Tag: Admin

Song Sung Blue

Weeping like a willow….

Apparently, per my last bloodwork, I am a bit anemic. My primary care doctor isn’t concerned; he thinks it’s a result of the illness-related weight loss, so I am probably going to have to have the bloodwork done over again to see if the anemia is persisting, or if getting more back to eating, with its concurrent weight gain and feeling better, has improved the situation. My deductible is paid in full, so yeah, I am all about getting tested and doing all kinds of things for the rest of the year so I can get more value from my insurance. I am assuming that since the deductible shows paid off, that I will most likely be getting the bill from Ochsner Baptist soon, and I am curious to see how much six nights in a hospital and all the care that went with it actually costs. (The pharmacy bill from the stay is the only one showing yet on my insurance account; and it was over twenty two thousand dollars. Just for medications, but I am assuming that includes the IV’s, too.)

But yay on the deductible being paid off at last! I’m not thrilled about how it happened, of course, but it’s quite delightful to know everything isn’t going to cost me a cent for the rest of the year, mwa-ha-ha-ha.

I also wrote last night. The story isn’t finished yet, but I put in over two thousand words yesterday, so my writing muscles are getting stronger and looser and that’s lovely, isn’t it? The story now sits at just over three thousand words, and yes, it’s quite horrible but I feel confident I can do something good with it once I finish. But it felt good to get those creaky muscles back to work, and maybe I can get even more written this weekend.

I wasn’t terribly tired when I got home from work last night; it was a very slow day in the clinic and I was able to get caught up on a lot of Admin work. And now I am working from home today, with more Admin work to do, too. It’s supposed to be a rainy weekend, too, which is always nice. Hoping to get some good reading time in while I do chores and around writing this weekend. And if I don’t, well, as long as I get some rest that’s really the most important thing, really. I like feeling better–at some points while I was sick I wondered if I would ever feel better again, or if that was my new normal. God, that was unpleasant, and I’m glad it’s over for the most part. It may come back, which is the scary part, so you can bet your ass I will do whatever I need to do in order to be sure that doesn’t happen.

But my breakfast and my morning coffee are really hitting the spot this humid morning. The rain isn’t supposed to be here until later this evening, which is nice. I think I’ll run my errands tomorrow instead of today; today feels like a good stick around the house day, to be honest. I did do some chores last night, so this morning I just need to empty the dishwasher and do some laundry, and then the floors, which somehow always look terrible by the weekend every week. I also finished writing a newsletter last night that I’ll probably send out this morning before I start working.

And on that note, I am heading into the spice mines. Have a lovely Friday, Constant Reader, and I may be back later or tomorrow morning; stay tuned to find out!

Anubis in Queen Nefertari’s tomb, Egypt, Valley of the Queens

Puppy Love

Thank God, my sister was never into Donny Osmond or his brothers. But he was everywhere on Top Forty radio in the 1970s, and later he teamed up with Marie–which was actually worse than his solo/with his brother efforts, but for some reason they were enormously popular1, which I never understood. But then I’ve never understood a lot of things that were popular in our culture.2

And “puppy love” is kind of a creepy saying, anyway.

My first infusion is now scheduled, for this coming Monday morning. I am winding down the prednisone; half a pill this week and next, then a quarter pill for the next two, and the massive swelling of my ankles and feet (side effect of the prednisone) has gone down significantly, which is why it is easier for me to walk now than it was before. There was a slight hang-up, of course, with my insurance (I know, gasp) but it got straightened out and the treatments are now approved. For the record, I will never take the word of an insurance company trying to make money for its shareholders about what is or isn’t “medically necessary,” thank you very much. How much of everyone’s time did this waste? How on earth is this considered an effective use of staff time? Our system is so broken. I am getting good care, and I am very grateful for that, but at the same time I shouldn’t have to spend so much time stressing about what is going to be covered and what is not when I am trying to get well. It seems counterproductive to the healing process, but I am not an insurance company employee, so what do I know?

I worked a bit on the story yesterday–broke through the middle and realized what I am writing will need to be restructured in the next draft, but I do like where it’s going–and was also kind of tired by mid-afternoon. I think it was the relaxation from the insurance approval; I hadn’t realized how much that was bothering me under the surface. It also rained all afternoon–marvelous downpours with thunder and lightning, which kind of made me sleepy. I think we’re going to have a very tropical summer this year in New Orleans, where it’s so humid it rains every afternoon. I didn’t read anything when I got home–the traffic on the highways was dense and moving very slow–but just kind of relaxed for a moment before working on the story very briefly. I’m glad I figured it out, though–I was getting a little worried, as I always do when writing doesn’t come as easily as it used to. The story is over two thousand words now, which pleases me; it’s been a hot minute since I wrote that much on anything, so that’s a win, thank you very much.

But it’s Thursday and my last day in the office for the week. The schedule is very light in the clinic today, so I’ll be able to get a lot of Admin work taken care of, which will have me all caught up on the office work before Remote Friday, which will again be admin work, just at home (I save stuff that I can do at home for Remote Fridays), and then it’s the weekend. I should do chores tonight, so I don’t have to do them this weekend, but the house does need to have some picking up and cleaning done. I want to finish writing this story and work on some other writing this weekend, all the while getting the reading done. I should be able to finish my three current reads this weekend before moving on to the next three; I think probably Mia Manansala’s new y/a, along with a Jay Bennett 3reread of one of his y/a’s, and my adult reread will probably be another Barbara Michaels, perhaps The Crying Child, which I’ve not reread in forever.

Those are some really good choices, don’t you think?

I also have some library books for research that I need to get through and make notes so I can return them. One is for Chlorine, and the other is for my deconstruction of Gone with the Wind and Lost Cause mythology–primarily focusing on how the Confederate widows and their daughters drove that mythology (because they couldn’t accept the fact their husbands, fathers and sons were treasonous losers, so they deified them, to the detriment of the country to the present day).

And of course, LSU plays this weekend in the College World Series, so I’ll definitely have that on, too.

And on that note, I am heading into the spice mines. Have a great day, Constant Reader, and I’ll be back tomorrow morning.

  1. I did like his comeback hits in the early 1990’s–“Sacred Emotion” and “Soldier of Love”, though. Go figure. ↩︎
  2. Don’t even get me started on Jonathan Livingston Seagull, which was the Number One bestseller for two full years in the early 1970s. ↩︎
  3. Bennett is mostly forgotten today, but he wrote y/a noir/suspense, won two Edgars from three nominations, and was a master. I’ll probably do a newsletter about him someday, once I get through his entire canon. ↩︎