What you gonna do with all that junk?

Well, after several months of pussyfooting around with Sam Health, they finally decided to hire me. Although it's not for the job I wanted, it is still for a job that pays a little better than 25% more than what I'm currently making, so I'm not going to complain. I still think their HR department needs to be gutted. I applied for that job over 2 months ago....close to three. But it all works out well. Now I'll be able to take that entire week that Rachel's parents are here off before starting....woo ha! Way to work the system. Ok, I must admit, it was Rachel's idea, so all the props go to her.


Most people look forward to summers. Warm weather, weekends filled with camping and hanging out by a body of water. I spend my weekends in a tractor. Yes it is once again time for me to satisfy the agricultural jones inside me and hop behind the wheel of a John Deere 4440 tractor and spend my weekend driving around in circles for 12 hours a day, baling hay. And strangely enough, I'm looking forward to it. Really throws a kink into my fun though, I'm going to have to nix a trip to Brookings with Steve next weekend to bale, but oh well.

Rachel and I also secured our first legitimate "couple friends" in Cory and Amy. The four of us went mini golfing last night and then got some ice cream. A good time was had by all. Naturally, Rachel won, as she normally does at mini golf. Michelle Wie, watch your ass.

I got nothing else. It's bloody hot, and I'm begging for an eighty degree day. That'd be nice.

Remember when Jerry Rice was the best receiver in football? Neither does he.

Remember when Ken Griffey Jr. said he'd never play for the Yankees? Neither does he.

Sports is a funny world.

Been too long

I've been slacking. I know. I apologize. It's been a combination of it being hot and not spending as much time indoors (hanging out at the pool, etc), working full time now, the purchase of college football 2006 for the Xbox, and just general lack of enthusiasm for writing lately.


Last night I went to Red Robin with a bunch of people from work. It was a good time. It's nice to make new friends. Not that I'm abandoning my old friends at all, just it's nice to have some friends that live in town. Hopefully we can make this a regular thing, all of us going out to eat.

Work is still going well.....I'm hoping that when our lead leaves in a month or so, they'll promote me. I think I'm definitely qualified to be the lead, but I will admit that I have a problem being "professional." Especially in a job as mundane as medical records. If you're not having fun, that job would blow. So I like to have fun. Unfortunately, fun is not synonomous with professional. Despite the fact that I have some of the highest productivity numbers and overall knowledge of anyone there, I think they'll hesitate. Their loss though.....it's only a matter of time before I finally land a job elsewhere that pays something respectable.

The Angels beat the Yankees last night thanks to the Black Genie's grand slam. As much as that guy drives me insane with his swing-so-hard your-helmet-falls-off-and-you miss-the-changeup-by-nine-feet hitting approach, suspect fielding and third grade education (yes that's a fact. He's barely literate in English and Spanish. Hence the fact he rarely does an interview.) He is extremely clutch. He deserved to be the MVP last year. He singlehandedly carried the Angels to the playoffs. Yet I still find it hard to cheer for the guy. And I will never forgive him for sitting out after getting hit in the non throwing arm by a ball thrown from third to second while running. Suck it up.

SportsCenter's 50 states in 50 days gimmick is a good one. I find myself watching just for the random facts about Idaho and Alaska. For instance, it's illegal to throw a live moose from a moving plane in Alaska. You don't hear that stuff on the regular SportsCenter.

Highlights of the summer so far: Fourth of July weekend at the beach with Rachel, Vince's wedding in Jacksonville.

Predicted future highlights: OSU football season opener at revamped stadium, Diana's wedding in Baltimore, Rachel's family coming to visit.

Biggest downer of the summer: Finding out a friend had skin cancer removed from her arm the other day. Please don't ask me who, I'm don't feel comfortable telling people without her permission. And I'm not going to ask "hey is it ok to tell people you have cancer?"

Little highlight of the day......finding out my speeding ticket was reduced from $201 to $106.

Little highlight of the day #2...getting sent home from work 2 hours early.

And now a question.....say you're stuck in an elevator alone with a totally attractive person of the opposite sex. You just ate a chili-dog, or some other stomach-turning delicacy. You know that passing gas is inevitable, if not imminent. Do you A) Just wait til it happens, then pretend like you don't know what happened and blame it on burning grease on the elevator cables, B) Do the deed and then apologize, or C) Politely warn them ahead of time that you've got a bad case of the bubble-guts and apologize in advance, or D) Challenge them to a farting contest, with the winner getting $100?

