Lazin' around the house.

Still contemplating walking to the library (30 minutes, there and back) to return some DVDs and then to nearby grocery store to get the Sunday paper.

Did 2 loads of laundry, which included bed sheets and quilts the cat puked on. Also made some rice pudding with some leftover coconut milk I wanted to use up. I decided to fold in some chopped dried apricots after I took it off the burner; they're cooling now, in some cute French dessert cups I inherited from my grandmother.



Watched Catch Me If You Can last night; not a bad movie.

An old friend of mine (actually, an old boyfriend) works at a big life insurance company. It's about an hour's drive away. He told me there's a temporary writing job open becus someone's going on maternity leave for 3 to 6 months. They also have some perm jobs open, but not sure I'm up for the mad commute. So I gave my friend my resume and said i was interested in the contract job right now. Maybe it'll open up some other opportunities, or maybe i'll find i can live with the commute. He already told me this company's not big on work at home arrangements.

Feeling generally anxious just because my basic safety net is not yet in place. Still waiting on unemployment check from 1st week of the month, the first one since I worked the 3.5 month gig. It was delayed becus the COBRA administrator the temp agency sent it too didn't mail me the paperwork to sign til last week (I informed the agency I would be wanting COBRA back in mid-December), so i didn't get it til Friday and i only learned my health coverage was NOT intact when i called the insurer to doublecheck that my neurologist, who i need to see in order to renew my meds, is in their network. She informed me i was not covered, period.

They will "reinstate" me once they receive my signed paperwork. I don't know why it took them so long since i informed the employment agency in mid-December that i would be wanting the COBRA.

I'm also wondering why the amount of the check os about $10 less than it was before. If anything, it should be a little more becus of the payroll tax suspension Obama got passed. I was able to check it by calling the DOL recorded line. I'll have to follow up with them later in the week to find out why. May not seem like much, but believe me,every dollar counts when you're working.

The temp agency also insisted i didn't need any form from them indicating my last day of employment, which i wanted for the Dept. of Labor. Sure enough, that 1st check from 1st week of January was delayed pending DOL's verification of my last day of employment. Sigh. People just do things by rote; they're not really interested in making your life any easier.

I also see that i need to get "pre-authorization" for this particular med i take for the MS from the insurer before ordering it. Not sure what that involves, though i vaguely remember having to do that once before.

But i can't do that til the health insurance gets reinstated, hopefully before my doctor's appointment which is now scheduled for the last week of January. I don't really want or need to go at all since this crappy health plan has a $1500 deductible, so i'll have to pay out of pocket anyway. And the doctor's visit will be a $45 co-pay plus $225 for the office visit.Great. At least I won't have to pay any co-pays for the medication itself; the pharma company picks that up for me vis a vis certain patient discount programs it's worked out with various insurers, and I was able to verify that the new insurer does have such a plan, just like my old one, luckily. So that saves me $240 a year in co-pays.

Today at the mid-month mark I've already spent $160 on food,just $20 shy of my new monthly limit. I am still confident I can stay within budget as I have plenty of food in the house. The $180 monthly limit on food represents a roughly 15% decrease from what I actually spent, on average, in 2010.