Yep - believe it or not - I'm back again!

“Wowzers!” anyone still visiting here will be thinking.  “Wait a minute, didn’t you just do a post yesterday?”

Yes, yes I did and I’m doing another one today.  Work has slowed down considerably and I’m one of the few ones with stuff to do and I’m bombarded with other Assistants wanting to know if I need help.  I don’t really – but they want to do something and if I have them help me with my work, it gives me time to do this – win/win

I was brief yesterday but I’ll get more wordy today – something I’m always on board with.  What’s going on my life?  Let’s see.  Just got through a very tough time.  I’ve never named where I work here and don’t plan on doing it today.  But I will say I work in health care.  I work as an assistant to what we call Care Coordinators, most of them nurses.  They help arrange for home care for clients getting out of the hospitals, going to nursing homes (though I’ve nothing to do with that special focus) and kinds of other interesting things.  I have two Care Coordinators myself that I do administrative work for but I work on a team within a team with 16 in total and I love them.  I know people complain about the health care system in Ontario – and a lot of it with good reason.  But daily I see these people are dedicated to helping others and often go that extra mile.

Now they went on strike a few weeks ago.  Again, I’m not going into the issues, but what they were asking for was completely reasonable and all of their assistants all across the province were behind them 100%, encouraging them and offering all the support we could. 

  
But we are in a different union so we still had to go into work.  And because they were out and upper management were spread very thin, we assistants had to step up and take on a lot of the responsibilities that we are normally expected or trained to do.  We aren’t nurses and we don’t have the expertise we needed to handle a lot of the calls.  Some of the ones I took were SO difficult because they needed to speak to their coordinator and their Coordinator wasn’t there.  They are back at work now thank goodness, but it really did upset my depression apple cart.  I felt the same way as I did back in September when it was so bad.  But thankfully the meds I’m taking are good and our very dear Care Coordinators are back and my work world isn’t so topsy turvy again.

 In other news, I’m headed to RWA again year.  And me and Wendy are going to be roomies again – yea!!  We weren’t for a couple of years – she was Librarian of the Year – and most deservedly so – and last year I skipped it as the money was allocated to a total redo of my bathroom.  I’m so excited for that.  It’s tradition now *grin*

I’m also a grandma – not sure if I’ve blogged about that.  Yes, my youngest son and his wife whom I love to bits and bits had a little boy last October.  And Jace is his name.  He’s cute as a bug – as I imagine all grannies say about their granbabies.  It’s amazing how much I’d forgotten over the years about taking care of a newborn.  The holding the head thing freaked me out.  I’m glad he can hold his own head now.  Right now he’s in Mexico with his mama and papa.  Two weeks after that he’s headed to Florida with his mom and his other grandparents and in May he’s headed to Italy.  It’s very strange when six month old baby has done way more traveling than his granny.

While I haven’t been blogging lately – a long lately – I have been doing reviews on GoodReads.  I signed up there for a Challenge and gave myself 60 books to read this year.  Astonishingly I’m up to 30 all ready.  That’s what happens when you need a new cable box because the sound has gone on the one you have now.  And the only station where the sound is normal is CNN.  And as anyone who has tried to do it, watching CNN can be depressing!!!!! And – why is everything “
Breaking News” there??

I’d watch a story at say 5:00 pm and then again at 11:00 and it’s the same story and it’s still breaking.  Breaks don’t take that long.  I know.  I had a break in my leg and it only takes seconds.

Now, one might ask “But why doesn’t she just take the box back and get a new one instead of watching Wolf Blitzer every day.”  And that would be a real good question, I don’t like Wolf Blitzer.  I do like Anderson Cooper though.  I think everyone likes Anderson Cooper – how can you not?   The answer as to why I haven’t got a new box is I don’t really have an answer for that – except it’s electronicky and I don’t like electronicky.  I don’t watch much TV except for Face Off every Tuesday.  And I’ve gotten pretty fast at reading the captions.   I will have to before April though when the next season of Outlander comes on.  We have to have good sound for that – it’s imperative. 

But, I’ve read a lot more books than usual.  And I’ve done reviews for all of them at Goodreads and it seems easy as anything to copy and paste them on the blog.  So that’s what I plan to do – that along with my ramblings about all kinds of stuff.

And my final rambling of today……  This was who I saw last night and he was WONDERFUL!!!

I saw him 30 years ago on his Reckless tour the first time around and now I saw him again last night.  He's looking much older.  Of course when I saw him the first time it was The Palace of Auborn Hills and he was at the front and we were at the very back so he was about 1/2 inch tall.  And while our tickets last night were very good, I have, I think, 5 pairs of glasses for me near sightedness - I think that's when you can't see things far away - which makes no sense - and I couldn't find a one of them.  So while he was much bigger last night, he was also quite fuzzy.





OK, OK, OK - since his Mama pastes his pics on Facebook all the time - is he not just cute as a button?  Was I right or was I right!

and what does it say about me that I make the picture of Bryan Adams bigger than the one of my grandson????  I think it's maybe because I'm still not 100% on board posting pics of him - granbaby that is - not Bryan.

More work-ish kinda stuff

A bit of background for anyone new here. I work at a place that arranges home care. It's too long a story to tell - but I've been there going on five years. For most of that time I worked in what is called the Access department, where all new referrals come to. I love the department, but last summer a job opening became available covering for a maternity leave. Here in Canada, mat leaves are for a year - one area we so have it going on over you guys in the US - but that's an issue for another day.

