Work and books and church and stuff

After working at Advanced Medical Imaging for two years, I was finally able to transfer to a new area.

I am no longer a Receptionist. I now work in Medical Records.

It's a little more work. I have to remember more, but it's way less stress. I have a more set schedule, I take lunch at the same time everyday, and I don't have to stay late if we're busy (the file room stops answering calls after 5:00, so I'm free after that).

I've also been reading more. Right now I'm currently making my way through The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I'm loving the book so far, but I'm not sure if it's for the same reasons others do. I was gonna try and tackle Atlas Shrugged after this, but after about 500 of the 752 pages of The Fountainhead, I think I'll read something else before I try to digest the 1368 pages of Atlas Shrugged. But I will try to finish it by the end of the year.

"He must become greater; I must become less."

-John 3:30

"Worship is giving God the best that He has given you."

-Oswald Chambers

Now a quick prayer request.

About a month ago, Pastor Tom (our worship pastor at Church) asked me if I'd be interested in leading worship on a Sunday in August. I said sure, but it wasn't until I got to the car that I fully realized what happened. I think I might have accepted his offer in a way that seemed unexcited, but really I was more in shock.

What I need is prayer that I don't get a big head about this.

I'm used to leading worship. This is nothing new for me. In the three years I've been going there, I've lead worship for the college group, children's Sunday School (both with and without a band), the youth group once, and the Men's breakfast and weekend retreat.

All the time, it's been a small group, with the biggest group being a quick set of songs for a Sunday night Missionary service, where I it's not so formal, and there's no pressure. Leading worship for the main church seems more like a big deal, when it really shouldn't be.

Pray that I don't make this service about me, or trying to impress anyone. My job as a worship leader isn't to have people think about how great that song was, or how good my guitar playing is, or good of a singer is; my job is to lead people into the presence of God so they walk away from the service not saying how great things are musically, but how great God is.

I'm leading worship on August 14, so please pray for me that I don't make this about me. I really debated with myself whether or not to even bring it up to anyone, but I figured that all the people that mattered would read this and understand what I'm trying to say without thinking I'm just trying to plug when I'm leading worship. I know what abilities God has blessed me with, and I only want to return those gifts to Him, without thinking that I'm the awesome one.

Love you all, and thanks for reading!

Twitter-fun!

I usually attempt to get out of bed sometime between 7-7:30 Monday through Friday so I can be at work on time at 8:30, but this never works out well. I end up getting out of bed at a quarter to 8:00, take a shower, and leave the apartment running at 8:20, barely making it to work on time.

However, this morning, I had something else wake me me.

I got a text message at 7:21, which always worries me (because last time I woke up to a text message it was because I forgot something at work and my team lead texted me letting me know what to expect when I got there), and it ended up being being this:

@R*******15: @samlopez cuantos tienes dime para negociar

I don't speak Spanish, so of course, I have no clue what this says.

Now I know what you're thinking, "Wait! His last name is 'Lopez', he's from Porterville, and he DOESN'T SPEAK SPANISH?!?!"

You are correct. "No sprechen the Spanish."

Anyway, this is not the first time I received a reply on twitter to the wrong "samlopez" account. At least this one wasn't cussing me out and calling me a "slut/gold digger" (that really did happen).

Of course, I needed to reply (not really "needed", but I really wanted to), but first came the task of translation. So while at work, I typed out the message into Google, went to the Spanish to English translator, and discovered this person said:

"Tell me what you have to negotiate"

Now I really have to reply.

But this can't just be any reply. This reply has to be slightly vague, answer their question, and also be frustrating (since it was in a different language). So, using the same translator, replied with:

"Tengo tres frascos de mayonesa (and you have the wrong twitter account)"

(for those of you that don't speak Spanish, it translates to "I have three jars of mayonnaise")

Hopefully this person has a good sense of humor, otherwise I might be learning some very colorful Spanish words.

Wrong Number (Adventures in Working: 1)

Because I work with insurance companies, I often have to make calls to 800 numbers on the east coast to verify benefits and eligibility, and like most companies that only have east coast offices, they like to close at 5:00pm EST, which makes it hard to verify benefits after 2:00 PST. So it's not unusual for me to leave paperwork to take care of on a later day.

Last week, I was following up on a new worker's comp case that was done on Monday. Since it was an injury done over the weekend they didn't have any of the information, and wouldn't for a couple days, making me have to follow up on it in a few days to make sure everything was good.

So I'm sitting in our little office that we converted from a bathroom into a registration room we have dubbed the "Fishbowl" calling this east coast insurance company when I realize I might have called the wrong number. I then call one of my coworkers:

"Hello?"

"Hey Stacey. Can you come to the Fishbowl?"

"Ugh. I'm working on something."

"I know, but could you just come over here real fast?"

"Why?"

"I need you to… witness something."

"...What?"

"Could you just come here real fast?"

"Fine. I'll be right there."

When she gets there, I explain how I am following up on this workers comp case, and I think I've got the wrong number, and I just wanted her to make sure that I'm typing in the right number, and that I called this number by mistake.

I then turn on the speakerphone, just like I did before (this is a habit I most of us get into. We turn on the speaker phone, dial the number, and pick up the headset once someone comes on the line), dial the number slowly saying each number aloud (1-888-###-####), and then we both hear:

"Oooooohhhh. *giggle* I like it when you…"

Then I hang up.

Stacey's eyes grew big as her jaw dropped, staring at the phone.

"I just wanted you to be here in case someone finds out this number was called, you can be my witness that it was called by mistake, and that I had the wrong number written down."

Of course, Stacey just laughs about it. And why wouldn't she? I was laughing about it, because of course, I would be the one that would write down "888" instead of "800" on a piece of paper that would lead me directly to a different kind of 800 number. And it had to be me sitting in this little room where all sounds echo out into the hallway with a speaker phone on when I dial such a number for various people, both patients and staff, around to hear.

Of course it would be me!

I then call my supervisor to explain what just happened to cover myself incase this would come back to me, and she also got a kick out of it. After it went around that Sam called a dirty talk line and turned bright red, I finally decided to get back to work and call the right number.

I go online, found the right number, called it, and got voice mail.

It was 2:01.

Well, there's always next week!