Beautiful Ground

If anyone is like me and upgrading to newest kindle - please consider donating your old one to ebooksfortroops.org.

Finished A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin and Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. Also gave in and bought some books for my kindle as well as the newest Martin book, A Dance with Dragons. Also been re-watching Game of Thrones, speaking of Martin. Still loving it. Definitely going to have to get the dvd.

Work is going okay. The biggest error I've caught so far is a $20,000 overpayment. I did have to give an error to a girl that was in my original training class as well. A girl I didn't really get along with. I was imagining furious rebuttals, emails and instant messages, but she just agreed to it. Thankfully no drama there. Still liking the new job.

Not much else to report. I am boring.

Also, underslept again. Grr.

Last month at work Tiffany (east coast) sort of suggested I apply for one of the jobs listed at our company's website. Repeatedly.

I gave in after about a week of me telling her I would never get it and her telling me otherwise. I interviewed over the phone with two of the managers, filled out an interview-like questionnaire, a spreadsheet and had basically tried to push it out of my head.

Then on Wednesday I get a call and it turns out I got the job!

Claim Processor Associate no more. As of July 5th I will be a Quality Review Audit Sr. Associate, which besides sounding very official is a career band above where I'm currently at so I get a raise of $4k a year since it's a promotion.

So there is the YAY part of it.

The anxiety part comes here: Processors have differently pay limits depending on what type of claims they do and how long they've been on the floor. Anything you pay above your limit automatically rolls to quality to get checked. That will be me.

One of the managers that interviewed me warned that one claim I get might be for $5k and the next might be for $400k.

Awesome.

Worrying: It's what I do.

Ha! I haven't posted since April. Then again, I've been working from 4 am to 3 pm five days a week and 5-7 hrs on Saturday. When I get home I tend to collapse into a heap with my brain leaking out of my ears and I do NOT want to look at a computer. On the plus side of overtime, I've been on a book buying binge.

Plus, the internet's been wonky since the comcast guy came to hook up the work line. He seemed kind of shady and spent the first 20 minutes calling other comcast guys to see what they had done. Finally got around to fixing it today.

Oh yeah, I'm going to be working from home as of Tuesday. (Insert the dance of joy from Perfect Strangers here) They're pushing most of us to work at home (wah = happy) to make room for a slew of new call people. So I now have a business phone, complete with wireless headset, an extra modem and a laser printer. The computer's coming home with me on Monday or Tuesday. Already a lot of people are gone and the second floor is turning into a ghost town.

Got to see Amy yesterday. (dance of joy again)

Also, I am completely and totally addicted to Game of Thrones. I've only just finished the first book and the first season of the show ends on Sunday. Went online to get the next book and reading the customer reviews is amusing me way too much. People are complaining that he takes too long between books. People, I used to be into the Wheel of Time series, which I got into a few years late in the game. I was in high school, maybe 1995 or so, and the last book still isn't out. I used to reread the entire series when a new one came out, but I had to stop doing that because I would get annoyed. Entire books of walking, walking, walking... here, let me describe this room for three pages and then bring up a character I haven't mentioned for 6 books without any context. Rest in peace Robert Jordan, but the damn thing could have ended thousands of pages ago.

I went on way too long. Dang.

Work - long.
Amy - yay.
WAH - yay.
Game of Thones - Awesome.
Me - exhausted.

My cousin Jennifer's bridal shower was today and she had it at this place, The Maiolatesi Wine Cellar. The reason I linked it is because I had to google it to find the spelling. I probably still got it wrong, but the whole point is Blackberry Concord Wine = tasty goodness. If I hadn't been driving I could have taken down an entire bottle on my own. It was the first shower I've been to where I've actually had fun. The wine may have helped this. More people should have their showers/parties at places that have an open bar or wine rack.

I'm not just saying this because my last name rhymes with "Gurphy" (hint: it's Murphy). I could be saying this because it's after midnight and I got up at 5 a.m. so I could go to work and get out in time to go to the shower. This could also be why I'm so rambly.

