Reflections

April Reflections 2025

Karen

One of these days, I’ll actually catch up to these Reflections’ entries. I really want to finish these because they’re an extension/expansion of the daily journal I write in. I have to say, it’s pretty fun to go back and read my journal. I will likely never read it again.

Apr 1

I’m looking forward to taking two weeks off next month. Still no word about my co-worker leaving – when is her last day? What is the plan after she leaves? But let’s be honest – my job is okay, and I even enjoy it, but our management team is a little like a Tom/Jerry cartoon – pure chaos. We’ll see. Kevin and I looked into Viking Cruises. I know I sound like a spoiled brat saying this, but we’re, (okay, me), sort of bored with “traditional” cruises. We’ve taken … close to 20 – Kevin is likely closer to 20 than me, he’s taken a cruise with LeRoy and the boys without me before, but we’re ready for something different. A Viking cruise is on our bucket list – but geez louise, they’re expensive.

Apr 2

Word is management is thinking of turning our group into precert/call center. WTH? On one hand, I get it. We are the middle man between the patient and registration – we run the tests, update the documents and registration has to call the patients to reschedule/cancel depending on our results. I’m sure registration gets yelled at – they work with the public after all. But part of the biggest reason I wanted this remote job was so that I WOULDN’T have to talk to people. I had had enough of that working in a Neurosurgery clinic for 12 years. I’m DONE with that. I’m ticked, not gonna lie. I don’t see how in the world we can get our work done if we’re constantly being interrupted by ringing phones. The insurance portals we work out of are timed, so .. I’m in the middle of a case, my phone rings, it’s a patient, I time out of the portal on a case I’m in the middle of, the case goes to pending and suddenly I’m having to get the provider involved because I couldn’t finish before it timed out? Um, no, I don’t think so. If anything, let’s put some sort of chat feature together that patients can reach out to find out if their insurance has approved their tests – I would be down with that option. But calm down, Karen, it’s only a rumor, let’s see how this shakes out.

Apr 3

Our new luggage is here! Our new luggage is here! It’s hard shell. We’ve never had hard shell before – it’s always been the soft cloth luggage. It’s so pretty! It’s blue, but a dark blue, like a purple blue. When I picked up the box, I got worried – it was so heavy! My first thought was, “oh no, I’m going to have to stress about how heavy this ends up being.” But once I opened the box and took out all three pieces, I wasn’t that worried anymore. They were all pretty light weight. I’m excited to use it! We haven’t bought new luggage in forever and the luggage we currently use is still fine, but the wheels are wonky and again, I don’t want to have to stress about my luggage while mom and I run through airports to make our connecting flights. (Gosh – I hope that doesn’t happen). Since they’re such a common color though, I’m thinking about buying luggage bands. We’ll see. I’ve been having a BLAST watching travel/pack videos and shopping for neat don’t-really-need-but-are-cool travel items on Amazon.

Apr 5

It poured today! We’ve had so much rain these past three days. It was chilly, too, so mom wanted to go to Wendy’s for some chili. They still have the best chili, in my opinion. We ate inside and there were two homeless guys near us who literally had their belongs sprawled across several tables. One was asleep and snoring. Mom and I got nervous and kept our purses close. The manager finally came out and told them to leave. I’m sure they were taking shelter from the rain and my heart goes out to them, but also, life is full of choices, some good, some bad, but ultimately, all have consequences. Mom and I talked about our cruise and what shore excursions we wanted to take. They’re booking up fast! I need to get a move on and book them before all of the good ones are taken. Mom doesn’t really care, she trusts me to just pick them. Gah – I’m nervous now. lol

Apr 7

Bit the bullet and booked our shore excursions yesterday! Ended up spending about $600, which YIKES. We happen to be taking one of the most expensive cruises available, (Alaska – Hawaii is also expensive), but it will be SO WORTH IT. Alaska is GORGEOUS! Kevin and I went several years ago. I’d like to go back again with Kevin one of these days. I was able to cash in $250 dollar ship credit though so it brought the cost of the excursions down by nearly half, so that was a nice perk. Booked the times for afternoon because Kevin and I have done all early morning excursions before and it was exhausting! Want to have fun but don’t want to wear mom (or me – mom is in better shape than me, truth be told), out too much. I’m so excited for this cruise!

Apr 8

Feeling a little guilty about how much money I’ve been spending for this cruise. But I really want to take this trip – who knows if I ever get to do something like this with my mom again, so the money is worth it. Its only money, right?? You live once, right?? There are a few more things I want to buy before the trip but I need to stretch this out, let the pocketbook cool off a bit. I’m getting my hair done soon – crap – there goes another $100.

Apr 9

Kevin wants to keep the Jeep.

(That’s our oldest son sitting in it)

I have a feeling I may have to fight him a little bit on that. I mean, don’t get me wrong, driving a Jeep Wrangler is super fun .. and the whole Jeep community is pretty great, too, (doing the lazy finger lift to wave at passing Jeeps is always fun), but WOW, this little beauty is expensive. Like, stupid expensive. And we’re leasing … oh, for SOO many reasons. This is our first time leasing but we’ll likely continue to lease for the foreseeable future. There are pros/cons, but it’s worth it to us to have a car that is reliable and if it needs anything, we can just take it to the dealer and have it fixed. Cars are so complicated anymore – it’s not like we can go down to O’Reilly’s and grab a spare part. The Jeep has SIX computers. Dude. However – we DO need to take some road trips before we turn her, (yes, she’s a she), back in April 2028.

