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Who miraclesrule, come on down!

Hahahahaha!!!That is so funny about your mom. I am almost always late. Its so bad it''s almost like clockwork.

I''m watching gymnastics too! I''m so impressed with the dude who only found out he was coming to the Olympics a few days before. He seems to be doing pretty well. I have been spending too much time on PS and composing an email to a stone vendor and not paying enough attention unless the USA comes on. The high bar is making me nervous.

I don''t even know what to write to this vendor. I''m all nervous about it. Eek!

We need to mix up your shoes so to go with the different shirts, you have some funky shoes! Sometimes I have great ideas.
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Wait until you see the funky idea I have for the golf course. I know they have a dress code, but my white capris are jean material. I was thinking of wearing my salmon colored 3/4 length shirt with the white pants...and get this...a pair of pink and clear jelly tennis shoes. It''s either that or my skechers that I have nothing to wear with them. I really wish I didn''t give my green pumas to my daughter. I could use those about now.

It''s just a fun outing, but one never knows. I am downloading the pictures now you you can see them. I really wish I could wear my most comfortable pull up wide leg non hemmed whatchamacallit''s with a nice shirt but no tennis shoes for those. My corporate customer in crime says that nobody will be looking at my feet as they won''t wait it that far down. She''s a riot. We are both the worse golfers. Well that isn''t true, I have a natural swing but not enough practice. She said to me today "Hey, do they want good golfers are good looking woman?" Good point. It''s just a bunch of lawyers anyway. But I would get a kick out of bucking the rules as I usually do. I could get to the golf course early and get a whole new golf outfit. It may help kickstart into golfing again, but with my rotator cuff repair, I am just not feeling it. Although I do like the mind game of golf.

If your still awake I will post my deviant desire to wear the non-traditonal as long as it doesn''t violate golf decorum.
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Hahahaha!!!I would love to see you on a golf course! The one time I was on one during the day I was driving a friend''s golf cart around all crazy and fast and I got yelled at by some snobby golfers.

I''ve always been disdainful towards golf in general because I grew up on a tennis court and couldn''t stand the golf balls hitting the courts, plus when you''re running around like mad, swinging at balls and getting super sweaty, gold stops looking like a sport. Hee hee. I''m an anti-golf snob.

Post pics!!!!
 
Gold stops looking like a sport. Oy.
 
GOLF.

Wow. My eyes are MESSED UP.
 
I could have taken the time to take a better picture, but oh well...my anti-golf garb.

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Since i cant find my golf shoes and I think my New Balance Brown shoes would be too obvious, these are the only ones I think I can "swing" <----- pun intended. I just don''t have anything to wear with the red and beige.

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Yay!!!DO IT!!!!

I love those shoes--so cool. What brand are they?

I''m still working on this vendor letter and totally stressed about it. What the heck do you say to a guy you want to cut some stones for you?

I had to take off the heels. My toes were not happy with me. And I started to feel dorky.
 
Ugh, I think I will have to go visit the pro shot early in the a.m, and drop $150 or so to get something to wear. I can''t even locate my glove. I used it last year during a golf lesson but have no idea where it is now. Maybe I should check the trunk of my car.
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those shoes are "Lower East Side" and I think they cost me under $10. I thought they were so unique that I had to get them. I have only worn them once with cute polka dot socks. Everyting shows through so you can have some fun it you want to get funky. I am only worried that my white pants will violate dress code as they are DKNY but they are jean material. I figure since it is Costco, they probably get a lot of leeway. I hope.
 
I''m sorry! That sucketh a big one. I hate being without proper equipment/clothes.

I''ve had a long awful day. I should go to sleep, and you should too! What time does your plane leave?

(I''m finding myself rereading everything about 15 times after the golf/gold incident. Lol.)
 
Your asking me about gem stones? Ahahahahahaha, might as well be speaking greek to me.

I love my boot though////

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I am heading for bed as soon as I wash my face. I can''t keep my eyes open anymore. Wish me luck.

Good luck with you letter!! I will talk to you soon. Sweet dreams.
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No, asking you for help with people-the gemstones are the side item...kinda. Nerd!

I love those boots. How tall are they?
 
Sweet dreams! Have a good flight and be safe!
 
How was your trip?
 
Great!! It was ridiculously hot. Over 100 degrees, but no humidity, so it was bearable. My team even won the golf tournament.
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We got Costco card. Not bad, considering that I have only had one golf lesson that lasted one hour. But I have a natural swing. I just have no idea what clubs to use when and had to rely on the other guys to tell me what to use. There are rules, such as...they have to play at least two of each team members drives. Lucky for me, I got more two good drives. We had a boat cruise and then a salmon dinner somewhere, but the main person I work with up there got ill the night before, so although she was present at the day conference she was unable to attend dinner that night or golf the next day. That was sad. So, so picture of the gorgeous greenery in Seattle. It is really pretty when it isn''t hidden behind cloud cover and rain. I got a great picture of Mt. Rainier from the plane too......

