Meet Up!

Claire found this great website called Meetup.com. It is full of groups of people that do all types of things around the city. I'm assuming it works in other cities across the US. I joined 3 groups. First is a group of women in their 20's and 30's who get together to hang out with the goal of making new friends. The next group I joined is all about exploring everything NYC has to offer. I'm waiting to see what the upcoming events are for these groups.

The group I'm most excited about is one that Claire and I both joined. It is a classic film group. The group gets together a few times a month to watch a classic movie and then discuss it. It is like book club for classic movies. Claire and I have RSVP'd to see Easter Parade in a few weeks and Sunset Boulevard about a week after that. So excited! I think it will be a great chance to meet people who like what I like.

Emily Violet Thompson

One of the best things about going to Oregon last weekend was that I got to meet my cousin Linzie's baby for the first time. Emily Violet, or Evy, was born a few days after I moved to New York. I consider myself to be her aunt and she is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen!

Isn't she adorable?!

*By the way, I hate hearing my voice recorded! I need to remember that for future videos!

My Big Brother Got Married!

I went back to Oregon for my brother Brian's wedding last weekend and I'm so glad I did! It was a really long flight both ways and I was only in Oregon for about 45 hours but it was totally worth it.

The wedding was at the World Trade Center in downtown Portland. It was the Sky Bridge Terrace and absolutely beautiful. Seriously, the rest of my siblings and I are going to just have to get married at the courthouse because we will never even come close to something like this.

The sun was still out when we got there and went down as guests came and the ceremony started.

The view from the terrace
Table settings
Julia, Eric, and Dan before the ceremony started
Me and my grandparents
My dad and stepmom
The happy couple! Brian and my new sister-in-law Aubrey
Kelly and Dan
Julia and Eric
The food was incredible! The champagne for toasts was delicious and I don't normally even like champagne. I was pretty tired by the end of the night so I didn't do much dancing but it was fun dancing with my grandfather. He really let loose! Aubrey was in a sorority in college and she and her sorority sisters did some dance and song circled around Brian that was pretty cute. All in all it was a great night!

Clearly I'm Not Going Anywhere Today

Snow Day!!

I'm feeling better today. Still got a headache and lightheaded when I got out of bed this morning, but overall much better.

I woke up this morning to a lot of snow and a message that school was cancelled! Yes, having a snow day when you are 26 is just as exciting as when you are 10. I'll try to take a better picture when/if I venture out today.

Sparrow has been beyond cute lately. She likes to burrow under things and on this particular day she didn't want me to go do my laundry.

In super fantastic news, I got tickets to a taping of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart!!! Claire and I are going on March 31st, which just happens to be in the middle of spring break. Woohoo!!! I'd love to get tickets to The Colbert Report too, but I think I'll wait awhile before I try for those. I'm so excited!

Ok, sorry for the short post and sporadic updates. I need to try and make this snow day as productive as possible and get some reading done. I need to try and get ahead of schedule since I'll be coming back to Oregon next weekend and don't anticipate getting a lot done. Unless watching my brother get married, seeing friends and family, and finally getting to meet Linzie and David's little baby Evy count as productive... which they do to me! However, the school doesn't seem to agree :-)

Sick Sick Sick

My new thing for this week? Having the stomach flu for the first time in New York. I spent all superbowl Sunday feeling like I was dying. Yesterday I still had a fever and felt sick to my stomach. I tried to stay awake and get some reading done, but then I rolled over in bed to take a short nap and woke up 3 hours later when my friend Dave came to the door. I missed my one class for the day. I don't think I would have made it even if I were awake.

This morning I got up at 7:30 to go to class and got out of bed, stood up, felt lightheaded and then got nauseous. The thought of getting on the subway while feeling like that was too much to take, so I went back to bed. Its now 1:30 and I have a class in 1 hour but I have a fever still and am having trouble sitting upright. I don't think I'm making it to this class either. I have one other class at 6pm tonight that I really hope to make it to.

Yesterday I was able to eat some soup, but I haven't had anything today. I was also able to take a shower yesterday which made me feel a little better and I'm going to go take one now. Then I'll probably take a nap and try to go to my evening class.

Thank goodness I have friends in my classes who will send me notes!

Health Care Rant

I was so excited that my health insurance costs were included in my cost of attendance, and therefore included in my federal loans. Well, as usual, I've been having trouble sleeping so I decided to make a doctor's appointment. It has turned into one hell of a day.

Health insurance through school cost about $1100 and covers me through August. My office visits are covered at a clinic that is about 1 mile from school. I should have known things weren't going to go well when I was put on hold for 10 minutes (!!!) when I tried to make the appointment in the first place. Luckily I made the appointment for 1pm today and not any later even though I don't have class until 4pm. I arrived at the clinic at 12:45 assuming that there would be some sort of paperwork even though nobody said that when I made the appointment. When I got there, they just had me sign in on a piece of paper. 25 minutes later (1:10pm for those of you keeping track) I get called to fill out the paperwork. The receptionist handed me a big stack of paperwork and told me to fill it out. I started to do that and then realized that most of the stack was about employment worker's comp type stuff. I went back up to ask her and she said I could skip all of that. Ok, so I handed in my paperwork at about 1:13.

1:45pm rolls around and I am finally called back to see the doctor. She seemed nice enough as I went into my explanation of my insomnia and how I've had it for as long as I can remember. She proceeded to ask me a bunch of questions about whether or not I'm depressed and suicidal. I kept telling her no and explaining my medical history. She asked me 4 separate times if I was feeling suicidal. NO. I'M. NOT. She asked about all of the sleeping pills I have tried in the past and I told her. She then agreed to write me a prescription for 20 pills but if I wanted to get a refill I would have to meet with a psychiatrist. I told her ok and she wrote the prescription and I went on my not-so-merry way.

I walked down the street a few blocks to the CVS pharmacy that takes my student health insurance. When I get helped, the pharmacist says that my health insurance is valid but that it doesn't cover Ambien or the generic version of it. Frustrated, I asked how much it would cost to fill the prescription. He said 2 pills were $10.99. 2. Two. Two pills. The doctor told me she would write it for 20. 30 minutes later I walked out of the pharmacy with my 2 measly sleeping pills that I paid $5.50 each for.

So I haven't had a chance to call the doctor's office again to ask why the prescription was for 2 pills, but I don't know that it matters anyway. I can't afford to pay $5.50 for each pill. That is what my insurance was supposed to be for! The insurance said I have a $15 copay for generic medications, but that doesn't matter since its not covered.

What a crappy day. At least I'll get 2 nights of good sleep I guess.