Health
For the most part my health, both physical and mental, has been fine.
I assessed the discontinuation of my namenda which was supposed to help with my episodes of brain fog, and I had to admit that it didn't help. My neurologist decided to just stay off of it as I didn't notice any other effects from stopping it and finally decided to start me on an anti-depressant that might help with brain fog. Protriptyline. He wants me to take it in the mornings which has the concern of having a sedative effect (its normally taken at night). Just as I started writing this post, I got a text from my pharmacy that they finally got it in stock, so I'll be starting it tomorrow morning.
I had two migraines since my last post. Both started fairly early in the morning. The first really ramped up while I was at work and I ended up going home and hiding out in my room (the Fioricet didn't help at all). The second just hovered below the level where I'd go home from work.
I didn't mention this in January as I didn't think it would be a big issue, but I'm now starting to wonder. In January, Medicaid wouldn't approve the prescription for my Emgality. That's the monthly shot I take for migraines. By the time my February dose rolled around, my neurologist had tried moving back to the Ajovy (the original medication I was on), and they declined that as well. This time at least they gave a reason... I could only be on Ajovy OR Quilipta. Since Quilipta has done the lions share of the work I decided to stay on that instead of going back to the Ajovy. I figured once my new insurance kicked in I could try it again.
Well, I've now missed two doses of Emgality/Ajovy. In February I had two migraines. In March, I've had one already. The last two were only a week apart. This could be the extra stress from starting the new job. I could be the lack of consistent sleep I'm getting, again due to the new job. But it could also easily be from stopping the Emgality/Ajovy. I think, at least for right now, I'm going to hold off on doing anything drastic as my new health insurance should kick in on April 1st. I'll ask for my neurologist to send in a prescription for Ajovy to my new pharmacy at that time and see if it goes through. Unless, that is, this gets a lot worse in the meantime.
Finances
I'll cover work in that section, but I started working on February 16th. I got my first check, for a single week, on February 26th. No big surprise that it was more than what I was expecting as none of my deductions outside of taxes have taken place. No 401k, no health insurance, no extra life insurance. Some of that should start coming out on my next check and all of it should be coming out by mid to late April. BUT, I'm now getting paid!!!!
My next check should come in on the 12th. I've set up my financial forecasting spreadsheet up with an expected every other week pay estimate of $2,500. That's probably on the high side, but I won't know until all the deductions kick in.
While some smallish things might change, like my payments to mom and my payments to my brother for Mom Care, the two big thing remains true:
I'M GETTING PAID ON A REGULAR BASIS AGAIN!!!
I'M FINANCIALLY INDEPENDENT AGAIN!!!!
Family/Friends
B's still off work. I haven't had the chance to talk to him, so I don't know how he's doing. Mom and R seem to be doing good. I haven't been in touch with my friends since telling them I'm back at work. So... status unchanged?
Work
I started work on February 16th. I'm not going to go too far in depth as it's been irregular so far.
Everyone has admitted that me starting two weeks before orientation is different. The big thing is that by starting before orientation I haven't had "Handle With Care" training. That's the system the company uses for verbal de-escalation and physical restraint. Without that training I am unable to have any access to any patients. For those two weeks that meant that I stayed in the Admissions Workroom working with the other Admissions Nurses doing the computer and paperwork side of an Admission.
To be fair, I have a huge head start on 'training' as I have most of the computer side of an admission down. I might only need a week or two to get the rest of it and get on my own.
The first week, I worked three twelve hour shifts. I'll be honest, that put me on my ass. It wasn't that it was all that difficult, it was getting up that early along with working that long along with being fairly bored. The next week, I worked 8 hour days that lined up with what I'd do during orientation. I think that helped a lot as I worked with different nurses and had more days of exposure to the system. We had some slow days and some fast days, so it was good to see the variation.
This past week I had my first five days of orientation. By starting early, I've already gone through most of what we covered in orientation, making these days boring and monotonous. Just yesterday we had the classroom side of the "Handle With Care" training. Monday we'll have the physical side of it. I'm expecting it to go fine.
My supervisor's title is the Director of Admissions. I haven't inspected the chain of command yet, but I think she's technically under the Nurse Manager... the position I was originally applying for. We'll call her M. M is cool. We're on the same wavelength at least as far as nursing goes. She just got back from an extended medical leave so she's been busy catching up meaning I haven't got to get a real good grasp on her leadership style yet, but from what I've seen she's at the worst inoffensive. At best, I think we might be of a very similar mindset. She's been VERY good on scheduling.
