Last published April 20th.

So, I'm sure that updates are in order. As Donn so eloquently put it, "Aren't you back yet?"

Yep. Got back, trip was fantastic. One day later, got the flu. Stayed ill for weeks, even spent a couple of days in the hospital. Got better. A day or two later, got sick again. Guess what?

STILL SICK!!

Taking antibiotics since last night but at least I'm able to work so I'm not complaining about that.

I've been playing a lot of Warcraft and working, and biking. The world as it is remains so full of nasty shit that I get depressed even reading about it. Ads that preach stalkerism. See Feministing for that one. John McCain. *shudder* See anywhere about that one. And, I'm so sick of our political system.

Personally I'm doing great, the man is great, and the remaining cat is great. I should post pictures some time. I'm at work now, so that won't be happening right now.

Not ready, really.

No, I'm not packed. No, I have not stopped the mail. I'm not ready to leave for two weeks and tomorrow night when I can't sleep and I can't do much but look at the same shirt five fucking times as I put it in and take it out again of my suitcase I still won't know what I want to wear.

I don't relish the thought of a nine-hour flight and the large man who puts his seat all the way back. Oh, and you know. Getting searched and patted down isn't on my list of fun things either.

But shit. I'll be in Amsterdam and I won't care about the small stuff. I'll smell the piss in the streets on Konniningdag and love every second of it. See you soon!

Where the fuck I've been.

There really wasn't anything except work and being tired that kept me from posting. Since I started work with the VA I've been just tired all the time. That is a really hard job. I love the veterans - especially the 300-year old ones that hit on me, ha ha, but it's really hard and I just don't have the energy for anything else once I get off work each day. The weekends I sleep mostly.

So maybe I should say what it is I do, then, since all I said is that it's hard.

I work at the Veteran's Hospital on the 7th floor in an administrative area. I wear my little headset, and I answer the phones for the Team Care line, which handles all of Primary Care. So, if someone wants to talk to his (or her) main doctor then I'm the guy who takes the call and decides how best to send them away to the correct area.

If they need a specialist then I make a progress note in their chart and ask the doctor to give them a consult (podiatry, eye clinic, etc.). If they are having trouble right then and want their doctor to know, then I don't play nurse, I make them stay on the line (usually by guilt cause they're trying to be tough guy) and get them to Triage.

If they had lab tests and want the results, I put a note in their chart and send it to a Nurse Case Manager who will decide if she can give it or the doctor must. No one but a doctor can give HIV results, for example.

Also, I handle all secretarial duties for the Diamond Team, which has 4 doctors, 3 nurse case managers, plus all of Geriatrics which may have up to 6 residents plus the doctors who oversee them, plus their nurses. Patient caseload is about 2,000.

That means I type up releases, fax things, get forms back and forth (for example for disabled plates there's a form the patient will want the doctor to fill out and I handle that process), and basically anything else, up to and including taking requests for narcotics from patients and completing the narcotics renewal process so they get their methadone or oxycodone or whatever on time.

And, if a patient has been hospitalized for any reason, their release, follow-up, scheduling, and labs all go through me. I figure out the puzzle of the discharge facesheet and make everything happen usually by phoning the patient and getting him to come back on a certain day, then I order any lab tests or x-rays he needs. If the doctor was unclear (Wow, surprise there, haha) then I have to track down the doctor and get her (or him) to tell me what she wants. Most of my doctors are women in Geriatrics, one or two are men but I don't usually have to work with them and they aren't as good anyway. ;-)

So! I'm usually worn out and brain dead by the time I hop the bus home. I take roughly 50-60 calls per day and I'm always on the computer. I get yelled at constantly by the veterans, and they really like to get abusive to the secretaries. The wives are just as bad. Mostly I handle things well, and if someone is yelling at me I can tell them that whatever it is they want will have to go through me so they'd better straighten up or I will end the call. That works amazingly well, and I have a really good track record of getting apologies so far.

So that's my job. I'm considered a Program Support Assistant, a Firm Clerk, and a Primary Care Team Secretary. I use every part of my brain, all the time, and everyone with whom I work is smart. I love all my doctors even when they are primadonnas, and I'm very lucky to have gotten this job, especially with our economy.

But, if I'm online less or I forget things, that is why.

Goodbye Xe

Tonight my perfect friend - my wonderful companion went to sleep forever
and I will miss him terribly as long as I live.
Goodbye my sweet boy, I was humbled to be your person, there with you even as you took your last breaths, and I hope you think of me wherever you flew.

vindication

I recently connected with an old friend and co-worker who used to do shifts with me at the group homes. I have been trying to explain these jobs as if they are old war stories - and I'm sure I sound like an over-sensitive freak. But!! This friend was there with me and even after I left he stayed and talking about this stuff is like a vindication. Yes, Shelley - it happened.

Ok. And! He made a coke-snorting prostitute manager in a movie he made and named her Shelly. I will choose not to take that personally. No really. ;-)

Work is going well. I have a crazy co-worker (not the racist one) who is insistently trying to usurp my position - to the point that I come in and she is ensconced at my desk, using my computer and phone - and it's tough to get her OUT. Can we say....NUT case? I've never before had anyone envy my position in life or employment. That is just weird to me.

