Typical January Thursday

Gloomy, damp, and cold - but not very cold - 40 degrees.  Just enough to make going out in short sleeves uncomfortable but not enough for a jacket.

Mike is sleeping still.  He spends hours awake in the middle of the night, so it's good that he can sleep now.  I took the garbage to the street and picked up Mama's paper, emptied the dishwasher and made a protein shake.  He's probably fake sleeping so he won't have to drink any of that.

I pretty much did nothing of note yesterday afternoon, nothing that I can remember.  Probably tried to catch up on emails and Facebook and all the blogs I like to read.  Pinterest has just about overwhelmed me with things I want to read/do/make/experience, and I just have to stay away from it. I still pin things to my board to go back and look at later,

My job of the day is to clean the refrigerator.  I will NOT be taking things to the bathtub to clean them.  I think the refrigerator is pretty clean.  We just need to make decisions on things and throw out a few things.  Another easy one.  Oh and work on my "problem area."  Yes, that.  I think those things are manageable today.  Mama was thinking about asking me to take her to Wal-Mart today but said it looked too cold, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed she'll wait until tomorrow after her beauty shop appointment.  I really don't want to go out both days.

I had an interesting thing happen at work last night, and if anything interesting happened on my job, I need to record it.

Medical transcription used to be interesting, very interesting for someone like me who loves to type and loves to learn new things.  It paid very well, and it was a good 10 or so years.  Until each company I worked for got gobbled up by a bigger, more impersonal one, and we became assembly line workers.  We're expected to keep over 99% quality while churning out an impossible number of lines an hour.  And no typing any more - we just edit what a voice recognition machine has guessed that the doctor said.

Doctors expect perfection while (for the most part on my account) doing a poor job of dictating (eating, yawning, sleeping, etc), and over half of mine are Hispanic or Middle Eastern.  I can understand most accents as long as they give it a good try, but when I bring up a report with an unpronounceable 10-syllable name dictator, I expect the worst.  So it was so refreshing last night to hear this:

This is Dr.  Muhammavaskeriden Perez-Martinez (not real name) dictating a history and physical.  First I want to thank the transcriber.  I wish you a happy new year.  You be wonderful people.  You need a special place in our hearts, and we hope it will be a peaceful year and, most important, gratifying work for you.

Ah, so sweet!  I once had a doctor in North Carolina who would sing (You are my Medical Transcriptionist, my only Medical Transcriptionist) to us sometimes and tell us a joke before he started dictating.  He was a good dictator though.  After this heartfelt message, I was ready to do my best on his 15-minute dictation.  Alas, he was not clear and kept repeating himself and just drove me crazy for almost an hour.  I had many blanks that I had to send to our quality person to give it a try, so now someone else can hear his nice message.

Time to get cleaning on that refrigerator, but I need to check on some people I haven't heard from in awhile.  With my first cup of coffee, that should be good for another hour of procrastination.

I'm not as with-it as I'd like to think this morning.  I went to get my coffee, chose my K-cup, and turned my back only to realize I had not put a cup on the stand.  Such a sinking feeling.  Luckily the reservoir thingy had just been washed this morning, so I transferred the coffee from there to my cup with very little lost - just a little self-confidence.