and i said it once before but it bears repeating
Wednesday, Jun. 02, 2004 @ 4:14 p.m.
Ooh!There's a special about Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban coming on A&E tonight!!
I'M GOING TO HELL FOR LUSTING AFTER A 15-YEAR-OLD BOY! AAAAAGH!!!
Wednesday, Jun. 02, 2004 @ 3:26 p.m.
There’s something about work that has really been aggravating me for the last couple of weeks.Every place I have ever worked that offered health care followed pretty much the same formula: You become eligible after X amount of days of full-time employment, and you have X amount of days from that date to turn in your paperwork, or you have to wait for the next open enrollment period, which usually only happens once a year.
It’s no different at the school. We tell all new employees this and it’s in the handbook we hand out to all new employees.
But lately there’s been a rash of people wanting to sign up for their benefits weeks or months after their eligibility date has passed. Of course they ask me, because I’m the benefits coordinator, and I have to tell them they can’t until next open enrollment. I don’t just say “Tough luck”, I make sure to explain why.
That’s not so bothersome. No, what pisses me off is they then whine to their boss, who gripes to New Boss, who asks me what the deal is, and I have to explain the whole thing all over again.
This pisses me off on many levels. First of all, I’m the benefits coordinator. If people aren’t going to believe that I know my job, then what the hell is the point of me doing it? Second of all, I do. not. like. answering the same question more than once.
But what mostly bugs me is the implication that they’ll somehow get the answer they want if they nag enough people. Granted, I’m the first person to admit that I’m a bitch. But my bitchiness does not extend to refusing to enroll people in health care just because I got up on the wrong side of the bed or something. Like I said, I always explain to people why I can’t do it.
And our insurance doesn’t exist in a bubble. Even if I wanted to bend the rules for someone I couldn’t do it, because we have to abide by the contracts we’ve signed with the carriers. It’s not just that it’s our policy to not enroll people after a certain amount of time, it’s that we have a contract that says we can’t. Period.
Squeaky wheels don’t always get the grease, people. Sometimes they just have to keep squeaking until the next open enrollment. Now get off my tits and let me do my job.
Wednesday, Jun. 02, 2004 @ 1:55 p.m.
mood:
embarrassedHave I mentioned before that I never listen to the radio? I mean that literally. I haven’t listened to any radio station (unless it was someone else’s radio at the edge of my consciousness) since oh, 1998 or so.
I just hate radio. Even if you can find a station that doesn’t play the same 20 songs until you want to run screaming from the sound of them, you still have to put up with commercial after commercial after commercial, not to mention that particular brand of inane drivel that only DJs can produce.
So allow me to plead ignorance when I confess that I am just now starting to listen to…The White Stripes.
You may all laugh and call me a poseur now. (Hey, I only started listening to Coldplay like, 6 months after A Rush of Blood to the Head was released.)
I was aware of their existence, of course. I had heard enough to place them in the right genre. And I knew everyone was listening to them, which is probably why I ignored them. It’s childish and stubborn and oftentimes self-defeating, but I tend to dig my heels in when something is popular. (Which is why I have never read, and will most likely never read The Da Vinci Code.)
My curiosity was piqued after I listened to that new Loretta Lynn album that was produced and mixed by Jack White, and I went and bought White Blood Cells and Elephant and yeah…instant addiction. I’m going to buy the self-titled album and De Stijl as soon as I can.
You kids need to tell me about the stuff that doesn’t suck, not just the stuff that totally sucks! C’mon, help me out, it gets hard to stay in the loop when you get to be a geezer of almost 30.
Anyway, that’s my embarrassing confession for the week.
Wednesday, Jun. 02, 2004 @ 10:53 a.m.
New Boss’ husband decided she needs a new car, and he dropped by yesterday to take her for a test drive…in a Trans Am.Apparently, New Husband thinks his wife is a 17-year-old male pothead. And that it’s 1977.
Why do I have the feeling that he’s using her old rustbucket Oldsmobile as an excuse to feed his own midlife crisis? You’d think that Harley he tools around on would be enough of a penis extension for one guy.
Wednesday, Jun. 02, 2004 @ 9:14 a.m.
You can never have too many brownie recipes.Black & White Brownies
Ingredients
1/3 cup butter
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. real vanilla extract
¾ cup flour
¼ tsp. baking soda
1 cup white chocolate chips
Directions
1. Melt the semisweet chocolate chips and butter together over low heat.
2. Transfer to mixing bowl and add sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, and baking soda. Mix together until smooth and well-blended.
3. Let cool at room temperature for 10 minutes, then stir in white chocolate chips.
4. Transfer batter to either mini-muffin pan and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or brownie pan and bake at same for 25-30 minutes.
Makes 25 brownie bites or 9-12 brownies. Store in airtight container.
An easy, no-mess way to transfer batter into a mini-muffin pan is to put it in a large Ziploc bag, close the top, cut off one of the corners, and squeeze the batter from the bag like you would from a pastry bag. That way batter only goes into the muffin cups and doesn’t drip all over the top of the pan.