(no subject)
And I could use some therapy at the moment. Life is getting complicated again ...
The Job:
Last weekend was fine -- not too busy and we got a good bit of cleaning and "paperwork" done. However, Thursday sucked totally. We never did get caught up! I only had one technician, though we did have a cashier come in at noon to help run the register and scan Rx into the system -- she didn't know how to type them in, though, so the tech and I still had to do that, but it does help just having someone run the register for you. However, it seemed as though every second or third Rx had some sort of insurance problem that we had to stop working and fix! We spent a good portion of the day either on the phone or re-doing people's orders with new insurance. Every time we'd try to process one of the Rx in our queue, it seemed two or three more got called in. For the longest time, the queue never got under 30 Rx no matter what we did. I actually had to leave at 9:15 pm without finishing -- though I only left 5-6 Rx, I felt guilty doing it. I'm one of those people who don't like leaving anything undone at the end of the day, but I just couldn't do any more.
We had a really suspicious phone-in Rx too, and that left a bad taste in my mouth the whole evening. A doctor had phoned in an antibiotic/controlled pain medicine after hours, which is always suspicious. Some woman phoned and asked if her Rx had been phoned in, but it was a different name so the tech said "No" -- then the same woman called back 5 minutes later and said "Oh, I made a mistake, it's not a Rx for me, it's for my NEICE!" How suspicious is that?! And then when they showed up, they said they "couldn't afford" the antibiotic and only wanted the controlled substance. I said I would not do that without permission from the doctor, and phoned the office. They only had voice mail so I left a message. The "aunt" then started yelling and actually pounding on the counter, demanding that I give her the pain medication. Oddly, the person who was supposed to be sick just stood there saying nothing -- this is me rolling my eyes and being sarcastic because I was well aware that they were trying to scam us and get the controlled substance. I had to get a customer service manager to escort the woman out of the store! Later, the "nurse" phoned in reply to the voice mail (I still am not sure that the Rx was even called in by a real doctor) -- only she claimed she'd called in a totally different antibiotic than the she had, and when I told her I'd have to check all of that with the doctor, she said he was right there with her and yelled for him -- only the name she yelled was not the first name of the doctor she had said was writing the Rx in the first place! Suspicious much? At any rate, she said I had an "attitude" and they were just going to call the whole thing into another pharmacy, which was a relief to me, but as I said, the situation really colored the whole evening for me. I was really down and discouraged as I made the hour-long drive back home.
At least my friend J invited me to stop by his place on the way. He'd grilled some burgers and invited our friends over, so I got to socialize a bit and we watched "Kung Fu Panda" on his big-screen TV, which is always a fun movie.
Relatives:
So my sister has finally asked for money. I knew it was coming. After her back surgery, she's been out of work (since last December) and living off the proceeds of Mum's house sale. I'll admit that it's not her fault she can't work, and that the recovery seems to be taking longer than she was initially told it would, but I just cannot allow myself to fall into the trap that Mum let herself get into, of supporting my sister and her son! I may give in and loan her enough money just to make rent until her unemployment check comes in -- she says that will start at the beginning of October now that her old job has officially said they can't re-hire her until she's able to return to full duty instead of light duty. I am going to insist that I be repaid within a year, though, and really keep on top of her about it. She's borrowed money from Mum's friend JS before and found excuses why she can't repay her. I'm not going to get into that situation and I'm going to make it clear that I will not even think of loaning her anything else until the first loan is totally paid off.
Neither of them can manage money at all; they spend what they don't have and the nephew buys video games and has cable TV even though he has no job. He is on welfare because his mental illness makes him very (very!) hard to get along with so he has never been able to keep a job longer than a few weeks -- he either gets fired for stealing or drugs, or gets into a yelling match with the boss and quits. He has bipolar disorder and some sort of other personality disorder like borderline personality or antisocial or oppositional defiant disorder -- something that makes it impossible for him to get along with anyone! I've also wondered if he doesn't have Asperger's Syndrome; even if he's not actually autistic, he can't seem to understand how his actions affect the world around him. It's like he's not really connected to things in his mind. At any rate, he cannot seem to keep a job once he manages to find someone that will hire a 20-something man with no real skills, a GED, and a history of drug use and jail time. He's managed to really fuck up his whole life, and he still blames everybody except himself for his trouble. It's really hard dealing with him -- just trying to have a conversation is depressing because all he wants to do is whine and complain and go off on angry rants about how rotten everything is. Even my sister has limited the time he can come over to her house because he makes her so depressed listening to him bitch and moan. Plus he only comes over to mooch dinner most of the time.
