2001-12-20
Thursday before Christmas, posted at 2:48 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I am so ready for the break from school. The kids are crazy and the teachers are too. We come back to school on Jan. 2 - never before have I experienced such a short break. I know it sounds whiny because most folks get less time off than teachers, but still... I feel like we should have gone until Wednesday this week, or had all the way off until Monday, Jan. 7 off. Instead, they gave us the smallest amount of time off as possible. And we haven't had one off-day all year so far. Ugh.Whine, whine, whine.
I have had a decent week in the classroom, however. I pulled together a nice mini-lesson introducing the Jazz Age and F. Scott Fitzgerald, introducing The Great Gatsby so my sophomores could read the book during break. I finished off Their Eyes Were Watching God with a flourish, conducting a group work assignment that went really well and then giving a long, tough, but educational essay test yesterday. The only blemish was all the kids who complained about the test. I gave them the exact questions they would have on the essay test, and told them to prepare... but that I wasn't requiring them to prepare. Unsurprisingly, not many prepared. Which I expected. But they were bitching and moaning and asking for clarification, despite the fact that they had almost a week to prepare with the exact question in hand. I finally had to take a girl's test and rip it up because she wouldn't stop bitching and complaining and disturbing others despite many warnings. She's a bright girl, but a little bitch - one of my worst. I haven't decided if I'm going to approach her about doing a makeup assignment or not. I think I'm going to wait for her to come and apologize - if she really cares about it, she will. I've tried many times all year to get a hold of her parents, to no avail. She needs a major attitude adjustment.
Today has been a pretty chill day. Kids are completing their TEWWG portfolios, and I gave them most of the class to get them done. Others who came better prepared are doing extra credit. The kids are acting pretty good.
My 2nd ankle sprain has healed pretty quickly, or at least it's pretty much back to the point it was before the 2nd sprain - maybe just a bit more painful now. Hopefully it'll be all healed up by New Years or so. It's so freaking annoying.
What it also made me realize is that HMOs suck. I don't think I've written in here yet how much I am disappointed with the brief meetings I've had so far with my doctor. But I am. I simply plugged into their website and figured out the closest doctor to my house. I went in for a checkup at the start of December, and I just wasn't impressed with the guy. Not to sound mean or anything, but he was old... and overweight... and I just feel like a doctor should be the picture of health. The guy breathed hard through the whole thing, like he was struggling for air. I want a young, fit, preferably male doctor who will give me health advice that I feel like I should follow, one who works out and stuff. One that doesn't make me think, "Physician, Heal Thyself!", as Margaret Cho says on Drunk With Power. Again, I know this sounds mean, but I feel like I should have a doctor I'm confident in, and who instill confidence in myself.
Also, last year - my first visit to a doctor for a check-up since 1991 - the doctor seemed a lot more interested in what I had to say. He talked to me. Asked me about both my physical and mental health. Just in general a really nice guy, who gave me good health advice. That's what I want. This new guy was nice, but we're from different generations - he graduated from med school in 1968. That makes him, what, 60 or so? He also weighed at least 275 lbs. And all of his other patients seem to be really old.
Anyhow, my insurance (Optimum Choice, an HMO) requires me to go to him for a referral before I can go anywhere. Therefore, when I sprained my ankle, I had to go over there, hop up the steep steps while in intense pain, then wait in the waiting room for 45 minutes, looking at old people who have appointments on Wednesday mornings. Then, I went in there, he spent about 2 minutes looking at my ankle (with shoe on), wrote something on his chart, and sent me to get my x-ray. Which is exactly what I knew I needed already. If I were back home, my mother could have called up my family doctor and said, "Dr. Allen, my son has twisted his ankle and needs a referral" and we would have gotten one over the phone. Seems the reasonable thing to do. Not with this guy. Of course, my mother is a nurse and knows the three doctors who are in my hometown very well. But Still. It seems like it should be easier. There's no way in hell that I should have been hopping two blocks in the cold up steep steps with no crutches to have someone tell me I need an x-ray.
I need to figure out how to find a good doctor. I wish there was a website reviewing them or something.
So, anyhow, I've pretty much decided that I'm going to break down and pay the $25 per paycheck next year to have Medicaire. I figured that since I'm young and generally a healthy guy, that I could get by on an HMO, but, gosh, it's just so freaking annoying. And I heard I can go to things like a chiropractor or sports doctors with Medicaire, and I've never been to either and that would be cool. Unfortunately, you can only sign up in October, so I've got to wait until then.
Tonight, I'm heading out to Target and the mall to do some Christmas shopping, finishing up items for my family before I head back to Michigan on Saturday. Jason and I are getting a wheel-behind bike stroller for Jake and Anne, which runs $99 for the cheapest one (the one that can't double as a stroller). I figure I'll buy it and tape the receipt on the inside of the box in an envelope, and tell them if they want to take it back to upgrade then we won't be offended. It was meant to be their baby shower gift, but we were too broke at the time and couldn't even make it to it for whatever reason. Now it's a combination Christmas/baby present. Besides, it's not something they could have used when Aurora was a newborn, anyway. She was born the first week of August. They probably won't be able to use it for quite a few more months.
Tomorrow's payday will be nice. We will be given the retroactive 5% raise from our year's paychecks added onto our checks this Friday, and that'll be a nice $500 or so chunk of money. As much as my colleagues and I complain about our job and our lack of a true break this year, it is awfully nice that they've planned for our bonus/raise to come into effect right before Christmas.