Welcome to NaBloPoMo Day #3! I know… today is Thursday. But Wednesday is my favorite day of the week because it’s my day off. I do grumble when I have to go to work on Saturdays, but it’s a fair trade-off. I love having a day to myself in the middle of the week!
Here’s how yesterday played out… with a couple short rants thrown in for the fun of it.
I dropped my daughter off at school at 7:45 and continued on to a park with a cross country trail where I ran five miles. This is a real luxury for me in the middle of the week- all my other weekday runs are done in the semi-darkness near my house.
After a quick stop at home to shower and change, I went to Starbucks and sat for a couple hours drinking tea and appreciating the free wifi. Anyone who’s doing NaBloPoMo knows that it’s actually a lot of work! It’s not just publishing a post every day, but also reading everyone else’s and commenting. Luckily this is “work” that I love so I enjoyed this time.
Then I went to Walgreens to pick up my thyroid medication. I’ve been taking meds for hypothyroidism for the past sixteen years. It is insanely expensive- for a long time I paid around $50 a month, while my insurance kicked in $6. Ahem. THEN I discovered GoodRx. It’s a free app- you just put in your prescription and it pulls up a coupon for you. I now get a three month supply for what I used to pay for ONE month. Yay for GoodRx!
Here comes the first rant… I’ve been wanting to get the shingles vaccine so I asked the pharmacist about it. I’m over 55 so insurance pays for it… right? She explained that it varies from one insurance to another. There can be a co-pay. Oh, okay- could you run it through MY insurance and tell me what I would have to pay? After several attempts, the answer to that was no- she couldn’t seem to get that pulled up for me at the moment.
WHY. WHY is it that no one can ever tell me how much a medical procedure/shot/office visit is actually going to cost? The answer always seems to be, they’ll run it through insurance and let me know what my payment is afterwards. Would you drive your car to the gas station without knowing the price per gallon and just fill up your tank? “Oh, we’ll run it through your auto insurance and then let you know how much it is later.” No! You wouldn’t. For everything else it seems reasonable to know how much it costs beforehand- but not healthcare. I left Walgreens without scheduling a shot, and let me tell you, if I get shingles now I’m blaming them.
Next up- voting! Early voting was conveniently held at my library, so I returned a couple books first…
Voting was quick and easy, and now I don’t have to worry about it next Tuesday, when I have to work.
With a glow of accomplishment, I headed home for a nap. I’m a big napper, and my favorite thing to do on a day off is take a nap on the couch with my cat. Not Charlotte (er, Beyonce) who I wrote about yesterday. This is my extra-snuggly calico cat. As soon as she sees me lie down on the couch she runs towards me, meowing excitedly. It’s the cutest thing in the entire world- and there’s nothing more soothing than a nap with a cat curled up next to you.
After that refreshing nap, I had to clean the house. I’ve had evening activities the last few nights (more about that next, second rant coming up!) and that’s all it takes for the house to fall apart. I did laundry, ran the dishwasher, and generally tidied. The Halloween decorations are still up, but that’s going to have to be a job for another day.
I picked my daughter up from school and we had to rush off to an evening rehearsal. I’m always astonished by how much the parents are expected to do nowadays for school activities. You’ll get a notification like “Congratulations! Your child has been selected for the all-county jazz band!” and then there will be a list of rehearsals and performances, and it’s your responsibility to provide transportation. It’s always far away, and some of them are during the day. I mean… what if you WORK? Don’t get me wrong- I’m grateful for these opportunities for my kids, but it seems like when we were in school, if there was an extra event, the school provided a bus. My parents certainly didn’t change their work schedules to chauffeur us around in the middle of the day.
In this case, I had to get off work early one day, and the other rehearsals are in the evening or, next week, during the day on Wednesday. I think the answer to this conundrum is that the schools don’t have enough funding now to provide things like extra transportation. And luckily my kids are into music- my friends with kids who do travel soccer tell me that’s much, much worse. It’s hard to be a parent these days!
So last night found me at another Starbucks, again taking advantage of the wifi while I waited for my daughter. While I was there they started unboxing something VERY EXCITING, which I will reveal in tomorrow’s coffee date… can you guess what it is?
24 Responses
Ohhhh. I’m in suspense for tomorrow and the unboxing.
It really is a full-time job to coordinate activities. This is the first year we’ve been busy doing that sort of thing as we tend to “underschedule” – like you, I’m so happy the kids have these opportunities, but it can be exhausting. I only work part-time (flexibly at that), and cannot imagine trying to manage this with a full-time work schedule.
Ugh about the insurance hassles. I laughed – out loud – when you wrote: “Let me tell you, if I get shingles now I’m blaming them.” I really, really, really hope you don’t get shingles, but if you do – PLEASE promise you will picket outside the pharmacy.
Ha ha, yes, I’ll show up outside the pharmacy, painful blisters and all.
One thing- my kids are six years apart so I never had TWO sets of activities to deal with at the same time- I don’t know how people do it!
Binti! I can’t wait to hear what you thought of it.
