first day jitters!!

My first day on the job today.  Boy did I have stomach problems up until 1:30 this afternoon.  That was the time to start training.  Thankfully, my trainer started off the training period with "Just so you know.....I haven't had my cup of coffee today."  I knew right then that she was a keeper!  Very sweet and patient lady.  We were on the phone for a little over  2 hours.  I was then cut "loose" to start producing.  My first doctor was an infectious disease practitioner....a specialty that I have never transcribed before.  However, a piece of cake pretty much.  I feel so much better knowing that this day is over.  The bad news is that in 2 weeks I am going to be put on my "permanent" account which is an orthopedic account with a brand new platform that no one has ever worked on.  Training all over again.  That's okay....I have a job now and I think I'm going to be really happy with this one.  It is a small company that has been in business almost 20 years.  They have less than 100 employees.......hence over 100 applications and only hiring 4 for my position!!!  I have high expectations for this company and this MT job.  I'm feeling so much better this evening, and now I think I can go enjoy a little something to eat!!  First-day jitters are flushed......literally!!!!

My BFF is so sweet to me!

Yesterday I left about 8:30 am to pick Daniel up in Tennessee at my niece's house.  It was going to be a long 10 hour day of driving.  I love to listen to country music which I don't get to listen to very much because either I'm working or Joe doesn't put it on a country station in the car because he can't stand it.  I actually was looking forward to the drive just to listen to some country music.  However, when you travel, a station doesn't stay on for too long, so you spend quite a bit of time scanning the stations to pick up a good one.  When I went out to the car, my BFF had taken 4 CDs of my favorite country singers out of the truck and put them in the car for me to listen to!  It was one of the AWWWWWW moments!  Those are the little things that make it all so great.  Thanks Joe for the Polar Pop and the CDs.....I love you!

During a drought, it's really dry......when it rains, it pours!

First off, did I spell drought right?  When you spend all day typing medical terminology, real words don't look quite right.  If I didn't spell it correctly........you know what I mean.  I've gone over 1-1/2 months without work.  Lots of rejection emails and no prospects really of any work.  I FINALLY got a call last week and was offered a job.  However, if you read my previous post, you know that things didn't quite work out the way they should have.  Needless to say, I didn't end up with that position (stupid electronics).  Well......last week, actually the day after I realized that THAT position wasn't going to work out, I got a call from the head honcho from the OTHER company that I had the phone interview with a couple of weeks ago. Yes, this is the one that I lied about my pretty blue book being in the car!  Long story short (really this is the short version Joe), I was offered the position with this company that had over 100 applicants and they only hired 4!!!  That afternoon I got 4 roses delivered, 3 red roses and 1 white rose with a sweet card saying "Congratulations 1 of 4!" from my BFF.  (That one gets its own page in the scrapbook)  This position gives me a much warmer fuzzy feeling than the other one did.  The other one......independent contractor and I had to pay taxes,  this one....EMPLOYEE!!!  The other one.....Sunday through Thursday, this one.....MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY!!! No more weekend working.  The other one......no paid vacation or holidays, this one.....6 paid holidays and 1 to 2-1/2 weeks of paid vacation!  The other one......multiple ESLs, this one..........NO ESLs!!!!  The other one.....no benefits whatsoever, this one.....full benefits (yeah I know we don't need medical and dental) including vision, free $15000 life insurance, 401K, 3 days bereavement leave with pay (don't plan on using ANY of that), and reimbursement for MT certification.  The old one.......no pay for training, this one......pay $12.75 an hour for the 1st week of training, 125% of your pay per line for the 2nd week, 115% of your pay per line for the 3rd week.  Now that's what I'm talking about girlfriend!!  I know I won't be making what I made with my other work that I've done for over 13 years, but I won't be working on the weekend, when 2 pm comes my day will be over, vision insurance, no self-employment taxes to pay.  Now when I say "when it rains, it pours" I mean this......I got another email and call from a voice recognition editing company (she's called twice and emailed me twice) but I told her nope.  Got another email from a company that is wanting overflow work.  I thought maybe this would be just a few hours per week and I could do it just for some extra money.  It's more than part time.  I've emailed her back and told her I was really only looking for just a few hours per week.  She emailed back saying she needed someone at least 25 hours a week.  Really?  I'm not working 65 hours a week AND babysitting.  Wonder Woman has left the building!  Also, I got a call for babysitting.  Things are looking up for the Bautista family........and I REALLY love my BFF Joe!  Happiness is......... Now I just wish the gang bangers that Joe teaches would spontaneously combust and intelligent students would appear in their ashes.  I think he would enjoy teaching a lot more if that were to happen. 

