Giving up

Giving up
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

I am going home i have been here for over 13hs doesn't look like got much done does it

tonight

tonight
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Well at least i can do stuff online via my phone . Here is my desk I told Grumpy not to wait for me as its going to take me a while to get this kind of sraightend out. The I need to see why little laptop is acting up first it kept frezzing up on me when I tried to check emails and now it wont shut down.

Light a candle

As you know I work in Clinical Research, mainly HIV.


Tomorrow is the world AIDS day and BristolMyersSquibb is asking as many people as possible to light a candle. For every candle lit BMS will donate one dollar, so click https://www.lighttounite.org/ and light a candle then pass the link on. It does not cost you anything and will only take a minute to do. You can also leave your story for people to read. You do not have to be HIV+ to write. Below is my story which I submitted.

While I am HIV negative my life itself has been largely affected by the disease itself. When I was 9 years old my mother, a OBGYN, founded the AIDS foundation in my hometown in Germany. She saw the dangers of the disease and was amongst the first to speak out (in the late 80's) being a single mom she took me to work with her often. I met many friends that way and lost many to AIDS as well. I worked in the foundation until I left to move to america, here I work in clinical research mainly in HIV studies. I have been working with the disease for 20 years and am sad everytime I see someone newely infected. People need to realize everyone can contract it if they are not safe and you can not tell by looking at people that they have it!

Be aware, be educated and be safe.

just because

This week is going by so fast and I can't seemed to get anything done. I worked at the restaurant Monday and Tuedays night. It was dead so I didn't make much money.

I am still trying to find a home for my little house guest I may have succeeded. Today was a nightmare in the office understaffed and too many patients and we had a pre site visit for a upcoming study. The poor lady ended up waiting for hours on our Doc. I found out I got two trips coming up in January one to LA mid January and one to Orlando the last weekend of January (click on the city to see my fancy hotels). My mom is excited about the Orlando one since my sister (who I have successfully avoided for over 4 years) is coming to her a few days prior. I will get a rental car when the meeting is over and drive to Ft. Myers stay a couple of days and then fly back from there. At least I'll have a car so I can get away if she gets to much on my nerves. I am having nightmares just thinking about being in that tiny single wide house with my mother and sister.

I did finally go online today and bought my Trans Siberian Orchestra Tickets. I love them and see them every year hier in Hampton but this years show was on November 17 which is to early for Christmas music so Grumpy and I are going to the show on the 15th that's 90min away. Without Christkindle markets and other traditional stuff like snow that puts me in a holiday mood this usually does. If you have never seen it GOOOOOOO the light show alone is worth the ticket. Make sure to get the cheap seats they are the best to see the lasers. This year will be my 5th show and it still runs chills down my spine.

I hope someday soon I can add things like a trip here and or to NYC to my Christmas traditions.

Well I got to run but first what do you do every year to get in the spirit?

Weekend & Monday

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Originally uploaded by dino0477.

So I just noticed the picture of me getting ready for girls night on Friday never posted. Well just as well the night wasn't all that.
So here is one of me trying to do homework while both kitties are begging for attention.

I was still talking to N., the AP that was staying with me, when my Scottish friend B. called fussing where I was. I had totally lost track of time and she HATES to wait alone. So I quick brushed my hair and ran out the door. We got a little corner table at the restaurant and our server was a buddy of ours . Mind you there are only a few people that we allow to wait on us!. She knows us well enough so B. had her Bacardi and Coke and I had my pitcher of Ice tea and soon there was yummy Garlic bread, cheese and oil. I was starving as I just had soup for lunch in anticipation of dinner. Our English friend P. was late as always. She was in dire need of a drink as she had quit her job and got it back with in 10 min. She was still shaking.
About 5 minutes later the AP (N) staying with me and another one of my German AP's walked in the door. We ended up moving to a big table. The other German AP (D.) told me Mac the Great Dane bit her. My first question to N. was did you let D in the house? Remember we told you do not let strangers in unless we are present. Luckily Mac did not break the skin and she just had a little swelling. But still WTF is there to misunderstand - no strangers in the house!
Anyhow so that pretty much dampened my mood. Dinner was great I had, what the waitress referred to on her ticket as "Katies pasta". [Bowtie pasta with onions, carrots, peas and broccoli in a parmesan cream sauce] Unfortunately B. got drunker by the minute and started arguing with me about au pair rules (in front of my au pairs) and how she thought curfews are wrong and they should get paid more. Obviously I couldn't tell her I agreed with the girls sitting there. I do however think curfews are necessary at least in the beginning until you get to know your au pair better - quite frankly I want my AP to be awake and alert while watching my kids and not sleep deprived and hung over! As for their pay that is set by the state department and considering room and board is included its not all that bad and the program is not meant for them to MAKE money. Anyhow when I finally caught B. alone I told her to cut it out - which she promised to do. Knowing her P. and I were taking bets on how long it would last.
After dinner and dessert (I had the exotic bombe again) we moved out to the patio. I ended up having to save B. from herself when she was going to drive the new waitress home. B was way past the driving stage. I decided as the new girl lives near the house I was calling it a night and head home after I dropped her off.

