CONfabulation

It's Sunday, and I survived my long days the last three days! I slept in til 7am this morning, which was very nice of my body and my cat. Today is only one game, that I don't have to DM, and the rest of the afternoon will be resting.

Work yesterday wasn't bad. It wasn't too busy, though my boss had left me a to-do list, so I did that, took a few calls, and got out at 12 on the dot. Then it was off to grab my prescriptions and lunch.

We took a risk on timing, but decided to try a new restaurant, the Kenilworth Gourmet. It was actually pretty good. I'll definitely go back for something other than brunch, but my crab benedict was lovely and Jess' strawberry french toast was delicious. Bonus fries, we were home with over half an hour to spare before our first game.

The first game was fun, with a battle against an opponent that vastly outclassed them. Still, they persevered and won!

Then, we relaxed for a couple of hours, ordered dinner, and spent some time with the brother in law. He informed us that he's mostly packed for Alaska. We still have 88 days til we leave! But he is very excited, and it's really cute. We discussed some of our dining options, and decided that we don't really need Tracy's Crab Shack in Juneau. We've got a Dungeness crab feast to go to in Ketchikan and a seafood boil on the ship, so we're probably pretty good on shellfish. I would like to get a king crab leg while I'm in Alaska just to see if there's a difference between that and the one I can get here in MD. (I'm sure there will be.) The excitement is slowly starting to build again after the valley between planning & booking and research to under 90 days. We meet with the dogsitter in 2 weeks. Hopefully Yoda's not an asshole to her.

After that, it was dinner and game two, where we boarded the trauma train. I love the Crooked Moon so far. It's got a good story, but it leaves space for the players to do their thing too. There's places to pull in the players backstory, and it's great. The artwork is gorgeous. We were joking that last night's session was the Trauma Train. You're on a train to the afterlife, and you're trying to help corrupted haints move on. You can kill them, you can talk to them, whatever you want. The players were really creative and helped all the haints with their unfinished business and sent them to their reward. There was also a mail room with letters from the living to the newly departed, and from the departed to the living. Good lord, the angst and trauma. It was great.

Then they fought the creature that lived in the burner of the train. The train still sadly crashed, and now they're fighting the actual corrupted engine of the Ghostlight Express. poisontaster is going to get to fistfight a train with her monk character. It'll be great.

I slept pretty well, aside from a couple bouts of leg spasms. I don't know why my body hates me so much, but I got bananas and will be stuffing them in my face and increasing my water intake. Maybe have a gatorade before bed, because ow.

Today, I get to play a little goth bard, which should be fun. I love my character a lot, and I have a good time playing her. It is funny that both of the characters I play are little rich kids with questionable parents. They're wildly different, but the overarching theme is there. Go figure, I may have some parental issues that I'm using D&D to work through?

This afternoon, post game will be nap time. I am going to take it easy and just relax and enjoy the rest of my day. I think cooking will wait til tomorrow, but we'll see.

Okay, time for me to hop off and contemplate whether I want to put pants on. Everyone have an outstanding Sunday!

It's Saturday and I'm thinking about a nap later today. I've got a bunch of things to do today. Mostly games and work, with one foray out to get my meds in the middle. I am going to be damned tired at 10pm tonight when I finish the second game.

Yesterday was not horribly busy. I did my thing, I called a lot of patients, cleaned the list up a bit from some STAT patients by virtue of making room. I like that spreadsheet. There's something so satisfying about removing a patient from it because you got them in. Less satisfying when you call with a great spot for them and here "oh, we already had it done at Advanced Radiology. I was going to call you." First, no you weren't. Second, enjoy your subpar MRI. And in the meantime, I have to be like "That's perfectly understandable, have a wonderful day."

I filled a couple of cardiac slots, and then I took a few calls. And then at about 2pm, A asked if I was working today. I admitted that I was, and she sent me a to-do list. So I probably won't be taking much in the way of calls today. At three, she went to her meeting with Peg, and I left to go to my interview. I dressed up nicely in black flats, heather gray dress pants, a vibrant emerald green wrap shirt and a black military style velvet jacket. I looked pretty good. Very sharp and dare I say a little cool. (The military jacket is magic, I tell you.)

The drive wasn't bad, just past the mall. Took me about 15 minutes. Then, I called for someone to come let me in and escort me where I needed to be. They hadn't given me a room #, just "second floor," So my escort and I wandered all over until a coworker took pity on us and let us know that it was actually on the third floor.

I sat and waited for a few minutes, and then they came and got me.

It was a panel interview, with managers from various depts, and they all had one or more questions for me. Most were your bog standard "tell me about a time..."

I gotta admit, with like 9 people, it felt a little bit intimidating. But I persevered.

