Keys...

Shortly after moving to AR, I left my keys (house and car) in the ladies room of a coffee shop on the River Market. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until I was ready to leave. Friends, TW and spouse, and I had had a nice dinner and we wrapping up our first trip to the River Market. By this time, the coffee shop was closed. So, we asked for and received help from the police, who contacted the maintenance man, who did come and let us in. Alas, a good Samaritan had turned them into the office. Fortunately, TW still had my house key from kitty sitting and they were kind enough to drive me to my house (about a 45 minute trek) so I could get a spare car key and then take me back to my car. I thought I had a spare car key in my wallet, but I didn't. I do now. The following Monday, TW called and they did have my key, which she kindly picked up for me that day.

You'd think I'd learn from that experience. I thought I did - I'm extra vigilant about my keys. I thought that extended to my office key. Well, last Tuesday I arrived at work and couldn't find my door key. I assumed I'd left it on my desk as I did a lot of running around on Monday. Not on my desk. I started getting paranoid. Losing a work key can be expensive. Went home that night and checked pants pockets from the day before. Nothing. Got to work the next day and cleaned off my desk in a desperate attempt to find the key I was sure had to be there. It wasn't. That left one of two things - either I lost it in the parking lot or I threw it away (don't laugh, it had been a long day and I figured I could just have easily put in the trash rather than my lunch cooler). I did decide not to report it lost for awhile, in case it showed up. Sometimes, I do the weirdest things with something and then can't find it, only to have it show a couple of weeks later in the bizarre place I put it. I was hoping this would be the case.

I didn't have long to wait. Later that morning, the Police department called. Another good Samaritan had found my key in the parking lot and turned it in to the Police. The Police were able to check with the key folks and find out who the key belonged to. Then they called me. Talk about relief. The key ring is a large metal carabiner; I would have sworn that I would have heard it drop, but apparently I didn't.

So, I've been in the new job less than a year and I know where the campus police department is located. But, I have my key back and for that I'm terribly grateful. And, now, maybe a bit paranoid.

The joy of health plans...

Yesterday, I finally decided to get a prescription refilled. It's a cream for my face which does seem to help (I'm not blessed with really good skin). So, I called it in to my friendly Target Pharmacy. I ran some errands and then headed to pick it up. It wasn't ready yet, because my previous insurance had been canceled. That's okay, I gave them my new insurance card from current job. A few minutes later it was in the system, with only one little hiccup. It seems that with the new insurance my co-pay for this particular prescription is $75. You are not misreading. $75. I was shocked. The folks at the Target pharmacy are awesome. They, of course, know this is a lot of money, so they ask you if you still want it. This one I have to think about. They'll hold until the 8/13 which is when the prescription expires.

At my previous job I thought is was horrible that the insurance company had to approve the prescription before I could get it. It takes about three days, but they did and I got a lovely letter telling me it had been approved for a year. Personally, I don't think the insurance company should have the ability to disapprove a prescription, but they apparently do. Nonetheless, it was approved. My co-pay was $35. I thought it wasn't great, but it wasn't outrageous. Now it appears I don't need approval, but it's $40 more. The cost without a drug plan is right at $130, so there is a $55 savings. But, $75 is still a lot of money for a prescription. At my new job, the employee premium for insurance is paid by the employer. Well, they are apparently making it up in other ways. I find myself again wondering if drug plans are really a good thing.

Noise...

I have a project I'm working on and have told myself I will devote a minimum of 3 hours a week to it. This is in addition to my job and exercise (more later on exercise). So, yesterday I left work on time and got home with enough time for a few minutes rest with the kitty before hunkering down to work on said project. I didn't count on the noise. Behind the houses across the street from mine is an empty field (and the gas well). Apparently, they're going to build back there, though I can't imagine who wants to live that close to the gas well. They had heavy machinery going - they were working when I left the house and they were still working when I got home and they kept going until after 6:00 pm. And, the house next door to me is under construction (finally). It's at the bricking stage. So, they had their little brick breaking machine going and the Spanish radio station. Of course, the radio station had to be turned up loud enough so they could hear it, which means I could hear it. Oddly, I can't really hear much of the noises in the living room/kitchen, which is in the back of the house, but I can definitely hear it in the study. It was much more of a distraction than I thought it would be.

Then I come to work. I sit in a cube in the middle of a room that adjoins two other people's cubes. Right now I hear someone crushing ice at the refrigerator. The printer and microwave are behind me. The two people in the cubes next to me, I hear their conversations. They've started using headsets for the phones, so now when Person A makes a call, I not only hear her end of the conversation, but I also hear the person she's speaking to. Person 2 receives quite a few personal calls, which I hadn't noticed before and because she's using a headset, I now hear her radio since she no longer can use headphones. She does try to keep it low, but it's still distracting. This office is so open, you pretty much hear everything. Hard not to.

Today added smells to the list. A couple of people cooking their lunch in the microwave then someone with a different blend of coffee. Mix them all together and ugh.

Most days noises don't bother me, I can tune them out. Here lately though, person A's supervisor is at her desk often and that gets loud. Plus supervisor has what I've dubbed a monkey laugh and she does it a lot. Around lunch time, it was getting to me. It was all just running together. It's now gotten much quieter and I'm hoping it stays that way. Maybe when I get my very own cubicle and Persons A & B move over a bit in the room it won't be so bad.

Pest contol....

Well, the pest control guy came on Monday. Bless his heart - he's very understanding. I'm fairly sure, though, that I'm not the only spider-wary female client he has or will have. He did tell me they are good for catching bad bugs. I acknowledge this, but I still get freaked when they are on the house and close to the front door. He agreed that that wasn't really good either.

At any rate, they put down a good perimeter around the house. Sadly, the dirt dobber nest on the light by my front door also went. I know you're wondering why wasps would not bother me if I totally freak about spiders. At first, they did. But, after seeing ginormous spider, I decided I could deal with wasps. And Ms Dirt Dobber was interesting to watch. I've seen the nests before, but never had I noticed that they open and close it (apparently what we view as a hole is a door) between comings and goings and it's basically just one. I was totally fascinated. There is now one building a nest on my garage floor next to the garage door I don't use (I have two of them, but that's another story). I've never seen one built on a floor, always they've been up high, near eaves or windows or on something higher up, like the light.

The pest control guy also suggested putting more sticky traps in the garage. Ugh. There is no chemical on them, which is a bit inhumane to me. The last two caught one ginormous spider and one field mouse. Friend BA came to help me dispose of them. The mouse was dead, the spider not quite. I may not like them, but I'm not into torturing them either. Beating it with a fly swatter and spraying it with bug spray if it gets in the house, yes, but not the sticky trap in the garage. Pest control guy did offer to come collect the traps, which I thought was very sweet. But, if I took him up on that offer, I'd probably become one of their most dreaded clients fairly quickly - the flaky, bug paranoid lady. I'd rather it not come to that.

Tonight I did see one spider walking across my yard. Yep, walking across the yard. Never seen that before. I don't think it was the size of ginormous spider. I'm not freaking. I'm going to remain calm and rely on said pest perimeter to keep it out of the house. I also had a small spider drop down almost right in front of me while sitting on my couch. How brazen. Poor thing, if it had stayed outside it would have lived. I'll be really happy when bug season passes.