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rebel666 · 5 years ago

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Confessions of a Joann Employee

UPDATE: If you want to send more confessions and/or report what’s happening at your Joann anonymously, there’s EmployeeJoann on Twitter that is responding to messages. They are constantly sharing and updating more as it becomes available to them!

A confession from a Joann employee that is in one of the Covid-19 effected areas and has so much to say about it:

-We are staying open until told by the state otherwise. Even though they declared a State of Emergency and all non-essential businesses must be shut down by 5pm on Saturday 3/21, our company is refusing to. Because Joann themselves is trying to deem Joann as an "essential" store. They even put it all over their website that we are here for the people making masks and small businesses who need fabric to continue. They quote that we are here for the customers and that we as United States Americans have a responsibility to fill this need. They aren’t looking at curbside only as an option, they aren’t looking at offering more benefits for shopping online, they want us open and people in stores. They are sending us emails with pieces of paper (unofficial, not state made) to print out and put in our cars to say we are on the way to work at an "essential retailer." Anything to make it so we can remain open.

-This sucks for employees and here’s why: The way Joann is set up is if we get sick, if we have to leave to take care of someone who is sick, if we want to self-quarantine (because of our health or the health of our loved ones), we either quit or ask to be put on Leave of Absence and cannot return without medical clearance. If we come into contact with someone who has Covid-19 (even if they came into the store), they request we stay home while the rest of us have to work even if we were standing right next to them. As long as we don’t display symptoms, we are expected to show up or we can request LoA. LoA does not pay us. The only way we as employees will be taken care of is if the store closes AND if we have two weeks of schedules set up. I was hoping the company was on the path to this when they had us cancel all the classes until May and then limited hours but all that went out the window today. Right now Joann is doing everything to prevent us from closing and in turn take care of their employees. Every single time I bring up our well-being, I get reminded that we need to think about the customer first.

-Our store is step up to have daily conference calls to talk about the current status and to express any concerns we have. I brought up the status about my county (our major has declared everyone be shut down as of 5pm tomorrow or the police will be involved) and that I am deeply concerned for us and they told me that we have a responsibility as a leader to keep everyone calm and to keep working through this. ***When I asked what if everyone in my store requests a Leave of Absence because we are all very much concerned about our health, they said, "We will replace you with team members from other stores. There are service industry people and travel workers looking for jobs and we will fill your positions with people who will work it."*** They straight up told me that we are replaceable/expendable because they value their "customers/money." It doesn’t matter how long we’ve been with the company. It all means nothing to them.

-They are sending out emails about what Joann is doing as a whole for Covid-19. Saying we are cleaning every hour and whatnot. What they fail to mention is we are a fabric store with no means of washing fabric. I see people on a daily basis cough into, wipe their snot on, kids place in their mouth, and all sorts of other nasty things into these bolts of fabric (seriously, wash the fabric you buy from Joann before doing anything). We have the basic cleaning supplies to wash floors and wipe counters with but that’s pretty much it. They are telling us as employees to bring in our own supplies if we can. An employee brought in gloves long ago just so we can use them to clean the bathrooms. Today I provided face masks for my fellow coworkers. Our store may look clean but we know its dirty little secrets.

-We are supposed to follow the whole 10 people rule but they do nothing to stop or limit people at the door and won’t do anything to enforce it. All while wanting us to cut hours to which is barely 2 people running the whole store for smaller Joann locations. It’s not safe for us to be on a bare-bones crew especially if they want us to remain an essential store.

-Joann before this was a great place to work. At least for my store. I love my store, I love the people I work with. Other stores I have heard horror stories from but mine was one of the good ones. I see them being bombarded on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to close. Not just by employees and families of employees but by concerned customers. And this pleases me because they need to take this seriously. What they do in the next 3 days will speak volumes on how much they listen to and care about us. This is a serious issue and we as employees are suffering.

As they report more, I will continue to add to this.

UPDATE 3/21: They emailed and made copies of this for employees to carry with them in their cars:

Now the CEO of Joann is also a piece of work. All you have to do is google his name and you’ll see the Walgreen’s lawsuit, his DUIs (yes, plural), and his impact on Joann since joining - which includes increasing prices because of the tariffs. One employee confirms that when tariff thing went into effect, the entire store was repriced. Some markups were a few cents but some were a few dollars. Since then the prices continue to fluctuate.

There is also a petition going on Change.org asking for Joann to Close Their Stores And Pay Employees

If you get a chance, read some of the comments people are putting in support of this:

I no longer feel safe in my workplace. The greed is sickening.

My employees deserve to be treated like people and make a livable wage and have benefits! Our health over their profit!

Staff at my local store have been asked to bring in their own gloves for cleaning. Hand sanitizer expired in 2012. Employees are reporting little to know cleaning supplies in a store that targets the elderly as a primary demographic. The material used in the masks is not medical grade. This company is shamelessly profiteering from the pandemic.

As a former employee and manager I know the company does not follow any real cleaning guidelines. They understaff their stores, overwork their employees and frown upon time off. Fabrics and crafts are not essential items at this time and since the majority of the clientele there are elderly i think they are creating more risk. Finally do something good for your employees and send gem home with pay

As a previous manager, I'm sad to say that this company does not value its workers. To see that they are putting their workers, and others who visit, at a continued risk is unbelievable and is extremely selfish. Now is the time to act and stop the spread of COVID-19 and to keep Joann's open does not help stop the spread in anyway shape or form.

Over the last two days, my local store decided to carry on with inventory. They brought in an inventory team from the area of our state with the vast majority of cases. It's one thing to not close and continue to expose the public to the risk, but decisions like these show that Jo-Anns has a blatant disregard for the wellbeing of its employees and customers. Even more telling is the fact that we know that you are seeing our pleas to do the right thing, but continue to ignore us on social media. There is only one reason that you are pushing to categorize Jo-Anns as an essential business, and that is greed. In fact, I had to spend my own money on gas to drive all over the city looking for more cleaning supplies after my manager ordered me to. Your employees do so much for you, and we are compensated very little. I have been at Jo-Anns long enough to know that you would never compensate us for our time off, but at least join the other non-essential business and shut down for the time being.

joann’s customer base is primarily elderly or otherwise at risk people, and many employees are also older or immunocompromised. employees are overwhelmed as we can’t keep up with the cleaning guidelines while also taking care of customers, not to mention we’re severely lacking in cleaning supplies in the first place. joann is encouraging people to come in for supplies to make face masks, yet these masks aren’t sterile since people touch and breathe on the fabric all day, and it’s then laid on the counter to be measured and cut. employees themselves aren’t even allowed to wear masks or gloves. joann cares more about profit than the safety of both their team members and customers.

There are so many comments I want to share. These are just a few. This is Joann. They care more about their image and their financial gains than the backbone of their stores. The people who put up with their ridiculous requests day in and day out are now at risk and putting others at risk. Places like Hot Topic closed down and took care of their employees, places like Joanns should too!

But also lets not forget, Hobby Lobby is also not taking Covid-19 seriously.

UPDATE 3/22: “We have signs saying we're cleaning more but found out Friday that we're out of supplies in the distribution center. They claim they will send them out once they receive any but I found out today from a truck driver the company that supplies everything for Joann (from inventory to store use items) is closed for 2 weeks... because of this they're telling us to use the bathroom cleaner as a substitute.”

From Joann Employee Confessions on Twitter:

Confession 17 - Our Joann was closed! We received a C&D from the Chief of Police! We were so ecstatic as employees when they came in and told us to cease all business operations! Not even curbside! BUT then we had to tell our District Manager... and everything changed.

Our DM told us to come back to work tomorrow because he was going to have Joann's lawyers work on it. My heart sank. Them being open was more important. So I went into work and it was so nice not being open to the public. We finally caught up on recovery and cleaning! All things we have neglected the past week because it's been too busy for us to keep up! All of us were in great spirits and it was the best day ever. Until our DM called... and he told us to section off all the "non-essential" parts of the store.

Fabric and sewing notions were deemed essential and we would be open to the public the next day. No curbside only. Nope. People were to come right back in and nothing about limitations. Nothing about cleaning our disgusting fabric. Just to section off half the store so the public could come in and buy all the fabric and sewing supplies they could want. And to add to that... they are doing a remnant promotion where all the spare pieces are free to the customer now! Another thing for our already spare crew to do when we don't have time!

I am honestly so shattered over how the Chief of Police who seemed so interested in our well-being backed out of this. We are exposed once again. 3 of us tonight took Leave of Absence papers tonight because we don't feel safe. This was the final nail in the coffin.

UPDATE - My coworker messaged me, “Got up at 10:00 to get ready for work. A text came in saying the store is closed and I don't have to come to work. Seems there was a conference call. It appears the state is involved and overrode the mayor!” But Joann is still fighting it. This is a day by day thing. They are telling us if we want hours we have to go to another store. If not, we have to put in our leave of absence.

More articles coming through right now:

These Retailers Refused To Close During The Pandemic, So An Illinois City Shut Them Down

Joann Fabrics' mask-making promotion raises questions

Gregory said the masks were being donated to Rush Oak Park Hospital in Oak Park and to Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva – but spokespeople for both those hospitals said it was not true.“Due to infection control measures, Northwestern Medicine cannot accept donations of handmade masks, gowns and other medical supplies,” according to an email from Kimberly Waterman, spokeswoman for Northwestern Medicine Delnor. “Only factory-made, hospital-quality supplies, including N95 masks, face shields, gloves, gowns, sanitizers and swabs can be donated.”

“There is no barrier,” White said. “Once [handmade cloth masks] get wet, I don’t think they’re that effective.” (I can confirm. A RN confirmed with me that cloth masks collect moisture which acts as a magnet for infections.)

#covid2019 #covidー19 #covid19 #joann #joannfabrics #employeescomefirst #confessions #confessionsofanemployee #capitalism should die #what is wrong with America #fabric store problems #burn down the corporations #rise up for what you believe in #stand strong #i will not shut up #hobbylobby #make the change #whistleblower

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bellakitse · 4 years ago

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Making friends in Life or Death situations

“No,” Nancy shakes her head quickly, tightening her hold on his face so he can focus on her. “You have to stay awake,” she continues, her voice cracking as fear grips her again. This is her friend, sure they don’t know each other that well, but Carlos is nice and sweet and the love of her partner’s life. He’s her friend, damn it, and she’s not going to lose him, not after losing Tim. “Please, stay awake.”

Carlos and Nancy are trapped together after a tornado hits the pharmacy they are in.

Written for @911lonestarweek - Day 2: Emergencies/“Please, stay awake.”/Angst

Nancy Gillian walks into the Walgreens just as her phone rings out another tornado warning.

“Dear, we’re closing early, in 15 mins,” an older woman behind the counter says to her with a quick smile. “Because of the tornados.”

Nancy gives the woman a nod of acknowledgment and quickly makes her way down to the pet aisle. She wouldn’t even be out if it wasn’t for the fact that she realized she was down to her last can of cat food and with no time to make a Costco run for her new tabby. Looking through the limited selection, she picks a few of the chicken options, dropping them into her basket, and heads for the junk food aisle. Just some salt and vinegar Pringles to go with the leftover Easter chocolates she has back at her apartment, and she can head home and ride out the bad weather.

Turning the corner without looking in her rush to finish her shopping, she bumps face-first into a solid chest, bouncing right off it. She feels herself fall back and closes her eyes, bracing for the pain falling will cause, but it never comes. Instead, strong hands grab hold of her waist, keeping her upright.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry – Nancy?”

Nancy opens her eyes at the sound of her name, finding familiar brown eyes looking at her with concern.

“Officer Reyes!” she squeaks out, blushing when he raises an eyebrow at her. “I mean, Carlos – hi!”

Carlos gives her a friendly smile in return. “Hello, Nancy.”

“I’m sorry,” she apologizes quickly, gesturing around them. “I was in a rush to get what I need before the tornados touch down and wasn’t looking.”

“Same,” Carlos says with a laugh. “TK sent me to get what we need to ride it out before we are eventually called into work when it’s over.”

Nancy peeks into his basket, her eyebrows going up when she finds condoms, lubricant, and ice cream in it. “The essentials for sure,” she says dryly, biting back a smirk when she sees him blush and start to stammer in response. “Relax, officer,” she continues, feeling bad for how red he’s turned. “We all know how nauseatingly in love you and my partner are. This is not shocking.”

“Maybe not shocking, but embarrassing for sure,” Carlos grumbles back, scowling at her when she lets out a snort.

She grins at him, pleased when he gives her a reluctant smile back. She doesn’t know Carlos all that well. She’s been to his place a handful of times now that TK has made it a point to invite her when the rest of the 126 meets up at their apartment. But Carlos is usually in the kitchen making sure everyone is well-fed, and afterwards, he seems to enjoy sitting back and watch their brassier friends interact. She understands the instinct, feeling they’re a lot alike, which is why she can’t help but feel comfortable around him even though they’re not super familiar with each other.

She opens her mouth to tease him some more when a piercing siren rings out and the lights in the establishment flicker seconds before the whole place starts to shake.

“Shit,” Carlos curses, already on the move as he drops his basket and takes her arm, moving her further back.

“The cashier – “ she starts to say, only for her voice to get lost under the howling winds. It’s so loud; it sounds like a freight train barreling straight for them. She blinks, once, maybe twice, less than a second of time, but it’s all that’s needed for the front of the place to disappear under collapsing walls and ceiling.

She feels strong arms go around her waist, and the next thing she knows, she’s rolling across a hard surface and landing on the floor. Carlos covers her as best he can with his body, trying to make them as small as possible as they cower under the counter desk of the pharmacy section of the Walgreens. She can’t hear much past the whirling winds and her racing heart, but somewhere in there, she hears a hard grunt. She looks up at Carlos, still hovering over her, doing his best to protect her, but she sees pain clouding his expression.

“Are you okay?” she shouts, worry spiking her pulse as she sees a trail of blood rolling down the side of his face.

“Something hit me in the head and my back,” he grits out as the winds begin to calm down. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine; you’re bleeding,” she points out, not sure if he’s noticed yet. Given the way his eyes widen when he touches his hairline, she doesn’t think he has. She goes to say more when the walls around them let out a loud groan followed by a series of bangs as more of the place falls down around them.

She closes her eyes, tucking her face into Carlos’ shoulder.

Carlos pulls her closer to him in return, and she’s thankful for the kindness as she hides in his frame. If this is the end, she realizes she doesn’t actually want to see it.

A few minutes pass like this as she waits for it to end, be it the disaster or her life, she’s not really sure, but slowly the howling lessens until it’s only a dull echo in her ears.

“Nance – it’s stopping,” Carlos says softly, giving her a slight shake, bringing her back to the present.

Slowly she pulls back, surprised she can still see, realizing that somehow the lights have managed to stay on, flickering, but on. She looks at Carlos to find him giving her a concerned look.

“Well,” she starts to say, licking her lips nervously. “That was terrifying.”

Carlos lets out a chuckle that quickly turns into a hiss.

“What, what is it?” she asks quickly as she watches his face go slightly grey.

“I – I think,” he stops, closing his eyes but not fast enough to hide the pain from her. “I think something is in my back?”

“What?” she squeaks out. She moves to her knees, her hands hovering over Carlos’ shoulders as he sits down on the floor with a heavy sigh. Going around him, she starts to probe him, stopping short when she feels something hard and jagged by the right side of his flank. She swallows a gasp as she realizes what it is.

“How bad?” he questions, his voice tight as the obvious pain starts to set in.

“It’s – it’s glass,” Nancy whispers with dread as she notices the patch of blood on his shirt is growing.

Carlos lets out a weary sigh. “Of course it is,” he mutters dryly. “TK is going to be so pissed.”

Nancy ignores his comment, starting to get up from under the desk counter. “Okay, we need to get you out of here,” she says, just for Carlos to let out a chuckle.

“Hate to burst your bubble, but I’m pretty sure the front of this place collapsed, trapping us back here,” Carlos says far more calmly than she feels the moment merits. “We are lucky the walls dividing the back of the pharmacy and the front held up – protecting us.”

