Baby's home! They managed to jumpstart her system without any invasive procedures. The very last thing to worry about is the cystic fibrosis test which they had to redo after some cock-up of her initial bloodwork and then, if the genes are there or whatever, the sweat test confirmation. Hopefully negative there.
So glad she's home and, for now at least, everybody's happy and cozy and breathing more easily.
@eye8urcake This is incredible news. I am so happy for all of you! 
It's a rough part of the year for sure. Soon my cars will just be saturated in it.
@buttercup said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:
It's a rough part of the year for sure. Soon my cars will just be saturated in it.
That spike yesterday was just ridiculous. Nearly broke a record set in the 90s, even.
I ended up dosing myself up with benadryl last night.
omfg finally.
My teaching cert has been stalled because I need in classroom observation hours and none of the schools I was contacting were getting back to me.
One finally did.
So I guess I'll make getting back to my courses a priority.
So new job - yay! Boss seems cool, coworker seems chill. That's all to the good.
Less good - Because technically I am a contractor and not a county employee, I can not park in the lot for the county office employees across the street. - Instead, the only lot/garage I can find that does a monthly rate is three blocks away. With the ankylosing spondilytis, and the fact they just changed over the med (and it can take 3 months to kick in), I am having a HELL of a time walking back at the end of the day. As in I need to stop at least twice between office and car. Today I wasn't sure I could make it. I don't have the money right now (not having been paid yet) to look into the other lots, because they are more expensive to park there. My boss, who has seen me trying to walk to the garage - suggested trying to get a handicap placard - but it doesn't help me really park any closer.
@Macha said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:
So new job - yay! Boss seems cool, coworker seems chill. That's all to the good.
Less good - Because technically I am a contractor and not a county employee, I can not park in the lot for the county office employees across the street. - Instead, the only lot/garage I can find that does a monthly rate is three blocks away. With the ankylosing spondilytis, and the fact they just changed over the med (and it can take 3 months to kick in), I am having a HELL of a time walking back at the end of the day. As in I need to stop at least twice between office and car. Today I wasn't sure I could make it. I don't have the money right now (not having been paid yet) to look into the other lots, because they are more expensive to park there. My boss, who has seen me trying to walk to the garage - suggested trying to get a handicap placard - but it doesn't help me really park any closer.
In most places, you can park free at street parking with a handicap placard. I'm not sure if this helps you, but it's something I considered briefly with my job before I got the bus situation worked out. The only lot I could afford was a mile away and the walk was just too much some days.
@Auspice According to my state's DMV - a handicap placard does not exempt you from parking fees. It was a good thought though. Thanks for trying to help.
Is the county lot gated or just patrolled? If gated, can you inquire as to getting a parking pass for your specific situation? Try to get your boss to lean on them a bit and maybe offer to pay the same monthly rate as you would at the garage to go towards upkeep of the lot. If patrolled, who patrols it? If it's the sheriff or police, try to talk to some of them and see if they'll kindly overlook your vehicle. We do it for certain individuals. If it's some private contractor patrolling it, you'll have a tougher time.
@Ominous Hmm. If it is patrolled by the cops - I should have no issue. Big brother is one of them. I will have to look.
But I don't think Boss would lean - he's very much "We are contractors, not county employees"
@Macha said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:
But I don't think Boss would lean - he's very much "We are contractors, not county employees.
While true, you present an atypical situation and he might be willing to lean more. It's one thing to demand that every contractor get access to the special county employee lot; it's another to ask for a little leeway for 1-2 people who need some consideration. Especially if you're still willing to pay the garage rate, showing that you're not trying to get out of paying for a parking space.
Hmm. If it is patrolled by the cops - I should have no issue. Big brother is one of them. I will have to look.
That's the ticket. Figure out who makes sure the people parking there are supposed to be parking there (you might get lucky and it's no one) and see if you can't work something out with them. You might get that one officer who is a strict, by-the-book asshole (me), but even they can be made to roll their eyes at the ridiculousness of the circumstances and look the other way if the situation is a one-off "why be a complete dickbag?" scenario.
Just make sure to be respectful and calmly present the situation. My willingness to bend the rules is directly proportional to how calm and respectful the person asking is.
Another thought - see if one of the county employees who can park in the lot is willing to give you their "parking spot" in the county lot and you give them the parking spot in the garage that you're paying for. That way no space in the county lot has been lost, you're still paying for a spot (again showing it's not about money but about physical circumstances), you get to park closer, and the county employee gets to burn some calories to walk a few blocks. Honestly, I would be willing to do that trade with someone. 3 blocks is nothing for me.
@Macha Will be keeping my fingers crossed for you. Ideally they will have some kind of consideration here, since this is a health concern, and reasonable measures can be taken here.
I had issues with one of the schools I attended, in that they always had the elevators 'under construction' half the time and all the classrooms were on the 4th and 5th floors. They expected us to haul the HUGE amount of supplies (3x 24x36 art pads, a shit ton of paint and other supplies, etc., all heavy and bulky and awkward) up minimum 4 flights of stairs for a building with super high ceilings for each floor. With permanent spinal damage? Guess who missed classes half the time. There was just NO way.
My firm offers a certain number of combo days off. Sick, vacation, whatever. You get about 15 per year.
I've used two already this year. I've worked from home on both. I still feel guilty for using them.
Something is wrong with me. Seriously, deeply, frighteningly wrong.
like if you've ever googled symptoms and then turned around and pretend you never did so at all because everything says to see a doctor immediately
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
@Roz said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:
I just have to get the gist from the URL because Chrome, Safari, and IE all refuse to go to the link because of certificate errors. ![😕](http://musoapbox.net/assets/plugins/nodebb-plugin-emoji/emoji/android/1f615.png?v=4vfms5ns7sl ":\")
@Roz I feel that one SO HARD after this past week or so...
@Roz said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:
thank you.
...and yes. Pretty much.
For a couple weeks now, any time I try to take a full/deep breath, there's this hitch and a sharp pain I have to get through first. I've figured it's just a side-effect of allergies and the allergy meds aren't doing their job
but uh, apparently no. 
ETA: also I love the kitty-cyberdoc on panel 3 so much
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
“It is better to live doing the things that you like. It is foolish to live within this dream of a world seeing unpleasantness and doing only things that you do not like.” -- Yamamoto Tsunetomo.
Baby's home! They managed to jumpstart her system without any invasive procedures. The very last thing to worry about is the cystic fibrosis test which they had to redo after some cock-up of her initial bloodwork and then, if the genes are there or whatever, the sweat test confirmation. Hopefully negative there.
So glad she's home and, for now at least, everybody's happy and cozy and breathing more easily.
