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I’ve heard it a million times before, and even lived it before, it really is a pain in the neck to hire someone for a job. I’ve been pretty lucky the last two years with Steve and Amanda. However, the time has come where Steve has given his two week notice and is relocating. Steve has been our maintenance man extraordinairre at Dizmang Properties for the last two years and it is sad to see him go, but we all certainly wish him the best of luck.
So I ran a quick Craigslist ad for the new position today stating the general specifics and one side note about how we do background checks and drug testing. I’ve got quite some characters calling me already. The first call that came in approximately 10 minutes after I posted the ad, well let’s just say I couldn’t understand him. He spoke Italian and he tried to speak English with me but it didn’t work so well. Next! They just started rolling in after that and I have finally told all inquiries that they need to e-mail to me their resume or list of qualifications and their contact info. I do this so I can run a quick background check (OK, I check MySpace and Facebook…but you can never be too sure) before I call them in for an interview.
An e-mail that I received this afternoon, really got me laughing. I just love a good ole paratrooper with a story. Here is his e-mail to me…
Too bad about the drug testing.
Have 34 years experience, mostly as contractor, and now living in 17th “gut rehab” project.
Do Mechanical: all but pull permits, Electrical/Plumbing no problem. Maybe a little light on HVAC (except I know more than most about boilers and radiant heat). Can do K and M calorie loading calcs. Way above average on passive solar and piezoelectrics.
Structural no problem, have all tools and know techniques.
Cosmetics are personal forte’.
Can even survive the background check, but this ol’ paratrooper likes his pot once in a while. Dependable/reliable during work hours but do not let others run my life.
Wanna waive the testing for an unusually adept and competent individual?
So…what would you do? Would you waive the drug test? Nah….I didn’t think so.
Did you wake up and and check your blood sugar today? I did. As well as 246 million people worldwide.
How in the world can you not feel the desperate need for a cure for this disease that affects so many of us? This epidemic has 246 million people dealing with the daily injections, blood sugar tests, doctor appointments, carb counting and everything that comes along with this wretched disease. I feel their pain (literally) when it comes to just the constant nagging voice in the back of your mind saying things to themselves like “I wonder what my blood sugars are” or “why am I so thirsty?” It’s exhausting.
The weird thing about it is, that this nagging voice doesn’t just speak to people in English. It also nags diabetic children and adults in French, Italian, Japanese and Spanish just to name a few. It may be a different language, but the feelings are still the same. Whether it be that your insides feel like they are caving in because of a low blood sugar or your skin is crawling because of a high blood sugar. It is all the same and it is a universal feeling.
Today is World Diabetes Day and blue is the representative color, hence the reason the text of this post is all in blue. Sorry, the hyperlinks don’t stand out for you, but they are still underlined and still highly encouraged that you click on them to find out more. So whether it is a dollar, euro, peso or yen…donate it to our cause and help us find a cure for this disease that much faster.
At the Sarah Palin rally here in Springfield on Friday, they handed out signs randomly. This is the one I got. I’m not bitter.
OK, maybe I am a little.
I did sit in the 45 degree weather for a few hours waiting for Ms. Palin to show up. Oh well, I have thawed out.
I have no time to myself. Oh well, my kids are cute and worth it.
My job is hectic and I work all of the time and Tenants often lie to me. Oh well, I drive a nice car, have a sweet Macbook Pro and my own corner office with two windows!
I don’t think it’s fair that I have type 1 diabetes. Oh well, it could be worse, I could have cancer.
I did not get a good night’s sleep last night. Oh well, good thing today is Saturday with nothing pressing schedule-wise.
I’m turning 31 in a few short months. Oh well, I’ve had more fun in my thirtieth year than I did in the entire decade of my twenties.
Things are tight. Oh well, Ty just got a new job that he really is liking.
My little brother got a convertible for his 16th birthday, I got a sensible 4 door Honda Accord. Oh well, that was 15 years ago. I’ve grown up since then.
My cell phone is a little bit obsolete. Oh well, I’m getting a new one this weekend thanks to Ty’s new job.
It’s supposed to freeze this week. Oh well, I am going to Florida in a few weeks.
My voicemail box at work is overflowing with 68 messages. Oh well, there is always Monday.
Thanks for letting me rant, I’m past my bitterness now. 
I know you’ve seen the Google doodles. Those cute little nods to the season, a specific holiday, or something significant have all brought life to the generic search engine.
With World Diabetes Day quickly approaching on November 14th, here is your chance to ask Google for our own doodle.
Help us reach our goal of getting 20,000 signatures by November 1, 2008 by signing the petition. The petition is free and the donation at the end is optional. It only takes a few seconds of your time…sign the petition here.
