Tag: writing

Reflections

January 2025 Reflections

Karen

Jan 1

Boys and LeRoy came over last night. We played a few games of Lords of Waterdeep, (one of my all-time favorite board games), and watched Wayne’s World – a classically stupid movie. Slept until 8:00 this morning, fought a sinus headache for a bit this morning, then made myself take the Christmas tree down. I put it up early November so to say I’m sick of looking at it – yeah. Kevin took the outside lights down, too. It’s supposed to turn bitter cold this weekend and into next week, so it’s better just to get it done. I’m still hacking my fool head off, though I have been coughing up junk, (sorry – TMI but keeping it real here). I should get the antibiotics I ordered from the Family Pharmacy tomorrow. I’m still not sure if I’m going to take them as I’m not entirely convinced it’s a bacterial infection, but it’s been over a week now, I’m still pretty stuffed up, coughing and … it’s not going away if it’s bacterial. We’ll see. It IS nice to know that antibiotics are available without having to see a doctor. Just be careful with that – you don’t want to take too many antibiotics.

Jan 2

The antibiotics I ordered came in the mail today. They came in an orange bottle, just like if you had picked up the medication from the pharmacy – which, I suppose, shouldn’t have surprise me, I bought it from a pharmacy, for pete’s sake. I didn’t know what to expect, but it seemed pretty normal. I haven’t taken them – I’m still stuffy, but my snot is still clear (sorry – TMI), which means, I don’t think I have a bacterial infection and if it’s not bacterial, there is no reason for me to take antibiotics. But it’s nice to have them – it gives me peace of mind to know that I have them, just in case. I literally wore a hole in my fitted bed sheet. I ordered some new sheets from Amazon, they are supposed to be hotel quality – we’ll see. (P.S. – I actually really like them). I regret not buying the boys sheets and pillows for Christmas now. They’re guys – there’s no telling what kind of shape their bedding is in and that’s something we all hate to spend money on – most of us, anyway.

Jan 3

We were freaking busy today. Being the first of the year, and all of the insurance changes, we were kept quite busy running new insurance for testing. I have decided that I do not like working the first week of January – maybe I’ll take it off next year. Still haven’t taken the antibiotics …

Jan 4

Mom and I had our standing Saturday date. It was SO GOOD to see her! It had been two weeks due to us being sick – I didn’t want to get her sick because what ever I had, (maybe it was COVID, who knows, don’t care), I certainly didn’t want to pass it on to mom or the boys. We ate at Jimmy Egg, which is a breakfast/lunch place. I had the chicken quesadilla and it was delish! We will definitely be putting that restaurant into our Saturday rotation from now on. Went back to mom’s house, watched Survivor and crafted. Mom made some shortbread cookies with a dollop of blackberry jelly in the center – SO GOOD. My family has become her guinea pigs – she loves to try new recipes and I get to take home the goods afterward. Sometimes I share with the guys … sometimes not. hehe We talked a lot about going on a cruise – she would need to get a passport, first. She acts interested but, I’m not sure if we’re there yet. Close, but not yet. I asked her if she could go anywhere, where would she like to go? She chose Alaska. GOOD CHOICE!

Jan 6

Had a meeting with just me, the supervisors and the manager. She wanted me to show her an issue in our process that everyone insisted we continue to do because it made sense for our process when the Asst. Director of the department kept insisting we didn’t need to do it. It’s so frustrating to work with a management team that make “policies” that actually hurt our process and slow us down. It’s incredibly frustrating to work with a management team that do not truly get what we do and yet they think they know best on how we should do it. I like all of these ladies, don’t get me wrong, and I appreciate the opportunity to explain why we should continue to do this specific process to them, but overall, I feel like I have to fight just to do my job. I think I got through to our manager, maybe – we’ll see. The bottom line? I’m going to continue to do what I’m doing – screw it. I don’t care. It doesn’t make sense to change it. Since a number of flu cases have gone up, the hospital has implemented the mask policy for the nasty “unvaccinated” workers. I’m SO GLAD I’m not at the hospital right now. Such BS.

Jan 8

One of the supervisors used me as a guinea pig today. She wanted to test out a new “dot phrase” in an effort to make our documentation uniform and consistent. I’m all about this – it’s amazing how all over the board we are with our documentation and I’m sure it’s confusing and frustrating for the clinics to try and figure out what they are reading and get the information they need to take care of their patients. A dot phrase is a quick text – something that you can input, for example, type in .document and a pre-determined phrase comes up in the patient’s chart. This quick text is a template that we can fill in with the necessary information about the test that we ran through the patient’s insurance and let the offices know the outcome. I was also asked to be part of a “focus” group to help my co-workers navigate our new electronic medical record (EMR) system that the hospital is gearing up to start using in March of next year. It will be an EPIC change. (Epic is actually the name of our EMR we’re getting ready to switch to). Again – very honored to have been asked to do this – I think my Technical Writing skills will come in handy for this project. I won’t be writing anything, at least, I don’t think I will be, but taking information and regurgitating it into comprehensive information that the worker bees can understand … I’m pretty good at that. So – we’ll see. I have no idea what my involvement will look like, but I’m looking forward to getting involved. Left the house, for the first time in three days, to grab some Qdoba for lunch. It felt good to leave the house. Also – starting to seriously think/plan our vacation plans for 2025.

