Health Care (Part Two)

Shortly after HealthCare.gov became available I thought I would give it a go, but there was just no signing on, period.  I kind of expected that, as I don't live under a rock.  I watch the news, I have seen the issues, but you can't write a blog if you don't have material. :)

A few weeks later I thought I would try again, and was able to set up an account right away, but then when they sent the confirmation email for me to click on, it had expired, after literally three minutes.  Seriously? Ugh. I set it on the back burner again, waiting for them to get their act together.

So I watched, and I waited until last week, hoping that things would be a little more smoothed out.  The website glitched a few times, but after about forty-five minutes total I was able to set up an account, get my tax credit information, and find a plan that would work for me.

In short, Obama Care, for me, did exactly what it was meant to do.  I was able to find a decent plan within my means, and after three years without, I will have coverage again in January.  How that all will come out in the wash remains to be seen, but so far so good.  Stay tuned!

The Couch

Once upon a time I saw a couch in the department store window.  I really, really wanted to buy that couch.  The price tag said $1500, which I knew I would never pay, but I also hoped that the price would come down, so I started to save.

Time passed, and the couch price began to drop.  I got married, but by a year later was on my way to being divorced, and living on my own, in my very empty apartment. (good times)  I still kept my eye on that couch, and when the price went down to $700 I split it with savings and a credit card.  Now I at least had something other than the hard wooden rocker to sit on at the apartment.

The couch became my home base.  I ate there, watched tv there, napped there, read there, had my very first kiss with The Brown Eyed Man there.  Misty and Pepper played and napped there, Sam laid by my feet there.  Milkie snuggled with me there, and Jacob even sat by it a time or two. The kids sit there to eat on holidays, the Goovers and I have watched countless movies there, and it's where Ash sleeps on Goover Sleepover days.

I laughed there, I cried there, I was so angry once that I ripped the cushions right off and tossed them against the wall.  My last conversation with my beloved Aunt/ Godmother was on the phone there.  So many memories tied up into a piece of furniture! (Yes, if you know what a "Burble" is......)

Seven years later, the couch is still in amazing shape.  After all, I'm the only one who sat on it regularly and I'm not that messy.  The kids surprisingly never spilled on it, and the pets are/were all well behaved.  I had a spot all picked out for it at the house, and looked forward to curling up on it with a book from time to time.

Yeah, it's always something.  The couch wont fit.  A friend of mine (thank God)  picked it up on Monday night, and it will join her family.  It's just a couch right?  I'll buy another one.  My life is changing.........

What I found when I moved/cleaned the couch:  An empty purple Easter egg that said "Paul".  A wrist band to get into the races left by The Brown Eyed Man, a piece of petrified Misty poop, (of course) and a whole bunch of "hot buttered O's". (a sleepover treat) Oh, and there was some Sam hair too.  Man that dog could shed.

After the couch was gone, I sat in one of the two remaining dining table chairs, and called The Brown Eyed Man.

Him: Are you o.k.?

Me: NO, I'm not. +big sigh+  It's just a couch, I'll get over it.

He had already hauled a load from the apartment earlier in the day, and had dinner ready so I just shut off the lights and headed home.  Someone else handled what I needed to do.  All I had to do was drive home and relax.  What parallel universe is this?  It has been a long time since someone helped to carry the load, and it was a very nice surprise.  I would trade that for a couch any day. :)

So the comfy couch has moved on to new adventures, and so have I.  The memories go with me, and for that I am truly thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving!!   (here are a few of my favorites)


http://www.queenie930.blogspot.com/2012/11/turkey-butts.html

 http://queenie930.blogspot.com/2011/11/goblet-incident-of-76.html

My Voice

This is the first year that I have actually tuned in and watched (so far) the entire season of "The Voice".  It's a pretty good program, and there isn't anything else on Monday night T.V. that floats my boat.  Sandy Hughitt and I will text our opinions back and forth, and The Brown Eyed Man has actually sat with me and watched the entire show the last two Monday's.  On Tuesday nights we just tune in to see who's eliminated. For the record, I did offer to go in the other room and watch it.  I don't force my T.V. tastes on the man of the house, and don't mind setting up base camp in the bedroom.  I usually have a lot going on in the evenings, so I have the television on, but wander. (read as A.D.D.)

I have watched American Idol during past seasons, but only caught one episode this last go 'round.  I could not believe the outfit that Mariah Carrey was wearing that evening, the entire mid-front was gone.  Now we all know exactly what her boobs look like.  After last night on "The Voice" we all know what Christina Aguillera's look like too. 

Now I am no prude, quite the opposite in fact, BUT:

1. These shows are promoted as "family" programing.
2. What the hell kind of message are you sending to the target age group of young women who watch these things?! (which is what really burns my toast)
3. Why aren't the male judges sitting there half dressed? 

