News, News, News...
On April 13th, at 8:43 AM EST, a beautiful new life came into this world. Two days later Kim and I finally chose a name: Ambria Marie. Please do not ask me where the name Ambria came from. Kim said it, I liked it. Unlike her brother, who came out wide-eyed and sucking his thumb, Ambria had her umbilical cord around her neck, which the doctor, with surprising speed I might add, fixed right away. As with her brother, Kim could did not believe the gender announcement and asked me several times if I was sure she was a girl.
Kim stayed in the hospital until they allowed her to be released, I was with her the entire time except a few hours on the 14th when I left to take care of some business and change my contact lens. One thing about hospitals, they must be the driest places on earth where there is water readily available. One more thing about hospitals, never read a Robin Cook novel while in one. Even if the topic of the book has nothing to do with the section of the hospital that you're in, the paranoia becomes so overwhelming that you are constantly checking up on things to make sure no government agencies are injecting you, or your loved ones in my case, with things that will turn them into medical frankensteins. That being said, I fully recommend Brain and Outbreak by Robin Cook. I was also informed by my cousin that the movie Outbreak is based on the Robin Cook novel Virus not the book of the same name. While I cannot confirm that the movie is based on Virus, I can confirm that the movie has nothing to do with the book of the same name.
A few things to note about Ambria and Stephan now. Both were unplanned pregnancies. Both are born on the 13th day of the month. In both cases, we had to come up with a name because we figured on the gender they weren't. Both weighed exactly 7 pounds, 7 ounces and were 19-20 inches long. Both have exactly 20 letters in their full names (6 lettered first name, 5 lettered middle name, and 9 lettered last name.) None of these things were planned.
For those of you interested in pictures, please see the link entitled "The Window Into Darkness" in my links section.
In other news, I am now a fully licensed Life Insurance Agent/Broker in New York State. So if you live in New York, and need life insurance, or want to know if you are over-insured, under-insured, or paying way too much for way too little benefit with the insurance you have, let me know and I'll help you out, and you don't even have to pay me! (In a few months I plan to go for my securities license so that I can even help you invest money!)
With a little hard work, I plan to be out of this place by August, so that Kim and I can finally start to live for once. Mom, Dad, and Kim are willing to talk about staying here, however they all seem to have pre-conceived notions about this discussion, and I fear that it will be doomed before it even starts. Suffice it to say, I am sick of these presumptions. I am also sick of being a middle-man, but I guess that comes with the territory. For one thing, I absolutely hate being a moderator between people who aren't willing to discuss things because they "know" what the other will say and want.
I can't help feeling screwed over by this mess. I understand both sides of the issue, however, I personally am left with no other choice but going with the flow. Kim mentioned section 8 housing to me today on the phone. I told her absolutely not.
Now before you go and say I'm killing my alternative options, let me explain how these government programs don't work from the point of view of someone NOT trying to abuse the system and use it at the same time. These programs are meant to help the poverty stricken, however, as with many things, the concept is great but the application sucks. First of all, the Department of Social Services, at least in New York, has got to be the most disorganized organization I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with. Even Albany doesn't "lose" documents that have been on file for over a year.
Second of all, for a program that is meant to be used as a stepping stone, they sure try to keep you grounded. There is an income limit to utilize the support, and that limit is extremely low. When I was working for A&P full time at $10.37 an hour for 48 hours a week (that translates to a yearly salary of $25,883.52,) I was making almost $14,000 a year more than the maximum limit of support for the size family I had. Yes you heard that right. $26,000 a year for 3 people is apparently either upper-lower-class, or lower-middle-class. My father made a little more than double that for 4 people and we just scraped by. Considering average rent in this area is roughly $19,800 a year if you add the monthly utilities, that leaves us with $6,200 to live on for the year, or $516.67 a month to handle food, gas, and other necessities like diapers, car insurance, etc.
So my options are to either work for less than $12,000 a year and reap the benefits of the program, or fend for myself. By the way, if you DO work for less than $12,000 a year, you have to constantly visit with the labor department to explain why you're making so little. So sue me if I don't have much faith in using a program intended only for people who for physical, mental, etc., reasons cannot make enough to support themselves in the first place. Although I may be feeling dejected because apparently, I'm "white" therefore I have less need for support than "minorities," but oh well.