It went really well. I brought up a few things that other candidates did not, like making official communication in writing, because documentation is important. At one point, cardiology stopped asking questions to tell me that I was a very good public speaker. I was clear, composed, had a pleasant voice and tone and he didn't have to ask me to rephrase or clarify things. Which was nice to hear. I mentioned that I am a DM in my spare time, so part of it is painting the picture clearly for the players.

It was a long ass interview. Probably went for about 50 minuntes. Most of the time, they're scheduled for that, but they usually last 30.

So now I wait to see if I can trigger a bidding war.

Yup, saying that is still surreal. I said to Jess, it's not that I don't know that I'm a good worker. I'm smart, curious, and regularly like to anticipate the companies needs and give that to them. I knew I was making a position for myself--I've done it every time. But every time I've done it, it's not been recognized. This is the first time someone has said "We appreciate this, and we'd like to reward you." And this interview was "We see what you are doing and we would like to see if you're a good fit for us." And that felt good.

It was tiring, but I'm glad I did it, whether they offer or not. I did surprise them, trying to get a feel for the office and team. I had intelligent questions planned, and I threw a little surprise in there, and asked for their employee engagement or GLINT score. I felt like that earned me a little more credibility, like I wanted to know what I was walking into. (It was 68. Radiology's is 82, and this is one of the cases where higher is better.) Honestly, knowing that the people are so unsatisfied, I don't know that I would have taken the job even if I didn't have another in my pocket--that's even lower than our campus-wide average, which I believe is 74. (Radiology is a special sunbeam.)

So, that's all good. We'll see if they offer, and what they'll offer and go from there.

After that, we played game, which was super fun.

Today, I shall play two games! And work. And make it to the pharmacy. It'll be a busy day. Tomorrow, more game, but only one, and it's DMed by poisontaster . So that'll be a bit easier.

Mostly, I think I shall rest tomorrow. Maybe I'll cook? Maybe not. Though I do have a lovely head of cabbage, bacon and pork. That could be tasty, if I fry it up with some onions and garlic. I love sauteed cabbage. It's another vegetable that I've convinced Jess isn't so bad along with mashed turnips.

As of this morning, there is now 89 days until our big vacation. We're below 90! *muppet flail* It still doesn't feel real. I don't know when it will. Will it be when I pack? Will it be when the airport transport picks us up? When the plane takes off? Will it be when we land in Seattle? When we cross the Canadian border? Or will it not be until we're walking up the gangplank to the ship? I just don't have a clue. I know Disney felt real when we put our bags away and walked down to the lounge to watch the fireworks. You could see Cinderella's castle right across the lake, and then they played the firework music and it suddenly hit me that we had made it and I cried.

So I may have a delayed reaction. We'll have to wait and see. We have so many things coming up that I'm excited about. Plays and cruise and concerts. It's going to be a busy year. Our year of Yes.

Okay, time for me to go forth and get myself awake and ready for work. Everyone have the absolute best Saturday!

We made it to Friday!

I spent yesterday alternately busting my ass and loafing. I did a lot of calls, but there were also breaks in the middle where I poked the schedule to see if I could do anything with it, (spoiler, I couldn't) and filled in a few more cardiac slots (MRI and CT both). By 2pm, I had filled all the cardiac MRIs for Columbia. It was about 16 slots total, with a limited diagnosis pool that they'd do. It involved a lot of digging. Check the patient to see where they were geographically. Check the diagnosis. Check the answers to the questions. Call pt. Hope you get a person. Present it like you are an angel from heaven, doing them a personal favor.

The nice thing is that it generally made people very happy. Obviously, their doctor wants a Cardiac Scan, and that can be scary. The shorter amount of time you need to think about it, the better. I feel good about doing it, but it was a lot of work. And joy, that was only filling February's slots. March is still to come.

Once we get past March, they'll get scheduled normally by the call center, but while they're learning, they want to have bespoke scheduling.

I'm in that weird hinterland of radiology. I know enough about medicine to know what each study entails, and I can convey that to the patient to relax them. But I can't answer medical questions even when I know the answer. Instead, I'll talk about the Nothing But Bundt Cakes near the one office, or the Chinese restaurant near the other. I have a good prattle, is what I'm saying.

I don't know exactly what the new job will be, honestly. I'm excited to find out. I think it'll probably put me officially in charge of the Cardiac slots instead of me just doing them. There may be some schedule Jenga? I really don't have a clue.

Today, I go for my interview. I've got my clothes ready. I decided to go simple. Nice dark heather gray pants, vivid green shirt, black shoes. Nothing flashy. I may or may not put on makeup. Maybe a little concealer? I'll see how I feel when it comes time.

I hope I get it, because then I have some leverage in salary negotiation with Radiology. Not that I think Radiology will try to stiff me. They created a job specifically to retain me, I don't think they're going to cheap out about it.

