Karen

Cooper Creek is our go-to campground. It’s in Branson, Missouri, and it’s right off an arm of Lake Taneycomo. We like this campground because it’s not widely known, the people who run it are pretty great, and the air coming off the lake is really nice and cool making it an ideal place to hangout in the dead of summer.

It’s also cheap. Compared to most places nowadays.

The campground also has cabins so if/when we can get the boys to come with us, they can stay in the cabin and we’ll stay in our trailer. I’m really excited about this – we can grill food, fish, or in my case, hang out near the water and read, toast marshmallows, watch movies … we used to go camping quite a bit when the boys were little. We started with a pop-up camper and wore that thing out, then graduated to a Hybrid camper shell – the tent beds folded out on either side. It was a cute, comfortable camper but it leaked and waterproofing the canvas was a full-time job and every time it rained, it would stress me out because I didn’t want it to leak on us while we were sleeping.

I’m proud to say that as of now, the trailer has not leaked, not once. Really happy about that.

But it is heavy. We haven’t actually gotten around to weighing it yet, but Kevin thinks it’s likely around 4,000 to 4,500 pounds. So owning a truck that is big and tough enough to handle it has been a challenge.

I took a long weekend off in April and we headed to Cooper Creek. Another reason we like that campground is because it’s so close, only about 45 minutes from our house. So we feel like we’ve gotten away but we’re not far enough away that we couldn’t run home if we needed to.

April 17th started my mini-vacation and I spent the day running errands and getting the trailer ready. I have to admit, I HATE packing. I would much rather unpack and clean up than pack. I think it’s primarily because I’m so focused on making sure we don’t forget anything that I overthink everything. Though I do have a master list and it’s not as much work as it used to be since we keep the majority of our stuff in the trailer, I still have to think about clothes, health and beauty aids, food, entertainment and of course, having enough water on hand for both coffee and drinking. It doesn’t sound like much but it typically takes me about an hour to fully pack and that’s IF I don’t have any interruptions because I have learned that if I get interrupted while packing we inevitably forget something.

Which is not that big of a deal when there’s a Walmart on every corner, but it’s becoming a running joke that we end up going to Walmart at least once every trip so it would be nice to get to the point where we don’t have to go to Walmart.

Thursdays are Kevin’s busiest day. He does payroll for a client and they don’t usually get their information to him until late in the day so we have to plan our vacations around this time period so Kevin can take care of them. It’s annoying and super inconvenient but they pay well and their employees need to be paid so we make it work.

He worked most of Thursday and I ended up picking up some dinner at about 4:30 and we got on the road about 5:00 PM. We got a call from the campground letting us know that we would be checking in after the office closed so they would leave an envelope for us on the office door with the bathroom keys.

We had plenty of daylight left and the day was gorgeous – nary a cloud in the sky. Kevin was driving his Ford 150 and things were going great … until we hit the hills of Branson.

If you’ve never been to Branson Missouri, there is a strip, the main strip, called 76. It’s quite similar to the main strip in Las Vegas – everything is located on that strip. So, traffic is always backed up and if you happen to stop on a hill, well, you sort of hold your breath when it’s time to go again hoping your car doesn’t roll back into the car behind you.

I think you might see where I’m going with this.

We make it to Branson, we’re on the strip and we get stuck at a stoplight, on a hill. The truck starts making some weird noises, like it’s not idling fast enough and wants to die. It also sounds rough, like a diesel engine – Kevin’s truck wasn’t a diesel.

It dies on a steep hill. And we’re towing a 4,500 ton cargo trailer behind us. And the traffic is bumper to bumper.

To say I hyperventilated would be putting it mildly. It absolutely freaked me out. I said a prayer, (or ten), and luckily, the truck started right back up when the light turned green. It would start okay, it just wouldn’t stay running and Kevin had to continually gun it to keep it from dying. I’m happy to report there were no mishaps but it was a nail biter for a bit. We weren’t out of the woods yet. We still had a ways to drive to get to the campground but the traffic wasn’t as heavy and though it was still stressful, I didn’t feel like I was having a heart attack. We made it to the campground in one piece but I no longer trusted the truck to get us from point A to point B. Kevin said it acted like that a few times for him while not towing the trailer and he thinks it gets too hot and starts blahblahblah – I won’t pretend to know what he was talking about – I just knew, we were going to have to get a new truck before I would agree to go camping again. That was too stressful.

It rained pretty much the whole next day but we were prepared for that. Here’s the thing – there is never a great time to go camping. Sure. You could wait until the summer months when it’s less likely to rain but then you have to deal with the heat and the humidity and quite honestly, I’m finding that I prefer to camp in the Spring and Fall when it’s rainy and a little cold – it’s more comfortable for me personally. So, when it rains, it really doesn’t bother me. We just stick around the camper and read, play games or watch a movie. And that’s what we did this go around. Camping is good for Kevin because it FORCES him to slow down – he’s one of those go-go-go personalities and he doesn’t slow down unless he doesn’t have a choice – he doesn’t have a choice when we’re camping and it’s raining. So, he pulled out his PS game thingie and played Ace Combat for a while.

I worked on my homework. Yep – I did homework. You can read about my class here. I’m finished with it now and I’ll write more about that soon.

We ventured out for dinner and ate at the Mexican Kitchen – which is awesome. Kevin says they have the best refried beans he’s ever tasted – they taste smoky. We then got back to the camper and watched “Dallas Buyer’s Club” and “The Princess Bride”, which I confess, I have never watched in it’s entirety. Kevin wanted to watch “Dallas Buyer’s Club” because its mirrors what happened with COVID – the government wouldn’t allow people with AIDS to take alternative medication and the medication that was “approved” was actually making people sicker and killing them. So, Matthew McConaughey’s character took matters into his own hands and started a buyer’s club where people could become a “member” and get the drugs they needed to manage the disease. This is quite similar to what happened with COVID – there were alternative treatments out there but the government demonized the options and the “approved” treatments that people received in the hospital were ineffective and ultimately killed a lot of people. This is our personal opinion but mark my words, it will show this when we look back on this period in the history books.

But I digress.

We went to bed late and we knew there would be more storms but whatever, we’re in a metal box, it’s pretty sturdy, doesn’t leak and we would be fine.

It stormed. Big time.

Our mini-split runs all the time. And though it’s pitch black in the trailer, there are various pinpoints of light coming from electronics, etc. So, there is constant noise, which is good for sleeping, and there is just enough light to see shapes, etc.

So, when the mini-split stopped working, it woke me up. I’m a light sleeper anyway so to be fair, it doesn’t take much to wake me up, but when I woke up, it was pitch black. No pinpoints of light. It was dark and very, very quiet.

What the hell?

The electricity had gone out. I was annoyed more than anything at first but I wasn’t panicking. Sure enough, it came back on, lasted about two minutes, then went out again. This time, Kevin work up. We laid there for a bit and it came back on again. Kevin got up to see what was going on and when he opened the door, the lights went out again. And this time, they stayed off.

The campground is next to the arm of Lake Taneycomo, as I mentioned, but on the other side of the lake, there is a hill. And on top of this hill are houses. So at night, you can see the lights from these houses lining the top of the hill. When the lights went out a third time, Kevin had the door open and he saw the lights on the hill go black. I was a little relieved to know this because at first I thought it was just the campground and I was thinking, how are we going to contact the park owners to let them know the electricity was out? Since the houses on the hill went black, this was a much bigger outage – it wasn’t just us.

