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whappy happy nea land! |
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My own spot to rant about my day.
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wFriday, January 31, 2003 |
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Man, where did this week go? I must have been busy working. Wow, that still sounds odd.
Dave has been working like a madman. Full full days where we runs up to the cafeteria for a fifteen minute lunch. He has to work this Saturday, too, which makes me sad. And Valentine's weekend. Boo. But at least this means more money for things like a house and our vacation in June and stuff like that.
Wednesday night I drove over the hill to have dinner on the third street promenade. It was really wierd to be on those freeways at rush hour, but going the other way. It is so much faster. I'm not used to driving anymore, now that I walk to work, so being in traffic just felt totally odd. I'm becoming the antithesis of LA -- a person who walks places. AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!! haha
posted by
nea at 9:43 PM
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wFriday, January 24, 2003 |
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I still don't have health insurance. What an annoying process this all is. I had one breakthrough last week, after two weeks of not knowing what was going on, when I learned I was "Diagnosed with a condition" during a regular exam I had in March. I couldn't get the woman at Blue Cross to tell me either on the phone or in writing what the condtion was. So, in the back of my head I've had these vague fears. "What if I have something deadly?" "Hmmmm, maybe I have __________." I have been randomly checking myself for anything wierd all week. The end result of this first conversation was that I needed to call my doctor's office and have them revise the claim to have this mysterious condition taken off.
I spent a week calling the office and leaving messages for "the bookkeeper at extension 130." Yesterday, I gave up leaving messages on this voicemail and started demanding physical notes be placed on her desk and I called every forty-five minutes or so. Turns out there is no one at extension 130. Nope. The woman in billing never got any of my messages. I explain my situation, and she quickly pulls up my file. "Oh, you were diagnosed with PMS."
"PMS! You have got to be kidding. I'm being denied insurance because I have PMS?!?"
This struck me as so stupid and bureaucratic bullshit that I had to laugh. How completely stupid could an insurance company be to deny insurance based on THAT condition.
So, I left a message with my doctor asking if she could revise the claim. She called back today. Looks like it's going to be no problem and that I should have the magical revised claim in my hand Monday. Finally. I was starting to wonder if I would have insurance at all.
posted by
nea at 7:35 PM
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The past few days I have been too sick to come online after making it through a day at work. But here I am!
Various vending machine notes (all from 1/23). Remember, all names and extensions are fake.
I lost 65 cents on A2 when the chips got stuck.
Thanks, Bob x.069
I lost $1.30 (circled and underlined too)
for chips when the money got stuck. Give me
back my money.
Thanks, Deb x.169
Vendor Man,
Refund my 65 cents. The chips in A2 are stuck!
-Greg x.269
I guess the chips in A2 are really popular. You'd think the third person would have noticed that they were stuck, though.
posted by
nea at 7:27 PM
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wTuesday, January 21, 2003 |
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So, I'm at home sick today. I'm kinda achey and have mucus coming from every orifice. Yuck. I decided laying at home like a lump would be the best way to feel better, so here I am. Lump lump lump.
posted by
nea at 12:34 PM
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wFriday, January 17, 2003 |
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OK, this is from the 15th but I couldn't get blogger to work that day. Damn blogger. Anyhow, here is what I wrote on the 15th after a long day at work . . .
Worked my first overtime today. It was interesting. When I start work at 8:15 most of the company is there already. At 6 pm, there are not so many people left in the office. All the people I work closely with were still there, though. It makes me realize just how behind things were getting with Phil being the only one doing collections. You can't have four hundred acitve disputes and one man to work on them all, plus create reports and test billing systems, and all that good stuff. I think even with a third person we'd still all be working pretty hard. We'll see. Yay not being exempt and making extra money. Between Dave's tooth, car insurance, planning a trip to Canada, and saving three-fourths of my income for the house, there isn't a lot to spare. But I think we live pretty damn good, so whatever.