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Great coastline shot from the boat cruise. I can''t believe all the trees. I love them...

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Space Needle, I think that''s what it''s called. I am terrible at knowing my landmarks. I have only been into the city in Seattle when on these business trips. Once year we went to a ball game in the new ballpark. We are always on buses and engaged in conversation, but this time I was paying attention to downtown Seatlle and next time I go there, I am going to go for an extra day so I can do some shopping. I often travel to Portland as well, and like it there because there are no state taxes.
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I want to move there...What did you wear for golf?
 
I had to drive pat the microsoft offices on the way to the golf couse, but because I was driving my rental and following another group who knew where we were going, i didn''t get to ogle the buildings, but OMG, that office complex is blocks and blocks long and they must employ half the city. Crazy... And who knew that golf cargs had navigational systems that identified the other carts and told you everything you needed to know about what hole you were on and how long it was and was was around it. Can you tell I am a golf rookie??

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And for you Freke....my shoes. Everyone commented on my shoes. The girls especially. Even both "drink cart" girls. It was funny. I think everyone thought they were actual gold shoes.
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It was sooooooooo hot, but this was my golf outfit. I rolled my pants up near the end because I thought it would help...it didn''t. This was with my team. Two are attorney''s and the other one is a regional claims manager.

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More trees. I couldn''t stop taking pictures with my left hand hanging on the window while my right hand steered the car. I don''t recommend this as it is a safety hazard.
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Date: 8/17/2008 3:13:29 PM
Author: miraclesrule
It was sooooooooo hot, but this was my golf outfit. I rolled my pants up near the end because I thought it would help...it didn''t. This was with my team. Two are attorney''s and the other one is a regional claims manager.
Click to expand...
They''re so lucky to be hanging out with a hottie like you!

I love the shoes. I''m not surprised that everyone was commenting on them.

I''ve spent all weekend looking for an ering stone, and I''m getting discouraged...
 
What?? I thought you were a closet bride? Why are you getting discouraged?
 
I can''t find a dang stone! I don''t think I''m that picky! I have a whole thread dedicated to finding *it* in Colored Stones...Desperately Seeking Spinel

I have a whole slew of cutters looking at their stock for me, and one is even getting new rough so that he can see if he can get something in there for me. ERGH.

I am so a closet bride...And THAT is the easy part!
 
Oh, those are beautiful gems. You will find exactly what you are looking for. Just put it out there in the universe and then back away from it.

I am waiting for it to cool down so I can do something productive outside. For instance, weedwhack my front lawn which is looking ridiculous. But all I really feel like doing is opening a bottle of wine and watching a movie or something. Lawnwork is more fun when someone else is there to help. Then it can be turned into fun and exercise and community.

Oh, speaking of community, I need to get cracking on setting up my pledge page for our walk. I think I was so bored with nothing to do in my personal time, that I may have overcommitted to my volunteer activities. Perhaps it is just the stress of these two large events in Sept and Nov, with a wedding to attend in October. ::::sigh:::::

Or maybe it''s the reality of having to go back to work tomorrow and not getting a "real" vacation. Oh well, the 2500 emails I return to ought to keep me busy.
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This is going to be a rather long post to nobody in particular, but just to get it off my chest. I am still a little miffed about the "welfare thread" so I am going to write about my experiences as a one time welfare recipient and as an informed citizen who has seen how easily the system is to abuse.

Most of you know that I became pregnant right out of high school. I did not want to get an abortion. Coming from a very strict Catholic background didn''t pursuade me as much as my need to nurture and feed my capacity for devotion and love of children. My parents had very little money and neither me, my parents, nor my siblings had a college education. I began working as soon as I could legally apply for a work permit. I hated being poor and wanted to buy/make my own clothes. I started working when I was 15 1/2 as a "phone solicitor", a job which now beasr a more sexy title of "telemarketer". I was also a good talker and liked to connect with people. When I was 17 I was working 4 hours a night after school and I worked weekends as a cashier at a dance hall for under 21 year olds. It was very Saturday Night Fever/Latin Hustle time.