But it was spooky. The place was BLACK. You could hardly see anything and since we were camping in the “off season”, there wasn’t that many people in the park to begin with so it felt very isolating and spooky. There was a lot of lightening though so it wasn’t surprising that we lost power. But we got to talking – what if that had been an EMP, (electromagnetic pulse) attack? What would we do? The boys knew where we were but if it was a true EMP attack, our cell phones wouldn’t work, our truck wouldn’t work, (because it’s mostly computerized) and even if it worked, we didn’t have enough gas to get home.

And we had very little food in the trailer. We stopped talking about it because it was scaring us and we went back to bed. I don’t feel like I got much sleep after that but I must have dozed off because the mini-split came back on about 4:00 AM and jerked me awake.

Thank God the power came back on.

But it got us to talking about it over coffee the next morning and it made us realize, you just never know what is going to happen in this crazy world – especially right now with Russia acting unpredictable and putting everyone on edge. It makes you realize how much you take for granted and how much we rely on technology, and the internet, to live our lives every day. What would happen if it all suddenly went away? Not just the physical inconvenience but how would people react? I would like to say we would come together, work together and get through it but let’s be real – it would be hell on earth and I’m picturing a Mad Max world – every man/woman for him/herself.

You better have some weapons nearby – just saying.

Anyway. The next day was gorgeous and it more than made up for an uncomfortable and scary night. I finished my weekly quiz and after that, we walked to the camp office and bought a magnet, (we’re collecting magnets from places we’re camping to put on our fridge), and then we walked about 2.5 miles around Table Rock Dam and worked up an appetite for dinner. We tried to go to Uptown Café, a 50’s-style café, but they had a tour bus and were super busy so we ended up going to Culverts. (Those butter burgers are ‘da bomb). We watched “The Poseidon Adventure” and went to bed.

*Spoiler alert – it was bad – like REALLY bad.

By the way, neither of us watches TV or movies so camping is the only time we really watch movies together. Again, it forces Kevin to slow down. Which he will only do if he doesn’t have a choice.

We overslept the next morning. We got up at 9:00 and had to scramble to get packed up and out by check out time at 11:00. It’s so easy to sleep in the trailer because it’s so dark and with the fan and the mini-split going, it gives just enough background noise that we don’t hear a lot of what’s going on outside.

Kevin’s truck started acting up again as we got closer to home and I spent the majority of the trip home convincing him that he needed to buy a newer, bigger truck. I know trucks are insanely expensive but he’s gone through two trucks in the past three years and it was time to upgrade and buy something that he wouldn’t have to stress over.

I planted the seed, at least.

When we went to meet the boys for Brandon’s birthday, LeRoy saw some trucks at a dealership on the way. He talked Kevin into looking at them a few days later and they just so happened to have a 2018 Dodge Ram Longhorn that just came in. They hadn’t even had a chance to clean it before Kevin looked at it and took it for a test drive. He liked it and it only had 27,000 miles on it – so, virtually brand new. And it was in excellent condition and came with all the bells and whistles – heated seats, a heated steering wheel (!!), a sunroof. Really nice. He text me a picture and I encouraged him to buy it. Yes. It was expensive. No. I won’t tell you how much. But Kevin has worked so hard all of his life, he deserves a fancy truck that he won’t have to stress about fixing any time soon.

He bought it.

And that’s the story of how we came to buy ANOTHER truck. I’m excited to see how it does on our next glamping trip.

Which we just back from and I’ll write about soon.

Thanks for reading.

Get out and live life, folks!

Reflections

March 2022 Reflections

April 9, 2022April 9, 2022 Karen

(My Reflections posts are more stream-of-consciousness kind of posts so I apologize up front if some of what you read doesn’t make sense. But this is me we’re talking about here so … are you really surprised?)

Mar 1: Well. Let’s start this month off with a bang, shall we? I screwed up clinic. Only in that I overloaded the team with too many complicated patients, we got behind and that always makes Dr. M. and H extremely annoyed – they don’t like running behind. I work for one of those rare doctors that actually respects patients’ time and he usually runs on time, in fact, ahead of time, unless something comes up. I felt so stupid. I’m solely in charge of his clinic schedule, T, his nurse, is in charge of his surgery schedule, (she has the harder job, trust me), and he trusts me, meaning, no one really looks a the schedule, they just trust me to fill it. He had a clinic day open up and I got so excited because I had so many patients that wanted to be seen that I didn’t pay attention to the type of appointment, (because that makes a huge difference), that I got carried away. I know better, that’s the thing. I’ve done this before and I told him I wouldn’t do it again and what do I do? I do it again!! AARGH. Anyway, I felt terrible and I emailed him an apology because I could tell he was disappointed in me and I hate when he’s disappointed. Anyway, lesson learned, it sucked and I’ll be more mindful of that in the future.

Mar 3: So much work drama. It started with me. I KNOW. But hear me out. I just asked if it would be possible, on some Fridays when we don’t have any providers in the office, to leave early sometimes. That’s it. That was the question but you would think I was asking to close the clinic down on Fridays. It blew up. I opened up a can of worms. People liked the idea but now, the nurses are mad because the benefits there were promised weren’t happening yet and it likely wouldn’t happen if the MA’s and medical secretaries were able to leave early sometimes. Which is ridiculous, but that’s how our manager made it sound. I think she likes to pit each of the groups against each other – the nurses, the MA’s and the medical secretaries. I asked the question because one of the things upper management is really big on is making sure we have work/life balance. We’re not working too much, we take time to be with family, etc. Well, My question piggy backed off that idea, right? Anyway. It soon became a “thing” and everyone in the clinic was pissed off and ready to walk out.

It was just a question, sheesh!

Mar 4: I had the day off. It was great but then I get a call from Dr. S’s nurse – they are getting ready to head out to an outlying clinic and she calls to ask if I know where the clinic keys are. At first, I was like, “uh, no,” but then ….

CRAP! I remembered I had them in my purse!! So. Dr. S’s team sat in the company truck, ready to go, and was literally waiting on me to run the keys up to them. I was in sweats, no makeup, (though wore sunglasses – duh) and drove like a bat out of hell up to the hospital to pass off the keys. Good thing I live close to the hospital. Wow. Another grand mal mistake on my part.

Mar 5: I’m not prone to depression, but I was depressed today. This past week was rough on me and I just feel stupid. I feel like a lot of people are mad at me and I’m just sick to death of the drama, this job and being tired all the freaking time. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I am just not motivated to do anything. I need a change. I need a long vacation. And I’m tired of my body aching. Perhaps it’s getting older, and I’m sure that’s part of it, but the other part of me can’t help but wonder if it’s because of the flu vaccine I got in October. It took me nearly a year the vaccine before last to finally feel normal and then it was time for another vaccine. This makes me even more determined to make changes this go around.

Mar 7: Felt much better today. Clinic went off without a hitch and Dr. M was more relaxed and more himself. I feel like the old team is finally starting to find our groove again. COVID nearly broke us and we’re not the same as before the scamdemic, but we’re finding our new normal, I think.

Got my sign on for my Legal Secretary class. (You can read more about that here). I clicked around, read some syllabi and got a feel for the structure. No one has posted in the forums yet and I’m wondering if I’m the only student. I sort of hope so, but then again, do I want the SOLE attention of the instructor?? No. No, I don’t. Looks like I will submitting an assignment, posting in the Bulletin Board and taking a quiz every week. I’m excited to get started but at the same time, I’m ready for it to be over and I hope I made the right decision taking this class. It’s an investment for whatever happens in October, (that’s when our flu vaccine is due and if the hospital doesn’t accept my religious exemption, which quiet honestly, I don’t think they will, then I will have a backup plan – hence, this class).