Next week, I move back to 12 hour shifts. Monday I'll do the eight hours of orientation and then stay for an additional 4 hours to make it 12 for the day. Initially we were going to have me come back to Admissions and work/train there but I think I'm going to have to spend that time doing the computer work side of orientation (there is a LOT of required computer training). I'll then return Wednesday and Thursday, putting me back into the three 12-hour shifts a week. We haven't set what I'll do after that but we'll have plenty of time to make a plan. I imagine it will depend on how good I'm feeling as sooner rather than later, I should start training on the shift I'll be working. And we'll certainly not want to overwhelm the only regular night Admissions Nurse as she's eventually going to be training three new night Admissions Nurses.
Speaking of night Admissions Nurses, I met my fellow 'new' night Admissions Nurses. Both have a good amount of experience, both have been in mental health, both are cool in my book so far.
Entertainment
I gotta get this off my chest. I've gotten into a bad habbit of buying moves because they're on a good sale. I then don't get around to watching them. I don't care how good of a 'deal' it is, if I don't watch it, it's just throwing money away. Since February 14th, I've purchased:
- The Bodyguard
- Chasing Amy
- Capote
- She's The Man
- Crazy Stupid Love
- Kingdom of Heaven
- Real Genius
- The Quick and the Dead
- Flatliners (1990)
- Flatliners (2017)
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Iron Eagle
Much of those came on sales from Fandango where it was 'Buy 5 for $15' or 'Buy 3 for $12'. Good deals but out of all those movies I've only watched The Quick and the Dead, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Iron Eagle. If I don't watch anything else it'll still take me a good couple weeks to finish those off. So... I gotta stop doing that because it's not exactly new. Other movies on my Purchased But Haven't Watched List:
- Wicked: For Good
- Ghost in the Shell (2017)
- The Island
- Aeon Flux
- Equilibrium
- Escape from L.A.
- The Running Man (1987)
- Zero Population Growth
- When Worlds Collide
- Beetlejuice
- Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
- Dreamcatcher
- Pan's Labyrinth
- Zombieland
- Zombieland: Double Tap
- Carrie
- Sometimes They Come Back
- The Dark Half
- Species III
- Species: The Awakening (I also bought and watched the first two Species movies)
- The Thin Red Line
- The Big Red One
- Breakfast at Tiffany's
- A Star is Born (1976)
- Children of the Damned (1964)
- A Clockwork Orange
- The Shining
- The Maltese Falcon
- Seven
- Natural Born Killers
- King Kong (1933)
New Tech
It's certainly not new, but letting Tatiana drive me to and from work is GLORIOUS! It takes me about five minutes to get from my driveway to the highway. Tatiana takes over there and gets me to the exit near work. I then drive about three minutes from the highway to my parking spot. In other words, I drive for 8 minutes of my 45 minute commute.
One thing that commuting has brought up to the surface is listening entertainment in Tatiana. Tatiana has a full on Android Automotive Operating System (AAOS) for the infotainment system. That means I can use Google Maps, YouTube Music, Spotify, Waze, and PocketCasts (my podcast app) all directly from Tatiana's screen and it doesn't touch my phone whatsoever. I even have access to the Google Play Store for other apps, though there are not a lot of apps designed to work on AAOS. The FM, AM, and Sirius 'radio' controls are all AAOS apps. The Lincoln Rejuvenate feature is an AAOS app.
In an ideal world, I'd only hook up my phone so that I could send and receive phone calls and texts. I wouldn't need to use Android Auto from my phone. But there's a problem. Apple Music. I've used variations of Apple Music since 2003 when it was just iTunes and purchased individual songs. I have my setup through that system, I pay for it monthly, I use it at home, and even my Mom uses it at home. In other words I'm not moving away from Apple Music.
Problem: There is no Apple Music app for AAOS.
The first solution I tried is just using YouTube Music. I can transfer my playlists over and even have a service that updates them every night (costs all of $24 a year). While at home I can use and listen to Apple Music, adding tunes and updating my playlists. At night, those new songs and updated playlists get transferred to YouTube Music. Then in the car, I just access YouTube Music. Sure, a few of the songs are wrong. Different versions or wholly different songs with the same title. But it should be good enough to use in the car. Sadly, the AAOS YouTube Music app sucks. It keeps forgetting that I want it on shuffle. And even when I put it on shuffle, it seems to only accept like half of the playlist and just forgets the other half. And even when I turn it on to not repeat songs in a playlist, it 'forgets' that setting and I'll get one or two songs that keep popping up in the playlist.