Anyway, I began working as a waitress and became pregnant shortly thereafter. In an earlier post, I explained why I ended up marrying her father (I also paid for the whole thing). In any case, because I was only working part-time I applied for Medi-cal because I had no health insurance. I qualified due to being pregnant. I worked up until the day I went into labor and took the 8 weeks off. I returned to work while extracting milk from my breast during my 15 minute breaks. (I actually got written up for being 5 minutes late from the locker room because my milk wouldn''t let out with those damn hand pumps that look like a kids bike horn.
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One day I will tell you what my co-worker did to our demon boss for writing me up. Let''s just say she used my breast milk that I stored next to the coffee creamers. I was horrified, but OMG, my coworker told me after the fact....to this day I keep thinking about my coworker..."she must have been a Scorpio". Anyway, one night I came home from work to find my baby on the floor by the couch while my worthless husband was sleeping away all comfy on the couch. I lost it. I could no longer trust that he was capable of caring for our ...my... daughter while I was away at work. I decided that he had to go. As soon as I told him we were done, he called up the girl that he had been doing the drugs with that had given him that phone. (Again, a previous post in this thread) So, I found myself at the welfare office applying for AFDC. I told myself that I would only stay on it for one year. I moved in with a female friend that was also a single mother and we shared a two bedroom/1 bath apt. I knew that I would be a productive member of society and that I had been for over three years already and that I would pay back my debt to society with the massive taxes I would pay in the future. I don''t regret any of it. I cherished being with my daughter for the first year of her life. But this is where I had a huge problem with the "welfare" program as it was known.

I never believed in canned baby food. I was home and not working, so I was intent on buying fresh vegetables, steaming them, and putting them into a reused small baby food jar and freezing them. Babies never eat a whole jar of anything anyway. I can''t recall how much I received in monthly food stamps, but I would only need to spend about $7 at Windmill Farms for all the fruits and vegetables that I needed to feed my daughter a healthy diet as she was weaned from breastfeeding.

Note: Food stamps came in a little coupon book and each were numbered and very official looking. One month I didn''t receive my food stamps. I was very suspicious because my roommate had gone grocery shopping a boatload of times. One day while she was in the shower, I peeked in her purse and discovered two sets of food stamps. I was more than pissed. I outright accused her of stealing my food stamps. She denied it. I went to the "welfare" office to tell them that my roommate stole my food stamps. They told me that nothing could be done to prove it. I said that was impossible, it would be easy to prove. Each set of food stamps is numbered. Why are they numbered if the issuing agency isn''t tracking them and assigning them to me. All they need to do is to verify I.D. when she redeems them at the store and you can catch her. The social worker told me that they don''t require I.D and there is no verification that the person using the food stamps at the check out was the qualifying recipient. I said "Well then, what the hell is the point of having cross checks if the government isn''t even using the crosschecks they put in place. No wonder there was so much welfare fraud. Because the government doesn''t seem to care!!" She didn''t argue with me, she just looked at me and said, "If you wish, we can set up your food stamps to be mailed to you certified and you will have to sign for them". I said "Great, another additional expense, but whatever you need to do so I can get my food stamps". The social worker had me sign an affidavit that stated I did not receive my food stamps and they replaced them and sent them out certified for the next few months, while I looked for somewhere else to live. I won''t even tell you about the other drama with the roommate, because that is just not relevant to this post, but is interesting reading.

In any event, 6 months later I found a place that I could afford to rent myself, even though it wasn''t in the best neighborhood, it was affordable. But on my last month with said roommate, I didn''t receive my certified food stamps. I called the social worker to find out what was going on, and guess what???? They accidently sent them out regular mail. The wench stole my food stamps AGAIN!! I was freaking livid. I had to go down to the office and complete another affidavit all the while feeling like the social worker thinks I am the scam artist. I was seething to think that there were no controls, no oversight, nothing. She can just steal my food stamps and I am the one who has to sign the affidavits and feel like I am the thief?? Grrrrrrrrrrrr, it makes me mad just thinking about it. She is very well off now, married a very rich man. Good for her. But I wouldn''t trust that woman even now. I have forgiven her, but I haven''t forgotten it. Nor, did I ever forget how dysfunctional the system was at the time and I believe it still is. So, fast forward a few years when I am back at work full time earning a whopping $700 a month....whooohoooooo.
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I started working at a psychiatric group office as a receptionist. In very little time I learned how medical professionals bilk the Medicare/Medi-cal system. I was promoted very quickly after they discovered my photographic memory and started doing billing. We had a lot of patients that were Medi/Medi. They used to issue a little 3x5 with stickers on it that a patient would present to the medical provider and we would bill with that sticker. If they needed more medical treatment than stickers, we would just use their Medi-cal number.

My first lump in the gut moment came when we would have new patients that made an appt, which typically would take up to 90 minutes of a physicians''s time. I was instructed to get their number over the phone when they made the appt. This was because there were a lot of "no shows" and the doctors didn''t want to go without being paid for that time they had set aside. So, if the patient no-showed, I was supposed to bill Medi-cal with the new patient code as though the patient had been seen. Fraud. Pure and Simple. There is a no show code that would yield the doctor zilch, but they wanted the full amount. How can this occur so easily? Because a patient never sees a bill. When a patient never sees a bill, they can never question it. Again, no oversight, no control, a system just begging for abuse.

