Why people hate insurance companies

     In early October, I received a letter from my insurance company asking for documentation to support an insurance claim from a visit in May. Annoying, but more annoying because it was a yearly checkup at a practice that I'd been to the year before - also for a yearly checkup, also coded in plain English on the claim as a yearly checkup - that they'd contested and I'd proven was covered. But, bureaucracy, so ok, I gather the documents and send an email as requested on October 24th, well within their 45 day response time.

     No acknowledgement of receipt, no response.

     Two weeks pass, the deadline to submit passes...

Office types

Observation:

Result:

Job search, part 2.

     Last week, we talked about the frustration of finding jobs to apply for, given financial considerations and employer expectations. Regardless of what you are looking for, however- with the possible exception of an "I'm a millionaire and just need something to pass the time" situation- I think that having to look for a job at all is a rather depressing situation. Because let's face it, what you're trying to do is sell yourself and your past to someone who has a whole slew of people clamoring to do the same. And while you know that you're awesome, intelligent, and a much better choice for that position (you hope) than anyone else, they don't. For those of us who aren't natural-born salesmen, that's a problem.

     Despite my ability to describe other things fairly well (and the fact that I write a blog about myself on a regular basis...), I abhor the whole "talk yourself up" thing. Part of this is that I hold myself to some pretty high standards, but since I've done it for so long, what is "normal" to me (and therefor not worth mention) is worth mentioning to others. I've gotten compliments at various workplaces before about "Wow, you got that done well before it was expected!" or "Why did you admit to making a mistake? No one wanted to deal with the cleanup there?" and stuff like that. The thing is, those are just standard for me: doing things ahead of schedule- or on time at the latest- and owning up to your mistakes (so you can learn from them and help the people who were affected by them) are standards, baselines, ordinary things that are done everyday just because they're the right thing to do. But how do you get that across?

Counting down: 11 days

This is me today:

Because this was me all week/ weekend:

Moving prep

     Let the countdown begin! I just realized today that there are only 19 days left until I leave this place for good and start working again, hopefully with something relevant to my degrees. This past weekend was taken up with putting a trailer hitch on my car, and rewiring the back end to add a plug for trailer lights. It took a little bit longer than expected, but I had a huge amount of fun with my (awesome) aunt, uncle, and cousin. The trailer itself didn't show up, so I get to go back up there next weekend and spent more time with them, putting it together. I've been selling stuff on ebay and craigslist, and pretty much everything superfluous to daily life is either sold, boxed up, or waiting to be donated, which makes the place rather bare. No worries though, because I have an 8-page final paper (in Russian!) due in less than two weeks, and I expect that to take up most of my time and attention.

     I won't lie, it's all a little overwhelming, and both my attention span and sleeping patterns have taken a hit because of everything going on. I've got an impressive number of lists going, and if something isn't on my calendar, well, it basically doesn't get done. Not because I don't care about it, but just because I only remember about 6 hours too late to do anything about it. As someone who is usually quite orderly, this is more than a bit disturbing, but I'm trying not to let it get me down. Remember those positive websites I linked back here? They're getting heavily used, trust me.

Good days and bad days

Saturday:

• Did laundry (down 2 flights of stairs),
• Washed sheets (also 2 flights of stairs),
• Hand-washed my winter coat,
• Did the dishes,
• Cleaned out the fridge,
• Cleaned out the cabinets,
• Culled old clothes that no longer fit from the closet,
• Put stuff up on eBay,
• Wrote up a study guide for Russian Fairy Tales midterm,
• Watched Russian cartoons to expand vocab and listening comprehension,
• Read a (short) French book,

The countdown begins

     This past Friday marked the six week point until I leave on vacation/ the trip to Russia. In general terms this is not particularly important, but for me, six weeks is the point at which things become real. And unfortunately, the current situation means that things also become worrisome.

Yeah, that's about how I feel.

     Everyone has some sort of calendar in their heads, used to keep track of what's going on and when. Some people are better at this than others, though the prevalence of technology has made this less important than in the past. My calendar is broken down into, roughly, a weekly basis: this week and next week, "soon" (i.e., within the next six weeks or so), and "eventually" (more than six weeks out). If something definitely will happen that is in the "eventually" section, I put it on my calendar with an alert, because I know I will forget about it before it happens.

Surfing and skydiving

     Oh, look, another blank page. Having spent the last week staring at an unfinished, 10-page literature paper that is due tomorrow, I hope you'll forgive me for being slightly unenthused about looking up to see another unfilled document. Fortuitously, however, this one requires neither citations, nor research, nor reading yet another dry, morbid, depressed critique on yet another societal injustice. Instead, let us consider surfing and skydiving. Random, I know, but roll with it for a moment...

     Back in 2008, my life was pretty decent. I had a solid (I thought) job, that I didn't utterly hate and allowed me to put money in the bank to save for those rainy days that came sooner than planned. I had no real ties or commitments to anything, no real debts, and few hassles. As such, I felt that there was no better time than the present to try out a few things that had been on my unwritten bucket list. During the summer, I tried out surfing at a camp in California. While I made a very good friend there, I was still pasty white girl, and the very first day saw me with severe enough sunburn that I was limping the entire week, and decided that surfing was not for me.

This, but all over. 

Name change... again...

An interesting fact to note, and one that is starting to become important in my life: The Social Security office has a limit on the number of cards they will issue you. You may only receive 3 within one year, or ten within your lifetime. Being as that I'm working on my fourth now, I need to watch out!

Almost a decade ago, I got my first name legally changed. As with (almost) all major life decisions, I took my time doing it to ensure I wouldn't regret it. After trying out different names to find one that fit me- a process that took over 2 years, actually- I insisted that everyone around me use the new name for a year or so, just to make sure it was the right one. I took my paperwork to the court, got my name changed, and went through all the usual processes: social security, driver's license, voter registration, and bills. At the time, it seemed a fairly easy process, probably because I lived in a town that had all of those offices at reasonable distances and locations.

Last year, I got married. Once again, I got my name changed, and had to go through the process of updating everyone else on the matter, but I had someone with me this time, and the waiting was easier. Also, the town into which I had moved had all the offices conveniently located close to each other again, so it was mostly easy drives out, medium wait times, and filing paperwork. There was a little bit of trouble with things like my passport (have you SEEN the prices for passports lately?!) and the fact that the court that had issued my carry