Adventures in Unemployment

I apologize in advance. This rant is so long, it took 2 days to write. When it is time to look back on my life - whether it is next week while I've cornered someone new and unsuspecting at a party, when I write my memoir, or when it is finally my time to pass - please know I see my firing from Independent Health as my villain origin story. Oh. Sorry. I was "laid off." Whatever helps Dr. Cropp sleep better at night. When I started at GEICO in 2017, Independent Health just so happened to be the cheaper of the 2 health insurance plans that were offered to us in the Buffalo office. Check. Done. When my husband and I got married in 2019, he came onto my plan because whatever the price difference, it was basically a wash because I had a better plan. This didn't really have anything to do with Independent Health, since that is also who my husband had, but just that GEICO had more employees than his company, so they could negotiate a better price. Each year, I would look at t...

It is 12:25pm, and my grand to-do list for the day is shot. I’m throwing myself a little pity party, which seems appropriate because I just fell down the stairs. It sounds dramatic when I say it like that. I guess what really happened is that I tried to get to the bottom faster by skipping the last step. In my defense, the last step was hidden by the blankets I had just thrown down the stairs, so I was sabotaged. Sabotaged by my own actions. This is obnoxious for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, it hurts. It hurt right away, and my colorful language definitely surprised the dogs. I hobbled myself to the couch where Poppy promptly licked my face while I was trying to catch my breath and decide if I was dying. She only gave up when she heard Amazon Man. I have since stood up to go do the load of laundry I was carrying when I was viciously derailed by my blankets, and my first step was like “oh, I’m being a baby. This isn’t so bad.” By the time I got to the washer, I was holding o...

On this, the holiest day of the year for us (recovering) Catholics, a miracle did actually occur. We ate our meal on time at Grandma's house. We've had several holidays together at this point in my blog journey, so I'm sure I've talked about this, but maybe my inclination towards project management came out of having a large family. No, I'm actually sure of it. As a child, it starts simple - help make food the day before, put on the curtain dress your mom made for you, be in the car before dad pulls the car out of the driveway. It evolves as you get older. Maybe you make the food on your own or pick the recipe, or you have an option of which curtain dress to wear. You need to plan in your make-up to make it to the car on time (just kidding, I didn't have to do that, but my sister did). And you learn to tell time during this journey, and you get watches and cell phones, and you realize something. We've never eaten on time for a single holiday in your entire c...