Christina and Mariah are both beautiful, talented, empowered women, who are equally as smart.  Why, why, why (?!) would they agree to do this?  Ladies, you are sending the wrong message to teen aged girls everywhere. Why would you encourage the belief that being amazingly talented and smart isn't enough?

After I caught a glimpse at Christina's get up last night I ranted for a bit, and then said "Who do I write to?" Then I realized.  "Wait, I have a blog!" 

Holidaze

Speaking of being thankful, and of Thanksgiving, it IS Thanksgiving.  It's not pre-Christmas. Heck, it isn't even Advent yet.  Why do we have to drag Christmas into November?  The day after Halloween I was at The Walmart, and there were the forlorn, unpicked, pumpkins sitting in the entry way where you grab a cart, next to a display of mini Christmas trees.  Really?

Why do we feel the need to slide over Thanksgiving?  Now the Black Friday Shoppers will be at it on Thursday.  Speaking of The Walmart, they want kudos because they are feeding their employees, who will be working, a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  How nice. (sarcasm)  Kmart has always been open on Thanksgiving (or at least for the past ten years), but closed at four so the employees could go home to be with family, which is, after all, the point.  Not this year.  Ashlyn is currently a Kmart employee, and she has to work on the holiday, and the day after.  Welcome to the world of retail Baby Thanksgiving Pig Nose!

I do understand that some people have to work on the holiday.  However, when you become a doctor, or a nurse, that should be an obvious issue.  When you work in a nursing home, yep, you are probably going to have to work some holidays.  

I have done a little bit of Black Friday shopping, but really...... up at o'dark thirty to shop??  Not my style.  I certainly won't support it this year.  I will be at work myself, (bah humbug) and the early sales times would be perfect, but I wont go.  When I did go, it was about fun and camaraderie, not so much the sales.  I'm all about priorities and family, and this is just wrong.  Yes, I know families get together to do this, but I'm thinking about all the people who HAVE to work.  This isn't a choice for them, and you know who's bottom line it feeds.  Can you imagine having family come to town that you don't see very often, and you can't visit because you now have to work the holiday, so that some person can buy a four dollar blender at three a.m? Leave Thanksgiving alone, and put the sales back to five a.m. so people can have some family time.  To me this shift is a good example of what is wrong with this country.  Well, o.k. one of the things anyway. :) 

What am I doing to celebrate the holiday?  That's funny, because it's the one holiday when my family doesn't get together.  My ex used to do all the cooking, and everyone from both sides came to our house.  After the divorce they were all looking at me, wondering if I would perhaps feed them.  Yeah....no.  "You all have in-laws, go find them."  I am assuming the holiday is going to get consumed by final moving issues, although I'm hoping to be finished up by then.  We will catch up with The Brown Eyed Man's Mom the weekend after, as she's working on the holiday, so it will be just a quiet dinner at home with Jake and Milkie (which is going much better than anticipated) and that's fine with me!!  I look forward to cooking in the area formerly known as "A man's kitchen". ;)

30 Days

It has become a tradition on Facebook to post something you are thankful for each day in November.  I find this little cartoon funny, although I am a huge proponent of  "Thirty Days of Thankful".

A few years ago my life was in a serious downward spiral.  Between Oct 1 and Dec 1 I had lost both pets, and my relationship, which caused me to temporarily lose one more pet. I was also being downsized out of a job with a company I had worked for for twenty years.  Luckily I already lined up a new one, but I was giving up everything benefit wise.  I was not a happy camper. The entire year that followed was not really a great time for me, at least as far as my attitude went.

Then in 2011 I saw some friends of mine on facebook doing thirty days of thankful.  I was skeptical, and that little sarcastic voice in my head was having a field day, kind of on the order of the above cartoon.  However, participating in that exercise, really embracing it, eventually turned my thought process around, which in turn changed my entire life.
http://queenie930.blogspot.com/2011/11/thirty-days-of-thankful.html

I find that I am thankful, or at least trying to find something positive, even on my worst days.  As my Mama used to say. "Joanmarie, life is what you make it." 

The following year I wrote this blog about it.:
http://queenie930.blogspot.com/2012/11/thirty-days-of-thankful.html

This year I am SO busy with the move that thirty days of thankful is the thing that is grounding me.  What am I thankful for today?  Yes, I have 123 things to do after I work a ten hour shift, but what am I thankful for?  It's helping me to find the joy, instead of just seeing all the work that has to be done.

Lil Bit Country

Well.......  (it's a deep subject)

I've gone and done it.  Tonight I am moving out to the country.  The Brown Eyed Man, Jacob, Milkie, and I (and the mice and the spiders) are all going to be living under one roof.

