Mail Sorter

Since I am away, my sister has the job of collecting my mail. I do not have a mail slot and I do not want the Post Office to screw up my mail delivery, so she helps me out with this chore. Not only does she pick it up, she sorts it for me. She throws away the circulars and junk mail and only leaves the important stuff. It just feels better to come home to less paperwork.

17 Day Diet

My receptionist is on the 17 Day Diet. She wants me to try it but I know that I am not a diet plan person. We all know that the road to weight loss is healthy eating, portion control and exercise. Those three options do not interest me at all. Each day she comes in with her food and as she eats it she says, "This is so freakin good". I wonder if she is trying to convince me or herself. She is eating yogurt. Yogurt is yogurt. You like it or you don't. I don't so it could never be "freakin good". Her lunch is steamed vegetables and ground turkey. While it is tasty once a week, I do not know how tasty it is after 7 consecutive days. She says she has lost 12 pounds in 10 days. I do not see it. I think she is skewing the numbers to impress me. She is a size 10 to start with so if she did lose 12 pounds I would think it would show. She has done Weight Watchers, South Beach, Atkins, The Heart Diet etc, etc. I told her that the 17 Day Diet seems to be good, but what happens on the 18th day?

Mindful Jar

I have a jar that sits on the printer next to the computer. It is called a mindful jar. All it contains is glitter, glue and colored water. Each morning when I start the day, the glitter sits peacefully on the bottom of the jar and the light pink water is clear. I shake the bottle and watch as the glitter fills the water and swirls around glistening. I stare at the jar until the glitter slowly dances to the bottom and is at rest again. The jar is a metaphor for my day. It starts off peacefully and events shake it up. If I just wait it out, the day will wind down and be quiet again.

Up and Away

I am up early and waiting to fly away. I wish I was the type of person who could sleep on a flight but I am not. Thankfully Jet Blue has television sets to pass the time. Before I know it I will be hugging my parents.I have checked to see that I have my plane tickets 100 times. For some reason I feel that each time I walk away, they will jump out of my bag and flee. I have packed my breakfast and lunch and made sure they are easily accessible. For some reason I have TSA Precheck but my husband does not, so it really does me no good. I will wait in line with him so I can make sure things go smooth. I become very controlling when I travel.

Check List

Today is a day of checklists. Tomorrow I am off to Florida to see my parents. I will drive myself crazy today making sure that every loose end is tied up. Bag packed, lunches made, hair and nails done, dog boarded. The list goes on. If I forget anything I can pick it up when I arrive, so I do not know why I feel that I have to be so organized.

Age and Honesty

When my mother reached her 70's she said that she felt that she was now entitled to be totally honest with people. She would never be mean or nasty as that is not in her nature. She just felt that with age, came honesty. Since I am now in my 60's, I see her point. If I feel it, I express it, but always in a nice way. I was talking to a potential new patient yesterday and after I told her the fees for our services, she said that we do not care about people and that we are money hungry. Years ago I would have let that go by. Yesterday I did not. I did not care that we could lose a potential patient. The integrity of my doctors was more important. In a nice tone I told the woman that she insulted not only me but 10 other people when she inferred that we only do this for money. I said that my doctors need to pay rent, buy food, pay electric, malpractice insurance and gas for their cars. They are like the rest of the world and to say that they should provide a service for minimal payment is highly disrespectful. I said that they are so committed to their patients well being that they are literally on call 24 hours a day and that they are the kindest people I know. I told her that if this was a heart surgeon's office and she was charged $50,000 for open heart surgery, she would never say that the fee was too high. For some reason psychology practices have to validate why they charge for therapy and not give it away. I also informed her that it was her choice to come here and she could have called an in network provider instead. After a minute she apologized to me and booked an appointment. I told my boss exactly what I said and she agreed.