Nancy looks through the counter’s window, where she would usually wait for her prescriptions to be filled, and realizes he’s right. Carlos pushing them behind the counter saved them, but now the whole front is a maze of rubble with no apparent way out.

“Fuck me,” she swears, feeling the frustration and panic build inside her. She lets it for a second before pushing it aside. She’s a trained paramedic, and right now, her main priority is making sure she stops Carlos’ from bleeding out. She looks behind her, letting out a relieved breath to see that the space they are in is relatively sound. If she’s going to be trapped with an injured person needing her care, there are worse places to be than a fully stocked pharmacy.

“Check your phone, Carlos,” she says to him, already on the move. “I’m going to get supplies to care for your injuries.”

She gets a grunt back from Carlos and takes it as an okay as she steps over the mess of pills and supplies on the floor and thanks whatever higher power might be watching over them when she finds bandages, alcohol, and even a pair of scissors in her search. She makes her way back to Carlos to find him hunched over, his expression dazed as he stares at his phone.

“Carlos?” she questions, repeating his name louder when he doesn’t answer right away. He blinks in her direction, and she can see he’s not all there with her. She ignores the trickle of fear that runs up her spine as a result. “Did you get through to anyone?”

Carlos shakes his head slowly. “The lines – they’re not – “

“Okay, that’s okay,” she rushes to reassure him as she comes to sit in front of him. She takes ahold of his face, feeling the tackiness of the drying blood on his head. Two injuries then, she makes a note. “We’ll try again after I bandage you up, okay?”

“I’m tired, Nance,” Carlos answers, his speech becoming slurred, and Nancy adds likely concussion to the list. “My side hurts, and my head.”

“I know, hon,” she answers with what she hopes is a comforting tone. “But I’m going to fix it, okay?”

Carlos blinks at her slowly. “Sleep.”

Carlos looks at her with wide eyes before slowly reaching up to touch her face, startling her as she realizes that it’s wet from tears she hadn’t realized she’d shed. “Don’t cry, Nance.”

“Then stay awake,” she answers back, letting out a shaky smile when he gives her a solemn nod in return with an ‘I promise.’

“Okay,” she says softly, letting go of his face to turn to his back. “I’m going to clean and pack the wound. We can’t take the glass out because you’ll probably bleed more, but we can secure it.”

“Okay,” Carlos answers, giving her permission.

“Sorry about your shirt,” she says quickly as she starts to cut it up the middle.

Carlos lets out a hiss as she pours the rubbing alcohol over the wound. It’s thankfully not as big as she initially thought, but she winces when Carlos lets out a shout as she starts to press the gauzes around it. She tries to think of a way to distract him from the pain, letting out a quick breath when it comes to her. “Talk to me about TK,” she instructs him, hoping it will achieve the goal.

“TK?” Carlos questions sluggishly.

“Yeah, tell me about him, about the two of you,” she says as she rolls out more bandages.

Carlos lets out a sigh. It has the same sappy sound that she hears when TK talks about Carlos or is on the phone with him. “I just love him so much,” he answers, and even though she can’t see his face, she knows he’s smiling through the pain. “He’s beautiful and kind, silly and sweet, and when he looks at me the way he does, I feel like I’ve won the lottery. I’m so lucky he loves me back.”

Nancy smiles at the comment; she’s heard TK say the same exact thing. She tells Carlos as she makes a quick finish of securing his wound before moving to face him and deal with his head injury.

“He has?” Carlos questions her with a boyish grin, looking loopier, his eyes heavy. “That’s good. I bought him a ring; now I just have to work up the nerve to ask him to marry me.”

Nancy stares at Carlos for a moment, sure that he wouldn’t have revealed that if he was in all his five senses.

“Are you sure I can’t sleep?” he questions quietly, swaying towards her.

Nancy shakes her head at him, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Not when she can see that his eyes are rolling back, and she has just enough time to keep his face from meeting the floor as he slumps forward.

“Carlos!”

֎֎֎

Nancy has grown to hate the sounds and smells of hospitals. She thinks she’s lucky to not be a doctor or a nurse and not have to be in one every day, but she’s still in them enough because the people she cares about are danger magnets, and she hates it.

They get rescued not long after Carlos has passed out, but it still feels like eons to her. She rides in the ambulance with him, ignoring the paramedics that want to look her over in favor of holding Carlos’ hand. She doesn’t let go until she absolutely has to in order to allow the doctors to work, and she doesn’t break down until she sees TK walk through the hospital doors with a panic-stricken look on his face.

She cries on his shoulder, feeling horrible that he’s comforting her when it’s his boyfriend who is hurt. Fresh tears spring up when he hugs her tight, thanking her for saving the man he loves, and even though he tells her to go home, she waits until Carlos opens his eyes again.

She doesn’t have a home anyway; her neighbor left a message telling her the tornados destroyed her place, luckily he managed to get her cat out, watching over her until she can get back.

She sits in one of the uncomfortable but familiar chairs as the 126 and Carlos’ parents come and go in the later hours, all the while she remains next to TK as they wait for Carlos to wake up. It’s late at night, and TK has fallen asleep next to her when Carlos finally opens his eyes, and Nancy springs forward, rushing to his side, holding her breath as he slowly blinks to consciousness.

“Nancy,” he gets out roughly, and Nancy feels her eyes sting in return. “Are you okay?”

“You said you’d stay awake,” she accuses him as the tears roll down her face. “You promised.”

Carlos looks like he’s in pain, but it doesn’t stop him from giving her a kind look. He reaches out to take her hand, giving it a squeeze. “I did. I’m sorry, Nancy.”

“You can keep calling me Nance,” she whispers, squeezing his hand back. “We’re friends now.”

Carlos smiles at her, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Very cool,” he says softly before looking past her at his sleeping boyfriend. “Is he okay?”

Nancy nods, giving TK a soft look of her own over her shoulder. “He’s strong, and he knew you were going to be just fine,” she says with a smile. “Let me wake him up.”

She starts to turn, only to be stopped when Carlos holds on to her hand. “What I told you – “ he begins, looking at her with those big brown eyes of his that endears him to everyone who meets him, herself included.

“I’m not going to ruin your surprise,” she assures him, chuckling when he lets out a breath.

“Thanks, Nance,” Carlos says, smiling once more.

Nancy returns it kindly. “Hey, what are friends for.”

#911 lone star #carlos reyes #nancy gillian #lonestarweekend #lsweekend2021 #tarlos fic #because they are still mention #even though this is a Nancy and Carlos friendship fic first #911 lone star fic #my writing

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 3 years ago

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LUCIAN K. TRUSCOTT NEWSLETTER

Do you remember what it was like during the early days of the COVID crisis? I didn’t. I had to look it up. Seventeen months ago to the day, on March 31, 2020, Time Magazine published a story about a woman in Brooklyn who had been watching from her apartment window as refrigerated trucks were pulled up outside Wyckoff Heights Medical Center and temporary wooden shelving was constructed to hold the bodies of people who had died from the disease because there was no space left for them in city morgues.

It was happening all over New York City. They even had a name for them: BCP’s, or Body Collection Points. There were two in Brooklyn, one in Queens, and one in Manhattan outside Bellevue Hospital. Some were 53-foot long trucks, some were refrigerated tents. They started building what they called “pop-up hospitals” to keep up with the COVID caseload, which had overrun the city’s hospitals. One such pop-up hospital was in the Jacob Javits convention center on the city’s west side. Another was quickly set up in Central Park.

Back in Brooklyn, they built a wooden ramp for hospital workers to use to wheel the bodies out of the hospital and into the trucks. Curious people started stopping on the street to watch the bodies being loaded into the backs of the trucks, so they brought the construction men back to the site to build thin white panels to keep the passersby from getting too close to the dead bodies or gathering in small crowds to stare.

Time reported that the New York State death toll had reached 1,200, with more than 66,000 cases of COVID. More than 900 people had died in New York City alone, thus the need for the temporary morgues in refrigerated trucks and tents.

Cable news covered the COVID crisis in New York City. You could see images of the refrigerated trailers lined up in Queens and Brooklyn. People were asking what it was about New York that the city had so many deaths from the disease. Was it because people lived so close together? Was there something about the lifestyle of New Yorkers that had made the disease spread throughout the city? Was it travelers coming in from outside the city?

I remember finger-pointing by politicians in states in the south and the Midwest, and the fingers were pointed at the big liberal cities of New York and Chicago and Los Angeles. There must be something wrong in those big cities to have so many people dying.

Oh, there was something wrong all right. A vicious, highly contagious virus was spreading rapidly through the population and infecting thousands of people and some of them were dying. Very little was known about the disease. Medical experts were arguing about how the disease could be controlled. Some recommended wearing masks, but it turned out that there was a shortage of what was called PPE, or “personal protective equipment,” and some experts were against recommending that civilians be told to wear masks so there could be enough for the medical professionals in the hospitals who were so overrun with patients with COVID.

The president of the United States formed a so-called “task force” and began holding briefings from the White House, but those briefings quickly devolved into exercises in denial and attacks on the press for making more of the emerging pandemic than the president thought was necessary. With shortages of medical equipment and PPE hindering the fight against the disease, he told the states to find their own, and his own son-in-law even set up a “shadow” task force, the so-called hedge fund volunteers assembled from young friends of Jared Kushner and housed in an empty office in the FEMA building. But the hedge fund volunteers quickly started bickering about how many deaths they should budget for – they made an estimate of a possible hundred thousand, because the estimate by outside experts, who actually had experience with disease and pandemics, was “too severe.” The group paid a lot of attention to Fox News personality Jean Pirro, who was calling up her friend Kushner and getting him to direct lots of the PPE to her favorite hospital in New York. And then one of the young hedge fund volunteers came down with COVID and the group had to stop meeting, and the whole thing fell apart and the states had to go back to bidding against each other for badly needed medical gear to fight the disease.

More than 639,000 dead bodies later, we’re still at it. Once again our television screens feature interviews with exhausted ICU nurses and red-eyed doctors attending patients lined up in crowded hospital hallways.

But there’s a difference. A big one. Seventeen months after the initial panic over the rampaging virus in New York City that no one knew anything about, we know a lot about how it spreads and what to do about it. This time, the New York Times tells us, “Of the 10 states with the most cases per capita in recent days, nine voted Republican in last year’s presidential race and nine are led by Republican governors.” This time the refrigerated trucks are being lined up outside hospitals in Mississippi and Texas and Arizona and Florida, and the temporary “pop-up” hospitals are being built in Mississippi and Missouri and Texas. This time, the states with spiking COVID case numbers and steeply rising death curves are in the South and upper Midwest and the country’s heartland.

What, you might ask, are all those Republican governors in all those Republican states doing to help contain this new pandemic outbreak? Are they following CDC guidelines and imposing mask mandates and encouraging residents of their states to get vaccinated?

No, like South Dakota governor Krisi Noem, who, wearing blue jeans and a black leather jacket recently rode a black Harley Davidson motorcycle into the big motorcycle rally in her state in the small town of Sturgis, they are brushing aside calls for vaccine and mask mandates. “The left is accusing us of embracing death when we’re just allowing people to make personal choices,” said Roem. Personal choices to die? you might ask. Apparently so. Texas senator Ted Cruz chimed in, “Freedom is good policy and good politics.” Cruz has introduced federal legislation to forbid mask and vaccine mandates, because, you know…freedom.

The Republican Party, which only a few years ago caused a stir by requiring welfare applicants in states it controls to get a blood test for drug use, has now decided that walking around coughing and sneezing without the bother of a mask that would protect those around you is what “freedom” means. The Republican Party has decided that Republican governors know better than local school boards which have the safety of school children as their responsibility, and they are busy passing anti-mask mandate laws giving parents the “freedom” to decide whether their children will wear masks to school to protect their fellow students.

This is beyond the old shibboleth that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Republican governors are not insane. They are cruel and mean and without feeling for anything other than power. And they are afraid. They are afraid that if they do what they know is right, which is to require that their citizens wear masks and get vaccinated so they won’t get sick and die, a big bad bogeyman named Donald Trump will come and take their toys away.

You look at the COVID statistics and they are incredible. On August 30, yesterday, 1,725 Americans died from COVID. 280,403 contracted the disease. In a single day. Go back and look at those New York stats from March 30, 2020. 66,000 cases and 900 deaths total, over a couple of months.

Is it that we don’t learn anything anymore? Or is it that some of us just don’t care? Is it that these people in Mississippi or Alabama or Arkansas or Missouri or South Dakota would rather watch the refrigerated trucks fill up with dead bodies than put on a mask and walk into a supermarket or sit down at a Walgreens and pull up their sleeves and let the libs win? Is it that they would rather die than act rationally? Is it that they’re sheep being herded by Ron DeSantis or Greg Abbott or Ted Cruz, or are they the ones herding the Republican politicians?

It would be nice to just sit back and say they’ve lost their minds, the whole Republican Party has gone crazy, wouldn’t it?

But people are dying. Thousands of people. Still. Once again, the bodies are piling up in the 53-foot long trucks. It’s sad. It isn’t all of us, but we’re fucking this up, folks, the whole nation of us.

Lucian Truscott

#newsletter #Lucian Truscott #COVID-19 #corrupt GOP #criminal GOP

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all-hail-the-witcher · 5 years ago

Text

nobody likes a claggy bit of cheese

this idea came to me in mid november while i was watching an episode of the great british bakeoff and crocheting a scarf for my sister while eating a very very healthy college lunch of apple sauce and caramel corn. someone (maybe it was paul) said the word “claggy” and i was like Wow That’s British. and then someone else (probably paul again) said “stodgy” and i was like WoW ThAts BriTisH. and then i was like you know who would appreciate these Very British Words?? my dumb friend who likes to pretend he's british. and thEn i was like Oh Shit what if he hosted great british bakeoff that would be energy oh my god. and i was About to text him that when i was like No Wait! instead of a baking competition it would be a Mac And Cheese competition because that's like,,,his wholes pride and joy. and then i was about to text him that but then i was like wAIT! this has fic written all over it oh my god i can see it now. and now here we are.

also mikey in case you didn't realize, you are my dumb fake british friend and this is your present but i mean its more of your persona slapped on race and i called it a day. its not a mothman shirt but it'll have to do eye guess

anywaymst

enjoy this trash pile

_________

ship: eye guess its platonic ralbert

genre: pure ass crack

warnings: uhmmm, race is an idiot, poorly written british accents, paul hollywood stare, uhhh, albert is Annoyed, jack is an idiot who makes bad mac, spot get Angryyy, idk im writing there before the fic is finished, katherine definitely knows the mafia

editing: lol that's funny

words: enough to fill a few pages but not enough to bore you to death like the metamorphosis

_________

“CHEESE!”

Blankets tornadoed around the room as Race jumped off the bed in a half awake sleepy haze, barely landing on his feet in a fight stance, wielding his phone like a weapon in front of him. He glared into the dark corners (not that he could even tell where the corners were considering that it was pitch dark) of the room before stumbling out into the hallway, muttering madly about cheese.

“Cheese...blue cheese…..string cheese…...mozzarella cheese….” Race barely heard his own half-mad whispers as he opened all the cabinets, rummaging around in the same matter a hurricane floods a basement, in a mad search for pasta. When he came up empty handed he scowled, sat himself up on the counter and yelled for the next best thing:

“ALLLLLLLBBEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRT!”

CRASH! That would be Albert falling out of bed. Race kicked his feet against the cabinet impatiently.

WHOOSH! SLAM! And there was Albert’s door opening and closing at an alarming speed.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! The pictures in the living room began to shake, announcing his arrival.

“Race?! What’s going on? Are you okay??” And there was Albert, sliding into the kitchen in nothing but a pair of socks and boxers (despite the fact that it was probably 3 degrees out), weilding a single black converse high top. Race wasn’t quite sure how the shoe was supposed to help him, but he decided to ignore it. He couldn’t afford to get distracted by Albert’s weird antics when there was a legitimate crisis at hand.