I’ve been so busy at work. I figured it’s either time to make hay while the sun’s shining (even though the clouds are rolling in) or… it can’t get any worse so I might as well get off my hiney and get some work done.
What is so great about the company I work for is that we have a built-in clientele that we have worked very hard to keep. Our clientele is a core group of real estate investors that love to purchase rental properties.
They love working with us because we are a complete turn-key service. We not only purchase the nastiest, stinkiest rental houses and fix them up but we then take care of everything. Everything from financing, mortgage payments, taxes and insurances, finding tenants, managing the property and maintenance. Typically, our investors don’t ever step foot inside the property they just depend on us.
But enough about what we do. We have constantly preached to our investors that the real estate market is a much better payoff than the stock market. Especially now. Duh. So I love it when one of our investors called in this morning and said “buy me more stock”. Well, that’s what we do. Our stock is in rental real estate. Therefore I’m getting off my hiney and buying more stock, real estate, in Springfield, Missouri.
My family is everything to me.
They support me when I am at my best and when I am not.
They drive over 6 hours to do a 1 mile walk to help me find a cure for type 1 diabetes.
They drive all night and get up early in the morning to meet me for this 1 mile walk and bring their dog too.
They hate this disease as much as I do.
My family is everything to me.
Thank you for being there.
How’s it going, Eh? (You’re not Canadian, don’t talk like that).
I’ll talk at ya later. (No you stupid SOB, you talk “with” me not “at” me).
All this and what not. (What you’re not, is smart).
It’s fixin’ to storm. (You fix dinner, not thunderstorms).
It’s like totally awesome. (You like go girl).
I didn’t hear you, come again. (huh?)
Quit ‘yer bitchin’. (Ok, I will now).
I’ve been told by my Aunt that I talk too much about other people in this blog and that I shouldn’t do that. Well then…what else is there to talk about?!
So, in an effort to NOT talk about people in this blog post, I’m going to talk about people’s statuses.
I’m a big Twitter user. No, it’s not because I like the feeling of people always knowing my bidness, but because I like knowing theirs. I like knowing what my peeps are up to, it reminds me that my own crazy life is right in line with what would be considered “normal”. I think of Twitter as the ultimate status update. But then there is Facebook status updates, Instant Messaging, Friendfeed, LinkedIn, MySpace, and the three P’s…Plaxo, Plurk and Pownce. (Just to name a few.) I Googled the term “status update manager” and holy cow batman there were 10 pages of crap just for updating your status feeds!
I didn’t know that status was that important. But as this online world grows tighter, I guess it is. I don’t use it, but there is the service of HelloTxt. It seems to be pushed in the REALTOR world a lot. What do you use (if anything)? And, does it actually save you time or is it just another obsessive web 2.0 addiction?
I should look at it like this, if I keep my status updated it saves me several phone calls to my Mom. Time saver! Now if I could just get my husband to obsessively update his status.
I guess I spoke too soon in my post on my health insurance coverage on the Omnipod Insulin Pump that I wrote last night. And I guess United Healthcare (UHC) are ‘Pod Haters afterall.
I was all excited about getting approved as “in-network coverage” on the Omnipod until I called them to confirm it today. Leah, from CCS Medical, has been wonderful to work with and she has been EXTREMELY helpful in getting my case before United Healthcare and trying her best to get it done. Afterall we had already been denied twice for this pump.
I gave her a call this morning to tell her about the notification I got from United Healthcare and she said “oh Jessica, I’m sorry but UHC has been known to make these mistakes in sending those types of letters and I don’t want you to get your hopes up, because they most likely aren’t going to cover the Omnipod.” She continues to tell me that UHC does this quite often. What?! So does that make it okay? I started to get a little frustrated with Leah, and asked her to call UHC to prove this. And she calls one better, and says “sure thing, hold tight and I will get them on the line”. So she conference calls them in on the line and 15 minutes later I get a stuffy-nosed woman from UHC telling me that “they made an error” in sending the letter to me and that they will NOT cover the Omnipod. So this error-letter-writing campaign by UHC must be a constant practice for them, because Leah had already called it as it was.
I had to hold my composure, afterall, I was with my friend Will Worsham and I didn’t want him to see me lose my cool (trust me, it’s not pretty). So I expressed my disappointment with UHC, thanked Leah for working so hard on it and then I let it go. For now.
So now I’m back to which is the lesser of two evils…my loathsome Medtronic Minimed pump or 4+ daily insulin shots? Medtronic may be a horrible company to deal with, but I’m willing to put aside my grudge with them and shift it to United Healthcare for now. At least my Medtronic pump is purple (trying to focus on the positive here) and my sugars will be better (if the pump holds out).
Grrr….United Healthcare.
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