Health Care???

So now that the health care bill has passed, I'm not sure if we've done a good thing for real or not. I avidly watched Michael Moore's Sicko and from what I understand what other civilized countries have is not Universal Health Insurance but Universal Health Care. You get sick, you get injured, you go to the hospital or doctor and you get taken care of. This healthcare reform bill seems like it may be forcing a square peg into a round hole.

Working families will be able to carry their children on their health plans for longer. Sounds good to me. Insurance companies won't be able to deny or drop coverage because someone is sick. OK, I can get with that. Everyone must get health insurance. UMMM... How exactly does that work? If I don't have coverage because I couldn't afford coverage how does making me get coverage work for me? Even if it is a percentage of my income, what if I can't afford the percentage that you say I should be able to pay if I don't make enough money for food, shelter, transportation and incidentals as it is? Honestly what someone says you can afford may not be what you can afford.

For instance, 25 year old son gets sick, goes to the emergency room, is held overnight and serviced, and gets a whopping bill. He's unemployed and applies for emergency medicaid and is denied. Hello, I did say he was unemployed didn't I. How can he be denied? For real you think he can afford to pay a couple of grand to a hospital on his unemployment? If an unemployed person does not qualify for medicaid now, who does?

I seriously hope this all works out because situations like his should not exist. People should not go bankrupt, lose their homes, have their credit damaged because they got sick. I have questions. Who has answers?????

Rain, Rain, Go Away

When I woke up this morning I just knew it was going to be a good day. Today is my 6th Zetaversary and there was a full day of being a Zeta to look forward too. Yes, it was raining as it has been since yesterday, but that did not upset me. I thought I had a plan and that it would be all good.

I started the day out with a great workout compliments of my Biggest Loser Weight Loss Yoga DVD. I figured that would get me up and going for the day. I had all of the reports printed for the monthly chapter meeting. I had my Hopstop directions to get me to the Archonette induction and then to the meeting. I was running a little late when I left home just after 9am so I knew I would be a little late but it was a nasty day and I was pretty sure they wouldn't really be starting on time anyway. I still don't own a pair of rubber boots but was pretty sure that my leather timbs would be okay for the day.They have a low wedge heel but I thought they would work okay all things considered.

And then it all fell apart. Starting with the wind. I totally underestimated the force of the wind and my umbrella was toast almost immediately. I negelected to wear a hat just because I forgot and really didn't think I would need my gloves so I didn't have them. Walking to the train station wasn't an option due to the still mending ankle and the bus took FOREVER. Got to 170th Street and figured I would run in RiteAid and get a new umbrella and maybe a rain hat. NOT HAPPENING. They had absolutely nothing. Manager said they sold out their entire stock of rain stuff yesterday. OK. Head up to the train platform and find out that HOPSTOP neglected to be aware of the fact that there were no downtown trains running. Right there I should have gone downstairs and hailed a cab. Of course I didn't do that, so... I rode up to Burnside Avenue for the downtown train.

The next part was my fault. Normally when I transfer at 149th Street and the Grand Concourse I am heading uptown to work. Today I needed to go downtown to Harlem. Somehow or another I ended up on auto pilot and did not realize my mistake until the train was at the next uptown station. Problem being, you can't transfer at that station. I had to ride an additional 3 stops up to transfer for a downtown train. One good point, I found a really nice umbrella on that uptown train. I crossed over and got on what I thought was a downtown 2 train. This one I'm not sure if it was my bad or a case of the train being mislabeled as it often is. In any event the next thing I know I'm at 125th and Lexington on the east side instead of 125th and Lenox on the west side. Of course, through all of this I'm constantly checking my watch and seeing that it is getting later and later. I wasn't looking forward to walking from 116th and Lexington Avenue to where I needed to go on 118th Street but que sera, sera, if that is what I had to do, ok.

Two more downtown express trains came before a downtown local train finally came and it was absolutely the last straw when the local train went express on the local track and I realized that I could not even transfer back uptown at 86th Street but would need to go to 59th Street to transfer for an uptown local train. I have to say once my mind was made up that I had enough, I made the best connections of all time. I rode the local to 125th Street to avoid the steps at 86th Street. The 4 came right away at 125th Street and the 11 bus back home seemed to come almost as soon as I hit the bus stop. Nearly 3 hours later, cold, wet, tired and with an ankle that was now hurting due probably to the small heel on the boot in addition to the cold and the wet weather I return home. What an adventure.

New on my to do list:
1. Get some rain boots. STAT.
2. Get some a rain hat and maybe even a rain coat for when an umbrella simply won't do.

Lesson Learned.

Shoes with Support

So...Today I learned the true definition and meaning of a shoe with support. As you know exactly 8 weeks ago I chipped a bone in my ankle. I had to spend basically 3 weeks in a cast and 4 weeks in soft boot and just this week I went back to work.

Of course many things have been negelected, so today I made my way to my nail salon for a mani and pedi. Now, my usual custom after my mani/pedi is to walk home in my flip flops. Now this is a distance of about .7 miles and takes me about 15 minutes. Two words...BAD IDEA and I didn't even make it anywhere near my home. I walked from the nail salon to the Rite Aid in the next block to pick up a few items. Limping like I seriously could not believe. In my head saying, WTF... For Real. I wasn't limping like that in my flat shoes, I wasn't limping like that in my sandals, I wasn't even limping like that in my house in my slippers. And then it hit me. Girl, these flip flops on concrete is not happening. They do not have enough support for your 8 week broke ankle.

Good sense prevailed. I limped my arse out of Rite Aid and back to my nail salon, sat my arse down, let old girl put some oil on my nails, put my sneakers on and walked home. Good news, nails made it home smudgeless. Bad news, ankle still hurting. :-( Oh Well... Lesson learned.