In any case, the important thing is Blackberry Concord Wine is a tasty, good time. I'm not really a wine person either. I'm more of a bourbon and coke or dark, dark beer (seriously, the darker the better), but since the winery is only a stone's throw away (don't try that if already drinking), and I think there's a store, I plan on going and buying some.

This completely negates my previous "I'm not going to buy anything else" post.

Booze doesn't count... right?

I wore green completely by accident today as I don't do my best thinking while getting ready at 5 a.m. Ducked out of work an hour early. Oh, the beauty of a flexible schedule. I may not have any muscles, but I flex the hell out of my schedule. Shannon left at noon to go have a liquid lunch. Was thinking of going as well, but I had too many things to do. Plus, I was rolling on an m&m sugar high and was more than a little giddy.

Sleeping more than 5 hours would make it much easier to work a 10-12 hour day 6 days a week. Just saying.

I got a new car on Friday. Well, new to me. Still... Whoo! It was a bit of a pain in the butt, but definitely worth it. Between the car, my new phone and the kindle (all within the past few months) I am not letting myself buy anything for a while. I now have the Price is Right announcer yelling A NEW CAR! in my head.

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This week has been a rollercoaster ride. Very, very glad it's almost over. Work has been long and strange and everyone has been irritated and stressed. My manager sent me 265 medicare claims to do today... at almost noon. On a regular day I duck out around 2:30 p.m. Fun.

I'm thinking of possibly looking for a new car. Well, not new. New to me. I've been mentally tallying up everything that I need to fix my car and the figures are depressing. I've had the poor thing for ages and it's been a great car, but it's starting to complain. I'm also sort of worried about the transmission. So, ergh.

It's Rob's birthday in approximately 3 hours or so. No grand plans. His friend Jay is taking him out to dinner tonight. I warned him that he should not feel obligated to put out.

In other news: I'm sick of the whole Charlie Sheen thing.



Posted via LjBeetle

We got about 9 inches of snow yesterday. Thank heavens I had asked for it off a few weeks ago. According to Shannon, who comes in the same time I do, Interstate 81 hadn't been touched and the parking lot at work wasn't cleared until past 8. They, of course, did not delay opening or anything wussy-ish like that. Of course only 1 of the on-site managers came in. The rest worked from home. It must be nice to have that option.

Feeling somewhat cranky as I did something to my back while shoveling. I'm not terribly good with the whole "lift with your legs" thing. Started twinging yesterday afternoon and by bedtime I was in a good amount of pain. Today it's even worse. Fantastic.

I'm such a weakling.

Holy crap. I remember my livejournal password. It's only been... nearly two years. Hello, LJ world.

Things that have happened:

I've been gainfully employed as a medical claims processor for over a year now. One of the perks of the job is that you can basically make your own hours within reason. I thought, "Yay, I can sleep in if I want to." I then started going in earlier and earlier. My workday, not including the never-ending overtime is 6-2:30. I like my job a lot and I work with some really cool people. Still not fond of the overtime though.

Rob and I got engaged in December of 2009. Then he promptly got laid off when his employer made some severe workforce cuts. I make okay money, especially with the dreaded, abominable overtime, but not enough to support 2 people. Maybe 3/4 of 1, but definitely not 2.

I moved in September. I am no longer a Scranton, Pennsylvania girl. On the plus side, I no longer live in Scranton. Bonus. The majority of my move was boxes and boxes of books. Honestly, I could have just found an empty lot and built a fort of cardboard boxes of books. I still have a few (okay, maybe more than a few) that I've yet to unpack due to space restrictions.

Things I've learned:

Neglecting your email for months because you don't feel like looking at your computer after work leads to a massive, massive inbox. Deleted a bunch and I still have over 3000 unread messages. Your first thought when logging into email shouldn't be son of a bitch!, right? I missed you, internet.

Grabbed this idea from the lovely antiope,

Anyone want a Christmas/Holiday card from me (or a postcard if you're a fuzzy Grinch)?

Leave your address in the comments (which will be screened) and I'll get off my lazy butt and send you one. Promise.