reflections

Oh me, oh my, it’s quarantine time.

/ Jo Redd / 1 Comment

I tested positive this morning.

I woke up with a sore throat, the only abnormal symptom I have. No fever, my cough, and sniffles are ordinary things, and nobody aches. I feel warm, experiencing very mild chills, and I am pretty tired. I feel like everything will be okay.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

The doctor thinks I’m already close to being five days out, so really, I should be feeling better by Monday. All in all, I could feel a lot worse than I do, but I would prefer to feel better. It’s cold and gross outside now, so I already had zero plans to go outside this weekend.

Almost one month into the new year.

/ Jo Redd / 2 Comments

Just wanted to do a quick update because I said I would.

I have not opened the Noom app in almost three weeks.

I love the Coursera website, even though I am not a massive fan of bookkeeping.

I am officially done with my job on February 3rd, and that date cannot come fast enough.

My would is ready for winter to be over and the sun to feel warm again.

I have almost completed a transcription program and hope to find a job through the program.

My mission to set up a home office is complete, and I’m impressed with the space I utilized.

Reasons why winter is awful: part 760

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I realize that this is a reoccurring blog post, but as long as I live in the midwest, that’s just a part of life. We are once again experiencing record low temperatures. Kids have to stay home, businesses are attempting to remain open while customers and patients refuse to go outside, and there is no good reason for going out in this weather.

Every year I say the same thing, “It isn’t so bad as long as it isn’t snowing.” Then, once it begins to snow, I can’t help but turn into a negative Nellie. I hate winter, I wish I could somehow convince my entire family to move somewhere where the weather doesn’t turn so harsh in the winter months, but I know that will never happen.

My grandparents used to vacation in Florida every winter, but they haven’t gone in years, and I wish we could make that a tradition in our family. I just want to be able to go outside without a million layers on; I don’t want to have to worry about frostbite; I want my son to get fresh air without his cheeks turning pink from the cold. I just want the weather to be excellent for everyone.

My last day at work is on the horizon.

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I am taking the plunge and leaving my current job for a new one that I can do from my home office. It isn’t freelance work, but this is the kind of change I need to have happened in my life.

I read an article the other day that talked about switching lanes in your 30s, and I realized that I have hit many of the points brought up. Rather than continuing to loathe the hours I’m away from home, I’m going to start working on my next career move.

Will Spring Training start on time?

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Edited 2/10/2022

The owners are set to meet up today, and hopefully, they will change their tune and come to the table with a new offer once this group of meetings is completed. We have progressed to a spot where the owners want to turn to federal mediation, yet the players are not interested in that route. The players have come down from their initial numbers a couple different times, and now it is time for the owners to come up with their offer. This has been dragged on long enough, and it is beginning to look like the 2022 season will not be starting on time.

I watched an interesting video the other day from the guys over at Talkin’ Baseball and they explained in detail why the players rejected the call for federal mediation. I’ll never be able to do their segment justice, so head on over here and watch the video.

Photo by Rachel Xiao on Pexels.com

It’s been nearly a week since the meeting between the owners and the player’s union of the MLB. There seems to be no second meeting on the calendar, and the world of baseball remains silent. The fans are beginning to get restless. Again. While we all knew the talks that began last week weren’t going to come to an immediate conclusion, I think everyone expected there to be something happening. Trades aren’t being made, players aren’t able to work out and use the sports complex athletic trainers and other staff. This entire shutdown to the world of baseball is so detrimental to the sport itself. It felt like baseball was just gaining momentum again, and here we are, putting the emergency brake on.

Generally, at this time of year, talk is ramping up with the arrival of pitchers and catchers for spring training. Fans would be getting ready to make the trek to the various sites to get the first glimpses of their team in action. Sure the preseason games don’t matter, but it’s still fun to watch baseball. It is so gross to go look for the start date for baseball and see nothing but TBAs marked by all the teams.

The fans want baseball to come back. It’s already a long enough time from the last pitch of the world series to the first one the following season. Can we please just come to an agreement already? I don’t understand why the owners want a shortened season just so they can cram the postseason full of teams, and I don’t know why the two sides want to argue over numbers. Let’s be honest, if you have enough money to buy a baseball team, you have enough money to pay the taxes too.

I hit 50 likes!

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I realize that 50 likes are nothing to be excited about (for some people), but I need to take advantage of every small success I get. I’ve had this blog for a while now, and until recently, it hadn’t received much attention. To be fair, I wasn’t really dedicated to writing a blog post a day, so it’s no one’s fault but my own that my blog wasn’t growing.

I’m trying out several different writing website systems, and eventually, I will review them, but for right now, I will continue to make this blog a priority. Thank you for reading the different entries and for the likes you’ve given me.

Coursera: what is it? Is it worthwhile?

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I’ve always had a slight interest in bookkeeping, and since I’m looking to one day have my own business, I got the idea to take a course that would teach me more about the subject. After researching, I noticed many different websites recommending the course offered by intuit. With tax season quickly approaching, I thought now would be a great time to dive into the topic. I went to sign up, and it offered me the chance to sign up with Coursera. I decided to try it, although the stiff price of $40 a month made me almost reconsider.