“Race…?” Albert asked again, slowly lowering his shoe. “Is everything-” “We’re out of pasta.”

“We’re- what?” The shoe Albert had been holding banged to the floor. “You’re telling me that you woke me up at” he peered at the oven clock over Race’s shoulder, “three fifteen am to tell me that we’re out of pasta?”

“It’s horrible isn’t it?” Race slammed his head into the cabinet behind him. “Now I can’t make mac and cheese!” “W h y do you want to make mac and fucking cheese at three fifteen in the goddamn morning?!”

“BECAUSE ALBERT-” Race jumped down off the counter, “-I had a dream. A dream where I was competing on The Great British Bakeoff and I made my Famous mac and cheese. And Paul Hollywood, the man, the legend h i m s e l f, tasted my humble mac and said ‘Race. That is amazing.’ And gave me a handshake! And I was so honored that I awoke hungry for the wonderful, delicious, creamy taste of mac and cheese. So I wander into the kitchen and what do I find? A fridge full of cheese, but no pasta to be found!” He stepped closer to Albert, planting his hand firmly on his shoulder. “This is an emergency!”

Albert swatted away Race’s hand and rubbed his eyes, already turning back toward his room. “If Paul Hollywood deemed your mac and cheese so amazing then just hold a competition of your own and make other people make mac and cheese for you. That way I don’t have to go to Walgreens at three thirty.” He glanced back over his shoulder. “I’m going back to bed. Don’t make us lose our security deposit.”

Race stood in stunned silence as Albert disappeared down the hall and his door closed.

“That sleep deprived idiot might actually be onto something,” he muttered, launching himself onto one of the bar stools and opening his laptop. He had work to do.

•••

“You know, when I told you to host your own mac and cheese competition I thought I dreamt that entire encounter, and, now that I realize that I definitely didn’t, I especially didn't expect you to make me host it, and I certainly didn’t expect you to make me wear this dumb costume.” He tugged uncomfortably at the dark blazer and black wig.

“Oi mate, if you’re gonna be Sue yew gotta start actin like ‘er!” Race glared.

“But Race-”

“Thas Paul Hollywood to you. I don want none uh this ‘Race’ business,” he crossed his arms and gave Al his best Steely Eyed, Paul Hollywood Glare.

Albert just rolled his eyes and stomped off.

Race sighed happily as he turned to survey the tent in front of him. He had called Katherine last night after his missing pasta crisis and asked if he could use her Dad’s Hampton’s estate to host a mock version of the Great British Bakeoff but for mac and cheese. Katherine, like any good rebellious daughter, had loved the idea and called several of her “contacts” that apparently “owed her favors.” (Race didn’t understand the life of rich people, it seemed very extravagant and two-faced) And that was how Race had come to be standing in a tent with what could very well be the set up of the Great British Bakeoff laid out in front of him with he himself dressed in his very best blue button down and jeans, a spitting image of Paul Hollywood. Well, maybe Paul Hollywood 30 years ago.

His friends that he had invited on to be the contestants of the show were setting up at their stations. There was Jack, Davey, Romeo, Mush, Blink, Finch, Buttons, Specs, JoJo, Spot, Crutchie, and Smalls. Katherine had opted not to participate and instead film everyone to make it seem more like the actual show.

Someone (probably Katherine) had forced Albert to stand next to him to announce the signature challenge that they had prepared.

“Alright bakers-”

Race shot him a side glance.

“-er, mac and cheese cookers?” he tried to amend. “Today Ra-uh, Paul would like you to make a nice, hefty batch of mac and cheese. You may use whatever ingredients you would like, but he would like it to be cheesy, delicious, and contain pasta. You have 45 minutes.” Race could practically hear the sigh in his voice. “On your marks, get set, ba-cOOK!”

Finally, Race thought as his friends scrambled around their respective stations, I’m going to get some good mac.

•••

It was becoming very clear very quickly that Race may not actually be getting any good mac.

He wandered from station to station, Albert following begrudgingly behind him, progressively becoming more and more disappointed in each and every one of his friends. Didn’t any of them know how to cook?

“Roight Jack.” He leaned on the one empty scrap of counter in front of him. “What are yew makin?”

“It’s a surprise.” Jack - well he assumed it was Jack, he couldn’t really be sure with all the flour flying everywhere - ran around his workspace, which was crowded with every ingredient imaginable, from shredded cheese to, was that maple syrup?

“Jack for the sake of the show yew gotta tell us what yew’re makin.” Jack must not have the braincell today.

From somewhere in the flour cloud a timer went off. Jack yelped and dropped what sounded like several pots with an amazingly loud clatter.

“If you really must know - ouch!! - I’m making - god fUCK! - baked mac and cheese with a - SHIT! - crispy top.”

“Alright well,” Albert dodged a flying blob of flaming cheese, “we’ll leave you to it. Hopefully we get to actually eat something edible.”

“Good luck,” Race turned away from Jack’s workstation and leaned towards Albert as they made their way to Mush’s station. “Do we ave a foire extinguishah here?”

“I think so?”

“Good cause we moight need it.” Albert looked at him knowingly for a long minute before the two of them snapped out of it and approached Mush.

“So Mush,” Race said, taking in the polar opposite of the mess of a station that had been Jack’s, “what ave yew got for us?”

Mush smiled, looking up from the block of cheese that he had been grating. “Today I’m going to be making my signature mac and cheese with three kinds of cheese.”

Race let out an audible sigh of relief. Finally something that sounded edible!

“Is that pleasing enough for you, Your Highness?” Mush winked mischievously and Albert giggled.

Race straightened up, checking his mouth for drool (there was none). “Yes, oim looking forward tew it.” He watched as the cheese mush was grating flaked satisfyingly into the bowl, his mouth watering at the very sight and thought of cheese. Oh cheese. Beautiful, rich, delicious cheese. “Oi would like tew sample some cheese if yew don't mind.”

Mush straightened up, putting his hands around his cheese protectively. “And I want someone to slap me so hard my eyes fall out. We can’t all get what we want, Susan B. Anthony.”

“Hollywood, moi name is Paul Hollywood.” Race glared at Mush, horrified that he would decline him the judge a cheese sample! Paul Hollywood always got ingredient samples when he asked for them! Maybe he should have put more effort into his hair today…

“I know very well who you are,” Mush went back to grating his cheese. It was as if he were mocking Race with every bit of shredded goodness that fell onto the glorious cheese mountain.

“I do believe you’ve upset Mr. Hollywood.” Albert smirked. Of course he had to join in on the make-Race-feel-like-hes-being-mocked party.

“I don’t particularly care about Mr. Hollywood’s feelings,” Mush put down the grater and reached under his counter for a pan. “What I do care about is the fate of my mac and cheese so,” he stared at the two of them, deadpan , “be gone Thots.”

“But-”

“I SAID BE GONE THOTS!” Mush pointed a wooden spoon at the two of them menacingly and Race half expected sparks to shoot out of the end like some kind of sorcery bullshit, but all he got was a cloud of flour to the face and twelve sets of confused eyes looking at him.

“Uhh,” he mustered every ounce of Paul Hollywood that he could, “thank yew Mush.” Quickly he turned away, brushing the flour out of his sharpied on beard and mustache while Albert stifled laughter next to him. “Shut up,” he muttered.

“But that was-”

“Oi said shut- oh hoi Smalls!” He tried desperately to regain his composure as they approached the final station.

“Gucci Prada my fuckin clown wig I- oh, uh, hi!” Smalls quickly put the spatula that she had been holding behind her back.

“What are yew makin for uh today?” Race took in Smalls’s station. There was a wide array of cheese on the counter, we well as spices and breadcrumbs and pasta. But something seemed...different.

Smalls looked down at her feet, suddenly very interested in the carpet.. “I’m making gluten free baked mac and cheese.”

“Why gluten free?”

“Because,” Smalls glanced behind her briefly before hissing, “because that was the only kind of pasta I could find in my cabinet that's why you feet fucker.”

Race’s toes tingled with happiness. He do it! He could say the trademark Paul Hollywood meme thing!

“Now, when yew make mac and cheese gluten free it tends to get stickey and lose some of its taiste. Ave yew tested this to make sure that wont appen?”

“Y e s,” Smalls rolled her eyes. “I put extra oil in it so the pasta wont get sticky a n d there’s lots of spices for added flavor.” She brought her spatula out from behind her back in a soldiers salute. “I won’t disappoint you, your Highness Mr. Paul Hollywwod Sir.”

“Yew bettah not,” Race laughed as he walked back to his very official looking director’s chair (he didn’t want to know how many people Katherine had had to kill to get this).

“Sue, how much toime is left?”

“TEN MINUTES COOKERS, TEN MINUTES!”

There were varying screams of frustration from around the room as his friends scrambled to get done. The smell of cooking cheese wafted from several ovens and stoves and Race smiled contentedly. Twas almost Mac Time.

•••

Ten minutes later, as promised, Race was standing behind a Very Official looking wooden table with a fork and a glass of water, ready to taste (or spit out, depending on whose it was), his friends’ mac and cheese.

“Oilright, Davey, why don’t yew bring up yewr mac.”

Davey strode up to the table confidently, somehow without a spec of food on his apron, and placed down a plate of gooey looking pasta. Man oh man he was excited! But no, today he was Paul Hollywood. No excitement. Only glares.

He picked up his fork and took a scoop of pasta, glaring at Davey for good measure as he tasted.

He chewed for far longer than actually necessary to give Davey just enough time to get nervous before giving his verdict. “Whot yew’ve actually done is quite noice, Oi rather loike the blend of the cheddar and the goat cheese, but what yew’ve done is create something that’s so soft that its lacking textah. It’s loike Oi need somethin crunchy to offset it.”

Davey nodded. “Okay.”

“But overall noice job.” He nodded, the silent cue for Davey to take his dish and return to his station.

Race surveyed the contestants and grimaced. “Jack bring yew’re flamin bomb up here.”

He thought he heard Jack mutter some half-decent curses under his breath, but not decent enough for him to repeat.

A few seconds later a lump of orange stuff with green (???) blobs on top on a plate was placed in front of him. “Roight,” he sighed. “What ave yew got there?”

“Well this is my baked mac and cheese with green goldfish topping!” Jack said proudly.

Race looked at the plate as if it were a flesh eating disease that could kill him at any second. And, knowing Jack’s track record with food, it just might. “Any reason why you chose green goldfish?”

“Adds a pop of color!” Jack bounced on his toes.

Good gosh. Race took the tiniest bite possible on his fork and lifted it to his mouth-

“Make sure you get a goldfish!” Jack insisted. “Really adds a burst of flavor!”

“Oh sure, sure.” Race picked one up before shoving the whole abomination into his mouth. He chewed for a few seconds before swallowing down as best as he could.

“Wow that is pitiful,” Race coughed. “The pasta is overcooked, and the cheese, yew’ve cooked it too much so that it’s become gummy, and all the moistah has gone into the goldfish and made them soggy.”

“Oh,” Jack sounded deflated.

“Overall the textah is a bit claggy, and no one loikes a claggy bit of cheese.”

“Right, right.” Jack stroked his invisible beard.

“Overall its dreadful and Oi’d loike it if you removed it from my sights, preferably to the bin. Next!”

•••

Almost a half hour later Race was practically done testing all of the mac and cheese, save for Mush’s and Smalls’s. Along with Jack’s trashpile, Spot’s had also been notably horrible, it was somehow burnt and undercooked at the same time? Race didn’t even want to know. Crutchie’s and JoJo’s though had been surprisingly decent, and both were in the running to win.

“Oilroight Smalls, bring up yewr mac why don’t yew.”

A few moments later a plate of mac and cheese was dumped in front of Race with no class whatsoever. “Here you go Mr. Paul Sir.”

Race stabbed his fork into the pile of noodles. “This was the gluten free baked mac and cheese, roight?” “Yes your highness.”

Race rolled the noodles around on his tongue for a few long moments while his taste buds analyzed the flavor combinations.

“Roight so, I warned yew about this bein tasteless roight?” Smalls quirked up her eyebrow. “It’s tasteless isn’t it.”

“Yes. Get it away from me at once.”

“Of course, your lordship.” Smalls snatched the plate from the table, even curtsying to Race before making her way back to her station, picking up a fork, and digging into her own mac and cheese.

“I don't know what you’re talking about Mister Colonel Hollywood Sir, this tastes great!”

Race bushed imaginary crumbs off of his table. “And Oi’m goin tew pretend Oi didn’t hear that.” He pointed to Mush. “Mush, bring up yewr creation, if yew pleathe.”

“But of course!” Mush placed down his plate of mac and cheese in front of Race, who dug in immediately. “What you have there is parmesan, cheddar, and american cheese with elbow pasta. Enjoy.”

Race let the glorious noodles glide over his tongue as his palate was enveloped in a wonderful cheese flavor. He was amazed. He was astounded. Hell he was even speechless! What did Paul Hollywood do when he was speechless? Oh right!

“Well done Mush,” he stuck out his hand for the famous Paul Hollywood Handshake. “That’s a really great plate you’ve made.”

“Oh, thank you sir!” Mush smiled joyfully as Albert tried to sneak a bite of the mac and cheese. Race swatted his hand away with his other hand.

“In fact, it’s the best that Oi’ve had today, and Oi announce yew as Star Cooker!”

The room erupted into cheers and everyone ran to hug Mush while Race quickly finished his mac and cheese. His plan had worked perfectly. The next time he was out of pasta at three am he knew exactly who to call.

•••

“Hello? Do you need help burying the body?” A tired voice answered the phone.

“Mush, it’s Race. I’m craving mac and cheese and I don't have any pasta. Can you-”

“NO!”

_________

so how bout that huh

anyway sappy boi hours heh i love mikey and im real happy that were friends cause he's the absolute best and i cant wait to meet him next week eeee

feedback is always appreciated hmu to be on the tag list

tag list

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#saphie scribbles #newsies #newsies fic #ralbert #racetrack higgins #albert dasilva #this is not a christmas fit its just a christmas present #*fic #heh #luv you my milky tot #;)#grandpapi #papi #suburban papi #oatmeal aesthetic dad #daddy #cricket feet #u make my feet tingle with happiness #SIX DAYS MAN

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wampa-baby · 5 years ago

Text

My Story: The Insulin Crisis

I’m very shaken right now. The amount of shit I had to go through to get that small vial of insulin above was terrifying and humiliating. I want to start out by saying that I consider myself to be “well off” in millennial terms. I live with 2 cats in a one bedroom apartment and recently got my dream job in my field making salary. That being said, I have a lot of bills, obligations, and responsibilities that take my money from me constantly. One of those responsibilities is called Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1. I have had this disease since I was 2 years old and I have never known life without it. I was lucky enough to have parents that supported me and allowed me to be on their insurance plan so that I could afford insulin at about $25. When I turned the magic age and was dropped off the family insurance and got insurance through my job, it was not as good, so the price of insulin raised a bit to about $60 for a 3 month supply. Still manageable. Through some choices I made (my parents would call them irresponsible actions) I was no longer eligible for my company’s insurance and was dropped. I then got insurance through Obamacare, and insulin copays again dropped to $25! But Obamacare was expensive and I couldn’t make the payments and I was dropped from insurance. However, I get insurance again through my new job, which was setup today (even though I was hired 3 weeks ago). This brings me to my crisis.

I have just come back from a family vacation, my insulin pump tells me I have about 10 units to my name before I run out. I go to the fridge to get my next vial, I have none. Panic. I have no insurance until July 1. I have about $150 in my bank account until Friday. I will run out of insulin overnight, be in DKA (Diabetic Keto Acidosis) by morning, and either be dead or in a $11,500 hospital stay by midday tomorrow. I have about 3 hours before the pharmacies close so I get to work.

