Viridian5's House of "...What?"

I put about 45 new window display photos up. (I still have more Saks Fifth Avenue to go, but I gotta take a rest.) You can see them at my Flickr.

Unlike the deeply disappointing run I did May 1, late May netted me some good stuff, even if Bloomingdale's is still using the same sets and concept in its window displays as it did in the middle of March. I start my night trips with Bloomingdale's, so I was worried I'd be seeing an early May rerun with all my stores.

I got so excited that the Gucci windows had mannequins with hair and makeup in them. Alas, I think a lot of the hair and makeup wasn't done well. Look at the hairlines on a lot of these girls! (Also, look at how one mannequin has no lighting on her whatsoever, wtf.) But given how rarely anyone does it anymore, maybe it's becoming a lost art.

I was amused that Paris Theater is holding its "Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair" movie series starting June 5.

+++

I'm still writing and posting "A Long, Long Way to Go."

It's named after a song, like many of my fics. My go-to when I'm stuck for titles is song lyrics/titles. I go for a long drive or walk with Shuffle on and see what the universe throws at me. My funniest Shuffle run for one WIP where the setting is "apocalypse in NYC due to (murderous) aliens landing" (A Quiet Place: Day One) included “Subterranean Homesick Alien,” “Rx 4 the Damned,” or “So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.” I ended up going with a Sade song from the run, finding out that a lot of the Soldier of Love album actually applies pretty well for that canon.

+++

The last three times I went to the Plainview Trader Joe's, the music selection wasn't the elite, often deep-cut alternative songs I'd loved in my previous visits, just some rap, Whitney Houston, and 70s classic rock. I hope the person who gave me the music I loved gets another chance in a future visit I make.

++++

The stiff-soled sneakers I bought late August by my podiatrist's demand are starting to come apart already, and when I asked the salesperson and my podiatrist's office about it, I was told that six to eight months is standard for mesh sneakers! I paid $80 for these Easy Spirits but some of the shoes I looked at ranged to about $200, and they have about the same life length! I'm currently Krazy gluing my Easy Spirits as I decide whether to go for more of the same or spring for a pair of New Balance that would be $150 that their salesman said could last five months to a year. I don't have the option to go back to my sturdy but flexible SAS Free Time walking shoes because these stiff soled sneakers have seriously saved my ankles a few times. Like the night I shot these window displays, when my left foot went into a hole in the street I didn't see. A lot of Manhattan's streets and sidewalks are trash.

+++

I'm still waiting for news on my Medicaid recertification, nerve-wracking given our current administration and the fact that I mailed my recertification paperwork a week and a half before the May 10 deadline. I know the office got my paperwork May 5 by checking with their phone system, so????

+++

I've been informed that I have to start using a new Medicare ID number and card June 17 due to "problems" with my current ones. What did somebody do?

+++

I have somehow messed up the pairing between my iPhone 17's Bluetooth and my 2020 car. Before, they paired automatically, now I have to laboriously manually pair them back up every time after I turn off my car or use the USB cord. Like, stopping to get gas with my car turned off is long enough to break the connection. Help!

More details for folks about the shoe and ankle issue:

When I saw my podiatrist Wednesday, he told me my left foot wasn't healed enough yet--the tendons and ligaments on the middle, outer part of my left foot--and needed to be in the boot longer. One problem is that the boot I was given for June's sprain and fracture is already falling apart after I've only worn it for five weeks of less walking than usual: two weeks in June, and three weeks now.

( Read more... )

You guys remember how I recently spent a few weeks trying to find a decently priced Medicare prescription plan when I realized my current one had a massive monthly premium increase from $3.50 for 2023 to $36.90 for 2024? Three days ago, December 13th, I got a Medicare letter in the mail talking about that issue and saying I needed to make a decision on my prescription plan before the enrollment deadline of December 7. Great. A+.

I'm still writing fic, I'm just not finishing anything. I would love to finish and post something, especially because I have so many WIPs right now....

+++

I still haven't gotten myself together to write to New York Consumer Services or the Better Business Bureau about my Elantra. Part of that is mental fatigue over everything, part of it is needing information I don't have, part of it is being more tired since the Daylight Savings Time change and shorter daylight and getting sick...