This job was in the Supportive Care department where unfortunately for most, it's the end of life and what we offer them most is palliative care. I've been drawn to this area because of my own life circumstances. I was ready for a change when the job came up; it was a department I wanted to try working in and my existing job would be there at the end of my co-workers mat leave - a Win/Win.

Less than a month later I fell on my basement steps breaking my legs in two places resulting in a most interesting month long stay in the hospital and a two and a half month absence from work myself.

{This is exactly what I broke and what they did by the way - is it cool or what?}

But I'm back full time and really enjoying working in the Supportive Care department. But as you can imagine, there are some sad times and sad stories. I fell part of what I offer the team is comic relief. This is some examples of what I mean. Take it away!! And yes - I do include the pictures.

From: J, Kristie
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 10:09 AM
To: My Current Team
Subject: Thought for the day

So – I was watching TV last night – American Idol I do believe, when a commercial came on and I got to thinking. It was the commercial for Mini Wheats and the little Mini Wheat people are all happy and relaxing and even singing in a bowl of hot milk. They seem very mellow and totally enjoying the fact that they have discovered the wonders of hot milk. But they are so sadly obvious to the fact that their little lives are very soon to be dramatically cut short. Because looming in the background are people. Hungry people. People that have spoons in their hands and plan to eat up those happy little Mini Wheat people.

Just thought I’d share where my mind sometimes goes

Kristie J

Client Services Assistant

SUPPORTIVE CARE TEAM


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And here is another way I made my team wonder what kind of oddity they are working with. We have, as a group, entered a trivia contest fund raiser coming up soon and this is some communication concerning it:

From: N, Kimberley
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2011 3:51 PM
To: J, Kristie
Subject: RE: UPDATE - Trivia Night Event

Yes…thanks Goodness…I on the other hand rely heavily on Tequila!

Kim N RN

From: J, Kristie
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2011 3:44 PM
To: My Current Team
Subject: RE: UPDATE - Trivia Night Event

LOL – if you aren’t a winner yourself, the next best thing would be me winning that HUGE basket of wine. I can’t drink wine anymore so should I be the lucky winner, I’d have to give it all away. You would think I would have learned when I could no longer drink gin for the same reason…….or rye…….or rum……..

Thank goodness I still have beer and coolers

Kristie J

Client Services Assistant

SUPPORTIVE CARE TEAM

From: N, Kimberley
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2011 2:41 PM
To: The Team
Subject: UPDATE - Trivia Night Event

Hi Group;

Confirmation today from the event co-ord, our registration is confirmed and table reserved.

Our team name is : CARE PALLS

There will be a registration table at the event. The first member of our team to arrive can pick up our envelope under our team name, which includes question sheets, door prize tickets, sponsor information, etc. A table at the event will have our team name on it, we can all gather there.

Alcoholic(beer, wine & coolers) and non-alcoholic drinks are available for purchase. Snacks on our table and intermission food (sandwiches, desserts) are included in the price of the event.

There will be silent auction items and a contest to win a HUGE basket of wines... bring some cash!

Sounds like fun!

Reminder

Date: Sat. Feb. 26

Time: 6:30pm

Location: Somewhere in the city

Kim Nichols RN

(as a footnote - anyone who spent time with me at RWA a couple of years ago will get the wine reference)
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I went to a Jewellery Party a couple of weeks ago where I learned that wearing multi-necklace strands was all in style. I've been a bit of a bling-aholic lately so I've been having a grand time wearing it all now that I know I can. My fellow Client Service Assistant on the team noticed and I kind of preened when I noticed I had entirely forgot earrings!!!!! I had matching watch, bracelet and multiple strands on necklaces but Oh Noes - naked ears. A little later I could tell my coworker - I shall call her Rebecca - was stressing out. We have an in-office IM system so I IM'ed her out of the blue:

Kristie

Thank GOODNESS I had an emergency pair of earrings on hand is all I can say!!

11:58 AM Rebecca

Did you have to break the glass??

11:58 AM Kristie

Of course - they don't match what I'm wearing - but at least it's something!

11:59 AM Rebecca

You can't have everything!!!

11:59 AM Kristie

No - I think I had them here from before I started using the little earpiece and had to remove them because they are the stump post kinds and I kept hurting the back of my ear when I answered the phone, SLAMMING the metal post into my head hurts!!

12:01 PM Rebecca

It is hard to type when you are laughing so hard.

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Although I'm not in the Access department at this time, I'm still on the team email list and get the emails that are sent to the team. This one came today and while it really has nothing to do with me in my current department, I thought I'd answer anyway:

Well, Deborah, I hate to be known as the joy killer – though I know I have developed that somewhat unfair reputation through the years, but I kind of put in for those days first. I put in my request two weeks ago. And since despite my attempts to rectify the situation, on the reception board I’m still listed as working in Access, being the destroyer of dreams that I am, I have the sad task of tell you that your S.O.L!

Unless of course you agree to shovel my driveway for the rest of the winter. I would consider reconsidering if you were to agree to that. And lucky you, it’s really more just my front porch and little walkway to the house as one of my neighbours has been plowing my sidewalk and driveway for me. So I’d say it’s a good deal for you – the two days you want for just some shoveling for the next couple of months.

Kristie J

Client Services Assistant

SUPPORTIVE CARE TEAM

From: E, Deborah
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 2:13 PM
To: My Former Team

Subject: Vacation for February 18 and 22/11

Hi team

I would like to take February 18 and 22/11 off. Please let me know if this causes any conflicts within the team for other vacation times. Thanks : )

Deborah E

Client Services Assistant - Access Department

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You know - there are many, many days I really like going to work