I can only say one thing about what happened today, so I'm making a 'word of the day' and I kind of promised I wouldn't elaborate on it. Actually I can say something about how I feel today, which is that I'm really grateful to The Hub for volunteering. And I can also say that I got emotional, which I didn't expect. Not sure if he even noticed, thanks to his one Valium and also because I had on my sweet D&G shades, but I was crying for about ten seconds right before we pulled into the parking lot. Then I looked in the back seat, saw the kids, turned back around and looked up at the sky and saw the prettiest blue ever with perfect clouds floating by. And I thought, ok, this is it, and this is right. I don't have any doubts and I feel a huge weight has been lifted. So thanks, Love.
The word of the days is... snip.
Friday, September 5
Did he just say, "Warshington D.C.?"
"Meet the Press" used to be on our viewing agenda every Sunday morning. It went something like this: a $4 coffee, a take-out breakfast sandwich with two hash browns, a little Charles Osgood, a little Bob Schieffer, and a little Tim Russert. Not always in that order, because we can be a little TiVo happy. Depended on what time we woke up. These days I'm lucky if nobody disturbs me before 7 AM, and I spend $4 on a week's worth of coffee, but I digress. While we still squeeze Charles in somehow, and only catch some Bob here and there, it's Tim who's been on my mind these days.
I loved Tim Russert, and I loved watching his show. He made all this political hoo-ha a little easier for my soul to bear. Thanks to the up-close and personal style in which they shot the segments, there was one thing I always got to do during his show, which was to exercise my weirdo habit of judging people on the appearance of their hands. Years ago, John McCain was on and I was half way to liking him when I caught a glimpse of those mummy paws. It's nothing to do with anything other than natural shape of his fingers and the texture of his skin. In my opinion, not good on both accounts. Don't try to defend him with the whole prisoner of war injury bit, that has nothing to do with what I'm judging him on here. By no fault of his own (or his captors), John McCain will never win my favor due to the fact that I find his hands to be completely unattractive. And because of this, he will never be my president. This, and the fact that he just called our nation's capital "Warshington D.C."... too familiar a slip for me to ignore.
I loved Tim Russert, and I loved watching his show. He made all this political hoo-ha a little easier for my soul to bear. Thanks to the up-close and personal style in which they shot the segments, there was one thing I always got to do during his show, which was to exercise my weirdo habit of judging people on the appearance of their hands. Years ago, John McCain was on and I was half way to liking him when I caught a glimpse of those mummy paws. It's nothing to do with anything other than natural shape of his fingers and the texture of his skin. In my opinion, not good on both accounts. Don't try to defend him with the whole prisoner of war injury bit, that has nothing to do with what I'm judging him on here. By no fault of his own (or his captors), John McCain will never win my favor due to the fact that I find his hands to be completely unattractive. And because of this, he will never be my president. This, and the fact that he just called our nation's capital "Warshington D.C."... too familiar a slip for me to ignore.
Wednesday, September 3
FYI
Kids can cost you money. Before they're born, even. With Nico's pregnancy all the hospital time and testing racked up over $50,000 in medical bills, plus the actual delivery and time in-house afterwards. My insurance copay was a mere fraction of that, thankfully, so I got off that hook fairly easy. With Olivia the grand total was just your average c-section charge plus a three day hospital stay. I had the same copay and they wasted no time sending me the bill a month after we brought her home.
For a couple of months, this bill sat (semi-forgotten) in my pile o' stuff on the kitchen counter until last week when I got a call from what basically amounts to a collection agency. Oopsie. I was nice to the woman on the phone because I do owe the money, and I hate to shoot the messenger. I asked if I could get back to her in a few days, and when I called back yesterday I was connected with a very nice man. I'd heard from a friend that my hospital reduces bills by 15% if you offer to pay what you owe in one lump sum. Feeling particularly ballsy, I asked this gentleman how much he would be willing to reduce my payment if I forked over the cash at once. I told him I wanted to know if there was a real minimum, and pay the least possible amount of money they would allow, and he said he would take 30% off. 30%? Thirty? Three-zero? Yesss.
Let this be a shining example to you, dear readers, that from time to time, forgetfulness is rewarded and if you are nice to people and take a second to ask just how much they would be willing to help you out, you might be pleasantly surprised. Now get out there and try it for yourselves. Go forth and save.
For a couple of months, this bill sat (semi-forgotten) in my pile o' stuff on the kitchen counter until last week when I got a call from what basically amounts to a collection agency. Oopsie. I was nice to the woman on the phone because I do owe the money, and I hate to shoot the messenger. I asked if I could get back to her in a few days, and when I called back yesterday I was connected with a very nice man. I'd heard from a friend that my hospital reduces bills by 15% if you offer to pay what you owe in one lump sum. Feeling particularly ballsy, I asked this gentleman how much he would be willing to reduce my payment if I forked over the cash at once. I told him I wanted to know if there was a real minimum, and pay the least possible amount of money they would allow, and he said he would take 30% off. 30%? Thirty? Three-zero? Yesss.