...and part of it is needing to do research to choose a new Medicare (Part D) prescription drug plan since my current Humana plan raised its premium from $3.50 a month this year to $36.50 a month next year, while Medicare.gov is a laborious pain in the ass. You used to be able to do a lot of Medicare stuff by phone, but now a lot of the phone people don't know dick and tell you to figure it out yourself at the website. ( Read more... )

+++

Despite having a protective phone case that does a good job, Saturday my phone fell out of my pocket and hit the concrete at an unlucky angle that put a long crack in the screen glass that also went through the protective sticker layer over the glass. It's subtle enough that I often can't see the crack depending on the angle viewed at and whether the background is dark or light, but my finger feels it and hurts a little when it goes over it. Since I can't always see it, it's more difficult to avoid it as much as possible. I'm not drawing blood with it though. With all my bills and Christmas coming, I don't want to have to also pay for new glass from Apple and paying for them to install it, since I don't know for sure if they're still not letting non-Apple repair places have the glass that lets the true colors show, so I'm pondering if buying and applying a new protective glass sticker would be a good enough fix that would protect my fingers: it's not a deep crack so maybe it wouldn't cut through a new one?

I tested positive for COVID. (Baby's first COVID infection!) Dude. I just got my second booster shot in late October.

Given my lack of voice and energy, I've forgone trying to talk to those other prescription plans on the phone and I'll just keep my current plan and pay the monthly premium that's starting January 2023. I resent being put in this position, but it's not like Medicare and Humana care about what I feel and think.

My current Medicare prescription plan will start charging a monthly premium of $3.50 in 2023--I asked why the f my Medicaid isn't paying that premium too but got told it just isn't--so I have to call five other prescription plan possibilities to see if they have a service without a premium that covers all the meds I take and so far they do not. I have until December 7, but the two calls I've made previously in the last week took about 25 minutes each and killed half of my brain cells and most of my strength for hours, so it was going to be rough.

( Read more... )

But if things keep going like this, I may be forced to stay with Humana and pay the $3.50-a-month premium because at least I know they cover things.

It doesn't help that I've come down with something that's really kicking my butt (coughing, sneezing, sore throat, face ache) in addition to having worse headaches and fatigue than usual.


eta 12/8: Aetna never called back.

I can't believe it was a week ago that my left ankle buckled and I fell, because mentally, due to the car situation, it's felt like weeks ago, even though I am still wearing the ankle brace for walks. Weirdly, the right knee I bruised badly in that fall hurts again now, even though the swelling has gone and the marks have faded to yellow-green.

Thursday I contacted Center for Independence of the Disabled, NY (CID-NY) to ask if I could get Medicaid to pay for taxis to my doctors or if my benefits situation would prevent me from buying a used car without losing said benefits. (Me trying to figure out a possible budget for how much I could afford in a car isn't going well because I don't know what I'm doing and my head is doing its February thing of killing me, which also hampers my thinking. Tonight I'm also having pain in my hands and feeling weak.) To my amazement, I got immediate calls back asking for information on my situation and was told someone with the knowledge would call me. Given how fast all of this happened, I thought someone would call me Friday. I was wrong. I don't have a phone number for said person so I have to wait. Of course my car would choose to die right before President's Day weekend, when a lot of people leave early on the Friday and have Monday off.

I looked into my credit card debt and credit score. My credit score is very good, while my debt situation is better than it has been in a few years but definitely not great. My available credit is good but....

It'd also be nice to know if another stimulus check is coming and how much it would be.

I'm sure my father thinks I should be getting more done because he says he needs to know what kind of cars to look for at the supposedly less crooked used car lots of Long Island and I get that but it's not happening.

I had a pain management appointment for Monday in Syosset, Long Island I really needed to get to but no longer can due to my car situation. Syosset is 21 miles from my home. I informed them of my troubles and supposedly they won't charge me for not showing up and they will get my doctor to call me and hopefully get me the refills I need.

One good and somewhat funny thing that happened today was going out for a walk and having a vehicle pull up to hand me a package of mine as I was locking the front door.

I could be writing in my many WIPs but instead lately have been mostly contributing fic titles to the group document for a Prodigal Son "trash" group on Discord. (The "interference" headaches making it hard to think longform and forcing me to go to sleep haven't been helping me either.)

+++

The "check engine" light was another false alarm, yet again for the emissions system. My mechanic and I will continue to monitor the situation and try to get the most remaining life out of my car for as long as and with the least amount of money possible. Life just keeps punching me in the bank account, and the US benefits system works to keep me as poor as possible to stay in it (we don't want those disabled people to feel secure or anything), so I'm not much closer to being able to buy a new used car than I was last February.

