I thought this was supposed to be temporary?

Last year our company decided to use our available employees in Disability Claims to work Dental Claims for the first quarter of the year. I had volunteered, thinking it would be interesting to see another side of the company, and to change things up a bit with my work. I wasn't picked last year because I was too "green" at my current job, and my supervisor wanted me to focus on my Disability work.

The reason they did this was because at the beginning of each year, there is an influx of Dental claims, and instead of hiring new or temporary employees for the three or so months that there are too many claims, and not enough Dental employees. Instead, someone determined that the Disability department was overstaffed, and pulled two people to work half days on Dental from Disability. At the end of March, those two people were done.

This year was the same story. They needed two people to work half days from January through March. I volunteered again, even though the people who did that volunteer work last year had complained about it and how unorganized the whole thing was. I thought they were exaggerating. Turns out they weren't exaggerating, not even a teeny bit.

Training started off rocky, when we were set loose on our own, we had more questions than it seemed were possible, and it was tough. But we managed. And just when we finally got used to that, they changed the work we were doing, and it all started over.

Then they announced (with only two days of warning), that we would no longer be doing Dental half days - they were so far behind, that they would need us to do Dental full days, and it wasn't just through March anymore, it was through April, as well. Then we would go back to doing Disability claims again, just like normal.

Then today, with one more day left on my countdown calendar, which I'd been carefully "X"ing off each day that passed, a bomb was dropped on me. I was called into my supervisor's office, expecting to hear something about "thanks for all your hard work in Dental these past four months, here's how things are going to go on Monday when you start doing Disability again." Instead, it was more like, "So, your last day of Dental will not be tomorrow."

Me: You're joking, right?
Supv: No, I'm afraid I'm not.
Me: This is a REALLY bad joke.
Supv: I wish it was a joke, I'm sorry.

So not only is my last day of Dental not tomorrow, but the duration of Dental is indefinite. The Dental department is currently understaffed and not hiring, and the Disability department is currently overstaffed - so of course it makes sense to take people from the overstaffed department and have them work in the understaffed department, especially if they're already trained to do the work.

I suppose I should mention that this is mind-numbingly boring work, and the constant data-entry (about 5x more than when doing Disability) is wreaking havoc on my shoulder due to repetitive motion strain. I am getting an ergonomic chair at work and a slide out keyboard tray, which should help out. Since I don't know how long I'll be doing this now, I'm working on keeping the pain to a minimum. Before, it was "oh, I'll be done in two months, so I'll just suffer through it, and it'll go away when I start Disability again."

We'd planned a Happy Hour at one of the local bars tomorrow. It's still on, even though it could be considered an Un-Happy Hour. Either way, I'm drinkin'.

Yeah, this was a big bitch-fest, but I needed to get it off my chest and complain about it. Because there's nothing I can do that's going to change it, aside from finding a new job at this point, and I'm just not ready to do that right now. I just have to hope that it doesn't last too much longer, and deal with it.

Wrong Number

My phone rarely rings. I don't even know why I have a phone most of the time. If I could have something that just sends out text and picture messages and surf the internet, I'd be fairly happy, I think.

So when my phone does ring, I usually need to answer it, and it's usually someone I know. That's why normally I don't answer my phone if I don't recognize the number.

This weekend I had a missed call from a St. Paul area code - they didn't leave a message, so I didn't call back. Today, while I was waiting for my car to get its tires rotated and oil changed at the dealership, I got a call from that same number, so I answered it. Some kid, who asked, "Uhh, who is this?" Well, you called me, kid, you should probably have a good idea of who you're calling.

Then I get another call tonight from an unrecognized, but local number. What the heck? I'll answer it, it could be something important, right? Nope.
Me: Hello?
Kid: Mom?
Me: Nope, you've got the wrong number, sorry.

So, do I go back to only answering my phone if the person calling is in my phonebook, and therefore, a recognized number? Or do I answer the phone every single time, when 90% of my incoming calls are wrong numbers because people forget that there are more than two area codes in the Twin Cities?

