snowmageddon! (randomness)

- No matter where you live people seem to be overly enamored with weather hyperbole. Every far flung forecast is prognosticated with the highest of high tech gadgetry and yet has the same accuracy as divination by throwing chicken bones or having your palm read. I am already getting emails at work warning of the upcoming snowpocalypse with somewhere between 3-5" possible (though not probable) coming our way this Thursday/Friday.......or perhaps 3-5 feet..............or likely nothing at all. Anyway, please freak out accordingly!

- Spent the entirety of the weekend without allergy medication because I was seeing the allergist on Monday for some possible testing. Only to find out today that we weren't going to be doing any such testing. Both because I didn't react all that well to it and because we would wait until late summer to start that sort of thing anyway. While I appreciated his candor and it was a valid discussion (allergy shots evidently only work about 3/4 of the time anyway.....a nugget I never heard in all my time working with an allergist), it would have been a valid discussion to have before the appointment too. I am now 100% certain that i am not taking antihistamines just because I think it makes me look cool. Evidently they do something. Now excuse me while I scratch my eyes out.

- Speaking of eye gouging, we have free HBO for 3 months for signing up with Comcast anew. Every once in awhile I consider paying for a cable channel. They have some pretty amazing shows (well, they win awards and all) and it would be a good way to catch up on movies. Then, we stay at a hotel with (insert premium channel here) and I think 'why would I pay good money to watch new releases 6 months after they come out and then be forced to re-watch them ad-nauseum because they rotate them less frequently than car tires. We are currently in a loop of Couples Retreat (which is actually as bad as the previews would have you believe) amongst other dreck. Boo!

- As a side bar: Vince Vaughn has to be on the Mt. Rushmore of actors who repeatedly play themselves and manage to get paid handsomely for it. He is exactly the same guy no matter what movie he is in. Others on the mountain would have to be Matthew Mcconaughey and Adam Sandler and possibly Jennifer Aniston. Kudos! I am sure they are crying over their artistic integrity all the way to the bank.

- Alright, I take back the last Boo! a little bit. I did just watch 500 days of Summer which was well cast, likable, quirky and peppered with interesting little diversions. Had it ended about 5 minutes before the ending which looked like it was tacked on to appease focus groups, I might have even recommended it. But, unfortunately, they used the previous 80+ minutes of good will as little more than kindling before setting the whole thing ablaze. Boo! again.

I was up before the sun today for my non-allergy testing. Sleep time starts now.

Wax on. Wax off. Ouch!

As one of the 'joys' of getting older, I have hair growing in places I don't want it to be, namely my back. Not 'is he wearing a sweater vest' amounts of hair, but enough that I don't like it. So, Tia thought it would be nice, before vacation, to have it forcibly ripped from my body by a sadist.......or, euphemistically, a waxing.

I don't consider myself tough. I do not get into fights. I am not outdoorsy. I don't like guns or other 'tough guy' symbols. I don't, however, consider myself meek either. Just somewhere between the two polarities. That said, I just about started weeping during the defoliation. Many hours later, my back still feels similar to the day after a sunburn. And to think that the waxing place offers a male 'Brazilian'. To imagine the back waxing in an exponentially more sensitive area gives me full body wracking chills. On the plus side, I suppose I am now far less hirsute. On the other hand, I think many many drinks would be required before doing that again. Now I know why they had a bottle of whiskey out in the lobby while you wait. I should have indulged!

More pleasantly, we had massages on Friday night after work. It is Tia's favorite place, Dragontree. I like it too, but I have to say the massages themselves were kind of disappointing this time. Every therapist has his/her own distinct style and it has to jibe with your own to be truly good. I like when it is almost painfully deep tissue. When you feel relaxed and loose after the massage more so than during. I have no preference on man or woman, straight gay or other doing the massage, it is all about the massage itself. That said, typically men will do more deep tissue. This time not so much. It was relaxing, but more about levels of pressure and not so much working out trouble spots. Kind of a bummer, but I don't know what you say in that situation. If they ask about pressure, you can tell them more or less, but this was clearly about style and, well, eh. I like the place enough to go back, but I will ask for someone else. Ah well, far worse ways to spend your Friday night though.

4 more days of work. So close to tropical drinks, oceans you can swim in and no actual schedules to follow!

Once more with dates

As of yesterday, they have finally corrected my payroll information. I know have the correct hours per day, pay rate, and supervisor listed. I also spoke with my supervisor and she is going to work with me on Monday to get reimbursed for the hours of pay I had incorrectly deducted. Additionally, my 'employee advocate' in HR is looking into my situation and, well, I won't hold my breath. But, at least if I fail there, it isn't because I did nothing at all. So, to surmise:

July 3rd, 2010 - Left IV dept and started in traige. Prior to this date, had conversation with former/current supervisor, JT, and agreed to stay on call.

