Sick :-(

I've been battling this obnoxious sickness (mainly just throat pain) all week and last weekend. I had an extremely frustrating tussle with trying to go to the doctor. Basically, I still (still!!) have not received my insurance card, though I was supposed to get it in the end of January, or at LEAST by March 18th, and so even though my insurance is active and I have a subscriber number, so I'm technically able to use it, it has to be verified. So when I tried to go to a clinic after work on Monday, they couldn't see me because they were unable to verify that I did, indeed, have insurance. So, I left with my horribly painful throat, in the cold rain. It was not a happy day. Tuesday, I had the first day of my Zumba dance class (yay!) and somehow managed to work through the pain, mostly with the aid of herbal tea and acetaminophen. But I was actually feeling really great and thinking, well maybe I DON'T need to go to the doctor. Cut to Wednesday morning--OUCH. I was in so much pain, I ended up asking my supervisor if I could go to the doctor in the afternoon, which he graciously allowed. So I headed to this Express Urgent care place that I'd found through my insurer (same place I went on Monday), and they were able to verify my insurance and see me. I was in and out in about 2 hours, which I think is pretty reasonable. The doctor I saw was a bit odd, and I despite his saying, "I'm not here to just throw pills at you" about 4 times, it seemed pretty obvious that he wasn't too concerned that I had anything very serious, and gave me a prescription for some penicillin, which I ended up simply paying for out of pocket because it was easier than trying to get the numbers for the pharmacy from my ridiculous insurance.

So that was my adventure in healthcare--frustrating, and kind of a slap in the face after the exciting passage of health care reform. It was a disappointing reminder that HCR won't really change anything (contrary to all the hubbub spouted out by the Conservative Crazies). But Zumba was pretty sweet! And I'm really exciting I'm FINALLY doing something outside of work. I'm also looking for some volunteer research positions to fill some time, give me something to do.

In other life news, I am "babysitting" tonight (yay!) though what that actually means is sitting by myself in an apartment on the UES and having to stay awake until 12am, then 1am to get home. But at least it will get me out of the house. It's cold again, which I'm not appreciating. But I did get to perform last night at a Haiti benefit thing with a coworker, and it was a lot of fun. I'm hoping I'll get to do some more of that while I'm here.

The real exciting news--I submitted my Peace Corps application. Finally (a year later...!). I am super excited about the possibility, and also nervous about this crazy adventure. I'm also going to DC again next weekend, leaving Thursday afternoon since I get Friday off (w00t!). Should be a nice weekend (70s and cherry blossoms...?!), and I'll have a bit more time than I did last time, which will give me a chance to actually explore a bit hopefully.

Oh! I can't believe I almost forgot this--shows how little I care about my job/how small a part of my emotional life it is. We found out this week that the case management program will be cut, over in 60 days. Which doesn't directly affect my work exactly, except that hopefully we'll get some more patients out of it, and my coworkers are probably losing their jobs (that part sucks a lot), including the supervisor who I really respect and appreciate. So that's the sort of downer of the week, the REAL downer. I still kind of can't believe it's real. I think for now, my job is safe, but even our program is down on its numbers. But that's all for now I think. Just tryin'a make it to the next thing, happily and safely.