Half remember a couple of dreams last night. One was that I was sleeping on the lawn, because I wanted to be outside in the fresh air and wind while I slept. I had a blanket spread out there, and I woke up to answer a text on my phone from someone asking if I was sleeping on the lawn again. And I texted back if that if you live in an area where crime's low enough isn't it nice to sleep where you can breathe?

The other dream was somewhat more disturbing - it involved being a girl at a girl's boarding school. There were these catty girls talking about vanity domains on the internet and one girl said "Oh, I'm not a domainist" in the same way one might say racist or sexist. I had an english class to go to, but I had to use the bathroom first. In the bathroom I discovered that there was a shower running and I pulled back the curtain because it was clear to see that there was no outline of a person in it so I could turn the water off. Face down in the water were two newborn babies (twins?). One of them was floating and the other was making some half-hearted swimming motions. I turned the water off and pulled them out and I remember feeling how cold their skin was and trying to revive them before they died. Don't know if that worked or not as I woke up.

I have to go to court with Steve early tomorrow morning over some incredibly stupid stuff. Teenagers are very good at getting themselves into stupid things. I am already stressing out about it, as it involves so many stressful things and I'm not really good with all that.

And today I got all kinda pissed off getting my oil changed. The yahoos that work there couldn't get the hood open so the guy comes to me in a completely condescending fashion and tells me that I have a 'problem' with my hood and I'll have to get it fixed before I got my oil changed. The problem was that despite the banging they did on my hood like complete idiots (which lucky for them they didn't do hard enough to actually dent anything- which also of course meant if a stuck hood WAS the problem it was unlikely to work). You have to stick your finger in to unlatch the latch, which took all of three seconds once I informed them. They were still smarmy and tried to claim I didn't understand it was some kind of spring or wire problem really - no, of course it wasn't them. Oy.

Our insurance finally kicked in, and it turns out that the doctor I wanted to go to does indeed take it - so Aus and I both have appointments for December 14th. I have a bunch of papers to fill out, and I've got to get our records transfered from the clinic and all but it's a step in the positive direction. It'll be really nice to see a proper doctor again. And I have so many other medical things that I need - dentist to get my dentures hopefully, eye doctor to get new glasses, gynecologist to get checked up and all... it's nice that we can get started on all that now.

I'm trying to get Aus in to see the doctor at the same time as my appointment today at 4:15, because he's caught my sinus problem. This should be a fairly simple thing, right? Wrong.

27 minutes on hold, shuffled through the phone system three times, only to be given to someone's goddamn voice mail. Have I mentioned how much I hate the clinic? Well let me mention it again. Completely incompetent, surly staff members that barely tend to your needs. The doctor is nice, but you only see him for five minutes after waiting three hours if you manage to get through the phone maze to make an appointment to begin with.

I'm also pissed off that they sent us insurance cards we can't use until December first, because we could have gotten coverage in a timely manner, we wouldn't be doing this song-and-dance with the clinic yet-a-fucking-gain.

That thing with the sinuses has gone down into my chest now, so I'm kind of coughing and rumbling in addition to being all nasally congested. The steroids and antibiotics they gave me at the hospital must be helping on some level, because now at least I don't feel the dreadful pressure in my ears and head so much.

In other news, I wrote two stories to kick my nano efforts off yesterday. Here's hoping that I'll be able to do some more writing when I'm done with being pissed off, and/or back from the clinic. (Note: this is not very likely. I just called the doctor back and in addition to all the usual hold garbage, I got a notice that says 'You are seventh in line'. Fucking balls.)

I also spent some time yesterday watching the V marathon on the Sci Fi channel (I refuse to use their new name - when did they start with that lameness?). V was one of my favorites as a teenager, and I'm looking forward to the remake. I really hope they don't ruin it.

Back on the phone with the doctor... fifteen minutes and two shuffles so far. A bit of yelling and DO NOT GIVE ME TO VOICEMAIL later, and I'm finally making what might be progress. Then they put me on hold. Again. Another interminable wait.... then they fucking put me through to the voice mail. Where I told them not to send me. Twice. This is extremely non-helpful.

