Aw, poor Pixie.

Good job, Laura!

Nice work, Toddson!

mmm, avocados! Excellent.

Since this is the first real week of my leave of absence, and I was so frantic before that that I didn't plan anything, I'm trying to take this week to Get Shit Done. So far today has been medium good on that front. Made a few calls, but so far nothing has really been finished, even if I started the thing, but mostly in a "waiting for someone to call me back to do the next step" way. Part of the plan is to figure out a diet I want to eat and actually stick to, and doing some meal planning for that. And partly trying to find a therapist. Which is OBNOXIOUS--nobody takes insurance, even if they're on the insurance website, or even if they list my insurance on their own website, or they're not taking new patients, etc etc. What's the point of having mental health coverage if you can't actually access it? And I"m actually doing OK right now and able to make calls and email people!

Yeah, trying to find a therapist is nearly impossible, IME.

So someone has offered me free tickets to the Hugh Jackman show, but what they sent me is I think a screenshot. Do you think that will work?? (It's my aunt's mother, so I'm not that inclined to ask her to try to do more with technology....)

Excellent advocating, Toddson. And outstanding work, Laura.

I hope Pixie responds well to the pampering, -t.

I need to, I don't know, mug somebody for the shingles vaccine. I'm twice predisposed toward shingles--chicken pox as a child, and psoriasis most of adulthood. The vaccine is vanishingly rare, here.

I have a new laptop, and now that it has had installed all my beloveds from my old laptop I can do the dance of having c, d, e, and 3 functioning on my keyboard. Calloo, callay!!

I finally booked ltc's birthday party. Her birthday is not until the second week of August, but we're having the party at the end of July. She has decided she wants a Captain Marvel party, and I couldn't be happier.

Yeah, trying to find a therapist is nearly impossible, IME.

Can you tell my mother this? Yes, I know I need to find a therapist, but it's so hard to work appointments around ltc's schedule and the last few therapists I saw were absolute crap. We have new insurance starting in a few days, and I'm crossing my fingers that the options will be better.

We have new insurance starting in a few days, and I'm crossing my fingers that the options will be better.

Good luck!! I think my insurance is kind of crap, but even still--I feel like most doctors take it, and if I look someone up on their website and call their office, they almost always take it and confirm if they're accepting new patients. But therapists? Heck no. They either don't take the insurance anymore or they're not accepting patients. Or both.

I ran into that a ton when I was on a supplemental Medicare insurance. Not accepting new clients at this time constantly.

There was a study that found something like 73% of therapists on a major insurer's list were unavailable. [link] Guess that's one way for the insurers to avoid paying for it.

We're about 35 hours into tech (over 4 days) and it feels like a rare strain of Tourettes is spreading. People are muttering "Pickalittle", "Shipoopi", and "Baaaalzac".

On Friday we will literally have 76+ trombonists here to perform a 15 minute parade/press stunt. We keep getting notices that "It will be LOUD".

There was a study that found something like 73% of therapists on a major insurer's list were unavailable.

Seriously. When I first moved to Philly I had to see a specialist, recommended by my in-network GP, and found myself slapped with a $750 bill for some clown to look up my nose for 5 minutes and declare there was nothing more to do. It hadn't even occurred to me that a health insurer could just refuse to cover someone the government had already licensed to practise medicine. Car insurers don't only pay out if they have an existing agreement with the street on which you had an accident.