Mar 8: Worked Emily’s clinic today. She’s a nurse practitioner that works with our surgeons – she triages patients – works them up and if she feels they need to see a surgeon, she will schedule them with one of our nine surgeons. I really like her, she used to be Dr. M’s nurse. I never worked with her when she was a nurse, that was before I started, but she’s smart, kind and very patient and I really enjoy working with her.

My upper arms are KILLING ME. They’ve been hurting, on and off since I got my flu vaccine but here lately, it’s been brutal. It hurts to lift my arms whenever I brush my hair, wash my hair, etc. I haven’t really done anything about it, I just grit my teeth and get through it, I guess I’m hoping it goes away on its own, but wowsiers, they really hurt.

Mar 10: One of the new MA’s had a car accident. She was T-boned by a woman who wasn’t paying attention and flew through a four-way stop. She’s okay, but the airbag knocked a few teeth out so she’s in some pain. This is the one who has six children. In addition to her wreck, her son has to be rushed to Urgent Care because he wasn’t breathing very well and they had to admit him. Her grandmother also died and she had to rush home to support her mother. This poor girl … Missouri has not been very kind to her since getting here. It really makes me thankful that my life is calm and drama free in comparison.

Mar 11: Spring break is next week but my nurse and mid-level area already out. I always dread when they are out because that means I’m the only one left to really deal with any patient issues though anything too medical related I give to my covering nurse, but still, I handle the majority of issues, patient questions, etc. that comes along. T will be taking the first part of the break off, then I’ll take the last part off. Kevin and I are planning on taking a quick camping trip.

Mar 12: Daylight savings starts! It’s nice to wake up to daylight. It’s so hard to wake up and start your day when it’s pitch black outside. I finished my first homework assignment and quiz and honestly, it was harder than I thought. I had some presumptions when it came to the legal field, I have watched numerous TV shows and read a bunch of legal thrillers so CLEARLY I thought I knew my way around the legal world but alas, I know nothing.

Is anyone really surprised?

Mar 16: Super busy day at work, which of course, happens on the last day before I’m scheduled to be off. I handled it though. A medical secretary put her two weeks notice in because our manager is terrible and micromanages everyone. This secretary works the closest with our manager, (who is also a nurse for one of the doctors), and she flat out lied about some patient things and the secretary was, and is, over it. This started another whole drama thing at work and everyone is even more pissed off and several are looking for jobs. Upper management has gotten involved though, so we’ll see how this shakes out in the end.

Dr. M. gave me and the medical secretary Yeti cups one Christmas and I still carry it around every day. I use it for my water. I put my Yeti cup and my coffee cup in a Joann’s craft bag and carry that into work every day and today, I left my legal secretary handbook in my bag, with my nearly full Yeti cup, when I got home from work. I guess Kevin got up in the night and knocked it over, not realizing there was water in it, he was half asleep after all, so by the time I discovered it the next morning, my legal secretary handbook was completely drenched and soggy. I can still read it, thankfully, but it’s water logged and ruined. I wasn’t that upset about it, accidents happen, but I wonder if that’s a bad omen? Not that I believe in stuff like that, but still …

Mar 17: I was off work today and spent the day cleaning out the camper and packing up. We plan on leaving later this afternoon after Kevin gets done with his work. I honestly HATE packing. I would rather unpack and clean up than pack up. I hate feeling stressed – “do I have everything? What am I forgetting?” I load up my clothes hamper and make several trips out to the camper that way. It works pretty well. Especially since we are keeping a lot of things in the camper and really, the only things I have to pack are clothes and food. Making the bed is probably the most challenging because I have to crawl around to tuck in corners. I ended up getting Wendy’s for dinner and Kevin and I ate before we left. The campground was only about 45 minutes away but eating before we left was definitely the better plan. Will have to remember that in the future. I plan on writing about the trip in more detail soon, so stay tuned!

Mar 20: Clinic went surprisingly well. I always dread the first clinic back after getting back from a (mini) vacay. Everyone seemed to be relaxed and it felt like the old team again. It was nice.

The whole clinic is very upset and ready to walk out. Upper management has gotten involved and has been telling everyone, “give us a month to make changes.” so, we’ll see. It’s not that A is a bad person, she’s actually a good person, I like her outside of work, but she’s a terrible manager. Primarily because she micromanages and you simply have to give people some freedom to do their work. You have to trust people, at some point, to do their jobs, without breathing down their necks. Management is giving us an opportunity to take charge of our own schedules and low and behold, they are going to allow us to take off early some Fridays, provided we don’t have any providers and our work is done.

That’s all I was asking. I just wanted the OPPORTUNITY to do that. I feel vindicated, in a way, but also, I feel sort of sorry for A – her boss is now watching her like a hawk.

Mar 22: Grades are starting to come in from our first week of class and quite honestly, I could care less. I just want a passing grade. Remember, my goal is just to pass the damn thing, I’m not looking to be the best in my class. I want enough knowledge that I can get hired if/when the time comes for me to leave medical.

Mar 24: Super quiet day at work today. I sat by myself, was not bothered much and though I had to cover hospital calls, (calls from the hospital floor), and another doctor because his MA was out on vacation, I got a lot done. I love days like this. I can stick my earbuds in and escape into my own world for a while. It’s nice.

I had a pretty big anxiety attack that night though. I woke up and my heart was beating a mile a minute and it took forever for me to calm down. I have to really focus on breathing deeply when that happens and it usually goes away after a while. I haven’t had one in a while but with everything going on at work, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I need to work on staying calm and not getting so worked up over things. These past two weeks, I got pretty worked up over all the office drama. It doesn’t help that everyone comes to me with their problems, too.

Mar 25: Brandon’s birthday was today! He’s 27 years old. Wow. Our BABY is 27!!! How does this happen?? We took him, Blake and LeRoy out for Chinese. It was fantastic. Then we came back home and had cookie cake. The boys stuck around and we played two games of Forbidden Island. HIGHLY recommend. It’s a collaborative game and perfect for six people. Side note: Forbidden Island has two more in the series: Forbidden Desert and Forbidden Sky. I will definitely be buying those, too.

(Oh my gosh, I just stumbled on to another cooperative game: Pandemic. Yep, buying that one, too).

Brandon also told us he was going on a date tomorrow night!! Our boys, to my knowledge, have not dated – ever. So this was welcome news! I’m nervous for him, though. I hope she’s nice and treats him well. One of my biggest fears is the boys get stuck with a woman who is a leech, an idiot or just downright bitchy. I would rather they be by themselves the rest of their lives than be saddled with someone like that. Yikes.

Mar 26: Hold on to your wigs, girls. Kevin bought ANOTHER truck. He sold his Ford F150 and bought a pearl white 2018 Ram Longhorn.

I won’t even talk about the price, but suffice it to say, I encouraged him to do it. Here’s why – the man has gone through three trucks in the past five years. All of his vehicles have been about 200,000 miles so you can imagine, things break down. And it’s not easy to repair these things anymore because they are computerized so it’s not like Kevin has been able to do much about these repairs. Which means, he sinks money into these trucks and they still give him issues. He DESERVES this. The man has worked very hard over the years and he deserves a truck that will last him ten + years. His truck has 27,000 miles on it!! It belonged to an older man who traded it in and ordered himself a newer model. Anyway, there is a big reason why I encouraged him to do this, and I’ll write about that soon, too.