So you may recall I got a new netbook a while back. At the same time we bought that, we also bought additional memory for it. We were going to upgrade the memory on this and on the old laptop, which we are going to fix up to give to a friend who is having heinous computer issues. So the first problem in our clever plan came when we discovered none of the approximately fifty million screwdrivers we have around here will actually fit the screws on the back of the computers.

Well, fine. We decided to do the sensible thing and order an electronics kit from Amazon. We wait for an interminable amount of time for that to actually arrive until today, when I get a package from Amazon. Exited I open it up... very surprised to find two huge air bubbles and nothing but a packing slip and some very light object at the bottom. This can't possibly be what we ordered, can it? Why no. No it isn't. It is, in fact, a CHEESE SLICER. A steel bladed cheese slicer with a rubber handle, how fancy. How.... not what we ordered at all. Pardon me while I cheese slice the back of my computer to get at the memory inside. Yeah, that'll work.

More fucking delays. Joy.

Oh, and speaking of delays... we got our insurance cards in the mail yesterday. Good news, right? Yeah, except that coverage doesn't actually start until December 1st and their 'helpful' website shows like ten doctors in all of South Jersey who will actually take the insurance. So I have to call around to doctors and see if any of the ones I actually want to go to will take what we have. But hey, I've got a whole five weeks or so to do it in! Five whole weeks of still being sick, unless I want to give in and go to the goddamn clinic again- in which you wait three hours to be seen for five minutes and usually it doesn't do any good anyhow.

I don't know what my little sign would say if I had one to hold up in this video. I've been uninsured most of my adult life. Even where Aus (my husband) has worked at a job where insurance was an option, most of the time it was a completely unfordable and unrealistic option. Now he's at a job where there's an insurance option that will make a little sense. For coverage for him and myself, it will cost about 1/4 of every paycheck he makes. It takes 90 days to kick in, even though he's technically been working for the company for over eight months (temping). During my blood pressure crisis, I waited an average of three hours to be seen in the emergency room and in clinics. The blood work they needed to determine what was wrong with me cost over 2000 dollars. We had to pay 12% on charity care, which still came to almost 250 dollars. They finally found a medication that will work for my blood pressure. It had no generic. The cost is 100 dollars a month (in addition to my existing medications). I am currently trying to wait it out the ninety days rather than go back to the clinic. I haven't been to a dentist in about fifteen years . My teeth are falling apart to the point where I am missing quite a few in the front. I still have a norplant (birth control) in my arm that was put in me after my son was born, and should have come out when he was five. He just had his seventeenth birthday. I have told numerous clinics about it over the years only to hear 'we don't do that here' and no further help on how to have it removed. I suspect it causes or contributes to some of my other health problems. I have ptsd, a herniated disc, nerve damage, and a bad respiratory system. I do not receive proper treatment for any of them. I have needed new glasses for quite some time now.

There are plenty of other stories like mine out there, and I'm sure a lot of you have yours. Why are so many people against something that should be a basic human right? Yet again. We have people fighting violently about this. I don't understand all the craziness over this. I just want some decent, affordable healthcare.

Valentine's day was nice, but I was sick so it was a little hard to enjoy as much as I would have liked. I got Aus a nice jacket and some boxer shorts (Family Guy, South Park, Scarface, and Mario, hehe) and some candy. He got me a singing card (it plays My Girl), candy, and a stuffed animal. He also said he is going to get me satellite radio when we can afford it (because I keep complaining about how the radio around here sucks, hah).

Today the sinus problem I have been having got so bad I went to the emergency room - they gave me a cat scan and sure enough, I have sinusitis - they're pretty much all plugged up, too. Like every sinus cavity I have? Not functioning. I have to take three weeks of antibiotics, and they gave me vicodin for the pain. I have an appointment with my doctor on Thursday. They also said my blood pressure was up. I need to drink lots of fluids (overhydrate, they said) and said I should get plenty of rest (hah! around here? Not likely).