GoodRx is an amazing company and so helpful for many people, but sadly not me. I look up Humalog and get a result for Walgreens that has it for $68. Awesome, I can deal with that. I transfer my prescription from CVS and zoom over there. When I get there I ask for Humalog and show them the coupon. They run it through and say that it will be $320. Apparently they have to give me 2 vials because that is what my script says. The coupon I have is for the generic Lispro not name brand Humalog and I don’t have a prescription for Lispro, I have Humalog. They say I need to call my doctor to get a prescription yada yada yada... Except the doctor’s office is closed and I talk to an answering service. Now I worked for an answering service so I have no qualms, when they couldn’t help, I understood and thanked them for being there. I ask Walgreens what to do, what they suggest. They tell me about Walmart’s amazing prices for insulin. I have heard the rumors, so I give it a shot.

I give Walmart a call from Walgreens, they say they have it for about $121 with the GoodRx coupon. I’m hesitant because thats almost all my money for a few days but hey it’s either that or my life so ok. Here’s where things get scary. They are going through the paperwork steps, getting my script transferred, setting up an account at Walmart, etc. I give them the coupon and they start the process for transfer and will get back to me with the price. I wait impatiently as they waste valuable minutes doing this. They finally tell me that one vial is $294 with the coupon. I almost cry as I realize I have 15 minutes before all pharmacies close.

I remember the news story about Walmart having $25 insulin thats available over the counter and ask about it. They pull out the Humulin. The pharmacist does not recommend it as this is not what I was prescribed. I try to explain that this is an emergency and that it will have to do at this point. He offers me three different kinds, Humulin R, Humulin N, and Humulin 70/30. Its been a while since I’ve had to take the different types since I use an insulin pump. I ask about the differences to make sure I have the right one (theres no returns). The pharmacist has a language barrier and is not answering my question. He keeps repeating that he does not recommend it and that I wasn’t prescribed it and its not the same, there will be complications, etc. I am trying to stay calm in this stressful situation but he is making it difficult. He starts telling me that I can call my doctor and he can fill the Humalog for tomorrow and that I should wait. This completely infuriates me and I tell him “I will be dead by tomorrow if I don’t have this right now.” I am in tears at this point. I purchase the insulin and go cry in my car outside of Walmart until I am calm enough to drive.

I don’t know if this insulin will work, but it’s all i have. My anxiety acts up and even now I am thinking about the different situations I might’ve ended up in tonight. I thought about asking my boyfriend or parents for the money, but the lecture would be worse than anything my own body would do to me. I thought about mooching off my diabetic friend, “can i use like 100 units of your stash?” I even thought about sucking that pharmacist's dick for insulin like some sort of drug addict. But im not an addict, im just trying to LIVE.

I realized what this crisis is doing to other people and children who live with this disease. I’m lucky that all I fear is a lecture ive receive over and over again. But for some, what I went through tonight would have been certain death. Insulin should not cost $600 for 1 vial. Its sickening to think people live in pain because they can’t afford something they need to live. Insulin is not optional for us! I am angry, I am furious at these companies for putting anyone in the situation i was in tonight. Contemplating their own death and thinking how much longer they can put off buying a simple life saving drug?? Its outrageous!

This was a wake up call for me, I hope it is for anyone that reads it. Please feel free to add your story or links to where anyone can speak up about the insulin price crisis. Much appreciated.

#diabetes #insulin #humalog #humulin #pharmacy #big pharma #rant #angry #type 1 diabetes

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greenteaandwishes · 6 years ago

Text

what an abortion is really like

because i would have loved to know what was gonna happen when i needed mine!

for reference: i had a surgical (in clinic/aspiration) abortion, i was around 13 weeks, and i didn’t go to planned parenthood, i went to a local womens health center in boulder.

i called the clinic on a thursday, they said they only schedule abortions on fridays and since i wasnt sure how far along i was they’d recommend i get there the next day if at all possible. i scheduled the appointment for that friday, asked how much it would cost and was met with a set price of $600. i asked if there was any way to set up a pyment plan, and they said yep! they also transferred me to their financial aid advisor and my total cost ended up being $500, of which i paid $300 upfront and am payingthe rest $50 weekly.

i got there and checked in, everyone was very welcoming and kind. they had me fill out some paperwork, mostly just typical medical care stuff like insurance, emergency contact, etc. there was a paper with specific abortion related questions like are you comfortable with your decision and who has been your biggest supporter through this, stuff like that. everyone also made sure to ask what my preferred pronouns were, which was really nice because i’m very feminine presenting and i sometimes prefer they/them as opposed to she/her. i went to use the restroom and there was a sign that said that they need a urine sample, so if i havent given that i should wait for the doctors.

i waited for about 10 minutes and then the nurse came out to get me. i went in, they took a urine sample and my vitals and then said that i was good to go ahead and strip from the waist down and the doctor will be in shortly. i asked if i could keep my socks on (i wore my lucky socks lmao). she said yes. anyway, i undressed and the doctor came in, asked how i was feeling and what type of abortion i would be having. i said i was nervous and probably surgical because i think im too far along for a medication. she did a quick pelvic exam and an ultrasound (but not on my belly, it was an ultrasound that went up my vagina.) she confirmed that i was too far along for a medication abortion and that i’d need a surgical one, and that my next step was to go up to counseling.

i went up to counseling and the woman i was with was super nice. i was expecting a “this is why abortion is bad” shpiel because i know that a lot of states have laws that require counselors to tell you things like that. luckily, i didn’t get that (yay colorado!). i got a very supportive woman who answered all my questions and walked me through what was going to happen through the procedure, and just a general place to talk and vent what i’d been feeling. it lasted about an hour, and at this point i started getting kinda hungry and i asked if i was allowed to eat (because some surgeries you cant eat before.) she said that i am but i should be aware that im probably gonna feel a bit nauseous during/after the procedure.

the first step in this whole thing is taking a pill to dilate and soften my cervix, and that takes about 2 hours to fully work, so i took that first. i also was given some anti nausea meds, advil and anti anxiety medicine. my doctors were very kind and asked me what i wanted and felt like i needed, explained to me that i could take two anti anxiety meds or just one, and explained that i had the option to take a narcotic painkiller as well. at first i decided to just take advil and one anti anxiety, but about an hour later i was feeling very anxious and a little in pain, so i took the second anti anxiety and a narcotic (i was skeptical about the narcotic but i talked with the doctors quite a lot about side effects and addiction, before ultimately deciding to take it.) i couldn’t have taken the narcotic if i were to be driving myself home. last but not least, they did a finger poke to check if i was rh negative or positive, because if i was negative i would’ve needed another pill.

after that super mega pill cocktail, i got called back to a room much like the first one with the ultrasound. i undressed and tried to mentally prepare myself. there were three people in the room besides me: my doctor, her assistant, and a trained support person. doctor and assistant were down by my vagina, while the support person was holding my hand and talking me through it. i felt the doctor put a numbing shot in my cervix and then i just felt a lot of pressure and cramps. i had my hand resting on my belly and i could feel my uterus cramping. i started crying, it wasn’t painful exactly, just weird and overwhelming. i squeezed my suppirt persons hand and apologized for crying, all while she was just talking to me and saying its okay and all that stuff. it was over in about 10 minutes. the doctor and assistant left right after that, but my support person stayed. i know it was so that if i fainted or something, i wouldnt be alone, but it was honestly really comforting having her there with me. i lay down for about 5 more minutes before i felt okay to sit up and put on my pants. me and the support person chatted for a bit. i dont really remember what we talked about.

after i put on my pants my support person led me to a room with recliners and crackers and water and books. there were two other women in there, who met me with a heating pad and a heated blanket. i rested there for about half an hour, drinking water and eating saltines, and reading this book full of other people’s experiences with abortion. i felt so cared for and seen, it was amazing. they had me give one last urine sample and then led me around the back (handicap exit, so no stairs) where my boyfriend was waiting in his car. i think they told him to go wait out there once i was in the recovery room, because that way when i was ready to leave i could.

i got in the car and drove home with my love. we stopped at walgreens to get some pads, because the doctors said i couldnt put anything in my vagina for at least a week, but that i was going to be bleeding a bit. since i use a menstrual cup, i didnt have normal pads at home. i cried a little bit in walgreens, thats around when the pain meds wore off. when i got home i took another advil and laid down with a heating pad and netflix, and eventually i fell asleep.

its about a week after my abortion now, my cramps have gone away entirely. they were bad for the first few days though. im almost done bleeding. i’m no longer experiencing nausea or fatigue or sore boobs. my hormones have been a little crazy, i keep going from very calm and chill to just downright cranky. i can call the clinic back any time for support, and to schedule a follow up appointment if i feel i need one. all in all, it was a very peaceful experience. not once did i feel judged or ashamed at my choice. everyone at the clinic was ridiculously kind and caring. im very grateful i had the experience i had.

feel free to reblog or message me with any questions!

#abortion #mine #plannedparenthood #womens rights #abotion is health care

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jdmainman123 · 3 years ago

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This is so cool Mississippi thank you so much yacht fish here I'm literally sitting in the middle of an a parking lot and I see an abandoned Walmart to the side of me and I see a bed an abandoned Walgreens and it's the most piece I've had in 5 years for you guys to land on to any act where I would have predicted where I would have retired save these cities those are two brand new buildings the Walmart I was sitting in the middle of the parking lot next to brand new building just hasn't been filled yet in a Walgreens right next to me brand new

The peace and quiet here is remarkable other than that integration box yelling at me

BUT THIS ONE IS IN ANY ACT FOR YOU GUYS FOR ONE REASON THIS IS EXACTLY WHERE I PICTURED I WANTED TO BE IN THE MIDDLE OF A CITY THAT NOBODY WAS IN AND THERE WAS NICE AND PEACE AND QUIET PEACE AND QUIET FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE

So thank you for these 15 minutes today I'm sure the integration will pick up in a minute are you guys can call this a Russian appointment just a thought like a fart that went through my head night got online stupidly and started Google voice and I regret ever posting it

NO BECAUSE THEY'VE BEEN TALKING TO ME ON THE SATELLITE WITH THE SAME LIES THE SAME BLACK MASS LIES AFTER I REMEMBER THESE ONE SPECIFICALLY FROM JASON'S PROGRAM GROWING UP AS A BOY IN MIAMI FLORIDA AND FOR THE LIFE OF ME I CAN'T WITNESS I CAN'T SEE WHERE HIS PROGRAM WOULD HAVE BEEN HERE THAT WAS SUCCESSFUL THE ENTITLEMENT SAYS THE IP ADDRESSES of the TD Bank in Washington mutual Bank references ARE ONLY FOR A NUMBER IF YOU CALL IF YOU WANT YOUR BABIES KILLED

It's what the translation read to me we had this I guess inside the trading where the data breach would have been released my favorite story I said you know my best brother graduated high school was the best example for the entire city 12 grades AND THEN AFTER HE WENT TO THE HOTEL AND GRADUATED BANG THE S*** OUT OF HIS GIRLFRIEND FOR HOURS AND DAYS HE WENT FOR A JOG AND HIS FAVORITE PARK CENTRAL PARK AND HE WAS SHOT

But that s*** wasn't true I made it up I just like to envision my brother in a good place like a genius like like a living legend who cured cancer and one of his fanatics got angry and jealous and shot him HE DIED A HERO BUT TO FIND OUT THIS IP ADDRESS OF JASON AND YOUR SUNRISE IS TO A BABY KILLER HOTLINE A SUICIDE HOTLINE OF GOLD SUN AND BLACK HAIR WHITES ON IN SNOW the babies won't stop talking or send them to you to be killed right now and will let you know in the next batch of babies that they continue talking we're going to send them to you WITHIN MINUTES WITHIN HOURS

But again nobody let me beat the s*** out of him as bad as Phoenix 3/4 the problem was you guys lost when I found out the dead white trash family was all murdered because of blood LET ME REMIND YOU WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE CORONAVIRUS AND WAS CALLED NATIONAL EMERGENCY DYING DISEASE WAS DECLARED FOR THE ENTIRE CITIES AND STATES OF COUNTRIES you guys lost though I began losing hope and looking for a fresh air cold air and that's when things would have made a drastic change for you guys and controlling me outside RIGHT BEING ABLE TO PROTECT MY FUTURE TRADE TOUR DATES

And we're not going back we're going Tennessee 30 days and if you f***** still got something to say to me get something off your chest still promoting Jason let me remind you for for 5 years and you guys wanted to convince the people know all along it was a boy named Mike name your voice Mike IN THE 34TH NO NO NAME YOUR BOY'S TIRED IT WASN'T JASON IT WASN'T MIKE THE BOY'S NAME WAS TODD NAME ALL YOUR BOYS TODD THAT YOU WANT TO KILL and let me move on to Atlanta now Atlanta entitles a couple things we got that covid of the bus ride back into Alabama when I said f*** this s*** I'm going to Alabama I can get I know Alabama like the back of my hand I just walk up that hill and look over it and see all that empty land THAT'S RIGHT THE PACK OF AIDS OR THE GROUP OF 16 REMEMBER THAT SLEEPING MAN 200 LB FULL OF GAS CAME OUT OF THAT ABANDONED BUILDING AND TRIED TO ATTACK ME IN THE MEGABUS STATION plus Alabama's got the best white haired girl covid last time they left me with a white hair girls arm AND THEIR STATEMENT STANDS TODAY AND IT'S A GREAT STATEMENT FOR THE REPORT TELL ALL THOSE GIRLS THEY TOLD ME YACHT FISH JASON LISTEN UP TO ALL THOSE GIRLS ONE THING wash their pussies and if they say no then you call them dead because their accidents they're not supposed to be in your city SINGLE GIRLS ARE ACCIDENTS WE ALL KNOW THAT no accent dents do not blow up IF YOU'RE WALKING AROUND WITH AN ACCENT DENT AND SHE'S BLOWING UP THAT'S AN ACCIDENT THAT GIRL NEEDS TO GO WE NEED HER DEAD the accent dent are girls who never blew up who are sexy down to the core and can turn any man on anywhere they walk or go I KNOW MY RIGHTS YOU THINKING OF THAT FAT B**** GRANDMA ACID DENT that when you look at her your penis Burns 🥵 I'M NOT STICKING MY DICK IN THAT

But thank you Phoenix you're not you don't have the best white hair girl school but I I know your airport Union is supreme is top of the line they're very good people and I was honored to work with them including the fact that they lost snow the covet snow they knew I quit I was no longer looking for fresh and free air AND THAT WAS YOUR WHOLE BREAD AND BUTTER BESIDES THE FAMILY BEING BUILT ON MY DRINK MONEY MY DOLLAR MONEY I HAD TWO HANDS UP MY ASS GRABBING FOR FOOD EVERYDAY I VISITED THAT AIRPORT BATHROOM AND THANKFULLY I MADE IT OUT I'm in the city of Mississippi and guess what to my gift a Greyhound station for when we leave we can render the people of the airplane

And we can just go back to yachtfish Jason owns all the sleeping baby girls and boys votes whatever is right in life whatever you find right to do in life those babies will agree with you

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hyungbean · 7 years ago

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My Heart Beats For You | Sehun Soulmate!AU

Prompt: “When you look at me my heart starts to race. GOD, even when you walk by me my heart starts running!”

Prologue - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

Genre: Fluff, Angst, Attempted Humor

“He did what?!”

As I explained to Jongdae and Chan once again, about the condom mishap during my shift they exploded with laughter.

I looked at them in confusion and faint disgust, shivering at the memory that I would rather not relive or think about again.

“I can’t believe he actually did it.” Jongdae exclaimed in wonder as he wiped the stray tears from his waterline; forming as a result of the period of laughing.

“What are you talking about?”

“We were playing truth or dare yesterday at lunch when you left, long story short Sehun passed on his truth so we dared him to go into Walgreens during your shift and buy some condoms.”

As Chan explained everything, many doors opened in my mind although

I remained confused.

“What..? You guys are so gross oh my gosh.”

This prompted another wave of laughter and hollering as I sat in silence as they slowly calmed down.

“So, what happened to the condoms?”

“I don’t know, he probably threw them in the bin or put them in his dad’s room or something. Highly doubt that he would use them anytime soon. ” Jongdae proceeded to shrug and look over the camera where a faint creak of a door opening was heard amidst the once light atmosphere.