+++

I culled some unnecessary and/or outdated papers from my bedroom's clutter, a fraction of what needs to go but a noticeable dent nonetheless, and I have the papercuts on my hands to prove it. There's some paper stuff that might be throw-out-able but I'm too nervous and paranoid to let go of. (I get a lot of paperwork from Medicare about my doctor visits and meds, for example.)

+++

Here's a favorite sketch of mine from A Black Lady Sketch Show: "The Basic Ball." I might actually be able to compete in the first and last categories, although my inability to do a death drop that wouldn't hurt me curtails my chances of winning.

The pink bits on these lilies come from rose petals that had fallen on top of them.

It hasn't been a truly hot time in NYC, to my relief. I don't even have my air conditioner out yet. But the sunlight is getting summer hot, and it was a shock to me when I went out today, especially since we haven't been getting a lot of sun for the last two months so I'm more of a mushroom than usual.

It's still weird to me the music artists who get forgotten years later, some of whom were super popular and ubiquitous at the time and some of whom made really good music. This thought brought to you by me hearing a song that seriously and deeply sampled Hall & Oates' "I Can't Go for That" at CVS. Especially Hall & Oates, whose music was widely sampled by various artists because it's good and catchy as hell. But I never hear the originals played, including on the local oldies station. (Which, to my horror, has started playing some songs from the early '90s.)

I can't believe I hit my Medicare cap for physical therapy already; usually they'll let me continue going through August. After my remaining appointment this week, I won't get PT again until 2020 or I seriously injure myself again, whichever comes first. I once had two uninterrupted years of physical therapy because my ankles kept rolling.

I don't know if I'll ever actually make it, especially since it's in Staten Island, but I'm interested in visiting Alice Austen House, a designated site of LGBTQ historic significance. Alice Austen (1866 - 1952) was one of America's earliest and most prolific female photographers, and over the course of her life she captured about 8,000 images. Though she is best known for her documentary work, Austen was an artist with a strong aesthetic sensibility. Furthermore, she was a landscape designer, a master tennis player, and the first woman on Staten Island to own a car. She never married, and instead spent 50 years with Gertrude Tate.

If you're wondering, the icon used is something I originally made for my old Schuldig roleplaying account, tastes_of_honey.

I'm not having much trouble with Windows 10 but Notepad ++ and Filezilla aren't as easy to intelligibly look at and use as my Arachnophilia and last FTP program were. I'm no longer so naïve as to think that a newer program/technology automatically equals an easier or better experience for the user.

I've heard Photoshop is now a service you pay for monthly instead of a program you pay for once and have to look into that. I downloaded paint.net but it doesn't seem to allow me to create images of different sizes and I can't figure out how to sharpen things.

+++

Is it weird that I most enjoy Tumblr on Pinterest?

+++

With the changing of the year Medicare will start paying for physical therapy again so I'm back. My physical therapist is having me do isometric exercises instead of light weight training this time. I'm not thrilled, since so far it's all the pain with none of the feeling of accomplishment, but I've only been back for two weeks. I've been seeing this therapist on and off for years but he's still trying things for me, unlike the new pain management doctor who recently gave up on me completely during my second visit with her.

I'll try to call the pain management office next week saying we might not be a good match and I'd like a second opinion.

+++

The fandoms I most read in have been very quiet recently, so one of the ones I'm checking out is Gotham, and after the winter finale I don't want to read about Jim Gordon paired with anyone. You don't deserve Harvey, you don't deserve Oswald, you don't deserve any of the women you went out with. Maybe you deserve Sofia, but I don't wanna read it even if she's blatantly abusing you in it.

I imagine it's an interesting property to write fic for since the show burns through plot so fast and hard that you get Jossed constantly. You barely get a chance to enjoy Oswald as simultaneous mayor and kingpin of Gotham crime before it's gone. The possibility of canonical Oswald/Ed shows up only to be dashed on the rocks soon after. This week's ally could be next week's enemy and vice versa. Fandom gets happy over the possibility of an Oswald and Ivy as bestest friends only for Oswald to immediately start discounting her in the new season; likewise the "freak family."

At least fanfic is a way to get the things you thought and hoped canon might spend time on but didn't.