Apr 10

Had an impromptu meeting with my supervisor today. She didn’t sugar coat it – she flat out said that we have to continue cleaning up other people’s crap, i.e. work other people’s messy, sloppy cases and if I didn’t like it, perhaps I need to go to another group. Well, alrighty then. I appreciated her honesty, at least. Now I know what to expect. I have some thinking to do, I suppose. I most likely just need to cool my jets and stop being a brat. Overall, I like this job. I LOVE being remote and I know I’m good at what I do. This is a big con, but it’s not a deal breaker for me. At least, not yet.

Apr 11

Had the day off today. No reason, really. I take random Fridays off here/there just to recharge my mental health. I hate when people talk about mental health, I feel like it’s a lot of woo-woo talk from crazy, sensitive boneheads, (I’m a Gen X’er – need I say more?), but honestly, it IS a thing. It’s mentally exhausting to juggle so many duties, personalities, carry the entire group on my shoulders, just call me Atlas. Didn’t really have anything planned – I went ahead and got on the treadmill this morning like usual, (I try and walk at least three times during the workweek since I sit on my butt all day, every day). I typically walk about one hour each time while I listen to trance music, (hey don’t laugh – it’s energetic and gets me revved up), and watch Asian made-for-TV shows on Amazon Prime. I like to read the sub-titles because it distracts me so much from the treadmill. Kevin and I made our monthly trip to Wal-Mart, (he HATES going to Wal-Mart so we try and only go once a month), and while I was doing research, dotting my i’s and crossing my t’s on the Royal Caribbean site, I noticed that I had listed mom’s name as Barb on our tickets but her full legal name is Barbara. I am SO GLAD that I thought to look further into that because if her name doesn’t match what’s on her passport, they might not let her board. OMG – so I called Royal Caribbean and got that changed. Thank GOD they didn’t give me any trouble over that. Wow … I’m an idiot. I just want this trip to go smoothly.

Apr 12

Mom came over today. I’ve been recording our conversations when we talk to my sister on Google Meet. The last one I recorded was May 2024. I need to get back to it. I know she hates it, and it does feel a little awkward at first, until you forget the camera and the ring light are in your face, but I’m doing it on purpose with purpose. Mom talks about listening to the cassette tapes her, her mom and sisters would send to each other when she lived outside our home town. They were audio letters to each other and I think that’s so cool. To be able to listen to each other talk, hear their voices (they’re all gone now) .. what a cool memory. So, I thought I would do that with mom but put her on camera as well. I want see and hear my momma after she passes. My dad dying – it’s made me super sensitive to death and appreciating life while we still have it. Gave mom an invoice of her financial share of the cruise – yeah – it was a lot. But it will be so WORTH IT!

Apr 14

Got my hand virtually slapped today. I was basically told to sit down and shut up, in a manager-ish sort of way. You know the manager talk – a lot of words, don’t really say anything. I was told that being handed a virtual mop and bucket was now part of my job and that it’s. Stop bitching about it. This asinine decision has come from higher management (doesn’t it always?) and my immediate bosses can’t do anything about it. My immediate bosses are actually pretty great, I truly like them, and I get it, if you don’t have the power, if you want to keep your job, you continue to smile, nod and take it up the butt. Fine. I’ll just continue to get overtime, I guess. I truly don’t mind working so much, I like those numbers on my paycheck, but it’s the principle of it. When you are asked to clean up other people’s messes, that naturally trickles down to people don’t care to do a good job, because why? When people know someone else is going to clean it up, and there’s no accountability, why? But whatever – I’ll accept my destiny – for now.

Apr 15

Mom got a surprise visit from her great granddaughter! H was in town with her class to go to the Discovery Center and H’s mom decided to drop by and say hello. F is a good person, and is always thinking of my mom. Mom was SO happy to see them. Warms my heart.

Apr 16

Blake sent Kevin a picture – of an ant attack in their bathroom. There is probably one in the kitchen, too. What do you expect from a bachelor pad? (Though – some women are pretty nasty, too), I hate to see it, but also, maybe this will be a motivation for them to keep their house clean. There is also nothing more jarring than stumbling into the bathroom first thing, pulling back the shower curtain only to waken with a jolt when you see a spider in the tub desperately trying to crawl out. Ah Spring, how I hate thee.

Apr 17

Booked Mama Mia tickets to the Alamo for Mother’s Day. I booked three tickets since my sister mentioned she might come down. Even if she doesn’t, that’s okay, I would rather have a ticket than not. I’m excited for mom to have that dinner/movie experience.

Apr 18

Got a ton of overtime this week. I was working two people’s jobs since my co-worker was out on vacation. Should be a pretty decent check.

Apr 19

Went to moms. Had lunch at McAlisters then back to her house for Survivor, crafting and talking to sis. I think mom is starting to come back to the land of living since dad died. She’s been walking around in a shocked daze since he passed. It’s good to see. I was truly worried about her.

Apr 20

Easter! Mom came over and she put a scavenger hunt together – we all participated. Brandon got all of the items first. We had flying saucers for dinner, (fried tortilla shells topped with hamburger meat, pinto beans and all the taco trimmings), then played three rounds of Sequence. We love that game. We decided to get together in the evening to make it easier for Blake to be there since he’s been working nights.

