Wednesday I devoted all my time and energy to chasing down health insurance issues and helping my daughter pack for her five day overnight camp. I managed to get through my entire in-box without going insane. And I only had to make one run to the compounding pharmacy to get a second set of claim forms for the drug company's needs. The best part about all of my effort was the good news I received from the billing department for my emergency cyst removal--I only owe $70 instead of $384! Yeah!
This year has been a banner year for health costs--a first for us. Moving out of our company's network is costing us. I'm used to a copay and this 20% of fees is daunting. However, I also feel I am receiving better care and better testing because the insurance PPO's can't dictate what tests I need to have and now I am so much better than I was up north when I didn't have to pay as much. It's truly a Catch-22 situation. Sure, I'd rather spend $285 on clothes for the RWA National Conference, but reality meant spending it on 20% toward my labs which led to my diagnosis.
Choices.
Packing up DD for her camp was very painful. First we had to pack a framed backpack for the first night at the camp for older girls. Our family doesn't camp. At all. I was forced into it as a child (blech blech blech) in Canada. I've used wood seated toilets, washed my hair in cold lakes, and slept on top of barely concealed tree roots in pup tents.
I don't need to experience the delights of camping again.
Darling Husband camped with Boy Scouts. Once. In Texas. A scorpion crawled into his sleeping bag. His only advice to DD was "bang your sleeping bag hard with a heavy stick to make sure snakes and bugs are dead before you slip inside it."
His idea of camping is staying at the Holiday Inn.
We did "camp" in Europe when DD was 6 years old. Camping in France means staying in a house with a small kitchen, sleeping on real beds, and having amenities like hot croissants, fresh baked bread, swimming pools, discos and more. This like staying at a cool Holiday Inn where people are stunned and amazed by discovering the only Americans at their campground.
I could do that again.
Any rate, as a girl scout leader, I did try the camping thing again when DD was a second grader. She wanted to stay in the cabin till the bugs crawled out and prevented her from shining her flashlight onto her book.
Thankfully, I had plenty of backup. We went home at midnight. I was ever so happy to drink my big glass of red wine when we arrived home.
No more GS camping for us. We arranged for things like staying at themed places for our troop.
But now that we've moved south, my rising 10th Grader decided to revisit the idea of staying in cabins, sleeping on the ground, not being able to bath easily because her friends invited her to go to camp. Well, that's fine. We spent almost $200 on camp supplies, modest clothing (cause it's a religious camp--can't even wrap my brain around that one), and bins to protect all her stuff.
But we borrowed the framed backpack.
And we had to pack it for one night.
Who knew the sleeping bag and the bedroll were to go OUTSIDE the pack? *Sigh* Four hours later, we had the bin packed with 4 days of clothing, two squashed towels, two squashed washcloths, a bikini to wear UNDER the clothes, a pair of tennis shoes, a pair of water shoes, a pair of flip flops, a tarp, an air mattress, a cooling water fan, batteries, a small sewing kit, a bible (the only reading material allowed--at what point will she cave??), a journal, a bin filled with snacks (supposed to last five days--might last two), and an air mattress with a pump!
The pack, with sleeping bag on outside in waterproof bag, bedroll, set of clothes, pajamas, mess kit, first aid kit (she might need it), snacks, camp manual (let's train now!), and a pair of socks tucked in when remembered after the pack was well, packed.
Wednesday was a bust for practicing pitching.
Thursday I worked on my pitch a bit, then went to the mall to meet a friend. I had to shop for little things to put into a shoebox for my DD to receive when she is at camp. I brought my pitch with me, and after we finished shopping, I pitched my first book pitch to my friend. She liked it. And her eyes lit up when I asked the final question. Whew. At least SHE wants to read my book.
After we parted, I went to the women's center to get a mammogram. Blah.
Returned home, got call from DH telling me he was bringing over a person to see our house--AACK--quickly cleaned. Then grabbed DD and went to a cool subdivision to check out their houses, and then to two car dealerships to check out cars. Eventually, she'll need one. Why not check them out now?
Somehow, in-between all this running round, I looked up some information about my agent and editor, added what I found to my index cards, and reread my pitch.
I practiced my pitches this morning, checked my favorite blog sites out, made a grocery list, checked online for coupons, gave up on trying to be a smart coupon shopper, and now I am preparing to head to the grocery store. Meanwhile, DD has walked into my office, informed me she needs to shop for secret sister items for her camp experience, and she wants to go to the outdoor mall to shop for a bit.
Now, what to do about clothes for the conference? At some point, I will have to cull through my closet and figure out what I really need to buy with my meager budget. After all, most of my moola goes to camping supplies and secret sister shopping.
I've managed to blog, dig up info for the pitch, write the pitches, but I haven't managed to do more than move my 4th MS over to the Scrivener program to ready it for revision.
Doubt much will happen with it until after the conference.
Summertime is not an easy time to prepare for anything. But I muddle along.