Speaking of car insurance, it looks like we're going to bring mine down about $200 because I walk to work. The rule is basically under 7500 miles gets one rate, over 7500 another. As long as we don't take my car on any more road trips up north or to Vegas, this will be easy. Another reason why my new job is a good thing.
posted by
nea at 9:50 PM
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I had a crappy day. Nothing especially bad happened. I felt kinda sick and had stomach issues all morning, and went to the bathroom about every hour and a half. I was tired of testing the system, though I finished the long, boring part this afternoon. I couldn't get ahold of Dave all day, either on e-mail or phone. I still don't have insurance, and won't until Tuesday at the earliest. We cancelled our party because no one could come. Just kinda a lousy day.
At least my evening was much improved. Dave came home and decided to take me out to dinner. Of all things, it turned out I wanted German Food (amazing what happens when Dave throws cuisines into the air and something suddenly sounds really good) so we did some research and found a place online in Van Nuys that looked pretty good. It was very very tasty. Yay! It was called Chef Matterhorn or something equally olde worlde. I had sauerbraten (long cooked meat) and spetzle (kinda like gnocchi but smaller) and sauteed cabbage. Yummmmm. German Food isn't one of those things I usually think about, or have any cravings form, but tonight was just right. Vastly improved how I was feeling.
Where did winter go? I'm planning on going to the beach with friends this weekend. That just seems like a wrong thing to do in the middle of January. What happened to wet wet ugly days mixed with freezing and clear ones? I miss a normal Southern California winter, dammit!
posted by
nea at 9:47 PM
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wTuesday, January 14, 2003 |
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When someone leaves in the middle of doing some training, saying "Let me go get that book," don't you expect them to come back in a minute or two? It's been at least fifteen. So I'm sitting and waiting so that I can finished an assigned task. Sigh.
So finally I went to go look for Phil. Turns out that getting the book turned into an indepth conversation with said book's owner. Plus a couple people in the vicinity. But I came over and learned some stuff during the conversation, and things finally got done. Looks like I get to work some overtime to start doing hardcore system testing.
posted by
nea at 9:18 PM
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wMonday, January 13, 2003 |
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We set up my new flat screen monitor today. I love that I can have the monitor on my desk directly behind my keyboard, rather than forced into a corner. No more having to turn my chair and strain my neck and move my keyboard to an odd angle on the desk. Thanks dad! The only bad part is it has a bit of a ghost effect. Kinda like when you watch regular TV and the signal isn't quite right. I'm sure I'll find a way to situate the monitor to minimize the problem, and probably just get used to it over time.
posted by
nea at 8:25 PM
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Nice, happy weekend. Saw people and went clubbing for the first time in three months. It was fun, I like clubbing. I just usually am either too tired or don't want to spend the money. But with Quyen becoming the guest list guru and getting girls in for free, I think I can afford to go more often.
Work is going well. I feel like I'm being useful, which is nice. I also feel like I'm making faster progress towards understanding the whole process, which I'm sure makes my boss happy. I was complimented by his boss today. This is always a good sign. I may start working overtime this week to get us moving forward on things, both on collecting money and testing our new system so that it can go live. There is A LOT of data that I need to go through, audit by audit, so that when information is transferred over there are as few fuckups as possible. This probably means adding in a lot of information to the old computer system so that the programmers can pick it up and integrate it into our new system. But hey, overtime means I become eligible for insurance sooner, and get that much closer to buying a home. Yay home.
On buying a home, it's going to be at least a year. We're thinking that when our lease is up in February, we'll renew it for a year, then start home shopping after that. I might have a house next year! Scary thought . . .
Dave and I are kinda-sorta BackOnTheDiet. Which means saying things like "I think that's three starches, not two" and "We need to add a fruit to this meal." It's a little hard to adjust to, but pretty easy to follow. We just need to behave and go the gym consistently, and I think things will go well. Since we have no money this month to be going out to dinner (damn Dave's stupid root canal with no insurance), the eating at home will help us keep on track.
posted by
nea at 8:21 PM
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wThursday, January 09, 2003 |
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My foot is all better, albeit a bit sore. I can deal with that. No more limping.
posted by
nea at 11:03 PM
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So, I'm entertained that people in my company place sticky notes on the vending machines on which they lodge complaints, write suggestions, etc. Here is today's (name and extension changed):
Dear Vendor,
The Mounds are stale. Please
refund my 60 cents.