Jan 9

To my utter surprise, Kevin is not keen to go on a cruise this year. !! I was pretty shocked to hear him say that. I don’t think it’s the cruise, per se, I think it’s more the flying part that he doesn’t want to do. Flying is stressful, there’s no doubt about that. But still … no cruise?? Maybe I can convince mom to say yes to the cruise. She’s soooo close! I think it would be fun to go on a cruise and never leave the ship. Take a route that we’ve already done and I’m not really interested in seeing again, like the Western Carribean cruises – those ports are a little scary, not gonna lie, and instead of spending money on excursions, like we normally do, spend that money on a cabin upgrade, or on a VIP package where we have access to more private places on the boat – not open to the general public. I think that would be so fun! I’m just not sure if Kev would be up for it – when it actually came time and we were sitting in a port, I think he would feel like he was missing out on something by not leaving the ship. I don’t know, I’m not giving up on that idea. We’ll see. For now, we’re talking about maybe flying down to South Padre Island in Texas and staying in a cabin on the beach. It’s pretty expensive, but we’re seriously thinking about it!

Jan 10

We got 5 inches of snow today!

That’s the most we’ve gotten in a long time. If we get snow, it’s usually just a few inches and a lot of times, it’s not even snow we get, but ice. We get a lot of ice in my area of the country. Luckily, we only got the snow. Times like this is SOOOO NICE to work from home. I don’t have to worry/stress about getting out in this mess. It’s pretty, but only because I don’t have to get out in it. I opened my big mouth to my supervisor and offered to help her with other projects. She seemed pretty stressed about other teams needing some serious help and stupid me was like, “Hey! I can help!” So, of course, she took me up on that offer. I wish I could just be one of these employees that everyone forgets about – someone who just sort of lingers in the background, you know the ones – we all work with people like that. But alas – no – I have to open my big mouth. So – I will be helping Therapy fill out some paperwork to help them get caught up. It’s not hard, just fax some forms, but still … it’s okay – we’re really not that busy and I would rather stay busy. I text mom today to ask if she had found her birth certificate so we could get the passport process started. It was sort of a test to see how serious she was about us going on a cruise. To my UTTER surprise – she said she found it and it was in her purse! OMG!!!! We’re going on a cruise!!

Jan 11

I braved the elements, got out, picked up mom and me some nuggets and chili from Wendys and went to her house today. The roads actually weren’t that bad. The main roads are clear, just the side roads were a challenge. But the Jeep got around really well, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. (Did I tell ya’ll that we leased a Jeep??

Brand new, 2024 all blue Jeep. We leased her back in October for 3 1/2 years. Who knows if we’ll keep her after the lease is up – we’ve never done this before – call it a mid-life crisis splurge – OMG – I love driving her!! Yes – it’s a her. Use the correct pronouns, please. **SMIRK**). Mom was happy to see me. We watched our Survivor episodes and chit chatted about our cruise the rest of the time. Mom is going to make an appointment to apply for her passport at the post office. We did a lot of researching on my laptop together. She wants to go to Alaska, so now we’re looking at cruises to Alaska. Kevin and I took a cruise to Alaska about five-ish (?) years ago so I know what to expect. That ended up being one of our favorite cruises together. It’s funny, because when I first suggested Alaska to Kevin he wasn’t all the gung-ho about it but once we went, it ended up being one of his top three cruises. I jumped down a rabbit hole …. and bought a Traveler’s notebook. I’ve always wanted one. I just wish I had started this years ago … I could have had so many notebooks filled out with all our vacations and trips! Oh well, better late than never, I suppose.

Jan 22

What am I going to do when I retire? Kev asked me that today and honestly, I don’t have an answer. I like to work, I like the push to get something done, I like the mental stimulation. I like having a purpose and a goal. I love the feeling of accomplishment and the feeling of a job well done. I know me, I’m lazy. If I don’t have a goal, some deadline, something to work toward, I will spend countless hours in front of my computer watching gamers game, or jump down YouTube videos. (I have to mark “not interested” on YouTube shorts – otherwise, I spend HOURS just needless scrolling … ). Technically, I can retire in a little over two years. It would be nice to have my time back, but we would have to think of some options for health insurance since Kev is currently on my health insurance. Kev can get on Medicare in a few years, but I still have a ways to go for that. For now, I will likely continue to work, though, it will be nice to have the option of retiring at any time after 62. I don’t know – it’s something I need to seriously think about.

Jan 24

Crazy busy day today. Richelle was already off, April signed off after a few hours of starting because of a migraine, which left me and Cheri W until Cherie C and Lori clocked on at 12:30. And Fridays have not been quiet here lately. We were able to keep our heads above water, but it was a lot. We currently work 72 hours out, management is talking about adding more days on to our “window,” which means possibly working four or five days out. I’m all for it, we certainly have enough people. I’m ready to be busier.

Jan 25

One of mom’s friends text her to ask if we might want a “vintage” chest of drawers to either use or put in Kevin’s booths. I contacted Kev and he said he would take it so mom’s friend and her husband dropped it off at the house. Kevin still has three booths in the flea market. He toggles between wanting to keep them, downsize or get rid of them entirely, it IS a lot of work for him to go out several times a week to not only replenish his “inventory” but to make trips to his booths to rotate stock, add to his stock, etc. But believe it or not, he not only makes his rent every month, but he makes a tidy profit on top of that. He does pretty good business. Probably because he and LeRoy find some unique pieces and I think he has a reputation for selling interesting stuff. Mom and I have a “treat” after lunch every week. Usually, the person hosting makes muffins or cookies but this week we went to Hurt’s Donuts – we bought two donuts and it cost $6.00! What?! Uh – they were good, but not $6.00 good. Yeah, we won’t be doing that again. Wow.

Jan 26

Weather is looking decent for our trip to the Pinner’s Conference this weekend. It’s always a gamble to plan a road trip at the end of January – especially in the Midwest. Our weather is so unpredictable. I looked at my Hotels.com account and had a butt pucker moment – oh stop – you know what I’m talking about, those moments when your heart drops to your feet, because I didn’t see the hotel reservation on my account. I KNOW I booked it back in August or September. I called the hotel to confirm our reservation and they told me we were good to go – they had us booked. I then remembered that I had booked the hotel through Kev’s account and when I signed on to his account, yep, there it was. Whew!! Mom is really looking forward to this trip, if something had happened to our hotel then I would have to find another, more expensive alternative because there was no way we weren’t going to go.