Now Aus, being a good husband, called work and asked if he could work from home for the next couple of days so I wouldn't have to drive and so he could look after me. His work agreed to that, so yay.

Jeanette, being the spoiled brat that she is, screamed and bitched about how I wasn't really 'that sick!' and and I 'better be taking her to work in the morning because oh my god who cares what you need!' There are times when I really dislike the people I gave birth to an awful lot. I really hope they grow out of it to be nice people someday - but sadly I am getting less and less sure that will ever happen. They're really not pleasant to live with at all, hardly ever now - the older they get, the more unpleasant they get. The girls are 18 now (as they remind us on a continual basis usually followed by 'so I don't have to listen to you' followed by some expletive), so you think they'd be acting in a more adult manner. When I was 18, I had a job down at the casino and I was working 40 hours plus overtime, and getting myself to work. They.. hang around, mooch, borrow money for cigarettes when they blow through their paychecks, are grateful for nothing and fight with each other and us on a near continual basis. Very stressful and definitely not helpful in the current situation at all.

I have been ravenously hungry and I feel like no matter how much I drink, it isn't enough. Probably from my body trying to fight this off.

Well, the doctor's visit yesterday went mostly okay - the kids were kind of impatient and really difficult to deal with in the waiting room, but at least we got seen. The doctor increased my anxiety medication (double the dosage of what it was before) so we'll see if that does any good. As it is, I'm to the point where any undue stress (anything from sudden noises to kids bitching at me) has my heart palpitating, my hands shaking, and if it continues long enough, results in me curling up and crying. So I hope this does some good so I can function to get everything else I need to do done.

They also switched my back medication to something called Flexeril, which is on the four dollar generic list which means I can afford it. What I don't like about it though is that it makes me tired and disoriented. Maybe that will change when I get used to it, but if it doesn't I will just have to take it when the pain is excruciatingly bad only or else I'll never get anything else done.

Jeanette is complaining that we have 'no food in the house'. Of course, this translates to 'nothing she feels like making/eating'. I was making hot dogs on wheat bread and corn on the cob for dinner, and asked her if she wanted that - and she said EW NO, I can't eat a HOT DOG, that's gross! So I asked if she wanted corn and a sandwich of some sort (tomato on toast with mayo, or peanut butter and jelly) and she looked at me like I had grown a second head. We also have soup, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, hamburgers, cereal, ramen, various cans of vegetables, eggs, pancake mix, ground meat, frozen sausages, oatmeal, popcorn chicken, rice, and probably a few other things that I've forgotten to mention. Yes, we don't have as much variety as we usually do and yes, we are OUT OF TUNA (which was said like it was the end of the world) but right now this is the best we can do. She knows how to cook, so she could easily prepare any of those foods if she didn't want what we were having for dinner. She then proceeded to harass her grandmother to share some dinner (grandma was making meatball sandwiches and soup) and then proceeded to tell her she didn't want any of the 'icky old brown gravy' or 'that soup with the gross beans'. Grrrrr.

Other than that, things are okay. I need to make a few phone calls tomorrow (to the kids' school, to see if I can find any more resources for us at the moment, to social security about that missing card, and Aus should probably call /check in about the unemployment thing). I need to write a book review for Superdove now that I finished it (good book!) on Gather. I could stand to write a column too, but it's hard with the laptop being dysfunctional and with my back pain being so high (using the big computer for long periods of time is difficult). Plus depression saps my creativity. I also need to gather our paperwork and such for the appointment on the 25th, and make sure we have everything we need while there's still time to figure out how to obtain anything we might be missing. I also need to make Eben's fan page on Facebook, and do some other assorted little band things. Aus has been doing a lot of that but there's some things (like making things pretty, and such) that are my job.

I need to check in with Bev and see what's new with the comic, and talk to her about the webpage and such for it.

On the upside though, I managed to make a couple of posts today and even put up some pictures of my Sims on vacation (I need a few happy distractions!).

So how's everyone else doing?