Simply speaking, I will not have a government agency dictate to me how far in life I will go, and how much financial support I will give to my family. In fact, I personally am of the opinion now, more than ever, that unless you have a physical or mental disability that prevents you from working, you have no business being on welfare, and thus should be ineligible for it. But this is a topic for another time, or I will write a book in this entry.
More to follow...
Kim stayed in the hospital until they allowed her to be released, I was with her the entire time except a few hours on the 14th when I left to take care of some business and change my contact lens. One thing about hospitals, they must be the driest places on earth where there is water readily available. One more thing about hospitals, never read a Robin Cook novel while in one. Even if the topic of the book has nothing to do with the section of the hospital that you're in, the paranoia becomes so overwhelming that you are constantly checking up on things to make sure no government agencies are injecting you, or your loved ones in my case, with things that will turn them into medical frankensteins. That being said, I fully recommend Brain and Outbreak by Robin Cook. I was also informed by my cousin that the movie Outbreak is based on the Robin Cook novel Virus not the book of the same name. While I cannot confirm that the movie is based on Virus, I can confirm that the movie has nothing to do with the book of the same name.
A few things to note about Ambria and Stephan now. Both were unplanned pregnancies. Both are born on the 13th day of the month. In both cases, we had to come up with a name because we figured on the gender they weren't. Both weighed exactly 7 pounds, 7 ounces and were 19-20 inches long. Both have exactly 20 letters in their full names (6 lettered first name, 5 lettered middle name, and 9 lettered last name.) None of these things were planned.
For those of you interested in pictures, please see the link entitled "The Window Into Darkness" in my links section.
In other news, I am now a fully licensed Life Insurance Agent/Broker in New York State. So if you live in New York, and need life insurance, or want to know if you are over-insured, under-insured, or paying way too much for way too little benefit with the insurance you have, let me know and I'll help you out, and you don't even have to pay me! (In a few months I plan to go for my securities license so that I can even help you invest money!)
With a little hard work, I plan to be out of this place by August, so that Kim and I can finally start to live for once. Mom, Dad, and Kim are willing to talk about staying here, however they all seem to have pre-conceived notions about this discussion, and I fear that it will be doomed before it even starts. Suffice it to say, I am sick of these presumptions. I am also sick of being a middle-man, but I guess that comes with the territory. For one thing, I absolutely hate being a moderator between people who aren't willing to discuss things because they "know" what the other will say and want.
I can't help feeling screwed over by this mess. I understand both sides of the issue, however, I personally am left with no other choice but going with the flow. Kim mentioned section 8 housing to me today on the phone. I told her absolutely not.
Now before you go and say I'm killing my alternative options, let me explain how these government programs don't work from the point of view of someone NOT trying to abuse the system and use it at the same time. These programs are meant to help the poverty stricken, however, as with many things, the concept is great but the application sucks. First of all, the Department of Social Services, at least in New York, has got to be the most disorganized organization I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with. Even Albany doesn't "lose" documents that have been on file for over a year.
Second of all, for a program that is meant to be used as a stepping stone, they sure try to keep you grounded. There is an income limit to utilize the support, and that limit is extremely low. When I was working for A&P full time at $10.37 an hour for 48 hours a week (that translates to a yearly salary of $25,883.52,) I was making almost $14,000 a year more than the maximum limit of support for the size family I had. Yes you heard that right. $26,000 a year for 3 people is apparently either upper-lower-class, or lower-middle-class. My father made a little more than double that for 4 people and we just scraped by. Considering average rent in this area is roughly $19,800 a year if you add the monthly utilities, that leaves us with $6,200 to live on for the year, or $516.67 a month to handle food, gas, and other necessities like diapers, car insurance, etc.
So my options are to either work for less than $12,000 a year and reap the benefits of the program, or fend for myself. By the way, if you DO work for less than $12,000 a year, you have to constantly visit with the labor department to explain why you're making so little. So sue me if I don't have much faith in using a program intended only for people who for physical, mental, etc., reasons cannot make enough to support themselves in the first place. Although I may be feeling dejected because apparently, I'm "white" therefore I have less need for support than "minorities," but oh well.
Simply speaking, I will not have a government agency dictate to me how far in life I will go, and how much financial support I will give to my family. In fact, I personally am of the opinion now, more than ever, that unless you have a physical or mental disability that prevents you from working, you have no business being on welfare, and thus should be ineligible for it. But this is a topic for another time, or I will write a book in this entry.
More to follow...