I am hosting karaoke this weekend and next. I feel odd about it because I did a song by Ben Folds the last time I was there and there were a LOT of fucks and shits in the song. I think I shocked people and while it was avoidable - my defense is that I sort of forgot about all the fucks and shits until I was up there singing, then I was committed and could not just quit. Plus, the song is in the character of a poor beleaguered middle class white boy and the black part of the audience was 1/2 and 1/2 getting it and NOT getting it. I was feeling awkward as shit, and I'm worried about Saturday because it's hard enough to pull a show together without feeling like I've made a giant faux pas. *sigh*

I'm very lucky to have connected with my old friends and I'm very lucky to have my new job, and I'm very lucky to have the karaoke hosting job, and I'm very lucky to have tickets to FUCKING AMSTERDAM, WOOOOOT, and I'm very lucky to have my fantastic partner for almost three years.

And then, my 17.5 year old cat started shitting in the closet. I do NOT want to lose him so we are giving him some time to stop whatever it is he's doing and fucking behave. We lost the Mojinator and I do not want to lose Xerox too. He's a smelly old fart but I love him.

Changes!

Wow, have I ever been busy lately. Ever since leaving the residential agency and joining the ranks of the Feds I have been working and sleeping, sleeping and working.

Updates? Hm...the man and I have our tickets to Amsterdam, woo hoo! I told my new boss that I always go to Amsterdam in the spring and she agreed to give me leave to do so. Mainly this was because I told her about it in the interview so it wasn't something I sprung on her after the fact. So, come April 22nd (23rd with travel time +1 day) I will be sipping a nice hot beverage and practicing my EXTREMELY poor Dutch. No, seriously. Anything more than please and thank you or even...ik heb geen idee...and I'm a loser. And a geek, since it just occurred to me that I could make a character name in Warcraft using that now so tired phrase.

I haven't had to fill my gas tank in almost two weeks, yee haw!

Ok, full stop. I do *not* use words like yee haw.

But you know, I haven't had to fill my tank in almost two weeks because I get to ride a bus to work now. It's pretty fantastic and I can't wait for warmer weather so that I can stick my bike on the front and ride it either part-way or all the way home. I've been getting lots of exercise what with the hospital being three blocks UPHILL each morning, and I don't mind that at all.

For the most part I like my co-workers and they have a sincere dedication to the patients we support. These guys certainly deserve respect and help, considering they gave up limbs and mental health in the service to Uncle Sam. What's really great about working in this environment is that politics is a non-issue. Nobody gives a fuck who is voting for Hillary Clinton and whether David Vitter paid a prostitute to spank him while he wore diapers. We are all there to help the patients, period.

Of course because of the racism thing I'll be a pariah come Monday or Tuesday. What racism thing, you ask? Well I trained with a long-timer who went on a rant to me that was filled with racist vitriol, and I vented to a co-worker afterwards...a co-worker who went to my supervisors. Both of them. And I had to document the "incident" for them and I can bet they'll talk to her Monday or Tuesday...after which she'll label me a rat and I will be lower than the bottom of a pair of shoes. Even though I didn't go to the bosses it's still on me. I was just venting. As I do. Gah.... this is stressing me out a little bit, but surprisingly less than managing staff within a residential agency.

What's nice about things right now is that A. I got a seriously kick ass pair of Maryjane's today, and spent a good hour polishing them while I watched In the Shadow of the Vampire. And!! I wasn't even on drugs while I did it. What's the story with that, you say? Well...I used to use speed and shining my Doc Martin combat boots was usually an all night task for me, and a very enjoyable one. No drugs now, but I do have a crazy-awesome pair of new shiney shoes.

Oh yeah! B. In addition to shiney shoes I haven't thought of politics ALL DAY. Fuck politics. It gives me a fucking headache with all the inherent misogyny going around. No, goddamn it I do not like Hillary - but jesus christ on a stick there are too many elements of women hating on the blogs and in the media instead of people looking at her RECORD. Ok, there, see what that makes me do? CAPS.

C. I went shoe shopping and out to dinner with some good friends and it was just nice to share their company. I miss that when I crawl into Hermit Land, pick up some knitting needles, and space out the world. It's no great secret that as fucked up as I've always been it has evolved into me becoming more and more reclusive as I age. I want the benefits of friends but it's so goddamn hard for me to want to leave the house sometimes. So, tonight with shopping and dinner was great. Of course I ate too much but damn. I took the stairs all damn day.

Oh hell, I'd vote for him a third time.

Hat tip: Feministing




This is so great. I'm so ready for someone, anyone on our side, to take on these fuckers and shove their hypocrisy down their own throats. The sorry thing is that these anti-choice assholes will never get that they are flat out assholes. They are the fanatics and lunatic fringe and firmly believe they are saving "teh babies" from a gruesome death. I know what I'm talking about. When I was preparing for my own abortion I was suckered into a CPC and harrassed by these fucks. When I finally got to the clinic I had to be ushered through a line of assholes screaming at me not to kill my baby, and I guess my own feeling was that they should be in my shoes before trying to bully me into a death sentence that the pregnancy was for me.

So, fuck you anti-choice assholes, and YAY for Bill Clinton - I'd vote for you again, triangulation, NAFTA, and all. (I forgive you.)