December 15, 2010 - Find out about clinic job, speak with JT and decide to apply.

December 16, 2010 - Interview for job. Offered position that same evening.

December 17, 2010 - Accept position and turn in my 2 week notice.

December 31, 2010 - Employee change request submitted to HR, last day triage.

January 3, 2011 - First day IV clinic.

January 14, 2011 - Find out job not technically mine. Will have to be open to anyone in the department who wants it. If so, I am told I have no recourse.

January 21, 2011 - No one applies. Informed job is mine.........um, after it goes up internally.

January 27, 2011 - Job goes up internally............er, make that supposed to go up. HR neglects to do so.

February 4, 2011 - Job goes up internally. I apply for position as required.

February 11, 2011 - Check my application status. Coded as 'ineligible to transfer'. Contact JT who contacts HR and, lo and behold, call from HR. Position finally mine, well as of.......

February 13, 2011 - Now its official. After 6 weeks of actually working there.

You know the rest if you have been following: no pay increase, no retroactive pay, etc.

Vacation in 1 week. Need it badly. Hello Mexico!

Survey says

If you follow this blog, you are pretty well up to date on the work saga, but as with any good plot, there is a twist at the end. Of course they re-posted the job internally even though they had no intention of filling it with anyone but me (or so I am told anyway.....hard to know what to believe anymore). So, yesterday I was checking my app status and it, shockingly (surprisingly I am still able to be shocked by the level of ineptitude there. I am sure that I will eventually become numb to it) it informed me that I was 'ineligible for transfer'. Of course I flipped out and contacted J who, in turn, contacted HR. Someone there bumped me out because I had only been doing triage for 6 months and you need a year to transfer and, long story short, they finally, as of yesterday afternoon, officially offered me the job. Yeah!

However, just as I thought, I am getting screwed over regarding the past 6 weeks where I have been working but not 'officially' employed. They have been deducting 60mins daily for lunch because I used to get an hour long lunch doing triage, although I am only getting 30mins now (if that). I was out 2 days for the move...............so technically I am due 14 hours that I worked but am not getting paid for. Those will supposedly be fixed (fingers crossed) per J. I am hopeful that she will get that fixed, though certainly not confident. It would mean about $450.

Additionally, I was supposed to get a pay bump of $2.84/hr by going back to inpatient. Multiply that by 240 total hours worked in the 6 weeks, and you have a pretty substantial $680. That evidently will not be paid to me because I wont 'officially' be hired until Sunday and they cannot back pay that (this is per HR, not J). So, I will be back to my inpatient pay rate on Monday, but I can't recoup the money I would have had even though I was doing the job already.

Further, I was supposed to get my annual review next month and whatever increase comes with that. However, again per HR, now that wont be until February of next year because they are saying that I accepted a 'promotion' by going back to inpatient and resuming my former pay rate. I knew I took a pay cut going to do triage, but I never considered it a demotion. It isn't like you have to have any less education or experience to do either job or that they would have hired me with an LPN or something. So, I am also losing out on an entire year's worth of whatever my raise would have been (I am sure not terribly much, but still). So, some major good news mixed with some total BS.

Suffice to say, I will be trying to further contact HR and see if I can get anywhere with my grievance, but I also don't hold much hope that it will be fixed since it will cost the hospital money and that isn't something they are keen on. Frustrating, but finally resolved. The good news is that I had just 1 patient on Friday and I sat and read the paper instead of leaving to get at least some money back :)

Ultimately, there aren't a lot of options out there and I am happy to have a job, but I still have a hard time understanding why some piece of paperwork that didn't get submitted somewhere along the line could cause so much havoc, despite the intentions of my supervisor being very clear. No one, of course, wants to take any responsibility (blame) for it.

Vacation in 2 weeks. Need it ASAP.

Still not hired

Well, I am not officially at least an applicant for my own job, which is a step up (I guess). In theory, tomorrow ought to be the last day it is posted (or possibly Friday) and then I am assuming I might get hired. What a boon it will be! Finally hired to do the job I have been doing and erroneously thought was mine to begin with. Of course until it is official, I won't count on it.

In other news, I haven't moved to a new place since the last post! To some this might be a fairly trite to some, but staying in one place for better than 10 days is cause for celebration, albeit minor. We are fully unpacked and starting to learn the roses and thorns of the place.

Roses:
- Bedroom on a different level than the living room/kitchen. It just feels more spacious.
- The kitchen really is a nice size and it is good having a table again.
- I like not having to wait for the elevator to go up one story.
- No more (at least obvious) mold.

Thorns:
- The wall separating the units is not sound proof enough. Everything seems to filter through.
- Same neighbors big loud barking dog (thankfully not at weird hours or in prolonged bursts)
- We mis-guessed the size of our king bed and the size of the bedroom. A lot of shimmying/crab-walking to get out of the bed

Other than that, it is just like most other places I have lived...........just okay. Will probably be re-evaluating it once the lease nears expiration (god help me).