Writing:
Unfortunately, I'm not one of those writers who get inspired by my own depression, so I've not been doing as much writing as I'd like to do since I got transferred to the new job. I find myself wasting time on the internet and reading or watching movies instead of working. And that makes me more depressed, which means I do even less writing, which just goes around in an ugly circle of misery. I've been trying to do just a little writing of something every day. I've managed to keep up the t_w_w_s prompt blog every day, which is something to be cheerful about, and I've stayed active in the critique group. I'm the Liaison Officer, which means I welcome new members and write up the monthly newsletter. It's a little frustrating sometimes because most of the members tend to procrastinate themselves, and we don't get a lot of participation so I mostly have to write all of the newsletter myself instead of including things from other members. I still have hopes that people will join in, though. We do have one member who's been "silent" for over a year, who's just started sending in stories for critique again, so there's always hope.
I've been re-working the book so that instead of two major plotlines, I have one major "case" and a minor one. The first book also has a lot of building up the background -- setting the character relationships, starting up the Outlaw Security business itself, and introducing everyone to the readers. Future books will build off that and not require more than the odd line reminding them of what's going on in the background, so there'll be more action and less introspection.
On the Plus Side:
I have actually been writing, even though as I mentioned, a lot less than I'd like. I always enjoy supervising WikiAnswers, too -- my writing categories keep me on my toes and give me something to think about, while remaining in the creative arena. One interesting bit of information is that WikiAnswers now has a whole category about the grocery store where I work! As it's only located in the Deep South of the US, I'm surprised to see over 700 questions just about that chain!
I finally felt I'd saved enough money and bought a good espresso maker. I have really been enjoying my morning lattes -- and saving a lot of money that I'd been spending at Starbucks! I've not got the perfect mix down, but practice makes perfect.
J and I went to see "Brave" yesterday. It's a good move, but not a great one. I probably won't go see it again unless pipmudturtle just wants company when he gets around to seeing it. I've been trying to figure out why it's not as good as some of the Pixar movies I've seen -- the characters are cute, there's lots of humor, and the graphics are spectacular. I think it's just a little too generic -- the whole thing is predictable, the characters seemed a little cardboard a lot of the time, and the only thing it had going was the great background scenery and detailed graphics. Sad, because you can see where it would have been right up there with their best work if the story had been a little more solid and the characters more "real." I'm sure there are people who will disagree with me, but I felt just a little let-down by this movie. I had really high expectations as animated movie fan of Scots ancestry.
I am really (REALLY!) looking forward to "The Hobbit!" There was a trailer for it, and I actually felt like clapping. I really wish there were more Tolkein books that could be made into movies -- Peter Jackson is a mad genius in my mind, and I'd see anything he comes up with in the future!
And this heat wave is already getting old! Even my succulents and cacti by the mailbox are starting to wilt. Last night at 10pm it was still 95 degrees outside!
"/end rant"
The Job:
Last weekend was fine -- not too busy and we got a good bit of cleaning and "paperwork" done. However, Thursday sucked totally. We never did get caught up! I only had one technician, though we did have a cashier come in at noon to help run the register and scan Rx into the system -- she didn't know how to type them in, though, so the tech and I still had to do that, but it does help just having someone run the register for you. However, it seemed as though every second or third Rx had some sort of insurance problem that we had to stop working and fix! We spent a good portion of the day either on the phone or re-doing people's orders with new insurance. Every time we'd try to process one of the Rx in our queue, it seemed two or three more got called in. For the longest time, the queue never got under 30 Rx no matter what we did. I actually had to leave at 9:15 pm without finishing -- though I only left 5-6 Rx, I felt guilty doing it. I'm one of those people who don't like leaving anything undone at the end of the day, but I just couldn't do any more.
We had a really suspicious phone-in Rx too, and that left a bad taste in my mouth the whole evening. A doctor had phoned in an antibiotic/controlled pain medicine after hours, which is always suspicious. Some woman phoned and asked if her Rx had been phoned in, but it was a different name so the tech said "No" -- then the same woman called back 5 minutes later and said "Oh, I made a mistake, it's not a Rx for me, it's for my NEICE!" How suspicious is that?! And then when they showed up, they said they "couldn't afford" the antibiotic and only wanted the controlled substance. I said I would not do that without permission from the doctor, and phoned the office. They only had voice mail so I left a message. The "aunt" then started yelling and actually pounding on the counter, demanding that I give her the pain medication. Oddly, the person who was supposed to be sick just stood there saying nothing -- this is me rolling my eyes and being sarcastic because I was well aware that they were trying to scam us and get the controlled substance. I had to get a customer service manager to escort the woman out of the store! Later, the "nurse" phoned in reply to the voice mail (I still am not sure that the Rx was even called in by a real doctor) -- only she claimed she'd called in a totally different antibiotic than the she had, and when I told her I'd have to check all of that with the doctor, she said he was right there with her and yelled for him -- only the name she yelled was not the first name of the doctor she had said was writing the Rx in the first place! Suspicious much? At any rate, she said I had an "attitude" and they were just going to call the whole thing into another pharmacy, which was a relief to me, but as I said, the situation really colored the whole evening for me. I was really down and discouraged as I made the hour-long drive back home.
