I updated my goals (to the left) today. Paid off AMerican Express Blue card. It is nice to see some progress on the items I have to pay off and very SMART objectives with very clear steps and goals through September 2008.

I paid my bills, put money into savings, sent off payments I needed to for September etc. since I got paid yesterday.

I have also paid off ($13.00) a bill for which I was fighting the insurance company. The doctor’s office and I were using it as a way to press my insurance to pay the full amount for bills from offices who have not signed on with the insurance company. The issue in CA is when a doctors office signs up with a particular insurance the prices are negotiated ahead of time. The negotiated prices are usually below the usual and customary charges (U&C) that a doctor’s office can charge if not signed on with an insurance company. In 2005 I was knocked off my bike and had x-rays completed to check my elbow. The doctor’s office requested me not to pay so they could fight this particular insurance company’s practices of paying the lowest possible to doctors, even less than the U&C charges. Basically this insurance company pays this office what contracted doctors get paid instead. Anyway I changed insurance with my new job and I just want o move on and not get a bill each month from the doctor’s office so I paid it. I just want it done.

Work is a nightmare as usual. The head boss can’t make a decision about anything then asks me why a project isn’t completed. I reply you have not replied to my requests or information so I could complete it. She says, ok I will. She never does then she comes to me again to know why thins aren’t done. Oh and the fact that I am doing two jobs right now because she refuses to hire for someone who left 4 months ago, never mind that the job is coordinating a state wide exercise. Yeah, go jump in the lake Ms. Boss, please make a decision and do your job so we can ours!

Well this week has already been an interesting one. I found out that my position is not eligible for ot/standby time after I had already completed the duty officer thing for a week. I should have earned 40 hours of straight time pay but earned nothing. All because personnel has not got their act together enough to actually know where I fit! It is really frustrating. Now they are going to ask me to do this more often but since this was going to take the place of a part time job, I am going to say no, I have to work this weekend.

I outlined some new goals for the next 6 months, but these are based on my old salary and with the new one not being corrected until probably October it means that the time lines could be shortened or lengthened based upon what happens.

I have been house sitting a lot in the last couple of weeks I would have had one more this week but the owners’ son lost his job so I mentioned maybe he would want to earn the money. Stupid for my wallet but if it helps this young man out then I felt good about it. Besides this couple retires in less than a year and then they will spend more than a month in Mexico each time they go to visit. It is someone I work with and she likes and trusts me. They have 20 beautiful horses that I would need to keep an eye on but the neighbors do the bulk of the work. I would only have to make sure horses have water (natural springs etc.) so it would not be to bad to house sit for them on a semi permanent basis. I am still looking at turning this into a part time job to get out of debt and help my mom with the hospital bills she has accrued since her stay in June.

To that end I signed up with a house sitting agency online and already had one sit through them. This one though has the belief that you should not have to pay house sitters. Um, maybe if it was a long term sit like a month or something and the people are visiting the area, but for someone to stay in your home for a week or whatever and take care of the house while you go on vacation, please, give me a break. It is not like this area is a vacation destination, who in their right minds are going to come here and house sit for you? I am going to look at some other sites and do some marketing here in the city. I just want a few clients that I can sit for and use mostly word of mouth, but first I need to get the word out there.