Saturday was pretty uneventful. I got an email from one of my host families in response to me setting up the two week interview [I have to go over the rules with everyone two weeks after the AP arrives] saying they'd be out of town. WFT I was just there a week ago and told them I'd come that week. We emailed back and forth and the Host father was really pissing me off. He finally agreed to do it on the 23rd at 4pm which mean first of all its going to be almost a week late and I will have to take or work from the office early and won’t be able to wait tables that night!!!! ARGGGGGG.
I finished up homework and worked at the restaurant. It was pretty slow so I didn't make much money. I tried to find out from N when her boyfriend would come and get her tomorrow as I really did not want him in the house without us and we were going to go to Watercountry USA where this month AP meeting was held. She told me she didn't know which quiet frankly pissed me off.

So Sunday morning rolls around and I wake her up as I needed to print of my sign in sheet for the meeting. I ask N. so when does he pick you up? She says he isn't! Excuse me!!!!! Apparently he sent her a text message saying he wasn't going to. So now we had to figure out how to get her to the family which was 3 h away. I ended up having to leave to meet the AP's for the meeting so they could sign in. Grumpy had to stay at the house to help her find a way and make sure someone is there incase the BF was showing up. I was so pissed so I drove to the water park (1h) and got everyone’s signature just to drive back (1h). When I get home the family had said they'd meet her half way and Grumpy and I said for him to driver her vs. waiting for one of her other friends to rent a car and come. We kinda hoped we could make it to the beach with the pups at least. NOPE Grumpy didn't get home till after 6pm. I was so mad. We both had taken the day off to be together and go to the water park. I rarely have a day off and that was mine for the month!!!!!!!! So we ended up just going out for some Mexican and went home.

Monday was just as bad as the weekend. It was the docs first day back so we all knew it was going to be crazy. I had 6 patients of my own to see and had made sure I was ready and prepared. When I got in the office manager said the part time nurse is MIA and if I could help out up front. Fuck I hate working up front. When I came up for some air I asked if anyone had heard from the nurse - no. I reminded the office manager that the docs schedule had changed he was originally coming back Monday and seeing patients Tuesday. Oh she goes, I wonder if he knew. Now I maybe wrong but isn't it the office managers job to ensure her employees know when they should come to work especially as they do not want that nurse in the office unless the doc is here? Anyhow I was exhausted when I left the office and I headed to the restaurant. There we had a huge party to serve, lots of running but they were pretty easy. By the time I got home at 11, I kissed Grumpy goodnight and fell into the bed. I barely got undressed I was so dead.

Katy's Inbox

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Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Well as you can tell by the picture, I had to implement a Inbox at work. I am extremely overworked as we are short staffed and I am the only full time coordinator in our office. Needless to say my desk is usually a mess so are the other 2 that I spread out on. Well if I put stuff on my desk I have looked at it and know it is there, however other people insist on putting stuff on it as well. Well those things tend to get lost and since I did not see them I don't know to look for them until I find them by accident. Hence the INBOX. This way everyone can put the crap they think is for me (unfortunately usually it is) in that box and I only have to dig through one place versus 3 desks!. We'll see how it works today is the first day that I am using this system.
The rest of the day was utterly uneventful. Grumpy and I were supposed to go to the Marine Base to see my favorite Marines but that got moved to the weekend. So after dinner we just hung out and watched TV. It was nice we actually got to be in the same room for more than an hour. One of my host families said they were having something delivered to the house and I had to be there for it so we didn't go out, but there was no delivery either. Oh today (by now its Thursday) is stupid nurses last day. I am totally psyched. Well not true I am pissed that her good by lunch which was supposed to be coming from the Panera Bread Company is now from Chick filet. I am pissed not because I do not eat at that place but no one told me it changed so I did not bring breakfast or lunch thinking I'd have a big lunch from Panerea (they have the best Forrest Mushroom soup in a bread bowl). So now I am stuck - I think I have a frozen Bagel in the freezer somewhere.

