Good News: I have a job! Not much else has changed. The company is the daughter company of the one I work for now. Same HR people, same address, same offices, etc. $2/hr raise.
Also, 2 of the slacker librarians had their hours cut, but are keeping their health insurance and getting a $5/hr raise....and they're still complaining! Can you believe it?
Indifferent News: 401(k) is different, so I have to rollover my current nothing-to-sneeze-at 401(k) into a new Edward Jones IRA soon. I meet with our Edward Jones manager tomorrow morning. Should be fun. We'll also discuss where I should put my future 401(k) withholdings with the new company, Principal. Principal sucks as a 401(k) option, at least compared to my previous option, Great-West.
The biggest deal so far has been deciding which health insurance company I want to go with, the new company's or Matthew's company.
New Company: offers one of the billions of Blue Cross/Blue Shield variations, but it is a Maryland plan and almost none of my doctors are in it, and the local hospital isn't, either. However, they do not have any problem with pre-existing conditions, and that is a huge benefit.
Matt's Company: also one of the billions of Blue Cross/Blue Shield variations, but is a NJ plan. However, ALL of my doctors are in it as well as the local hospital. Deductibles are reasonable, breakpoints are reasonable, vision & dental are reasonable. I don't know yet about pre-existing conditions, though. If I picked this plan we would save $73/month on our paycheck withholdings for medical insurance.
Most of my paperwork is filled out and handed in. Tomorrow is my last day of work with my old company, I've already received the termination letter.
Thursday is day one with a new company!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Adventures in Pain Management
Some of you closer to me know I had my last wisdom tooth out last Friday, Labor Day weekend. It’s been a bit of an adventure, I’ll try to keep it brief.
Extraction went normally….I guess. I never did see the doctor. Except for the fact that I had a hole in my jaw where a tooth used to be, I’d never guess anything happened. Very little pain over the weekend. NO visible swelling. I’m shocked, it was impacted and I was expecting the worst.
They prescribed Vicodin for me. I’ve never taken it, I’ve heard gloriously wonderful stories about it, though. My neighbor has back problems and when she takes hers, she gets hyper and has to clean the house. The pharmacist said it can cause euphoria. Sounds good to me. I took it at noon, along with the 3 ibuprofen they said I should also take every 6 hours.
Nausea. It gave me the worst nausea I’ve ever had. It was a friendly nausea, the kind that cuddles up on your tummy and just stays there forever and does nothing but get worse. And it hit almost at the 6-hour mark when I should have taken another dose. I decided I wasn’t going to take another, pain be damned. I’d rely on the ibuprofen.
Good idea, the ibuprofen worked wonders for me. Saturday and Sunday went by with little pain. Sunday we actually went to Ikea and Wegman’s in Baltimore for a little jaunt.
Then on Monday, the pain started getting worse in the afternoon. I was getting a goodly amount of ‘breakthrough’ pain at the 5-hour mark of my ibuprofen regimen.
Tuesday, a lot more. I called the dentist because I knew I shouldn’t be having more pain at that point. They said yeah, come on in.
Dry socket. Joy. So I went in and they inserted a special medicated gauze into the socket. Not painful at all, it actually has a numbing agent. That was Tuesday.
This morning, I went back and had the dressing replaced.
This evening, I apparently swallowed the dressing with dinner because it just ain’t there anymore.
I’ll call tomorrow morning. I’m hoping I don’t have any more pain, maybe they won’t need to see me again. Either way, I go back on Friday for a standard follow-up.
Extraction went normally….I guess. I never did see the doctor. Except for the fact that I had a hole in my jaw where a tooth used to be, I’d never guess anything happened. Very little pain over the weekend. NO visible swelling. I’m shocked, it was impacted and I was expecting the worst.
They prescribed Vicodin for me. I’ve never taken it, I’ve heard gloriously wonderful stories about it, though. My neighbor has back problems and when she takes hers, she gets hyper and has to clean the house. The pharmacist said it can cause euphoria. Sounds good to me. I took it at noon, along with the 3 ibuprofen they said I should also take every 6 hours.
Nausea. It gave me the worst nausea I’ve ever had. It was a friendly nausea, the kind that cuddles up on your tummy and just stays there forever and does nothing but get worse. And it hit almost at the 6-hour mark when I should have taken another dose. I decided I wasn’t going to take another, pain be damned. I’d rely on the ibuprofen.
Good idea, the ibuprofen worked wonders for me. Saturday and Sunday went by with little pain. Sunday we actually went to Ikea and Wegman’s in Baltimore for a little jaunt.
Then on Monday, the pain started getting worse in the afternoon. I was getting a goodly amount of ‘breakthrough’ pain at the 5-hour mark of my ibuprofen regimen.
Tuesday, a lot more. I called the dentist because I knew I shouldn’t be having more pain at that point. They said yeah, come on in.
Dry socket. Joy. So I went in and they inserted a special medicated gauze into the socket. Not painful at all, it actually has a numbing agent. That was Tuesday.
This morning, I went back and had the dressing replaced.
This evening, I apparently swallowed the dressing with dinner because it just ain’t there anymore.
I’ll call tomorrow morning. I’m hoping I don’t have any more pain, maybe they won’t need to see me again. Either way, I go back on Friday for a standard follow-up.
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Disney Bought Marvel
Click here for some links to some really great pictures. Really, it is worth it to take a look at them all....
