I am a compliance auditor. Does that scare you? Because it scares me. I mean, I�m not afraid of my job, but the title sounds a little ominous. Compliance � that�s the part that sounds scary. But auditor � that part makes it sound like I wear a 3 piece suit and I�m really uptight. I audit claims processing organizations on federal and state regulations, no one really wants to see me and they certainly don�t like seeing me frequently (as that usually means things aren�t going well). But I do have the power to �fail� someone, give them a �cure period� and if that doesn�t fix things, then they go on �oversight with corrective action� so I guess it�s kind of scary. I just can�t get the image of the little man, 3 piece polyester suit, horn-rimmed glasses, punching numbers into a calculator that�s spitting out a long ticker tape of numbers. I�m not really a numbers person, I�m more about words, but somehow I ended up in a job with a lot of numbers, and I love it. Imagine that.
I�ve talked about my pillow obsession before, right? How I have 8 regular pillows, 3 body pillows and then a deluxe body pillow? Well, here�s a picture of it:
Truth is, though sleep and I are generally foes, this at least makes me comfortable when I am lying in my bed trying to sleep. It�s designed for pregnant women, but I think it�s the perfect companion for any single woman. My pillow obsession began when I was in a particular bad flare-up of my lupus. If there was any pressure at all on my joints, I could not sleep. I had to support the hip joint, knee joints, shoulder joints� I would take body pillows, tuck them under the small of my back and then wrap them around and tuck them under my knee. This would support both the hip and the knee. Some nights, my hips were so bad I had to prop up all my pillows and lay over them. I kept adding pillows to the mix until I got it right. After I got used to all those pillows, it was hard to go back. And it�s true, every time I think I have enough, and I bring a new pillow home with the idea of getting rid of some of the older ones, I can�t do it. I put the new pillows on the bed and find that more really is better.
Well, the giant body pillow was the result of my parents garage sale obsession. They go �garage-saling� every weekend. Whenever I need anything, I just mention it to them and if it�s not urgent, they�ll find it soon enough. And they often come home with little surprises that they think I might like and figure if I don�t, it�s only .50 cents or a buck they�ve wasted. Those items that we don�t keep/use go to the goodwill or some other charitable organization. Nothing is wasted. So anyway, one day they came home with this and I thought, well, it�s kind of big but I�ll try it out. After 5 minutes I knew I would rather sleep with this pillow every night than a man.
Switching Gears: Southern California traffic is notorious. I�ve learned, through the years, that it�s just going to take the time it takes and there�s no use fighting it. When I was in high school and young 20�s, I was the driver on the freeway who was constantly changing lanes, trying to get ahead. It took so much energy and just made me angry all the time I was driving. Now, I drive on a really bad freeway everyday. Most days, it is stop and go traffic. But I just get on, get into the far lane (because that�s the lane I need to be in when I get near my house in order to stay on the freeway) and just hang out and listen to my music. I experience a sense of calm while I�m driving. I rarely (though not never) get so frustrated that I�m spitting blood). The other night, I got on the freeway and a older model white blazer got on behind me. The whole way as I�m driving, he�s constantly changing lanes, trying to get around traffic. I mean, moving over 3 lanes to pass one car. And guess what, when I got off at my exit, there he was, 5 cars ahead of me. All that frustration, lane-changing, starting and stopping, accelerating and breaking for 15 miles, to gain 5 car lengths. It�s just not worth it.
Not much else to say today. Thursday I�m flying to Denver to see mi amigo Danny and I�m very excited � both to see him and to see a new place. Hopefully, much fun will be had and many pictures will be taken. If I don�t update before I go, I�ll be sure to post pictures when I return. Pike�s Peak, here I come.