Mar 28: Got my yearly evaluation at work today. It was glowing and though I was happy to see it, it was embarrassing how much they gushed over me. Of course, let’s keep in mind that management is on thin ice with a lot of people lately so that might have something to do with it, but I kept a copy of it and fully plan on submitting that if/when I start interviewing for jobs this Fall. It will be a perfect recommendation, in my opinion. Anyway, I got a raise, which always a nice thing, too.

We picked up the truck today. The dealership cleaned it up and it was my first time seeing it. WOW.

Mar 29: Covered Emily’s clinic today. She asked me for some suggestions after clinic as she’s tired of always working late. Her full-time MA is great, but she’s slow. Changes will need to be made and you know how people are when you propose change – resistant. Once again, I’m flattered that they asked for my opinion/help, but honestly folks, I just want to be left alone, do my job and go home. I don’t want to be pulled into drama and projects. It’s exhausting.

Mar 30: Governor Parsons “officially” called an end to the pandemic – we’re now in an endemic. We’ve been in an endemic for a year now but whatever. Let’s all move on. We’re still wearing masks at work, I’m still spitting into a test tube every week to check for COVID, but at least the world outside the hospital is getting back to normal. Now, if the airline industry and the cruise industry would settle down, maybe Kevin and I could go on a cruise in the near furture.

We’re not holding our breath.

TBR

April To-Be-Read Stack

April 3, 2022April 2, 2022 Karen

I’m behind my reading goal! Dang this class. But that’s okay. We’re planning on going camping the end of this month so I’ll hopefully have some time to catch up. _________________________________________________ You can tell which book I’m currently reading by the Goodreads widget in the sidebar. I’m all about Kindle e-books. I’m a hard core e-book reader. I haven’t read an actual book in quite a long time and I find that when I hold an actual book, it feels large and clunky. I much prefer my Kindle e-reader than an actual book. With that said, I get all of my books from Kindle Unlimited – I rarely, if ever, spend money on a book – it all goes into the $10 dollars a month I pay for Kindle Unlimited. So, if you’re interested in reading lesser known authors and want to save a ton of money in books, join me! I rarely read anything lower than a four-star review on Goodreads – I’ve come to trust the reviews of Goodreads readers. I stopped reading for a long time simply because every book I read was stupid, or disappointing and ultimately, a waste of time. (I feel the same with movies – haven’t watched movies, or TV, in about a year). I’ve had great luck sticking to this philosophy and most of the books I read are pretty good. You can see my book ratings on my Goodreads account. I have currently read 12 books out of 55. Moving on, here is my April TBR stack:

Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover
Blind Conviction (The Nate Shepherd Legal Thriller Series Book 3) by Michael Stagg
Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score
Unmissing: A Thriller by Minka Kent
Edge of Darkness: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Survival Thriller by Kyla Stone

Happy Reading!

At the Moment, Work Stuff

Taking an Online Class

April 2, 2022 Karen

I’m taking a class.

I haven’t been in school since I graduated from college in 2003 with my Bachelor’s in Technical Writing – which I’ve done nothing with, by the way, because I discovered, early on, that the field of Technical Writing is incredibly dull and dry and I couldn’t envision myself doing it for eight hours a day for the rest of my life.

No offense to anyone who is in the Technical Writing field.

The reason I settled on a Technical Writing degree is because I really wanted to study writing and I knew that getting a Creative Writing degree, though cool, wouldn’t be lucrative unless I happened to get lucky and become another Brandon Sanderson, so I thought a Technical Writing degree would be the more “responsible” thing to do.

Creative writing is my minor, by the way.

Anyway, all of this to say, I haven’t taken a class since the early 2000’s.

So why now?

Because of COVID.

For those that don’t know, I work in the medical field. I’m a medical assistant and work in neurosurgery. I’ve been doing this for the past ten years (!!) and I have quite enjoyed it. I’ve learned a lot, I really enjoy what I do and the people I work with and I’m proud to say, I’ve mastered it – I’m quite good at what I do. And I fully intended to spend the rest of my working days doing this job.

But then COVID happened. As you can imagine, my life was turned upside down. I mean, I don’t have to tell you that, you lived it too. I’m sure your life was equally thrown off kilter – it affected everyone.

But it especially impacted those in the medical field.

I feel like my team is just NOW starting to get back to normal after all of the turmoil and I’m grateful for it. I don’t want to go back to those awkward days of tiptoeing around each other and walking on eggshells every time the subject was brought up. I mean, we still do that now, but it’s not as bad as it was in the beginning. And the primary reason it really even became an issue is because I was (am) the only one on my team who chose not to get vaccinated. I won’t rehash all of that nightmare, you’re free to read through my thoughts and experiences here, but suffice it to say, it completely changed my working outlook.

I no longer trust healthcare. Not the people I work with, and definitely not the doctors I work with, they are amazing and I have the utmost respect for them, but healthcare in general. Specifically, government decisions on what is “best” for the people. As soon as my bodily autonomy was taken away from me – I changed.

I would love to challenge and fight “the healthcare czars” but I’m one tiny ant on a massive anthill so what does that leave? Just me, myself and I. I need to protect my future and my body.

Kevin and I have talked long and hard about this and we both feel VERY STRONGLY about this – I will no longer be participating in any sort of annual vaccine. Because I work in a hospital, I’ve had to, in exchange to keep my job, participate in an annual flu vaccination. At first, I was like, “meh. I’m not exactly loving this but whatever, I’ll deal with it.” But then, after COVID and all of the secrecy, the “misinformation”, (which really amounted to people who had legitimate questions but were not “allowed” to ask them), the dishonesty and the crazy agendas that seem to be more and more nefarious the more you dig, I no longer trust the flu vaccinations.

I’ve been reading that the mRNA is an efficient and cost effective way to make vaccines and that future vaccinations will most likely be made with this technology.

The future of mRNA vaccine field is potential, and the clinical data and resources provided by the associated companies and other academic institutions are likely to significantly build on and strengthen basic research into mRNA-based vaccines. Source

As someone who doesn’t even like to take Tylenol unless absolutely necessary and who looks for any natural remedy for whatever ailment I’m suffering from, this is not good news to me.

So now what? The clock is ticking to the next annual flu vaccination in October and I can assure you, I won’t be participating this year, or any future years. Feel free to disagree – you do you, I’ll do me.

But if I don’t take the flu vaccination, and the hospital doesn’t accept my religious exemption, (they accepted my exemption for the COVID injection but not the flu injection), then I’ll be out of a job. I hope that is not the case, I would prefer to continue working my current job but remember, I’m but one tiny ant.

I need a backup plan.

Realistically, I have about nine working years left before I retire. If I have to quit this job, what am I going to do? Yes. The easiest and simplest thing would be for me to find a mindless job with zero stress and wait out my retirement date. But GAH – that sounds so boring. I would prefer to be challenged. Something that would keep me on my toes and would challenge my brain.

I did A LOT of research and thinking these past few months. I haunted Indeed.com job postings and when I saw it, I knew I had to try it. It’s something I’ve talked about trying for years and years and honestly, something I likely would have pursued if I hadn’t fallen into this medical assistant job.

Paralegal.