Apr 21

Sun was out but it’s been wet and windy so far this Spring. Kevin and I feel like characters out of the Wizard of Oz, walking through the poppies – the tree pollen pretty much knocks us out. Kev comes home and just collapses in his recliner because the pollen makes him so sleepy. Both of us. I have more of a problem with Ragweed in the Fall but when the temps drastically change – like 30 to 40 degree difference IN ONE DAY, my sinuses squeeze so much they trigger massive headaches. Not fun. Did I mention I hate Spring?

Apr 22

Had a department meeting today to talk about communication. Or the lack thereof. Because we’ve been asked to clean up other people’s messy cases, when we run into a problem and contact that analyst abut it, she gets butt hurt, complains to management and management comes back and says, “Now, now, we are not asking you to audit your peers …” Um – bitch- that’s EXACTLY what you’re asking!! If someone is consistently making mistakes, we’re not supposed to say something? What about “learning opportunities” as management likes to call it. The meeting pissed me off so much I “lost connection” and left the meeting. I’ve never done that before but I knew if I didn’t exit the situation, I may not have a job tomorrow.

Apr 23

Shit show today. I worked a 12-hour shift because one of my co-workers left early and the other one had to leave unexpectedly due to family issues. That left me with useless chatty Cathy. I ended up doing all the work and of course, it was a one step forward, two-step backward sort of day. I was mentally exhausted when I finally clocked off. I have so much overtime right now – and it’s only Wednesday!

Apr 24

Mom gave me a check for her portion of the cruise, Seattle hotel room, excursions … yikes – it was a lot of money. I pray everything goes smoothly. I want mom to enjoy herself. For this much money, we better enjoy ourselves!

Apr 25

My pissy attitude and mouthing off is starting to affect the team. I think they’re over it, and me. So – I need to just shut up, keep my suggestions to myself and do my work. Why am I trying to make sense out of something that doesn’t make sense? I’m driving myself crazy, and from the sounds of it, I’m driving my co-workers nuts, too. A blast went out today giving people permission to work this weekend and get overtime. Here’s a thought – why not have everyone do their own damn work and then there wouldn’t be a need to ask people to work overtime. Oops – there I go again, making a suggestion. AARGH.

Apr 26

Mom came over. We ate at Zaxby’s. We were both disappointed with the quality of food. This was our second time going and we just aren’t impressed enough to go back again, I think. We bought some cookies at Crumbl Cookie for our treat – OMG – they are so good but SO EXPENSIVE. We bought four cookies for $20!! However – technically, the cookies are big enough they are really two cookies in one. We split the cookies we bought. We got Raspberry cheescake, Reese’s peanut butter, chocolate chip, and double layer carrot cake. Filmed mom talking – it was a nice chat.

Apr 28

Book sale at the library is on Wednesday. I would love to go – I used to LIVE for those sales. So many cheap books. I love the smell of books, the comradery of being around other people who also love books, not that I talk to anyone, but still … Kevin wasn’t really interested in books for a long time, but he’s getting back into reading and really loves buying non-fiction books for dirt cheap when he’s out looking for inventory for his thrift market booths. But now, I don’t go to book sales. I don’t buy physical books anymore. It’s all e-books. I know this is a controversial topic – physical books or e-books – but I’m in the e-book category. I love that I can carry so many books in one device and not have to find room to store a physical book and/or think about how I’m going to get rid of my excess books. Even though I don’t buy physical books anymore, I do sort of miss going to the book sale.

Apr 29

Tornado sirens went off at 9:00 this AM. Lights flickered but didn’t go out. I’m surprised, we usually lose our power whenever someone sneezes. It got pitch black and very still .. it was kind of scary. So I shut my computer down and Kev called me to ask if I wanted to come over to the rental house, (which is across the street) to go into the basement. I didn’t end up going over there. Kev’s dad was over at the house, he was watching him while his mom participated in her Bible study class. His dad is declining fast. He gets around okay, but he forgets things so it’s really not safe for him to be unsupervised for any length of time. But that’s okay, Kevin enjoys spending time with his dad. We ended up losing a few limbs, (shocker – our trees drop limbs at the slightest breeze), but overall, it wasn’t bad and we didn’t have to take cover.

Apr 30

Well, 50,000 people lost power in our city yesterday and are still out today. I feel bad for not thinking it was very bad – it wasn’t bad for us. I was also shocked because our neighborhood is usually one of the first to lose power, and we didn’t this time. In fact, we lose power so much Kevin and I have talked about investing in a home generator. So that if we lose power, the generator automatically kicks in and is powerful enough to power everything in our house. I would love to have one of those, but they are EXPENSIVE. And though we lose power frequently, I’m not sure we lose it enough to justify paying for a home generator. I left the house to grab some lunch and again was shocked to see a few of our neighbors’ trees had exploded in their yards. Luckily, it didn’t look like it hit their houses, so thank goodness for that. We really did get off lucky. (Not luck – God protected us). According to the city map, it looked like mom was out of power but she said she hadn’t lost it when I checked on her. Thank goodness. Did I mention I hate this time of year?

Wordy Wednesday

Wordy Wednesday: Grown Up

Karen

Our “baby” turned 31 this month.