At least my friend J invited me to stop by his place on the way. He'd grilled some burgers and invited our friends over, so I got to socialize a bit and we watched "Kung Fu Panda" on his big-screen TV, which is always a fun movie.
Relatives:
So my sister has finally asked for money. I knew it was coming. After her back surgery, she's been out of work (since last December) and living off the proceeds of Mum's house sale. I'll admit that it's not her fault she can't work, and that the recovery seems to be taking longer than she was initially told it would, but I just cannot allow myself to fall into the trap that Mum let herself get into, of supporting my sister and her son! I may give in and loan her enough money just to make rent until her unemployment check comes in -- she says that will start at the beginning of October now that her old job has officially said they can't re-hire her until she's able to return to full duty instead of light duty. I am going to insist that I be repaid within a year, though, and really keep on top of her about it. She's borrowed money from Mum's friend JS before and found excuses why she can't repay her. I'm not going to get into that situation and I'm going to make it clear that I will not even think of loaning her anything else until the first loan is totally paid off.
Neither of them can manage money at all; they spend what they don't have and the nephew buys video games and has cable TV even though he has no job. He is on welfare because his mental illness makes him very (very!) hard to get along with so he has never been able to keep a job longer than a few weeks -- he either gets fired for stealing or drugs, or gets into a yelling match with the boss and quits. He has bipolar disorder and some sort of other personality disorder like borderline personality or antisocial or oppositional defiant disorder -- something that makes it impossible for him to get along with anyone! I've also wondered if he doesn't have Asperger's Syndrome; even if he's not actually autistic, he can't seem to understand how his actions affect the world around him. It's like he's not really connected to things in his mind. At any rate, he cannot seem to keep a job once he manages to find someone that will hire a 20-something man with no real skills, a GED, and a history of drug use and jail time. He's managed to really fuck up his whole life, and he still blames everybody except himself for his trouble. It's really hard dealing with him -- just trying to have a conversation is depressing because all he wants to do is whine and complain and go off on angry rants about how rotten everything is. Even my sister has limited the time he can come over to her house because he makes her so depressed listening to him bitch and moan. Plus he only comes over to mooch dinner most of the time.
Writing:
Unfortunately, I'm not one of those writers who get inspired by my own depression, so I've not been doing as much writing as I'd like to do since I got transferred to the new job. I find myself wasting time on the internet and reading or watching movies instead of working. And that makes me more depressed, which means I do even less writing, which just goes around in an ugly circle of misery. I've been trying to do just a little writing of something every day. I've managed to keep up the t_w_w_s prompt blog every day, which is something to be cheerful about, and I've stayed active in the critique group. I'm the Liaison Officer, which means I welcome new members and write up the monthly newsletter. It's a little frustrating sometimes because most of the members tend to procrastinate themselves, and we don't get a lot of participation so I mostly have to write all of the newsletter myself instead of including things from other members. I still have hopes that people will join in, though. We do have one member who's been "silent" for over a year, who's just started sending in stories for critique again, so there's always hope.
I've been re-working the book so that instead of two major plotlines, I have one major "case" and a minor one. The first book also has a lot of building up the background -- setting the character relationships, starting up the Outlaw Security business itself, and introducing everyone to the readers. Future books will build off that and not require more than the odd line reminding them of what's going on in the background, so there'll be more action and less introspection.
On the Plus Side:
I have actually been writing, even though as I mentioned, a lot less than I'd like. I always enjoy supervising WikiAnswers, too -- my writing categories keep me on my toes and give me something to think about, while remaining in the creative arena. One interesting bit of information is that WikiAnswers now has a whole category about the grocery store where I work! As it's only located in the Deep South of the US, I'm surprised to see over 700 questions just about that chain!
I finally felt I'd saved enough money and bought a good espresso maker. I have really been enjoying my morning lattes -- and saving a lot of money that I'd been spending at Starbucks! I've not got the perfect mix down, but practice makes perfect.
J and I went to see "Brave" yesterday. It's a good move, but not a great one. I probably won't go see it again unless pipmudturtle just wants company when he gets around to seeing it. I've been trying to figure out why it's not as good as some of the Pixar movies I've seen -- the characters are cute, there's lots of humor, and the graphics are spectacular. I think it's just a little too generic -- the whole thing is predictable, the characters seemed a little cardboard a lot of the time, and the only thing it had going was the great background scenery and detailed graphics. Sad, because you can see where it would have been right up there with their best work if the story had been a little more solid and the characters more "real." I'm sure there are people who will disagree with me, but I felt just a little let-down by this movie. I had really high expectations as animated movie fan of Scots ancestry.
I am really (REALLY!) looking forward to "The Hobbit!" There was a trailer for it, and I actually felt like clapping. I really wish there were more Tolkein books that could be made into movies -- Peter Jackson is a mad genius in my mind, and I'd see anything he comes up with in the future!
And this heat wave is already getting old! Even my succulents and cacti by the mailbox are starting to wilt. Last night at 10pm it was still 95 degrees outside!
"/end rant"