Things that annoyed me today:

1. Lady who had her cell phone on speaker LOUDLY and was chatting all the way through the grocery store. I'm really not a cell phone person - especially YOUR cell phone, when I have to hear it.

2. Squatters. No, not people who live in buildings without paying rent - but ladies who squat instead of sitting when they use the restroom and then PIDDLE all over the damn seat and don't clean up after themselves. Every single bathroom in the public restroom was littered with the remains of squatters. I do not want to clean up your pee. I want to sit down like and do my business like a civilized being , not squat like we're still crapping in holes. They put those little disposable seat covers in bathrooms for a reason and that reason is so you can SIT. You will not get AIDS and herpes and die from toilet seats, promise. Also, if it's that time of the month.. and you know what time I mean.. do not leave the remains of your feminine hygiene products all over the place like it's a bloody crime scene. If you wouldn't do it at home, don't do it in public.

3. You know when you're about to pull out of a parking space, and there's this guy? And he's like.. in your way with his car, so you wait for him to pass. Only.. he doesn't. So you start backing out, and then he starts to go, realizes you're about to back up... and then stops. RIGHT UP YOUR BUMPER. I want to get out of my car and punch that guy. In the face. Right in the face. After what seems about ten minutes of the in and out dance, he finally goes. And by then, someone else is behind you. Yes, this happened to me today.

--

So I did a take two with the whole chat-with-group-of-people thingy I sucked at the other day - and this time, it went well. Same group of people more or less with a few different faces. I think the key may be to just not give up - if at first the social dynamic doesn't work, just come back another day and try again with different things to discuss. Not a prob.

Tomorrow have to take Steve to the doctor at 9:30, yuck. I hate mornings. He's got a pretty bad cold, though, so time to go.

One of the things the doctor mentioned to me at my appointment the other day was that I should really be getting therapy for my PTSD. But I went through that enough after the accidents. Having someone to talk to about the problems does not change them, or change the environmental factors that are triggers to my anxiety.

I have noticed that I do best in conditions where I can control the variables. Like, as long as nothing startles, surprises, or otherwise overstimulates my brain - I'm pretty calm, cheerful, and happy. Unfortunately, the things that cause stress conditions are often so small that it's crazy - something falling, for example , a loud (even brief) noise, too much social activity without a place to comfortably retreat to.

I have also noticed that there are times when I do much better with keeping this down and under control - but once it starts acting up, if I don't manage to beat it back down -it often spirals into a full-blown slide down into anxiety land.

Anyhow, to try and shake myself out of the winter blah and anxiety-mode, I am going to work on some positive things.

I decorated my journal to be less wintry, and more cheerful. I am going to be roleplaying more, and worrying less about my Serious Writing (though I do have to write a column tomorrow) until I am less stressed and ready to worry about writing again. I am going to work on eating better and getting some exercise in the coming year.

Today I slept until four - there was a huge windy/rainy storm going on, that lasted from last night until well into the afternoon. I remember waking up once and wondering if the apocalypse had come four years early, then drifting back to sleep.

Doctor's appointment went alright - got all my prescriptions filled, and even got some free samples of my nasal spray (usually 100 bucks a bottle, so woo!). Medication is still wince-worthy expensive, though. I really hope whomever we elect this time around isn't a) a complete idiot and b) will do something about health care. If (s)he'll end the war, that'd be nice too.

I'm currently disenchanted with a lot of things I usually (or used to) enjoy. I can't tell whether that's a sign of depression, or 'falling out of love' with certain kinds of music, certain types of stories, and so forth. Just the need for change in my listening, reading and writing habits that happens every now and again, or...? Ah, who can say. It's winter, and in winter I always feel a certain amount of discontentment just from the season. The weather has been warm lately, though. Warm enough that if I felt a little better, I would want to go to Batsto to walk around in the forest.

Had a nice day - we went out to Olive Garden as a belated anniversary dinner now that my stomach is feeling better, followed by a movie. We saw Sweeny Todd - which is quite good. There's something to be said for love and blood and insanity and meat pies and music.