Thanks,
Fred x. 630
Last week there was one about Fanta being replaced by Diet Pepsi that was typed and a much better piece of literature. I'm thinking about watching for these, as I find them entertaining, and posting the messages up here.
posted by
nea at 11:02 PM
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wTuesday, January 07, 2003 |
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How long did it take for me to receive all my basic office supplies:
a. None. They were all set up for me when I arrived.
b. A couple of days.
c. Three and a half weeks.
Yep, the correct answer would be (c). Today I received a pair of scissors (though I forgot to ask for left-handed ones. Damn!), therefore completing my basic office supply inventory. Could have been worse, I guess. At my last job, scissors were not considered a basic office supply. They were not on the official biller's checklist, and I didn't have a pair for over a year.
posted by
nea at 8:21 PM
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wSaturday, January 04, 2003 |
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Why are we having a heat wave? We should not be able to go lay out by the pool and go swimming at the start of January. But it's in the 70s, and Dave and I decided to take advantage of it. I like being able to use the pool, but, at this time of year, I would really rather have rain.
Oh, in my last rant, I forgot one other thing that happened at my old company that I thought was funny: they eliminated casual fridays. Yep, no more jeans and t-shirts for them. Another good reason to be happy at my new place.
posted by
nea at 6:38 PM
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wFriday, January 03, 2003 |
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Dave and I had a fun, albeit a bit odd, New Year's Eve party. We had one guest show up at about 8:30-9, when we'd asked people to come. The rest showed up after 11. Whatever. It was good to hang out with people and get buzzed and happy.
New Year's Day did not start off so well. Dave woke up in pain, as one of his cavities broke through to the nerve. Turns out our non-insured selves are going to spend a bit over $900 on a root canal for Dave. As it was a holiday, Dave had to spend the day on drugs just hanging in there. So, here's Dave, in major pain from his jaw.
That evening, I step into the kitchen and find the rest of the glass that chipped off a bowl New Year's Eve. No, I didn't see it and pick it up. I stepped on it and Dave picked it out of my foot. Ow! I can't deal with the sight of my own blood and so almost passed out. Luckily I had Dave to get me something to press against it and an arm to guide me to the couch. It turned out to be 1/4 to 1/2 an inch long, and about 1/4 inch deep. Neosporin, bandaids, and limping are seeming to do quite well for it, though. My foot is still a little sore, but much improved.
So there we were, nine pm on the first day of the new year, staring at the television while holding various body parts in pain. Not the best omen. On the other hand, if the worst thing that happens is that I get a small cut on my foot and Dave needs some dental work, I think we can deal.
posted by
nea at 8:41 PM
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There are times when I realize how bad a job situation I was in before, and how good of one I am in now. New Year's Eve, I invited over one of my old coworkers. Probably the only one that I actually want to see, but whatever. I asked for an update on how things were going at Carat. In the three weeks I have been gone . . .
Everyone assumed that department party they had right after I left would be paid for either by the company or the head of the department. Instead, she sprang it on the supervisors that they were in charge of paying for the party. So, they retaliated by not buying enough food.
Flex time and any special time arrangements were nullified, being replaced with a strict 9 to 5 schedule.
Two more people have left.
There will be no bonuses this year (not a surprise) and no raises in the coming year. This is being heard by people who for the most part did not receive raises in 2001, and 3-5% raises in 2002.
A person in my department was hauled in by the department head for regularly clocking out five minutes early.
Same department head wants a task that took myself and another girl at least three workdays a month each to complete to be assigned solely to the busiest person in the department.
Lastly, I learned that I am not being replaced, and my group is a week and a half behind. I'm so grateful to be here and not there.
posted by
nea at 8:34 PM
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