The INS, the beach and a blind date [part 1]

I am beat. So I worked a half day at the office where I balanced patients, paperwork and finding yet another au pair candidate for that family. After leaving there I ran home to get my mom and then to drive 30min to the INS office. My mom is always stressing about being late so she made me leave an 1 1/2 before the meeting. Well we got there with an hour to spare. Our Lawyer met us there and we went to the back with the interviewer. He was an odd duck, came across very nervous and spoke very fast making it impossible for my mom to understand him. Our case was easy as we are mother and daughter (and you can tell that by looking at us). Things went pretty well and he said he did not expect any problems and we should have her card within the next month or so.

Sorry I fell asleep trying to upload the pictures I took with my Razr phone.

Okay so the INS thing went pretty well (or so we think) after that we had some time to kill before we were to meet my two favorite Marines. I had never taken my mom (in the pic below) to Virginia Beach (the actual Beach). It was a nice day so we walked the prominade and stopped to get some coffee and cake. The waitress sucked but the dessert was good.

When we got back to the car I checked in with "my" Marines and we started driving to the base. They both met us at the gate and we went to get some ice cream. Now believe it on not I used the be the young ladies au pair. Man I feel old right now. They are both in the music part of the corp and are in music school down here. I got to go quickly shopping in the commissary (so much cheaper and they have German stuff).

After saying goodbye to those two ( my mom had not seen the young lady since she was 9!), we headed back to the peninsula to meet up with my moms blind date. One of my coworkers and I had been talking about our parents a while back and discovered they had much incommon including being alone. So we met my coworker and her Dad at the restaurant where I work. While we are waiting my boss (the doctor) and his wife walks in. Hes like yeah we called requesting you but they said you are not working but actually have a reservation. The dinner all in all was pleasant. We talked and enjoyed good food and the waitress was my scottish friend. She told me when she brought me my food (Farfalle with Piccatta sauce - mushrooms, roma tomatoes, capers in white wine) that one of the cooks had asked if I was eating here. She asked him how he knew and he pointed to my dinner - which is my own creation. So that was it. We went home and I tried to post but fell asleep fighting the blogger to upload the pics. I dropped of my mom at the airport this morning, she is flying back to Florida. Today should be mellow those will serve as a post for 2 days (maybe I start working on the other blog).

I had a few other pics of a big neptune statue at the beach but the blogger wont let me upload it. I will see if I can post them directly from flickr as I did some in previous posts.

You are kidding right?!?!?!?

So having 4 jobs has its advantages, for one I meet tons of nutty people that I can write on here about.


So I was at my day job (I work for a doctor doing clinical research) today when our receptionist called overhead saying she has a letter for me. This is not unusually as I get a lot of stuff all day long so I just ignored her and went on with what I was doing.
Not to much later she came to my desk with the letter. I did not recognize where it was from but the last name was the same as that of one of my former study patients. It was addressed to me but my first and last name was hopelessly misspelled. So I open it up and find a Money order made out to me (misspelled of course) / clinical research and a note to please use it towards any outstanding bills for the above mentioned patient.
Now I am totally confused. I never deal with money, one perks of being on a study is your treatment is free. So I hand it to our receptionist and tell her just to give it to the office manager as she handles the billing.

A little later I call the patient in question and tell him about the letter. He goes like "Oh yeah I meant to talk to you about that." I remind him that I do not handle money. He says "no its not for that. I owe money on a credit card bill and my parents would not give me the money so I had them made it out to you. I need you to cash it and keep whatever and give the rest to me." I was like WHAT????? Then the phone was cut off.

I am like WTF. I go and tell the office manager and she says to check with the Doc. He says lets just send the letter back to the guys parents in PA. Which I did with a nice note stating there where no outstanding bill that the money could be used for.

I still can't get over the fact this guy wanted me to help him to commit fraud!!!!! Dude next time make sure the person is willing to help you and spell the name right, I mean I could not have cashed the thing had I wanted too with the way it was misspelled.


So my question to you is what would you have done?