life is about stuff
I was so brain-fried from work this week--I haven't come home not even able to think before. It's always busier in the mornings because the little old people that call me get up early and want everything taken care of before lunch and the rest of their schedules for the day. It's been exceptionally busy on my end due to this being Medicare renewal season, and a good chunk of them are all scared because a couple insurance companies are ditching Maine so they got these letters saying they'd better find a new insurance carrier before the end of the year. And it is scary! Some of them have been with these companies for 25 years, and now they don't even know what to do. The rest need to know if they need to change their drug plans. That's what were there for, but the trouble is everyone else has the same problem. November has been booked solid for appointments since the first, with the exception of some of the Medicare specialists opening up some more slots here and there. None of them want to hear that they can't have an appointment tomorrow or even next week with the one specialist everyone knows by name, though I might be able to offer them time with one of the other five specialists. "I'm ninety-three years old," this one woman tells me irritatedly, "and I just need help figuring this out with him after working so long in my life." I can sympathize, but there's just not anything I can do some of the time. :/ Nicole tells me it gets worse as the year draws to a close, when everyone wakes up and realizes they only have a week left to get this done. Meanwhile, I still have other things to deal with: keeping track of who's here for what appointment or meeting, sorting the mail, getting all the phone calls, lending out equipment, delivering mail in the afternoon, squeezing in lunch, reading through obituaries for consumers, knowing where all our employees are at any given moment, and day-to-day organizational things that need to happen to keep the place running.
That mess wouldn't have been so taxing had I also not been devoting all my spare time to a graphics project. It was fun, but frustrating. I was tasked with redoing all the stationary for the Annual Appeal mailings since the old stuff had our old logo on them. I was able to do that lickety-split, but having never sent anything to a printer that wasn't myself before, it wasn't as simple as I thought. All day Thursday was spent on and off the phone with Rachel at Curry Printing--who is a doll, by the way, very patient--trying to get my files fixed to print in three-color separations rather than full color. Which was ten times more expensive. (Note to self: Using the eyedropper creates RGB-mixed colors, not straight swatches.) I was almost immediately able to look at it as a learning experience. I'd never used Pantone swatch libraries before--at Maine Awards, customers might have told me to use a PMS color, but it was a useless request because we didn't order silk screen ink in Pantone colors. In the end, it all got done by Friday, which is the important part.
In other news, I have my head on straight again. I had been absolutely terrified that I just didn't have it in me to get through any more waiting in my life, hence all the "what do I do?!?!?!" noise. I realized in the middle of the week that I wasn't and hadn't been operating on my own strength for a while now. Many normal people would have said it's too hard, screw it a while ago. Instead, the famous image of being carried across the tough parts of the beach comes to mind. I'm tapping into another source of strength, and it is infinite. That made me feel better. Incidentally, screw you, Dr. Phil.
More disjointed rambling: Lin and I got our new phones this week too. It's nice not to have to worry about how long I'm on the phone with John as he drives home from work or count how many texts I send in a day.
I'm wicked cheap because I bought two CDs for a total of forty cents last night at Bull Moose: Savage Garden's self-titled CD, and Smashmouth's "Fush Yu Mang". Sure, circa 1990something but who cares. Savage Garden is actually one of my favorite bands, and I've never owned any CDs. Also picked up Newsboys' "Adoration" at Goodwill for a couple bucks. I like having CDs, the tangible thing rather than only abstract electronic versions of the music. I like to hold them in my hands, see them piled in (and on) the rack on the wall, and pop them into an actual boombox that's probably about ten years old and runs lovely. I don't know, maybe I'm a tactile person.
Learning to crochet, which is kinda fun and domestic.
Also learned I have the hips for belly dancing, but none of the natural grace. XD
Guess that's it for now.