Author: Karen
Hi! My day job is a CMA in the Precertificiation Department (I work with insurance companies). I'm a mom to two young men. I've been married to the same man for 34 years. I have a lot to say about nothing. Lucky you.
My Last Day at My Desk
I’m hoping this will be my last day.
Not with this company, (though there are days … moments … seconds that that doesn’t cross my mind), but at my desk.
Since I sit at the first desk that patients come to as they’re exiting the clinic area, I naturally help the most patients. On a four doctor day, it’s not unusual for me to help 30 patients ON TOP of the 15 voicemails I receive and the 15 flags I receive from the doctors’ nurses that I’m responsible for taking care of as well.
I’m currently responsible for 3 doctors- it’s overwhelming. I can’t maintain this pace indefinitely and I’ve expressed my … frustrations to my management.
It wasn’t until recently that I felt like a light bulb went off in their heads and they finally understood what I’ve been telling them for the past month.
So. We had yet another meeting yesterday (*sigh*) and today should, SHOULD, be the last day I’m at this desk. And we have three doctors today. So I will still end the day more behind than when I started it.
But. I will be sitting in the peach pit tomorrow (i.e. Triage area) answering calls and training the other MA’s to do the job that me and the other schedulers have been doing, and they will train me, and the other schedulers, MA duties.
Then next week, I will either be with a doctor or in the peach pit.
I will be kissing my desk, and my old job, goodbye.
At least, that’s the plan.
Let’s hope we all stick to the plan.
Faith-Based: Satan is a Parasite and a Counterfeiter
Thus he and his purposes are actually defined by a proper understanding of God and His purposes. Satan’s character and his purposes are diametrically opposed to God’s. The Devil especially tries to undermine man’s perception of God’s goodness by afflicting the righteous while prospering the ungodly. His deception is geared to obscure both God’s good works and his own nefarious schemes, and to confuse people as to the difference between good and evil (Isa. 5:20).
Remember that it works to the Devil’s advantage if he can confuse people about God’s goodness. Let’s take Mr. Noah Nuttin, who wrongly thinks that God is in control of both good and evil. Mr. Nuttin knows two people who sin in the same way (lying, stealing, adultery, etc.,— the type of sin does not matter). One of them suffers evil in his life and the other one suffers nothing, or worse, appears to profit from the sin. Is Mr. Nuttin confused about God? Absolutely. Does Mr. Nuttin think that God is a fair and righteous judge? No. Does Mr. Nuttin have an understanding upon which his faith (trust) in God can grow? No. Score another run for the Devil. Mr. Nuttin would not have been confused about the situation had he been properly taught what the Word of God says about the real cause of evil, sin and suffering.
One of Satan’s goals in his seemingly random affliction of people (and his corresponding distortion of God’s written Word) is to make it seem as if God is judging and punishing people now. He wants not only to blind people to God’s abundant goodness, grace and mercy, but also to convince them that God is unfairly, unpredictably and almost gleefully vindictive. From our perspective of contemporary Christian theology, he has pretty well succeeded. 
An excerpt from the book Don’t Blame God! A Biblical Answer to the Problem of Evil, Sin, and Suffering.
I dig knowledge. In all realms – religion included. I’m not satisfied with someone simply telling me what to believe, what to do, how to live my life, I prefer to go back to the original source, absorb information from all sources and come to a logical, common sense conclusion myself. I have a brain, I’m not afraid to use it.
So articles like these? Are right up my alley.
Perhaps they will bless you, too.
Read many, many more articles like this on the Truth or Tradition website.
Remember the Constitution? Yeah, About That …
Don’t Touch Me
A Facebook friend posted a link to this story:
I’ve been a massage therapist for many years now. I know what people look like.
People have been undressing for me for a long time. I know what you look like: a glance at you, and I can picture pretty well what you’d look like on my table.
Let’s start here with what nobody looks like: nobody looks like the people in magazines or movies. Not even models. Nobody. Lean people have a kind of rawboned, unfinished look about them that is very appealing. But they don’t have plump round breasts and plump round asses. You have plump round breasts and a plump round ass, you have a plump round belly and plump round thighs as well. That’s how it works. (And that’s very appealing too.)
Woman have cellulite. All of them.
It’s dimply and cute. It’s not a defect. It’s not a health problem. It’s the natural consequence of not consisting of photoshopped pixels, and not having emerged from an airbrush.
Though I can appreciate the message behind this post: no one is perfect – we all have imperfections. Embrace your bodies, flaws and all, blahblahblah …
I can’t get past the whole “massage” thing. I can’t get past the whole “touching” me thing.
I’ve never done a massage. I have NO DESIRE to have a massage, now, or ever. The thought of some stranger, no matter how well trained and impersonal, touching me – even the most innocent of touches, makes me want to hurl.
It literally makes me shudder to think about it. I’m literally writing this while shuddering with disgust. I can’t do it, I just can’t do it. I know me. I would never be able to relax, or even come close to enjoying a massage. And I know I would be counting down the minutes until the torture was over. And then I would be annoyed because I just spent money on something I did not enjoy and can’t wait to be over. And then I would leave even more tense than when I went in.
I can’t even stand going to the dentist, or the doctor, or the hair dresser ..
Want to keep that hand? Do. Not. Touch. Me.
I don’t like to be touched. I don’t even like Kevin to touch me very much, WHICH IS AN ISSUE WHEN YOU’RE MARRIED.
But after nearly 24 years of marriage, I’ve learned to deal with my issues when it comes to Kevin. And I’m telling you right now, Kevin is the ONLY person I would ever allow to touch me.
