March 24, 2014

I guess I have to admit that my anxiety level is now steady at a somewhat higher level than it has been in the most recent past.

Time is flying by and the numbers in our bank account are shrinking with regularity.

I am back at the public library using the Internet.

The view from my cubicle: Adult Fiction.

I tried to write a blog post at home, uploading and posting photos with it, and it was a somewhat excruciating process.  Slow. Slow.  Slow.

I need to check my data usage today too, to make certain that it didn’t take all 10 GB (of my current allotment) to write, illustrate and post my last entry.

(Just checked - having the Internet at your disposal is pretty wonderful. Seems my weekend post used only a bit of data, but the speed was, as I mentioned, less than ideal.)

With no other obvious solution at hand, I will be regularly visiting the public library to use their speedy Internet connection, just maybe not every day.

The weekend absolutely flew by.

Even without the regularity of a 40-plus-hour workweek in between, the much-coveted weekend breaks, when Harry and Mom are not in school or at the office, seem so short.

We (Grandma and Harry and I) went for a walk in the big woods. Collected some eggs from my sister’s, who collected them from her hens. We went shopping at the grocery store; picked up another 50 pounds of black oil sunflower seeds for the birds at Farm & Fleet; went to the post office to buy stamps and to mail our Easter cards. (Harry placing the stamped letters one by one through the mail slot and then looking through the rectangular hole to see where each one had disappeared.)

Walk in the woods.

A little religion with our eggs.

Starter egg.

I submitted official applications for two more picture editing positions this morning.  The alerts appeared in my inbox over the weekend.

I am now applying for positions that list much less experience as a requirement than I have in the past and for positions that will probably be at pay scales much lower than my original expectations.  Our current situation pretty much demands that I be employed in the next couple of months. The next couple of months will mark a year of unemployment.

I went online last week to apply for healthcare coverage for Harry and I, as mandated by Obama Care. (March 31^st is the deadline for coverage.) I was directed to a state specific site for Wisconsin, where I was told that I might be eligible for some assistance with childcare costs and healthcare as well. I filled in the necessary forms and clicked submit.

I was surprised when I returned home that there was a phone message from the Department of Human Services for our county of residence.  I returned the call and asked for Kelly, the woman who had left the message so promptly after receiving my online application.  As I spoke to Kelly, she began with some questions. She asked if I was employed. I said no, I was still looking for a job. “Well, then you are ineligible for childcare. You have to be employed to get healthcare,” she explained quite matter-of-factly.

It’s ironic, isn’t it?  A single parent has to have a job to get childcare, but how does a single parent get a job without childcare? Another possible flaw in our government programs, I’m afraid.

I told her that I currently had my son in a home school, I was paying the fee and if being employed was the rule for childcare assistance from the state of Wisconsin? I understood the rule. She asked if I still wanted healthcare coverage. “Yes, it’s mandatory,” I said. She responded quickly, “Yes, I know.” “O.k. then, I still need healthcare coverage.” She explained that she would continue to submit that portion of the application.  I mentioned that I was still currently looking for a job, but that it would ultimately, probably not be in Wisconsin.

That…turned out to be a mistake.

I received a form letter in the mail on Saturday. I opened it and read that I had been denied my healthcare coverage request. Why? The reason was stated on the back of the form: “She says she will not be in Wisconsin.”

Sigh.

How can it possibly be legal, justified, or even make sense to deny a current resident of Wisconsin healthcare coverage because they may possibly…sometime in the future…probably…be employed in another state?  I am a resident of Wisconsin now.

Argh.

I have to call the Wisconsin Consortium today.  And then I’ll probably have to apply for an official hearing, appear before the board and state my case…the reason that I believe that I should qualify for Wisconsin-sponsored healthcare and that the denial was made in error.

Seriously?  What a waste of everyone’s time.

And I really don’t know what to do until that time.  Do I go online again and apply for healthcare in the open marketplace so that I'm certain to make the March 31st deadline?  Do I wait for the hearing in order to proceed any further? I really don’t know. And I am an educated consumer. What resources, what answers are out there for someone who doesn’t have the educational background that I have? I feel for everyone in the “system.” That’s where Harry and I reside at the moment.

It’s no place to be.