“Yah! Who’s there?” I jokingly yelled, leaning closer into my phone while squinting my eyes, waiting for the person to appear behind Chen.

“Andrea-ssi!?”

I bounce up and down on the bed in excitement as the taller girl walked into camera view, her shoulder length hair styled into a high ponytail today.

As my view of the skype call got smaller and smaller due to the giant smile that was growing on my face, I could make out her figure leaning down next to Jongdae and waving.

“Hi Y/N! I haven’t seen you in a while! Any luck with your soulmate yet?”

Huffing, I roll my eyes and flop onto my bed drowning in sadness. “yahhhh.. some of us aren’t as lucky as you dorks. Like Chanyeol hasn’t encountered anyone with a bird shit tat. yet. Besides what is it, like your 3rd year together? JUST GET MARRIED ALREADY.”

Without even glancing back at my propped up phone, I could sense Andrea and Jongdae rolling their eyes.

Baekhyun chimes in with amusement at the mushy couple, “ Chan is unlucky. How is it that everyone around him has a unique soulmate mark and he has whatever he has… speaking of, don’t you guys have like a set of cresent moons or something.”.

I launch myself back to my criss-cross position and mope at the screen as the couple nods in sync making me fake a gag.

Chen lifts his arm up and flashes the small black cresent on his wrist.

Baekhyun actually starts pouting and I quickly get one of my pillows and throw it at my phone, covering the screen.

“Yah. That’s ENOUGH. Let’s get Chan into the call so he can attack.” Baekhyun’s voice comes out muffled and barely audible due to the pillow that still laid in front and on the small device.

Sighing, I lean forwards and grab the pillow, tossing it behind me as the familiar ringing of the skype video call cuts through the air.

Chanyeol picks up the call moments later, muffled sounds sharply bouncing around the room, causing all of us to cringe and lower the volume.

Seconds later, Chanyeol’s face pops up on the screen. He’s sitting at his desk sporting a curious grin, wearing a black cap; his hair and elf ears peeking out from under it.

“What’s going on?”

I sigh and look at Jongdae before nodding my head, him nodding back as he prepares to flaunt his tattoo at the man child who was sitting happily at his desk. Baekhyun braces himself by putting his hands over his ears, as I take precautions by scooting back a little.

As Jongdae brought his mark closer to the camera, Chanyeol tensed up before all we saw and most definitely heard was a 6′1″ grown man standing on a chair screeching about how the world was unfair and to respect him because of his bad luck.

That didn’t end well.

Turns out that the chair couldn’t support his tantrum as it flipped over and all we saw were limbs flying before a frightening loud thud was heard.

“I’m sorry Chan.”

The pouting giant turned his head the other way as I braked at the yellow light.

The pitter-pattering of the heavy rain was all that kept the awkward silence to a minimum.

“I can’t believe you broke your arm.” I scoffed, glancing briefly at the blue cast that decorated his arm.

His head snapped in my direction as he spat the next words like venom. “Well this wouldn’t have happened if you’d learn to respect your elders.”

“Chanyeol I’m two months older than you. Besides, was it really a good idea to stand on a chair and throw a tantrum?”

He huffed before pouting and turning the radio on louder; with his good hand of course.

Shaking my head, I quickly switch the car back to drive and slowly step on the gas pedal, causing the car to accelerate and quickly head at constant speed; spot on with the speed limit.

“Take me to Sehun’s place.”

I nearly kill the both of us by slamming on the brakes causing us to be thrown forward, the cars behind us angrily honking and driving around.

A faint ringing sounded in my ears as I quickly lean towards Chanyeol to make sure he didn’t hit his bad hand on the dashboard.

Quickly rubbing his back as he regains all brain function, I turn on the emergency blinkers beforehand so that we wouldn’t be given the bird from approaching vehicles.

“Yeol, are you okay?”

“Yes. But what was that. I nearly died! YAH! You could have murdered the crippled!”

Bringing my hand up, I smack his head causing him to call out in surprise and pain.

“Why Sehun’s house? Of all place.” I ask sighing, leaning my hot face against the fogged up glass, as the chill of it kissed the searing embarrassment and shock that blanketed my face.

“Yah. His house is close and besides his parents aren’t home anyway.”

“Whatever you want.” I quickly get back in position, huffing a little as my heart threw itself against my ribs.

Breathing in slowly and pressing the emergency blinkers again, I step on the gas pedal and quickly pester Chanyeol about the address as he mopes in near-death shock.

“Right here Y/N.”

I pull up on the side of the road for parking and look to where he was pointing, a rush of anger suddenly coursing through my veins.

“What in the world. I don’t have time for your games Chan-” before I could continue Chanyeol gets out of the car, quickly running over to the lit porch of the house; trying to avoid the heavy shower.

what an idiot.

Slipping on my sweater hoodie, I turn off the car and follow Chanyeol’s lead, examining the house as it grew larger and larger in my view.

It was practically a mansion, the driveway the size of the apartment Jisoo and I were living in, the neatly trimmed plants and bushes, not to mention the fancy 15 feet castle doors.

Quickly getting on the porch area that was neatly accessorized with practical garden chairs and a metal table that was made of intricate designs; we wait as Chanyeol proceeds to ring the doorbell three more times.

He insists that Sehun was coming and that he was most likely gaming in the lounge.

Suddenly the right door slowly opens, emitting a heavy creak that allowed the abundance of light to stretch outside, a shirtless Sehun appears at the doorway.

My eyes widen at the sight, quickly darting my eyes away to a bored looking Chanyeol who was seemingly unaffected by his friend’s exposure.

Sehun greets Chanyeol before belting out a chuckle as his eyes trained on the cast that was evidently sticking out from under his sweater sleeve.

As if a cloak was lifted from above me, Sehun’s eyes flicker to me before a small bundle of panic filled his eyes; quickly waving us in and walking off quickly to find a shirt.

As he practically jogs away, a smudge of black on his back catches my attention.

His soulmate mark.

Like a child who neglected to completely color in the heart.

A heart, half colored in with black; identical to mine.

wait.

End: Part 3

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newstfionline · 7 years ago

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Armageddon on a Shoestring: Prepare for Disasters Without Destroying Your Budget

The Simple Dollar, 17 Sep 2017

Just before and right after every disaster, you see news coverage of crowded stores, depleted shelves, and interviews with people who don’t have enough (water, batteries, whatever).

Don’t be those people. September is National Preparedness Month, and its theme--”Disasters don’t plan ahead. You can.”--is also the theme of this post. Even if you’re on a tight budget, or living paycheck to paycheck, you should be prepared to live at least three days without basic services.

Should things go south, got any idea how you’d eat, drink, and stay warm until things got back to normal?

Two other things you might not consider until it’s too late:

Where would you and your family go to the bathroom if the power and/or water cut out?

Do you have a manual can opener?

Sound funny? It’s deadly serious. If you don’t have a plan for the potty, your back yard is going to get real foul real fast. (Assuming, that is, that you even have a back yard.) And imagine the frustration of not being able to open up those cans of soup for your hungry household. (Assuming, that is, that you have a way to heat them up.)

The good news: You probably already have a lot of the stuff that Ready.gov suggests you need. The better news is that you can get the rest of it very cheaply, or even for free. And the time to do this is now, before the next power failure, ice storm, blizzard, hurricane, earthquake, or windstorm reshapes your life.

What’s for dinner? The “food” section of Ready.gov suggests the best foods to have on hand: protein- and calorie-rich items with long shelf lives: soups, stews, canned beans, quick-cooking oatmeal, peanut butter, dehydrated foods (e.g., instant mashed potatoes), dried fruit, canned fish or meat, protein or granola bars, and crackers.

To that list I would add almond or other nut butters (not everyone likes peanut butter), some gelatin or instant pudding (a dessert can really brighten the day), Nutella (it’s just fun to eat), interesting foods from the supermarket’s health-food section (hummus, refried beans, even vegetarian taco filling), good-quality bouillon cubes, and hardtack--aka “pilot bread.”

You might already have a lot of the foods you need. Now you just have to keep it that way, i.e., never let your pantry get too bare. When something your household really loves goes on sale, get a few extra. Use a dark marker to write the sell-by date on the front (not the top!) of each food product and make sure they get rotated and replaced regularly.

Pro tip: A site called CouponMom.com does a state-by-state match of coupons, many of them downloadable, to sales in supermarkets, drugstores, and even dollar stores; fairly often you’ll pay nothing at all for food, toiletries, and first-aid supplies.

Should you buy disposable plates and bowls? Residents of hurricane country probably should, since they’re likely to lose water and power regularly. As for others, that’s up to you. If you’re without running water, you certainly shouldn’t use up precious stored water to wash dishes.

Pro tip: Watch clearance sales after major holidays and get up to 90% off paper plates, bowls, and cups. Don’t necessarily throw them out after eating; sometimes the higher-quality stuff can be used more than once.

Water, water everywhere? Ready.gov suggests stashing one gallon per person per day for at least three days. Got pets? Don’t forget some extra agua for them.

Rather than spending money on bottled water, fill empty milk jugs or two-liter soft drink bottles until you have enough. Every few months, use the water in these containers for tasks like watering the garden or doing hand laundry, then refill them with fresh water for storage.

A word to those who filter their water: that sink-mounted or whole-house filtration system won’t do you much good if the power is out or the municipal water supply system is damaged. In that case, have a filtration pitcher and at least one extra cartridge in your emergency kit. (I regularly see these pitchers at thrift shops.)

Or take a simpler route: Sprinkle a little powdered drink mix into each glass of water to disguise the yucky taste. These packets cost about a dime each at Walgreens and dollar stores.

Incidentally, most of us already have a decent amount of water stored--in the water heater.

Sometimes a hot drink is soothing--or even potentially life-saving--in a winter storm emergency. (Hypothermia victims are cold all the way to their innards.) Thus teabags, instant coffee, or cocoa mix are all great things to have on hand.

Pro tip: Whenever you boil water, make enough extra to put into a thermos-type jug.

For hot water you’ll need a safe heat source--and again, you may already have one in the form of a wood stove, camp stove, barbecue grill, hibachi, or burn barrel. While modern gas stoves may not function normally in a power outage, you might be able to use the range the old-fashioned way: lighting the burners with a match.

Any pan you use for heating water or food is likely to get sooty over a fire. Consider looking for an extra pot or two at thrift stores and/or yard sales. (I’ve found three pans that way, including a cast-iron skillet, in the “free” boxes at yard sales; maybe you’ll be that lucky, too.)

Note: It is essential to cook outdoors with grills and open flames, not indoors, due to the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. Generators pose the same risk. The Orlando Sentinel recently reported that five people died and more than a dozen were injured due to CO poisoning after Hurricane Irma.

Thus if you’re planning to create your own post-emergency power, get a CO detector and follow other best practices suggested by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

A roof over your head. Organizations like FEMA and the American Red Cross may show up after major disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes. But they can’t always help everyone, and some people prefer to shelter in place. Besides, some problems (windstorms, ice storms) don’t necessarily make your home unsafe--just inconvenient.

The questions, then, are how you’ll stay warm or cool. In cool or cold weather, dress everyone in layers: long underwear top and bottom, plus wool socks, extra shirts, fleece layers or sweaters, and knitted caps. The quilts or comforter from your bed might stand in for a sleeping bag.

Pro tip: Plan to have everyone sleep in the same small room for shared heat.

If you don’t have enough warm items for everyone, time to hit the thrift stores and yard sales. For other tips, search online for “staying warm during power failure.”

Keeping cool post-hurricane or during power outages is a real challenge. Some fairly obvious tactics are staying hydrated, wearing light clothing, and avoiding direct sun. Pull the curtains or shades and close off warmer rooms (e.g., the ones with south- and west-facing windows) to keep things from heating up. Sleep in the basement, if you have one (and if you have enough flashlight batteries).

Lighting is an enormous issue with regard both to safety and morale. While plenty of people stock up on candles, the danger of fire is very real. If you must use them, put them in jars set well out of the reach of children, pets, and anyone who might bump into a table.

Flashlights are safer. My partner and I have five headlamps (he bought them in a blister pack at Costco) plus some hand-held torches. If you don’t want to store batteries, look for flashlights that recharge by being cranked or that can recharge via your vehicle’s cigarette lighter.

Where’s the bathroom? As the children’s book says, everybody poops. The question is where you’ll do that.

I grew up in a rural area and we filled buckets and the tub with water when bad weather was predicted, then used that water to flush the toilets when the power went out. That’s still a good idea.

Pro tip: Before filling the tub, thoroughly duct-tape the stopper in place. Otherwise the water may slowly, inexorably seep out.

You may already have a giant bucket (or more than one) left over from a painting job or a bulk buy of laundry soap. If you don’t, get one: It will make a passable toilet. (Check Freecycle and the “free” section of Craigslist.)

Since not everyone is physically capable of squatting over a bucket, look online for toilet seat that snaps onto most five-gallon pails. If you’re flush, so to speak, then splurge on a prefab portable toilet.

Pro tip: Line the bucket with at least one layer of garbage bag, and throw in some clumping cat litter.

You’ll want hand sanitizer for afterwards, and some baby wipes (which I call “shower in a pouch”) to keep the rest of you clean. And speaking of babies: If you’ve got one and you routinely run out of diapers, break yourself of that habit pronto. You don’t want to be down to a couple of didies when trouble starts.

The same is true of pet food and supplies, and prescription medication. Do not run out of these things.

A few more final tips: When severe weather is predicted, boil some or all of the eggs you have. Should the power go out, you’ll have an easy-to-eat protein. Should the power not go out, just about everybody loves deviled eggs.

Buy supplies with gift cards you get by cashing in points from rewards credit cards, or rewards programs, to get gift cards to places like Walmart, Target, and Amazon.

Check out the dollar store. Paper products, hand sanitizer, and some interesting foods can be found there.

Keep small bills on hand. It’s possible that stores won’t be able to process credit or debit cards right away.

Make sure you have matches--even if you aren’t using candles you might need to light a camp stove or hibachi.

Stocking up all at once? Ask the supermarket manager for a discount on buying cases of canned goods, especially the store brand.

Remember how challenging it can be to build and maintain a cash emergency fund? Think of emergency preparedness the same way: It can take some doing, but it’s as essential as financial preparedness.

Get started right now, by taking pen and paper throughout your home to look at what you already have. Then make a list of what you still need, and make creative, frugal plans to get those items. Don’t wait until after an emergency happens to start looking for your flashlight. Or your can opener.

#disaster preparedness

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gyrlversion · 5 years ago

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Phone book, whats a phone book? 20 everyday tasks that nobody does anymore

With new and efficient technology, these 6 tasks have fallen out of our daily routines. USA TODAY

Daily necessities are vanishing one by one, thanks to new and efficient technology. Stamps, maps and cookbooks still exist, but we hardly ever need them. Why place a personals ad when you can just “swipe left?”

The standard electronics, gear and ways of yesteryear have vanished as if it was never invented at all. As old formats disappear, that leaves us with the task of what to do with our memories.

Even services that seem new are vanishing in the name of progress; Apple is killing off iTunes, for example. and here’s what it means to your music and movies.

Here are some rituals that are no longer required in many households. If you’re 40 years or older, you’ll probably smile with nostalgia. Share this list on social media. Others will enjoy this trip down memory lane too!

1. Memorize a phone number

Pop quiz: How many phone numbers do you know by heart? Some people don’t even know their spouse’s numbers. How times have changed. Now, you tell your smart assistant to call someone in your contacts, or you touch their name on your phone.

The earliest cellphones required you to transfer your entire directory by hand, from the old unit to the new one; now, with cloud technology, your contacts are automatically downloaded.

What happens if you lose your phone, say, at a Disney theme park? This couple got separated and turned to Facebook for help.

2. Use a phone book to find a company to do work around your house

Generation Z may not even know what “Yellow Pages” refers to. They may not have ever seen a phone book.

Online consumer services like Angie’s List and Yelp have made finding service people easy, plus you can read other users’ ratings. One of the newer ways to find ultra-local services is Nextdoor, which has a special section for “recommendations,” along with crime watches and other local info.

