I’m about to use Medicaid again, this time for an ob-gyn appointment. I’m not pregnant so it comes down to a gynecological appointment. I haven’t had one in several years. I’ve skipped this appointment over the years because my former employer made me feel like I would lose my job if I skipped work too [...]
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
I couldn’t use my food stamps at the grocery store today. I was wearing my leather jacket, and Ted was at the checkout. In more prosperous days and when I was married, Ted once asked me if I knew of any girls he could date. He also checked me in at the polls on Election [...]
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Darn. I missed Bailout Bill of Bailoutbooth.com. He came to town recently to hand out money in return for a sob story. I read about him in the paper and gave fleeting thought to hopping on the bus and standing in line. I’m glad I didn’t. Turns out, folks waited hours, and all Bill handed [...]
Monday, May 4, 2009
Today I went for an eye appointment I made using my new Medicaid card. I couldn’t afford to stay on my former employer’s COBRA plan, which under federal law allows you to continue your health insurance at group rates. The premiums under my plan were about a $1,000 a month—for an HMO. I couldn’t swing [...]
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Praise the Lord! (Jim Bakker, you were god, good, for something). I just got my Internal Revenue Service (IRS) refund check today. I haven’t been swimming in so much moolah since my tryst at the Four Seasons with the president of the American Stock Exchange. As you may remember, he funded my start-up publishing company, [...]
Thursday, April 16, 2009
If you’re unemployed, dying solves everything, except what to do with your remains. I wanted to call the Burial Assistance Program run by D.C. Department of Human Services and tell them I was thinking about dying to find out if I was entitled to burial benefits in case I got slammed by a Metro bus while [...]
Sunday, April 12, 2009
I call the Income Administration Maintenance Service Center the unemployment office, but the DC government feels that it needs to provide a title that doesn’t make you feel like you’re poor. When you’re dealing with the government, it’s always something official. After filling out forms I had downloaded and gathering the required documentation, I thought how [...]
Thursday, April 2, 2009
It took me a week to unpack the box my boyfriend sent to me, and I cried unwrapping every item he had wrapped in tissue paper. Did he think he would make me feel better by taking extra time gift-wrapping the contents rather than simply folding them neatly in a box? I’m sending a few things [...]
Friday, March 20, 2009
The media column in The Washington Post says it will watch so I don’t have to, but I want to watch. American Idol, that is. Since being unemployed, my viewing habits have slipped into escapism and reality shows because there is always a loser bigger than you. Americans are on my side, according to a recent poll by Nielsen.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Shocked and shaken the day after being turned loose, I sat at home and came to terms with being out of a job like millions of other Americans. We’re all hurting and stressed out about holding our families together. I have an odd situation. I’m living with my ex-husband, not in a big rambling mansion where we don’t bump into each other, but in a modest-sized house that conveniently has a basement apartment that we used to rent out.
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Wednesday, May 20, 2009
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