost will be recouped in 3 months at the new service rate) and paying $60 for them to come install at the new place. They get our business by default. Seems like not the best model with which to rest your hat upon.
Time for bed. I hope to catch up on sleep this weekend. It seems like I never get enough and just generally ache all over. I will never move again! (uh, until next year anyway).
Work continues to be off kilter. They are looking to hire a new temp full time RN (which will be a huge help), but in the meantime it can still be quite tedious (though occasionally you can't help but be astounded by either peoples general lack of even the most rudimentary medical knowledge or the absurdity of the calls......one woman's caregiver called thinking maybe the patient ate her own wristwatch........what do you say to that?). Still tossing around looking for other jobs.....though the commute is finally tempting. So tempting.
Back to it then. This is day 1 of having the internet back after having to eat MAJOR crow with Comcast (who I now loathe after defending them for so long). We had to cancel our service and pay a penalty for doing so even though we only wanted to downgrade our service (and drop the phone). Because of where we live, we can't use satellite and other internet options require contracts (Clear wants 2 years). So, back to Comcast......after paying to cancel our bundle (though in our defense, that cost will be recouped in 3 months at the new service rate) and paying $60 for them to come install at the new place. They get our business by default. Seems like not the best model with which to rest your hat upon.
Time for bed. I hope to catch up on sleep this weekend. It seems like I never get enough and just generally ache all over. I will never move again! (uh, until next year anyway).
moving on up
At this point, it remains uncertain when we will get internet, but as I cannot sleep (and don’t wish to wake Tia) I will compile my thoughts in Word and transcribe them later.
What an intriguing (read: trying) last few weeks it has been. For as much as I like change, I can’t say I am thrilled with the process of getting there. The older I get (I would say more mature, but I am afraid I might get laughed off my own blog), the more stuff that peoples my existence. I have to say, most of it isn’t very nice stuff (a fact I noted more acutely when we were paying nearly $100/hr to have it hauled around). A $20 desk , a free to us TV stand (that was probably a hand me down), a few nicer pieces gotten from CL (which are becoming more and more battered with each move and hence less and less nice), and some Target furniture. I think, honestly, if our place were to burn down tomorrow (presuming all living things were safe), the only things that would sadden me would be losing our mattresses, laptops, and TV. That isn’t to say I would change anything about that presently. It is, after all, just stuff. It serves its purpose. However, I like to think that when we make our next big move, we will just start over. It is a might bit embarrassing to pay to move it after all J
In regards to moving, dear god in heaven what an effing mess! The movers (Thunder Movers…..you have been warned), evidently neglacted to place us on their moving docket for the day. So, when Tia called and asked whether they were coming (at 9:15……..just 15 minutes past when they were scheduled), the woman she spoke with, following a hasty ‘They’re on there way’ prior to even being told who was calling, finally admitted that she never did write us down on the schedule. She then told us she would call in some people and assured us that they would be to us by 11. At 11:30 we called and then were told that one person who said they would come in did not, but that another person would be coming in and they would be on their way, Skip ahead to 2:15 when they actually arrived…….5 hours and 15 minutes AFTER they were supposed to. Suffice to say a move that we had calculated would be over before the time it actually did, did not finish until nearly 8 at night. Thankfully (mercifully) no one else was scheduled to move in that day (you have to reserve the service elevator and loading area), Tia’s mom was off of work and graciously agreed to help out (which freed us up to do our house signing), and as a rare glass half full view presented here, they were able to get some movers to come in on their day off at all. The movers themselves were really pleasant and worked hard but what a damn shame about the company. Our third time using them and most assuredly our last.
House: well, that hasn’t been bumpy aside from our Realtor being less than stellar, but it was quite shocking to find out from our title company that we owed nearly $800 to close. It was shocking because the estimate (the one THEY provided) suggested we would get back nearly $1800. So, as far as the skill of estimating goes, I would say they have a pretty broad margin for error. Eventually we will get back about $1300 (or about $500 once you deduct our $800 outlay……which ought to just cover our moving expenses conveniently enough), but still you have to wonder why they bother with an estimate at all. They clearly haven’t learned the cardinal rule of business…..always ALWAYS underestimate. Had they told us we would have owed $1200 at close and then ONLY had to pay $800, we would have been relatively pleased (as pleased as one can be paying money for selling a house can be). Bah!
The job: so much to say both good and bad as it does undulate between the two so frequently.
Good: Learning a lot. Cannot explain how varied the maladies are, but they cast a wide net. It is almost like going back to nursing school and learning how to be an NP wrapped in one.
Staff is generally quite pleasant as are the doctors. A good mix also between male and female which is rare in health care.
Location is spectacular for wandering during lunch (and I get a real honest to god lunch).
Bad: The job itself can get quite tedious. It isn’t easy sitting on the phone all day staring at a monitor instead of real people. On the upside, most people are quite gracious and pleasant considering what they are going through. On the other hand, there are a handful who clearly just want meds of some kind and to NOT come in to be evaluated no matter what. And, dear god, there are a lot of UTIs in this town!
Five days a week is still an adjustment. The commute (thankfully a thing of the past) made it even harder. Leaving at 7:20 and getting home nearly 6 (with 45 minutes of bumper to bumper bookending the work day) did not make for a pleasant beginning or ending. Hopefully it will be better now.
Overall, I am trying to think of this coming week as a new slate and trying to start fresh. Give it a real eval now that I am nearby, done with the biggest outside work stress of selling the house and moving, and hopefully it will settle out. I am over my first hurdle (the training) and into the continiung process of learning all the details of how to do all the components of how I do the things I need to. The largest hurdle was that my trainer worked very differently than I do. That is hard to reconcile when they are staring over your shoulder while you work. I ALMOST walked out on Tuesday when, instead of doing what I prefer to do (finish each call out before moving to the next) she had me picking up one call after another only to try to notate them all later in the day. Not good. I was not a happy camper to say the least. I felt like I was doing a half-assed job and leaving out way to much info in my notes later on. Thankfully I talked to my supervisor and we all had a pow-wow the next day and things improved markedly (basically she stopped sitting over top of me). Come to find out she is not the most well liked individual because of her rather bruque manner and her my-way-is-the-only-way model. Of course, that isn’t to say she isn’t pleasant enough and a wonderful resource…she is both. I am just glad she isn’t sitting within spitting distance of me every afternoon.
As with any move, the move takes hours, and the packing and unpacking takes weeks. Best to get back to it. More to come.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)