Don't Vote

"What Makes You, You?"

That was the last question I was asked in my job interview today. I couldn't say insanity made me who I am, so I settled on giving a small synopsis of who I was and what makes me tick. It would have been so much easier to state insanity.

Seriously though, the interview went well this afternoon. It lasted for an hour and a half and ended on a positive note. Four times at the end I was told, "after you're hired, blah, blah, blah" so it seems like they are interested. I'm not sure if I will be interested in the pay because this company has a reputation of low-balling employees. I will not be low-balled, so we shall see.

Homework, Shmomework

Working on homework tonight. Oh, the joy of being an idiot at 18 years of age while in university and leaving it for the Navy only to be going back to it again in old age while being married, having a child and full-time job.

On another note, I have an interview tomorrow for a new job. I've been a sub-contractor and am looking for full-time work. Full-time work equals better benefits and in this shaky economy, while nothing is permanent, it wouldn't hurt to be a full-time employee versus being contract and you walk in one day only to find out you wasted a trip driving because they cut your job that day.

I hope it goes well.

I hope I can finish my homework tonight.

I would much rather be blogging around.

Very Happy

My husband was asked to speak about his artwork at a university tonight. Not only was he asked to discuss his work, but was also paid to be there and chat about it. This is the second time he has been paid to talk about his work and it's been pretty nifty. I am very happy for him because it seems like things are coming together artistically and it's about damn time.

I don't know if it was noticed in one of my last posts (last two paragraphs) that I have been doing better. It's so nice to say that instead of constantly complaining (or it felt like I was when reading my old posts). If you haven't read those last two paragraphs, please do.

Today I thought about how I'm still doing better. It's been a while now for things to be more rosy. It's not that the blanket of depression is lifting, the fact is that it has lifted and for quite some time. I am very grateful for that.

It's interesting to me as well that things are better with my husband. He is more satisfied and happy about how things are turning in his artistic life and in turn he has been easier to deal with. His anger is not as bad nor his tongue as vicious. I have learned a lot more about him this summer. At the time I wasn't sure if I wanted to learn what I did, but in the end, it's best that I did and know more with what and who I am dealing with.

I just wanted to share the good news with you. It's so much better than the alternative.

OMG Back to School For Me

Here we go again. I took a break from school and summer is over and it's time to start all over. Today it started. I have two classes: Sociology 300 (Societies of Developing Countries) and Computer Information Systems 326 (Object-Oriented Programming I). I'm quite worried about CIS326 because it's based on the C programming language and I haven't taken or used C for 12 years. I just looked at the syllabus for this class and for some reason the professor is skipping chapters all the way to chapter 8. Why, I have no clue. The syllabus scares me to death so I'm dropping her class and enrolling in the other CIS326 class. I hope the next professor starts at chapter 1. We shall see.

The SOC300 class has a paper due in a few weeks that has to be at a minimum 10 pages long. Oh, dear gawd. I don't know what the paper will be about, but just hope that I will get through it.

I do have some good news though...after this quarter in school I'll finally be a SENIOR. I thought I would never get there. The end is in sight.

I don't care if I'm 98 and rolling across that damn stage, I will get my degree one day. I can't wait to blog about graduation!

Mental Health May Finally Have Its Day

Tonight I was HIGHLY pleased to read the following article located here at CNN.com:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Talk about going out with a win.

Sen. Pete Domenici has fought for mental health treatment parity in insurance plans.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-New Mexico, has spent years fighting for legislation that would require insurance plans to treat mental health patients on par with those who have physical ailments. No  more higher copays or deductibles for the mental health treatments. No more limits on visits to the doctor that differ from the caps for other patients.

Domenici announced a year ago that he suffers from a progressive form of dementia and would not seek a seventh term. He leaves office at the end of this year. One of his final votes was on the mental health legislation he fought so hard for over the years.

The mental health protections are part of a massive bill designed to help the economy that was passed by the House Friday and signed by President Bush.

Domenici has a daughter diagnosed with atypical schizophrenia. He got involved in the parity issue after joining a National Alliance on Mental Illness support group nearly 20 years ago. On his way home from work, he and his wife, Nancy, would meet with other parents of children with mental health problems.

"The first real understanding of how broad the problem was came from those meetings where I met with mothers and fathers who had children who were mentally ill, and they were going bankrupt because they couldn't pay the health bills, or their children were in jails instead of hospitals," Domenici said.

He said perceptions about the ability to treat mental health problems have changed greatly over the years, but coverage has also become an expensive proposition. So, he and others, such as the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minnesota, began pushing for health insurance parity. Those who would have to bear most of the expense offered the most resistance.

"Those who stood to lose fought hard and that was principally insurance companies and businesses," Domenici said.

Employers and insurers were concerned that legislation would have required plans to cover a "telephone book" of conditions, raising costs beyond what companies and their workers could afford and potentially negating companies' ability to offer any health coverage at all.

The legislation does not mandate that group health plans cover mental health or addiction treatment, only that when plans do so, the coverage must be equitable to other medical coverage.

The insurance industry is now a strong supporter of the parity legislation.

In 1996, Sens. Wellstone and Domenici won passage of a law banning insurance plans that offer mental health coverage from setting lower annual and lifetime spending limits for mental treatments than for physical ailments.

The pair again teamed up in 2001 on a predecessor to the legislation now before the House. After Wellstone was killed in a plane crash in 2002, Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, and Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming, took on larger roles in getting a bill passed in the Senate.

The requirement for equal treatment in insurance coverage would apply to health plans that cover more than 50 employees -- potentially reaching 113 million people nationwide.

Health officials contend that equal protections for mental health conditions would lead to a healthier, more productive work force.

"There's a phenomenon ... where you've got a psychiatric illness and you're able to get around but you can't do your work at the same quality you did before," said Dr. Nada Stotland, president of the American Psychiatric Association.

"Many workers today are in the service industry. If a person on the other end of the line is depressed, they may have shown up to work and they may be present, but they will not necessarily make us happy about the company that we're calling. They'll be slow, unhappy and maybe irritable, and their powers of concentration won't be good. So, more and more companies want to see their employees treated."

Overall, the parity legislation is expected to cost the federal government about $3.4 billion over 10 years. That's because employers will have more health expenses that they can deduct from their income taxes.

Need Advice Please

As stated in a previous post, I am going to start talking about one thing that is bothering me to death which is weight. I want to just get it out on the table and talk about it and then do something about it. I know I will be posting how I'm doing in losing weight at times and I don't want this to turn into a weight blog.

As we all know it's easier to have just one blog. I really don't want another one because I want to keep all of my thoughts and feelings in one place, but I don't want to bore my readers either.

So, should I start another blog just for my weight or would you mind if I blog about it here?

Thanks ya'll!