3. Sell your car with a cardboard sign stuck on the windshield

Unless you’re selling your vehicle to someone you know and trust, these transactions can get sticky and even a little dangerous, especially with all the trolls. Craigslist started more than 20 years ago, and it’s still going strong, although it, too, still suffers from trolls and weirdos. If you want to sell your car, here are three sites that may be better than Craigslist.

4. Figure out math in your head

Few of us ever carried calculators with us to the grocery store. In contrast, pretty much everyone with a smartphone uses it to do basic calculations, no matter where or when you need it. In fact, you don’t even have to jab numbers anymore, physical or virtual: Tell Siri to solve a math problem, or command Alexa to do that pesky long division for you, along with countless other handy skills.

5. Call and ask a family member, “Where are you?”

Find My Friends changed the family-safety landscape by geographically connecting iPhone users. This app was a life-saver for parents with kids, adults taking care of aging parents, and countless others. Phone Tracker is a free app for iPhone and Android-powered phones that not only tracks location but also messaging and web activity.

Analog clocks may be teetering on extinction. (Photo: robas / Getty Images)

6. Tell time by hands on a clock

Like cursive writing, analog clocks may be teetering on extinction. Few people with smartphones bother with watches anymore, unless they’re fashion statements or fitness trackers. With digital clocks dominating our computers and hardware, those 12-numeral timepieces may become pure novelties.

Even your trusted alarm clock has received a tech makeover. Click or tap for three apps that monitor your sleep cycle, and wake you up when you’ll feel the most rested.

7. Make photo albums

It’s hard to imagine printing an image at a one-hour photo store, taking back your packet of 4×6 snapshots, and then meticulously pasting them into a faux-leather photo album. Given the ease of digital photography, and the innumerable images you could produce on a regular day, you’d fill up entire shelves in no time.

Photo-sharing services like Flickr and Amazon Cloud and have existed for some years, and now some apps will help you organize your photos and keepsakes, some of them from well-known companies like CVS and Walgreens.

8. Have a CD or record collection

Wasn’t it cool back in the day to walk into a shabby-chic apartment and see those shelves of CDs? Wasn’t it a joy to flip through boxes of vinyl records? Napster was the first sign that music could exist as a tiny, virtual MP3 file, and then iPods basically dealt the death blow.

Today, music exists as a digital index on a screen. Purists may love their turntables, but CDs have probably gone the way of the wax cylinder.

9. Make mixtapes

There was something so special about a mixtape. We spent hours finding the right song, then lining up two cassettes to copy a song. So many lovers cemented their relationships using a blank tape and a few dozen favorite albums.

Now, you can drag and drop a digital playlist in seconds.

10. Call a theater to get movie times

Back in the day, you’d dial a theater and listen to its endless-loop recording of movies and times. Sometimes, you’d catch it mid-loop and have to wait for it to start at the beginning to get all the movie.

With Google, type “movie times,” and the search engine will list films based on your location. You can also ask your personal assistant, such as Google Home, what films are playing at the cineplex and what time they’re on, along with tons of other tricks and Easter eggs.

Blockbuster: There’s only one store left in the entire world

Perks: Amazon expands free one-day shipping for Prime members

11. Record your favorite programs on tape

All year, we’d wait for “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “The Wizard of Oz” to pop up on TV. When they did, we’d push a VHS tape into the machine and wait until the proper moment to press “record.”

When TiVo emerged, it streamlined this process by making scheduled recordings even simpler. Now, with streaming services, web archives and easy-to-purchase downloads, the timing of a broadcast barely matters anymore. But as you cut on the cord on traditional cable television, make sure you pick the services that best meet your interests and budget.

12. Watch shows when they are broadcast live

In the same vein, we rarely have to sit in front of the television, eagerly waiting for a “major network event.” Services like Hulu and YouTube convert a huge amount of national television into a digital format, and local news stations log most of their important segments onto their websites.

13. Run to the store for a last-minute gift

Curses! You forgot a Mother’s Day gift! Should you change your whole schedule so you can rush to the store and hurriedly pick something out? If you have Amazon Prime and live in an Amazon hub, there’s no need. You can order same-day delivery and have that gift couriered to your front door.

It’s just one of the many benefits you probably didn’t know Amazon offers. Click here for more than 20 lesser-known perks that come with your Amazon Prime membership.

14. Cut things out of the newspaper

When I was a kid, my dad used to cut out articles from the newspaper and put them in my lunchbox. I miss those days. If Dad were still alive today, he’d do what most of us do: Tap or click a button to share content by text or email. Speaking of sharing information, do you get my newsletters? Dad would like that!

15. Send a handwritten letter

Don’t get me wrong: It’s still wonderful to receive a postcard from faraway places. You might say that email, texting and video conversations have made handwritten letters even more special. But no one is forced to transcribe their thoughts by hand and drop those letters in a mailbox. Heck, nowadays, we use voice dictation to write messages.

16. Looking up the spelling of words in the dictionary

Spellcheck is nearly as old as word processors, and many of us have grown up expecting Microsoft Word to underline our mistakes in red squiggles. But autocorrect takes this concept a step further, guessing what we intended to write and correcting our errors.

This can be handy for clumsy thumbs, but it can be embarrassing when autocorrect guesses wrong.

Rare is the phone booth where you handle a dirty phone and put in a coin to make a call. (Photo: Jefferson Graham)

17. Use a phone booth to make a call

Phone booths are making a comeback in open floorplan offices where there is no privacy. But rare is the phone booth where you handle a dirty phone and put in a coin to make a call. The last holdouts may be an airport or a particular part of town, but even international travelers can usually nab a SIM card the moment they step off the plane. Did you know you can use your cellphone as a walkie-talkie? Here’s how.

18. Carry cash

I remember my dad telling me, “Always carry a ten dollar bill because you never know when you’ll need it.” In a world of debit cards and P2P apps (person-to-person), we rarely have to carry cash anymore. So what happens when your phone is dead, there’s no one around and all you have is a phone booth? Luckily, most public phones in the U.S. are outfitted with credit card strips.

19. Use a travel agent

Travel agents can be essential for elaborate vacations, but for general flights, services like Kayak and CheapFlights have completely transformed how we book our passage. You can compare hundreds of airlines and agencies in seconds for the best deal. If you’d like to save even more, use Google Flights to find the cheapest airfare. Here are five ways Google Flights can really help you save as long as you’re flexible with your travel schedule.

20. Getting your old checks back from the bank every month

Oh, people still write checks, and physical paychecks are still routine methods of payment, but I doubt this antiquated practice will last much longer. Even depositing checks has become digitized, thanks to ATMs that scan the piece of paper and print a facsimile on your receipt.

That said, online banking does open a whole universe of security risks. If you’re not sure whether your phone’s banking app is secure, there are three critical steps you can take.

Any long lost tech you’d like to add to this list? Drop your ideas to me on Twitter.

What digital lifestyle questions do you have? Call Kim’s national radio show and tap or click here to find it on your local radio station. You can listen to or watch the Kim Komando Show on your phone, tablet, television or computer. Or tap or click here for Kim’s free podcasts.

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irarelypostanything · 8 years ago

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Leftover

Every week, I volunteered at the soup kitchen. The best thing about this was telling people I volunteered at the soup kitchen. It could have been in any conversation, maybe at work or maybe at the bar, when I’d tell everyone in earshot about the constant contributions I made to society.

But this story isn’t about the soup kitchen, and this story isn’t about me (actually it kind of is, but not entirely). This story is about David, a college student I met there. David was promising, intelligent, and...for reasons I will soon discuss...the reason I no longer volunteer at the soup kitchen.

Glide Memorial is located on Ellis street, within walking distance of Powell Station and surprisingly close to Ghirardelli Chocolate. You can actually see the neighborhood get poorer as you walk towards it, starting with the hotel where rich people stay and ending with the sidewalk where homeless people sleep. Outside it smells of piss and sweat, but inside is fairly decent.

We had all sorts of volunteers, mostly high school students filling in their mandatory hours, but occasionally we’d get a college student like Michelle. She had one of those last names that made it difficult to look her up on Facebook (not that I ever tried that).

I signed in at the front desk, glad to see that Michelle’s name was already down. I went through the usual motions. First was the handwash, which lasted however long it took to mentally sing “happy birthday” (I was probably one of the only people who followed this rule). Then came the gloves and hair net. Last, and this was my favorite part, I’d pick a random high school student and tell him to clear the sink for cooking. Clearly I looked older, so high school volunteers usually listened to me.

“Hey,” I said rudely, tapping the first person I could find on the shoulder, “mind washing these dishes? I need the sink clear.”

“Sure,” he said brightly. When he turned around to acknowledge me, I could see that he probably wasn’t a high school student at all. “I’m David, by the way.”

“Dan. Are you from a high school?”

“No, I’m a law student at the University of San Francisco. Why, are you?” I actually don’t know why he asked that. Obviously I wasn’t.

“I work at City Hall.”

“Doing what?”

“Data entry. Let’s go downstairs.”

“Didn’t you need the dishes cleared?”

“Nah.”

The upstairs of Glide Memorial is something of a mini-kitchen, but downstairs is where things really happen. There’s a much larger kitchen, adjacent to which is a serving queue. Past that are enough tables to serve 200 people, and they have a sign to confirm this.

The two of us started cooking. Somewhere there was a volunteer coordinator, but I didn’t bother to check.

Michelle was already here. Talking to her was my second favorite part, but that night she really hit it off with David. Oh my gosh, you go to USF, too? Wow, I’m also in the law school. Hey, we have the same professor! God, that midterm was so hard. Occasionally I’d interrupt to ask for a spatula or something, but that was pretty much it.

The interesting thing about staying in a large city is that you can do the same thing for years, but change will still happen around you. San Francisco was growing a lot. I don’t know if the change was good, and I’m not someone who likes to discuss my opinions at length.

Every time I returned to the soup kitchen to volunteer, the two of them would be talking. I would eavesdrop. David seemed to show no interest in her, romantically, and maybe it was his lack of interest that made them connect so well.

Seeing David every time was a change in routine...at first. But then it became the new routine, and time went on as it always had. Days were long. Weeks were short. Alongside Glide Memorial and Netflix and all the other random things I did on the Internet, work continued on. Everyone at the office was always really bored, but our boss understood where we were coming from. She let us listen to music as we worked and pretty much take breaks whenever we wanted. In fact, if I remember correctly, the job description originally said “Note: This job is really, really boring.”

Eventually there was a change, and maybe I should have seen it coming.

I don’t want to disappoint you by saying that something big happened between David and me. To be frank, almost nothing happened at all. It’s the fact that something almost happened that made me decide to avoid David altogether from that day on.

We agreed to go drinking after our shift one night, something that already struck me as different. I didn’t even know if he was of legal drinking age, but I honestly didn’t care if he wasn’t.

He said he was short on cash, so we just bought some IPA at Walgreens and drunk at the park. It was that tiny little park, the one across the street from City Hall where we held a rally so many years ago. In my mind’s eye, I saw myself in high school climbing to the roof of a nearby storage container with my friends. I remember wondering where all of them were now.

He didn’t say a word the whole time we sat there. It was the first time we really hung out at all.

“Where’s your car?” he finally asked, when we were done.

“I don’t drive.”

“Why not? Do you not have a license?”

“I do, I just don’t really like being behind the wheel.”

“My car’s nearby. I can drive you home.”

It didn’t sound like a bad idea at the time. David had had two, maybe three beers at the most. I was the one was actually kind of drunk, and riding in a car sounded a lot better than riding Muni.

It was night, and it was getting kind of late.

When you drive someone, there’s a universal rule that you’re supposed to play upbeat, mainstream music. Ideally you should have these songs on a playlist, but if you must use the radio then it has to be an upbeat, mainstream channel that preferably can be categorized as “easy listening.”

David did the opposite. He must have had a CD called “disturbing music,” because that’s all I heard. First it was “Climbing up the Walls,” the least upbeat Radiohead song I knew.

We were slowly edging out of downtown and making our way to the freeway. His speed increased considerably when he merged onto it; he was one of those drivers. I enjoyed looking out the window because Muni was underground. You pass all sorts of houses when you put enough distance from downtown, and they’re not nice. This is the part of San Francisco you’ll never see on a poster, or a Woody Allen movie, or the website background on one of those emerging tech companies.

He played “Goodbye,” by Apparat. Hearing the song for the first time was...an experience. I never figured out if it was about depression, rape, or both, but the tune was chilling enough for either subject.

He was going about 90. He still hadn’t spoken for the entire ride, which seemed out of character for him.

“If you were to die right now,” he said, as if that were a normal way to break the ice, “how would you feel about your life?”

“What?”

We seemed to slide the slightest bit toward the lane of oncoming traffic, but I thought I was only imagining it.

“Have you seen ‘Fight Club’?”

“No.”

Okay, so maybe he was just making a reference. I didn’t want to think about this. There were some things on my mind, probably small, but I wanted to go home and think about them.

Not a minute later, he pulled the stunt again. This time, it was clear that he was edging toward the wrong lane. But just as quickly he brought the car back, swerving, and the combined movement was so fast I didn’t even have time to shout.

“What are you doing?” I tried to sound angry, but didn’t. It’s like I was dreaming.

“Do you want to die, Dan? Every time we talk, you tell me that you want to die.”

Did I? Maybe I had mentioned things like this before, but I was only joking.

“I joke around a lot. I don’t want to die.”

“You constantly tell me that life is meaningless.” Hm...he had a point there. I definitely said that to him on occasion, and we had been talking for months.

“I didn’t mean that I wanted to die, and I was kidding!” I really was. My way of joking was by saying things that were bleak, constantly. He’s the one who took me too seriously.

“No no no,” he said, and the car was picking up speed, “you’re right. You understand. There’s no reason to live. Everyone is going to die. Why not get on with it?”

My head was still throbbing, and the car’s speed didn’t help a bit. I tried to think of something intelligent to say but my head still hurt. “No one wants to die. Really.” I emphasized that last word, like I was pleading.

“Everyone wants to die,” he said. “They just haven’t realized it yet.”

“I don’t want to die,” I said.

“Yes you do. I can tell.”

“What about the person you hit? What if they don’t want to die?”

“We’ll hit a truck. They’ll be fine.”

This time I grabbed the wheel, and I held it steady. He didn’t provide much resistance. He probably wanted the car crash to involve only a few people.

I didn’t really know that much about this guy. I guess I sort of made up a person, called him David, and then didn’t give it another thought.

My adult community service club held weekly meetings, and all of our officers spoke very highly of David. Here he was, this ambitious, bright new member who seemed like he could really bridge the gap between our older members and our younger ones. We started to talk a little bit about his background, but at that point he was just another person. He was a person, but he was still just another person.

“David,” I said, still guiding the wheels, “what is it you think you’re doing?”

“Oh my God,” he said. The car began to slow, but not so much that it was dangerous.

“Exit here and let me off as soon as you can,” I said. I couldn’t believe my luck. It’s like he was in a trance for a few minutes and was just now snapping out of it.

“Okay,” he said.

He offered to finish taking me home, but I said I would call an Uber. He seemed to understand. He reacted the way a driver might react if I just realized his car was unsafe, or he wasn’t actually licensed. He also looked scared, and even after all this time I can’t make sense of what happened. Is he like two people? Was he possessed by one thought in one instance?

“Dan?” he asked me, uncertainly.

“Yeah?”

“Please don’t tell anyone about this.”

“I won’t.” And I didn’t.

There’s this really shitty coffee shop about two blocks from City Hall. The coffee isn’t great and I don’t trust the neighborhood, but the owner is nice and there’s rarely many other people there. So I can think.

I would use their wi-fi and for a long time, I would just check in on David. I didn’t follow or friend him on anything, at any point, but I still felt like I knew him from this. I could trace his steps.

And he seemed fine. I can’t think of any other way to put it.

I started volunteering at the SF Marin Food Bank, instead of the soup kitchen. It’s the same idea, only the coordinators are way nicer and you don’t have many interactions with people.