Entitled

Some people feel that they are more entitled than others. This morning I have to call a patient and awaken him to the fact that he is no different than the other people. I have tried to do this before but this time will be different. For some reason this man and his family was given an absurdly low rate 10 years ago when his doctor was a student. It was never increased and when it was even mentioned he gave us a sob story. Every patient in my practice has their own story that brought them to us. His doctor's fee is $265 and hour, but he pays $35. We raised him to $45 and he got nasty with the receptionist. Today I will put him in his place and tell him that the fee is $45 or he can go elsewhere. The reason I am holding firm to this is that I found out that the man's salary is over $100,000 a year.

Jenga

Getting one new computer in an office is like playing a game of Jenga. You move one component and the rest falls down. Last week I had to replace my work computer. From that moment on, everything is going awry. Programs in other offices are failing. Wires are faulty. Connections are lost. When I think that one problem is solved, another one rears its ugly head. Yesterday a tech was supposed to come to fix things,but he never showed up. Last night one of the doctors called telling me that he could not send prescriptions. This morning the fun will start all over again when I call our computer company at 8am and demand a tech asap.

The River

There is an old saying attributed to Confucius that says, "Don't push the river, it flows by itself". I think of that quote daily. There are some things in life that you can easily change. There are some things that cannot be changed. There are other things that will change when the time is ready. I have realized with age that I cannot push the river, nor should I. Life has its own course, so who am I to interfere with it? I am not that powerful. I cannot hold that burden. I have decided to let go of what I cannot immediately change and allow the universe to take over for me. Let the river flow.

Frustrated

This morning I am frustrated. If it was not for my sister's help,I would have pulled the hair out of my head. I was trying to pool Jet Blue points into one family account. My computer was moving slowly and passwords were not working. If my husband would stop clicking on a million ebay items, maybe the computer would move faster. After one hour of frustration, I called my sister who finished the process for me. It really does take a village to get things done.

Comfortable Clothes

To me, comfortable clothes mean happiness. Over the years I have tossed away my high heeled shoes in place of low heels. I no longer wear things that feel confining or materials that feel scratchy. I began to think about the happiest most peaceful people. The Dalai Lama wore a caftan and sandals. Mother Theresa wore a flowing robe and sandals. Religious garb consists of gowns that are not confining. Maybe the key to peace and happiness is tied to fashion.

Wow

I just read an article from Investors.com that was on the top articles on Yahoo news. After I read it all I could say was 'wow". The entire article is below.