I’m sorry – what?! Wouldn’t that make me and Kevin …….. OLD?!?

Seriously. How does this even happen? I look at him and still see my chubby, restless, blonde cherub.

He was 8 lb, 8 oz big when he was born. I could barely push his overly big head out. I would push and push and push and the little booger would slip back in once I took a breath.

Little stinker.

Once he was born, he didn’t make much noise and we worried about him for a little bit. But once he got the gunk out of his lungs … he CRIED. Boy has a strong set of lungs on him.

He was the kind of kid that when he got tired, NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING would distract him from sleep. He wouldn’t take a pacifier, but he wanted his blankie, he was my Linus baby.

He hated to dress up in costumes, like Halloween. He didn’t (and still doesn’t) like candy and then forcing him to participate in a holiday where you get candy … yeah – we tortured the kid.

We found this board in the back of his closet. In his old bedroom. Where he hasn’t slept in over 10 years.

This was for a school project.

(See the picture of him dressed up as a soldier? I told him to look mean but he was CLEARLY annoyed – haha!)

And that picture of him with his blankie? I still and will forever, see that face whenever I look at him.

We have truly been blessed with some great boys.

Who have become some pretty awesome people.

At the Moment, Weekend Tale

Neighborhood Showdown

Karen

Remember the days when you could leave your front door unlocked?

Or walk away from your car confident it would still be there when you exited the store?

Or didn’t have to worry if someone would steal your mail – or if it would even be delivered to you and not your neighbors? (An ongoing problem with us right now).

Remember when people were neighborly? Friendly? Smiled?

I’m not saying our neighbors are jack holes – not at all – we have a lot of really nice neighbors. Kevin has made an effort, through LeRoy, because LeRoy will talk to anyone and everyone, (Kevin’s special-needs uncle), to get to know our neighbors. He can point to practically any house and tell you the names of our neighbors.

I, however, have no idea who lives where or who anyone is. I’m that neighbor – not very neighborly. I’m not rude, I’m never rude for the sake of being rude, (I’m not a KAREN after all – that’s said with tongue-in-cheek and meant as sarcastic), but I don’t go out of my way to get to know anyone, either. I like keeping most people at arm’s length. I’ve always been that way. Not just with neighbors, with co-workers, with family – I’m just a person who likes her space and the freedom to do what she wants, when she wants, without the interruption, (for the lack of a better term), of disrupting my life for someone else.

I know I’m not painting a very flattering picture of myself, but I’m just keeping it real. I’m friendly, funny, helpful and loyal, but on my terms.

But I digress, (as usual).

Everyone, to my limited knowledge, gets along in our neighborhood. Everyone seems to be pretty respectful, keeps their houses/lawns nice, smiles, nods/waves whenever we see each other, but there are always those bad apples.

We have a father/son duo who like noisy cars. It all started with the 16-ish year-old son. At least, he was the first to get my attention. Every day, you could set your watch to it, he would leave for school at 8:20 and come back from school at 3:30. You could hear his car coming for 1/2 mile. He not only has one of those highly annoying muscle car mufflers, but he has some sort of “glass thingie”, I don’t know, Kevin explained it to me but …

::blank stare – shrug::

This thing sort of detonates as the kid lets off the gas. It explodes and pops and it’s super loud. If that weren’t bad enough, in addition to him leaving and coming home from school every day, he also drives up and down our neighborhood multiple times a day so it feels like we hear his car, all. day. long.

We live on a corner lot. So, there is a stop sign at the corner and this punk has to slow down and roll through the stop sign. But that’s okay, you see, because this just gives him an excuse to rev his engine and take off with a roar, a pop and an explosion.

At all hours of the night. I don’t know if the kid is just bored, if he works as a Door Dash delivery guy, or what, but he drives back and forth, back and forth, multiple times a night.

It’s gotten so bad, that some of the younger dads in the neighborhood have confronted the punk’s dad. Kevin, or LeRoy, maybe both, have witnessed these confrontations and they are ugly. Everyone is yelling, cursing and acting all alpha male but the dad simply yells, curses right back at these guys, doesn’t apologize, nothing.

In fact, one day, the punk drove by and a pickup truck, just as loud and obnoxious, was right on his tail. I looked to Kevin and said in a sarcastic tone of voice, “Oh look, the piss-ant made a friend.” Come to find out, it was the piss-ant’s DAD.

What the actual …. ::bleep::

Apple didn’t far too far from that jerk tree, did it.

I’m not mad at the kid, he’s just following in his father’s footsteps, I’m sure good old dad is egging him on. No, it’s dad’s fault. Hands down. For not teaching his kid some manners, some courtesy, some respect.

This roar, pop, explosion, grinding went on for weeks. Neighbors called the cops on him. But the cops couldn’t do anything, he wasn’t breaking a law. I even saw a motorcycle cop hanging out around our corner one day, I think to try and catch this punk rolling through a stop sign or something, but father/son got word there was a cop hanging around and though they were still noisy, the punk didn’t speed through the neighborhood and he stopped at the stop sign. Again, this only helped him because then he would gun his car and make even more noise.

It annoyed me at first, then I got used to it. Whatever. The kid clearly wanted attention, he wasn’t getting it from me.