Annoying as fuck.
The day before I started work, I looked in the Play Store again hoping that Apple had decided to share Apple Music. Nope. BUT there is a third party app, AutoMus, that's supposed to hook up and play your Apple Music through your AAOS system. It only cost $5.99 so I went ahead and bought it.
And it doesn't fucking work.
So, I'm stuck letting my phone connect to Tatiana via Android Auto every day. When I start driving, I use that to listen to my music. Once I hit the highway, I flip over to AAOS and use the PocketCasts app to listen to podcasts while Tatiana takes care of the driving. 40 or so minutes later, I flip back to Android Auto and listen to music for three minutes while I drive the rest of the way into work.
Annoying as fuck... but I can at least acknowledge its a first world problem.
Writing
Not much going on here. Most of it has been a time issue and not a desire issue. I WANT to write but I'm not in the right mind space when I get back from work. I'm hoping to write some today. In fact, last weekend, I wrote what I hope will be the last of the outline for You're Not The Boss Of Me. I won't go through all the details but I've been keeping a timeline, month by month, of what's happened to Paris. Initially it was just so that she could think/say "this happened three months ago" and be accurate. But it's helped tell the story and helped me lay out the story in the future. In the story as I've left it, it's currently August and Paris' toys just got delivered. She also just gave her first blowjob in the office to Darnell. So, here's the timeline through the following January:
August: Almost immediately after her blowjob with Darnell Paris is going to go on a very kinky date with Art. Later in the month, Paris and Trixie will go out with Paris telling Trixie that she doesn't want to be with Darnell... but Trixie takes her out to find her own man and ends up almost hooking Paris up with one of her old friends. Paris' only way out is to admit that she DOES want to be with Darnel, much to Trixie's (and Darnell's) appreciation. There will also be setting up of the business trips including Grace and Paris, Darnell and Mal, and some others.
September: The trip with Darnell which will end up being Paris and Darnell in the Maldives along with an important buisness contact for the McGregor corp merger... LOTS of sex between Paris and Darnell and even foursome with them, the business contact, and his secretary. On Grace's trip she gets an offer to become a program director at a different office and she has to move. That leaves Paris stuck with either living far away from the office, living in a shit neighborhood, or living in Mal's bachelor pad. She takes Mal's pad but finds out he's not moving out... so she moves in WITH him. Eventually Mal will find the video of Paris blowing Darnell and Paris will find herself also now blowing Mal. In the office AND in the bedroom.
October: Paris finds out about Nika's plan, which is for Mal to fall completely for Paris, divorce Nika and marry Paris. Nika also screws up a photoshoot that Mal sets up of his entire team getting new headshots. The shoot, at the last minute, moves to Paris' old studio where Tyrell plays his old boudoir photo game... getting Paris to blow him. I'd also like to have a halloween scene, but I don't have one in mind yet.
November: Another date with Art where Paris finds out that he's really an honestly good guy that just likes going out with Paris in a platonic style relatioship (he finds her far to kinky for his tastes!). They also finish up the McGregor deal with Art being a major funding partner.
December: A lot of talk about the company going public and the huge celebratory holiday party. Paris will end up having lots of sex and the capper, her first anal sex with Mal. I haven't decided if this will be a drunken escapade at the office party or if it will be a more romantic moment between them at a hotel or even at 'home'.
January: New Years Eve alone with Mal, the one year anniversary of the whole escapade starting, the finalization of the merger, the company going public, and the end.
I don't know what the end will be just yet. I want to see what Paris' mindset will be with all this sex. Does she fall into it, finding an attraction to this role? Or does she continue to fight? That will determine the ending.
Michigan Football
Nothing new or fun here.
Keyboard still
A quick update; I love the new keyboard. I like the new metal keys and find myself reaching up occasionally to just rub my fingers over them. They're literally cool. Like, cold to the touch.
A problem has come up though, but it's another first world problem. The keypad. It's great having it, but it's low enough that it's a problem. Going 'down' to it's keys means I'm missing things and the same the other way going 'up' to the main keyboard makes me miss things.
I could replace it, but that's like over $50 for a nice one. I could also get a platform or something to put it on, but that might be janky.
I don't have a solution yet, but lets just say it's a problem that's on my mind.
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