I received no indication that anything with David was wrong, and three years passed. He’s still fine.

So I just went back to my life, and he went back to his, and that was that.

#short story #fiction

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canaryatlaw · 8 years ago

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Okay, well today wasn't bad. Still kind of overall stressed, but dealing with it. I have time at least, to get all this shit done, get it spaced out over and all that, so that helps. Alarm went off at 7 and I got out of bed and made it to work and made it through the rest of the file for the permanency hearing, which was more of the parents being like "we're not alcoholics we don't need treatment fuck you" all the way to getting their damn kid removed, so I write up some normal permanency hearing questions and took that and the file over to the lawyer who gave it to me to talk to him about it. I ask if they ever made a paternity finding, because there was a whole big thing about it because apparently her "dad" her whole life isn't technically her legally-presumed dad because her mother was married to someone else when she was born, but I never found a finding, and then the lawyers like "oh yeah, well dad passed away in November, something related to his alcoholism." Oh. Well. And he goes on to add the mom is basically on her death bed in the same situation. Don't need treatment my ass. This poor child. She seems like a good kid though, so hopefully we can get her get into some post-high school training if not actual college. I'll get to meet her and interview her Monday. At that point I went back to my office and created a template for permanency hearing questions that I could just tweak for individual cases since the status based questions are largely the same. Somewhere in all of this my eyes were drooping way too much again so I took another 15 minute head on desk session, I might've actually passed out for a few minutes, but when the alarm went off I freaked out for a minute because I was expecting the wrong time for some reason and thought I accidentally passed out for like two hours lol. So I was fairly glad that didn't happen. Somewhere in here I also tried to call my psychiatrist about the whole Xanax thing I was discussing last night, only to be told he's on vacation till the end of the month.....I mean, the guy definitely deserves it, he's partially retired already and probably in his 70's, and I don't want to disturb him or anything, but like, I know him and I know he would want to hear two sentences from me on this issue but I didn't want to say it was an emergency because it wasn't, and if I did they probably would've put me on with one of the other psychiatrists that are filling in for him, and I'm sorry but there's no way I'm trusting anyone else with this shit. I think I'm gonna increase it to 3 mg a day for now at least, which is still within the normal range he said I could try so it's not a big deal. Hopefully that will make finals a bit more manageable. So that was less than ideal, but oh well. All of my events are really out of order for today so idk if any of this happened in this order, but around lunchtime I went to go see my across the hall friend who's now my across the building friend, to see if she was feeling better and if she wanted to get lunch because I, like a kindergartener, left my lunch box in the fridge yesterday (I had actually packed dinner in a brown paper bag for later but I didn't want to pack two of those). So we went to the "bakery" that has super awesome pizza an I got some of their pizza with the seriously biggest slices and ate like, half a slice lol. So good though. It was nice to talk to her though, we traded crazy stories from our courthouse and the DV one, and I was just like man, I'm so glad I have people I can share these things with without them being immediately horrified and me being like "yes I know those are terribly tragic circumstances but if you hang in there for a moment the court moment was really funny!!" Lol, it's gallows humor for sure but I mean gotten let it out somehow. I vent to my brother about crazy cases too, that's helpful since talking about the law is one of the few things we can talk about and actually have a lengthy productive discussion on without it somehow devolving into him being an asshole (mostly, anyway). So there's that at least. He appreciates my stories. So back from lunch and I spent a while organizing orders into alphabetized folders for two different lawyers haha who both apologized for the shitty work but I'm like hey whatever it's all good I know I'm the intern and I'll deal with your shitty jobs if it gets me a good in here. And then I had to show my supervisor how to send in the mid-semester evaluation my field placement supervisor wanted from him (oh, and he apparently knew my FP supervisor like 15 years ago and he was her boss in this office??? I swear he was everyone's boss at some point) because he was getting so lost in computer forms and retrieving files and saving them and electronically signing forms, so I'm just sitting there showing him how to do it and he's like "ohmygosh Rachel, you're so smart!!!" and I'm like trying not to laugh because he's just so adorably funny. And then of course I got to read more of the nice things he said about me which made my heart melt once again because he's literally so nice I can't handle it and his words are always really genuine too so it's nice. And yeah. So I didn't have anywhere to rush to right after leaving the juvenile courthouse today for the first time I can remember since, the summer, since I decided no kickboxing this week because I simply don't have the emotional or physical energy for it, so I was just gonna find a Starbucks to chill in and work on my appellate brief until small group time. So I got to like, take my time leaving and my supervisor is like "Rachel what are you still doing here, you're gonna be late to class!!" and it's like 5:01 haha so funny. So then waiting for the bus I saw the PD that was on the panel we did yesterday so we of course talked about delinquency stuff, like the spring break project from last year and of course eventually got into the whole transferring to adult court thing and I mentioned the slenderman case because that's just the most horrific case of misjudgment by the system and she'd heard of it of course but didn't know the details and she was beyond horrified to hear that they're trying two severely mentally ill 12 year old children as adults and having them face 35 years in prison. Like, we literally have an entire juvenile justice system FOR PRECISELY THESE REASONS. Bypassing it ignores all the science and research and not to mention the recidivism rate which skyrockets when you try children as adults. I'll cap it there though, not gonna go into a full rant at the moment (I know I've already done it on here). I got off the one bus to catch another and had to watch it stop and drive off while I was stuck on the other side of the crosswalk which SUCKS and it was just chilly enough to be annoying out today, but then thankfully another bus came like 2 minutes later which isn't typical but I was very grateful for. So I took that to the Starbucks area, then popped into Walgreens to buy more of their caramel chocolates that Lyft driver got me hooked on (lol) except they didn't have those exact ones, so I got what's basically the same but with toffee pieces and I tried a little and they're pretty amazing. So then I went to Starbucks and got an iced white tea lemonade and tried to surreptitiously eat my sandwiches (I mean I was facing the window so I didn't have to be all that secretive about it) and start the behemoth that is gonna be finishing my appellate brief, and I pretty much immediately felt lost, but always over like the stupid stuff I could find like whether saying "don't use the party names" meant the given names or the terms plaintiff/defendant....(it's the prior, I think anyway) but I figured as some sort of game plan I would work on fixing the argument section based on the feedback I got from our prof, since that still is the substance of the brief, and then work on adding all the extra parts. Half of the edits she gave me though we're like about ordering the arguments and shit and it just pissed me off because I like the way I order my arguments, dammit, because IT MAKES SENSE, and I'm sorry if it doesn't fit your blue book standard but my boss at my actual job where I submit actual motions to actual court seems to be quite impressed with it so you can take your argument order and shove it.....(note please that that wasn't actually directed at my prof, cuz I kind of like her, and I know it's the curriculum and not her setting the standards). But that just annoyed me cuz like, real life isn't legal writing fact patterns. You're not always gonna have an analogous case and a distinguishable case, and you're gonna have to make it work. I just....I get too worked up about all of it. But I at least made some progress on preliminary efforts, so maybe, 5% done? It's a start, at least. I walked from the Starbucks to church which is like a ten minute walk and even though it was still a little chilly I haven't done any walking for the past two days and I haven't had any chance to work out this week (I likely won't go to the gym tomorrow because I have no reason to be downtown) so it's something at least, to go with my push ups (which I think may be hurting a muscle in my side, because trying any new physical activity is basically let's see how I can piss my body off this time for me). But yeah, small group was good. This was something I meant to mention quickly on my last week's recap of it, but I think I might have a teeny tiny crush on one of the guys? Like it was in my head last week but it was barely anything, then I get in there today and we start talking about the marvel tv shows and you know I can talk above superheroes all damn day haha so that was enjoyable, and then he was being like "yeah it was cool being at my cousins wedding this weekend but it's also so weird being single at a wedding" and I'm like alright, that might have been a subtle hint, lol, and of course as soon as the idea even entered my head I spent the rest of the night pretty much planning our wedding when I haven't really decided if I even like the guy yet, lol. Physically he's not like drop dead gorgeous, but he's definitely not ugly and has a certain charming quality to his appearance, so I can work with that. The rest of small group (I almost just wrote Smallville) was good too, we talked about a passage in 1 Corinthians I was familiar with about love and of course I got to opine about my deep theories on the issue about how basically the passage is indicative of the entire problem of "religion" and what the church is facing today- that is, they have all the rules, all the right answers, but without love following through all of it it's basically useless, and I feel like that's so on point for what the church is dealing with right now. Like, no. Love meets you were you are. Love is right in there with your mess. Love doesn't require you to clean up your act before you're welcomed into our church. Jesus certainly didn't require it to be let into his presence, so how dare we even try to do it? And yeah, other random deep shit like that, lol, you get the picture. Took the train to the bus as my normal and AGAIN had to run to make the bus (this was a different stop, but same bus route) and again had to bang on the door to get let in while the driver was looking so put out by it and I'm just like....calm your tits lady we're giving your company money but being here, lol. But I got home, didn't almost get run over by a car but had the weird experience of a car stopping fully at a red light, and I started crossing, and then they suddenly started driving again and blew the light by like, a mile. They didn't even come close to wear I was crossing so I was never in danger or anything, but I was like seriously, wtf man? Who does that?!? Idiots. For home and watched Powerless, which was cute of course, then Riverdale which just left me with the comment that this is the one teen drama where all the high schoolers have it together for the most part and all their parents are going batshit crazy, lol. But I enjoyed both, and that pretty much wrapped up my night. And it's late, and I get to sleep in which I'm very glad about, but still I'm tired and want to go to sleep now, so that's what I will do. Goodnight mis amigos. Happy Friday.

#daily journal #April 2017

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dappercapricorn · 8 years ago

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Summer Camp’s For Losers

Hiya @mellifluous-cicadas, I’m your secret valentine~ This was turning out longer than expected, but here’s the first part of the story for ya. Since you originally said you enjoy meme redraws and the like (which I could not provide due to being too ill and moving to put a good effort in), I tried to aim for a story of the more wacky and humorous type. I hope you enjoy~ I don’t know how far I’ll eventually take this (I’m enjoy the idea I got going), but the other parts will be posted here as they come (as I don’t have an AO3). On to the story~

“Let me get this straight. You want me to tag along with you on some far fetched road trip to search for cryptids that you want to try and videotape for your weird vlog?”

“That would be correct.”

“And you’re not sure how long this will take?”

“Nope.”

Lance hesitated, shuffling his weight from foot to foot. “I dunno Keith, I was supposed to start job searching since I decided not to jump right into college.” The other male standing in front of him on his porch looked up with a pout. “You know better than to pull those dog eyes on me.”

“Please! You’re always complaining about the lack of adventure in your life. Besides, I’m not going to college yet either and we have the whole summer ahead of us! This is the first real chance I have at proving these creatures are real other than the piss poor efforts of setting up night cameras in my yard I have.”

With a sigh, Lance relented and stepped back into his home to pack a bag. “You’re lucky I like you or I would’ve shut the door on you by now like a group of persistent Jehovah's Witnesses.” Despite these words, a soft smile spread across his face as he shook his head. Twenty minutes later, a large backpack in hand, Lance scrawled a quick note to his family to leave on the fridge before he walked out the door to join Keith in his car. “Oi, since when did Shiro let you drive his Mazda?”

Keith poked his head out of the driver’s window to look back at him. “What? He actually gave it to me for a grad present. Besides, Allura made him get one of those soccer mom vans.”

“Pfffft, oh man, really? That’s freaking hilarious.” Lance laughed as he hopped into the front seat. “So mister ‘I’d totally marry mothman’, do we even have a plan?”

“Nope! The three of us shall be hitting up whatever environment along the way that holds high potential for cryptid sightings before moving from there.” Pidge piped up from their spot. They were typing away at a laptop in the back seat behind Keith.

“Holy shit, were you always back there?” Lance jumped, hitting his head on the ceiling in the process. With a hiss he rubbed his head and glared back at them. “Hey, shouldn’t you be back at home? Don’t you have like, summer homework to do or some nerd camp to attend or something?”

“Hah, camp’s for losers and homework’s never been a problem.”

“Does your mother know where you’re going?” Lance looked over to Keith. “DOES SHIRO KNOW ABOUT THIS WILD PLAN OF YOURS?”

“What they don’t know won’t hurt ‘em.” Both chimed in unison as Keith started the car and pulled out onto the road to begin their journey out of town. Lance sweatdropped as he gave in and leaned back into his seat. He might as well get comfortable for the long ride ahead of them.

In the livingroom of Keith’s home, Shiro sat beside Allura on the couch. He scanned through the daily paper while she watched a documentary on space travel. “Do you know where Keith went off to? I saw him haul a duffle bag into his car and speed off down the road.” He asked, glancing up over the top of the paper.

“Hm?” Allura looked up from the television. “Oh yeah, he said Pidge was attending a summer long science camp of sorts and he was attending as a counselor for community service experience and to act as a sort of chaperone for them I guess.”

“Is that so? Hmm.” Shiro returned to reading an article about nearby UFO sightings and missing goats.

A mixed playlist of bands like My Chemical Romance and Green Day filled the car as Keith drove off towards the Eastern coast of the country. “Well, do you at least know what cryptids or specific habitats you wanna hit up or whatever?” Lance questioned a couple hours into their trip. “Don’t tell me we’re just driving until it’s either time to rest up or you spot something worth checking out.”

“Well...It’s kinda both?” Keith shrugged, keeping his eyes on the road.

“You see Lance, we have a general idea of what we’d like to showcase on our vlog. It’s kinda hard to get much when you live in a desert town, so that’s why we’re branching out, if you will. I guess we’ll be doing a loop through the country of sorts that will eventually lead back home. Our first group of sneaky critters are the ones found along the Eastern states, like Keith’s husbando mothman, the Jersey Devil, and big foot just to name a few. So we’ll be looking for forested areas for starters along with checking out the towns and cities that have more frequent sightings.”

“I see...Well that’s something I guess.” Lance rolled his eyes. Soon his stomach rumbled loud enough to be audible by others. He pointed out a sign for an upcoming rest stop. “Hey, unless you moth brains thought enough to pack a starting supply of food, we should stop to eat. Then probably stock up on stuff to keep us going for a while.”

Keith was hesitant, but Pidge agreed with Lance. “Shit, he’s right. We actually only have random bags of junk food stashed around the car. There is plenty of bottled water, but I don’t think any of us will be too happy trudging through the woods with only chips and twizzlers to fuel us.” With a sigh he pulled into the rest stop as soon as its exit sign popped up before them.

A light drizzle greeted them as they parked and stepped out of the car. “Hurry up guys before we get soaked! We can waste time after eating and buy some of our stuff here.” Lance called back as he used his jacket as a makeshift umbrella. The trio scurried into the building. Only a few other people were milling about at the time. “Ah, much better.” Lance shook out the water from his hair and readjusted his jacket. “Sooo, what do you guys wanna get? There aren’t too many restaurants to choose from.” He asked while eyeing the dismal variety at the food court.

“Let’s share a pizza I guess?”

“I’m not riding in the same car as you if you’re gonna ingest any sort of dairy.” Pidge side eyed Keith and shook their head. “Let’s just pick out our own things and find a table to gather at.” After agreeing upon one of the numerous empty tables to meet at, they each lined up at whatever place sounded appetizing. Pidge and Keith chatted about their favorite cryptids while Lance watched on while drinking his milkshake and shoveling fries into his mouth. Aside from the handful of disgruntled staff, no one was really around to pay them mind anyway.

The rain continued to fall after they’ve eaten. Wanting to stay dry a bit longer, they decided to hunt down what they could for supplies. Lance spotted a non branded general store of sorts that was similar to a CVS or Walgreen's. “This’ll have to do until we stumble across actual stores later on.” As the light storm continued, they took their time wandering each ilse and filling up the small plastic cart Lance pushed ahead of him. They stocked up on easy to eat/prep foods like bread, tab open cans of fruit, beans, and soup, jerky, peanut butter, granola bars, a couple packs of toilet paper, and some first aid supplies. Between Keith and Lance’s grad present money and Pidge’s stash from their tech repair side business, the three had more than enough to last through the trip. Well, they had hoped so at least. Keith had Shiro’s emergency credit card stowed away in case they ran out and could get home.

