Spider on the Keys

My god, I'm exhausted today. If I didn't ave a Saturday shift, I'd definitely still be in bed.

Yesterday's meeting went pretty well. I got up half an hour early and got myself together to go forth down to the city. I looked very business appropriate in a pencil skirt, a teal blouse and dress shoes. (Remember those dress shoes.)



I got down there fine, GPS is actually very good for downtown, and I left just before 7, so I was before a lot of traffic. Before I knew it, I was pulling up to the hospital. My plan was to valet, but in my invite package, they mentioned that the conference center was right by the one bridge from the parking garage, so I gave it a try. I found a pretty close spot, so I was like "okay, I can do this." And sure enough, the conference room was *right* there.

I had 60 min before my meeting officially started, so I figured I'd try to get my badge, and did hike one, which was about a mile all totaled. Nothing horrible, but yeah. Dress shoes.

I couldn't get my badge, because I needed a paper from HR, which I in no way had time for. So, I went back to the conference room and figured I'd try after we were done.

On my walk there, I heard my name, and found the director of Radiology addressing me. She recognized my picture from the article and paused to say hello and introduce herself.

They had a light breakfast--bagels and pastries. I had half a bagel, not wanting to be greedy. Then we had the meeting. It was good. Just your basic "welcome to Hopkins." It was interesting to find that we had scheduled over 300,000 exams just for the outpatient centers alone. A chunk of those the pt scheduled via mychart, but we did a good number. I do wonder how much money we bring in. It's gotta be fairly steep.

During the meeting, we were encouraged to participate, and the head of radiology singled out the story I had online, about the sweet patient. She was very complimentary and held it up as an example of something that was top of the line customer service, and would drive brand loyalty. So that was nice.

Afterwards, we got a tour of the hospital. It was about 2 1/2 miles of walking. In dress shoes.

I did it, but goddamn.

I did get a good view of the famous Hopkins Dome and took a picture.



Finally, our tour was almost over.

We stopped in our fifth building to get our box lunches, and swag and came back through the building where I needed to get my badge. Peg let me beg off the rest of the tour so I could get my badge at that point, and I did so. After 18 months, I finally have my Hopkins credentials! I don't technically need them, but I wanted them.

Then, I gimped back to the sky bridge, stopping at the gift shop in the Children's Center. On an end cap by the door, I glimpsed a pile of rainbows, and thought "surely they don't have gay pride stuff prominently displayed in the gift shop in the Children's center! Uh, dear reader, they had a FUCKTON of gay pride things displayed. I got a mug for Jess that says "Queer AF."

Then, I toddled off to my car. Right around ten minutes from home, the leg cramps started to hit.

That became a theme for the next three hours. My legs and feet were NOT happy.

I got home and unpacked all my swag, which included a nice tote bag, a cool automatic umbrella, some sunglasses, lip balm, lens cleaners and a nail file/mirror combo.



I took a little nap once the leg cramps eased up, and then ordered dinner. We had game after dinner, and that was a lot of fun.

Today work, then nothing scheduled. I'd like to go get my pills, but aside from that, just relaxing and recovering. My legs are just sore as hell today. But since I walked somewhere between 3-4 miles in totally non supportive flats, I'm not shocked.

Okay, time for me to get myself together for work. Everyone have an amazing Saturday!

We're sliding into the weekend! Two and a half more days (for me).

Yesterday was very busy. Yet I was triumphant at getting someone in for a Cardiac MRI, so it was a good day. The patient had called earlier and gotten one at the end of the month, which is SO rare. these normally are booking out to October. But the spouse called back to ask about the wait list and got me. And I'll admit, I tooted my own horn a bit, telling them that they got the right person, as I am nominally in charge of cardiac slots. The order had been put in incorrectly, as it was from an outside doctor and the person who put it in failed to notice the STAT on it. I fixed it, and promised that I'd keep an eye out. And sure enough, there was a cancellation within 2 hours, and he went from end of the month to tomorrow. And I felt superior and smug.

The rest of the day was pretty busy. I called a LOT of patients back, and sent a lot of messages.

Tomorrow, I presumably have the meeting with the big boss. I still question the motive behind this. It's technically an orientation meeting for new radiologists and techs, but my top two managers in my dept feel like this could be important, so off I go, down to the city and the big hospital. At least that's my current plan. I still haven't gotten an invite, so I don't know a ton of when, where etc. I just know it's on the Zayed concourse. I'm going to run out tonight and get some gas in my car, just to have a full tank, and maybe get another $40 out so I have some extra cash.

I'm not really a city girl. I like the things a city holds--good, diverse food and entertainment, but I hate city driving. Fortunately, the hospital is near the Russian church I go to every fall for their festival, so the route is pretty simple.

