A couple of long days
Yesterday and today have been somewhat exasperating and draining. Today one of the first things I heard was that Mr. Rogers had died. I really don't know when it became cool to say that he was a child molestor but I always took personal offense to it. I'm sure, being human, that Fred Rogers had some faults but for some reason he was the only person who has ever been on TV that I felt was worthy of my total admiration. His show and Sesame Street, in my opinion are/were the last truly invaluable educational programs for children. I was always saddened when I would watch the “educational” programs that my former roommate would allow her toddler to watch and how they were so vapid and degrading in comparison. Some of our older family members are surprised or offended when the boyfriend and I say that the baby doesn't watch any children's shows. Besides the fact that he's too little to gain anything from watching TV, I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving him in the care of Blue's Clue's or Dora the Explorer or any other retarded show. Plus the fact that all of those shows now spin off some ridiculous line of toys in order to make a profit, rather than finding wealth in the fact that generations of children grew to be more tolerant and respectful adults, as I feel Mr. Rogers did, makes me sick.
Anyway, other than that yesterday was a bad day for all things insurance-related. Let me explain a few things first. In Pennsylvania, if you have a child out of wedlock you have to do a lot of extra paperwork. I can't totally remember what the situation was in the hospital because I was all doped up on Percocet and fluctuating hormones, but we couldn't get the baby's birth certificate or Social Security number right away. We needed to fill out an acknowledgement of paternity form before we could get either of those things, at least with the boyfriend's name on them. But this form fell to the wayside as endless diaper changes, sleepless nights, breastfeeding, post partum depression, plus the whirlwind of holidays and school starting back up took over. Yesterday, feeling motivated by tax season, we decided to get the baby a social security number. He needed two forms of ID, one was his birth certificate and the other could be his insurance card. Scouring the house, I produced the birth certificate but couldn't find the insurance card anywhere. Deciding it was lost for good I called the member services line, got a nice dose of judgment from the lady on the other line for having a toddler without a SSN, then find out that the baby's insurance was terminated a month ago. No notice, nothing. So another round of phone calls and I found out that his insurance was terminated because (hahahaha) he never got a SSN. Luckily, we can use his medical records as another form of ID so we'll get that in motion and get him back on the “ailing” Medicaid program that our President can't wait to kick us off of…I'm sorry, I meant to say “encourage” us off of.
Later on that evening we went to the waterfront to run a bevy of errands. Among them was picking up my prescription of birth control pills. While there, I found out that my crappy student insurance does not cover said pills. The three packs that were prescribed for me would have costed $95 all together, so I opted just to get one pack at $31. something. I'll have to look, but I'm very curious whether my student plan would cover prenatal visits and whatnot if I were to become pregnant due to lack of birth control. I kind of doubt it but it would be interesting if that were the case. The pills also came in a really crap case but at least it has that tasty new plastic smell. The pills themselves are this really scary bright orange color and I kept looking through the pamphlet expecting to find, “WARNING: PILLS TO BE INGESTED ONLY BY HORSES.”
WW is going alright. I think I ate a lot out of boredom so keeping that at bay is a challenge. If I were working or taking more classes I probably wouldn't notice. Last night I bought a bunch of vegetables so that should help.
There's a fly in my kitchen somewhere and he's buzzing around taunting me because I can't find him. Bastard.
Book news: I finished Blindness and have moved on to Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America. So far, very interesting and well-written but I'm not sure how I feel about the project as a whole. She insists that she's not trying to proletarianize herself but I don't know if I believe her.
The baby stinks, I shall go and change him.
