Happy Holidays!

(this may ruin it for those who haven't received their cards yet, sorry! No creativity left for a real letter his year)

When it rains, it pours...

Not raining in the literal sense (though Gail's post about the storms over Hawaii has plenty of precipitation!.) After a long dry spell of projecting that I might just stay an unemployed momma until our next move, this week has been full of job prospects again. I had finally worked out some (very minimal) regular hours helping out at the Adventure Playground beginning in January when I was contacted by a former co-worker looking for assistance starting an afterschool environmental program for another Berkeley park... and THEN, yesterday, I had a surprise call from the garden/nutrition program that had made me the offer in September. Turns out they have been able to figure out a way to offer me a 30 hr. position coordinating one of the school gardens. A little less money and prestige than the supervisory position I went for last time, but also less time away from the lad. They really want me on board, and I think I can fathom it a little better this time around. Though every time I think of leaving my chubby grub I get teary. He really does change everything. I'm not even thinking much about how great the job will be, for all the worry about making sure he gets the best possible care and attention. It'll be a balance, and a tough adjustment, ut hopefully in the long run we'll all be better off...stay tuned!

Saga of a chubby Mama

Ah, the excusive power of research: "Research shows that sleep deprivation can increase hunger by decreasing leptin levels, the appetite-regulating hormone that signals fullness." Now I know why I feel like I'm still eating for two...

Sucks to be sick and poor...

This is not the most appropriate cartoon, as I am able to breath through this virus, but it definitely captures my current mood! It is not worth it to be sick...it is a waste of time and money, especially when you don't have any. This morning I had to brave the doctor's office under the guise of filling a prescription, but it didn't help matters that I was also fighting a virus and would have rather been home nursing my sick kiddo or napping.

After paying $15 to sit in the West Berkeley Family Practice Clinic for an hour and a half before anyone bothered to call me back past all the "STOP, no patients unless accompanied by a clueless RN" signs to sit in another waiting room for another 15 minutes, finally I was ushered into an exam room to wait for another 15 minutes before a doctor finally came in to re-write me a prescription I've been trying to fill at various pharmacies for two months. Apparently, since I'm on county health insurance, there is only one pharmacy in the whole wide world I can go to, and all prescriptions must come from one office, which is unfortunately this crappy office, not the office of my OBGYN who had initially written the prescription. Since this utterly inane bureaucratic nightmare had already taken 2 hours (nevermind the 2 months), I decided to go ahead and get a flu shot, too. Having left my house at 9:40 in the morning, I got home at 12:15pm. The clinic is 3 blocks away. Sucks.

Luckily, Nat and the baby have regular old HMO insurance and can use multiple doctors and multiple pharmacies and we rarely have to wait in the pediatricians office for more than 20 minutes, which is good, since we've been there every month. But if you're poor, unemployed, and haven't married into health insurance, you better get used to waiting..and paying in other ways. I need to rent "Sicko", don't I?