My New Jobs

Like I said before, to bring in money while Ben is looking for a new job, I had to get a job. My dad was really sweet, bumping me up in pay and "promoting" me to the title of Assistant. He just needs someone to kind of do his busywork for him during tax season. So I do that Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays for 8 hours. And then I work at this psychiatry office Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for 8 hours.

I'm a tired girl.

I thought that I'd have much more energy if I was just sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day. I was kind of excited - I'll have so much more energy for jogging in the evenings!! Oh, no. It's WORSE!! I don't know how sitting comfortably for 8 hours can be more tiring than chasing kids all day, but that's how it's turning out. I've been trying to still jog at night, and my goal is to jog an hour per night, but I can barely make it to the half hour mark. I just have no energy source from which to pull. Usually, I can jog for half an hour without stopping, and I don't feel like I'm dying or anything, but for the past two weeks, I have to stop a few times. I stand on the sides of the treadmill, clinging to the front console thingey, gasping for breath. I don't know what's wrong. So that's disturbing. My family is doing this Biggest Loser competition, and I'm obviously making no headway, first of all, because I'm not jogging very much. Secondly, when I'm stressed, I eat. And I drink Coke. Not so good for the dieting. The other night, I ate an entire little carton of Ben and Jerry's yellow cake batter ice cream. I suck. I need to be better. I'm trying.

I'm totally digressing in this post, but oh well. I just wanted to point out that Ben has lost six pounds in the last two weeks of the competition. I asked him how he did it, and he's all, "Well, I went from triple-decker peanut butter sandwiches at lunch to just the two slices." BUT he has also been making pancakes every morning since he's been home. So I'm like, what the crap??? How did he lose six pounds?? Men suck. And now Ben is drinking Slim Fast shakes and eating yogurt, so I know he's going to continue to whip everyone's butts. What a butthead.

Back to the original subject of this post. As far as my job at my dad's, I don't think I'm doing a very good job! He gave me a project last week, and I did a pretty good job with that. This week, he gave me another project, and I was sooo confused and ended up totally messing it up. I think I'm creating more work for him than actually helping him. But I'm trying. I just don't understand financial things very well. Hopefully I'll do better. And when Dad doesn't have a project for me, I just scan. Which I love.

As far as the psychiatrists' office, I'm really liking it. I work closely with a girl named Jody, who is the office manager, and she is really fun and funny. We have lots of good conversations. Then there are two psychiatrists (they can dispense and manage prescriptions). They are really nice guys. And then there are two counselors - the ones you go to just to talk. Everyone is really laid-back, which is fantastic. And the patients have been very... patient... with me as I'm learning the computer program for scheduling patients, etc. Most of the patients are on medication, so it's not like they come in ranting and raving or anything. They're there for help, and they're happy to be getting it. I honestly don't judge any of them, because I know exactly how it feels to feel... a little crazy. It's no secret that I have clinical depression and have been on medication for it for years. So it's very easy for me to empathize with these patients. We get a few phone calls a day from patients who are crying, and I truly do feel badly for them and try to get them in as soon as I can. We get about a billion calls per day from people who want to be new patients, but because the doctors are so busy, we usually can't schedule them for two months. And I feel so badly for them when I break that news to them, because I know that they are desperate for help now. But I do my best. I'm getting a little better at the computer program; where I struggle now is that I don't know a lot about insurances, company policies, which prescriptions are controlled substances and which aren't, etc. So I have to ask Jody a lot of questions; I hope she's not annoyed with me. Hopefully I'll get the hang of it soon.