Lemme see... what's new avec moi...hmmm...

My New Year's Eve was pretty low-key & DULL. My sister had a small bash at her house--board games and drinking....and I was only down for the latter. Sure, I brought Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture DVD Edition, but I didn't wanna actually play it. Not to be a braggedy pants but...I pretty much always win...I certainly don't mind that, but it's just an EPIC* endeavor getting to the win. I think I just need a new Trivial Pursuit game and then I 'll get reinterested. Pretty much for board games I could go for, the entire list is:.Scrabble, Bananagrams, Battleship, or Connect Four. And that's it. (Guess Who would've made the list but they gave all of the characters a makeover and that somehow ruined it for me) And most adults I know won't play the last two. I don't know why. Okay, I recognize that I'm succumbing to a tangent but humor me for just a line or two longer. Y'know how they're resuscitating all manner of 80s toys, so nearly anything you played with back in the day you can get for your kiddos to play with (with a hefty nostalgia surcharge of course)? Well, I'm just dying for them to bring back the board game Cat's Eye. I used to effing LOVE that game. And yet..I'm pretty sure if they did bring it back it would wind up disappointing me ( a la "Hmm, I remember this being much funner")
So. Back to New Year's. I didn't do board games, I just drank champers and played with these that I got my niece Sadie for Christmas. And then we turned on the telly... I actually wanted to see Mtv drop Snooki in her little guidette hamster ball . We were actually watching Mtv for a bit, but then they started in on some racy banter and my sister switched over to ABC because my nieces & nephew were up still and watching. So it was New Year's Rockin' Eve with Dick Clark. I admit it saddens me a smidge, watching post-stroke Clark count it down. But I think mostly I'm glad he still does it. I'm sure there was a contingent at the network that wanted to have him back out of it, because he's not the height of hip, and he's old and unpretty and now he's not speaking clearly...but it pleases me to think he told them "Go fuck yourself! I'm Dick Fucking Clark!!"

So after that dull New Year's Eve (dudes, living it was even lamer than reading about it has been!! FOR REALS.) I dusted off my perennial resolutions (1. shed some tonnage and 2. have more adventures. ) and commenced 2011. And then, HORRIBLY, on my first workday of the new year...the government tracked me down. Well, not the *whole *government ...just the student loans part of it. Oh, also they are too pissed at me to ring me directly. It was some collections agency that called me at work. Anyway, long sob story short, I am now on some "rehab program" and my lifestyle motif for 2011 shall be summed up by the word: "MONASTIC" . This new way of life works pretty well with that parenthetical #1 (poverty diet, anyone?) but I don't know yet how I can make it jive with perennial resolution #2. Ahh, we'll see.

On Thursday, during my lunch break my boss came in, and told me that beginning immediately --as of the end of my lunch break-- med supply ordering was indefinitely being covered by Larry and I was going to be trained to do "MAPS" and become responsible for those. To relate to you as briefly as I'm able what MAPS is...hmmm...well, firstly MAPS is an acronym of sorts...and what it's an acronym for they don't cover in MAPS training. Hell, should that not be MAPS 101? I feel like all these acronyms that are supposed to make business easier just obfuscate everything. Anyways, we bill Medicare for a patient of ours...for an episode (usually a period of 60 days) of services and/or supplies... Medicare will sometimes refute a bill : "Uh-uh...we don't think so" at which point the first part of the process kicks in--a mass accrual of notes & documentation (all aimed to show we did what we said we did, and did so correctly and with an MD sanction) So we get that and like, reassert our bill , a sort of "Oh YUH HUH. We mean it." But we are still at this point, retaining that accrual. ..until Medicare comes back at us with some of those patient episodes (most, but not necessarily all that they originally balked at) and they say "OK...BRING IT." Which kicks off a huge mailing (of aforementioned accrual) with beaucoup cover letters and massive certified mail fees. That's basically MAPS....though I didn't manage to make it brief at all. Damn.
I haven't been doing this gig long enough (just for half of Thursday + Friday) to say for sure whether I like it or not, but it's a time-consuming task, and they only took away one of my regular duties. And I'm pretty sure the nurses are going to HATE Larry doing the med supply ordering (I know Larry hates it).

It just so happens Thursday night I had a dream that I was at the movies and I saw my boss there and I pelted her with baby carrots. It was kind of a sad thing...that I was noshing on baby carrots at the movies. But the rest of the dream was quite gratifying!! It was very funny, she was standing up and headed toward the center aisle and in this kind of exaggerated high-comedic way she was locked in place by the barrage of carrots.