I'm hoping said job gets posted today so that I can apply. I want that in play before I get an answer on the other job.

Not gonna lie, I'm still agog at all of this. I spent 7 years with IKEA being passed over for every supervisory position. I made it to Specialist, and then stalled out. And then the shitshow that was 911, where the daily refrain was "You're not good enough." I stumbled into this job at an all time low. And they've helped to repair my ego and made me feel like I could do things well. But those old thoughts linger. And now they're going to make me a lead specialist. I probably won't be supervising anyone, but I will be in a position of semi-authority. And I will be getting that pay bump, which will be lovely.

With Alaska and other adventures still to come, the extra money will be useful. Plus, I was recently reminded how much I like getting meat from local butchers and how much better the meat is, so I'd like to continue that.

My seafood box came yesterday. It's a whole lot of cod and shrimp this month. I'm going to steam me some shrimp today for lunch, definitely. It's an 8 oz bag, which will be perfect to have with crackers as a shrimp salad. Plenty of old bay, a little mustard. I don't think I have celery, so we'll have to do without that.

I don't know what we'll be doing for dinner tonight. I've got my interview at 4, so by the time I get home, it'll probably be 5-5:30, and we eat at 6 when my sister gets home. I might be ordering something.

Last night, we had steak and gorgonzola pasta. I liked everything, but next time, I will add a little more pepper, and maybe more onions and garlic and make more sauce. Maybe also some bacon. That could be tasty as well. It turned out very well, so I was happy, even as I scrutinized ways to make it better.

Game was fun. The players got to unravel a mystery, and burn the Gävlebocken in the name of preventing the old gods and monsters from returning. Tonight shall be the first of my disaster babies for the weekend, my former Strahd, now Vecna group, which are alway

It's Thursday, let the games begin! I'm up a little early today, but it was my own body that did it. Which is annoying since it's going to be a bit of a late night with game. I & my coffee cup shall deal.

Tonight is one that was delayed from right around New Years due to the cold of doom. It's going to be a Monster of the Week game about the Gävlebocken, the straw goat that they put up in Sweden for the holidays. Arson attempts are booming, and it seems like a sinister group has it in for the Gävlebocken. Can the hunters delve into who wants the goat to burn and why?

Yesterday was pretty busy. I took a lot of calls in the morning, and then my afternoon was filled with making calls to fill up the brand new cardiac slots in our Columbia office. They're only doing certain diagnoses, so I've been combing through the slots to see who we have that might move to the new site. I've gotten like four of the days filled. Today I'm going to reach a little further out and see what I can do to fill the other three days. I like juggling schedules and playing Sherlock Holmes to see if people are a good fit for Columbia.

After work, I ran down and got my hair cut. It was getting really long, especially the sides, which had developed a bit of a problem where they stuck straight out. Now i'm back to buzzed on the sides, short in the back and longer on top. I desperately need to color my hair, but the dye didn't come yesterday, so I probably won't have time to put it on, unless it comes today and I get up super early tomorrow. Hopefully, the hair dye comes in. We cut out most of the color on the sides and back, so that's just straight gray.

The dept head has been keeping me up to date on the new position. It has to be posted, and I have to apply, but I don't have to worry about not getting it. I don't know if I have to interview or if they'll spare me that. I'm hoping that it's posted today or tomorrow, but sometimes HR is a little slow. Mostly I want it posted so I can see the pay band.

I thought about it, and I'd like to get to at least $63k a year. Anything more than that would be gravy. That would add up to $30/hr. If I can get to $33 an hour I'll defintely take it, but I'm not really expecting it.

nilchance is making inroads on writing their gay fantasy novel. I'm very proud of them. 2k words in one day is a lot. I really enjoyed what they sent me, so I'm excited.

Tomorrow shall be more of the same, with Vecna at the end of the day. Then the Saturday of doom-work, Odyssey of the Dragonlords and then Crooked Moon. I'm really looking forward to Crooked Moon. It's only our second session, but the first one went very well. Yet again, my players thoroughly understood the assignment for a horror campaign and gave me awesome, juicy backstories and hooks.

I don't know what the proposed turn around time their is for the job. Obviously, it needs to be posted, so I an apply, but beyond that, I'm not sure when I'd start. Something to ask, I suppose. Hopkins can move slowly sometimes, and I'm not very patient. Still, knowing that it's coming is helpful. For now, it's enough to know that very soon, I'll be a Lead. It's a step down from manager, but that's for future me, maybe. I think my lack of College Degree is going to hamper me from going any further than that.

I've thought about going back to school, but it's so expensive and I'm 53. By the time I finished, I'd probably be nearly 60, since I'd only be taking 1-2 classes a semester. I do have $5200 tuition reimbursement, though. I think about it now and then. Maybe I'll look into it a little more. The community college and some of the local universities do virtual classes.

