They're practically family ...

So I've been doing a lot of time over at PHOP for the last couple of weeks (Presbyterian Hospital of Plano), and I really enjoy all the doctors and nurses over there. Fun people to be around, and it's just great to see how they're just regular people. The other day a new designer chair that Dr. Wen had ordered came in, and he enlisted one of the nurses there (Brittney) to help him put it together. So, here's the head radiology doctor and one of his nurses on the floor with nuts and screws, wrenches and screwdrivers ... putting together his new desk chair. I'm sure it seems very normal to many of you, but I just imagine how much money this man makes, and how many scans and MRIs he needs to diagnose, but he's still not bringing some maintenance man in to put together his new chair. I peeked around the corner while he was doing that (I was working on a computer there in the office) and said, "The question is: is it comfortable?" His response was, "It's designer. It doesn't matter." Then he laughed and said, "It better be comfortable since I have to sit in it 12 hours at a time."

So today I came through just because I was close by and asked about the computer I recently set up for them, and about a toner cartridge Dr. Wen left for me. The nurses had it there at their desk, and then said, "Oh, and we have something for you and Alex since you've been working so hard." So I took the couple of envelopes and left. I opened mine and it had a thank you card inside and invitation to join their staff for happy hour at a nearby pub, and a stack of scratch off lotto tickets.

*sniff* That was sweet.

...and of His Christ!

And He. shall. reign. for. ev. er and eeeeeever.

Halleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeluuuuuuuuujaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

(I saw Handel's Messiah yesterday.)

"KARL YOU BEAST!!" -- Kristin

Out of context wins again.

It happened ...

So I was driving home from Dallas and listening to Rascal Flatts "What hurts the most" (sorry, I like the song for some reason), and the station was from Dallas, and I was already 3/4 of the way home. So about 2/3s of the way through, the static was so bad I gave up on the song. I changed to a local station, and it was the same song at the same point in the song.

It's a spring feast miracle.

Lacey and Kristin are dorks.

But David I love.

...what? Were you expecting a story? This is just the way it is.

"Everything goes on Ringo!" -- Kristin Vorel

*shiver*

27

Woo.

I used to be that guy.

So I'm remote admining into a bunch of distant computers today. Since we service TRAs offices in the majority of the N. Dallas area, we set it up so we can log into them and work here at Alex's house as if we were right there on their computer. I'm putting patches for this new daylight savings time fiasco that the government came up with. The computers I was working on are all the primary radiology viewing computers in each of the offices.

I get to one and I see someone using it. This has happened a couple times, but they were all MRI scans and such, and I get off quick so I don't bother them. But this guy... he was browsing myspace (IS GAY btw). I go back later and see he's still doing it. I tell Alex and he's pretty sure he even knows who it is doing this and is talking about blocking the site entirely. So I run into his office, and he goes to work blocking all the different IP addresses that myspace uses while we watch this guy's browsing capability get smaller and smaller.

The best moment was when he was posting a comment on one of his friend's pages who had asked him how he had so much time to spend on myspace. So I watch as he types, "How do I have so much time to post?? lol I do this from work." I was doubled over from laughing.

lol indeed, my friend. El Oh El.

How can you say "no" to this?!

"Karl,

Would you be interested in going with us to San Marcos in May for the State Solo and Ensemble contest? You would be playing for ******* (Strauss Horn Concerto op. 11 mvt. 1), ********(Debussy Suite Bergamasque) and ********** (Mozart Alleluia).

We will leave on Sunday, May 27th at noon, and travel by bus to New Braunfels. The kids perform on Monday, then we take them into San Antonio for an evening on the Riverwalk and dinner at Mi Tierra.

Tuesday we take the kids (and us) to Schlitterbahn waterpark in New Braunfels for the day. We leave for home about 5:00pm and get home at midnight.

The gig will pay $300 plus meals, hotel room, waterpark ticket and transportation. If you need to take your car to leave early, we will pay you milage for the trip."

Raise your hand if any of you get as cool of jobs as I do.

...didn't think so.

Things you learn ...

So I've started working over in Dallas part-time.

... you heard me.

I'm driving back and forth pretty much every other day except for the weekends where I stay over there the entire time to cut down on any more driving time. I have music obligations here at home and I'm not going to drop them. I want to, but you do that once in the middle of a contract and you don't ever expect to get a good reference from those people again. And one of my current clients is the head of the show choir over at UT Tyler, so that kind of black mark I don't need.

I'm working for Alex Celan over in Dallas. He owns his own IT company. Pretty much, he has clients that pay him on a monthly basis and he takes care of any and all things pertaining to tech stuff that they need done. Sometimes there are fires all over the place. Sometimes it's really quiet. His main client is TRA -- Texas Radiology Assocation. The majority of the radiology departments in the greater Dallas area hospitals are run by TRA. So what does that mean? That means that Karl gets to run around in the back halls of hospitals all the time now. Which brings me to the first thing I've learned: As long as you look professional, dress nice, and act like you belong there, no one will ever question you when you walk straight back through doors that say "Authorized personnel only." Seriously. I don't have a badge. I don't have any hospital ID. I just walk wherever I want (which is only to, through, and around the radiology department). Makes me a little worried about security if I ever need to go have some major work done at a hospital. Most of the sites Alex has gone with me and introduced me to the staff and showed me where the rooms were. The last place I went, I just found it based on directions from the last location I was working, and had the name of one particular woman there that was our .. liason sorta. She must have been out for lunch because I can never get a hold of her. So I walk around back where the arrows point to "diagnostic radiology". Nothing. I don't know who I'm looking for even. I eventually find the front desk (by walking out of the important areas of the hospital to the waiting room) and ask the guy there for Julie. She's not there. OK, how bout these other doctors I know the names of? Nothing. OK, I tell him who I am, who I work for, and what I need to do .. just show me the computers, please? So, he calls another doctor who shows up, I introduce myself, tell him the whole speal, and he takes out his keycard, unlocks the doors, and we go back to the computers. Yes, it took all this to get me through these double doors that I walked OUT OF just minutes earlier. The other entrance less than 20 feet away is wide open that I walked through the first time! Act of Congress just to be where I just was. Gah.

So I go back to the reading room. All the radiology departments have this room. It's where they have the sweet action computers with the high defintion double or triple monitors that the doctors read the MRI's on (or CT scans or Ultrasound, yeah yeah). This one woman next to me is working on one of the machines, talking through the scans with her little mic and recorder for the transcriptions folks to take care of later. And here's where the 2nd thing I learned came into play: doctors are no different than any of the rest of us. Here she is, this young attractive doctor doing her very amazing work, and then she finishes up her current case, closes it down, the turns to the computer right next to her, and starts checking her hotmail and reading on MSN.com. Seriously. It's like, working anywhere else in corporate America. Except she's browsing the internet for $120,000 a year. This is a common thing in all the reading rooms. There are the "viewstations" that they do the scan reading on , and then the "websurfer" computers right next to them. There's no way NOT to browse on company time ... that's what it's all set up there to do! Oh, thing I've learned #3: in all the places I've been, there is an unhealthy amount of "Grey's Anatomy" love going on. I guess it's like watching reality TV for hospital staff.

I'm sure I've learned more, but now I have to get on the road for 2 hours again. I've upped my cell phone minutes so I don't have to be lonely the whole way, but wait til March 2nd (tomorrow) to start calling. :) But don't wait too long! Passover is coming up in a hurry, so get all over me for offending you this year. I can take it!

Take care of yourselves, and keep your noses clean (that's so old skool).