Another Week, Another 1/4 Semester

I’ve suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed 1/4 of the semes­ter! With­out using any kind of accommodations!

I real­ize that’s a fair­ly piti­ful thing to cel­e­brate, but I have to take what I can get.

The project man­age­ment course is actu­al­ly giv­ing me use­ful expe­ri­ence using MS Project, along with infor­ma­tion that is applic­a­ble in the “real world.” There’s also a ridicu­lous amount of ver­biage that I’ve nev­er heard used in the work­place, but maybe there’s been some sort of PM rev­o­lu­tion since 2000. I doubt it, but it’s possible.

The oth­er course is a required “how to find a job” thing. For it, I was required to con­tact my “Career Ser­vices Advi­sor.” When I asked if they have any expe­ri­ence plac­ing dis­abled stu­dents, they assumed (as usu­al) that “dis­abil­i­ty” meant some­thing like ADHD. When I explained fur­ther, I was told that no, they don’t do that sort of thing, and I should go to the state’s Voca­tion­al Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Depart­ment. How helpful!

I was plan­ning to get in touch with Voc Rehab again any­way, though I’m in a weird lim­bo. My Social Secu­ri­ty case is still pend­ing, and one rea­son I filed is so that I could get insur­ance (Medicare) so I could get reli­able health care so that I can work again. If you can work at all, you’re not sup­posed to be approved for dis­abil­i­ty. If you’re approved for SS dis­abil­i­ty, though, you’re eli­gi­ble for the Tick­et to Work pro­gram to get you back in the work­force. Voc Rehab is large­ly fund­ed by that pro­gram, but until the SSA gets around to my case (in 2–3 years, I’m told, due to major prob­lems in the sys­tem) I’m not tech­ni­cal­ly qual­i­fied for it. I don’t want to sit around not work­ing in hopes of get­ting approved for SSA, but if I drop this case, it’ll have been too long since I last worked for me to even qual­i­fy for dis­abil­i­ty income if they do agree with my doc­tors! Our health­care sys­tem is, as most of you prob­a­bly know, fucked.

Sam spent a large part of the day dri­ving. First, he went and picked up anoth­er Freecy­cle find: moun­tain bikes for both of us! (Katie already has one.) Mine is pur­ple and his is green. I’ll try to get pho­tos tomorrow. 

Then he went to Sopo to learn how to fix the wheel on my bike, which was out of true. A very nice lady named Amy helped him and final­ly did that part for him, say­ing it’s pret­ty advanced. We still need anoth­er hel­met and chains/locks/etc, but those are much more eas­i­ly had than the bikes.

Sam has want­ed a bike since before we moved here, so this is real­ly won­der­ful. I want to get healthy enough to ride again, and hav­ing the bike makes it eas­i­er to keep that in mind. Squee!

Then he went to get the girl and all her loot from shop­ping with Nana (my moth­er). Lots more dri­ving for that.

As a result, he did­n’t get much pod­cast­ing done today, so I sup­pose he’ll work on it tomor­row, as he does­n’t have to go to work.

Did y’all have a good week­end so far?