Speaking of living places, I found out an odd fact about this place...........it was sold in separate units, and for a lot more than I thought. Each unit, per Zillow, is roughly equivalent in size at about 1000 sq feet. Each unit also sold for better than $200K. All together, it is about a $700K property. I am honestly incredulous. If this was the Price is Right, I would have seriously underbid and lost the showcase showdown. I will NEVER understand property values here. If pressed I would have guessed maybe $450K for the whole thing. Exactly why it is incredibly unlikely I would ever buy anything here (again).

Clinic is getting more rote, but continues to mystify in some ways. I still have to turn away patients because I am unable to get the appropriate staffing and, concurrently, I wonder if I should be concerned about it or just accept it and move on. I know I cannot accommodate everyone, for instance I lost one patient because the GS clinic opens at 8 and she needed earlier (we open at 9), but it seems weird that I have to say no to patients because I can't get a second nurse for an hour (you need to have 2 nurses for infusions and the wound nurses I work with leave at 4:30).

It is more or less about clarification of parameters. If I know that they are unlikely to get me help ever and that I just need to use my judgment to determine it, than I will. But I hate playing 'let me call such and so and see if there is any way that I might get help and then call you back' only to have to call back and ostensibly say no or put such weird parameters on my request that I am all but saying no. It is especially frustrating because I know that the clinic is a direct conduit to money for our department. IV starts are not (the money goes to the floor and is part of what you pay for in a lump sum under your hospital stay). So, logically, you would think you would divert help to where the revenue is. Again, for my part, I just want to know that it is okay to tell people to go elsewhere and not think/believe that this is going to bite me in the ass down the road.

Back to dreaming about vacation. Just about 2 weeks to go.

on the move

I have been trying to find the time and the energy to post about the move, but have been either too occupied or too exhausted to manage it. As I type this, it is debatable how far I will get before giving up and picking it up another day.

Well, the move was like many (or any) other moves we have made. On the plus side, the movers were as good as advertised (Willamette Valley Moving). They were quick, professional, and efficient. They had us out of the apartment and into the, er, townhome, in under 5 hours. Not too shabby considering the incredible about of narrow stairs. The clean up process on the other side also went very well and we will be getting our full deposit back (which is good because there was a LOT of mold under the couch and in the windowsills.........we probably should have had them pay to move us). Plus, Tia's mom Diane was there to help unpack, etc which was a huge help on an already stressful day.

The minus side...........well, lets just say the previous residents did not do us any favors. I spent all of Tuesday cleaning (mostly just the kitchen) which involved removing a thick layer of filth from inside and on top of the stove and sticky grease just about everywhere else. It rather disgusts me that they opted to live like that in the first place. The previous owners were supposed to be out on Sunday night and the place was supposed to be empty by Sunday afternoon.............but that did not really happen. Ended up bumping the cleaners to Monday morning and our movers were there by Monday at noon. Hence, not a lot of cleaning was done.

Also, we failed in our attempt to get away from cable and into satellite TV. Direct TV showed up to install and then, once they determined we were renting wanted to get signed permission from our property owner (something that they should have asked for when we signed up if that was necessary) and would not accept a verbal. This despite there already being a dish up for a neighbor. Anyway, the tech evidently called in to his supervisor and then they called me to find out if they 'wanted us to reschedule' at which point I said 'you can effing pack up and go. we will be taking our business elsewhere' and hung up. So, back to cable and certainly cross Direct TV off my list of options in the future.

Other than that, we are inching closer to what we want the place to be. Of course it is a little smaller than we thought initially and things are a little tighter, but it will eventually be organized and more livable than at present.

One interesting work aside: Lisa came to help me in the clinic today (We used to work together at the Park and she is now working on call only. She is an outstanding clinician though, knows the minutia of the minutia. I am eminently more qualified to work the clinic than a lot of my peers, but among the few in my department who have done so longer and would do so better would assuredly include Lisa. Honestly, if she had applied for my position, I think she would have gotten it hands down but, thankfully, she has no interest in doing so). Anyway, it is amazing how much more productive 2 nurses can be. I can still hope that might end up being the case eventually, though I won't hold my breath (which incidentally I often have to do working in a small office with wound care..........it honestly smells like burning tires and excrement when they work with some of their patients). Lisa was telling me that KB (a former supervisor who is probably the most knowledgeable about the clinic of anyone in our department) told her yesterday that she 'didn't feel comfortable' working in the clinic by herself. What the eff?!?! How in the world should anyone else 'feel comfortable' doing so if not her? I am so much happier than I was doing triage, but it is becoming more and more evident that it isn't exactly a coveted spot.

Ah well. Time for bed.