I have to get up super early to go to the doctor tomorrow. Much less fun!

So we are still at this hotel, which isn't all that bad, really - especially now that the wireless is working. It's like having a little vacation. We went swimming today and played with a waterball / net set thingy we got from the dollar store. It was pretty fun. Got some dinner from a local pizza place, and are now playing Playstation with the kids. They did some Guitar Hero earlier (I'm not coordinated enough to play that, haha) and now they're running around killing things in Dynasty Warriors.

My back isn't pleased with being on the second floor and the firmness of the hotel bed - I hope it will adjust. At least it's good exercise ,the stairs and the swimming.

I have a busy week ahead - tomorrow we have to be back at the house at 8:30 am so that the mold remediation people can come check and make sure it's all gone, and then the estimator's coming out to see what the damages are so we can get a contractor to rebuild things. Then I have to take Aus to the doctor.

Tuesday, another doctor. Wednesday, have to go to court for the days Steve missed from school. Friday we'll be at the Interpol concert at the Borgata for some much needed R&R. This will be my first time at the Borgata venue (the Music Box is the name of the place), so I know absolutely nothing about it, or where to part or whatever. So that should be fun to figure out. We're guest listed though, so hopefully should just be a matter of going to the box office and giving our name and such. It's a seated venue, so I'm hoping they have some good seats reserved for the list.

Then I won't be going to any other concerts until September, I think. September - Rilo Kiley's going to be at the Troc in Philly, Ozma's going to be in Philly and NJ opening for Blue October/Yellowcard and Interpol will be at the Tower in Philly, so I'm likely going to those. So unless something good comes up for August, that's it for me. There were a couple of shows I considered, but they're at the TLA, and I still freaking hate the TLA (or what are they calling it these days, the Fillmore? Whatever.)

I think parts of me may be sunburnt. I sprayed sunscreen on myself, but I suspect I missed some places.

Sorry I haven't been writing too much personal stuff lately - it's been all about the work, I know.

Not too much to tell, though. I replaced my car - the new car is a 1999 Buick LeSabre. We call him Lucky LeSabre - pictures and story here. I like how comfy he is- it's like driving down the road on my couch. The seats are all plushy, and he rides really smoothly.

Going to chiropractors three times a week. This week, I also have to go to my medical doctor (at 8:30 am on Monday, blahhhh) to see about the abnormalities on my catscan.

My brothers and niece are over today- we went for a good meal and now we're hanging out. Joe's dog is over too - when we went out to lunch, she ate two rolls of paper towels, the broom, a plastic rose. Lola's a pretty dog, but she really gets into things.

Had my monthly poetry thing at the library yesterday- lots of good poems. Afterward, we went out for Chinese at the Oriental Villa in Cherry Hill. They have great food and good prices - yet it's never crowded. It's sad. I hope they don't go out of business, they're such nice people, too. I'm going to try seeing if I can find some local review sites and write up a review for them so that maybe they'll get some business.

Other than that, it's just been writing, doctors, writing and more writing and doctors.

Oh, I even made a roleplaying game on Gather - http://rpginn.gather.com/ - check it out. I'm really enjoying the site, beyond the scope of writing my column. There's a lot of nice people there, and I've been getting good feedback on my articles and such.

I didna do too much today other than go ou' t' lunch an' help kids wi' the'r homework. Harrr!

Me lassie in law be in a car accident last high tide'- she broke th' bones in th' lass' hand, an' has a swollen foot.

Next high tide' I be havin' t' take Steve t' th' doc an' go fer me bloodwerk. Arrrr!

We be plannin' a new D&D game fer Sunday, `cause th' one we be playin' in sucks like a scurvy dockwhore.

The good news? My blood pressure was perfect at the doctor's today - the Norvasc is working just fine. He gave me a prescription for six months worth of it so I don't have to keep going back. He also gave me one for Rhinocort Aqua for my allergies that'll supposedly make them a lot better.

I like the new doctor - his name is doctor Collins and he listened patiently to all my questions and explained things very well.