I have talked a bit, since my birthday, about being fierce, and about letting go of my "tiger".  That's what I have done.  The two hardest things in the entire world for me are:

1. Admit I need help. (and actually ask for it)
2. Open myself up fully to another person.

It's a huge step for me, and although I know it's the right thing, for a whole lot of reasons, my independent self is having an apoplectic fit.  I just have to remember to focus on myself as much as I do the relationship, and all will be well.  Plus I get my own room, and an office!  Well, it's Milkie's room, but I can use it if I need to. 

Speaking of fits, can someone explain all of this to Milkie?  This morning I said to her, as she drank water out of the sink, "Enjoy your last day at the apartment!"  The glare I got in return told me that she can, in fact, understand everything I say.  She absolutely adores The Brown Eyed Man, it's Jacob she isn't so fond of.  Poor puppy.....

So by the end of today Milk and I will officially be country girls. We'll use the rest of the month to get all of my crap situated. (How can one little person have so much stuff?)  Then one final trip to the Landlord's and we're done.

Oh, speaking of HIM.  When I called and told him I was leaving at month end he says "NO! You are one of my best tenants.  You can't move.  Tell your boyfriend to move to town!"  Really?  This is how you treat your "best tenants"?  Then some blah blah blah about me having pets, so he will have to have the apartment "professionally cleaned" so not to expect much deposit.  I assume I have the right to see the bill from the "professional" cleaning?  He forgets that I have seen the handyman arrive with the carpet cleaner after each tenant has left to "professionally" clean the carpet.  What a load o' crap.

To you landlords out there.  If you have someone who pays the rent each and every month on time, watches over your property, because it is in fact their home, and causes you no grief whatsoever, wouldn't it make sense to keep the tenant happy and keep the tenant?  Karma is a bitch buddy, and I haven't decided yet if I will leave you to her or take care of it myself. ;)

Overall I am really excited to start this new adventure.  It will be so nice to just go home at night and not have to run all over like a chicken without a head.  It will be amazing to be able to say good-night instead of good-bye! ♥

Meys Menu

I don't know if it was from her days as "Sister Mary Gregory", or if my Mom was raised like this, but when I was a youngster we had a very strict menu in our house.  My Dad was a meat and potatoes man, so we never had things like pizza for dinner, or tacos, or spaghetti.  I introduced these into our household when I was in junior high.  Even then our taco meat was actually sloppy joe meat, and usually reserved for a time when my folks were going out to dinner. I took cooking in 4H when I was maybe eleven, and that's how spaghetti finally made the menu.

We had things like pizza and sloppy joes, but they were on the lunch menu only.  Breakfast would vary, but Saturday was always pancakes and sausage, and Sunday was bacon and fried eggs. 

Monday: Hamburger of some sort, meatloaf most likely.  Might be hash if there was left over roast. (gag)

Tuesday: Baked chicken, with baked potato and a veggie.  One of the better nights, unless the veggie was canned peas.

Wednesday:  Steak night.   The cheapest cut available, and it usually was "onion steak" meaning topped with onion soup mix and broiled.  This is better known as "The reason Joanie rarely eats steak."  If it wasn't steak it could be some random hot dish or new (shudder) thing my Mom was trying.

Thursday:  I can't recall, so it was probably a day where we might have hot dog hot dish (DA BOMB!) or something nasty like liver.  We didn't have "Cheery Chops" on the weekend, so that could have reared it's ugly head on a Thursday too.  My sister still makes that God awful stuff. *shudder*

Friday: Fish.  Always fish.  Good thing we all liked fish.  It was kind of fun when we were a little older and the family got a deep frier.  Then we had fried shrimp and clams and "exotic" things like that.  Plus we  always had spinach on Friday.  The canned kind.  Ish.

Saturday:  Pork, in the form of chops or steak.  They were cut thin, and must be broiled enough to be crunchy......  Not as bad as what they did to steak.

Sunday:  Pork roast or beef roast with potato, onion, and carrots, or there might be ham!

We had dessert every night of the week.  It was usually cake, but sometimes pudding.  Of course I had to eat my dinner to get to that point, so I many times I didn't have dessert.  Most people fondly remember their mother's cooking.  I am not one of them.  I think the only thing I make that is from the good old days is Hot Dog Hot dish.  (DA BOMB)  I did love her garlic bread and home made buns though, and she made amazing cookies!  So there is that.  Lemon tortes, fudge....... yeah, she had a good handle on the desserts!

After much consideration, maybe with three young kids and a part time job the menu schedule was just a way to make her own life easier.  I know that when I had a household to run and was working full time I would create a two week menu to shop off of, and that comes directly from watching my Mom.  It makes things a lot less easier when you don't have to think about what's for dinner.  However, there weren't any cheery chops or liver on that menu, and many times I eat dessert first, just because I can! ;)