linus_vp's Journal: Journal entry 8-27-2003

Pills
Today I went to see my psyciatrist, Dr. Garg. Since we are on Medicaid, our effexor and my Ambien are not covered. Dr. Garg is going to fight the state of Michigan (our Medicaid provider) to allow us to stay on the effexor. In the meantime, he gave me a replacement for the Ambien (a sleeping pill) called Trazodone - a generic for Desyrel. It's an anti-depressant but one of its side effects is drowsiness. Boy does it work great! Medicaid co-pay on it is only $1. $1 / 30 days =3 per pill. Dr. Garg said that Medicaid won't approve a $2 pill like Ambien, but will approve a 2 pill like Trazodone. I took 100mg at 10:45 PM and was getting very sleepy at 11:15. So sleepy that I didn't even shut off the computer. When I awoke at 1:45 am, I had a stuffy nose and that so-called 'morning wood' type erection. Priapism is a fairly common side effect of the Trazodone, so I layed there a while to see if it would subside on its own, and to see if I'd fall back asleep. Alas, after about 15 minutes I got up to see if masturbation would ease the bulge. It did - kind of. I didn't ejaculate, but afterwards, I could breath easily through my nose, and decided to write a journal entry. Then, voila, I'm bulgelessly flaccid.

Work
Like wow man, has the Lord been blessing me. I landed a contract assignment (sans benefits) at EDW. C. Levy in Dearborn. It's through Search 5 Staffing - a firm in Florida - for $40/hr. It's wonderful to be working after almost exactly a month being off. I seriously like AIX system administration and I find that working with Shelby King is a joy. She handles multiple tasks quite well. As she was training me on GPFS (General Parallel File System), she worked with Stephanie on a Tivoli system problem. It seemed that IBM wasn't honoring the customer code Stephanie gave to get the overheated NT system fixed. Anyway - I thank God that Michelle hired me on this 4-6 month (maybe more) assignment. She likes me to work the early shift which is a bleary-eye 5am until 2pm.

Sub-Contracting
With this position, I am self-employed, which means I have to pick up benefits for the family. I called to get some quotes for the cost of Medical insurance, and it looks like the guy isn't interested in us. My how the picture changed after he found out we are both on Effexor. I haven't even heard back, after he sounded excited to insure us all, at about $350/month.
I guess it goes to show me that one of the biggest perks of working as a contractor was the medical benefits. Now, as a self-employed person, I even am required to get general liability insurance and coverage for errors and omissions (O&E). I'm working on that.

School
Alyssa starts school today, August 27, 2003. It's hard to believe that she's in first grade already! My parents helped watch the kids tonight as they usually do on Tuesdays, and we all went to the open house at Taft elementary. It was hot due to lack of A/C and the kids had a blast seeing the other children there and playing on the great big huge moonwalk setup in the gym. It was a jurrasic adventure - literally 2 stories tall, that almost filled the full size gym! They even had snacks, and ice cream there. Alyssa and Reese loved the slide at the end of the moonwalk. Reese would get airborn jumping at the top of the slide, and Alyssa went down together with Brittiny and Claudia.

College
Kay decided to cancel her classes this year to get a part time job back at Premier Financial Services. Tim Ford (the owner) called her just about a week after I lost my job at DaimlerChrysler. I wanted to go to the one on HTML. Maybe next semester. Perhaps I could continue my college and learn how to write better. I think I'm fairly good, but then again, my writing and I could use polishing.

Wrap-up
So that is what has been happening with me in recent days. Again, I thank God to present us with all these blessings. Someday soon I pray that I find a permanent position (if there is such a thing) as a UNIX System Administrator. I've got a interview at 3pm next week at Federal Mogul in Southfield and a phone interview in a few weeks at a hospital in Grand Rapids. Until next time, I am your humble scribe and servant.