The bad news? This medication stuff is expensive! So far we've spent almost 300 bucks on all this.

I guess if it works it's worth it. We're trying to look into some of that reduced price drug stuff that they offer for us poor folk, though, since I'm going to be on them for a while.

New layout in the journal - it's all robotastic.

Tomorrow Rick is coming over and we're going to go to lunch and then out letterboxing. I'm looking forward to it a lot- we haven't seen Rick in so long, and I've been really wanting to try letterboxing. I'll have more details on if it is fun and what it was like tomorrow, I suppose.

Today we went for our monthly chiropraction. Felt pretty good! Next month we have our appointment two days before the Elected concert, so hopefully it'll help my back not to suck while we're trying to enjoy the show.

We watched The Village tonight, and man, was I disappointed. I had been worried about watching it because scary movies well, really scare me sometimes. Not only wasn't it really scary... it was also not really all that good. The plot was kind of disjointed and predictable, and the ending was fairly inconclusive in that "Look how cool we are, ending things without telling you what happens!" style that I really dislike. I mean really, really dislike - I think 99% of all stories with 'inconclusive' as an ending pretty much piss me off. I want a definite ending to my stories and movies - even if there's going to be a sequel, come to some sort of a semi-conclusion for gods sakes. I can only recall one time that I felt like 'inconclusive" was the proper ending for a story I wrote - and that was a long time ago when I was still writing for Neopets. So.. yeah. Inconclusive = wrong, to me. I don't think it has to end happy all the time or anything.. I just think it has to end.

So here I am lying in bed under a warm snuggly blanket, playing a game of Hexalot instead of doing numerous things I should be working on. But that's okay- this is what vacation is for, after all.

I really like Hexalot. It's a simple game that involves getting knights home to their castles by laying down various colored tiles to form bridges that they'll follow. I'm not an organized person (far from it, I tend to be very chaotic) - but I like games that seem to focus on simple strategy and title-turning tasks like this. I'm not good at them, mind you - but one of the things I really enjoy about this game is that it has an untimed mode. So I play that, and take my time and rotate the pieces many times until I figure out where it should go. I'm also not very good at spacial relationships. I think that's part of what I like about it, though- it stretches that part of my brain that doesn't function very well on those levels and gives it some encouragement to pluck along and do what it's supposed to. Plus it has soothing medieval music, and pleasing success sounds when you get the knights back to where they belong.

Took the girls to the doctor today - Brenda's arm, he said, was likely from her deodorant having clogged up her pores. In addition to antibiotics, he recommended we get her a natural deodorant instead of the usual type. So now she has.. a crystal! You wet it and rub it under your arms, and supposedly, it deodorizes. I find the whole thing rather intriguing, and want to try one for myself it it actually works. Jeannette, he said he didn't hear anything wrong with her lungs or breathing, but gave her an inhaler anyhow in case she has wheezing in gym again.

Right now I'm reading Stephen King's book on writing. An online friend of mine sent me the book well over a year ago, but I haven't thought to pick it up and dive into it until just now (I have soooo many books to read) - and wow, is it good. It's so conversational, and it is as much about life and living as it is about writing. Which is how it should be, really.

Just got home from taking the kids (minus Steve, who was at a birthday party/sleepover) to the movies to see Zoro. Was pretty good, really - had romance, action, humor, plot -all the good stuff.

And there was popcorn and the joyous credits dance. See, ever since they were little, the girls have enjoyed waiting until everyone leaves the theater, and dancing along with the credit music. It's fun. I used to join in before my back was evil.

Tomorrow we have to take Brenda to the doctor for the Mutant Growth on her arm. You probably don't want the gory details, but let's just say that it's infected and she needs to go.

I'm feeling tired at the moment, but did some advertising for Urbis and the LJ community for Urbis users ( urbis_writers). Hopefully folks will join. I don't foresee myself doing anything else useful today, but it's vacation, so i don't really have to so there.

The weather turned cold so quickly - just the other day it was like summer and today i was chilly even with a jacket on.