Argh

Well I went over to Good Sam (again) to see what the deal was on that job I applied for. I finally got an answer! It was no. Apparently what happened was that patient financial services wanted to hire me, and HR wouldn't let them because I had no medical billing experience. So basically the people I would've been working for thought I was competent enough for the job, but someone who'd never met me wouldn't let them hire me because I "did not meet the minimum qualifications." I'm not trying to be a doctor here! I think I could learn medical billing in a matter of weeks. Absurd! The worst part is that it took them two months to tell me this. I asked about that, and the lady gave me some song and dance about how they're in the process of switching their applications from paper to electronic and "sometimes people get lost in the shuffle." I know I wasn't lost, because she pulled my application right off her f*cking desk! Not in a folder, not buried at the bottom of the pile...it was sitting on her desk pretty much in plain sight. Ridiculous.


In other news, why is it that so many nurses smoke? You'd think they of all people would be aware of the dangers and less likely to smoke. Yet an unusually large proportion of the nurses and medical assistants at the clinic smoke. I don't get it.

I guess there's a lot about this world that doesn't make sense to me.......

Movin' on up!

Well the move is complete. Really only took us a day and a half. We started moving stuff right after work on Friday. Dad and Grant came down to help, and with their help and extra truck, we were able to get mostly everything over here and in the apartment by 9:30. That included a half hour break to eat some pizza. Rachel and I were up 'til one moving stuff around before we quit for the night. The next morning we got up, put some more stuff together and in place before making a trip to Salem. Bed Bath and Beyond here in town didn't have the shower curtain Rachel had been wanting to get for like two months, so we drove to Linen n' Things in Salem. Aparently this was an important purchase. I must admit, it does look pretty good. We also picked up a few lamps for the front room with bear and moose lampshades. I love the woodsy look of our front room. Very cozy.


About 5 pm, we realized we'd left a few things over at our old apartment. The bitch of the thing was that we'd already turned in our keys, and the office was closed for the weekend. I remembered Grant telling me that you could just jiggle the handle on any door in that complex and it'd open. I figured it was worth a shot. So we head over and start jiggling the handle. 10 seconds later, the damn thing popped open. 10 seconds! That made me feel real safe. No point in even having a lock on the door. Might as well have just had screen doors on the place. After reclaiming our misplaced items, we put the finishing touches on our apartment. I really like what we've done with the place. Not only is it bigger, but we're using more of it. In the old place, we had two bedrooms, but we really only used one. The other one sat completely unused. Now we have the computer in the other bedroom, as sort of an office. Taking the computer out of the front room really opens it up.

Ironically, Rachel and I made the master bedroom the office. Yes it's bigger, but the closet also houses the water heater, which severely hampers the amount of space for clothes. So we took the smaller bedroom as our own. All we do is sleep in there anyways, so we don't need a ton of room. I'm excited for people to come over and see what we've done with the place. Just need more friends that actually live in town......

The only bummer is that now I'm close enough to work that I can walk. It's a 20 minute walk, which isn't bad, but it will be when the rains start coming again. It will save me gas, which is huge, but crap....20 minutes in December when it's 38 degrees and I'm walking up a hill? F that. I guess I've got a few months before I have to worry about that.

Well it is monday, so I guess that means I should get dressed and ready for work. Enjoy your week y'all!

Did I just get Tagged?

Reading through my buddies journals today, I noticed that my name appeared on Annie's "tagged" list. I wasn't really sure that I was the Andy in question (you never know, it's a popular name), but I'm bored, so here goes. For everyone's sanity, I'm not "tagging" anyone, but you're all free to insert your answers if you'd like. Or not.

Five Songs I'm diggin right now

1. My List - Toby Keith. Probably his best song, in my opinion.
2. Get Back - Ludacris. Any song that employs the term "Yeek, Yeek" and also uses the ever popular police siren-esque "woop woop" is right up there with me.
3. I Believe in a Thing Called Love - The Darkness. Just because it is awesome.
4. Rollin with MVP - Stagga Lee. I just thought about this song for the first time in forever today, and, well it is a great summer song.
5. O.A.R. - Missing Pieces. Just a fun song. I'd never even heard of these guys before Rachel, but they're pretty cool.

There ya go.

In other news.....

I'm having some issues with my dad right now. You'll remember a few months ago (well you probably won't) the Mustang crapped out. Well I couldn't afford the $2000 it was going to cost to fix it, and neither could Dad. So Dad comes across a credit card I'd signed up for but never activated. So he convinces me (against my better judgement) to activate it and use it to pay for the car repair. So the car gets repaired, Dad says to send him the bill and he'll handle the credit card payments. Fast forward to now.....

......So I gave dad the first bill. He never paid it. I had to call and make an emergency payment at the last second to keep from having a late payment. What's more, I haven't driven the car more than a few times since it was repaired. I've been driving the not so reliable Brown Sugar. This doesn't seem fair to me. The only reason we have a car is because of my credit, which is in danger of being ruined because I can barely afford to pay for anything right now thanks to my crappy job. Now I know that it's a little spoiled of me to expect my dad to pay for repairs on a car that I've driven pretty much since high school. However, this was his idea, and he told me he was going to handle the payments. So I'm not sure what to do. Do I bring all this up with dad, or do I just take it becuase he's helped me out with so much over the years? I'm not sure what to do, so I'm opening it up to my online friends to get an idea of what other people think. Granted, some of you don't know my dad....some of you barely know me. But I'm just interested in y'alls opinions.