Jan 27

Our department is downsizing, we have too many people and not enough work. I KNEW this was going to happen and I tried to tell management we didn’t need any more people, but of course, they didn’t listen. They are moving some people around to other groups and I think a few of them are quitting. I need to make myself indispensable so I have more control over my own “options.”

Jan 30

We’re heading to Pinner’s! I’ll write another post about that soon(ish).

Reflections

February 2024 Reflections

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? Also, I’m behind – again, anyone surprised?)

February 1:

So. In addition to being part of the UAT (Urgent Action Team), I will be continuing to help the VA department import their documents into patient’s chart, (not hard, in fact, it’s sort of mind numbing but it is time consuming), I will be part of another team – getting authorizations for patients who come to the hospital by ambulance and are being admitted to the hospital. They say the requests that come in for this particular group are intermittent and sporadic – some days it may be one, some days it may be six, but the point is, it’s another project I’ll be working on. And to be honest? I love it! Ha! Didn’t see that coming, did you? Well, hold on, let me clarify that statement, I’ll love it when I know what I’m doing. Right now? It terrifies me. However, that project won’t start until February 8th to give us some time to get semi-used to fully taking UAT over. I can do this … I can do this … I can do this …

February 2:

Gah! SOOOO hard to focus today! I only worked till noon. I don’t know if I was having a stroke, or what, but I could not focus on anything this morning. I know it’s because I was super distracted because I was going to pick mom up after work and we were driving to Overland Park, Kansas, but still. When I have days like this I can’t help but wonder – am I losing my mind? Is this early dementia? I need to stop thinking like that, I don’t want to manifest that to become true. After clocking off, I gathered my suitcase, loaded up the car and drove over to pick mom up. The weather was perfect – sunny and almost 70!! In February!! We were really blessed with great weather. After making sure mom’s house would still be standing when got back, (oven is off, etc), we got on the road. I love road trips. But I won’t bore you with recounting the story here, I’ve written about the entire weekend here.

February 5:

Today was hell incarnate. So. I sometimes check my email on Sunday nights just to clear it out so that I don’t clock on Monday with a handful of emails clogging my focus. When I signed on last night, I noticed that it was time to change my password – the hospital requires that you change it every six months. But it’s always a pain to change it because it takes a minute for the other programs to catch up and it causes some glitches. So, again, to avoid a messy Monday, I went ahead and changed my password. And I couldn’t get back into my programs. “Oh well”, I thought, “it will work itself out on Monday”. I signed on this morning at 7:30 and my programs still weren’t coming up, so I clocked on and called the Help Desk thinking, “Oh well, they’ll have this up and running by 8:00 AM.” It wasn’t until 3:00 today that something was decided, IT couldn’t figure it out. In the meantime, I’m literally sitting around all day waiting with bated breath for someone from IT to deem it necessary to reach out to me, (to be fair, they did a great job, it was just as frustrating for them as it was for me), and TODAY was the first day the UAT was up and running, SOLO. I felt so bad for my coworkers!!! They not only had to struggle to figure out a brand new process but now they had to cover my alphas, too. (I’ve been assigned the D-H’s). IT couldn’t figure it out so I told them I was going to go into the office, (which is conveniently located right across the street from the hospital which is also conveniently close to our house – not everyone is as lucky), to see if I could sign on and maybe, hopefully, get SOMETHING done. Because at this point IT didn’t know if it was my account, or my computer. I unplug my computer, because IT was going to meet me to pick it up and work on it and I go into the office. Which is always super awkward because we’re rarely there and people look at you like, “Who the heck are you?” Which … fair. I sit down, sign on and I’m able to access my programs! Okay, so it’s definitely my computer. I contact my IT guy and he advised me to plug my computer into the hospitals resources. I carefully figure out how to do that, (because I’m often technologically challenged) and the MoFo freaking works!!! So, apparently, IT said that once in a while, (and OF COURSE it happens with me), when a person works remotely the VPN disconnects from the hospital’s servers and you have to take your computer up the hospital to plug into their system directly for it to reconnect. That is what happened to me. So, Monday was completely wasted but at least I have my computer back and I can continue to work from home as opposed to having to go into the office until IT could fix my computer. There’s always a bright side!

February 6:

Today kicked my butt. Since I had computer issues yesterday today was my first full day of the new process and being solo and … wow. It really pushed my multi-tasking abilities to the limit. I ended up doing a lot of cases and that, at least, went pretty smoothly. However, as with any new process, we had a lot of work management wasn’t anticipating, so now everyone is scrambling to absorb this unexpected surprise and trying to compensate. I have to give management credit, though, they have been mega involved this entire process and we have a lot of support, that certainly helps.

February 7:

Worked 10 hours today. Got A LOT done but I’m brain dead. That is all.

February 8:

Had a butt-pucker moment today. (You know what I’m talking about – we all have butt-pucker moments, don’t lie). I’m figuring out that mornings are going to naturally be our busiest times. Which makes sense because the clinics are open, the doctors are cranking patients out and sending them for stat tests. It’s mid-morning and I’m like this cat meme:

When my supervisor messages me and asks if I can work on the ambulance transfer request that just came by email. CRAP! I forgot we were going to start taking that project over starting today. It couldn’t have come at a worse time. I was in the middle of things things, (for real, not exaggerating here), I had a meeting in 45 minutes and they wanted me to work on a process that I haven’t even had time to read the documentation for. Suuuuure. So, I flatly told my supervisor that I would have to tackle it after my meeting. (Sorry about the gif above – I wish it would shut off, it’s distracting, but it perfectly depicts my day). After my meeting, management, me and one of my UAT co-workers all worked through the process together and it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. But just add that fat, juicy morsel to my already overflowing plate of tasty job duties. *sigh*

February 9:

Just when I thought it COULDN’T possibly be busier … WRONG. I don’t know what happened today but I’m quite convinced that every single person in the city with the last name between D-H saw their doctor today because my inbox EXPLODED. Again, furiously working away, like that annoying cat gif above and by the time I clocked off at 5:30, (supposed to clock off at 4:30), my brain was M.U.S.H. I ended up working five hours overtime this week. I’m exhausted.