While everyone's been gearing up for President Trump's inauguration, the Clinton Foundation made a major announcement this week that went by with almost no notice: For all intents and purposes, it's closing its doors. In a tax filing, the Clinton Global Initiative said it's firing 22 staffers and closing its offices, a result of the gusher of foreign money that kept the foundation afloat suddenly drying up after Hillary Clinton failed to win the presidency. It proves what we've said all along: The Clinton Foundation was little more than an influence-peddling scheme to enrich the Clintons, and had little if anything to do with "charity," either overseas or in the U.S. That sound you heard starting in November was checkbooks being snapped shut in offices around the world by people who had hoped their donations would buy access to the next president of the United States. And why not? There was a strong precedent for it in Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state. While serving as the nation's top diplomat, the Clinton Foundation took money from at least seven foreign governments — a clear breach of Clinton's pledge on taking office that there would be total separation between her duties and the foundation.
Is there a smoking gun? Well, of the 154 private interests who either officially met or had scheduled phone talks with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state, at least 85 were donors to the Clinton Foundation or one of its programs. In November, we asked the question: "Is The Clinton Foundation Doomed?" The answer is yes. All the way back in May, we outlined how the Clinton Foundation had taken in $100 million from a collection of Gulf sheikhs and billionaires, along with millions from private businesses, who expected — and received — special access to the State Department's top official, Hillary.
In his 2015 book "Clinton Cash," author Peter Schweizer showed how during Hillary's years in government "the Clintons have conducted or facilitated hundreds of large transactions (either as private citizens or government officials) with foreign governments, corporations and private financiers." He called the sums going to the Clintons "staggering." Using the Freedom of Information Act, Judicial Watch in August obtained emails (that had been hidden from investigators) showing that Clinton's top State Department aide, Huma Abedin, had given "special expedited access to the secretary of state" for those who gave $25,000 to $10 million to the Clinton Foundation. Many of those were facilitated by a former executive of the foundation, Doug Band, who headed Teneo, a shell company that managed the Clintons' affairs.
As part of this elaborate arrangement, Abedin was given special permission to work for the State Department, the Clinton Foundation and Teneo — another very clear conflict of interest.
As Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said at the time, "These new emails confirm that Hillary Clinton abused her office by selling favors to Clinton Foundation donors."
The seedy saga doesn't end there. Indeed, there are so many facets to it, some may never be known. But there is still at least one and possibly four active federal investigations into the Clintons' supposed charity.
Americans aren't willing to forgive and forget. Earlier this month, the IBD/TIPP Poll asked Americans whether they would like President Obama to pardon Hillary for any crimes she may have committed as secretary of state, including the illegal use of an unsecured homebrew email server. Of those queried, 57% said no. So if public sentiment is any guide, the Clintons' problems may just be beginning.
Writing in the Washington Post in August of 2016, Charles Krauthammer pretty much summed up the whole tawdry tale: "The foundation is a massive family enterprise disguised as a charity, an opaque and elaborate mechanism for sucking money from the rich and the tyrannous to be channeled to Clinton Inc.," he wrote. "Its purpose is to maintain the Clintons' lifestyle (offices, travel accommodations, etc.), secure profitable connections, produce favorable publicity and reliably employ a vast entourage of retainers, ready to serve today and at the coming Clinton Restoration."
Except, now there is no Clinton Restoration. So there's no reason for any donors to give money to the foundation. It lays bare the fiction of a massive "charitable organization," and shows it for what it was: a scam to sell for cash the waning influence of the Democrats' pre-eminent power couple. As far as the charity landscape goes, the Clinton Global Initiative won't be missed.

Chip On My Shoulder

Today I woke up with a chip on my shoulder. Everybody in my path better beware. The funny part is that nothing is wrong. I just feel like stomping around. Maybe it is good to do that once in a while to equalize things.

A Little Birdie

Years ago when you got a bit of information that you really were not supposed to know, you said, "A little birdie told me". Nowadays we are still getting bits of information that we do not really need to know, but a little blue bird is responsible for it. I am talking about Twitter. A bunch of useless information within 144 characters. My boss wanted me to start "Tweeting" about our office. I refused. I see it as a useless way of communicating. I see the people who read it as people with too much time on their hands.

Nish-Kebab

Today we were supposed to have a work luncheon. A genetic specialist was going to give a lecture. He was bringing a shish-kebab luncheon from a great restaurant. I marked my doctor's calendars over a month ago to make sure that everyone could attend. My boss was excited to have this speaker. Yesterday one of my doctors  mentioned that he could not attend the meeting. My office staff has 10 psychologists and one psychiatrist. The psychiatrist was the one who could not attend. He said that he had to take his mother in law for a procedure. Now we had a problem. In order to have this lecture we needed one medical doctor to attend. He never realized that without him, there would be no lecture. I had to call the speaker and cancel. We tentatively rescheduled for February. We went from shish-kebab to nish-kebab, in one second.

Office Space

People have a work office. People have a home office. Now it seems that people have a bathroom office. I was at a local restaurant yesterday afternoon and needed to go to the bathroom. There were two stalls. A line started to form. One stall had people coming and going. The other was "booked". The person in it was on the phone conducting a business call. She was sitting on the toilet after she "did her business" and was comfortable conducting a call. Did everyone in the bathroom need to know her business? Was the call so important that it needed to take place on a toilet seat? There is a time and place for everything. She was still in her "office" after I left the bathroom. She must still have the toilet ring embedded into her behind.