When my husband and I were thinking of changing our medical plans, we called around trying to figure out what it would cost us out of pocket for things like our regular medications and regular procedures. No one could give us a straight answer. We ended up just picking something out, but it was really not based on actual information and knowledge. It was frustrating and there’s no way to know if we made the right decision. I’d like to piggyback on what you said about GoodRx – it’s such a great program. One of my dog’s medication is sometimes given to humans, but humans will take 2-4 pills and be done with their course of medication. My dog has taken two pills a day for months. The regular price at most pharmacies was well over $200/month. With GoodRx, I pay just over $30/month. If anyone out there has a medication that’s really expensive, check GoodRx!!
Yes- GoodRx is incredible. If anyone isn’t already using it, I hope they see this post.
I think I would lose my mind if I had to call around and compare insurance plans. I’m sure you got NO helpful information- how frustrating.
Navigating insurance (co-pays, premiums, and whatnot) in this country is a second full-time job. And then, sorry to say, the insurance people make mistakes all the time so you have to be on top of THEIR job and spend hours on the phone to sort things out. I wonder how many people give up and don’t even take a second look at any statements? But then again, who can afford that in this day and age?
It sounds like you had a pretty good and productive day (and hey, you even snuck in a nap! :)).
Yes, it was a good day! And I know what you mean about insurance- even things that are supposed to be covered sometimes are not, and you have to hound them. UGH! We need a better system.
Ugh. Insurance. It’s brutal. But we have met our out of pocket MAXIMUM (not deductible – that gets met in the first 1-2 months of the year!!) each year so I quickly hit the point where insurance covers everything. They must love having me as a client! But it is too bad that there isn’t more transparency on costs. And that shingles vaccine should be covered! Sheesh!
Is Muffin a boy cat? My husband said their boy cats were all waaaay more snuggly that the girl cats they had growing up.
I loooove naps, too! I never took them until I had kids. Now I feel like they are a necessity!
Nope, Muffin is a girl! I tend to agree though- boy cats are usually more snuggly.
I love the idea of a weekday day off, though yes working on the weekends would be tough.
Insurance and the health care system in general: thumbs down. I don’t think it works for anyone.
Sometimes I feel like I have a second job as an Uber driver for the kids at night. There’s no way that our parents did this back in the day.
What’s in the box…I really have no idea so my best shot in the dark is Christmas decorations??? I’ll tune in tomorrow to find out!
Heh heh… you’re close.
Reading all this makes me really happy about the health insurance plans UC Berkeley offers. They make it pretty clear at open enrollment what the different options are, how much the co-pay is, etc. The only invoice that lists the expenses I have seen with mine are the covid test that are run through the school and those are just for our information.
That does sound like a good plan! We get our health insurance through my husband’s job, and they change companies frequently. I think that’s one of the reasons it’s so confusing- right now we have a brand new plan.
That day off in the middle of the week sounds like a real treat. Glad you got to spend it with so much fun stuff.
I bet it is a lot of time you spend as a chauffeur when having kids who are into something. And you want to have them excited for something but I assume its rather frustrating when someone deicides about your. time.
Yes, it’s conflicting- you want your kids to have activities, but actually taking them to the activities takes up all your time and you end up grumbling about it. Oh well- I’m trying to appreciate this time, because next year she goes to high school and then four hears after that she’ll be gone to college- and I’ll miss being busy like this.
That is not great with the vaccination. Certainly, you should know how much you’ll be out of pocket for. I live in Australia, so we have universal health care. Everyone gets the same rebate, so they’ll always tell you if you’ll have out-of-pocket expenses and what they’ll be. Otherwise, you can go somewhere where they bulk bill (no out-of-pocket). Currently, shingles is only free for those over ’70s but I think from next year over ’50s will be able to get it for free, but if I went to get it at the doctor’s they would tell me how much it was going to cost.
Day naps are the best!
Yes, I would imagine the system in Australia is much better than ours!
Wow, Jenny, that medication cost is crazy. Many vaccines are free or very cheap here, but I think even here the shingles vaccine is about $150, and I don’t think my husband’s (very good) plan covers it. In Canada, we have a national health care system so we don’t go through insurance for most things, but medications are not covered. We are lucky to have a good plan with my husband’s work that does cover 90% of medications, which is good because he has a ton of blood pressure stuff. Mind you, his blood pressure stuff is probably caused by his job, so it’s a circle.
Ha, well it’s a good thing his job- which caused his high blood pressure- also pays for the medication. I guess there’s some justice there.
What’s in the box – I bet it’s the holiday cups
You got it!
I also like having a day off during the week but don’t want to work on the weekends. Well, I work on the weekends regardless and that is something I need to stop doing. Another beautiful cat! Love that she likes to snuggle and nap with you.
Yes, I guess I’m lucky I don’t have to do any extra work at home. My husband is doing schoolwork right now (on Sunday afternoon.)
Ugh, my mom is also on thyroid medication – I don’t know if it’s super expensive for her but I’ll have to ask her how much it is and see if she could benefit from GoodRX, too!
I love taking a day off in the middle of the week for stuff like this! It’s just fun to be able to run around and get stuff done (and take a nap!) without worrying about fitting it all in around a work day.
I curled my lip at the Ron DeSantis sign in your voting photo. UGH.
Sorry about that- it was kind of hard to get a shot where DeSantis signs weren’t front and center (groan.)