February 10:

Finally got my hair colored today. My hair dresser, actually, I’ve only been to her once but I think she’s the sweetest and we really hit it off, moved to another salon to be more independent, (good for her!), so I awkwardly walked into the place and acted like I owned, “Hello!”. That’s my go to – fake confidence, no one will know that you’re actually trembling inside. It was a great experience, she didn’t charge me as much, but I gave her a generous tip anyway, and I hope she sticks around. Good stylists are hard to find! I went over to mom’s afterward, my sister was in town, and we chit-chatted, worked on some crafts and went out to lunch and dinner. It was a fun day!

February 11:

Chores. Sundays are boring for me. I save all my housekeeping chores for Sundays because I just can’t be bothered during the week. Kevin got another part for the treadmill, this makes his fifth try, and though he’s closer to getting fixing it, (it’s not sucking power and causing the lights to flicker anymore), it’s still not working. He’s not giving up on fixing it, (Kevin is a BULL DOG when it comes to this kind of stuff), but he’s finally agreed to buying a new treadmill. So. We’ll start seriously looking, (I have my eye on one on Amazon), and make the leap. I’m ready. I NEED to walk again. I do WAAAY too much sitting.

February 12:

It snowed today! Big, fat, wet flakes. It was beautiful, really. And it was one of those days that I was really glad that I was working from home. It was nice to look out the window and not have to stress about getting out in it. But we were fortunate, it all melted off by the afternoon – my favorite kind of snow. Management is helping with our UAT flags. They are trying to figure out why we’re getting so many requests. And they are figuring out that there are some that are being sent to the pool that shouldn’t be. In essence, our pool is becoming a dumping ground for the crap that no one else wants to take care of. NOPE. Not happening and I will continue to point this crap out and bitch, in a professional way, until it stops. Not happening. Met mom and my sister for dinner after work at Fazoli’s. We ate, chatted, and laughed for two hours, it was nice. My sister goes back home tomorrow. Boo.

February 14:

Happy Valentine’s Day! Yeah, I don’t care. It’s not that I don’t care, per se, but my thinking is, every day should be Valentine’s day. You should show the ones you love how much you love them every day, not just a designated day of obligation. Anyway. My impressions of my co-workers: you can read that post here.

February 15:

And of COURSE, I was Voluntold to train one of the new UAT girls. We have two girls that are currently being trained for the job, one of them is doing great, the other one is not doing that great. Guess which one management stuck me with. *sigh* Why, WHY?!? But being the team player that I am, I said I would be glad to help and today was our first day. She’s very nice and she seemed to know what I was talking about. She was also an MA in her previous life so she is familiar with clinicals and insurances, etc. But she’s not familiar with our system. No worries, I can work with that. But I confess, this is taking more patience that I’m capable of having right now, so I’m struggling. But we got through the day.

February 16:

Kevin put the treadmill together! I felt bad for him, it weighs 200 pounds and he really struggled bringing into the house. I couldn’t help because I was still working so he did it all by himself. He was going to call LeRoy but as he says, “I can’t rely on LeRoy all the time.” So, he dragged the thing in from the garage, all the way to our bedroom, put it together and by the time I clocked off, it was ready for me to sync up and unlock. I had to sign up for an iFit account, which … meh, we’ll see, I get the first 30 days free, then we’ll see if it’s worth paying for. But after making an account and syncing up my phone, it unlocked. I can’t wait to use it! I’ve done nothing but sit for the past month and I’m ready to get back to it. We’re going to keep the old treadmill, Kevin thinks he can fix it and with enough time, he probably can. It’s become a challenge for him now. I wish I had his problem-solving patience and skills. The reason I was still working when Kevin was bringing the treadmill in was because everyone else left early so I was LITERALLY the last person on the clock and guess what? Crap came in that had to be worked. I went into overdrive and I got crap done, ya’ll! That was the fastest I’ve worked at this job so far and it was exhilarating but I wouldn’t want to do it very often. Also, I was annoyed that management didn’t think to have more than one person AFTER 3:00 PM!

February 17:

Mom came over to our house today. We ate at Schlotzskys for lunch, came back, finished Season 4 of Survivor, (the person I wanted to win, didn’t win), had some coffee, snacked on the strawberry cheesecake she brought over, along with the Snickerdoodle cookies I made, crafter and listened to the audio book “The Shack” Which isn’t bad, but has taken a weird turn. I worked on my diamond painting until I got tired of that and then switched to cross-sticthing an angel Christmas ornament, and poor mom worked on undoing a mistake she made on a plastic canvas project. I love my Saturdays with mom. Afterward, Kevin and I went out to eat at Whole Hog Cafe, (BBQ, yum!) and watched “Awakenings.” Which made me cry. I hate crying.

February 18:

Worked five hours today. Yes, it’s Sunday. Management has approved overtime and I’m taking advantage of it. I worked on importing VA documents and sending those documents to offices so our Vets can get appointments. Our VA department is always behind and I feel bad for the Vets who need to be seen. Also made two banana loafs today.

February 19:

Frustrating day at work. One of my co-workers seemed mad – or maybe not. It’s really hard to gauge people’s moods or deciphering tones because we communicate exclusively by writing. I don’t have the advantage of decoding facial expressions or listening to the way people say something to know exactly what they’re saying and how they’re saying it. Had to coach one of my co-workers today – I just don’t think she’s UAT material but that decision is above my pay grade.