Senior Exercise

Most people think that senior citizens do not exercise. While we do not exercise in the traditional way, we still know how to work out. We stretch our backs by bobbing up and down ten times to pick up one thing from the floor. We bend down half way and realize it is not far enough. Up we go. We wait a moment and bob down a bit more. Almost there. By the tenth time we have stretched our backs enough to grab the item in question. We use our homemade stairmaster by walking up and down the stairs 20 times a day. It is done in "reps" of ten two's. The first 9 sets are done when we need to get an item from upstairs. We walk up, forget what we came for and walk down again. As we are downstairs we remember what we wanted and walk up again. We forget for the second time. We repeat this 9 times. The last "rep" of 2 comes when we walk upstairs and actually remember what we came for and walk down with it. We exercise our side muscles by rolling back and forth in bed to gain momentum to propel ourselves out of bed and get out feet onto the floor. We are a very active population, but in our own way.

Password Impared

For the third time in 2 days, I have had to change my husband's email password. He usually never signs out so there is no problem. If I need to sign into mine, I close his and then reopen it. He tried to get into it from his job and that is where things went bad. I do not know what he does that makes it hard to get in. Maybe he doesn't use capital letters. Maybe he uses spaces. I have been contacted by phone three times to get the password key. One time was while I was driving. I just redid the password for the third time. This is getting annoying.

Rearranged

One of my doctors just bought a new house with her boyfriend. I asked her how they met and she told me the funny story. I will use fictitious names for it. My doctor, Katie, was living with her boyfriend David. They were friends with a couple Eric and Stephanie who have a daughter. Eric and Stephanie got a divorce but still are in contact due to their child. Two years later Katie and David parted ways. A few months later, Katie met Eric and they started to date. They fell in love. Stephanie was also dating, but Eric never pried into her dating life. Katie and Eric bought a house and are moving in together in February. Last month he decided to ask Stephanie about her new boyfriend. Much to his surprise, it is David. Basically two couples have been rearranged. Now everyone is happy.

Crepes

For some reason I am in the mood for crepes. Not the store bought kind but the homemade ones. Years ago my mother made the best blintzes. We called the crepes "bletels". I have never had blintzes taste as good as hers did, so today I will try to recreate them. I will make cheese ones, mushroom ones and maybe even seafood ones. I remembered a restaurant in the 1980's called Magic Pan. That is all they served. Lines were out the door waiting to have them. Any type that they made were delicious. They went out of business years ago but I am not sure why. I think that a chef was badly burned by the oil and sued them, but I could be remembering a rumor. All I know is that a well made crepe is absolutely wonderful.

Images

There are many ways to do research on the internet. The other day my husband was looking for some information on an army patch that he bought. He was scrolling the internet for hours and said that there was no information on it. I said I would try to look it up. He said that if he could not find it, I could not either. After he left the computer I sat down and did some work. I took the picture of the patch and dropped it into the Google image search box. In one second the information appeared. It was a 1950's air force patch. Anything can be found on the internet if you know how to look.

Mail

The new standard of sending mail has become email. Most people now pay bills that way. You are notified of the balance due via email and you pay electronically. I am still a paper mail person. Yesterday in work that theory was validated. Every year our malpractice insurance company mails me a bill via USPS and I pay it. For some reason my boss changed the best method of contact to email. That is where things went wrong. The company emailed her late October that the 2017 premium was due. Only she opens her personal mail, so I did not know they sent it. Since she gets many emails every day she probably overlooked it. Yesterday I received an "overdue" notice via USPS. I immediately opened it to find that our insurance had lapsed. I called the company and paid by credit card. My boss is away on a seminar but I used her credit card. I made the executive decision that insurance coverage was more important than permission.

