I don't think it's any secret that I wasn't overly thrilled about leaving Charlotte and moving to Maryland. I trust in Brad, though, and understand that he wants to provide for his wife. I respect that and I understand that in the long run, this move will probably be a good thing for both of us. It didn't make it any easier to leave though - the last night before we left, we were hanging out with some friends and when my friend Beth had to leave, I just lost it. I started sobbing and couldn't hold it back anymore. I didn't want to leave. Brad comforted me the best he could and promised we'd come back to North Carolina as soon as we could. And then we left.
Since then, so many blessings have happened.
Saturday morning we went to Wal Mart to do our initial "big" shopping spree to get food for the house. We were coming up one aisle and about to turn down another when an elderly woman appeared at the end of the aisle, visibly upset. She couldn't find the noodles and was getting frustrated. So Brad starts talking to her and goes with her to help her find the noodles she wanted. Another woman beside us in the aisle looked at me and says, "what a nice young man". Any frustrations I had had with him while shopping disappeared when I remembered again how selfless and kindhearted my husband is. He has this tough exterior but when someone needs help, he's the first one to step in and do anything he can.
Saturday afternoon I was over at his aunt's house, showing off our wedding pictures. I mentioned how I was looking for churches to try out and they gave me some churches to try. His aunt told me I was welcome to visit her church anytime but she wasn't going that particular Sunday.
Sunday morning I tried a Methodist church in town. It was fairly comfortable since it reminded me of my hometown church. It seems trivial, but a church gets huge points when they sing the same Doxology and say the same Lord's Prayer that I grew up singing and saying. The sermon wasn't particularly impressive to me (I'm also really spoiled - my parents' pastor in Denver is phenomenal. I truly think all pastors should be kindergarden teachers before going to seminary haha) but I thought I would try it again considering the pastor was on a trip with the youth that Sunday. And I reported these things to his aunt, Jill.
Yesterday I got a call from Jill. Her mother had come to visit and had mentioned that their pianist couldn't handle college, a job and accompanying the services and had to leave the church. She asked Jill if she knew anyone who played the piano. Jill has a very old piano that I've played on before (simple stuff that I knew from heart, like the Entertainer) and said she'd call me. Within an hour, she had picked me up, I had played before a lady from the church and suddenly I'm playing in church this Sunday. It might not turn into an every week commitment, but it might. The extra income will be a huge blessing. I won't start my part time job until January - which I'm happy about, so I have the holidays to be flexible - but that's still over a month with only Brad's income to live on. It will be a tight holiday season for us but at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
All in all, I'm really enjoying playing the role of a "housewife". I love keeping the house up and cooking dinner for Brad when he gets home from work. I'm still adjusting to not really having any friends yet, but hopefully soon. I'm REALLY looking forward to the first big snow so I can finally try out my new skiis with our season passes!!!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Serious Stuff here.
I'm going to try not to go into politics here, but this weekend I realized what it feels like to have to weigh financial worries against your personal health.
My last day at Family Dollar was supposed to be last Friday, the 6th. It got pushed back until this Wednesday, the 11th. Friday afternoon I started to feel a little sick. By the time I got home, I was a full-blown not happy camper. Coughing, congestion, fever as high as 102.4. I was terrified, especially since I very rarely have any sort of fever - having consistent fever over 100 was scary for someone whose temperature hardly ever gets over 98 degrees (my current temperature as I am typing this is 97.3 if that tells you anything).
Why didn't I go to a doctor?
Because - what if someone in HR didn't get the memo that my last day had changed? What if my insurance had already been cut off? What if we got stuck paying the entire medical bill on our own? What if the insurance balked because they would get the bill after my coverage had been terminated?
So we didn't go to a doctor. We managed it the best we could - Nyquil for the coughing and to make sure I got sleep; Motrin for the fever and cold cloths for the heat radiating from my head.
Call me a drama queen, but I was scared. We didn't know what was wrong - just that my chest was not feeling right and I had a fever like I had never had before. It didn't help my mental state that Brad's uncle had died of a rare form of pneumonia a few years ago that started out with "cold-like" symptoms.
I'm not saying that I think every Jack and Jill who are too sorry to work should be given great government insurance on a silver platter - but for the first time in my life, I was in their shoes. The helpless feeling...the knowing that you need medical care but too scared about the cost to go...it's basically putting a price on your health. How much am I willing to pay to be healthy again? Can we afford to get me healthy?
I went to work this morning, confirmed that I was still covered under insurance and jetted to Urgent Care with a sense of relief that I had never had before. At that point, I didn't care if it was pneumonia and I wound up in the hospital - at least I would know and I would have the medical care I needed.
It was the flu - I don't think anyone takes the flu too lightly these days. On the way home I was almost giddy because at least I knew.
I can honestly say that I am so thankful that I have medical insurance - and how my heart hurts for the people who legitimately can't afford health insurance. I know the fear they must have on a daily basis and I agree, that's not a feeling anyone should have to endure. Unfortunately, it's the people who want to take advantage of the system that will ultimately deprive them of that relief.
My last day at Family Dollar was supposed to be last Friday, the 6th. It got pushed back until this Wednesday, the 11th. Friday afternoon I started to feel a little sick. By the time I got home, I was a full-blown not happy camper. Coughing, congestion, fever as high as 102.4. I was terrified, especially since I very rarely have any sort of fever - having consistent fever over 100 was scary for someone whose temperature hardly ever gets over 98 degrees (my current temperature as I am typing this is 97.3 if that tells you anything).
Why didn't I go to a doctor?
Because - what if someone in HR didn't get the memo that my last day had changed? What if my insurance had already been cut off? What if we got stuck paying the entire medical bill on our own? What if the insurance balked because they would get the bill after my coverage had been terminated?