I’m one week into the class, and I really do like it, even if I still feel like the subject isn’t for me. I know that I will never do someone else’s bookwork, but I also realize that I will need to do mine because there is no way I will make enough, in the beginning, to pay someone else to do it. The sections are broken up into small chunks, making them easier to digest. I also like the discussion portion because tons of people seem to be taking the course simultaneously that I am. I don’t typically see anyone replying to others, but people’s responses to the initial question are fun to read. I look forward to getting deeper into the details. As with all topics, once you get past the surface information, you begin to get into the fascinating

information.

Coursera is impressive because it has so many different classes that you can take. While I went there looking for the bookkeeping course, I found a ton of other avenues to investigate. I just enrolled in a class called “Inspiring and Motivating Individuals,” offered through the University of Michigan. All these courses are self-study and, while you’re encouraged to set a weekly goal for completion, you can always change your plans to fit your schedule.

For $40 a month, you get access to many top-notch courses offered by some of the elite universities in the county. Most of these courses are a part of some certificate that you can eventually obtain. I love the access to learning, and I love that all these different courses are available without going to a single one of these schools.

I will definitely be checking in periodically with updates to this product because it seems to have a lot of promise, and I want to share that with everyone.

If you’re interested in checking something out, use this link: here.

#Iowanice doesn’t exist

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As someone who grew up in Iowa and eventually came back to Iowa in adulthood, I can tell you that #iowanice is no longer a thing. When I was a kid, you could expect to have every passing car wave at you, we knew the goings-on of our neighbors, whether good or bad, and everyone was willing to stop and help a car stalled on the side of the road. Back in the 90’s people truly wanted to live up to the expectation that Iowans were more admirable than the citizens of other states.

Before turning 18, I was a rebellious child, and I fled the state for a more southern itinerary: Missouri. I thought I could find something great in the show-me state, and I was eager to prove that I was a hard worker. After ten years of trying my hand at everything I could find (and striking out at everything), I decided to return to Iowa.

The belief that Iowans are friendly is antiquated, and after years of young flight, the people left are rude and unhelpful. Take today, for example. I was able to free my vehicle from the confines of the snowdrift in my driveway, but upon entering the alley, I found myself stuck again. I was right in the middle, people couldn’t miss me, yet no one would help me out. All I needed was a push. One tiny little push on the back of my car, and I knew that I would be able to reach the road and I would be free. For an hour, I sat out there and watched as the cars rolled past. I live next to the post office, and it was pretty fun to watch the cars pull up, drop off their mail, look at me in the rearview mirrors, and then take off down the street. I watched a car pull into the other end of the alley, notice my vehicle stuck at the other end, and they turned around and went back out.

Finally, after admitting that I would not get my car out without assistance, I called my parents. They rescued me like they have countless other times. Family is where you can find excellent, helpful people. The idea that our neighbors are willing to help is no longer accurate, which is quite a sad revelation.

Winter can be over now

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Yesterday the midwest was slammed with a major snowstorm, and the area where I reside was finally caught in the crosshairs. Roughly eleven inches of snow fell. Initially, the snow was heavy and wet, but just as the winds picked up last night, the snow became light and fluffy. It was beautiful to watch the snow yesterday. Most businesses were closed early, and so it was tranquil, even in the heart of town, and the snow wasn’t being blown about; it was just falling silently to the ground. I even managed to keep my car cleaned off yesterday afternoon.

Last night was a different story. Keeping up with shoveling was next to impossible due to the high winds, and the temps dropped rapidly. Going outside last night was awful, and I couldn’t stay warm for longer than a minute or two. At about 9 pm, I gave up and decided I wouldn’t be going outside again. Now my car is completely stuck. I am supposed to move it so someone can come to take the pile of snow away, but I don’t think that’s going to be possible today.

I feel trapped, I am currently experiencing cabin fever, and I am in an awful mood. I hate winter, and I’m ready for it to be done. Spring can show up any time now.

The Job Hunt.

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Back at the beginning of October, I began casually checking the job listings in my area due to some significant changes with my current employer. Once December rolled around, that job hunt became a higher priority, and right now, I am looking daily for something new.

Within the last six months, I have begun working towards various certifications, and none of them seem to be taking me anywhere. I enrolled in the Prior Authorization Certification Specialist program because the clinic I work in considered getting a nurse to do just that for our providers. I was told there was an excellent chance to get the course reimbursed. About a week after I paid for the class, an email was sent out saying that the main hospital campus would be taking over this task, which rendered my certification useless. (and naturally, there was no reimbursement for something the company was no longer interested in.) Perhaps the most frustrating part about this is that any jobs looking for PACS certification want an experienced worker as well. Since obtaining my certification, I have gotten no more work with prior authorizations because they are done out-of-clinic.

I took applications all around town last week. I have yet to hear back from any of those companies. After reading reviews on Indeed, I walked into one establishment, confident that I would be interviewed on the spot, but the manager wasn’t available to speak to me. I called that same business on Monday and, again, the manager was unavailable.

I keep up with the news, and there seem to be endless reports about places needing workers. I can’t even get Culvers to call me back. It isn’t like I am refusing any avenue for a job; the jobs just aren’t interested in me. I could apply to McDonald’s, where they pay their workers anywhere between $13 and $15 an hour, but I bet they say I’m overqualified to work the register. I consider a job as an administrative assistant, and they want me to have 5+ years of super-specific industry skills while only offering to pay $15 an hour. There was a remote position listed on indeed for a test scorer, and that position also required a bachelor’s degree for $16 an hour.

While I would never say that a company should have to pay me more, I will say that a college should not take taxpayer dollars and then charge $30,000 a year for just the classes.