corporate crooks

the worst i've ever encountered is my former employer, anthem or wellpoint. not only do they give their providers and members the shaft bigtime, they screw their employees on a daily basis. after they deliberately caused injury to my arm, they fired me for "other" reasons that were justified, but have been overlooked before because I met the numbers for them. that is all they really care about, that and profits. the business is totally profit and production driven. how many claims you can "close" in a day is their primary goal. the customer service reps get all the crappy callers and they have the least amount of knowledge, at the mercy of the hundreds of other employees who actually make adjustments or changes to claims. the people who key claims from paper submissions make hundreds of mistakes because they are going for numbers and not accuracy. they also bombard their employees daily about healthy living, mostly to avoid illness that necessitates claims. Once someone gets hurt or sick, they are on anthem's shit list. you'd think they would be more careful not to deliberately inflict injury on their employees, but they don't. they also tell you how to influence your elected officials on policies that might benefit anthem, i.e. healthcare reform. that is so wrong on so many levels. so here i am 2 weeks later still with arm pain, thanks to tracey abbott, the ergo queen, and my caring (not) manager, janice waterman. of course the company doc declared me totally fit for work, which is a complete joke. i have nearly constant arm/shoulder/back pain. these people should all be shot, the building blown up and the industry decimated. i'm voting for national healthcare hoping this puts them out of business once and for all. they lie, cheat, steal and connive while skating on thin legal ice. it's time for healthcare to be determined by medical practitioners, not bean counters. what goes around, comes around, and they are way overdue.

maine life sucks

everyone says maine is so beautiful, yada, yada, yada, and it's true, there are many pretty locales here. unfortunately, it's one of the worst places to live year round. it's provincial, backward, rural and definitely out of the loop of places where i want to live. i absolutely hate it here. i can't even get a newspaper delivered here, nor can i have a windowbox for herbs or anything. worst of all, it isn't home at all. i feel like i am in a foreign country. since 2001 i have never had a decent job here. i can't imagine who would ruin my life in massachusetts where i nearly always had a good job for this crappy place. i've been in pain for two weeks now, not constant but often and it's keeping me from sleeping at night, which makes me a truly miserable camper. i was happier living in a homeless shelter than i am here, at least i was never sick and i had a good job to boot. i miss my career, i miss my freedom, i miss being at home, i miss everything; conversely i hate nearly everything here. just ignore this post, i am furious as usual and mad at everyone and everything. i am hoping soon i will get out of here for good and back to my real life and away from this vacationland hell; i've gotten rid of the job from hell and now it's time for maine to go too.

a quiet sunday

not much doing at all except waiting for the arm thingie to get better. pretty annoying looking at all this fabric and these UFOs and not being able to sew one stitch. can now type with 2 hands but gingerly. i am hoping another week brings complete resolution. my first nonquilty task is to find part time work with health insurance as i currently have none and cobra is out of the question prohibitively expensive. i hardly get sick at all but do need that umbrella in case.

inch by inch

life's a cinch, or so they say. still working primarily one-handed, but have tapered off most of the pain/muscle spasm meds. they wreak absolute havoc with my digestive system, it's a toss up which is worse. best sleep in nearly 2 weeks last night. cannot yet sew or consider work, but that day should come eventually. heating pad is still my BFF, that and hot showers. reading all the quilty blogs drooling, wishing i could also sew. i did iron some strips today, right-handed, but rotary cutter and hand sewing out of the question for now. i also finally finished last sunday's paper just in time for another, but it made my arm ache holding up both sides of the newsprint. in spite of continued limitations, it is better than last week; will be overjoyed once pain free altogether.

progress

arm improves every day. anthem/wellpoint thinks they have disabled me for good but they are wrong, per usual for that pack of liars. they kick people when they are down, repeatedly, but i'm not finished yet by any means. just another maine boss that has screwed me. not sure why i am the proverbial outcast. i still miss my medical secretary job and haven't given up on it yet.

axed

finally been sprung from health insurance hell. wc denied which is no surprise, so working out future plans. shoulder/arm/wrist still painful so cannot work anywhere right now. such is life in maine, sucks bigtime. not sure when will be able to sew, tv is horrid in daytime. hoping god will get the revenge on these vile people. posted photos of fabric from lancaster, know it will keep until i am 2-handed again.

one handed

thanks to my employer, i'm out on wc for rep strain issues. tell me, what is not to understand about a chair with no arms? my mgr and the ergo queen didn't understand and so now i'm officially out of work and the rest of my vacation--most of it--ruined by these two idiots. so, short posts as i'm one handed

Travel Photos

We took a side trip to Ephrata today on the way back from Denver and Sauder's, the heavenly fabric and bulk food items place. I was completely taken with the style of these houses. They look so, well, southern, and they were close to the road as well. One has morphed into a trinket shop of sorts, but all three really struck me as old and have survived well in all this time. It's been pouring rain here all day long but that didn't really dampen our vacation state of mind. We've been grazing a bit on local morsels and done some fabric shopping as well. More of the same tomorrow, I'm happy to say, then all gets wrapped up here in Lancaster on Wednesday. ***** We are staying at an economy motel chain whose online reviews were less than inspiring. We were going for price rather than style and I'm glad to say we weren't disappointed at all. We have found the digs very clean and accommodating. Sure, it isn't the Ritz but we didn't pay for the Ritz, nor could we afford the Ritz. It's clean, comfortable, reasonably priced, easily accessed, beyond our expectations and more than sufficient for our needs. We have comfy beds and all the necessary items close by (ice, vending etc.). They will get a glowing online recommendation from me.

A Postcard View

Here we are in Lancaster and this is the view from our motel room. Imagine, fast food joints and a mall across the street and this just beyond our motel. We had a smooth but very early flight, no glitches at the car rental and an easy trip to Lancaster. We've got a quasi-itinerary roughed out that includes plenty of sightseeing, some local food treats and the fabric stores, of course!

Off to Lancaster!

My vacation has finally arrived and we will soon be off to Lancaster, which is the mother ship for us quilters. So many fabric shops in close proximity is simply too tempting to bypass. I am planning on doing some fabric shopping but I have a definite list, an absolute must in light of millions of bolts that can be overwhelming. The weather looks promisingly wonderful for early fall. After Lancaster, we're off to visit DD and DSIL for a couple of days and then back to New England. ***** This past week at work was the absolute pits, the worst in my history there. I finally got my workstation adjusted after resorting to a complaint to the Dept of Labor. Sheesh, I am confined, nearly chained, to the chair and cube all day....you'd think they would be more accommodating to avoid RSI (repetitive strain injury) but not to me for some reason. Anyway, it's been resolved but I still have no plan on staying one second longer than I have to. Well, last minute tasks are calling me....will post photos when I return and get our home computer up and running again.