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
General Update
Still no news about the contract. It is officially 1 month and counting. We are all really crackerdog about it, too, just really stressed and acting weird. It’s been that way all summer, but it has taken a turn in the past couple days from a manic barking stress to a quiet simmering stress. I don’t know which is worse.
This month is exceptionally busy for us, this week we have canning and planting to do. Matt is off this week, too, he’s going to get the land use permit so we can pour some concrete, and he’s going to be pouring a concrete floor in our root cellar (it is existing, off the garage). He is also going to be tearing the roof off the garage. Demolition and food prep will be the order of the day for this month, as well as ripping out summer veggies and getting about half the beds put to sleep for winter.
This Friday I get my last wisdom tooth removed, oh the joy. I’ll be out of commission for a few days.
Next weekend we have our annual Clam Bake up near Ashland, PA. It is the 75th anniversary and is going to be a big to-do. The Gettysburg Wine & Music festival is also that weekend, and we’re hoping to go to that as well. I may be going to the clam bake alone, Matt may be on call this weekend, dammit. If so, anyone want to go with? It would involve camping and woods and clams and a pond and some of my strange and interesting family and a pond and a stream and Fire! Fire! Fire!
The weekend after is a probable trip to Hawk Mountain with Angie, (speaker for mother life). This will depend again on Matt’s call schedule
The weekend after that I work.
After that it is October!!!! Holy cow! Why does the late summer always seem to just fly by? Why are we always SOOO busy this time of year as opposed to winter, when we’re just sitting around waiting for it to be over?
In other news, Matt and I have been talking about whether or not we really want to stay in this area forever (I don’t want to be in this area now, quite frankly). We have been trying to think about where we’d like to relocate to with permanence in mind. We’re young enough that we could purchase now while the prices are low, and come on folks: if nothing else it is an investment option because they are not making any more land, but they’re sure making more people. We’re thinking around 5 acres.
Some places are just out from the word Go: places like Florida, Arizona and New Mexico are out for heat. California is out just on general principle (sorry). Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Montana the like are out for snowload. I think New England and New York are options, but Matt feels they get too much snow/cold. Jersey is out. Much of the south is out for, um, heat and cultural reasons. I mean THE deep south. Midwest is out for tornado reasons. I think we should investigate Oregon, but it may be too close to brother David for comfort for both of us. Most of the costal eastern seaboard is out for hurricane reasons.
That doesn’t leave a whole lot of options, really. Sooooo….. We’re thinking northern North Carolina. Possibly parts of Virginia. Mountains. Cooler. Still some snow, definitely a winter and obvious seasonal changes. I’ve already started looking.
It kills me, a property just sold that would have been perfect: 4 acres, northern NC, basement prices and it would have cost us (collective gasp) only $130/month in mortgage. It was a blank slate and had everything we wanted. I know there are more out there, but we want to get some of our current debt paid before we seriously look and that is about 2 years out. But still, 2 years ain’t that long.
This month is exceptionally busy for us, this week we have canning and planting to do. Matt is off this week, too, he’s going to get the land use permit so we can pour some concrete, and he’s going to be pouring a concrete floor in our root cellar (it is existing, off the garage). He is also going to be tearing the roof off the garage. Demolition and food prep will be the order of the day for this month, as well as ripping out summer veggies and getting about half the beds put to sleep for winter.
This Friday I get my last wisdom tooth removed, oh the joy. I’ll be out of commission for a few days.
Next weekend we have our annual Clam Bake up near Ashland, PA. It is the 75th anniversary and is going to be a big to-do. The Gettysburg Wine & Music festival is also that weekend, and we’re hoping to go to that as well. I may be going to the clam bake alone, Matt may be on call this weekend, dammit. If so, anyone want to go with? It would involve camping and woods and clams and a pond and some of my strange and interesting family and a pond and a stream and Fire! Fire! Fire!
The weekend after is a probable trip to Hawk Mountain with Angie, (speaker for mother life). This will depend again on Matt’s call schedule
The weekend after that I work.
After that it is October!!!! Holy cow! Why does the late summer always seem to just fly by? Why are we always SOOO busy this time of year as opposed to winter, when we’re just sitting around waiting for it to be over?
In other news, Matt and I have been talking about whether or not we really want to stay in this area forever (I don’t want to be in this area now, quite frankly). We have been trying to think about where we’d like to relocate to with permanence in mind. We’re young enough that we could purchase now while the prices are low, and come on folks: if nothing else it is an investment option because they are not making any more land, but they’re sure making more people. We’re thinking around 5 acres.
Some places are just out from the word Go: places like Florida, Arizona and New Mexico are out for heat. California is out just on general principle (sorry). Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Montana the like are out for snowload. I think New England and New York are options, but Matt feels they get too much snow/cold. Jersey is out. Much of the south is out for, um, heat and cultural reasons. I mean THE deep south. Midwest is out for tornado reasons. I think we should investigate Oregon, but it may be too close to brother David for comfort for both of us. Most of the costal eastern seaboard is out for hurricane reasons.
That doesn’t leave a whole lot of options, really. Sooooo….. We’re thinking northern North Carolina. Possibly parts of Virginia. Mountains. Cooler. Still some snow, definitely a winter and obvious seasonal changes. I’ve already started looking.
It kills me, a property just sold that would have been perfect: 4 acres, northern NC, basement prices and it would have cost us (collective gasp) only $130/month in mortgage. It was a blank slate and had everything we wanted. I know there are more out there, but we want to get some of our current debt paid before we seriously look and that is about 2 years out. But still, 2 years ain’t that long.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)