great photography of Disney Princesses in “real life” when the fairy tale ends
something needs to change.
i’ve spent a lot of the past 6 years in a hospital. i’ve talked with a lot of people. you’d be surprised at how people will open up to someone with a tube sticking out of their chest. i guess it’s a ‘you must know where i’m coming from’ type of thing. and let me tell you, about 97% of the time the topic of insurance and costs comes up. and in every single case they couldn’t afford it. healthcare cost is ridiculous. people have sold their cars, their homes, their baseball card collections just for a drug. parents have to have second and third mortgages just to get their baby a transplant that might save her life. and even if the family makes it in to a recovery/remission stage they are left with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt they owe to the hospital. forever. if they can even get that far. there are some case where the money just can’t be found. and yes, there are programs out there to offset the cost. but there are requirements and qualifications. for the without insurance folks that is where their saving grace is. but to the people who have insurance, who have a semi-decent paying job there is no help there.
in the past 6 years i had exactly 1 year without insurance. so all of the services and drugs i needed was paid out of pocket. granted it was heavily discounted because i begged and pleaded my no insurance/college student case. but i still didn’t qualify for any assistance due to my ‘fortunate’ bank account. so to date (not including my current stint) i have paid OUT OF POCKET over 1.5 million dollars. i have yet to qualify for any sort of program. i can barely get the hospital to stop charging me $84 for tylenol . i am so very fortunate to have good insurance. i am also very fortunate to have the money to pay those bills. but if i weren’t, i wouldn’t be in this hospital bed. i wouldn’t have made it this far. because i wouldn’t be able to pay the $2,500 a month drug bill. or the $200,000 drug treatments. how can anyone be expected to pay that? how can you ask a parent to make a choice between one childs christmas presents and the others medication. because no matter what you choose, both lose. and no matter how much debt you go into to make yourself healthy, you will be paying for that while living in poverty. unfortunately in this country, it’s cheaper to commit a felony and get treated in prison than to be an honest citizen and never have enough money to pay for you next round of treatment.
Red River flooding - The Big Picture - Boston.com
Volunteers help place sandbags outside the home of Jeremy Kuipers in Moorhead, Minn., Tuesday, March 24, 2009. (AP Photo/The Minneapolis Star Tribune, Richard Tsong-Taatarii)
Red River flooding - The Big Picture - Boston.com
The Red River is approaching record flood levels, likely to break century-old records this weekend. Flowing north toward Manitoba along the Minnesota-North Dakota border, the river is jammed up by ice and is being fed by rain, snow and meltwater. The National Weather Service has issued projections of a crest of 43 feet near Fargo, North Dakota, 24 feet above flood stage. Volunteers and national guardsmen are out in force, building levees, rescuing and evacuating those that need to get to higher ground. Cold temperatures are hampering efforts, freezing damp sandbags and making the job that much more strenuous for volunteers. 800 more National Guard troops and 150 Red Cross personnel are arriving in the area this weekend.
Elsie, one of two Stensgard family dogs, sands on the earthen and sandbag dike surrounding the Stensgard home, not pictured, which overlooks a flooded outbuilding as the Red River continues to rise, Wednesday, March 25, 2009 in Fargo, N.D. Due to the flooding, the Stensgard home can only be reached by boat. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
The 9 worst things to say to someone who just got dumped
I was gonna do a top 10 all David Letterman-style, but I could only think of 9. I’m sure I’ll think of like, 14 more lame-ass things the minute I publish this. Oh well. This is the totally lame, pithy crap that anyone who has ever been broken up with has heard. None of it ever makes you feel better, but people say it anyway:
9. “It’ll get better!” — Really? Is that all you could come up with? I would rather you just not speak.
8. “If it was meant to be, it would have worked out.” — It seems, when faced with a friend in need of emotional support, even the most hardline agnostic/atheist/scientist likes to pull the whole fate bullshit out of their bag of empty pithy phrases. Even in a state of extreme emotional distress, the dumpee can still see how little you’re even trying. Jesus.
7. “You deserve better than him!” It’s not really about deserving-ness, also, getting dumped doesn’t make you feel real deserving of anything.
6. “He was a jerk anyway.” — Taking this time to talk about how much of a dick he is, or how much you hated him all along just makes the dumpee feel worse, not only about their judgment in choosing a significant other, but it also makes them feel like you were lying every time you said how how perfect he was for you. No good.
5. “Time heals all wounds.” — Thanks Father Time. Will time heal the would to your face that I’m about to inflict? OK, yeah, probably. But still. You suck as a friend.
4. “At least he did it now instead of dragging it out for like, 10 years.” Seriously? Really? I guess it would be worse if this was happening 10 years from now instead of now. Maybe, though, in 10 years I’d have better friends who wouldn’t say shit like that to me.
3. “You’re stronger/better off for having been through this.” Yeah, no.
2. “There are plenty of other fish in the sea!” — FAIL.
1. “God loves you!” — Yeah, God ain’t gonna bone me on my birthday. Thanks but no thanks.
I’m sure, at this point, you’re all like, dude, that covers the entire spectrum of things I would say to anyone I know who got dumped! And it is pretty much the entire spectrum of things that one could possibly say to someone who got dumped. So, really, what are you supposed to do?? Just listen to the person complain, because, honestly, especially when the wounds are so fresh, that’s all they wanna do anyhow. Lend a sympathetic ear, and save the pithiness for later.
Future:
…currently my least favorite word in the English language.
We’re on a “break.” I never thought I’d be in a relationship that needs a break, but here we are. I’m just not happy enough with our relationship, so I told him all about it and he understood. Seeing him cry for about three hours was the worst part.
We’re taking a few days of not talking so we can both think about things. After that, we’re probably going to spend less time together, but more quality time together. The ball is in my court…I have to call him when I’m ready to talk again. I miss him already, but I know this is what we need to do.
Now I’m just drained and feeling kinda numb. I have an exam tomorrow that I haven’t started studying for and a paper/project due that I also haven’t started. I think I’m just going to go to bed now and study in the morning.
A section of the Rocky Mountain News newsroom sits empty on February 27, 2009 in Denver, Colorado. The edition on Friday the 27th was the last one for the nearly 150-year-old daily, Colorado’s oldest newspaper. The owner E.W. Scripps Co. announced the day before that the paper was closing down after efforts to sell the money-losing newspaper failed. (John Moore/Getty Images)