But we don’t have littles at home. And a lot of my neighbors do. And his driving through the neighborhood at 9:00 at night was waking up those littles.

And the neighbors continued to fume.

Then, one day, as dad was driving down the street, they flagged him down. I don’t know how they flagged him down, did they stand in the street so he couldn’t get around them? Did they pound on his truck so he stopped? I don’t know, but the guy stopped. The neighborhood guys started yelling, cursing at the guy and this time, they showed their concealed weapons.

Oh boy.

I’m all for the 2nd amendment. Everyone has a right to bear arms and protect themselves, however, I feel like the guys were close to crossing a line. I understand their frustration, but getting into a gun fight is not the answer.

I didn’t see any of this. I’m only hearing about this from Kevin who did see it. He was going to get involved, and then thought twice about it, especially after the neighborhood guys started showing off their firearms.

To be clear, the neighborhood guys were not pointing their guns at the dad. They didn’t even take the weapons out of their holsters, but them showing them to dad was a clear message: Stop messing with us.

After that?

Silence.

I guess whatever happened, whatever they said, or didn’t say, got to dad because I haven’t heard a peep out of father/son in over a week. I don’t know if they’re taking a different route, if they removed the noisy muffler thingies from their car or what, but the neighborhood is peaceful once again.

My takeaway?

If you’re a gun owner, don’t go showing it off in a threatening manner to jack holes, I get it, it’s tempting, but don’t open yourself up to a potentially deadly situation – but also – it’s good to have a gun because there ARE jack holes in this world – whether the Kumbaya folks want to admit it or not.

Don’t buy a car with super noisy mufflers. You’re not impressing anyone and everyone hates you. Save your money.

Also – can we teach our children to be respectful, decent human beings? Please? What happened to that? Why do people insist on being jerks? Your children are only reacting, imitating to what they see/hear.

Lead by example, parents.

Seriously.

Dear So-and-So, Politics

Orange Man – Jesus??

Karen

Sir – what in the Sam-Hill are you doing?!

Just posting this picture makes my butt cheeks clench.

Dear President Trump, Mr. Trump, Donald … may I call you Donald?

Have you lost your damn mind?!

I know there are some out there that are truly convinced you have. In fact, some are even saying you have Dementia. I snorted and scoffed when I heard that – do you remember how Biden mumbled, shuffled, tripped up the stairs, pooped his pants and had to be led off the stage?

But I digress. (I have decided that “but I digress” is now and from henceforth going to be my blog mantra).

When I first saw this, and then heard from Trump himself that he did indeed post it, I just shook my head. Do I think he think he’s Jesus? Of course not. Do I think the man thinks highly of himself? Absolutely. Should he have posted this? Definitely not. Was this in poor taste? Yes.

Everything about this makes me uncomfortable. Being a Christian myself, I feel like this does border on blasphemy. I don’t know why the man posted it, but I wish he hadn’t. I wish Trump would not say, do, or post a lot of stuff. But he does, because he’s a flawed human and has an overinflated ego.

He also has a sense of humor, if not a little warped.

He also does these type of things on purpose because he enjoys watching his haters’ heads explode.

He’s also a great President with huge cojones and the courage to tackle a lot of tough issues that need to be addressed. Americans have gotten so complacent and spoiled when it comes to overindulging and partaking of overinflated programs, perks and benefits. But nothing lasts forever and we’re running out of money. Someone HAS to be willing to be the bad guy, the tough parent, and make some tough decisions if we ever want this country to heal, be better and get back in the black.

But I digress …

I do not agree with his choice to post this. I think it was in poor taste and even poorer judgement, but he did it and now I think even he regrets it evidenced by the fact that he deleted it shortly after posting it.

We all do stupid things. We all make dumb decisions. We all act a fool and take things a little too far at times. It happens. And it happened with Trump. Hopefully, he won’t do anything this bone headed again anytime soon. (::fingers crossed::)

Heads have exploded. People who routinely demonize Christianity are now clutching their pearls in self-imposed shock at Trump’s audacity. Give me a break. The man is a troll. He enjoys ruffling his haters’ feathers. He is a narcissist with an over-inflated opinion of himself.

He is who he is.

I still only care about what he does with this country. And so far, he’s doing all right. Is he perfect? Pfft, please. Of course not. But he’s done way more for this country than his predecessors.

And frankly? That’s all I care about at this point.

Now stop posting stupid pictures of yourself and get back to work, Donald.

Crafting, Life, Wordy Wednesday

Wordy Wednesday: Being Crafty

Karen

I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m not a big crafter, at least, I didn’t used to be. Okay, I’m still not, but I do enjoy cross-stitching and diamond painting. I didn’t really get back into crafts until my dad died and I wanted to not only comfort my mom through the grief, but keep her company, have something to do with her, etc. So – I got back into it.

Now – every Saturday is mom day. We take turns getting together at each other’s houses every week. We go to lunch, watch a few episodes of Survivor, (we’re currently on season 16), then work on crafts together. Mom works on everything – she knits, crochets, paints, (her style is more whimsical and she will paint on bottles, saws, books – just about anything with a surface), works with plastic canvas, sews, (though not her favorite) … she pretty much does it all. My mom lives for crafts. It’s her lifeline, her solace, her happy place.

