have you ever had one of those weeks.....?jesus, i feel like i've had the shit kicked out of me and then smeared all over my naked, bloated body by evangelical harpies.
it all started this past thursday... actually, let me begin by presenting a touch of personal information on me...your beloved narrator.
i work at a non-profit. the specifics are not important but i will say that i work with lower-income, hiv+ individuals. the clients have very little most the time. the stage of the disease varies greatly.
this past thursday...an appointment ran late on a individual with a particularly bad case of an hiv-related illness. not only did the appointment keep much of the staff there late.... her transportation did not arrive until 6:30 that evening. i was the lucky person that got to stay. thank you, exempt-status!
i knew it was only the start of bad things to come.
fuck me, it's friday
friday was a motherfucker. plain and simple. i'm sure everyone has been reading about the outbreak of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, more commonly known as the drug-resistant staph infection, MRSA.
this is apparently running rampant in the medical facilities that treat high numbers of lower-income individuals. we can probably have an entire discussion on why this is more prevalent in facilities of this kind rather than those that gear themselves towards the wealthy.
but let's focus on me.
i'll be goddamned if one of my staff members didn't turn up with a swollen face friday morning that was diagnosed (85% certain) as MRSA later that afternoon.
well, we shut the clinic down and disinfected everything...wiping down every surface, doorknob, light switch and motherfuckin' pen.
my staff was freaked. i had to xerox timesheets so i could dispose of the "possibly-infected" timesheets that everyone had been using. individuals in other programs were freaked. friends i've seen over the past couple of days were freaked.
people! calm down and wash your hands! you'll be okay.....
it was a surreal afternoon that had me scrambling to not only allay the fears of my staff but ensure that this would not be a future problem.
we're pretty sure we've narrowed down how it happened...especially after a patient the staff member had seen last week appeared at our clinic again with a swollen face monday morning.
let's stay with monday
the majority of individuals that access services at our organization are fabulous people. but you get the occasional nut job.
i don't know if it's the medications or the anger towards the disease or the fact that there are simply people who are assholes out there... but from time to time... i'm paid to deal with them.
mind you...i have a request for proposal due to my development department by thursday, i have two simultaneous audits i have to prepare for that begin on tuesday, i'm still short a staff member and i'm still attempting to find time to train a new staff person at my very busy front desk.
but then we receive this voice message monday morning:
you can tell those stupid cunts [details removed to protect the innocent]... filthy, little wetbacks. they all need to go back to hell where they’re all living. and those sorry-ass preachers… wait till I make an appearance there in church next sunday. make those motherfuckers get down on the floor like dogs in heat.
yeah...he's a lovely man. the aforementioned new front desk person accidentally forwarded the message not to the intended recipient, but to the entire program. sufficed to say... we had some upset individuals on our hands.
there was upset staff to calm. pictures of the redneck bastard to pass around to make staff aware should he appear on campus. police reports... oh - and did i mention i had someone coming at 8 the next morning to audit 200 charts that i hadn't pulled yet?
but let's back up for a moment? where does that type of hate come from? i briefly dated this guy once...and by "dated" i mean screwed around with... that had this lovely sunflower tattoo on his shoulder. it was at that point he showed me the outline of the swastika he had attempted to cover up with the sunflower. beyond the utter horror my mother would have felt over me being in bed with a former skinhead... i couldn't imagine carrying on with someone that could ever feel that degree of hatred.
i don't understand it. cynicism and disappointment in the human race i understand... but not hate.
monday was another day i got out of work rather late.
short-staffed
so i have one employee slot still open and another vacant as he waits for the swelling of his MRSA-infected face to go down. tuesday is always a busy day.
i was pulling the remainder of charts for the audit. trying to find time to call back the woman i want to hire so i can set up a second interview.... i spent a good half hour talking a patient down from cussing out his elderly mother and feisty sister because the doctor says his blood counts are too low for the procedure he wants to have done... but we can do something else... but he really wants this... but sure... i have time... because i couldn't even leave for lunch because i was helping cover the front desk for lunches and then remembered i had to assist a doctor that afternoon because... oh, yeah! i'm short-staffed.
and this person wants to complain... and that person wants to complain.....
it is suddenly never-ending.
and i left work late again today.........
i still haven't had a chance to look at the RFP due to development on thursday, i still have charts to pull for one of the two audits that continue on tomorrow and the remainder of the week...
not to mention a shitload of other paperwork i'd like to have finished before i break for the day of the dead (i.e. thanksgiving).
let's pause here for a moment so i can grab another beer (it's too hot currently in houston for wine - which is another thing that really pisses me off right now. it feels like independence day in november).
non-work related bullshit
friday night was a birthday shindig for a coworker at a very posh, fag bar.
i haven't been out to the bars since august, i would bet. possibly july. i'm rusty... i'm fat... i just wanted a cocktail or two and see some friends.
but suddenly all of my female coworkers have to tell me they want to have sex with me and rag on my choice in footwear... "because you'll never pick up a guy in those flipflops."
i was comfortable...! and because any of those pencil thin, label queens were going home with me in the first place.
and why can't a guy give me the type of attention i'm getting from countless women at work, all of the sudden? i'm cursed... when i dated women - couldn't get the time of day. now that i date men - all i get is attention from women.
maybe i really have pissed god off by not believing in him.....?
for the family
as i've mentioned.... i have family joining me for christmas. well, i also have family joining me for thanksgiving. and i want everything to look nice and festive. i am gay, after all.
so i decided to use some of my birthday gift cards and do some shopping. top on my list - a groovy tablecloth for thanksgiving dinner and my new dishware (thank you, steven). and a bathmat for the newly remodeled bathroom. (don't get excited - my previous bathroom floor sank an inch away from the wall - the entire bathroom was falling apart. necessity. not luxury.)
so i get both...among other things.
the tablecloth is too short. the bathmat's green is too light. i'll have to take them back... but suddenly i've run out of time on saturday. (what happened on saturday...?)
so sunday i exchange the tablecloth and return the bathmat because i couldn't find the right shade. this time i took a towel for comparison.
so...i get home: this tablecloth is too long. waaay too long. i'm suddenly feeling like fucking goldilocks. so i have to schlep clear out of my comfort zone for the bed, bath and beyond that actually has the tablecloth i want in the size i need (fyi: it is impossible to find a simple, brown tablecloth).
but bonus! i find a bathmat.
guess what? this bathmat is too dark..... fuck me, i can't win.
and ya know... sunday night...after it was all said and done. i just wanted to go to bed and get a good night's sleep.
but, no!
i had to listen to my new, lesbian, upstairs neighbors finally discover each other's happy spots.
i don't know if this is true of all lesbians...and i like to think it isn't... but those were not lady-like sounds coming from upstairs.
i need a pretty, blue pill.... i need to sleep.
e.
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