So at the flu billing place I have left off where I started, at least when it comes to wasting time on the Internet. I never did that while I had claims, but since my first boss got fired at the turn of January, I had an existential attitude towards this job: If my boss could get fired, why can't I? That plus the lack of a need to churn out forms meant that I gave myself permission to dick around online. That has continued when I got back at the start of this season; the ramp-up to the frenzy hasn't started yet (a marked contrast to the previous two seasons, when we basically were told to just go), so I feel I can just slowly ease into the project. That meant reviewing forms, making edits for clarity, grammar and appearance, and going on the Web for, say, looking at the latest sports headline.
My current boss (formerly my boss' boss) has been busy doing the workload of what seems like three people. And that has meant he couldn't get to some of the things I needed his IT expertise to give me. That gave me further permission to dink around, to the point where, honestly, my work/pleasure percentages at work has been 50/50.
I was left to my own devices largely since Tuesday because he's been so busy. In fact, I didn't speak to him once Thursday. To sort of put a cherry on top of his work-mandated silent treatment towards me, I took the long way out leaving work yesterday, just to make sure he didn't even look at me. I don't dislike the guy; I just like that I sit three cubicles away from him yet we didn't even speak once all day.
That silence ended abruptly early this afternoon ... much to my surprise. I try to do my best to ALT+TAB from the Internet to work whenever I hear somebody come up from behind. Maybe it works, who knows. But this time the footsteps I did not hear were my boss'; he wasn't walking past me, he actually wanted to do some stuff on my computer, specifically something I asked for Tuesday. And he probably approached my cube just as I trying to move away from the Internet window. He didn't say anything, thank God, but I may have been lucky I was looking at a CNN page of the riots in Ferguson, Mo. instead of, say, porn.
But will this cost me later on?
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I don't exactly remember what prompted me to, but earlier this week I had to know: How exactly am I Hepatitis B positive again? So I decided I would call the clinic and ask them to relay the tests of a blood panel I had during a physical a long time ago. I've known I've been Hep B+ ever since I got this really scary letter from the American Red Cross after I donated blood at school.
Since work is slow, I thought about all the times I meant to call these places (so many places, all of them having to do with money) and decided I want to call during work. But when and where? My main worry is that someone will overhear the results of my test -- not as I'm listening to the nurse giving them back to me, but just in case I had questions about them. There are private study bays at work, but I didn't think the walls were thick enough to prevent someone from eavesdropping, and besides, the bays were all taken.
But this morning I realized something when I pulled into work early: They're open at 7, I don't have to go to work till 8 -- why don't I call now? Unlike Thursday afternoon, when I was put on hold until 5 p.m., when I was automatically sent into the clinic's "sorry, we're closed" voicemail message, I had to wait only a couple minutes before getting a live nurse. She didn't have my information, but she took down my questions and promised a nurse would get back to me.
And according to the voicemail I checked at lunchtime, I did. So I called back, immediately got the nurse, and we talked about my Hep B results. Turns out I am not a carrier, therefore I can fuck all I want and not worry about transmitting any disease -- line up, ladies!
I was talking to her while I was in my car, which was perfectly situated for what I wanted to do after I got done with my call, which was to take a nap. This parking spot gets shade from a nearby tree at that time of day, so taking a nap with the windows down is pure bliss, unlike Wednesday afternoon, when I tried doing napping at a spot without sufficient shade, and even though that day was a lot less humid, I was sweating through my underwear. There are cars parked right next to me, but I no longer care that someone might come while I nap. Well, I care if they wake me up, but my first trepidation was them seeing me take a nap, and now I don't give a shit.
But having someone overhear me while I'm reviewing my positive and negative Hepatitis B results in my car? Uh, problem. And I rolled the dice and it came up craps; just as I was relaying back to the nurse what she told me, I heard these footsteps followed by an opening and closing of a car door. And it was loud enough for me to be sure that it was the car next to me. I had no idea who it was, but I hope to Buddha it isn't someone who works with me, and if it is, I hope it isn't someone who hates me, because now he or she knows that I got tested for Hepatitis B.
You know, if I didn't reiterate the results over the phone, and if the nurse didn't put me on hold for a couple minutes to make certain of my tests, I would have ended the call before this person went to his or her car. But I did, and she did, and now something very private is out in the open.
Maybe I shouldn't've asked for these results.
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