Right now, I’m just into cross-stitching and diamond painting though as I’ve mentioned I like felting and would like to get more into that, but for now, those are my go-to crafts. I like to sit down after work and cross-stitch while listening to an audio book. It’s SOOOO relaxing.

I won’t bore the non-crafters out there with too much more craft talk but I thought I would show you what I’ve been working on so far this year.

I apologize for the wrinkles. Obviously, I haven’t ironed them out yet, but you get the gist. I love to create, I hate to finish, lol. I just completed the truck at the top, it says “Welcome Spring” – you can’t see it very well because it’s white. Also, “Penelope”, the creature in the upper top left is on perforated paper. The umbrella and the bouquet of flowers are meant to “stick” to the “doll” when I complete it. I just need to cut them out, finish the edges and stick velcro dots on them. Penelope is one part of four “dolls” that are coming out in the Just Cross Stitch magazine this year. I might have them all done in time for the Christmas craft sale, we’ll see. I just enjoy working with the perforated paper. It’s obviously stiffer than Aida cloth but not as rigid as plastic canvas. It’s paper, so it will tear, but it’s sturdy and fun to work with.

I want to complete more cross-stitch ornaments, bookmarks and other projects before the Fall/Christmas sales this year. I need to ramp up my craft time!

Too bad work gets in the way. Ha!

Wordy Wednesday

Wordy Wednesday – Painting with Beads

Karen

Do you know what Diamond painting is? It’s basically paint-by-number only instead of paint, you stick beads, or “drills”, onto a sticky printed canvas. You can get them for dirt cheap on Temu.

(Or – at least you could back in the days of free shipping – now, with the Tariffs, shipping is more than your order!)

This is me, “painting”, (I use that term loosely because come on, I’m sticking beads on to a canvas, not sure it’s really classified as painting), in our cargo-trailer-converted-into-a-camper wearing my “Lost at Last” shirt that I only wear when we go camping. I’m sitting in front of our bed, which is on top of kitchen cabinets Kevin bought at Habitat for Humanity for dirt cheap.

We saw this idea on one of the hundreds of YouTube videos we watched from people who had also converted a cargo trailer into a camper and thought it was a cool idea – our “garage” is under the bed, on the other side of these cabinets. We use the cabinets to store our clothes and the long drawer you see to the left of me is one big cabinet that we use for our dirty clothes.

(Side note: I ended up selling that diamond painting in my mom’s craft booth).

Reflections

March Reflections 2025

Karen

One of these days, I’ll actually catch up to these Reflections’ entries. I really want to finish these because they’re an extension/expansion of the daily journal I write in

Mar 1

Mom wasn’t exactly feeling up to getting together today but I guilted her into it. She needed to talk and purge her feelings about losing my aunt, her sister. I worry about mom being by herself all the time. It’s not healthy to bottle up our feelings – get it out. Burn off that excess emotion with something positive. We ate at our favorite Chicken Salad place, she got some things off her chest, we came back to my house, we watched our two episodes of Survivor (our Saturday thing), then we worked on some felting crafts. I’ve never worked with felt before … it’s fun.

Mar 2

Boys came over for dinner, we had pasta bake. (Basically, spaghetti with penne noodles). We had a good conversation and we encouraged them about their jobs. I wish they could find their niche. I remember that disorienting feeling when I was younger of where do I fit in? What do I do with the rest of my life? Heck, I’m STILL wondering where I fit in, what am I doing with my life? We see the kids so much around the holidays and then virtually never the rest of the year. I’m going to try and make more of an effort to have them over for dinners, maybe a game, at least once a month.

Mar 3

I’m not a huge fan of homemade yogurt. It’s “supposed” to be good for you – give you the probiotics you need for a healthy gut. But either I’m doing it wrong or it’s just not for me but I sort of hate it. It’s so sour! I made the mistake of not refrigerating the probiotics and the went bad. That batch of yogurt stayed with us for days. (::ahem::), so I learned my lesson on that and now I refrigerate them. But still … I’m not a fan. I’ll keep trying because it’s “good” for me …

Mar 4

I’ve been making a point of saying good morning to Blake every week day. He’s getting off work about the time I’m getting up and getting ready for work. I hate that he’s back on overnight shift. He’s a night owl and I think he prefers it, but it’s lonely and isolating. He’s done the overnight shift before and he got a little depressed never seeing people, feeling like he was missing out on family stuff even though we made every effort to schedule things around his schedule so he could come, but still, it’s hard on the body both physically and mentally. Hopefully, this is a temporary gig until he can find something with more normal hours but in the meantime, I’m hoping my good mornings are helping, just a little.

Mar 5

Woke up to about an inch of snow on the ground. It’s windy and cold. How annoying, I was hoping winter was on the way out – I’m ready for some green – too much gray.

Mar 6

The supervisor role posted today. I had a friend send me a snippet of it and encouraged me to apply. I’m tempted. I would rock that role. I have a lot of ideas on how we can make things run more smoothly, more efficiently. But unfortunately, it would never work. The team lead, which is the person who would be my right-hand woman, is also applying. How awkward would it be to work with her if I got the job? I’m now her boss? I don’t think so. The biggest reason I won’t go for it? The head honcho is a bitch. I can’t stand her. She’s one of those bosses who thinks every idea she has is the ONLY idea and even when her idea is proven to not work? She refuses to even LISTEN to alternative ideas. I can’t work under someone that unwilling to listen to the worker bees. I would be fired within one week of that crap. So no. I will not be applying. Besides – who wants to be stuck on meetings ALL DAY LONG. Because that’s what supervisors do. I like my work. I’m good at it. I’ll stay where I’m at, thank you very much.