Let this be a shining example to you, dear readers, that from time to time, forgetfulness is rewarded and if you are nice to people and take a second to ask just how much they would be willing to help you out, you might be pleasantly surprised. Now get out there and try it for yourselves. Go forth and save.
Tuesday, September 2
Thank you, TiVo
Watching the RNC. TiVoing back and fourth to check out Republican fashion sense. Or severe lack thereof. I've decided this is actually a repeat of a broadcast from the 1950s and nobody bothered to mention it. The speeches are so boring and wordy (yes, imagine that, wordy speeches!) that I can barely follow along.
I was going to bust on Cindy McCain following the lame duck description of her given by Laura Bush. Then I Googled her and found out she's one chickadee who's kind of got it goin' on. Kind of. What started out as a scathing review shall be merely a warning that I will whip out the former prescription painkiller addiction thing and use it against her if I see her doing anything else the least bit inappropriate. So... watch it, Cindy. Yeah. Watch it. I can see a few weird things going on behind your eyes and I don't care how successful you think you are. I don't trust you.
Ah, so... that being said, I'm off to paint my nails and try to erase from my mind the dowdily cut houndstooth blazers and styrofoam barbershop quartet hats that pass for Republican "style".
I was going to bust on Cindy McCain following the lame duck description of her given by Laura Bush. Then I Googled her and found out she's one chickadee who's kind of got it goin' on. Kind of. What started out as a scathing review shall be merely a warning that I will whip out the former prescription painkiller addiction thing and use it against her if I see her doing anything else the least bit inappropriate. So... watch it, Cindy. Yeah. Watch it. I can see a few weird things going on behind your eyes and I don't care how successful you think you are. I don't trust you.
Ah, so... that being said, I'm off to paint my nails and try to erase from my mind the dowdily cut houndstooth blazers and styrofoam barbershop quartet hats that pass for Republican "style".
Back to school
I just went through and counted up in my head that I know 11 teachers. For many of them, today is the first day of school. I just wanted to send out some good thoughts for everybody, especially to Jackie and Shawn, the teachin'est, rock and rollin'est husband and wife in Jersey. Super proud of you both.
Go out and shape some minds and guide some youth in the right direction. Hopefully one day my kiddies will have teachers like all of you.
Go out and shape some minds and guide some youth in the right direction. Hopefully one day my kiddies will have teachers like all of you.
Monday, September 1
Email me... and my husband
There's something many of my friends do that I could never, and that little thing is to share an email address with my husband. How exactly does this work? Is that silly of me to ask?
I just happen to be a freak about having my own things. Wait, no, it's more like I am a freak about having everything to myself. I remember being a little kid and asking my mom if I could put a deadbolt on my bedroom door, and have my own key. She said no. Maybe she didn't realize how much I wanted to pretend I had my own apartment. Now that I'm a grown-up, control issues invade all corners of my life. And while I'll bitch and moan about being the one who 'has to' take care of paying all the bills, I secretly like it. When The Hub needs to sign onto any of the credit cards or bank accounts, he either asks me for his logon info or he asks me to find what he's looking for and report back to him. Fine by me.
So the email thing... everyone these days seems to have a joint setup. Good for checking and utilities, I say, but even though I leave myself logged in and hubby need only flip open my laptop to see what I'm up to any time of any day (he does the same thing), I don't think you could pay me enough money to put both our names on one account. What really gets to me, though, is when the husband's name is first on the email. I have no idea why this bugs me so much. No idea. So please, joint account holders, don't hate me for these thoughts. Remember you're talking to someone who has two secret celebrity boyfriends (and one on again/off again secret girlfriend), and whose husband does the lion's share of the cooking. I also ask dear hubby to stay the night with our friends in Brooklyn from time to time. So there are some wifely rules that just don't apply to me. The shared email thing is just one more item on the list.
I just happen to be a freak about having my own things. Wait, no, it's more like I am a freak about having everything to myself. I remember being a little kid and asking my mom if I could put a deadbolt on my bedroom door, and have my own key. She said no. Maybe she didn't realize how much I wanted to pretend I had my own apartment. Now that I'm a grown-up, control issues invade all corners of my life. And while I'll bitch and moan about being the one who 'has to' take care of paying all the bills, I secretly like it. When The Hub needs to sign onto any of the credit cards or bank accounts, he either asks me for his logon info or he asks me to find what he's looking for and report back to him. Fine by me.
So the email thing... everyone these days seems to have a joint setup. Good for checking and utilities, I say, but even though I leave myself logged in and hubby need only flip open my laptop to see what I'm up to any time of any day (he does the same thing), I don't think you could pay me enough money to put both our names on one account. What really gets to me, though, is when the husband's name is first on the email. I have no idea why this bugs me so much. No idea. So please, joint account holders, don't hate me for these thoughts. Remember you're talking to someone who has two secret celebrity boyfriends (and one on again/off again secret girlfriend), and whose husband does the lion's share of the cooking. I also ask dear hubby to stay the night with our friends in Brooklyn from time to time. So there are some wifely rules that just don't apply to me. The shared email thing is just one more item on the list.
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