I'm kind of bouncing between subjects, then bouncing back. Obviously the ADHD meds are still kicking in. Sorry about that.

in 2 weeks, we're meeting the pet sitter for the first time. Fingers crossed it goes okay. Looks like the temps will be up in the 40s, so maybe this snow will finally melt the rest of the way. I'm tired of only being able to walk the dog in certain places. It's a real bitch to get him to do his business while we're out. He doesn't necessarily like the little spots where there's grass. Oh well, he has puppy pads, so if he doesn't go outside, he can go in here. I'm just not fussing about it.

The Relaxing peppermint tablets continue to work well for sleep. Even last night while Jess was playing a game they're in that I'm not, I slept pretty well. I woke up a few times, but I went right back to sleep.

Okay, time for me to go forth and get myself together. I hope everyone has a stellar Thursday!

It's Monday again, and I am girding my loins. With the snow last weekend, we were super quiet last week with plenty of cancellations. Today, the kids may go back to school for the first time since January 22. I mean, there's two weekends in there, so it's just a week, but still. I have doubts about them going back even now. There's some streets that are just not well plowed. But if the kids do go back, our lines are going to be very busy.

I think I'm going to have to take the antibiotics the doctor game me. I'm hesitating because I'm afraid of being allergic to them. I've never taken Doxycycline, but it makes me nervous. I'm allergic to Sulf to the tune of hives, but I'm allergic to cefaclor in a deadly way. I stand by the fact that I should have been hospitalized when I had the anaphylaxtic reaction, but my doctor thought he could manage it with steroids and antihistamines. I didn't die, which is a bonus, but every single night for weeks, I had serious reactions where I'd have trouble breathing. And my mom gamely gave me the inhaler, and benadryl. It was terrifying and I don't want to do it again.

And I don't have an epipen. I may send a message to my doctor and ask for one.

I was going to just butch it out, but I've had a 3 day headache, and my cough seems to picking up again. So, I'll consider it.

I spent a good chunk of the weekend napping. Saturday, I slept for a couple of hours, Sunday, i was back in there dozing. I was just really sleepy. After Saturday's adventure, we stuck at home on Friday and orderd delivery. First one was from Mucho Gusto in Towson. The fajitas were excellent, as was the chips and guac and Elote. Very tasty. They forgot our tortillas, but I didn't really care as long as we had the chips.

Dinner was L&L Hawaian BBQ, wich was kind of a mixed bag. My loco moco was okay. The burger was very dry, and even the gravy and egg yolk couldn't save it. My sister's looked pretty good, I think she ate all of it, so that's something. Jess' ribs were fucking amazing. Korean style Galbi beef ribs. They were tender and delicous. My favorite thing, though was the Spam Musubi. It was just rice, teriyaki BBQ sauce and a slice of spam with a strip of seaweed holding it together.

I created and have been moderating a Facebook page for our upcoming cruise. It started out just me, then slowly enlarged. It's had a lot of growth since then and now we're up to 50 members! I just put up a poll to see if people want to meet up either the night before we board or on the ship. I'm hoping that maybe I can find someone I like who would want to come with on our whale watching, since we still have two slots open in the private tour.

I've got an in person doctors appointment at 4:30pm today to get my psych meds. He only makes me come in the office once every 6mo-a year, so I can't really bitch. I think I'll send that request for an epi pen so I can pick up everything all at once at the pharmacy.

After work I have to see what I want to do with with sirloin steat tips. I'm thinking some beef in a nice sauce with a side of pasta. The tough part is: what sauce. I'm thinking maybe a gorgonzola, or alternately using the Boursin that's been in the fridge for a bit. That would probably make a tasty rich sauce. Especially if I chop up some onions and cook them down a bit add garlic, and then add the gorganzola to melt, and then finish it off with a bit of milk for smoothness. It might be good.

I'll need to get some gorganzola. Oooh, or a feta pesto. I will think on it. I'll probably use the boursin, since I don't need to order it.

Next weekend is a big game weekend. We've got no less than 4 games going, three of which I'm running. They're all modules, so not as much prep. Then, the one I'm not DMing is our high roleplay game, so I need to be on point for that, too.

It'll be a lot, but we'll manage. At least I don't have a Saturday until Valentine's Day. My sister and BIL are going out for a concert with their favorite blues artist, so we'll be home for Valentine's day, ordering from somewhere nice.

We're probably going to have our Valentine's date on Friday the 13th or Sunday the 15th. I'm okay with that. My sister also deserves to get to go out, and Vanessa Collier was only there on the 14th. I'm wondering if anyone is available on one of those nights to play something. Especially the 14th. We're going to be up dogsitting late anyway...

Okay, time for me to go forth and get my ass in gear. Everyone have an awesome Monday!