Saturday, I'll work, and then I shall have a nice weekend. I had blocked Saturday off to go get our cow share, but since I haven't heard from them, I'm assuming that they're not done dry aging. This is sad, as the next few weekends could be tough to find time drive the hour and a half to pick them up. They'll be 100% worth it, mind you. Those were some of the best steaks I've had. It's not a huge share, just like a tote bag full, but it'll keep us for a few weeks.

Okay, time to finish up and go forth and get ready for another busy day. Everyone have an excellent Thursday!

Welcome to Wednesday! It's gotta be less frustrating than Tuesday was.

Update on the bank situation: Wells Fargo can eat a dick. As of this morning, I can actually see the check in the account again, though I have not gotten an update regarding the closing of the account. I was on the phone with three separate levels of customer service yesterday trying to get things straightened out, as well as Jess calling. The big sticking point was that because they locked the account, it was overdrawn, because it wouldn't let me transfer money in to cover it. So I called to ask about that and got singularly unhelpful people. They were threatening that if it wasn't brought up to date (how?) I would be charged $35/item. I finally told them that if I was charged a single cent, we were going to have a problem and hung up.

All of this left me feeling shitty and sad yesterday. Like I said, today I can see the check, so that's something. I will be transferring the money out of the account as quickly as possible, and putting it into a different account with the plan of closing this one asap. I'm not dealing with their shit again. We've got a minimum of 3 checks yet to come, and I'm not going to have them do. this again.

Add to the bank clusterfuck, we got a note that they're doing a pest control sweep on Thursday. Which should be thrilling, what with Yoda and Boodle. Not looking forward to it. Plus, I'm going to have to stop working for the time they're here because HIPAA.

Today, the pupper is going to get his day of beauty. I'm dropping him off during my lunch break, and picking up after I get off work. He will of course, be a little angel for her.

Though he was super good for his walk yesterday. I was very proud of him. There were three dogs, including one who barked at him and five people and the worst he did was a little gruffle at the dog who barked, but he turned away and walked like a good boy. I think the increase in prednisone is helping him. I was also a little proud of me, since for the first time, I walked the full circuit around the neighborhood. I'm a little sore, but I need to increase my stamina, since I'm going to be in charge of walks once Jess has their surgery in 5 weeks.

Work was busy yesterday. I did 41 calls, plus some extra curricular schedule filling and calling patients back. Friday I have my meeting with the big boss, so we'll see how that goes. I'll figure out what time I need to leave to get downtown in time. I'm definitely valet parking, because fuck that shit. I figure I'm going to have to hike the hospital as it is. I'm cautiously extending my walking ability, but that's in tennis shoes, not dress shoes.

Okay, I'm going to go forth and see how much the bank will let me transfer at once. Probably about $5k, so that's going to take at least six days. We'll see. Everyone have an awesome Wednesday!

Yet again, I woke up at 7am, and could absolutely not get back to sleep. I tried! Ah well, it'll do. My back was a wee bit sore, so I took some ibuprofen and am waiting for it to kick in. The joys of being 53.

Today shall be relaxing and some cleaning and cooking. First up, shall be brunch. Then, I will relax and then clean, then dinner. I'm debating on making sourdough stuffing for the pork chops. The ones from Sam's club are usually pretty thick and I could slice and stuff them. Might be good. Add in some honey roasted carrots with a tiny bit of chili powder and salt, and it should be delicious. I got the big loaf of sourdough, and sage, thyme and parsley, so why not?

Yesterday was a good day. I did mostly nothing. We got dressed and went to the post office so Jess could mail out some forms, and then came back and had breakfast and then played a game.

The game ended up being super fun, as I had a big boss battle set up. Good lord those were a lot of characters to keep track of! Next session, we have a ton of wrap up to do, and then the players will be deciding which plot hook they want to pick up on. I've got two options, either of which would be good with me. I shall spend time uploading a few maps, so that either way, we're covered. Debating pulling some of the Witchlight maps out of storage and reusing them for good, since they're good depictions of the Feywild. Definitely will reuse the castle maps, as that was super detailed.

After game, we relaxed for a bit, and then we ran out and grabbed dinner. As per usual, we got way too much food, and now I have a Chinese pork "hamburger" for lunch tomorrow, nom nom. Also braised beef and potatoes and plain handpulled noodles, which I can add a little soy and gochujang as a treat.

Tomorrow it's back to work. I need to ask if the meeting for Friday is still on or if it's getting bumped again. Either way, I have my clothes ready. I just need to decide which skirt to wear. Full business, or slightly funky. I love both options.

But first, another day to relax and plot out future outings. The lovely poisontaster has agreed to join us in November for a brunch at Brunch at Amoora which is a semi-exclusive event. They only hold one brunch per month, and I'm determined to get in for November. I'm just going to haunt those reservations until they become available.

