Attentively Attentive to all Things

This post intentionally left blank for the purpose of remaining an adult in a childish situation. Gotta love mean girls!

...won't people let me help them? I just don't understand. As a patient account rep, I try my best to be pro-active when it comes to a patients outstanding balance. I talk to them early in the process, and work out something that will keep their balance from going to an outside collection agency, and ultimately on their credit report. It's for their benefit, not me. When a patient tells me they don't care, then why should I? This also goes for asking the patient to take an active role in their care and management of their balance. I cannot do everything for a patient when it comes to their finances. Patients have to participate in the process and do some of the dirty work. Nothing frustrates me more than a patient telling me I am prolonging their agony because they do not want to make a ten minute phone call to their insurance company to give them the information they've requested. I can only do so much. *sigh*

Lately I've been a bit anti-chemical, and I'm not sure what triggered this feeling.  It may have been the No-Poo blog post, or my trips to the Downtown Farmer's Market .  All I know is I've been cringing at every shampoo and baby wash label I read.  What ARE we putting on our skin, the largest organ we humans have?!   In regards to baby wash, it's much, much worse.  I look at what I currently have in the cabinet for Caris, and I want to throw it all away.  The only exception is the bar of Hugo Naturals Baby soap that I received as a gift from my wonderful long distance friend, Diane.  Even products claiming to be natural, with the exception of the Hugo bar, contain chemical after chemical!  I had switched Caris over to Aveeno, but I've discovered all that did was add oatmeal to her bath products.  UGH!  Not that oatmeal is bad, of course, but that seemed to be the only thing that made it more natural.  I did a little research and after a Facebook discussion abou...

The other day I saw a post on my Facebook page that caught my eye about bringing back afternoon tea time, with a link to a story in Country Living Magazine.  I was curious so I checked it out, and basically the magazine is pushing to bring back afternoon tea at 4pm.  They even went so far as to suggest inviting friends and family over for a light repast of sandwiches, scones, cake, and tea.  A nice idea, and as one who loves most all things British, it is most definitely my cup of tea.  Perhaps everyday at 4pm I'll make a cup and take a break, since I'm usually at work at this time.  Hrm...must fine proper teacup for office.   So this thought led to my next one...what other things are we missing out on?  Afternoon tea was created by a duchess who could not wait until the evening meal to have something to eat.  Back in the 1800's, the aristocracy kept late hours, meaning dinner was usually no earlier than 8pm.  So 4pm would be a good time to have a "snack" or ...

Today we talk about the writing process and book publishing, two of my favorite topics! Yesterday I was having an email conversation with a friend who has decided to shop her manuscript around for publication. Another friend has also done the same thing, and both are discouraged. This discussion began with a comment about a debut book from a well-known and loved author that was complete crap, yet it was published. This of course begs the question, "why can't I be published if that crap made it?". A very good question, but before we talk about publishing, let's talk about writing. As I've made my way through an English degree with an advisor with so much literary experience it shames me to be his student, I've learned to be a more critical thinker when it comes to writing and the art of storytelling. A book could have an amazing story, but if the writing is horrible, it means nothing. It could have an amazing airtight plot and completely flop because the author...

I seem to be in a ranting phase, so please forgive me. I'll try to post something of substance this week.... On another message board, (see the bigger fish a few entries earlier) I was included in with 3 other people on a birthday thread. People can post birthday wishes, etc. One person, an admin for that board, and someone who I thought was a rational, mature adult, decided to go onto this thread and wish everyone a happy birthday, but me. Seriously. Now, I do have history with this woman, but it's been months and honestly, I'm over all that drama. But now in light of this, it kind of brings it back home for me. Anyone who reads this thread now knows this woman purposely left me out of her birthday wishes for some snarky reason. Was it really worth it? Anyone who looks at this thread knows this woman left me out, and I'm sure they wonder why. Did she think this would make her look good in the eyes of the members? If I was a member who knew nothing about the history, I ...