April Showers

Quite a bit has happened since I last logged in here. We'd had an issue with our youngest cat, Skadi, the weekend before Easter. She'd been throwing up Sunday afternoon, all day Monday, and Tuesday morning. I made an appointment to take her to the vet Tuesday morning, and after doing some x-rays, they found that she had eaten several of my ponytail holders. The doctor recommended surgery right away to get those out, as they were obviously impairing her ability to eat. She'd lost a pound in the last couple of months, so she wasn't getting enough food. Unfortunately, my vet's office didn't have a surgeon available for Tuesday, and since all the ponytail holders were currently in Skadi's stomach, and not trying to float their way down her intestines, the vet suggested that I go to an emergency / referral vet about 20 minutes away.

So Skadi and I went down to the emergency vet and waited around about 2 hours before they took her in, as there were other animals in surgery at the time. The surgeon only had to do a scope to get everything out of Skadi's stomach, and didn't have to open her up (thank goodness, because that would have cost 2x as much), and they were able to get everything out of her stomach.

I felt so terrible, because I know this was my fault. I try to be really good about putting away my ponytail holders after I've taken them out of my hair, but apparently I wasn't. So I promptly got a hair cut that weekend which is easier to manage when I wear it down, but I can still pull it back in a ponytail if need be, like on the weekends when we're painting.

Since we spent a small fortune on Skadi that week, it was hard to justify spending more money going to Kansas City to see the Twins play at Kaufmann Stadium, so we canceled the trip and got our deposit back. Next weekend will just be another 3-day weekend for us so we can get more painting done. We've finished nearly everything upstairs now - the bedroom, bathroom, Aaron's office, and guest room are complete, along with the kitchen. The dining room is ALMOST done, save for half a wall that needs to be smoothed out yet before we paint it. Aaron's still working on that part.

On Easter weekend, we had that Friday off, which was the Twins vs Cardinals exhibition game at the new Target Field. Aaron and I went to that game, which was fun, even though the Twins lost. We'd already been to the stadium once before, so we knew where everything was, and didn't have to spend too much time lollygagging around, like most everyone else there did. One of the great things about the new stadium is that you can bring your own food and drink in, as long as you don't take it to any of the food-serving establishments. Which is great - bring an empty water bottle and fill it up at the drinking fountain, or bring your own peanuts, sunflower seeds, or sandwiches, and don't spend a fortune on concessions. Of course, there is some great food at Target Field to try out, but once the novelty has worn off, bringing your own food in is awesome.

We're going to a game this coming Wednesday, Twins vs Indians - should be fun. Our seats aren't awesomely close or anything like that, but there really are no bad seats, anyway.

For Saturday and Sunday of Easter weekend, Aaron and I headed to Brookings, SD, to spend Easter with Aaron's brother Eric, and Eric's son. Aaron's folks came out as well, and we had a really nice time. I loved the fact that Eric lived a few miles out of town on the country roads, so it was nice and quiet, you could see the stars, and kinda remember what it was like to be back home.

We're finally getting around to doing some yard work, as it's been consistently warm recently. Aaron's working on getting some grass seed down on some bare spots on the front lawn, and I planted some flowers via seed roll in front of the house. It's a hummingbird / butterfly mix, so I hope they come up - the flowers all looked really pretty on the packaging.

Went to the doctor's on Friday this week for a routine physical / check up, and ended up getting a tetanus shot while I was there. I guess you get a booster every 10 years, and the last time I'd had a shot was about 10 years ago, give or take a year on either end, when I'd stepped on a nail and had to go in to the ER to have it cleaned. Now my arm is super sore, and feels like someone wailed on it with their fists or a hammer or something. Ugh, no fun.

Otherwise, cats are good, family's good, everything's good. Just waiting for summer to get into full swing, and to be done working on the house so we can start enjoying these weekends!