February 20:

Head down and focus kind of day. I ignored Teams pretty much the whole day and that really helped. I ended up covering 8 alphas today. I loved it, but it was a lot. Did some more admits – really not digging these admits. It’s primarily because no one knows what’s going on or what to do and I HATE not knowing what I’m doing or understanding WHY I’m doing something. Talked to Brandon today – it was his last day of the job he hated. He starts his new job next week and he’s looking forward to the change. I hope this new job works out for him. He’s had lousy luck with jobs.

February 21:

Management is going to give the new girl the admit/transfers. Thank goodness. Pretty sick of the daily meetings. I appreciate management being right there and available to talk about issues and work on solutions but these daily meetings … too much.

February 22:

I’ve lost track of how much overtime I’ve gotten this week. It’s been crazy trying to keep track of the crap that is being dumped on us. Now that Ciox is gone and we’ve taken over full time, it’s really been an adjustment for everyone. We’re realizing that a bunch of stuff was dumped on UAT when Ciox was here – I guess they just did it – but that’s going to stop. UAT is not a dumping ground. If the test isn’t scheduled and it’s marked stat/urgent, how do we know it’s really stat/urgent? To be fair, how do we know it’s NOT? Starting to get burned out and something is going to have to give. Can’t keep this pace up indefinitely.

February 23:

I’ve been running the work flow through my head, trying to come up with a workable solution. I wrote down a possible flow and presented it to management. Who knows if they go along with it but it helped to just write it out and get it straight in my head. UHC’s website was down today and everyone FREAKED OUT. We have a lot of patients that have UHC insurance so it was a real struggle to work those. We had a department-wide meeting today, basically, to tell everyone to chill out and consolidate your UHC cases so that when you call, you have several to check as opposed to being on hold for 30 minutes waiting to check one. It all seems so common sense to me but I guess people truly don’t have common sense anymore. It’s exhausting and I’m exhausted.

February 24:

Weekly get together with mom. Watched Survivor, worked on some cross-stitch Christmas ornaments, talked to sis on Google Meet. We’re coming up on Dad’s one-year anniversary of his death. I can tell it’s starting to take a toll on mom.

February 25:

Booked another camping trip today. It’s in the boothill – we’ve never really been down there before. It’s in the middle of nowhere but it has sewer, is a state part and I’ve seen some good reviews on it. Can’t wait to go camping again!

February 26:

Quiet today. Would have been great but management voluntold me, (I seem to be voluntold for a lot of things lately) to speak to some woman about the UAT processes. I think she’s trying to meld our processes with the hospital’s processes. She was very nice and I enjoyed talking to her but … we’ll see if anything really comes from it. I have mixed feelings on management “asking” me to do these types of things. On one hand, it’s flattering to be asked and that they have confidence in me but on the other hand, I really wish I was one of these personalities where I could just sort of fade into the background. Alas – I am not that person.

February 28:

The pace is starting to slow down a bit. We’re not being sent some stuff like we were before so I think everyone is getting the hint – don’t send us your crap. Management doesn’t seem to be as focused on UAT as they were in the beginning. I think they are shifting their focus to other departments and I’m okay with that!

Preptober

Preptober: Time Management

Karen

So I’ve been daydreaming about my NaNoWriMo project. I know the kind of story I want to write and I have a pretty good idea who my protagonist is. Which is a win for me because I usually don’t have any idea what I want to write, which of course, means I have no idea who my characters are and then NaNoWriMo comes around and I’m left floundering.

It’s a Dystopian Fiction story. I mean, if you’ve been reading about my work struggles in healthcare these past few months, you won’t be surprised by this. It will also give me a chance to vent my frustrations and air my “conspiracy theories” as well. It will center around a vaccine but my vaccine will be a lot more nefarious and the “United” States of America actually secedes and is at war with each other. Sort of like Hunger Games meets Dr. Fauci kind of story.

I figured out my writing schedule – sort of. Here’s what I have:

Let me talk through my calendar with you.

Mondays and Wednesdays are clinic days with Dr. M. I have to get to work pretty early on those days so writing in the AM is OUT. No way that’s going to happen. I put AM on a few Thursdays and honestly, I don’t know if that’s going to happen either as I will have to get up at 4:00 AM to write an hour before getting ready for work. We’ll see. The bottom line, I want to get at least 1000 words on those days. There is simply NO WAY I’m going to have the energy to write any more than that. My brain is already taxed, I won’t have anything left over for the story.

Which leaves the weekends. As you can see, I plan on writing the bulk of my words on Saturdays and Sundays. You will notice I have 4000 words on the 11th, and the 15th. I have some time off from work and I’ll have more time to put in more words those days. I hope. We’re actually planning on taking a short camping trip so we’ll see how much writing I actually get in on those days.

Overall, if I stick to the plan, (And let’s be honest, I probably won’t), I will have written about 54,000 words by the 28th. I left the 29th and the 30th free because I will likely need some extra time to catch up – it’s my cushion, if you will. Of course, the 25th is Thanksgiving and no writing will be done that day.

I bought Natalia Leigh’s Preptober workbook. If you would like to buy it you can get it here. She has it set up so that it’s a donation-based product, meaning you can pay whatever you can and think it’s worth. Technically, you can get it for free, but Natalia has worked hard on this workbook and offers a version of it every year so she deserves some compensation for it.

She also posted a video of her working some of the pages and I enjoyed working my pages alongside her. It also gave me some additional ideas for my story as well. You can watch that video here.

Anyway, one of the pages in the workbook is my writing schedule.