I’m not even a hugger. I don’t like to hug. I don’t like to be in other people’s personal spaces and I get DEFENSIVE when someone is in my personal space.
I’m sure there is a psychological reason for my distaste. I’m sure it likely stems from my childhood, in fact, I’m pretty sure where it stems from, but that’s not something I wish to share with the Internet. Ever.
So yes. I agree our bodies are imperfect and we shouldn’t spend an insane amount of time obsessing on those imperfections, but I’m more grossed out by the thought this guy voluntarily touches all of those imperfect bodies on a nightly basis. (Nothing against this particular guy – I’m sure he’s very nice and very good at what he does, it’s me. And my issue).
Just .. yuk.
I realize I’m in the minority on this and yes, I’m weird. This is not surprising.
Remember the Topsy-Turvy Tool?
Yeah, me too. I got mine in the mail on Saturday and wore my hair like this to work today.
I’m on a mission to bring the 80’s hair styles back … pass the hairspray, will ya?
Next: Trying to make this work on a side pony … ??
Rental House Tour
So. For those of you that don’t know – we bought the house across the street from us.
The previous tenant passed away and her house and belongings went to auction in late October of last year. Kevin and I went to the auction. Kevin hinted he wanted the house, but I didn’t take him too seriously. As soon as I walked into the house, I knew it would be a money pit. It was run down, dated and simply OLD. It would take quite a bit of money and elbow grease to bring it up-to-date.
I felt sad as I walked through the house and saw other people pawing through her stuff. I feel this way when I go to garage sales too … people judge and barter for other people’s junk, or in this case, this woman’s entire life.
The auctioneer was doing his thing and bit by bit, the woman’s belongings left the premises. I couldn’t watch anymore and I walked back home. Kevin said he would let me know when the house went up for auction because he planned on bidding on it. Part of me was terrified, but most of me didn’t think he would actually do it.
He not only bid on it, it came down to just him and one other guy. Luckily, he DIDN’T get it. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
The morning of my birthday, I saw a “FOR SALE” sign in the yard. I groaned and knew, KNEW, Kevin would jump on that. He did. He went over and talked the guy into a reasonable price and, well, wenow have a rental home to fix up. I’m still not sure why the guy wanted to sell the property so quickly after buying it. I was very suspicious (and still a little am, if you want the truth), but it’s a done deal now. The guy who originally bought it had his guys go in and tear up all the floors – ripped out the carpet and the linoleum in the kitchen. That alone probably saved us about $5,000. The bathrooms were the worst – blue tub, blue toilet, blue walls, blue/white tile … and the master bath even had some sort of funky bathroom wallpaper, complete with naked people – classy.
The first “we” (henceforth also known as Kevin) did was demo the bathrooms. The bathrooms were impossibly small and ill conceived, so Kevin reconfigured them so that both bathrooms would have a tub and a shower (as opposed to the master bath only having a shower) and set to work with his sledge hammer and demo’d the crap out of the bathroom walls and floors.
Here’s a video of the aftermath …
Kevin put an ad in Craig’s list for a contractor and we lucked out with a father/son combo that set to work on the house. They put in new tubs, toilets, tile, vanity (just one – you’ll see in the video) and tiled the showers. They did a really nice job and they look 110% better than they did.
Then they put new tile in the kitchen. Which again, looks pretty awesome.
However, if there was one thing (okay, one of the things) that bugged me most about this house? The cabinets. They’re solid oak cabinets and Kevin swears he would have sanded them down and re-stained them, and I’m sure he would have done a great job, but they’re butt ugly. I hated them on sight. And thinking as a women, I think they would have turned away potential renters because everything else in the house will be new, and then you have these gawd ugly, 50-year old cabinet eyesores.
So I talked Kevin into going to Lowe’s and just looking at cabinets. Then, when we found one we really liked, I talked him into just seeing how much they would cost. No frills, just straight cabinets. And then we found out they were having a 10% off their cabinets sale, and then we found out we could get an additional 5% off if we used the Lowe’s credit card and what if we knocked another $800 dollars off if Kevin took the cabinets out instead of the cabinet guy?
NOW the price is looking a little more attractive.
And we went for it. And I CAN’T WAIT to get those puppies in there – it is going to look soooo good! We (I) picked a dark cherry cabinet and with the creamy whitish tile and a creamy whitish backsplash with brand new black (because they’re cheaper) appliances, it’s going to look AWESOME to a potential renter.
Our contractor guys haven’t been by in several weeks. We couldn’t decide on the type of wood floor we wanted so we encouraged the contractor guys to take another job they had lined up and told them we would call them when we were ready for them to put the wood floors in.
We looked for about three week(end)s for something and finally, FINALLY, a saleswoman at Color Tile found this rich pecan wood that we both fell in love with immediately. We thought at first we wanted lighter wood in the house, but again, I finally wore Kevin down and we settled for a darker wood. (Kevin was worried the darker wood would look too dark in the room with fireplace, but I think (hope) it’ll look okay together). I know it’s going to look good with the kitchen tile …
So Kevin spent yesterday taking out the old cabinets. He put another ad on Craigslist and practically gave the cabinets away to the second person who came to look at them. But it worked out great because the guy is a pastor at a church and they will shine them up and put them in a little old lady’s home who was with the pastor when he came to look at them and acted like a kid on Christmas morning (according to Kevin – I was at work). We feel good they will have a good home, we saved money by not having the cabinet guy take them out and we made a little money on the side as well as helped out a woman.
We did good.
Here’s a video of the house as it stands now …
I’ll post more as we make more progress …
Write From Karen 