Rough Weekend

Many of you know that we had our "Family Yardsale" this weekend. After the yardsale, I got "the call" from my mother. She infored me and my sister that my grandfather had passed away. Michelle, Jen, John and myself were on our way to the imfamous China Jade to enjoy a well deserved lunch when my mother called to let us know that he had already passed and we should come to say our goodbyes.

I have gone though two other grandparents deaths, and I not saying they were easy, but I honestly think they were easier for me. They were both in a nursing home, not doing well, and they were both not sure exactly what was going on. The death of this grandfather was honestly a surprise to me. Yes, he was not well, but every time I saw him he seemed to be OK. He was at home living with my Nana, walking, talking and he was fully aware of the going's on around him. I guess the past two weeks, he was getting worse and on Friday he was put on Hospice. Not even a full day of Hospice and he passed away.

It is also very hard because he leaves behind my Nana, who is breaking my heart. Even though we are telling her constantly that she will OK, she insists that she will never be OK and she will never be able to live without him. I can't imagine, being married to someone for over 60 years and have them leave you. I feel so badly for her:( But she is a strong woman and I know she will be OK. She says that my grandfather left us knowing that the red sox were winning and even though he didn't see them clinch the division, she says that he knew they would do it. She says that she is very happy that he died watching a game and a team that he loved.

So needless to say, I miss my gradfather very badly. He was such a nice man, who was always there for myself and my family. He was the first to help me with my homework, my work problems, and to help me when I locked myself out of my car/house on numerous occasions. He had such a dry sense of humor and loved to make us laugh. He was such a great man and I know that he touched the heart of everyone that met in his life.

So today I talked to my grandmother about things to occupy her mind, like what two outfits she will be wearing for the wake and funeral.what my grandfather will be in, how she will set the table for the guests afterward etc. I think she is doing sooo much better today and I know that each day will get better for her. Plus, I know she is sitting home with a glass of wine right now ...a woman after my own heart;)

A repost-

A request was made for a repost of the Jon Knight blog. I know it always makes me smile:) So enjoy!!

It's that time of year.....

So, the Topsfield Fair starts next weekend and I am totally excited. Work has been kicking my ass lately and I honestly need something to look forward to constantly in order to make it through life. SOooo..the next exciting thing coming up is the FAIR!

There are many things that make the fair so fun! The food, the atmosphere, the rides, the carnie workers, the animals, the crazy people and the games!! There is one thing that I will not be doing this year and that is seeing The Littlest Woman in the World. So, if you are free and want to hit up the fair and eat some grease...let me know!!

I know that John is excited to play the dart games and win me a Guns and Roses poster...heheh

Spreadsheets and Process Maps

I was at a day long training the other day and the trainer asked the class to raise your hand if as a child you "wanted to a claims adjuster when you grew up". My answer to that question was, " I don't want to be a claims adjuster NOW". Not that I don't love working with the people in my department, because most of them are really nice and very cool. There are a few odd balls that tick me off or ask me stupid questions about stupid claims, but most are great to work with. But it is the getting screamed at on the phone and getting so much work piled on your desk other than the claims with screaming people so that you can't even get to the screaming people claims, that is ticking me off.

Today at 3 o'clock my boss told me I had to finish a "process map" on one of our claims process by "this time tomorrow". Now, this task alone does not seem very hard. However, keep in mind that I already didn't do a spreadsheet that GE requested today, I am 3 days behind on claims first contacts (which means those people have already called and left voice mails yelling at me for not calling them), I am trying to think of 2008 cost saving initiatives for a meeting tomorrow, I have stacks of papers on my desk that will eventually lead to people filing DOI complaints or bad faith claim against me (side note that is what the above training was on), I have a bunch of adjuster's mad at me and asking questions about the spreadsheets I sent out to the earlier today for them to finish, and I also have call scores and file audits to finish by month end which I haven't started . Ok, thanks for letting me vent..


But in all seriousness, I never thought that I would spend my day, when not getting screamed at by angry people, working on spreadsheets that honestly mean nothing to me but just take up hours of my day, and process maps, which are just circles on a page with arrows pointing to them, that make no sense at all yet every manager and VP in corporate America seem to need one of these to understand a process that they have never even dealt with!!!

Now I am just venting about this, but seriously can people honestly not understand how to work a claim from beginning to end without a pape with circles and arrows that make no sense????


OK...I am out. If you need me tomorrow I will be working on spreadsheets and process maps..maybe someday I will actually get to do my other work. he he

WW results!

OK. So I got lucky! I went to WW tonight after not being there for 2 weeks and actually lost. I was expecting a gain of about 12o93408320498234328094823. However, I lost .6. I know it's not a lot but it is something and I am still at my 10 lbs lost.

I have a very far way to go to get back to the weight I was this time last year, but it is doable (that is my mini goal!).

Ok. Thanks for listening!:) PTFO!

Biggest Loser

About 2 months ago I blogged about rejoining Weight Watchers to get things back under control (my weight that is) and since then I did lose about 10 lbs. That would be great, except for the fact the past two weeks I have been HORRIBLE and I missed those meetings. So tomorrow is D Day. I am going back and facing the scale again. Now, I am trying to prepare myself for the absolute worst, gaining all the weight I lost back, but deeeeeeeeeep down inside I a hoping that it won't be so bad.

But if I am planning on going on a vacation in January I am definitely going to want to be a bit thinner so I think that will be good motivation.

So, I will be honest with myself, face the scales tomorrow, and blog to all about my gain:( WAH

I NEED A VACATION!!

Ok so I was thinking back to the last time I went on a vacation, Sophomore year of college. Then I realized that that was 7 years ago!! WTF is up with that! I need a vacation!

So I have been trying to get a group of willing peeps together to go on a rad vacation before I am old and wrinkling living with 10 cats!

So right now it appears the vacation will happen in January at some point and that said it will have to be to some place warm.

So come people...help me get away!:)~

Tennis Wannabees

Today John and I played tennis at a court near his house. I know that neither of us are very good, but we have a good time attempting to play (or at least volley) for an hour or so to burn a few calories and have some fun. Today was pretty warm out so we only play for about 45 minutes before we decided to quit. We went back to his truck and sat there for a while with the AC blasting trying to cool off.

While sitting there I was looking out the window and up pulled a black BMW convertible with what appeared to be a very wealthy couple inside. They parked illegally very close to the courts. Out jumped the woman (dressed in a very short tennis skirt and tight tank top with expensive sun glasses) and then the man who was also dressed up in his expensive tennis gear.
The woman popped the trunk and the man took out a very expensive looking (his and hers) tennis racket back and they proceeded to go onto the court.

I told John to wait a minute because I thought that we were going to watch a couple of pros play tennis for a while. However, once they go onto the court (although dressed for the part and obviously wealthy enough for tennis lessons) they were like worse than John and I!!! The woman bounced the ball and attempted to hit it over the net while the dude on the other side watched the ball bounce about 10 times before attempted to knock it back over the net. I started to laugh......are they serious?!!??!!??!?