Wednesday, November 07, 2012

I ranted about political stuff....

in the other post I put up this morning.  This is the personal.

I went to my interview this afternoon.  I hate being late so I left very early, but thanks to traffic I was only 15 minutes early for my appointed time.  One of my classmates was there and she'd been waiting for 30 minutes.  That made me think I'd be waiting for a long time.  But I was ushered in right at 2:02, two minutes after the appointed time and by 2:20 I had a job offer, a salary offer and an assignment to an office.

It felt weird to wear a button down shirt and slacks for only the second time since leaving the hospital.  It felt even weirder to wear a necktie.  It felt even weirder than that to wear shoes other than the running shoes I wear day in and day out.  But I coped.  They will have us in training starting at some point in very late November or early December.  It's a class I used to hate taking so much I taught it so I didn't have to take it.  But this time I'll be taking it and paying attention.  I want to make sure I learn anything and everything that's changed since I got ill.

Fun with classified ads before I go further:

This is from an ad headlined "Receptionist for MMJ".  The excerpt reads:  "**MUST APPLY WITH PHOTO, INQUIRES WITHOUT PHOTOS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED**  So is he looking for a date, or just to hire a pretty recepionist?

"Amazing documentary filmmaker seeks well educated personal assistant in Santa Monica."  So at least applicants know they'll be working for a boss with a very healthy ego and opinion of himself.

"This job is not for someone looking to break into the industry so please do not apply if you are an "aspiring" anything."  Does that include those who aspire to get the job?

"Ability to organize and file -- this will be an immediate need." I was too lazy or too busy to do my own filing.

"Looking for Experienced Male Bartenders that are comfortable working shirtless and in underwear job requires to be in extremely great shape"  Boxers or briefs?

"Good Rain Gutter Installers!"  If you're not good, guess you're out of luck.  Wonder if being an awesome rain gutter installer would make you overqualified ?

This date in history:

On this date in 1962, former VP Richard Nixon loses his bid to become Governor of California and gives the now famous concession speech where he says "you don't have Nixon to kick around any more."  Ten years later, also on this date, Nixon was elected President.

On this date in 1967, Carl B. Stokes is elected Mayor of Cleveland, becoming the first African-American to be mayor of a major U.S. city.  Also on this day, President Johnson signs the law that created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

On this date in 1973, Congress overrode President Nixon's veto of the War Powers Resolution.

On this date in 1979, Teddy Kennedy announced he would challenge the incumbent, Jimmy Carter, for the 1980 Presidential nomination.

On this date in 1983, a bomb exploded in the U.S. Capitol Building.  No one was injured.

On this date in 1991, Earvin "Magic" Johnson announces he is infected with HIV and he retires from professional basketball.

Back to the personal:

I'm tired.  Didn't sleep well for some reason.  With no classes to go to, suddenly my calendar is much more open and will remain that way for a few weeks at least.  Considering that I was always really tired on class days after class was over, there are plusses and minuses.  I hope to write more, but considering most of my writing lately has not been productive, that may be a mixed blessing.  Lately I write a few thousand words, re-read and hate it and toss it, then start again.

There is the election coming up here for the presidency of the residents council.  But there's no campaigning, no fliers, no nothing.  People signed up and when the administrator gets around to it, she'll pass out ballots and then count them herself.  All we do is vote.  I wonder if we'll get an "I voted sticker".  Probably too expensive for them to do.

Oh, i promised the explanation of a couple of acronyms.  EMTALA is the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, signed while Reagan was President.  It mandates that emergency rooms must treat those with emergency conditions, without regard to insurance or ability to pay.  It does not mandate treatment for non-emergent conditions.  HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.  It protects your personal medical information, and more importantly, guaranteed long before Obamacare, that if you had not had a break in insurance coverage of more than 63 days, your new insurer couldn't exclude pre-existing conditions.  MHPA is the Mental Health Parity Act, which mandates that mental health conditions must be treated the same as physical health conditions in terms of insurance coverage. 

Disk 4 of 6 of "Shogun" the miniseries should arrive today.  That will be fun.  It's getting to the really good parts.

One thing I'm pondering this morning.  Why is it that the people who maintain our roads and freeways seem to set up work projects only on weekdays during working hours?  I know that they do do some of these things while we're sleeping, but lately I've seen so many traffic jams caused by projects during the day, I wonder about the scheduling.  However it is gratifying to see the Expo Line of Metrolink moving ever closer to linking all of the Westside with the rest of the L.A. area.