Can ANYTHING go right?

It's really hard to keep a sense of humor when everything seems to be going WRONG.  When I say everything.....believe me, I mean everything.  I was so stinkin' excited because I was offered a position on Wednesday.  Thank you Lord!  She asked when I wanted to start...."tomorrow of course!"  She called at 11 yesterday morning to load the platform on my computer and train me.  Everything was "supposed" to take about 1-1/2.  Right!  I was on the phone from 11 until 2:45.  There is a glitch in the platform and something on my computer not allowing my foot pedal to work.  Usually, in the world of medical transcribing, it helps to be able to hear exactly what the doctor is dictating.  That really is an important part of meeting your 98% accuracy rating.  The lady training me could not figure out what the *&$&)%(* was wrong.  She gave me a number to call.  Guess who I got to speak with?  Now keep in mind that I'm in tears at this point because I was supposed to have already started producing lines and making money.  I got to speak with Ritesh Patel in some remote middle eastern portion of the world.  I'm crying, he's speaking some language I don't understand and telling me to do different things and all I can say is "I'm sorry, I didn't understand you."  Really???  Come on......can't a girl get a stinkin' break?  This is unbelievable.  I'm speaking to some foreigner, my dog is snoring on her beanbag chair down by my legs (very loudly), Romo has to go pee and Landry is probably somewhere in the house chewing on the house..... I'm over this.  I just want to crawl in my bed and eat!  But nooooooooooo....I have to have a one-sided conversation with Sadam Hussein of the computer world.  I get an email from the lady who was training me saying that if it doesn't get fixed I have two options.  Either go out and buy another computer/foot pedal or not get the position.  Hmmmmm......that's a problem.  Guess I'm not getting that position.  No big deal, the offers are coming in everyday.  Right, and I'm a size 2.  On the positive side of things, I got an email from the lady who interviewed me last week just a few minutes ago.  This is the job that they had over 100 applications and are only hiring 4.  Anyway, the email says the head lady is going to call me this morning for her portion of the interview and "Good Luck!"  I'm now sitting on pins and needles wondering what it is I'm going to have to lie about with this lady.  I did get my Blue book and ready for any questions coming my way on that.  I'm hoping beyond all hope that I am offered a position and am one of the four lucky soles who get an offer.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that it started off crappy yesterday before she even called, because I was printing off the account specifics and samples and my black ink ran out.  SUPER!!!  So I start this morning in a really crappy mood.  I think to myself that it's okay we have our tax return coming any day now.  Clever me ruined the day even more.... I checked on line to see when our return would be coming.  It is "delayed....please contact the IRS for further information".  Well crap, that doesn't sound good.  I sit on hold for over 25 minutes to speak with a very pleasant sounding IRS lady who doesn't have a care in the world about my return.  She asks me every question in the world to verify that I'm really who I say I am.  She then puts me on hold for over 10 minutes.  It's all MY FAULT!  When I paid our estimated taxes in January I wrote MY SSN on the check.  They posted it to "my IRS account" and the computer spit out our tax return because it didn't show that the primary  account holder (that would be Joe) doesn't have any estimated taxes posted to his account.  The very-"nice"-IRS-lady-who-doesn't-give-a-crap-about-my-life-or-tax-return-or-anything-else-in-this-world said "it will be another 2 to 3 weeks to have that posted onto the primary's account and then your refund will be processed.  Another fine start to my morning.  So here I sit, no job with MedScribe because of computer issues, waiting for the second interview phone call from Opti-Script, no tax return for another month or so, Romo has to pee (or poop) again, Landry is laying in her bed chewing on her bed probably, the bird is screaming waking up the baby, the baby is wanting a bottle and some LuLu time, and still no black ink in my printer.  Wow, what an end to another unemployed week.  Come on God........NO MORE!  I wonder if the lady calling for my second interview would mind if I was chomping on some chips or candy while we chat.