Wrong Waze

I went to a party yesterday afternoon. A friend did the driving. We were going 10 miles north of my house. I knew the general way, up until the last few streets. If I was the driver, I would have looked at a map and known which streets to turn down. My friend used her Waze app. We got there fine. When we left, my instinct was to reverse direction and backtrack. She said that Waze would do the thinking. I knew it was wrong at the first turn. I would have gone right, but Waze went left. Instead of heading south we were heading east along the back roads. I politely mentioned that this looked wrong as we were now too far east and the connecting south roads were leading us to other towns. My friend then said that it should be right as she entered her address into the system. That was her mistake. She was not going home. She was going to my house. Waze is not a mind reader. We were now miles away from the correct route and my friend didn't know how to reenter my address. I told her to shut off the Waze and I would be her "Suze" and direct her home. With a few lefts and rights we were back on track and home in 15 minutes. It is nice to have an app, but it is better to have a brain.

Sunshine

Yesterday was the first snow of the year. While it looked menacing yesterday, it looks beautiful this morning. The deciding factor was sunshine. If you add sunshine to anything it becomes beautiful. Sunshine on a wall brings out the rich colors. Sunshine on gemstones make the facets glow. Sunshine on grass makes each strand on a blade vibrant. To quote John Denver, "Sunshine on my shoulders makes me smile".

More Technology, Less Brains

The more we use technology the less we use our brains. We rely on a machine to think for us. It used to be okay when the information was limited to math skills. It is not okay when it is incorporated into life skills. There is a new technology called Face Book live. Everything you stupidly do is live streamed for others to see. If you are speeding in your car, you live stream it then crash and die. If you assault someone, you live stream it and get arrested. Common sense and decency have been replaced with showmanship. People are so busy being on stage that they no longer have any decency.

Creature of Habit

As I get older, I realize that I do not like change. This morning I am up early and have to go to a doctor's appointment. It is snowing a bit. Although I have a new SUV all wheel drive that is made for driving in the snow, I still want to use my old Honda. Most people would want to jump right into the new car. I want to jump into the one that feels like a worn in shoe. I like my comfort zone but know that things, like life, change.

SUV

Last night we bought an SUV. I have always driven sedan type cars but this time decided to go bigger. At first I was a bit scared to get behind the wheel and drive it, but after a few minutes it felt like any other car. I hate buying cars. I would rather have a root canal. I do not like the bargaining or the extra fees that make no sense. Why is there a destination fee? Everything we use had to arrive at the store at some time so why are cars different. Why have an MSRP if you always pay less than that? What does it matter to me what the Manufacturers Suggested Price is, when I am suggesting to pay less? In total it took 5 hours to get it and drive it home. It looks strange in my garage. Somehow I feel like I just want to keep on driving my old car and only look at the new one.

Out With The Old

The face of my neighborhood is changing. In the past year, established businesses have closd. Buildings are being taken down and new ones erected. Within a one mile radius, the landscape has changed. Pathmark is becoming Stew Leonards. Mr Donut will be Arby's. Checkers will be an unknown business. A gas station will be a 7-11. If I moved away and returned for a visit, I would be stunned. As the saying goes, "Out with the old and in with the new".

Back to Work

I am back to work after four days off. Since it is the beginning of a new year, updates must be done. This year I was proactive. On Thursday I changed the fee schedules and entered them into the medical software. I filed away all of 2016's EOB's and shredded the 2015 ones. I started new folders for our new patients and ordered 2017 stickers. I am good to go and everything is in order.

Cost Comparison

It doesn't cost a penny to get information. This afternoon I will be on a fact finding mission. I am curious how much it would be to get a new car. I am not sure if I want to lease or buy. The car I am driving now is in great condition but as it approaches 135,000 miles, I am beginning to worry. I do not want to push my luck and have my transmission go. Then I can get no money out of it. So, today I will gather some information and start a decision making process.

2017

It is 2017. I pray that this year is a good one. It will be a year of changes. Many people think for the worse but I think for the better. I went to the movies last night and began speaking to people as I waited on line. I do not talk politics because I do not need to prove a point to anyone. The nation has done that for me. For the first time in a long time I saw hope in people's eyes. A hope of a better country. A hope of safety. A hope of stronger economics. I stood silently soaking in the optimism and it felt good.