So Aus's work found him something he can do - just maintainence, for now, until he recovers more or something better opens up. But income is a good thing. Already though, he's having a slight problem with some of the management not respecting the limitations specified in his doctor's note. The one guy had him running around the store hauling some sort of large corkboard board... and then nailing it into drywall... with wood screws. Yeah, like that's going to work, first of all - and second of all, he's not supposed to be reaching up over his head or hauling heavy things around or running all around the place to begin with. I told him that he has to speak up for himself and tell them when they try to make him something that he physically isn't supposed to do- because now he's all hurting. And before that, when they had him just doing what his actual job is supposed to be, he was fine. I also suggested he should carry a copy of his doctor's note in his pocket to show any asshole that doesn't want to believe him- because part of the problem with that place is that there are like 1,000 managers who don't do dick themselves and just seem to grab random people to do stupid things that aren't really part of their job.

But anyhow... he'll be working 12-9 most days, which is good from the standpoint of not having to get up super early, with Wednesday and Thursday off. So at least he can go to his physical therapy on Thursday, and try to work something out for the other two days (maybe going at lunch time, or trying to get them to just scale it back to one day a week if that would work).

So things are looking up because income is a good thing. Thanks again to everyone who gave us support and well-wishes during our sucky times. With any luck ,this is the beginning of things being okay again.

Aus's work still not gotten the paperwork that the insurance company supposedly sent out on August 29th (for the supplemental income that Encompass just kind of never mentioned they were supposed to be paying us all along).

They continue to schedule us for IME after IME (independent medical examination- going to their doctors, in other words) - despite the fact that each doctor shows that we still need to go for our regular treatments. Which, of course, Encompass doesn't want to pay for. The most recent 'fun' - I had an MRI scheduled for tomorrow which Encompass precertified. They then 'changed their minds', and decided I couldn't go for it until the end of October, because they want to send me to two IMEs to see if I 'really need it' first. Because, you know.. people are fond of shoving themselves into big magnetic tubes whether or not they need it.

Aus's work still hasn't gotten back to him about getting him a job he can do- and he's been calling them, but getting kind of nowhere. Hopefully they come through with something or another. I applied for Food Stamps online but haven't heard back from them yet. Whee, isn't being poor fun?

And I need to get gas again today- which, at least, prices are going down on. But still, $2.65 per gallon is at least 65 cents too much. What the hell? Damn gas.

Okay.. there wasn't much point to this entry other than if you have to get an insurance company, never use Encompass. They might as well just change their name to Incompetence.

Why is it the 27th already? Time goes too fast.

Today I had to take my mother to the dentist- she had a tooth that needed to be pulled. I got nervous just sitting in the waiting room. I really need to get over my dentalphobia, considering that someday (likely sometime soon) I'm going to need to get false teeth. But just being there and hearing dentist sounds really freaked me the hell out.

Back has been evil lately- I haven't been doing much. Thursday, we have more IMEs... the insurance company loves to send us for these ,but funny how no matter what the findings are (always saying that yes, we need more treatment) they never seem to actually pay for anything. They STILL haven't sent Aus's work the paperwork they need to fill out for us to get that supplemental income they owe us. They claimed to have sent it on the 29th of August. Of course, they lied. The lawyer has already yelled at them twice- and they still haven't sent it. His work also hasn't gotten back to us about a new position for Aus yet. So tomorrow we have to check on all that.

This Friday, I have an MRI of my brain and lumbar spine - fun fun.

Saturday - D&D

I finally got to see the Filter mini (the issue with Rilo Kiley) in person today - Shelma sent me a copy (thanks Shelma!). I was supposed to be getting some copies a while back but they never arrived ={ . Mail around here is so haphazard sometimes- I guess that's what I get for living in rural-ish South Jersey.

I promised Jim(jasonbeast jim- I know so many Jims) that I'd do some recording this week. I really need to- it's hard to want to with all the stress and depression problems I've been having of late- but maybe that's just the thing I need. I also really need to draw that comic for Rick.