I’ve always talked about wanting to be a paralegal. I LOVE research and to me, it just sounds interesting and right up my alley. But I can’t waltz into an attorney’s office and apply for a paralegal job, I don’t have the knowledge, let alone the experience, to do that. And do I really want to spend a few years taking paralegal classes when I only have about nine working years left? Sure, eventually, the investment of going to school might pay off but for how long? Six, seven years? It might take me that long to pay off my student debt. (Because unlike progressives out there – I don’t take out debt and then expect someone else to pay it off – thank you very much).

But I didn’t give up. I kept on digging and I settled on plan B.

This is the logo I created for my documents

Legal secretary.

So, I applied for a legal secretary job on Indeed.com. I wasn’t expecting much, it was sort of an experiment, but when I had to take an assessment test as part of the application process and not only had ZERO clue what I was doing but no idea what the multiple answer options even were, I knew I was in way over my head.

That pushed me to dig a little more. I started researching educational programs to learn more about the duties of a legal secretary. I mean, 85% of my current job is administrative duties, I’m no stranger to office etiquette, phone skills and of course, I can write, how hard could this be, right?

But here’s where it gets dicey. There are A LOT of places out there to take legal secretary classes but my question was, how reputable were they? And I certainly didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars just so I would have a plan B for whatever happens in October.

I researched for weeks and finally stumbled across the Center for Legal Studies (CLS). This is not a sponsored post, I’m simply letting you know this is who I settled on. What really sold me about this program was that CLS partners up with sponsor schools in every state. They have two partnered schools in Missouri, both of which are reputable universities. So my certificate would be from a university and seem more plausible than some out-of-the way, obscure company that no one has heard of and who might not even be in existence next year.

Now. How was I going to sell this crazy idea to Kevin? Again, this is my backup plan B – I will likely not actively pursue this option unless the hospital doesn’t grant my religious exemption request in October, so it’s not a sure thing. Just a maybe thing. And though the class wasn’t as much as I anticipated, it’s not chump change, either.

Kevin and I talked and he was surprisingly on board with this idea. He’s been wanting me to quit the hospital for quite some time and ultimately, he persuaded me to enroll.

I’m currently taking the class now. In fact, I have homework and a quiz to complete before 7:00 PM tomorrow night and yet, here I am …

The class is entirely online and it’s seven weeks long. I’m currently in my fourth week. It’s not hard, and it doesn’t really even take that long, but I’m learning a lot. The legal world is a whole new world. You wouldn’t think there would be much involved when it comes to being a legal secretary but there is actually a lot to know.

Quizzes are open book, thank goodness. Their reasoning is because in the real world, you would have loads of resources at your fingertips to look things up and I appreciate their real-world approach.

I’m taking this class seriously, but I don’t have a do or die approach to it. It’s actually nice not to get too stressed about it because honestly, I just want to get a passing grade, I’m not looking to be the best in my class; I just want to know enough that I don’t make a fool of myself if (when) I have to start interviewing.

There are a surprising number of legal assistant/secretary job openings on Indeed.com so I’m not terribly worried about finding something if (when) I have to start looking. I’ve already been looking at dress clothes and trying to put an interview outfit together – just in case.

That is a major drawback to my plan B – clothing. I’m not going to lie, it’s been really nice to wear, in essence, pajamas to work for the past ten years. I’ll have to seriously step up my wardrobe game if I land a job in the legal field.

Here is my syllabus, in case you were curious:

Lesson One: Introduction to the American Legal System & Ethics
Lesson Two: Reception Duties, Correspondence, File Management & Filing Systems
Lesson Three: Calendar & Docketing, Fees, Billing & Accounting Practices
Lesson Four: Word Processing & Legal Document Preparation
Lesson Five: E-discovery, Computers in a Law Office
Lesson Six: Legal Secretary Practicum

Anyway. That’s my current distraction. I know I’ve been pretty quiet on my blog lately but I’ve had a lot on my mind. I’ll update you again after I complete the course and give you my final thoughts on the experience.

I feel LOADS better about potentially losing my job in the Fall now that I have a backup plan. I would rather keep my job – I get paid well and I’m comfortable – but if I have to find something else, at least I’ll be prepared.

Thanks for reading.

Reflections

February 2022 Reflections

February 28, 2022February 28, 2022 Karen

Feb 1: Pretty sure Kevin had COVID. He will swear up and down he didn’t have it, but I’m pretty sure he did. It started with LeRoy. He was pretty sick for a few days and then BAM, Kevin came down with something. He would alternate between being super cold, like teeth chattering, couldn’t bear to get out of bed cold, to sweating, like, we had to change his sheets because he sweat THROUGH them sweating – this went on for several days. He slept an entire weekend. Which is HIGHLY unusual for him. I have to FORCE him to slow down most of the time. And he said he felt like he was swallowing razor blades. Which I knew to be a symptom of Omicron as a girl at work at the exact same symptoms. It took him nearly a week to really get back on his feet though it really took him like two weeks before he finally started feeling like himself again. I, however, did not get sick. And that makes sense to me because I’m 99% sure I had COVID in April 2021. It could have been the Delta variant but honestly, who knows. All I know is that I have natural immunity and the fact that I didn’t get sick when Kevin got sick only confirms it in my mind. He seems to be fine now. Thank God.

Kevin finally, finally, got a regular mattress. He’s been sleeping on an air mattress for about … ten-ish years and no, I’m not exaggerating. He insisted it was comfortable. I’m sure it was otherwise he wouldn’t have put up with it for so many years. But we bought a mattress in a box and he’s been really happy with it and wonders why we hadn’t gotten him one earlier. *cough-never-listens-to-me-cough*

I’m happy to report that Blake is using the air fryer regularly and it warms my heart that he’s eating more than Ramen noodles.

Feb 2: Bad weather rolled in. Scrambled to turn the clinic’s patients to Telemedicine visits – that’s always stressful, especially when done at the last minute.

Feb 3: Got six inches of snow. And being the dummy that I am, I went to work. I’m kicking myself for not calling in. And I’m not the sort of person who ever, EVER, does that, but come on, the streets were TERRIBLE and if enough people called in they would have had no choice but to close the clinic. The thing is, our clinic NEVER closes. And I know what you’re thinking, “but Karen, you’re in health care, how can you close??” Because our clinic is an outpatient ELECTIVE clinic, we’re not emergency. Our clinic is not set up to handle emergency situations so even if there were an emergency you know what we would tell patients? Go to the emergency room! So annoyed with that whole situation.

Feb 5: Had a hair appointment today. I go about every 12 weeks for a trim and to get my roots touched up. I asked her to go a shade lighter this time – my theory is – if I gradually go lighter, then maybe my grays won’t be AS noticeable. I have naturally dark hair which means it’s VERY obvious whenever my grays grow in. I also had about four inches cut off the length. I would love to go shorter, like bob short, but I’m not there, yet. And I would love to wear my hair down but with the cold weather, it’s been so dry and there has been SO MUCH STATIC ELECTRICITY! I brush my hair and it’s like POOF, instant poodle. So annoying.

Feb 6: I’m pretty sure I’m a YouTube addict. It’s disgusting and I’m disgusted with myself. I WILL cut myself off. I want to start writing political articles and posting them on Locals – I also have an idea for a story series that I want to post on Kindle Vella – what am I waiting for??

Feb 7: Trained a new girl at work today. She’s sharp and catching on fast.