London 2012!!

London was awarded the 2012 Olympics.


Which in itself isn't that big of a deal. But when you couple it with what I heard on the news last night, it's pretty funny.

Remember during the 2000 election, when George Bush was caught on tape saying some reporter (I'm sure Joel knows his name) was a "major league asshole?" Well, apparently French president Jacques Chirac was unaware or just forgot that he was wearing a mic when he said of the Brits "we can't trust anyone whose food is so terrible. In fact, the only country with worse food is Finland." Apparently, two of the Olympic selection committee members were Finnish. London won the final vote 54-50. If the Fins had voted the other way, it would've been a 52-52 split. Nice going Jacques. You just cost your country the Olympics.

Why do people do this? Especially people of significance? You spend your entire life in the public eye, and you KNOW this. Do you think I'd be writing about killing Mexicans (note: I do not condone the killing of Mexicans) on my website if I were a public figure? Do you think I'd even swear? It's freaking amazing. When I goof like that, I might get a few dirty looks. Mr. Chirac just endangered the economic future of his country. All because he had to comment on British food. Whoops.

Work loons

You know you work with some strange people when....


One of them voluntarily tells you that her grandfather murdered 4 people and buried them in his backyard.

Yup.

You read that right.

Apparently this girl's granddaddy lives on the Texas-Mexico border. She claims that he shot four Mexicans running across the border in his backyard, then buried them there. Creepy. But then it gets even better (or worse I should say).

She thinks this is ok! She's like "they can't do anything about it because they were in the country illegally." Are you serious? So if something goes wrong with my passport, and I end up in France on vacation technically illegally, it's ok for some Parisian to pop me on the Champs Elysses?

Wow.

I need a new job.

Chicken Turtle?

This weekend was just what the doctor ordered. 3 day weekends are awesome. This was one of those weekends that's so good, you seriously consider calling in sick when you have to go back to work....then quitting when they catch on that you're not really sick.

Rachel and I headed to the beach right after work on Friday. After a quick stop at Quizno's for dinner, we made it to the house around 9:30 or so. Watched a little tv and went to bed. Nothing big.

Saturday we got up and went to Newport to see the turtle exhibit at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. As always, we spent a majority of our time watching the puffins. By far my favorite animal. Those little bastards are so funny. In order to spread their natural oils all over their feathers and fluff them up to keep themselves warm, they engage in this sort of dance that is looks like they're being attacked by a swarm of bees. Lots of flailing and flopping around in the water. I also learned that because they spend a majority of the year out at sea, they have a gland in their beaks that converts sea water to fresh water. It's basically like having a Brita in your nose! Pretty sweet.

The turtles were cool as well. The chicken turtle looks nothing like a chicken, and even less like the cartoon chicken turtle on the billboard. However, the pig-nosed turtle is aptly named, as is the snake-necked turtle. That thing was crazy.

After the aquarium, we drove up to Depoe Bay and walked around. Contemplated taking an hour long whale watching tour, but the sign said "beautiful views and even the occasional whale to boast about." I'm not paying for an occasional whale. You get that damn thing close enough that I can pet it, and we'll talk. Depoe Bay is a quaint little community, but extremely touristy. Every shop has gimmicky t-shirts that say stuff like "If you can read this, pull me back in the boat" on the back or ridiculous driftwood carvings of a whale that cost $100. It's driftwood!

We left Depoe Bay behind and headed to Mo's in Lincoln City for dinner. Our boycott of Mo's only lasted until we got hungry. It seems Mo's is suing Moe's. Mo's is an Oregon original, with seven coastal restaurants. Moe's is a chain out of Atlanta or something that just opened a restaurant in Wilsonville. Apparently Mo's thinks that Moe's is trying to captialize on the Mo's name. Apparently the fact that they're not on the coast, spell their name differently and serve and entirely different style of food means they're trying to trick people into thinking they're somehow related. Give me a break. Rachel and I were both mad about this lawsuit. Just not mad enough to pass up Clam Chowder and Fish n' Chips.

This pretty much concluded our Saturday. All in all a good day. We did go for a walk on the beach as well, but that ended early due to high winds and lack of sweatshirts.

Sunday we tried to walk down to the end of the spit to look at the sea lions and seals that typically sun themselves on the mouth of the Siletz. Unfortunately, the seals decided to go on vacation as well, because there weren't any on the beach. A few popped their head out of the water as they floated by on the current, but all in all it was a failed endeavor.