So we didn't go to a doctor. We managed it the best we could - Nyquil for the coughing and to make sure I got sleep; Motrin for the fever and cold cloths for the heat radiating from my head.
Call me a drama queen, but I was scared. We didn't know what was wrong - just that my chest was not feeling right and I had a fever like I had never had before. It didn't help my mental state that Brad's uncle had died of a rare form of pneumonia a few years ago that started out with "cold-like" symptoms.
I'm not saying that I think every Jack and Jill who are too sorry to work should be given great government insurance on a silver platter - but for the first time in my life, I was in their shoes. The helpless feeling...the knowing that you need medical care but too scared about the cost to go...it's basically putting a price on your health. How much am I willing to pay to be healthy again? Can we afford to get me healthy?
I went to work this morning, confirmed that I was still covered under insurance and jetted to Urgent Care with a sense of relief that I had never had before. At that point, I didn't care if it was pneumonia and I wound up in the hospital - at least I would know and I would have the medical care I needed.
It was the flu - I don't think anyone takes the flu too lightly these days. On the way home I was almost giddy because at least I knew.
I can honestly say that I am so thankful that I have medical insurance - and how my heart hurts for the people who legitimately can't afford health insurance. I know the fear they must have on a daily basis and I agree, that's not a feeling anyone should have to endure. Unfortunately, it's the people who want to take advantage of the system that will ultimately deprive them of that relief.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Minor suckage today.
Went to the social security office today to try and get my social security card changed. Actually I went last week and attempted this but apparently the marriage license they send you in the mail is completely worthless. I was so excited, too – there were maybe 2 people in line and I stood there for probably 5 minutes, max. Unfortunately because the marriage license I had wasn’t *certified*, they shot me down and told me I’d have to come back later.
Today I went, same time, different day and it was about 25 people deep. No big deal, I’m a patient person, I can wait. A lady in front of me in line makes a comment about how she brought absolutely everything with her so she would have anything they possibly asked for. What is she there for, you ask? Oh, she threw away her social security card (this is important). I made a comment about how, yeah, I was here last week but brought the wrong marriage license. She gives me this dirty look and goes, “Well, how many marriage licenses do you have???” and turns around. I realized she thought I had more than one license to more than one guy, possibly at different times. No, I just didn’t have the *certified* one last week.
So anyways, about 25 minutes later, her two buddies she had befriended had gone through the line and left so I assume she decided I was an acceptable chit-chat partner because she started making small talk. I quietly made a comment about how I thought it was interesting they only had 3 windows (only 2 were open) considering how busy they always are. She goes into this lecture of how she’s an economics and civics teacher and how she understands all sides of it and that if they opened more windows they’d have to hire more people and raise taxes and it just wouldn’t help a thing. I just kind of smile and nod, not knowing how to respond to that. Eventually I say how nice it would be if we could just do some of the more simple tasks online or through the mail (I know my mom had her name changed through the mail). She goes into this tirade about how she just would absolutely NOT send ANY of her information through the mail, ABSOLUTELY not. I wanted to ask her if she realized that her new social security card would be coming *gasp* through the mail.
Her number is called, she goes to a window. The next number is almost immediately called and it’s three Asian people who had been behind me in line, filling out 3 different applications. I assumed that they would take awhile, as it appeared they were filing for social security cards for citizenship – especially since teacher lady was there simply to get a new social security card since she so smartly threw away.
Shows what I know. The group of three people got finished, my number was called and I was done in about 2 minutes – and teacher lady was still at the window, even with all her perfectly organized information in a second grader’s folder.
Some people.
Today I went, same time, different day and it was about 25 people deep. No big deal, I’m a patient person, I can wait. A lady in front of me in line makes a comment about how she brought absolutely everything with her so she would have anything they possibly asked for. What is she there for, you ask? Oh, she threw away her social security card (this is important). I made a comment about how, yeah, I was here last week but brought the wrong marriage license. She gives me this dirty look and goes, “Well, how many marriage licenses do you have???” and turns around. I realized she thought I had more than one license to more than one guy, possibly at different times. No, I just didn’t have the *certified* one last week.
So anyways, about 25 minutes later, her two buddies she had befriended had gone through the line and left so I assume she decided I was an acceptable chit-chat partner because she started making small talk. I quietly made a comment about how I thought it was interesting they only had 3 windows (only 2 were open) considering how busy they always are. She goes into this lecture of how she’s an economics and civics teacher and how she understands all sides of it and that if they opened more windows they’d have to hire more people and raise taxes and it just wouldn’t help a thing. I just kind of smile and nod, not knowing how to respond to that. Eventually I say how nice it would be if we could just do some of the more simple tasks online or through the mail (I know my mom had her name changed through the mail). She goes into this tirade about how she just would absolutely NOT send ANY of her information through the mail, ABSOLUTELY not. I wanted to ask her if she realized that her new social security card would be coming *gasp* through the mail.
Her number is called, she goes to a window. The next number is almost immediately called and it’s three Asian people who had been behind me in line, filling out 3 different applications. I assumed that they would take awhile, as it appeared they were filing for social security cards for citizenship – especially since teacher lady was there simply to get a new social security card since she so smartly threw away.
Shows what I know. The group of three people got finished, my number was called and I was done in about 2 minutes – and teacher lady was still at the window, even with all her perfectly organized information in a second grader’s folder.
Some people.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Honeymoon Recap!
Warning, this is an incredibly long update. Seriously, I go through day-by-day. It's more of a record for me, but you're more than welcome to read about it all. Don't worry I don't go into *too* much detail ;-) but it is pretty lengthy.
Now that you have been sufficiently warned...
Now that you have been sufficiently warned...
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