Feb 9: It was a good day in clinic. Everyone seemed to be in a decent mood and the clinic ran well. Days like this makes me wonder if I’m making the right decision in looking for another job. I look at my work family and I think, “I’m going to miss their faces.” But with that said, I’m seriously kicking around the idea of signing up for a Legal Secretary class. I researched and agonized over it for weeks and the bottom line is – I don’t want to work in healthcare anymore. The COVID response killed any feeling I had toward it and I’m worried this season’s flu vaccinations, which I can’t get out of, I tried last year and my religious exemption was denied, will be built with mRNA and there is no way in hell I’m putting that crap in my body. I haven’t signed up for it yet, though. Because it will cost $1000 to take the class and if I’m going to do this, then I have to commit to it and … I’m having trouble committing.

Feb 10: I finally bit the bullet and went to see an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) doctor today for my vertigo. Suffice it to say, it was a COLOSSAL waste of time and I will not be going back. (More on that later). I can definitely see why patients get disillusioned and upset when they go to see a doctor now. And remember, this is coming from someone who NEVER goes to the doctor so the fact that the one time I go to the doctor and feel like it was a waste of time only solidifies my determination not to go to the doctor.

Feb 12: Boys came over for dinner and I cooked Baked Pasta – it’s one of our favorites. Kevin is not the biggest fan of the recipe because it reminds him of his motorcycle accident – so it triggers him a bit. But the boys love it and we always have a bunch of left overs for them to take home. We then played a game of Forbidden Island afterward – which is a collaborative game where we all have to work together to collect the four treasures before the island sinks. Super fun and highly recommend if your family is into games.

By the way, here is the Baked Pasta recipe if you’re interested:

_______________________________________

1 16oz package of dry pasta (we buy the tube-shaped pasta)
1 pound of ground beef
1 28oz jars of spaghetti sauce
6oz sliced provolone cheese
1 1/2 cups of sour cream
6oz of mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese

Cook pasta about 9 minutes in a large pot of salted water. Combine cooked meat and spaghetti sauce and simmer 15 minutes.

Preheat over to 350 degrees.

In a lightly greased baking dish, place about half the pasta, top with a layer of provolone and mozzarella. Spread half of the spaghetti sauce mixture and layer all the sour cream. Next, cover with remaining half of pasta, remaining half of provolone and mozzarella and remaining half sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan.

Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

_______________________________________

You’re welcome.

Officially became addicted to Wordle. I play it every morning before work and Brandon and I compare notes on who many tries it took for us to guess the word. So fun.

Feb 14: My work family exchanged little gifts. T, my nurse, “made” us play this gift exchange, (though everyone actually seemed to enjoy it). We all jotted down a few of our favorite snacks and then our “Valentines” gifted us our snacks. I had K, our medical secretary, and H, our mid-level had me. As usual, she went overboard and I got a bunch of yummy snacks. It was a fun way to start the day.

Kevin and I didn’t do anything for Valentine’s day. Want to know why? Because every day should be Valentine’s day. You should show your love every day.

I did it. I bit the bullet and signed up for the Legal Secretary class. It sort of made me sick to actually sign up, but we’ll have it paid off in six months. It’s a seven week class and it starts March 7th – all online. (More on that later).

Feb 17: Heard back from the law firm I applied to – of course they rejected me. I would reject me too, I don’t know the first thing about what document to file for such-and-such situation. (I’ll elaborate more on this soon).

Feb 18: Got my Legal Secretary handbook today. *Squee!*

Feb 19: Kevin’s phone finally died. I’ve been after him to buy a new phone for years and now, he doesn’t have a choice. He ended up buying a Motorola, which to be honest, I didn’t even realize they still made Motorola phones.

We’re on the lookout for a gas 250 truck. Maybe a Dodge Ram? We need something a little bit bigger than our Ford 150 to haul the cargo trailer. We sure miss the diesel truck we had but diesels are too complicated. No thanks.

Feb 20: I’m currently addicted to Chinese dramas, this one specifically. Girl, don’t ask me why. I’m fascinated about the whole first, second wife, concubine hierarchy. It is not helping me kick my YouTube addiction.

Feb 21: Kevin text me that Carnival Cruise ships were no longer requiring face masks. GREAT. Still not going on a cruise until this COVID scamdemic goes completely away. If ever.

Feb 22: More bad weather today – got quite a bit of sleet. Weirdly enough, it was easier to get around in the sleet than it was during the 6 inches of snow we had.

Kevin’s phone arrived today! He’s a happy camper.

Feb 23: Completely gobsmacked. The girl I was training, who I thought was a rock star and was excited for her to start because she would have been SO good, told us she was going back to her old position. I caught up to her later and asked her, point blank, if I had done something to scare her off, (because let’s face it, I’m a bit overbearing – *cough*), and she assured me it wasn’t me, it was our manager. We’ve been having all sorts of issues with our nurse manager making boneheaded decisions and she’s pretty much pissed everyone off in the clinic. The new girl didn’t want to work under a manager like that and quite frankly, I can’t blame her. But still, I was heart broken. She would have been perfect for the job.

Russia invaded Ukraine. Awesome. That idiot in the White House is going to drag us into a war. The 2022 mid-terms can’t get here fast enough. Let’s hope we can regain the House and Senate back and try and slow this mofo down.

Feb 26: Made a run to Hobby Lobby and took advantage of a 50% sale. I bought some stickers and some washi tape for my journal. Yes. I’m still bullet journaling – this is my third year. I swear, this thing is the only thing keeping me sane right about now. And if anyone ever gets a hold of it, I’m screwed.

TBR

February and March To-Be-Read Stack

February 27, 2022 Karen

Yes, I’m a little behind in my posting. But to catch you up, here are the books I read in February and the TBR list for March. ___________________________________________________ You can see my book ratings on my Goodreads account. I have currently read 5 books out of 55. Moving on, here is my February TBR stack:

Bad Cruz by L. J. Shen
Don’t Look Now by Mary Burton
The Wrong Woman : An addictive and gripping psychological thriller by Daniel Hurst
The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis
Edge of Madness: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Survival Thriller by Kyla Stone

I don’t know how much time I’m going to have to read in March and April – I’m taking a class. WHAT?!? What sort of class, you ask? Well, you’ll have to stay tuned – I’ll explain more soon. I’ve been very …. restless lately. I’m ready for a change. I’ve been confused and angry – I’m still angry, but not as confused. I have a plan and I feel better, but the question is, can I make this work?!? Only time will tell. In the meantime – I have a bookclub on Goodreads if you’re interested. I have all of March’s books listed on the bookshelf and if you would like to join and read what’s on the bookshelf, PLEASE DO. I may not be able to comment on all of the books, but I created this bookclub for people who want to voice their thoughts about the story, how it was written and how it made them feel after reading it. I hope you’ll join me over there. The URL is https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/138130-dear-reader If that link doesn’t work, then sign into your Goodreads account and type in Dear Reader under the Groups section of the site, that should bring it up. Anyway – Spring is around the corner! _________________________________________________ You can tell which book I’m currently reading by the Goodreads widget in the sidebar. I’m all about Kindle e-books. I’m a hard core e-book reader. I haven’t read an actual book in quite a long time and I find that when I hold an actual book, it feels large and clunky. I much prefer my Kindle e-reader than an actual book. With that said, I get all of my books from Kindle Unlimited – I rarely, if ever, spend money on a book – it all goes into the $10 dollars a month I pay for Kindle Unlimited. So, if you’re interested in reading lesser known authors and want to save a ton of money in books, join me! I rarely read anything lower than a four-star review on Goodreads – I’ve come to trust the reviews of Goodreads readers. I stopped reading for a long time simply because every book I read was stupid, or disappointing and ultimately, a waste of time. (I feel the same with movies – haven’t watched movies, or TV, in about a year). I’ve had great luck sticking to this philosophy and most of the books I read are pretty good. You can see my book ratings on my Goodreads account. I have currently read 10 books out of 55. Moving on, here is my March TBR stack:

Put Me in Detention by Meghan Quinn
The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis
Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover
Quicksilver by Dean Koontz
Blind Conviction (The Nate Shepherd Legal Thriller Series Book 3) by Michael Stagg

Happy Reading!

