Thanksgiving 2006

For the first time in 5 years, I'll spend Thanksgiving with my family & it does feel sort of surreal. Yes, I'm sure it sounds strange that I've not spent Thanksgiving with my family (as you're supposed to spend the day with the family over a hearty meal), but it's not because I live too far away from my family or I've had a major falling out. For the past 5 years I've always had to work on Thanksgiving. I used to work a retail job & for whatever reasons (probably to try to beat out the competition) the store would be open regular business hours on Thanksgiving. I was always the unlucky one to work the 1-10pm shift. Anyway, now that I don't have to worry about work today, I can take a bit more time & relfect about the things I'm thankful for on this day of giving thanks.

1)My Health: I'll say that I'm in much better health than I was about 5 years ago. I'm more concious about my eating habbits & I make a point to exercize regularly. As I mentioned in last year's Thanksgiving blog, I used to work with disabled adults & I current work processing disability claims & to see the struggles these people go through on a day to day basis is heartwrenching & I'm glad I'm not in a similar situation. I'm not sure if I could handle the anguish & discrimination of being disabled.

2) My Family: Although we don't see eye to eye on many things & I don't really see most of my family that often, I know my family loves me & looks out for my best interests.

3) My Friends: As I've said in previous blogs, I'm truly blessed to have a large quantity of quality friends. I know if I were ever in trouble or needed help they'd be there for me. I'm also happy to mention that my # of friends has increased over the past year & with each new friend comes new experiences. I'll even mention how I'm thankful that I've been able to make amends with a few ex-lovers & proud to say they're among my list of friends.

4) My Job: I'm thankful that I am employed & in the past year I've made great improvements. I'm also thankful that I only have to work ONE job which now allows me the free time to spend holidays with the family & time with my friends. Although I'm not making tons of money & can live a lavish lifestyle, I can say that I can live comfortably with my current salary.

5) My Significant Other: I'm thankful that I have such a wonderful boyfriend. I've had such a blast hanging out with him & I look forward to many more fantastic times. He is really a great, sweet, carring guy & I'm not sure if I can say it often enough.

All in all, I'm thankful for this life & the above things that make my life so worth living. Ok, I think I've said enough because I need to start getting ready to see my family on this Thanksgiving holiday.

One Year Later

A year ago on this day I'd begin my journey as a disability claims adjudicator & I'll say it has been an interesting roller coaster ride with many ups & downs as well as twists & turns.

I remember I spend much of October 2005 writing about this possible "governemnt job", but I wasn't really sure what it was I was gettng myself into. I even refered to the job with the wrong Acronyn. I thought I was applying/interviewing for a job at DORS (Department of Rehabilitation Services) LOL. Although my job has in association with DORS, I'd later find out that I'm really working for the SSA (Social Security Administration) as part of their DDS (Disability Determination Services)department. I'd also learn that the job is a major change from what I was use to. Instead of working hands on with disabled people, I'd be confined to a cubicle processing disability cases.

At first I found the job very confusing & for a good couple months I was struggling with my caseload. I even came to a point where I was about to throw in the towel & just quit, but with the encouragement of some of my coworkers & just my stubborness of not wanting to give up, I gave the job another chance. I'm not sure what happened, but all of a sudden the job started to make sense and evereything seemed to click. Around March of this year I started to get the hang of my job & my cases started to move. By June of this year I started to receive compliments from my supervisors & the medical staff. Not too long ago I got the following e-mail from one of our psych staff:

"Jqhn, thanks for the great PRTF on Ms. Thomas; ss# ***-**-****. You created a concise, great PRTF. Those PRTF's like yours makes our jobs so much quicker!
Thanks again, for all your hard work.
Dr. W"

Also, in the past 2 months I have been able to decrease my pending from 120 plus cases to a current caseload of only 88 cases. In addition to that, the week of October 30th I cleared a record number of 21 cases & was awarded the “star producer title” from my current supervisor. Today I had a review with my supervisor & she had nothing but good things to say about me & my work ethic. It was just a good feeling to hear such praise. Also, it doesn't hurt to hear that I'll be receiving a nice pay increase as well : )

All in all, it's amazing how in a year's time I can go from working a job in which I had no idea what I'm getting into, being totally clueless, & having such rough time to the point in which I wanted to quit to doing an outstanding job & being one of the star producers at my job. It definitely has been an interesting ride so far.