By time they began carrying their bags to the car, the rain died down to a light misting. Keith unlocked the car and opened the back hatch so they could store their supplies. As Lance set his load down he spotted a black plastic case secured to the floor. “Uh Keith, what’s in there?” He inquired out of curiosity.

“Oh, just my knife collection. I figured it might come in handy not only for general use, but hey, we may need to defend ourselves at some point.” Keith replied in a nonchalant tone while opening the case to show off his assortment of blades. “Do you want one to keep on your person?”

“Er, I’ll pass for now. Besides I do have a pocket knife on me. It’ll suffice until we get into the thick of things I suppose.”

“Whatever, suit yourself.” With a shrug Keith hopped back in and waited for the others before he began driving once more.

Pidge spoke up a couple minutes in after having skimmed over something on their computer. “Hey, since we still have a long distance between our current location and the group of creatures we want to investigate first, how about we check out something a bit closer beforehand? There’s the Honey Island swamp monster in Louisiana and then big foot’s stinky cousin, the skunk ape down in the Everglades of Florida. Do either of those sound good to you?”

Keith pondered this for a moment. “Nah, I’d rather not. Both are in swamplands and marshes that I really have no intentions of wading through. I’d also rather skip the croc infested Everglades and just head straight for the New England forests to look for bigfoot himself.”

“Well, I guess you have a point there.” Pidge nodded and looked back to their screen. “So, then where are we headed to first?”

“West Virginia to meet up with my boi mothman.” Keith grinned and pulled back onto the highway. Lance let out a groan and rolled his eyes. This was going to be a long summer.

With no other intended stops the group began the long drive to West Virginia. Lance and Keith took shifts driving and Pidge spewed out random trivia about either their current location or a random cryptid to keep things lively. As three am rolled around, they were all grumpy and tired. Not wanting to risk sleep deprived accidents, they stopped at a shady looking motel to sleep before hitting the road again at ten. Despite Lance’s worry they did not, in fact, get murdered in their sleep by some crazy hillbillies to be either eaten or sold to the black market. By two they drove across the state border and Keith directed the car towards his intended location.

“Before we set up somewhere there’s someplace I wanna check out first.”

“What, a mothman exhibit or something?” Lance asked, eyes skimming over the passing scenery with a bored expression.

“Why yes, actually.” Pidge poked their head in between the seats. “We’re way too early for the festival as it’s held in September, but not only does Point Pleasant have the origin location and most sightings, there’s a museum dedicated to them.”

Lance dragged a hand down his face. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Well let’s go see this oddball museum I suppose. ‘Cause I can only assume we’ll be camping or something in the near future.”

After looking up the museum’s location via Google, Pidge directed them towards its location. As they pulled into an empty parking space, Lance’s phone buzzed with a call. Seeing as it was Hunk, he answered while they all exited the vehicle and walked towards the entrance. “Yo, this is Lance. What’s up buddy?”

“Oh thank God, you picked up on the first try. I was worried about you. Where are you? I heard Pidge and Keith are at a summer camp or something, but when I went to your house to hang out, you were nowhere to be seen. Your parents said you went on a road trip to tour colleges with Keith. Things just don’t add up, yo. This is all freakin fishy and I just wanted to at least make sure you were alright.”

“Well, uh you see Hunk...Keith pretty much dragged me along to travel the country in search of elusive creatures to potentially film with Pidge tagging along as well.”

“Wait, WHAT?”

“Don’t tell Shiro or my folks. Love ya. Bye.” Lance spewed out before hanging up and redirecting his attention to the building in front of him. Getting questioning looks from the others he just waved it off. “Oh that was just Hunk being a worry wort. Don’t pay him any mind.” With that he lead the way inside and to the admission desk. Once the tickets were acquired they set off to explore the small exhibit.

For such a small subject matter, there was enough content to occupy nearly three hours of their time. Although, they had to practically pry Keith from each section once it was time to move to the next. Lance was actually impressed. There were various sculptures of each rendition of mothman with a small plaque describing who first encountered it along with its origin location. A side room contained the museum’s collection of photographs along with footage playing on loops on the wall mounted televisions. It even had a gift shop and of course they just had to stop there before they left. Keith and Pidge both got t-shirts and pitched in to get one of the large plush versions to prop up in the empty back seat behind Lance.

Back on the road Keith steered the card towards the forested part of town. “So, our first actual stop will be the Ordnance Works, or more fondly known by locals as the ‘TNT area’ because of what was stored there. There are several concrete domes scattered about. Which is where they stored gunpowder or something? I dunno, but each one has a small clearing and I heard there’s even secret tunnels. Although most are sealed away or inaccessible due to water and other things.” Pidge debriefed them as they read off from the long set of notes stored on their computer.

“Don’t worry. We’ll just be setting up camp in one of the clearings with some cameras to monitor the area. After we get set up, we’re gonna do a little hiking in the surrounding woods with our handhelds to look for any evidence they live in the area or to capture any odd encounters we have before retiring to our tent for the night.” Keith spoke before Lance could protest. “Whether we find anything or not, we’ll also spend another night in the actual town just ‘staking out’ areas to see if we can experience any sightings there.”

“Sounds like a grand ol’ time. Hopefully we won’t have to put that knife collection of yours to use so soon into our trip.”

“It’ll be fine Lance.” Keith gave him a faint smile before turning onto a dirt road hidden among the tree line. “It’s supposedly a short drive from here. We’re gonna set up at one of the middle section ones so that we’re well into the forest, but not deep enough to wind up utterly lost.” He explained as they traveled further down the road. It only grew rougher and more narrow from there. Eventually Keith pulled over in a small alcove like clearing as the car could not travel any farther. Their destined camp site was well within walking distance anyway. “Come on guys, it’s a little after six and we’re losing daylight. We’ll have to hustle if we want to be done setting up in time to wander the area with some sorta light before having to switch to flashlights.”

Once parked they hopped out and grabbed their bags from the back. Lance carried the tent while Pidge followed behind with the other supplies in hand. Keith led the way, various cameras stowed away in a few different bags. Six minutes later the path branched off and they headed left where it soon ended and opened up to a grassy clearing. Situated smack in the middle was a domed, concrete wall with a sealed off entrance. “Here we go. Come on guys, let’s get the tent and cameras set up so we can head out. We have little time before the sun fully sets.” Pidge assisted Lance with the tent while Keith set up three cameras to post at even intervals around their campsite. They finished around seven. The sun was already well on its way below the horizon. Keith and Pidge each carried a handheld recorder while Lance brought along a large flashlight.

“So do ya have any specific plans, Keith?” Lance asked as he brought up the rear of their line with Pidge between them.

“We’ll walk out a short way from camp and wander the surrounding circumference of the area. We should be able to cover a decent amount of ground and still manage to find our way back. Pidge does have some high-tech GPS stuff on ‘em in case we run into trouble.” Keith replied with a glance over his shoulder. “Now let’s start huntin’. Hopefully we don’t run into any security patrols or anything. I did hear they’ve turned this general area into a wildlife preserve or something of that nature.”

As they began, Keith turned his camera towards himself to address whatever small group of followers he had for his vlog. “Yo, Keith here and welcome to another episode of ‘Cryptid Catchers’. Today begins my summer long journey through the states in search of our beloved hidden creatures. I’m joined with my fellow fan Pidge and boyfriend Lance who willingly tagged along to help us out.” He stopped to pan over them before continuing. “We’re currently in the woodlands of Point Pleasant, West Virginia where the mothman legend began. More importantly, we’re actually hiking through the Ordinance Works area of the town where the very first sighting occurred. Before retiring for the night, we’ve set off to scout the nearby area for any signs of this elusive creature. Let’s see what we can uncover, folks.”

After the brief intro, Keith turned the camera forward once more and continued down their current path. Lance kept a watchful gaze of their surroundings, keeping an eye out for any security patrols, potential threats, or even any pair of illuminated eyes from the underbrush. He could only hope this went over well and that if there really was a mothman out there, they wouldn’t devour them for a late night snack.

#vld secret valentine 2017 #mellifluous-cicadas #voltron legendary defender #keith #lance #pidge #my writing

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delphiniumgrue · 8 years ago

Text

(!) This Quest is Repeatable.

Prescription get: Achievement unlocked! So my insurance ended abruptly at the end of October, and it took me November to 1. find out about it, 2. sign up for new insurance. Fortunately, I was able to get an ACA plan that covered my existing doctor and the pharmacy I've used for 6 years. So December was nice. I even got 3-month refills on my two most important painkillers, gabapentin and duloxetine, so I didn't have to keep trying to venture out of the house on the EXACT day my insurance knows I would run out, no matter the weather or my back or my joints or my fibro or my fatigue or... Until that 3-month refill, I would usually end up going about a week without painkillers while I tried to pry myself out of the house -- without painkillers -- to at least go through the drive-through at my pharmacy two blocks away. Just two blocks, never leaving the car, doesn't sound like it would be that hard to do monthly, even with someone else arbitrarily dictating what day it had to happen regardless of a dozen other factors pertinent to my ability to do it. So going through that only four times a year sounded fantastic. Of course, I'm now running out of the prescriptions filled for three months in December and have been out for more than a week of the one-month ones I filled in the first week of January. That means I've gone a week without my asthma medicine and the muscle relaxant that allows me to wake up with working hands, feet, and jaw. That's been making it tough to get out of the house lately, and kind of dangerous to go anywhere that sells flowers -- I'm allergic to chrysanthemums, and mum arrangements are huge with Homecoming and Valentine's Day coming up. So last week, I finally got a ride to the pharmacy, and when the call that my prescriptions were ready came -- as I expected -- they instead said they were no longer accepting my insurance. At all. They simply would not fill my prescriptions any more, after six years of knowing everything I'm on and why I need it and mercy refills and partial refills and general compassion and understanding. So I had to find a new pharmacy. Went to the insurance company's website and was informed that my insurance policy was no longer good, having expired yesterday, at the end of 9999. Couldn't access the customer portal at all. Every single page just tells me that it's almost 8000 years in the future and my insurance expired yesterday. Couldn't even get a phone number; all I could get was an online form to fill out describing my complaint. Form claims I will hear back from them in three business days. The complaint I submitted about inability to access the customer portal was two weeks ago; the complaint about needing to access it to find a new pharmacy was Wednesday. No call. No email. I called the Walgreen's three blocks away; one block further, but still with the drive-through. Not too much worse. I asked if they accepted my insurance, and if they were a "preferred" provider for my plan (which would save me about $50/month). They said "we accept most of them," in an accent so heavy I couldn't understand them. (This is not a racial complaint; I have CAPD and can barely understand unaccented English spoken slowly and clearly over the phone. It's enough to navigate calls that have an established script, like ordering pizza; it's not enough to ask a question and understand a multipart answer. I’d tried to check on their website, but it said nothing about what insurance they accept.) I kept asking if they meant they accept most insurance providers in general, or most insurance plans from my provider, and they just kept repeating the same sentence: "We accept most of them." When I asked if they would check to see if they were a preferred provider, they continued to reply, "We accept most of them." While this might sound frustrating to you, proper empathy would require imagining that you're having this conversation in a foreign language, in a foreign country, where people get irritable if your command of their language isn't fluent enough. Are you saying things wrong, or hearing things wrong? Why is this conversation going so sideways? Why are you unable to express that the response you're getting doesn't actually answer the question you're asking? Whatever is going on, though, it's probably your fault for not speaking and understanding the language well enough. So I had to give up on Walgreens. It's not just petty, fleeting customer irritation; if I can't get them to answer that question, how am I going to be able to call in for refills? What if I get a new prescription and need to ask about what it does, or whether it interacts with alcohol or certain foods? IT IS DANGEROUS TO ME to choose a pharmacist I cannot interact with. Friends on a nearly-identical insurance policy told me that Randall's pharmacies accept our insurance and are a preferred provider, so I next went to Randall's -- four blocks away, and no drive-through, and the pharmacy is at the very back of the grocery store. Remember at this point that I could not walk very well until the newest painkillers in December; I could not shop for groceries or wait in line to check out. I had to have groceries delivered, or on a good day, take my scooter --which requires lifting it in and out of the car, folding it and unfolding it. Because it is a folding scooter, it has no basket and the only storage room is under my seat and legs. I still cannot shop for more than a day's groceries at a time with it, and not all days are good-enough days for me to perform all the physical activity of rolling it out to the car, folding and stowing it, driving the four blocks, unloading and unfolding it, doing my shopping, loading groceries into the car, folding and stowing the scooter, driving the four blocks home, unloading and unfolding the scooter, driving my groceries to my front door, folding and storing the scooter, and then putting away my groceries with whatever standing-and-walking capability I have left. So a pharmacy at the very back of a large grocery store with no drive-through, popular at all but just-before-closing hours and me without a handicapped tag -- and so requiring quite a bit of walking just to get from my car to the front door, unless I use the scooter -- and then navigating the depth of the store to wait in line at the pharmacy window, make my purchases, and walk (unless I use the scooter) the whole way back... It's an ability Catch-22: If I'm having a good enough day to do all that with the scooter, I'm probably right on the edge of being able to do it all without the scooter anyway, and if I can't do all that standing and walking, I'm probably also not up to hauling the scooter around. And in any case, insurance not allowing refills until the day I run out basically guarantees that I'll always be having a bad-pain-day on refill days, just as a baseline without any weather changes, EDS injury-prone pains, energy level drops, or other problems. Nonetheless, that's now the best pharmacy available to me. I just had to make three trips/calls to turn in my insurance forms, request my prescriptions to be transferred, told they don't have my stuff in stock yet because they weren't expecting to need to fill them, and go back on Day Three of being out of asthma medicine and duloxetine to get an emergency refill. Still waiting for all my other prescriptions to come through. Meanwhile, one of the withdrawal effects of running out of duloxetine is intense suicidal depression. So that was fun. That's also why Randall's scrambled to get my refill done the next day, rather than in a week or so. Gosh, thanks. (Sincere toward the pharmacy, extremely sarcastic toward the whole fucking FUBARed system.) I still have to go back tomorrow for a second-priority "urgent" refill of the muscle relaxant so I can wake up with working hands, feet, and jaw. I had to turn down margaritas with friends last night, just because I know the cold margaritas will trigger my TMJ and leave me unable to eat, speak, or smile -- they hurt me when I do have the muscle relaxant on-board, but they're disablingly painful without it. So while I've had to be careful around any allergens because I'm more prone to asthma attacks right now, and "falsely suicidal" (as I think of it) if I'd run out of the duloxetine, and being very careful what I eat or drink so I don't leave my face in a level of pain that would cause constant screaming if I could open my mouth or move any muscles in my face without making it pass-out-from-pain-worthy (there's a reason i keep literal gallons of applesauce at home; I have to drink it through a straw sometimes just to get calories, if I don't have the muscle relaxant), I've also had to make multiple trips to the back of a large grocery store, on foot, past giant displays of my worst airborne allergen. Hold my breath and run? uses up too much walking-and-standing to make it back safely. Hold my breath and walk? I run out of breath before I make it past the floral section. Hold my shirt over my nose, breathe normally, and walk? people stare at me (and, like tonight, make rude comments) because I "hate for people to have something pretty in their lives". So anyway, I got through that whole invisible-to-able-people disability obstacle course and got my damn asthma medicine and painkiller. I just have to go back tomorrow and do it all over again to get the muscle relaxant. And then again in a week to get everything else. Oh, and talk to my doctor on the phone to ask for 3-month-refill-specific prescriptions, or this pharmacy will make me do it all over again, two or three days out of every month, because I can't refill everything on the same day thanks to the insurance limitations. Or I could sit through a day of asthma risk and suicidal depression to get three of my six prescriptions synched back up. Navigating the US medical system while disabled: Achievement Unlocked! (This quest is repeatable.)

#disability #us healthcare

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