Work Stuff

Living with COVID

January 16, 2022 Karen

So how is work going?

Glad you asked. I mean, it’s still the same shit show, but I’m glad you asked.

I’m writing about this primarily because I don’t want to forget this time period because I firmly believe we’re living history, (more so than usual), and future generations will look back on this time period, shake their heads and say, “what a bunch of fearful morons.” If you’re all for COVID vaccines, boosters, (1 through … ?), vaccine passports, magnetic chips implanted in your skin, (mark my words, that’s coming – or is it already here?), do not read any further. It will just piss you off.

However, if you’re curious to hear what the “other” side thinks and can absorb the information without the top of your head blowing off, by all means, read on, my friend. I don’t want angry comments, emails, looks or cold shoulders, either virtually, or in real life, because I gave you fair warning. I would hope you’re capable of digesting information, where ever that information comes from, and making up your own mind.

I’m simply sharing my thoughts, feelings and experiences as I see them through my unique lens.

Now that my disclaimer is out of the way …

For those just tuning in, I opted out of the COVID vaccine. I am one of those *GASP* unvaccinated people. Or, as I like to affectionately call myself, a “pure blood.” (I saw someone label the “unvaccinated” this on Twitter and I like it – I am hence known as a “pure blood”).

Does this mean I’m anti-vaccine? Does this mean I’m a racist? A bigot? A white Supremist? Or any other labels the crazed, zombie-like pro-COVID vax people like to label people who disagree with them?

Of course not. It simply means what it means – I’m against THIS particular vaccine. I have questions and nothing makes sense. And the more Big Tech squashes the ability to TALK about it, the more suspicious and the more determined I am to NOT COMPLY.

And if I didn’t work where I work, I wouldn’t even think about COVID unless I was out in public and saw the occasional fearful sap still wearing a mask, but alas, I work in healthcare …

NEED I SAY MORE?!

Okay, I’ll say more. Since I work as a medical assistant in neurosurgery, I am quite literally surrounded by COVID every minute of every work day. And I get it, it’s healthcare and there are people in the hospital with COVID, though the numbers and statistics are a little blurry as it’s never disclosed the percentage of people that were admitted with COVID and the number of patients that were admitted for something else but tested positive for COVID, but numbers, statistics, and common sense do not matter nowadays. It’s all about stoking the fear and keeping this narrative going at all costs.

How and why am I still there?

Good question. I honestly don’t know. To catch you up, to give you the cliff notes version, the hospital mandated the vaccine. I turned in a religious exemption, was denied, turned my resignation in, then found out a co-worker had her religious exemption approved, re-worded my exemption request and was approved.

But a condition of them accepting my religious exemption, I have to take a test every week until … infinity, I guess.

Luckily, it’s a sputum test, not a Qtip up the nose test. And I’ve been doing this since November 1st. If I tested positive, I would be out for two weeks before I was permitted to return to to work.

Then the CDC shortened the requirements to seven days, and now it’s down to five days out. If I’m out, I have to use my vacation pay. *shrug* Okay, fine.

So far, so good. I haven’t tested positive. Things are good-ish. Or as good-ish as could be considering I’m one of two people in the entire clinic that feels pretty strongly against the COVID vaccine, but whatever, conversations pop up, I walk away.

Not that big of a deal.

And then, along comes Omicron. The little wannabe virus that people tried very hard to make into Delta 2.0. Thankfully, it wasn’t (isn’t) as deadly as it’s cousin mutation. But you know, we can’t be thankful for small reprieves because those don’t fit the narrative and negates Biden’s desperate attempt to bully people into getting the vaccine. Sure, Omicron is contagious, even more so than Delta, but it’s only as severe as a bad cold if someone catches it.

For most people, there are always exceptions, of course,

I’m thoroughly convinced, though don’t have anything to back this up, that I had COVID in April 2021. I lost my sense of taste/smell for two weeks and felt like warm death. It could have been a sinus infection and I thought it might have been at the time and asked Dr. M’s mid-level to call me in some antibiotics, which she was kind enough to do, and I felt better almost immediately. I will, at some point, get my antibodies tested because I want to know FOR SURE if that’s the case.

But I think it might have happened and I think I have natural immunity. Nearly everyone around me at work has tested positive for the Omicron variant, or COVID, in the past two weeks. Everyone completely freaked out and we had a lot of people out sick, though some people were asymptomatic.

I was fully expecting to test positive last week as I did feel poopy and I was around a lot of people who tested positive, but my test came back negative.

I was a little bummed, not gonna lie. I was looking forward to being off work for a bit. And who knows what this week’s test will show, but for now, I seem to be in the clear.

I feel like I’m spinning a Roulette wheel every week … round and round she goes, where she stops, no one knows! It’s exhausting and quite frankly, I’m over it and could give two shits any more. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, then it doesn’t. My life will go on regardless of mass hysteria that I’m surrounded with every day.

And speaking of hysteria, we have to start wearing a special mask next week. It’s thicker and I’m REALLY looking forward to not breathing for a while. Even more so than now. We’ve been wearing masks everyday since April (?), May (?) of 2020, when this nightmare started, but we could wear cloth masks or medical-grade masks that were at least comfortable enough to breathe in, but now, we have to wear something the thickness of a Kotex maxi pad.

Sexy.

I’ve checked out. I’m not invested in this “pandemic” any more. I think the worse is over and the variants will never go away. We must learn to live with it. I’m just patiently waiting for the government and the medical community to finally realize it.

I wouldn’t say I don’t care about my job anymore but I definitely care LESS. I’m now a passive observer – I’m on the outside, looking into a big picture window dispassionately watching the chaos inside. I already feel like we, as in the human race, have lost a few years to this parasite, I refuse to lose any more time because of it. Life is too short to begin with, I refuse to participate any longer.

What does that mean, exactly? I’m not sure, to be honest. I’m keeping my options open. I’m biding my time, I suppose, just waiting to see how this madness shakes out.

I will say, I’m very encouraged to hear about the Supreme Court upholding the Constitution and striking down the mandate for employers. It was really the only conclusion they could have come up with and thank God for the Constitution – places like Canada and Australia don’t have a Constitution and look what sort of shape they’re in.

So, at least I won’t have to worry about addressing the vaccine topic with another employer and any employer that decides to go ahead and mandate it anyway, (I’m looking at you Starbucks – tyrannical weirdos), wouldn’t be someplace I would want to work, or shop, anyway.

I feel like I’m walking a tightrope and any wrong move will cause me to fall off into an unknown abyss. It’s not exactly a pleasant experience, or a great place to be right now.

