January 5th, 2011 | Author: trancejen
Did I mention I’ve lost an AMAZING SEVEN POUNDS since New Year’s?? And that I’ve been working out every single freaking day?
Isn’t that annoying?
Don’t be too annoyed. It’s probably all water weight.
This is where I give you an exhaustive rundown of my fitness routines, diet, and poop schedule, and start talking about Feeling The Burn and The Energy and My Motivation and how wonderful it all is.
Bleh. Truth be told, I still loathe working out. The only thing that’s making it even slightly enjoyable is the new treadmill, which has some sort of piston system creating shocks that are easier on my poor old knees and shins, and a speaker system I can plug my iPod into.
I am spoiled.
I dropped a five-pound free weight on my toe yesterday in a moment of supreme klutziness, and now I have a purple, possibly broken, toe. I was obviously not meant to do this shit. Still, I plug on, hoping that it will get easier and more routine over time.
I called my cell phone provider yesterday to try to Christian them down a little on my bill, because truth be told, I rarely use the phone. I never really go anywhere, and no one ever freaking calls me. My mom and son use their phones even less. So, I asked for less minutes, and non-unlimited texting.
The guy I spoke to was cool, he knocked down my bill a bit, we wound up chatting about various bullshit for a while (I am so desperate for adult contact that I will engage anyone), and he told me that I was eligible for a free month of internet on my phone.
Right on, I thought. I’ll give it a go.
Oh my GOD. Once I got the hang of it I was off to the races, Facebooking away on my phone, checking my e-mail, IMing, you name it. I don’t have a super-fancy phone, but it does the trick, and God, I wish I had never been offered this newfangled phone interweb, because it is like CRACK. I can barely see it, I have to squint like a freak and literally put the phone right up to my eyeball, but it’s so much fun!
Hi. I haz a new toy.
I haven’t told the J-Man about this yet, because I will never get a response from him again. He will have a phone glued to his hand and will say nothing but M-Hm for the next thirty days.
The only reason I’m not blogging from my phone is that I haven’t figured out how to do it yet, and that my thumbs aren’t quite that fast.
I used to make fun of you people who were glued to your stupid cell phones, constantly checking your Facebook updates and monitoring your e-mail and stock tips, Googling everything that came up in polite conversation.
Now I see. Now I get it.
In other news, I had a mini heart attack this week when I went to my local Walgreens to pick up a prescription and the cashier smilingly charged me four hundred and fifty dollars.
Jesus tap-dancing Christ.
I inquired, and she said something about my prescription drug coverage and the new year and deductibles and paying full price, but all I heard was Asshole, You Have Upward Of Two Grand A Month In Prescription Costs, You Are So Fucked.
I called Medicare and found out that my “extra help” (program for the broke) had not gone through, and that I had a five hundred dollar deductible. Which I could pay out of savings, but I’d rather not.
Sixty-five phone calls later, and this was resolved and I only had to pay about a hundred and thirty bucks, but can you imagine? Two grand a month for prescriptions? This got me thinking about the thousands and thousands of people that have not been approved for Medicare. I was in that position myself for a long time, and it’s a seriously shitty position to be in. What do you do if you can’t afford your drugs? I think about what I would do if I couldn’t afford my seizure meds and shudder. I am thankfully one of the lucky ones, but there are plenty who are homeless and jobless who are waiting for disability claims to go through who have no recourse.
My mother now works for a local disability attorney and comes home with the saddest stories you have ever heard.
I guess what I’m saying is that as much as I bitch about my health, I’m thankful every day that at least I have good insurance and drug coverage and can keep things at least slightly under control. I don’t know what the hell I would do if I were in another type of situation.
I’m sitting here joking about my fancy new treadmill and my cellphone, and I know that I’m lucky, materially; but I guess I really have no idea how lucky I am.
I could be one of those forgotten.
Sounds like a good New Years so far, overall. Except for the toe. Hope that heals up quick. I can only imagine the string of curses that came out of your mouth!