You can see, at a glance, what my day looks like and when I plan on writing. Again, the weekends are set aside for writing and on the week days I will try and do some writing after work. I planned to relax right after I got home from work so that I have time to eat, watch a few videos, rest my eyes, (cat nap), and then I should have some energy to write a few hours after that before bed. I think the key, for me, will be knowing WHAT I need to write during the week. So I really want to stay on top of my outline so that I can sit down and actually write something as opposed to just staring at a blinking cursor. This will be the first year I’ve really done outlining  so we’ll see how that goes. I just don’t want to waste those few hours and be as productive as I can possibly be.

I’m taking Thursday evenings off to decompress and recharge. And Saturday nights are reserved for the Right From Us podcast that Kevin and I film together.

And in case you’re curious, yes, you’re reading the schedule correctly. I get up at 5:00 AM every day, get ready for work, then I take some time to cool off, relax and chill before actually finishing my routine and going to work. To me, it’s worth getting up an hour early in order to relax and fully wake up before heading off to work. I could try and get in a few words in that time period but again, it will depend on where I am in the story and whether I have anything to write.

I also filled out the Self Care Bingo page in Natalia’s workbook. This is a game of bingo where I do various activities to decompress and once I get a Bingo, I will reward myself. With what, I don’t know yet. But some of the activities on my self-care bingo page are:

  1. Read
  2. Go for a walk
  3. Take day off
  4. Lie in bed and listen to music (this really helps with story ideas)
  5. Watch YouTube
  6. Blog
  7. Buy one Starbucks coffee (Fall tradition. I love Starbucks products but can’t stand the company and the fact their coffees are so expensive, so, one it is).
  8. Podcast
  9. Buy a protein drink (a nurse at work told me about a protein drink place nearby and I want to try it out).
  10. Meditate
  11. Nap
  12. Camp

Anyway, that will be fun to “play” and will force me to relax and recharge which you honestly need during NaNoWriMo because the experience is really fun, but intense.

I’m now going to focus on starting my outline and trolling Pinterest to start boards for my characters. I did that last year and it was fun to put a face with a name.

I’m also Take2max on the NaNoWriMo site if you want to look me up. Once you find me, go to groups and you can join my Write Away group. Writing is lonely and it’s fun to have someone to talk to throughout the experience.

If you’re participating in NaNoWriMo, what are you doing to prepare?

Preptober

It’s Time for Preptober!

Karen

NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month, is an annual writing challenge to write 50,000 words during the month of November, for those of you that may not have been aware of it’s existence. (NaNoWriMo also offers Camp NaNoWriMo every April and July. The camps are more laid back as far as “requirements.” They are just another tool to add to your writing toolbox to try and motivate you to write).

Here’s a good article to read if you’re waffling on whether or not to participate in NaNoWriMo.

Preptober is a term someone clever came up with to prep for NaNoWriMo during the month of October.

First of all, you don’t have to participate in NaNoWriMo if you don’t want to. You don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to. But let’s face it, writing is lonely. And I personally need something to motivate me to write, whether it’s this blog, or my bullet journal because I’ve had a bad day and I need to VENT and PURGE my thoughts and feelings because doing so in real life could cost me dearly. *ahem*

You could prep … any month you chose to.  You are the king, or queen, of your castle. There are no rules.

First things first, what project do you want to work on?

  • Novel
  • Short story
  • Poetry
  • Non-fiction
  • Autobiographical
  • True Crime
  • Blogging
  • Other

Whatever you write, whether you’re published or not, YOU’RE A WRITER. If you can put words to paper and make them coherent and/or interesting, then you’re a writer. There are no requirements to this challenge, if you want to write and you’re up to a challenge, then you’re in.

You don’t have to be writing a novel to participate in this challenge. Maybe you want to write several blog posts. Or poems. Or your life story. Or short stories. (I did that one year for NaNoWriMo). Whatever writing project you want to do, you can participate in NaNoWriMo. It’s not about writing a novel, it’s about writing in general. It’s about pushing yourself to do the thing you’ve always said you wanted to do. It’s about unleashing your creativity and shutting down your inner critic. Your inner critic can be released at the end of the challenge. For now, it’s just you and your imagination. This challenge gives your creativity permission to be run naked and wild through the sunflowers.

(Figuratively speaking, of course).

Secondly, when you plan your writing, do you want to use:

  • The Synopsis Outline (a one/two page summary of your story)
  • The In-Depth Outline (the detailed outline that most of us [or me] run from)
  • The Snowflake Method (you expand your story, little-by-little)
  • The Bookend Method (figure out the beginning and the end and free-write the middle)
  • By the Seat of your Pants or Pantsing (little to no planning – you just start writing)
  • The Headlight Method (plan, write to the end of the plan, see where it goes, plan, write …etc)

I’m sure there are other ways, but these are the most common.

It’s important to know how you plan on writing before you actually write. For me personally, I love the pantsing method. I love to see where my characters take me. And they often take me to surprising places. It’s fun and I thoroughly enjoy it.

However ….

I inevitably get to a point in the story where I have no idea where it’s going, how it’s going to end and does it even make sense at this point? I then get frustrated/discouraged and just chock the whole project. This is why I love short stories because I can write to the point where I get stuck and then, well, it’s a short story, it’s SUPPOSED to end, right??

I’d like to flex my writing muscles a bit this go around. I want to combine both the bookend method and the headlight methods. I want a start, a general ending, and then loosely plan the chapters, allowing my characters to take me somewhere, but at the same time, put up road signs for them to follow along the way. I could write a full outline but ZzZzZzzz .. it sounds so boring. But then again, I said I would NEVER outline, in any form, a mere ten years (minutes?) ago, so, don’t hold me to that.

Anyway, enough about me. Let’s get to the Preptober stuff.

I’ve participated quite a few times in NaNoWriMo over the years, I’ve won a few years. But I never plan ahead and by the time the proverbial gun goes off at the starting line, I’m left in the dust blinking in confusion. Where to start? So. In an attempt to avoid that feeling, I want to actually be as prepared as I can be this go around.