Mar 7

Lost my shit at work today. It was implied that I wasn’t doing my job by not cleaning up other people’s crap, even though I have plenty of my own crap to deal with, and patients were being rescheduled. Um, no. Patients are being rescheduled because the head honcho won’t allow us to try something different. What’s the definition of insanity? Or yeah, keep doing what is not working and expect different results. She’s such an idiot. On top of that, I had to leave early to pick mom up to go to my aunt’s funeral. Talk about an emotional switch. This was my first time going to a funeral where someone was cremated. It was so strange to stand around the wall where her ashes would be put into. She will be in the same wall space as her husband, who passed some years back. It was especially sad when they screwed the plate back on. Just the sound of the electric screwdriver in dead silence. Surreal.

Mar 8

Got together with mom today. She really needed some company. I wish I could keep her company during the week, too. Listened while she got some things off her chest. Ate at Panda Express for lunch, not my favorite, but mom likes it. Treated ourselves to a miniature Bundt cake. We love those things. We like to treat ourselves with something sweet while we watch Survivor. We ran to JoAnns to pick up some zippers mom needs for the cute crochet cross-over bags she’s making us for us to carry around on our cruise in August. CAN’T WAIT.

Mar 9

Someone jerk ran into my father-in-law with a cart at Walmart. The lady didn’t even apologize, just glared at him like it was HIS fault. What is wrong with people nowadays?! He didn’t fall, but it was hard enough to make his leg bleed. Kevin talked to management. He was furious. He wanted to press charges. Don’t think that can, or will, happen. It’s possible the woman didn’t even realize she bumped into him, we’re trying to look at all angles here, but he cried out in pain so even if she hadn’t realized she did it, would she not hear him? People are assholes.

Mar 10

Was in a bad mood. I felt bad for dumping my frustrations on my team lead but it was something we’ve all danced around for months and needed to be said. Who knows if there are changes or if it affects my job, but I just can’t hold in my frustration any more. I muted everyone on Teams, put my head down and worked my butt off today. It was nice to not anyone bugging me, staying away from the drama. The pre-registration department dumped a lot of cases on us. I’m wondering if this is the new norm?

Mar 11

Another beautiful day! Got up to 80 degrees today – I’m so ready for Spring. Told my boss that I’m happy to clean up other people’s crap – after my own work is done and if they want to pay me overtime. Not sure she was very happy with that “compromise” but – bite me. Don’t care. I looked up my Social Security account today to get an idea of how much I’ll be paid when I retire – more than I thought, but not nearly enough. It’s criminal how much you pay into the “system” and how little you get back. I can take early retirement at 62 … TWO years away!! The big questions is: WILL I?

Mar 12

The chicks are really growing!! They’ve reached the “teenage” years. They have lost their cuteness and they’re losing their baby feathers to make room for their permanent feathers and they’re looking spotty and ratty. Our oldest Chicken is really gentle with the younger chickens – the second oldest chicken picks on them. Most likely because she was picked one when she was young. Kevin is rearranging their hen house. He also build a triangle-looking cage to put on his lawn mower trailer so he can bring them over to our house so they can eat our bugs. We have soooo many bugs.

Mar 14

The winds were wicked today. Wind always makes me so nervous. Straight winds is what took out one of our trees in our backyard several years ago. Kevin called me, which always freaks me out because he NEVER calls – no one EVER calls me except when there’s an emergency. One of the trees at the rental house blew over and was leaning into another tree. He called someone and they came right out to cut off some limbs. They’ll be back tomorrow to cut down the rest of the tree. There goes another $1700!! GAH – trees are pretty but so expensive to maintain. I got to “duck” my first Jeep today while we were grocery shopping. Was fun, and a little terrifying, tucking a rubber duck into someone’s door handle.

Mar 15

Went to mom’s. We talked about our cruise and we’re planning on going luggage shopping. I can’t help but picture us struggling with luggage as we walk through the airports. I know mom’s luggage is super old and our luggage is pretty worn down, too. The wheels on our luggage aren’t very good and I just don’t want to have to worry about crappy luggage as we travel. Kevin and I talked about taking some road trips in the Jeep before we turn it in in April 2028. We thought it would be fun to drive down to New Orleans again and catch a cruise. So … we booked another cruise in November! It will be our birthday cruise! We booked it on Norwegian – we really like how they have their food/restaurants set up. Instead of one big dining room and a buffet, they have smaller, themed restaurants set up throughout the ship so everyone is spread out. So excited! Two cruises in one year??

Mar 17

My gosh the winds are terrible this year! We always get a lot of wind in March but I feel like this March is especially windy. Mom and I ran into a fancy yarn shop over the weekend and I encouraged her to check it out this week. I’m hoping she can make some friends! Mom is obsessed with yarn.

Mar 19

Think I’m eating too many bananas. My heart is doing crazy stuff, skipping, beating hard, my hands have started to go numb. I Googled it – I think I’m getting too much potassium. Eating a banana every day. Time to cut back. Some of it is stress, too. Need to re-center and not care about my job quite so much.