Distancing myself from this madness has been difficult, but it’s also been … therapeutic. I look around and I feel sorry for people who continue to listen to the propaganda and continue to put their trust in people, or organizations, that could care less about them. This whole pandemic, after information started coming in and it was apparent that the government and Big Pharma were pushing an agenda, has been nothing but an attempt to control people and make massive amounts of money – both by Mr. Science himself, aka Dr. Fauci, and Congress.

If that’s not enough to convince you that something fishy is going on, just look around you. People that are getting this Omicron variant are both vaccinated, and unvaccinated. This even includes people that have been boosted.

Wait a minute, I thought the vaccines were designed to prevent you from getting sick?

No? Oh right, they are supposed to prevent you from being REALLY sick and having to go into the hospital.

But the booster protects you, right?

Well. Sort of. They may protect you for about ten weeks.

These vaccines and boosters that the government and the healthcare industry tout as IMPORTANT and VITAL to protecting you from COVID are a short-term band aid, apparently. Because they appear to lose their effectiveness after so many weeks and then a new variant comes out and OOPS, the vaccines are now not effective at all but never fear! We have a booster that will do the job – maybe – for a short time, at least.

It’s madness. Sheer madness that we keep falling for this rhetoric. And what’s even more maddening is that we can’t even TALK about prophylactics, such as alternative medications or treatments that can help prevent serious illness, or focus on living and choosing more healthy choices – getting fresh air, taking vitamin D and Zinc supplements, to name a few alternatives.

Nope. You can’t even MENTION these things without people rolling their eyes and labeling the people wanting to talk about these options as “conspiracy theorists.”

Hate to break it to you folks, but the “conspiracy theorists?” Have been right so far. Maybe it’s time to take off the blinders and take a good, honest look at the bigger picture here – we’re being lied to.

COVID is real, folks, I’m not disputing that. What I am disputing is the narrative surrounding it. It has gotten so convoluted and complicated that people don’t know what to believe anymore. And since most people have not been taught to critically think for themselves and do not possess common sense – there are a lot of confused people out there.

My advice? Get your news from multiple sources. Both for and against the narrative. Look around. Pay attention. What do your eyes tell you? What is happening in your area? Take everything you see and hear with a grain of salt and understand that everyone, EVERYONE, has an agenda or biases.

Yes. Even me.

Here is a good summary of what we’ve been experiencing thus far with Omicron. I’m not the biggest fan of ZDoggMD – he’s alt middle-ish – but he does a fairly good job of trying to stay as neutral as he can in explaining the crap information we’re being fed.

Key points:

Hospitalizations vs cases vs deaths – Omicron is more contagious but it’s not as deadly than Delta. This is good news! This would be the variant you would want to get to build immunity. There are many cases, but very few deaths – again – GOOD NEWS! I wish the media would focus on that instead of cases implying that equates death – it does not. However, as I mentioned people are not critically thinking about this information, they are simply reacting to the media’s message.
It’s refreshing to hear him even TALKING about natural immunity. This is a topic that needs to be talked about more – it’s NOT the jab and nothing else.
Love how he describes masking and the temperature “guns” theater. Because that’s what it is, folks, theater. It’s primary function is to make people feel like they are doing SOMETHING when in actuality, there is very little we can do other than try and stay as healthy as we can, washing our hands, not touching our faces until we wash our hands, avoid touching high traffic areas – elevators buttons, door handles, stay away from people who are coughing, eat better, get more sleep, take vitamins and supplements. But we can’t talk about that stuff, right?
Hospitals filling up this time of year. Yes, he’s absolutely right. Hospitals traditionally fill up during the cold/flu season. I would also be interested in knowing the number of influenza cases, on average, that are hospitalized each year. COVID comes around and suddenly influenza disappears? Hardly, and yet, we can’t talk about that. Why?? Also – hospitals are not filling up because they don’t have beds, they are filling up because they don’t have the STAFF to take care of those beds. And why don’t they have the staff? Because the asswipes fired a lot of people by taking their bodily autonomy away. Genius move, idiots.
“We’re not testing everyone for what genotype they have.” Which affirms what I’ve always said all along – how do they KNOW that you have Delta or Omicron if they’re not testing for that specific strain? Which, I suppose doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, you tested positive for a COVID strain, but knowing for certain which strain someone has would definitely change the numbers and like he said, knowing which strain someone has would tell doctors what kind of treatment would work best as opposed to just throwing everything at the wall and hoping something sticks.
Mass psychosis formation – absolutely, 100% this is happening. People are being told what to do and they are going along with it because it’s easier to do so. It’s MUCH harder to resist that “norm” and say, “this is not right for me, thanks.” I know this firsthand. However, ZDogg is right again – this mass psychosis goes both ways and even if you disagree with the majority, it doesn’t mean YOU’RE right either. That’s why it’s so important to get both sides of the story – get your information from multiple sources, not just the side you support, to avoid falling into this trap yourself. Get all the information, analyze this information, then make the best decision for your and your family. And then everyone else? BUTT OUT. It’s none of your business what someone else does, or doesn’t do. If you’re that worried, again, make adjustments. Buy N95 masks, get your tenth booster, stay home and cower in fear. You do you, I’ll do me. Easy.
Adverse reactions to the vaccine are not happening … in the San Francisco Bay area. That’s the key here, ZDogg. This does not mean this stuff is not happening elsewhere and it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen at all. It simply means you’re not hearing about it, personally. And you have to wonder, the cases you are hearing about, are they because of COVID or was something else happening? And how many cases are we NOT hearing about? The bigger concern, is that we’re not talking about it!! That we’re not ALLOWED to talk about it because any time you start to question, or have some sort of conversation about it, Big Tech kicks you off and censors you. Hell, even Biden appealed to Big Tech the other day about doing a better job of squashing “misinformation.” Which loosely translates to – information that harms the overall narrative. It’s happening and it’s real.
Also – the fact that all of this is happening makes me suspicious – what is really going on here? I think these vaccine passports are about much more than COVID. It’s a way to track you and ultimately control what you can, and cannot do. Go ahead, roll your eyes – I hope I’m wrong, but what if I’m not?
BE IN THE BEST POSSIBLE SHAPE YOU CAN BE FOR YOUR DATE WITH OMICRON. Amen. I 100% agree. Get it. Move on.

So, with all of that said, here are some sites I get my news if you’re looking for some alternative news. If you’re still watching CNN, MSNBC, etc., the “traditional” news sources, okay, but consider ALSO getting your news from other sources, too. What are you missing? What is not being said? What is being said too much?

WND.com
News Coup (Alternative to Drudge Report)
The Daily Wire
Louder with Crowder
You Are Here
Gab

I’m also on Twitter a lot. I know, Twitter is the devil, but again, I’m not interested in hanging out with like-minded people, I want to know what people who don’t think like me are thinking. It’s important.

And that’s my life right now. I never know what is going to happen week by week and I’ve come to be okay with that. What choice do I have? I’m hoping the craziness is about over, but maybe not. And if not, then I’ll re-assess my life, again. Because I don’t want o spend my last working years, (I only have about nine working years left), having to stress, or fight, for my right to do what I want with my own body.

I hope you’re all doing well and I hope your working life will get better now that the Supreme Court blocked Biden’s stupid mandates, unless you’re in healthcare, like I am and if that’s the case, do what is right for you and your family. That’s all you can do and people can either take it, or not.

Be healthy, friends.

Author: Karen

Cargo Trailer Glamping – Trip #3 – Cooper Creek