Hence, Preptober.

Because I’m a big child at heart, I like to make things fun. So when I found this Preptober Bingo placard, I couldn’t resist to share it with you guys.

You can find more fun cards at Ink and Times. (I put the free space on there. I figured, free space equals one day off to decompress). The site even offers ideas on what to put on your Bingo card. For example here are the ones that caught my attention from the site and from this site that I think will work for me:

  • Update NaNoWriMo Account
  • Logline and Tagline
  • Brainstorm Your Plot
  • Brainstorm Your Subplot(s)
  • Bookend Beginning
  • Bookend Ending
  • Get To Know Main Character(s)
  • Get To Know Supporting Character(s)
  • Get To Know Villain(s)
  • Get To Know Setting(s)
  • Find Location Inspiration
  • Find Character Inspiration
  • Create Inspiration Board
  • Write A Synopsis
  • Creating A Writing Playlist
  • Research Important Need To Know Facts (1)
  • Research Important Need To Know Facts (2)
  • Find Writing Groups
  • Preptober Workbook

I want to work toward some sort of reward, and I will DEFINITELY reward myself if (WHEN) I win NaNoWriMo, but for now, it feels weird to reward myself for prepping. (Yay! Good job, Karen! You prepared for your challenge!) Uh … no.

But, I thought it would be fun to make prepping for NaNoWriMo more fun. Feel free to copy this for yourself, if you like.

Here are some more helpful resources in planning for NaNoWriMo.

What is NaNoWriMo? And How to Win in 2021

Helping Writers Become Authors has a good section on how to outline for NaNoWriMo.

I plan on using the SmartEdit program as my writing software of choice. I’ve been liking it so far and best part – IT’S FREE.

If you Google Preptober and/or use the #preptober hashtag on Twitter, you will stumble across many more resources – the ideas are endless. These are the rabbit holes I tend to get sucked into (hence the reason I gave myself two research days because I loves me some research, ya’ll!) and if reading over these ideas and resources doesn’t inspire you then … I’ve got nothing else.

I’ll try and remember to update you on my Bingo card throughout the month of October. I’d like to post excerpts from my NaNoWriMo project in November, too.

I think my biggest challenge won’t be the writing part – I can write/type fast and make my characters do/say all sorts of stupid things, no, I think my biggest challenge is going to have the energy to actually write. Working 40 hours, making time for family, holidays, and you know, SLEEPING, and then finding the energy and time to actually write something …. that’s going to be hard. The few years I won NaNoWriMo I wasn’t working so …. that should tell you something.

We are also planning a short camping trip in November, which we plan on vlogging, so it will be challenging to find time to write while doing that, too.

Anyway. I hope this information was helpful and that I’ve given you some places to check out and poked your writing beast.

By the way, my Wrimo username is Take2max if you want to look me up on the NaNoWriMo site and friend me. I even made a writing group on the NaNoWriMo site called Write Away if you want to chat. (Search for that name when you go to your NaNoWriMo account under “groups.” Send me a note and I’ll send you an invite).

I freaking love this time of year!

Fiction Friday

It All Started With a Cough

Karen

“It started with a cough.

I don’t know where it came from but it was annoying, loud and croaky. I could control it at first, take a drink of water, suck on a throat lozenge, but I could feel it start to take hold in my lungs. It felt like a sea monster had a hold of my chest, it’s long, slimy tentacles wrapped around my body and slowly, slowly, squeezing the breath out of me.”

After about two days of this, my cough started to go away but I was having trouble taking a full breath and before long, I found myself panting like a dog just to try and fill my lungs and the simple act of walking across a room was too much and I had to sit down and recuperate before making another trek to the next room.”

I lost my sense of smell, taste, and I started feeling dizzy and disoriented, likely due to lack of oxygen. I had no idea what was happening to me but I’ve never experienced these types of symptoms before. I’m scared. I don’t know what sort of nasty cold this is but I feel different, I don’t feel myself. “

I know it sounds crazy, I feel crazy, but something, some darkness, is taking over my body. There are times I find myself doing something and not remembering how, or why, I’m doing it. There have been times I’ve been ACTIVELY trying to resist and yet, this darkness inside of me forces me to move my limbs and participate in simple activities against my will. My brain is screaming no, my body ignores me.”

That’s why I wanted to write this down. I don’t know where this is going, or why this is happening, but maybe someone will read this one day and learn from my experience. I know this sounds dramatic and I’ll probably laugh my fool head off when I read this back someday, but I feel like I’m dying. Not my body, my body doesn’t feel sick, but my mind, it’s slipping. I feel like I stepped off a cliff and I’m free falling, helplessly watching the world above me get smaller and smaller and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.”

Am I dying? I don’t want to die. I want to live! I want to graduate from college, travel, fall in love, have babies – is that too much to ask? Why is this happening to me? I feel like I’m writing a suicide note and if you’re reading this, I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”

I’m tired. I don’t want to write anymore. I want to sleep and I want to wake up and feel better. But I’m scared to sleep, what if I don’t wake up? Please God, let me wake up.”

Detective Gomez lowered the note and looked at the young girl on the bed. She was small and so very thin. He guessed the girl hadn’t felt much like eating at the end and if whatever sickness she had hadn’t kill her, malnutrition would have.

“How long has she been dead, Kingsley?” Gomez said, carefully placing the note in an evidence bag.

Doctor Kingsley paused in his activities and glanced up. “I would say, judging by the rigidity, about an hour. But I can’t be sure, I need to …” he continued to rummage in his bag. “Damn it, I forgot something in my van, I’ll be right back. Don’t touch anything.”

Gomez raised a brow and watched the man shuffle out of the room.