Oh, it was epic.
Yeah, my dude used to be on his phone all. the. time. and would want to Google everything that came up. It annoyed the shit out of me.
Obvious end to the story: I got a smart phone too. Oops. It’s total crack.
Well, I am working at a POS job, and I am really just killing time until time kills me, literally, and that may or may not be so long off. I will be damned if I spend my 401k (from my previous REAL job) on any GD medical. I will die and leave it to my kid. It ain’t just the out of work and homeless who don’t have medical, and nuthin or NOBODY is going to change that, no matter what ANY politician says. If I get sick, I either recover on my own, or I die. I have lived this way for ten years, since I was laid off from a company that I had 20 years with, a company that I thought I would be retiring from. There is no exaggeration here. If it were not for my mom accepting me back into her home after my divorce and being laid off, I would have been effed even sooner. End of story.
You reminded me of a very funny story from my youth: I used to be married and my husband was in the Navy. Well, his ship was going off on a 6-month cruise and he did not trust me alone in a Navy town with all the men so he convinced me to drop a 40-pound weight on his foot so he could get a cast and be out on limited duty for the duration of the cruise. Well, I did it, and then had to rush him to the ER, crying my eyes out the whole way. We lied and told everyone that he was working out and the weight collar slipped and that’s how the weight fell off onto his foot. Even though we later got divorced I think it was YEARS before I told anyone the truth of that little story. HA! (His cast came off after 4 months and he went back on the ship for the last 2 months of the cruise and had an affair with a girl onboard. And HE didn’t trust ME. *snort*)
Ah Trish, I am so sorry to hear that, and you’re so right, it’s not just those out of work or homeless that are dealing with this situation, and I should have recognized that. I hope things improve for you soon. It’s really tough when you make “too much” for Medicaid and are not eligible for Medicare and can’t afford private insurance. That blows, and I wish to God that politicians would address it. Our state has coverage for all children, but adults are left to swing in the wind. It’s a shame. I will be thinking about you and hoping that things get better for you.
Stub, I think I would have dropped another weight on him after all that – this time on his head!!!
Congrats on the weight loss and working out. I didn’t work out for the last 2 weeks of December but I got right back to it this week. I hate working out too so I’m trying to make it as pleasant as possible so I stay with it. Previously, the longest I ever stuck with it was 6 months. I’m at 5 months this go-around and hopeful. I don’t let myself think about it; I just make myself do it.
Thanks, Jen…. Life has indeed been a challenge…. I never thought it would have turned out like this.
Just a heads up on the cell phone with internet access: I don’t have a particularly fancy phone myself (LG Lotus) and for a few months, my husband and I had internet access on our phones. I was facebooking, myspacing, tweeting, checking my email, you name it. Well, we decided to drop the internet service on our phones and wound up with an extra $75/mo in charges for my “data usage” for two months even though I stopped using the web when we dropped down our plan. The first month, they gave us $30 off the $75 charge and the second time, we got them to drop the charge completely and had to put a data block on the phones. Turns out, once my phone was signed in to some of those sites from the phone, there was no way to sign out! So my phone continued to receive notification when I had new emails, etc. I took it directly to the service provider for help and although they were able to log off most of the accounts, my phone still shows me my last status update on myspace. Just watch out for that. I don’t want to see you get stuck in that position too once your 30 days run out!
Thanks for the heads up, I never would have known this!!
Hey! You promised a run down on your poop schedule then failed to deliver…what gives?
Which is why America needs socialised medicine.
I hope your toe will get smaller and less purple soon.
Oh man, I have done something to my neck, I don’t even know. The result is that as well as a sore tweak in the neck, my pointer finger has gone completely numb! Hubster says I have impinged the nerves somehwere in my wrist temporarily, and the doctor seemed to agree. But I can’t menacingly point anymore. Well I can, but it feels like someone else is doing it.