Just a crappy day

One of those days you have out of the blue that is just a crappy day.  Blue mood, nothing going right, everything getting on your nerves, and just plain sad.  I hate these kind of days.

My dream of a matching washer and dryer down to the drain

Yep, that's right.....my washing machine died last Thursday.  It couldn't have come at a worse time for the Bautista's.  What's up with the timing here, huh?  Why couldn't it have happened six months ago.  Is there a switch on expensive appliances/vehicles that goes off when the family income is cut?  It's like the appliance devil sneaks in your house and zaps your appliances with his wand at the worse possible timing ever.  I've been telling my family for the last year that when one of them died (no not one of THEM but the washer or dryer) I was going to get a matching set.  I've never had a matching washer and dryer in 27 years.  Sad isn't it?  Does it really matter that your washer and dryer match?  Does that mean that your clothes come out nicer and unwrinkled?  Do the matching washer and dryer meet your company at the door?  Do the washer and dryer make a fashion statement for your home?  Nope....they are hidden away in the laundery room with the huge dog crate and 15 year-old cushions off a long-gone couch covered with a worn-out blanket.  However, matching would be a perk-me-up for the dog bedroom/laundry room and maybe a little bit of motivation for doing the laundry.  So Joe and I set off this weekend to see about a new washing machine.  Another question I have......when you don't have a washing machine, why do you have more clothes to wash?  Why does the laundry basket spring a leak when there is no way to plug the leak?  Plugging our leak cost us $686 on Saturday.  Needless to say, I didn't get my matching dryer.  They are delivering our "leak protection" tomorrow. 

I'm too old for this!

Ok, I had this unbelievable phone interview on Monday.  I've had them before, a few years ago when I was looking to go to work with another transcription company.  Now THAT was the kind of interview I was expecting....didn't happen!  This chick wanted to know REAL stuff.  I even lied, but it was a good lie and totally worked!  She asked me what type of reference material I had.  It's true that you can Google just about anything now and get your information.  Being a transcriptionist, though, you have to be sure the information you are getting is correct.  There are about 3 websites that I use and are very reliable.  I had prepared myself prior to the interview and written down some things that I felt sure she would ask me.  Yep......she asked about the reference material.  I clicked off the websites that I use and felt really cocky (in your face girlfriend!).  She then asked if I had the "AAMT Book of Style".  My jaw dropped and of course I said "Yes, of course I do."  What I really wanted to say is "Duh, who doesn't, to be a great transcriptionist you have to have it.  I use mine daily, don't you?" (even though I don't!) but I didn't think that was very professional.  She then asked "What edition?"  Let me tell you, if you don't have the stinkin' book how are you supposed to know what edition you are "supposed" to have.  I don't know how many editions are out there.  By this point, my ears are hot and my heart rate is well over 100.  I told her I wasn't sure what edition I had because "My book is in the car..."  Huh????  Why would my AAMT Book of Style be in a car?  Maybe I could have said "We just took a road trip and I was doing some reading up to be a better transcriptionist" or "I like to have it with me when I sit and wait while picking up my son from school" or "it was really raining and flooding here last night, so I put the book in the car in case we had to evacuate."   I fully expected her to say "I'll hold on while you run out to the car and get it."  You know how you doodle while you're on the phone........at this point, my doodles became almost devilish looking!!  Panic will do that to a body holding a pen.  She then asked me "What color is your book?"  Well, duh, if you don't even HAVE the book how are you supposed to know what color it is?  I mean really, COME ON lady, enough of the stupid book already.  I just blurted out "BLUE."  I had, by that point, doodled all the way down through about 3 reams of paper!!!  She then told me that I had the 2nd edition (but of course I do!).  Guess what I did.........I ordered one from Amazon yesterday because I have another phone interview later next week when the head honcho gets back from vacation!  I'm afraid she will ask me something that is actually in my BLUE book.  You can bet I made sure the book I ordered was the prettiest blue you've ever seen.  The interview was an hour long.  She kept saying things like "well let me ask you this before we get into the interview portion".  Are you kidding me......if these questions keep getting any harder I'm just going to hang up!  Now the bad news..........they got over 100 applications for this new orthopedic clinic and are only hiring 4 transcriptionists.  All I have to say is that it is a good thing I have a new blue book coming.........wonder what I will have to lie about next week with the "Donald Trump" chick from Opti-Script!!!  I'm too old for this...........