I Call BULLSH*T

Each and every morning I start my day with local ABC news. Yes, I do love Ken, Lori and Bill. This morning over and over I was told how as of March 7, 2010 at 12:01 AM my routine may be interrupted because Cablevision charges me to receive local programming but does not pay the local programmers for the benefit of receiving the signal. And when I cut on my cable boxes in other rooms they have overridden my settings to tune to an alert that tells me how ABC is holding me hostage just so they can get more money. And now for my rant...

First, of all Cablevision sucks balls. My signal is often filled with digital distortion forcing me to watch shows that I DVRed on my computer because they were so distorted they were unwatchable. For example last nights episode of 24. Second, I'm held hostage by Cablevision because I live in an apartment building in an area that is basically lower income I am basicaly optionless. The area is one of the last areas to get any kind of new services such as Fios and my landlord has forbidden me to mount a DirectTV dish on their property. Third, neither of them are really struggling financially. I'm the one struggling in this economy as everything goes up with the exception of my salary. While they may be making less money in this economy (and I even doubt that) they are surely still making millions or maybe even billions.

I googled and googled and cannot find the facts that I really want to know. Such as:
1. Do any other cable providers pay to receive signals from the major broadcasters or what used to be known as free TV? If so, then it is an industry standard in my opinion and Cablevision needs to pony up the dough. If not, ABC is being unreasonable and needs to fall back.
2. Do any other cable providers include in their pricing some sort of fee to receive free TV signals? If so, again, I'm gonna say industry standard. If not, I'm thinking class action suit for unfair pricing and Cablevision gets to Pony up the dough.

If no other free stations are receiving money from cable providers to receive their signals and ABC is indeed holding everyone hostage and is actually successful, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that all the other majors will follow suit and make money off the back of the viewers because at the end of the day the buck always stops with us.

Either way. I CALL BULLSH*T!!!

The Politician

OK, I know I'm late with this but it seems like even with a broken ankle and nothing but time to watch TV I still can't keep up with my TV viewing in a timely fashion. I do digress but to get to my point. Today I watched the Oprah Winfrey interview of Andrew Young and his wife and my thought seems to be that I think he and his wife have got to be kidding me.

I'm supposed to believe that John Edwards is this huge pathological liar (which he is) and no one can argue that point after watching him boldly lie over and over about his baby with the Hunter chick. But I'm also supposed to believe that after they lied for him and covered for him and claimed somebody else's baby for him and let the Hunter chick live with them that they are now telling the truth. I mean after all they only did it to protect the dying (but not dead) Elizabeth Edwards. Pardon me but I call bullsh*t.

So I'm thinking, you knew John Edwards was cheating on his ill wife. You knew the sh*t was about to hit the fan. You knew there was no way that he was getting out of the deep doo doo this time. You knew that either way you could get paid at the end of the day. You could get paid by holding it over the "president's" head that you knew where the skeletons were buried because you buried them for him or you could get paid by telling everyone all about the skeletons that you helped to bury. Either way liar, liar pants and skirt on fire. You should burn with John Edwards for trying to get a lying sack of sh*t elected to be president or any other position of power for that matter. You should burn with him for now getting paid on lies and more lies. I've lost count of the lying, cheating politicians sitting in positions of power in our country. I guess it's true. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts, ABSOLUTELY.

If It Wasn't For Bad Luck...

I wouldn't have any luck at all. Isn't that how the old saying goes? At this point I'm wondering if luck has anything to do with it. As if the fall wasn't bad enough, just my luck and it was broke. Not even a bad break, but bad enough to need a cast and a crutch and now a boot. And if a leg had to be messed up, my luck it had to be my driving leg to make me dependent on others for almost everything. *sigh*

It has definitely been an interesting 6 weeks. Maybe interesting isn't quite the adjective that I need to describe this experience. Annoying, Frustrating, Nerve Wracking ... Yeah those seem like more appropriate adjectives for how this has been for me. Good news is I'm still here. Yes, I'm annoyed. Yes, I'm frustrated. Yes, I feel a little trapped in a never ending cycle of nothing. But, I'm alive, my husband is here for me and for real, it could be worse.

Day 38

So...On January 14th, while simply walking to my car, I stepped on something and found myself lying on the ground. I am one of those people who seems to twist my ankle fairly easily and assumed that I had twisted my ankle, AGAIN. I went home and iced and wrapped and elevated and ibuprofened myself in my usual manner.

The next day the pain was still very bad, I could not put weight on my foot and carried myself off to my doctor for xrays. I was seriously surprised when I found out that the ankle bone was chipped and more than a little disturbed to have to go to the emergency room to get it splinted.

The next week I went from splint to cast and 2 weeks later I went from cast to walking boot. Gotta say this experience has been a bit frustrating for me. I'm a pretty busy person who is pretty much always on the go with my calendar filled with appointments and events and obligations. Sitting in my recliner with my leg up or laying in the bed with my leg up pretty much tears my nerves. Not being able to take myself where I want to go, when I want to go and do what I want to do pretty much makes me want to fall on a sword. *sigh*

Now it seems as though I am at the mercy of the doctor's schedule. I was supposed to go for a follow up appointment last week but received a phone call saying the doctor needed to reschedule only to receive another phone call later on the week to reschedule again. Pretty frustrating for me to say the least.

Never the less I am thankful. I'm thankful to be alive. I'm thankful to have a husband who has done his best to take care of my needs during this time. He calls it driving Miss Bernie. LOL. I'm thankful that I have friends and family that check up on me and even take me out of my house from time to time. I'm thankful to have a son who insists on calling me every day. Thankful, Thankful, Thankful.