Mar 20

We all had a shock today. One of our supervisors, one of the women who created this department, just left. She was planning on retiring soon anyway but after a meeting with the head honcho woman and being dismissed, again, she had had it. Tensions have been building for a while. This supervisor was the only woman who had the guts to stand up to this head honcho bully. It’s really frustrating to work under a woman who refuses to listen to what you have to say, or entertain the thought that perhaps some of the decisions she’s making are DEAD wrong for the group. This head honcho wants yes women … I am not a yes woman. I have thoughts, opinions and suggestions and I’m always willing to work with whatever ideas that are presented, but to not even acknowledge that A. there is a problem and B. we need to fix it?? Yeah – I will NOT be applying to part of this management team. It’s amazing how many people have left because of this moron. Get a clue, lady.

Mar 21

Another person quit today. The department is dropping like flies. Too bad someone above honcho lady isn’t noticing and more importantly, wondering, why is everyone leaving??

Mar 24

My supervisor and team lead shadowed me today. It’s so awkward when you “train” management. Also, why do we train management? Shouldn’t they already know what we do? Hence the problem with management, right? Not just our management, but management in general. Ordered a new Bissell vacuum for the hardwoods today – the Dirt Devil finally bit the dust.

Mar 25

Blue Cross Blue Shield’s portal was still down today so I had to cancel the the “training” session today. Not much to do if one of our major insurance portals is down. Getting lazy on the treadmill walking before work thing. I would just rather sleep an extra hour. But I sit so much throughout the day, that’s not good.

Mar 26

Brandon, our baby, turned 30 yesterday! He’s not taking it very well. I remember turning 30, then 50, then 60 … yeah – those milestone birthdays are hard. He’s still working on his digital art. He knows a lot of people in the industry but it’s a tough industry to get into. He’s self-taught – really proud of him for taking the initiative and having the discipline to teach himself. Not to mention, he has saved THOUSANDS of dollars by not going to college. College is pretty much a scam nowadays. All they want to do is teach our kids how to be woke and a lot of useless nonsense. Nothing that will prepare them to be kind, empathetic, productive humans in society. In the meantime, Bran is still working at the bank. He’s not crazy about being on the phone and dealing with customers but also, it’s really good to have that experience – not only for work but life in general. I think everyone should be required to work with the public at some point in their lives – I think the world would be a better place, to be honest. We took him to Fuji’s – a Japanese they-cook-your-food-in-front-of-you place. The food was good, but they rushed us out, didn’t really give us a chance to enjoy our food, or the company, we were done in under an hour, and then it was $150 on top of that. Yeah, we won’t do that again. We came back to our house afterward and had our traditional Great American Cookie cake. Which is also stupid expensive. I remember the days it was $25, which I thought was nuts, now it’s double that! But we can’t stop buying them – we’ve been buying them for decades and it’s a tradition. Birthdays are expensive. lol

Mar 27

Management is going to keep track of our productivity. This has made a lot of people mad, and I’m annoyed, but also, I get it. We’re remote. It’s like they can walk by our desk to see if we’re working or not. And let’s face it, some people probably DO take advantage of the fact that they work from home and aren’t supervised as much as people who work in the office. I’m not worried – I definitely carry my weight, and then some, (a lot), but it’s still a little nerve wracking they are “watching” us. They also want to know how long cases take, which, fair, but also, hard to gauge as some cases are more complicated than others. Not to mention, some providers do a terrible job of documenting what is happening so it takes more time to dig for documentation to build a case and present to the insurance company so they can make their decision. I’m pretty fast at the process, but I think in large part because I have Medical Assistant experience. I know the “lingo” and understand the provider’s though process and the steps it takes to reach the patient’s goal. If someone doesn’t have that experience, it would be way harder and definitely more time consuming to put the puzzle pieces together.

Mar 28

Lost another person, this time on my team. We can NOT keep people on the Urgent Action Team. And to be honest, I get it. This flow, time frame, this amount of multi-tasking is not for everyone. It doesn’t help that management expects us to be the clean-up crew for another group of people, either. I’m hoping all of these people leaving will open the head honcho’s eyes and we can finally start making some positive changes. We’ll see. I’m not holding my breath. Now this means I will be expected to work harder and faster until we can hire another person. And guess who management will expect to train this new person? Exactly.

Mar 29

Got together with mom for our weekly Saturday thing. We went to the mall today. I haven’t been to the mall in ages. It always sort of depresses me. It’s so … empty. Both in customers and retail stores. We went to JCPenneys to look at luggage for our cruise in August. Mom bought a five-piece set for $100! I’m so relieved. I was worried about her struggling with her luggage on our trip. Trips are already so stressful without having to worry about if your luggage breaking down. We bought cookie dough at a shop in the mall for our treat. Then watched Survivor and set up a Google Meet to talk to my sister. It was a good day! Went by fast!

Mar 30

One of our my teammates called in sick today – I have a feeling this will become a patter with her. She seems to have a lot of physical ailments. That left three of us today. I covered 15 alpha letters so I was pretty busy. It’s Patient Access week, which means management will kiss our butts, tell us what a great job we’re doing but no, we’re not going to change anything so that your jobs actually become easier. Par for the course, I suppose. I have zero interest in participating. I’m pissed, tired and overworked. Bite me.

Thanks for reading.