I just realized I never wrote anything in here last month. I'm kind of not surprised. I think about writing in here a lot, but then I get distracted by something else and never get around to it. Or I'm behind at work so I work through my lunch break instead of playing on the computer. I mean, NOOOOOOO, no one does that, ever...especially not salaried nurses!
Actually, last month I didn't get to WFH much. Mainly because the Medicare extension allowing coverage for telemedicine visits expired and wasn't re-extended or something like that, so we had to open more in-person clinic slots. Poor me...there were days I had to go in to the office 4 days out of the week! The horrors! (I'm being sarcastic here. I know you can't tell in writing.) It made me realize how spoiled I've become -- I mean how blessed I am -- with my job where I can work from home so often. Going to the office every day makes me crabby. And it's nothing to do with the actual office itself, because I like the office and I love the people. I really do. The more time I spend with them, the more I like them which is a definite conundrum to working from home like we all do so much now.
It's the commute that's getting to me. On a good day, the commute from my office to my driveway takes one hour and five minutes. But let's face it, there are no "good days" when you're talking about rush hour traffic. We've always gotta slow down for no reason somewhere along the way. Or now that it's winter, we never go the speed limit. I do like driving, but I wish all those other people would get off the road first.
At the end of October, I was driving home from my Mom's house one Friday night -- if I remember correctly, I had spent Thursday night at her house and then worked from her house on Friday and was driving home that evening, so not too late in the evening. Instead of taking my usual route, I decided to take the faster freeways so I could theoretically get home faster. HA HA HA! That backfired on me. Suddenly the lane of traffic I was in decided to stop moving and first I thought I was OK because I slammed on the brakes in time to avoid hitting the car in front of me. But the car behind me did not slam on their brakes in time to avoid hitting me. Even though it was only about 6pm, it was dark and rainy and I was shaking and mad, and the other lanes around us were moving so after I heard that sickening CRUNCH I carefully moved over to the shoulder, because I'm not stupid enough to stay in the freaking middle lane. I was, however, stupid enough to figure the person behind me -- you know, the one who HIT ME!? -- would follow me. HA HA HA HA again. Nope. They just kept going. And I was so upset I didn't realize it at first. So naturally I didn't get a look at their vehicle, or their license plate, or anything like that.
Hey, don't come at me saying I should have got that stuff. You weren't there. You don't know how fast it happened, and how difficult it was to see since it was dark and rainy, and I was focused on getting my car out of traffic while the other car was apparently focused on blending in with traffic.
So, yeah. That was fun. Short story long, I got a new tailgate and bumper now. Well, my Equinox did, anyway. That's about the most exciting thing that's happened recently. Thank God for car insurance! I was super mad at first about the other person just driving away, but I'm over it now. There's nothing I can do about it anyway. It wasn't the right thing to do, but at least I wasn't hurt and my car wasn't totalled. Someone out there is driving around with some Specific Blue paint from MY Equinox on their front bumper. I lost my DeColores bumper sticker, and the decal from the dealership where we bought the Nox, but I didn't lose my Ewok window decal.
And, Medicare now covers telemedicine visits again, so this month I get to work from home more than I did last month. Yay!
A few months ago at work, we switched to Teams for our phone service provider. This is the first time I haven't had an actual physical phone on my desk. It was weird at first, dialing through the computer instead of a real phone. It's still a little weird, but I can say that because I'm over 50. Our house has actual phone jacks. We have never used them, but they're there anyway. But it's nice having Teams as our phone service at work because it's a lot easier to use when I'm WFH'ing. I don't have to use my cell phone anymore! It's the little things sometimes.
Now I'm just babbling. I got a new keyboard a few weeks ago and I like the way it feels and sounds. There's a word for that but I don't know what it is right now. I unintentionally wrecked my last keyboard by packing it in my bag with too much other stuff. Anyway...I don't like typing on the laptop keyboard. Plus it doesn't have a 10-key pad. And I really don't like using the touch pad for a mouse, especially when I'm trying to do the church stuff on here.
I have a lot of dreams with my Dad in them. Well, it seems like a lot, it's probably like one a week, sometimes more. They're usually just like very casual (for lack of a better word), just like a regular life-type situation and he's just there and it's, like, no big deal or anything. Those are the best. Sometimes I'll have dreams where I'll know in the dream that he's not alive so I'll be like, What are you doing here? And he'll just smile at me like he's got some big secret or something and act like he doesn't know what I'm talking about. And then sometimes, and these are the absolute worst, but every now and then I'll have dreams in which he dies again. Not in the same way, but from the same thing, if that makes sense. I mean, like, one time I had a dream that he was back at their house on the couch but in the same state he was in last time I saw him, and I was like, Oh, I thought you already died, what are you doing here? And of course he didn't answer me, but I was doubly upset because I was like, I thought we already did this, you mean we have to go through this all again?! But thankfully, the vast majority of the times my Dad appears in my dreams are not like that at all.
This morning, when I was in that half-awake state and the news was on before I got up, I dreamt that my Mom and I were standing on the sidewalk across the street from the shop where my Dad used to work, and that he was sitting in the doorway, just sitting there, not really doing anything. And then I heard this voiceover in my dream about someone being shot at Edgerton and Jenks (which is a block away from where the shop was) and I was like, oh my gosh, that's right over there! And I pointed in that direction and my Mom was like Yeah, so? And I was like, So we should get out of here! And my Mom was like, That's way over there! We're safe over here. And I was like, No we're not! Come on, let's GO! And I ran over and tried to get my Dad to stand up but he wouldn't move, either. It was odd. And then I woke up and actually paid attention to the news and they were, indeed, talking about someone who was shot at Edgerton and Case and how the area was sealed off from Edgerton and Jenks to Case, or something like that. I don't know, it amuses me when the news filters into my dreams like that.
There's a lot to unpack there. Not really, though. My Mom lives in a high-crime area and refuses to leave it. Something can happen half a block away and she's not bothered by it because it's not literally right in front of her face. I don't have time to unpack all of that right now, or share my feelings on it in a civilized manner. So I shan't.
Besides, it's time to get back to work.
TTFN!
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