The very sad part of this "real world education" was that the most honest physician made the least amount of money and paid the most for our services in the office. For example. There is a certain code for a 50 minute in-patient visit. (SDL, you will probably know what I am talking about) There are also codes for a 15 minute visit and a 30 minute visit. Every physician I worked with, except for one, used the hour code no matter what. And then they would be in the office for out-patient visits and guess what???? Oh, I am sure many of you can guess it.... They billed for more hours than what is physically possible. I mean you can''t possibly treat for 8 hours before you get into the office at 9:00 a.m. and then treat for each hour until 5:00 p.m. The only reason they get away with it, is because the billings were spread among different insurance carriers from Champus, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Medicare, Medi-cal and Medi/Medi. Total white collar crime.

Someone steals a car stereo and the police and the people are all over the thug, but if you are a "professional" committing white collar crime, well that''s a whole different story now isn''t it? Instead of a $600 dollar stereo, it was more like 60K a year.

So, anyway, I jettisoned that job and went to work as a claims examiner and believe me, I knew every trick in the book that medical providers would use. Code creep, rebilling, everything that could get by the computer reading the HCFA forms and the Medi-cal billing forms. Physicians didn''t like me much in those days, especially the one that my boss considered a near and dear personal friend. When I revealed the massive amounts of overpayments that the company had made that they never refunded, yet could run an extensive billing history on a claim where we owed $35 bucks, my boss was livid. He also became my mentor and insisted I use the tuition assistance program to get into a think tank in Sacramento. I used it, but not for that.
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Anyway, fast forward 13-15 years or so from then, when I was was laid off at xmas time with a 25 other people. I was unable to find work and was horrified because I couldn''t afford to buy my daughter a yearbook for the first time. I felt like a failure. I went down to the social welfare office to see if I could get some food stamps to supplement my unemployment. I couldn''t get them. Do you know why? Because my car, my piece of crap car...although I did love it....my 300ZX that I paid $4K cash for...was considered to be worth more than $1500. If I wanted to get the $70 a month food stamps to supplement my monthly unemployment which was less than than my monthly rent, I would have to sell my car???? Wtf? Oh sure, that will really help me find a job. No car is going to do me a world of good!! The forms took a life time to complete just to discover that I couldn''t even qualify due to my used 8 year old car? Are you freaking kidding me??

You see, I had been working for the County of San Diego and was assigned to the Probation and Social Services department about 3 years prior. I thought I would be managing work comp claims for probation officers and social workers. Well, there were those claims too, but the surprise was that in the probation department, I was sending disability and settlement checks to people who were ordered to do community service as punishment for some offense. They were ordered to clean up the trash on the side of city streets and parks with CalTrans. For those people who were smart enough and didn''t want to pick up trash, guess what they would do? They would claim an injury. All of a sudden, they are getting the same disability benefits as a social worker, maybe not the exact same amount, but it was a crock of crap. These people probably just thought they were going to get out of their community service, yet instead, they are showered with benefits and settlement checks paid for by the taxpayers.

It happened in the Social Service Department too. If you were an adult from another state and come to California from Arizona but had no job, and no children that would qualify you for benefits, you were expected to work in kind for the benefits you were granted. If you qualified for the minimun of $250 a month, lets say....then you were expected to show up to an assigned job site and work for the minimum wage to earn that money. Well, my first case was a woman who was assigned to an office to type some stuff for a few hours a day and on her first day she claimed she injured her pinky finger while typing and couldn''t perform the job. So, she is entitled to work comp benefits and she gets her "welfare" and goes through the system like an injured worker. Again...total BS. No oversight, not common sense.

Now, if someone was performing community service in a dangerous position and was truly injured than I understand the state paying for them to have the same benefits, but that is NOT what was happening and I was not silent about it. Everyone used to say to me " it isn''t your money, why do you care?". I would tell them with the passion I am known for "It is my money!! It is your money too!! Who do you think bears this expense? Every service we use or every product we purchase is increased by the amount of insurance expense to produce it....in this case it''s the taxpayers and the losers are the people who are really in need of the benefits and are not abusing them".

Okay, I am done for now. That was way too much memory for me. If anyone ever makes it through this post, they deserve a medal.
 
Date: 8/17/2008 3:13:29 PM
Author: miraclesrule
It was sooooooooo hot, but this was my golf outfit. I rolled my pants up near the end because I thought it would help...it didn''t. This was with my team. Two are attorney''s and the other one is a regional claims manager.
Click to expand...


What a hottie you are. You are so teeny tiny. You are a real cutie pie and we love you.


Linda
 
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