take that, spammers!

so after 3 months of zero spam, i was blindsided by it yesterday. i noticed there were 9 comments to my last post and thought, 'hmmm, that's unusual...'. upon further investigation i saw that 2/3 of the comments were junk. you'll notice that now you'll have to use a word verification in order to post (thanks for the tip, matthew), which i find as unnecessary as i do repulsive.

i'm kind of mad that technocrap has infultrated my blog.

the choice of most gorillas

well, i thought that someone would take all the fun out of guessing and just google it, but apparently, either no one cares that much or no one thought of it...

'gorilla's choice' comes from an episode of the simpsons- the kids are on a field trip to the police station, and chief wiggum is showing them around. he points out the police radio and says somehthing to the effect of, 'some of the boys have decorated it with their bananna stickers....lets see, we got chaquita, del monte, gorilla's choice...'

and there you have it.

welshieee!

kathleen asked why my dodgeball nickname was 'welshieee!'. since i really cant think of anything else to blog about, i though i'd turn the answer into a post. when i was recruited as a member of gorilla's choice, i was informed that i'd have to come up with somehting to go on the back of my team shirt. i thought long and hard. under heavy consideration: 'and the rest' (taken from the gilligan's island theme- since if felt like my presence on the team would make little difference), 'my liege' (just sounds kind of cool), 'goose' (a family favorite, but too often mistaken for a 'top gun' reference), and many others that escape my memory. but the most favored name across the board was 'welshieee!'. this came from an episode of futurama where the planet express gang and the cast of star trek are taken captive by an obsessed fan. the character of scotty was replaced by welshie (presumably since the show couldnt get james doohan to guest voice). welshie ends up getting killed, and fry drops to his knees and screams 'welshieee!'. i though it would be cool if people would do that when i was eliminated from a game...but it never caught on. i also thought it was pretty interesting that james doohan died 3 days before we played. i though this would be a good omen, but judging by our performance, i turned out to be gravely mistaken (zing).

gorilla's choice

so i finally got a picture of my dodgeball team, gorilla's choice. 10 superbonuspoints to whoever can name the reference (hint: it's from a simpsons episode). each of us had a kitchy fun nickname printed on the back of our shirt:


back row: brett "the warrior", suzanne "welshieee!", ricky "slick mcfavorite", matt "spinderella"
front row: josh "mr. farhenheit", kelly "riot grrrl", ashley "pinkey", ashley "fatty mcilliterate", gabe...well i cant remember what his nickname was, although his hair made him look like captain planet, and brian "frog of war".

as you can see, we're quite a ragtag bunch.

suz is back......in cartoon form

in my many escapades in jackson, mo, i've had the opportunity to get to know josh's friend brian. brian is a man of many talents, one of which is drawing. he has his own webcomic (which served as inspiration for 'garden-variety monkey bars'), and recently held a 24 hour draw-a-thon in which he completed several drawings for friends and caught up on his comic installments. josh asked him to do something for me, and supplied him with a picture to work off of.

here's what resulted:



not bad, eh? i think i make a pretty good cartoon. and check out brian's comic, chewy ninja monkey bars!

hi, can i check you out?

so i know everyone is just dying to know how the job's going, so i though i'd post a little update. i purchased a new hard drive for my computer (thanks mutti), but parley's still in the process of installing programs and making updates. once it's up and running again, i should get back to my full blogging strength.

as you may notice, the time is early afternoon. 'but suz, shouldn't you be at work?', one might ask... no! for today is thursday and the office is closed after noon. every other week i'll have to stay the whole time to catch up on filing and other duties...but since i'm just a greenie i got to go home. so far i've been working at the check-out desk. when patients are done, they come see me. i 1) fill out a lab sheet for them if they need to go next door for tests. this takes a while because i have to put all kinds of info on it. 2) schedule appointments for any tests they need (like colonoscopys, ekg's, mir's) or call up another doctor's office if we've made a referral. this usually takes a lot of time because schedulers are busy and put you on hold a lot. also, reading a doctor's handwriting is near impossible, so i always have to ask what the patient is being referred for/diagnosis, etc. 3) schedule a follow up appointment at our office if needed (pretty easy- i like filling out the little 'you have an appointment' cards). at this point the patient can leave, unless they want a receipt for their copay...for which they'll have to sit and watch me 4) bill the patient, enter in their copay amount and put their bill and money in a drawer. this entire process varies in time, but usually takes about 5 minutes. it's pretty easy when the patients come in one at a time, but this rarely ever happens. what results are periods of boredom, and periods of high-pressure working.

and on top of all that....i have to schedule tests for patients that have called in, make out lab requisitions, file stuff into patient files, locate missing files, answer the phone (my least favorite task, mostly because half the time i dont know what they're asking for- this will improve with time), fax stuff to other offices, occasionally handle drug reps, and i'm sure some other stuff that i havent learned how to do yet. the plus side of this job is that there is always something to do. i used to hate being at citimortgage, being finished with everything, and just sitting there. the downside is that sometimes there's just too much to do. i have a hard time believing that amy, the girl who's training me, did this stuff all on her own before i got here. but i've improved a lot since monday, and i can imagine that in 6 months i'll be just as competent as she is.

another interesting thing about this job is that every monday and friday drug reps buy us lunch. i'll admit that i kind of felt like a sellout as i ate my applebees my first day... maybe i should just get over myself and order a steak.

so, that's it for now. if you've had half as much fun reading this post as i've had making it....well, then i've had twice as much fun making it than you've had reading it.

joining the ranks of the gainfully employed

yeah, that's right...you heard me. my second interview was kind of funny. i walked into the doctor's office and sat down, and the first thing he did was pick up the card i had sent and said 'this is why i've called you back'. he went on to say that at the first interview that although he was impressed by my qualifications, he wasnt sure how enthusiastic i was to work there and was actually considering someone else for the position. when my card arrived, however, it made him reevaluate that decision (socks off!). so, after determining if i was committed to learning the ins and outs of the office and lots of medical terminology (i told him i love a challenge), i was hired. i get benefits after 3 months (w00t), a salary review at 6 months (double w00t) and the receptionists rotate half days every thursday (w00t^2). i can have time off when asked for, although they prefer to coordinate it with the absence of one of the 3 doctors. i start on monday. everything so far has lead me to believe that i've landed a sweet deal. and to think that i almost didnt send the thankyou note...

thanks are in order for all who supplied me with advice (i formulated very good questions to ask, and while i didnt get my nails professionally done, i did them myself and they looked very nice. i did, however, re-dye my hair to get rid of the inch and a half of brown roots...). mega thanks are in order to mutti and vatti, who financed my 'summer vacation' and were very understanding of my employment dry spell.

this concludes my 'tales of the unemployed' series. thank you and good night.

so guess who got a second interview this week...

me.

the office i interviewed at called back today and requested that i come in for a second interview. mom's already told me to get my nails done (advice i'm actually considering). any other words of advice or encouragement before the big day on wednesday?