I miss the U.P. The weather down here is getting to me - it's not supposed to be 80 degrees in mid-October! The last week hasn't been as bad - it's stayed in the 60's and dropped to the 40's at night - but it's not "fall". I love fall - the colors, the smell, the way it sounds when the leaves crunch under your feet, how great it feels to put on a sweatshirt and sit outside on a sunny fall day. But I don't get any of that here. Half the time it's too warm to wear pants, let alone a sweatshirt. For the past week I've insisted on keeping our windows open so that our house would get cold and I could put on some sweats and snuggle up with a book and some tea on the couch (you just can't do that when it's 80 out, even with AC). I was finally forced to close them when we woke up on Sunday and the place was only 62 degrees, but I still loved every minute of it. I don't know what I'm going to do when December rolls around and there's no snow. It's a whole different reason to get the Holiday Blues. So yeah, I miss the U.P.
Besides the unsatisfactory weather, things are generally well. HayZeus is still hopping along, but at a pace that the vet is happy with. HayZeus is so excited to be allowed to jump onto things - for two weeks after his surgery he was on activity restrictions so he wasn't allowed to run or jump. Do you know how hard it is to keep a cat off the furniture? Impossible. We tipped our dining room table onto it's side, locked him out of the bedrooms and bathrooms, put the dining room chairs across the couch...everything we could think of to prevent him from jumping. But that little bastard still managed - open the bedroom for 3 seconds and he was curled up on the bed, right the dining room table to eat and he was up there with you....just impossible. Thankfully, we don't have to do that anymore. His incision is completely healed and his hair is growing back, although he still looks pretty freaky. :)
I'm starting to run out of things to do with my time. I go to class 6 hours a week, have about 20 minutes of homework for each class, and am occasionally insulted that I'm paying my algebra professer to teach me how to use a graphing calculator. I really like my algebra prof - she's a great teacher and I enjoy being in her class - but I'm not in middle school so I guess I'm expecting more out of the curriculum. I shouldn't complain because I put in very little effort to get A's in the class...but still, I'm paying for this? Ugh. My psych class makes me want to shove a pencil into my eye, so it's probably a good thing I only have it once a week.
So that leaves me with a lot of time on my hands. I've applied for a lot of office assistant type jobs and a handful of phlebotomy/lab related jobs but haven't had much response. I'm thinking about applying at the video rental place at the end of the road just for something to do. Otherwise I'm at home with little to do. Our house is always spotless, I cook a lot, make sure the bills are paid, bathe the cat, all that sort of stuff (I still don't fold laundry). It's been nice to have the time/personal space to explore some hobbies - I've been doing a lot of "jewel-crafting", as Jake calls it, meaning that I've been beading/making jewelry. Joe thinks I should try to sell what I make, which I'm considering. I'm also trying to remember how to sew (which is challenging because I don't think I ever really knew before) and last week I made throw pillows to match our couch/window valance.
I guess that's about all that's going on around here. Until next time...
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
Let's have a party!
Here's my political rant for the week (they'll pop up a few times between now and November 4th)
Today the House passed the much talked about "bailout bill". I'm excited about this. While I think the bulk of the bill is crap and that we shouldn't pay for banks' mistakes, it was inevitable that something like this would go through. Thus, I've found my peace with it in a tiny little amendment the Senate quietly tacked on - in all actuality, this amendment was the basis of the original bill that the bailout package was added onto. So while the bill has been deemed the "Emergency Stabilization Act of 2008" it started out as the "Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2008", which requires private insurance companies to cover mental health and addiction services on parity with medical surgical services. This includes treatment limits, co-pays, deductables, inpatient services (both in and out of network), emergency services, and out of pocket maximums.
This is huge. Our mental health coverage is horrible, as is many other Americans'. If the bill had been in effect in the past 10 months we'd have saved over a thousand dollars, and it will save us hundreds of dollars in future years as well. And there are many people out there that have worse coverage and more need for services, so I'm telling you I could practically throw a party with balloons and streamers and hats and cake.
Additionally, the Act also prohits insurance companies from discriminating against individuals based on genetic information - i.e. they cannot increase premiums, drop coverage, or evaluate enrollment eligibility based on the presence of a gene linked to any specific disease.
This is also huge - my Aunt has Huntingtons disease, which is passed on genetically. Each child has a 50/50 chance of getting the gene, and research shows that you cannot be a carrier - the gene is ALWAYS expressed. Thus if you have the gene, you will develop the disease. My Aunt and Uncle have three children. The oldest tested positive for the gene, but she's the only one who's opted to be tested, partly because of the possibility of discrimination based on the test results that can and does occur. So it's a little weight off the shoulders of those who have not been tested because they no longer have to fear loss of health coverage.
Anyway, I'm excited about that ammendment. There's a couple other ones that are good too - the ones that will actually help everyday Americans - but there's a lot of junk in the rest of it. I guess you sometimes have to trade the good for the bad.
So I've decided Congress isn't completely evil - at least not this week. Now if we could only get the legislative branch to follow suit...then I'd really have to throw a big bash!
Today the House passed the much talked about "bailout bill". I'm excited about this. While I think the bulk of the bill is crap and that we shouldn't pay for banks' mistakes, it was inevitable that something like this would go through. Thus, I've found my peace with it in a tiny little amendment the Senate quietly tacked on - in all actuality, this amendment was the basis of the original bill that the bailout package was added onto. So while the bill has been deemed the "Emergency Stabilization Act of 2008" it started out as the "Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2008", which requires private insurance companies to cover mental health and addiction services on parity with medical surgical services. This includes treatment limits, co-pays, deductables, inpatient services (both in and out of network), emergency services, and out of pocket maximums.
This is huge. Our mental health coverage is horrible, as is many other Americans'. If the bill had been in effect in the past 10 months we'd have saved over a thousand dollars, and it will save us hundreds of dollars in future years as well. And there are many people out there that have worse coverage and more need for services, so I'm telling you I could practically throw a party with balloons and streamers and hats and cake.
Additionally, the Act also prohits insurance companies from discriminating against individuals based on genetic information - i.e. they cannot increase premiums, drop coverage, or evaluate enrollment eligibility based on the presence of a gene linked to any specific disease.
This is also huge - my Aunt has Huntingtons disease, which is passed on genetically. Each child has a 50/50 chance of getting the gene, and research shows that you cannot be a carrier - the gene is ALWAYS expressed. Thus if you have the gene, you will develop the disease. My Aunt and Uncle have three children. The oldest tested positive for the gene, but she's the only one who's opted to be tested, partly because of the possibility of discrimination based on the test results that can and does occur. So it's a little weight off the shoulders of those who have not been tested because they no longer have to fear loss of health coverage.
Anyway, I'm excited about that ammendment. There's a couple other ones that are good too - the ones that will actually help everyday Americans - but there's a lot of junk in the rest of it. I guess you sometimes have to trade the good for the bad.
So I've decided Congress isn't completely evil - at least not this week. Now if we could only get the legislative branch to follow suit...then I'd really have to throw a big bash!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