At some point between now and then, I'd like to go for their dinner menu, just to taste the food. I adore Middle Eastern food, so I'm very excited to try it.

Okay, time to go forth and work on waking the hell up. Everyone have a stellar Sunday!

It's Friday!! One more day of work, then 2 glorious days off. I'm going to sleep til at least 7 (no matter what the cat says) both days! I know that doesn't sound like very late, but I normally get up between 5:00am-5:30am, so it's actually not bad. And I'm going to relax and have game on Saturday and do some cleaning on Sunday.

Tonight, unfortunately, due one of my player's cancelled flight with all the rain and storms yesterday, our game tonight had to be cancelled. Both Jess and I am sad, so we're going to go out for dinner. Where we're going out to dinner is up in the air, because I am indecisive and want Jess to have the best time because this was their favorite game that got cancelled. I'm waffling between Fogo de Chao or Venetian Italian Eatery. Both sound good. I will see which Jess would prefer.

Tomorrow, barring calamity, we have Arvandor, which I'm looking forward to. I left them at the beginning of battle, that they should be able to win easily. But, I have a few tricks up my sleeve that should make things interesting. I'm looking forward to springing it on them. It'll probably be the near-end of this arc, but there's more to come. I've got some more maps to source and upload for the next part.

I love sourcing maps. I mostly use https://www.czepeku.com/ for my maps, with assists from other map makers and sometime google search when I have a very particular map that I need.

Sunday, I definitely need to vacuum, in small stages so my back doesn't get pissy. And do some tidying. The house is a little raggedy right now, and I want to pretty it up a bit. It's nothing overwhelming, just need to pickup and put shit where it belongs.

Yesterday was busy. I did a lot of calling people and trying to work them in at places. It worked out well, at least. I got a lot of people in. I expect today to be more of the same. Usually my counterpart is off, so I get all the callbacks.

I'm still on my Ghost kick. At some point, I'll stop randomly singing snippets of their music. I showed Jess the frankly weird video for Dance Macabre. It's kind of wild, setting up the original lore for Ghost--Sister Imperator and the first Papa Nihil's meeting. The romance is kind of sweet in a weird way.



(Some weird imagery and vampiric violence.)

And on that weird little note, I shall go forth and get dressed. Everyone have a fantastic Friday!

I slept like a rock last night. It was lovely, and I feel much better today.

It's kind of surprising, since yesterday afternoon, I was ready to claw my face off. First, I had a bad call. I fucked up getting info at the beginning, and had an auto fail. I have done it a couple of times before, and I fucking hate it every time. It feels like a personal failing. Then, the dog wouldn't go out for me. Then Jess was upset with themselves for not knowing how a notary works, even though they've never done a notary. And the dog was barky and it just had me on overstim anxiety. I took some meds and they got me through the rest of the day.

Of course, then in the afternoon I discovered a new thing. Hopkins has a concierge service for important/rich people, called a concierge service. And I've spoken with the doctor over there a few times when she called in to get a patient scheduled. And once I had to see how I could work things, and when pressed, I gave her my direct number. And the motherfucker gave it out to a patient! I'm sitting there on the phone with a patient when I get another call. I call back after I finish doing my actual job, and yup. It's a patient calling me directly. According to them, Dr. Clever says I'm "the only helpful one in the call center, and she wished I scheduled for more depts." Which, great compliment, but no thank you. I'm not your personal flying monkey. I did not sign up to be a concierge radiology scheduler.

I'm debating on letting my manager know. I may wait to see if it happens again or if this was a one off. Concierge is a big dept that makes a lot of money, and if it came to a throwdown, I don't know that we would win.

I'd prefer to keep it as not my circus, not my monkeys, but I fear that I do know the clowns.

After that, I made dinner and went to bed, seeing as I was still tired from not sleeping two nights before.

And I realized that I misquoted Brennan yesterday. The full quote is ""In the same way your heart feels and your mind thinks, you, mortal beings, are the instrument by which the universe cares. If you choose to care, then the universe cares. If you don't, then it doesn't." I need to get that tattooeed somewhere. It's a bit long, so I don't think they could do the forearm. Oh well, I'll see what the artist says once I book a consult. Sometimes, DMs pull the best quotes out of thin air while they're DMing.

Tonight, we have a game, assuming everyone is able to play. The heat is really kicking everyone's asses, especially our player who takes public transportation to work. Though when I take Yoda out, it's like instant migraine, so it's not doing me great either.

I am looking forward to cooler weather soon.

We'll have been in the apartment for 7 months tomorrow. That's a little bit bonkers. It feels like we've been here forever. It's just home now. The house is a distant memory. It cost us 10k to get rid of it, but it was worth it.

Okay, time to go forth and get myself together. Everyone have an amazing Wednesday!