Late to the party

Okay, so the musical Rent came out ages ago - I haven't been able to afford to rent movies or go to the theater in forever, and I only just saw the movie for the first time the other day on television (yeah, I get that I'm late to the party (hence the title of this entry)).

I've been listening to selections from the soundtrack (free clips are available for listening here: http://rentmoviesoundtrack.com/) nearly non-stop since watching the movie all the way through twice (gotta love cable stations that show movies over and over again - and this was basic cable, too!).

For those of you who've seen the show or the movie, you'll know what I'm referencing by the "support group scene". For those who aren't familiar with Rent, many of the characters have HIV - or full-blown AIDS - and they attend support group meetings to help them deal with the fact that they're forced to live with a deadly disease for which there is no cure. There's a bit where the support group sings the following lyric (and it's reprised at the funeral of one of the characters later in the show, and again after another character has a near-death experience):

There is no future;
There is no past;
Thank God this moment's not the last.
There's only us;
There's only this:
Forget regret,
Or life is yours to miss.
No other road
No other way;
No day but today.

I was struck by the relevance of that particular lyric to my life lately. No, I don't have HIV/AIDS, or anything else immediately fatal; but I do feel that I've been really stuck in a rut, and that I haven't gotten as much out of life as I maybe could have, so far.

I don't know what or how much I can do to change it, but I really like the idea that life really ought to be lived one day at a time, and appreciated as it happens, and I want to try to be better about making sure I do that.

a. ;)

Challenge!

http://www.kraftbrands.com/upumpitup/

I'm an insulin-dependent diabetic, but there's a chance I might be able to go off the shots if I can get down to my goal weight of 150 lbs. As noted in the previous entry (below), I need to lose at least another 117 lbs. (the doctor really wants me to get down to 135, but I've never weighed that little in my entire adult life - I'm a healthy size 12 at 150 - so when I get to 150, we've agreed to re-evaluate the end goal).

I created a challenge at the above linked website to try to get myself motivated to work out more and get fit. I'd have made it a public challenge, but I couldn't figure out how to do so, and I can't link to it directly, apparently. However, there are a lot of interesting challenges, so you might want to just browse.

If you'd like an invitation to join my challenge, either to support me as I work on it, or to work on getting fit yourself, post a comment with an email addy, and I'll send you an invite.

a. ;)

Dietary Goodness, Pt. 2

As noted in Dietary Goodness - Pt. 1:

August 1, 2007 - weight: 325 lbs.
January 30, 2008 - weight: 285 lbs.

As of today - May 5, 2008 - weight: 267 lbs.

53 lbs. down, 117 lbs. to go. Yay me, continued.

a. ;)

Sarcastic "Surrender"

A girl has noticed that speaking in third person is apparently a great way to motivate Master...I mean, I've noticed that if I sarcastically pretend to be the subservient slave-type-person, the husband-type-person actually gets off his ass and does stuff around the house.

Who knew?

a. ;)

medical assistance - letter to my state reps

I sent the following letter to my state reps on Thursday:

Gentlemen:

I am a constituent, living in Sheboygan. My husband and I are both currently unemployed, uninsured, childless, and going through a tough financial situation. I don't particularly want a hand-out - what I want is a job, but I haven't been able to find one - but I am an insulin-dependent diabetic who cannot afford her insulin (if I were taking the shots as prescribed, it would cost $190 a month for the insulin itself, plus approximately $65 a month more for the required supplies (syringes, lancets,
test strips)).

Thus, I was dismayed to learn that, in Wisconsin, one must have a child to qualify for medical assistance of any kind, if one is not completely disabled from working. Clearly, my choices, if I need help with the costs attendant to obtaining my insulin, are (1) get pregnant (not a good choice, considering that we cannot afford a child, plus the uncontrolled diabetes and the fact that I'm 39 mean that any pregnancy would be risky), or (2) go without (which is what I have been doing), and/or (3) wait until
my diabetes actually becomes disabling (which may not be far off), at which point, I might qualify, but would no longer be able to work. Do these sound like good choices to you?

I tried to qualify for Lilly's discount insulin program, but it is based on the prior year's tax returns, and, since I made $45,000 last year before losing my job, I made too much, and cannot qualify. It does not matter that I have no money at all, now.

Perhaps the legislature should think about putting into place some way for persons who are not completely disabled, and do not have children, to obtain at least limited medical assistance for chronic and potentially disabling conditions. I would hope that this would be a measure that anyone, of any party, could get behind. Thus, I hope that I can count on both of you to introduce appropriate legislation to make such assistance a reality - and soon.

Thank you for your time and your anticipated cooperation.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yesterday, I got a call from one of the reps' staffers. They will be introducing legislation next week. They agreed that it makes much more sense for the state to temporarily cover the medication costs of someone who is able to work, than to force that person to become disabled and then have the state have to pay their medical bills for the rest of their lives. The staffer is also going to try to find other avenues of assistance for me that I might have missed in my own search for help.

Of course, there's no guarantee that the measure will pass, or that it would become effective soon enough to actually help me; but if it does pass, it'll help a lot of people - I can't be the only person with a chronic, potentially disabling, but completely treatable, condition who can't afford their medication.

Who says it does no good to contact your representatives?

a. ;)