“An hour?” he mumbled to himself as he circled the girl’s body. She was laying in the center of the bed, her legs pulled up toward her belly, her arms over her head. Her long, dark hair was splayed around her. Her face was hidden.

“What did you die from? Talk to me,” he continued to mumble while studying the girl’s clothes. And why was there dried flowers, or weeds, whatever they were, he wasn’t a horticulturist, lying next to her. Did she inhale something that killed her?

She was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, like something you would wear under a blazer, definitely something you would wear to work, and shorts. Did she get home from work and kick off her skirt or pants and change into shorts? Maybe go outside and pick the weeds?

Her skin was smooth, young, flawless. She couldn’t have been more than mid-twenties. The soles of her feet were slightly dirty as if she had indeed just come from outside.

He clasped his hands behind his back and stared at her. “Talk to me, sweetheart,” he said quietly. He knew, if he stared at her body long enough, he would begin to pick up little things, little clues, as to what happened. He knew, from experience, that dead bodies spoke, you just had to pay attention.

Continue reading “It All Started With a Cough” →
Fiction Friday

FF May Writing Challenge 5-7-21

Karen

Hello writers!

Ready for a writing challenge?

Me either. (Ha!)

I thought it would be fun to start a writing challenge, exercise our creative chops and start getting in the habit of consistently writing. I’d love to write every day but you and I both know, that ain’t happenin’, so, next best thing? A weekly challenge!

You can check out the full deets here, but in essence, the challenge for this month is to write a novelette – which is a 7,500 to 19,000 word count length story. I’m personally going to write one story from four different perspectives just because I have a fascination for those types of stories and want to try one myself.

And these “rules” are just guidelines – if you want to do something different, by all means, go for it. The objective is to just write – however that looks for you.

This week’s writing prompt is:

Pandemic!

I know, not exactly original but our lives have been so out-of-control this past year, let’s take a bit of that control back and write a story about either the pandemic we’re currently experiencing, or make up a pandemic – how are people behaving? What sort of symptoms are your characters experiencing? Whenever I have something on my mind, like this crazy pandemic, I find that it’s helpful to “purge” it from my thoughts by writing about it.

Come back on Friday, 5-7-21, and leave a link to your story. I’m looking forward to reading your work!

Patreon

Introducing: Write From Karen – Patreon Version!

Karen

Guess what I’ve been working on!

Ta-Da! I have a Patreon account!

The URL is: https://www.patreon.com/writefromkaren

Pretty easy to remember, right??

Here’s a screenshot of the home page:

Don’t ask me why I chose dogs wearing glasses as the pictures for each tier – I thought they were cute and funny – there’s really no other reason. Ha!

So, let me explain.

In case you don’t know what Patreon is – it’s a platform built to provide a way for fans to support their favorite content creators. It’s a “club” of sorts – a private place to hang out, get to know one another, have private access and conversations about various topics with your favorite creator and other like-minded people, but more importantly, it’s just a place to have fun.

I know for me, personally, I’m a member of several Patreon accounts because I truly appreciate all of the hard work the creators I support have done and I want to show my appreciation. For me, personally, I just wanted a place to talk “shop” with other writers out there who are looking for a place to belong – for a place you can find support, and inspiration for your own writing.

I used to host a writing site back in the day and I LOVED it. And I miss it. It really inspired me to write more and I didn’t feel as alone, because let’s face it, writing is a solitary activity and you can often think you’re the only one out there struggling. Let me assure you, you are not.

That’s where my Patreon comes in. I want to encourage the writers out there who are looking for guidance, support and inspiration, to join and share your thoughts, triumphs and failures with other people who know EXACTLY what you’re going through.

I have a Discord server. Don’t let the word server scare you off. It’s not hard to navigate and it’s completely private. The only people in my server are those that have been invited and its only purpose is to support you. That’s it.

(If you would like to know more about Discord – check out this beginner’s guide video. )

If you choose the WFK Visionaries tier, you will be given a key to the club. Here you can join conversations about various writing topics, writing tips and tricks , polls and so much more.

If you’re a member of my silver/VIP tiers, you are not only given a key to the club, you will be extended an invitation to my Discord server where I will host weekly chats to catch up and share our current writing projects. There is also space to participate in writing sprints, (SUPER helpful when you need to increase your word count), writing challenges and writing collabs.

If you choose the VIP tier, I open the floor for a monthly book club where we can compare notes and thoughts about the writing mechanics and how we could learn from the author’s technique/style and apply it to our own writing. In addition, the VIP tier has been limited to a smaller number of participants as I thought it would be fun to build a writing critique group where we can exchange our own work and offer feedback on our works-in-progress. (Maybe start a Beta reader group?)

I plan on posting every Tuesday and Thursday on my Patreon. I will post a schedule for Discord chats soon.

Honestly, there are endless possibilities with this Patreon group and we’re just getting started!

I want to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to read my blog, listen to my Podcast and hopefully join my Patreon. My only goal is to share my thoughts, my work and my space with you and hopefully offer you some interesting material to learn from and think about.

I don’t pretend to be an expert when it comes to writing, however, I do have a degree in Technical Writing and a Minor in Creative Writing so it’s a topic that is near and dear to my heart.

Don’t be shy! Start small. Join the first tier, look around, see if this is something for you and then if you’re interested in upgrading and joining my server, you’re welcome to do so. There is absolutely no pressure, you can cancel your membership at any time.

So, in a nutshell – my blog is a place for a little bit of everything: my personal/professional life, politics, religion, opinions, etc. My podcast is the same type of thing, only you can hear my voice and take me on the go, if you so choose. My Patreon is a place reserved for all things writing and a safe place for writers to gather.

That’s it! Again, I hope you will consider joining my Patreon. I appreciate each and every one of you and I’ll see you around the Internet!

ADDED: Change of plans – I dumbed it down and made it simple – there is now only one tier. Easy to choose, easy to join!