After the walk, we drove into town to catch a matinee of Bewitched. Will Ferrell was hilarous, and Nicole Kidman was extremely likeable, yet the movie didn't really grab me. There were a few hilarious scenes (Where art thou, DOG?) and if the whole movie had been geared towards scenes like that, it might've been better. Still it was enjoyable.

We left the movie theater, picked up a pizza at Papa Murphy's and some pop at Safeway (5 12-packs for $10!!!!!!) and headed home. We cooked pizza, watched Black Hawk Down, one of the most depressing movies I've ever seen, and then walked down on the beach to watch the sun set and see if we could catch the fireworks they were shooting off in Depoe Bay. We could, but being 10 miles away made the show less exciting than usual.

Monday we drove to Portland and hung out with Dad and Grandpa for a while. Grandpa's turning 93 (93!!!!!) in a few weeks. He doesn't like it when we bring it up. At least twice yesterday I heard him say "I'm so damn old." It's pretty humorous to me, but I'm sure he actually means it. Like he's pissed he isn't dead. Maybe I'll feel the same way when I'm 93, if I make it that far.

After hanging out with Dad, we headed to Joel's new house to check it out. It's pretty sweet. We showed up and Joel gave us a tour while his mom was using a bleach pen on the shower and his dad was working on something in the kitchen. I can only hope when I buy a house that I have family members that help out as much as his family was. So they worked while Joel entertained. Pretty sweet deal.

Then it was off to the Portland Beaver game. We met Dad and Micki outside the stadium and sat through one of the most boring baseball games I've ever watched. Tacoma won 10-0. The Beavs never even had two runners on base. They hit into four or five double plays. It was weak. But the fireworks after the game were enjoyable! Then we drove back home and were so tired that we just threw everything on the floor and went straight to bed.

Now that's a good weekend!

Update

I know I promised an update when I got home from Jacksonville, but there's been a few issues with my computer since then....namely a vicious bug that almost put me down for the count. thought I was gonna lose everything....all my music, all my pictures. Fortunately, I was able to salvage them, but my computer just hasn't been the same this week.....runs a little slower, programs shutting down for no reason, stuff like that. Seems to be getting better as the week goes on though...like it's shaking off the rust or something.


Work this week was a little rough. It seems like forever since I worked a full 5 day week. It's getting pretty tedious in there. I wish that Sam Health would pull their heads out of whatever they've got them in and let me know if they're going to hire me or not. Seriously, it's been almost 6 weeks since I interviewed, and I haven't heard squat other than "we haven't made a decision yet, but we'll let you know." What is that? If they weren't offering significantly more than what I'm making now, I'd tell 'em off and then run through their HR department clotheslining the women and suplexing any men that got in my way. Just basically go Ultimate Warrior on them.

Found out the Ticket Office isn't even going to give me an interview. You think they'd find me somewhat qualified to do a job that I basically spent the past two years doing, but I guess not. Word is that the ticket director had already hand picked some guy that used to work for him back at Iowa for the job, and that there really wasn't a chance to get it in the first place. Which is fine, I just wish he'd had the common courtesy to let me know that. That was the point of me sending him an email telling him I was planning to apply. Very professional, dickwad.

Funny story from work....Yesterday, I went to the restroom around 1:30. It was at that point I realized that my zipper had been down on my khakis since I put them on. Apparently nobody noticed, or nobody felt like telling me. Hilarious though that I spent all day talking to people with total confidence in my voice while my proverbial barn door was wide open. I mentioned this to a few people, who said they didn't notice. I remarked that it was good thing that I wore underwear that day.....which apparently is not "work appropriate" as I was soon told. No matter, everyone got a good laugh.

I don't understand our workplace though. We are in medical records. Our records room is strictly off limits to patients, meaning we have very little contact with the general public. Yet apparently we're not allowed to listen to fun music. I put in a little Kris Kross today, not loud or anything, and people just freaked out. You can't play that....it looks bad. To who? Sorry if I want to have a little fun at work. I don't understand the concept that you can't have fun and still do a good job. I'm not trying to brag, but I think I'm just about the most efficient person there, and I do an excellent job. Yet people also seem to think I goof off all the time. Go figure. I guess I don't think that the term "professionalism" excludes having a good time. I'm always polite on the phone, adhere to the dress code, meet my efficiency quotas, and follow all the guidelines. Nowhere in the policy does it say anything about not nodding your head and rapping along to "Jump Around" while you're working. Yet this seems to be taboo. I hate "the real world" Nobody has fun.

Well, I'm off to Lincoln City for the weekend. Plan is to come back early Monday and watch the fireworks over the Willamette River in downtown Corvallis on the 4th. Anyone who wants to join us is more than welcome. Peace, and I'm out. Happy Birthday Uncle Sam!