I'm not gonna lie. This new freelance writer lifestyle of mine (or "Dream Month", as I call it) is pretty, pretty, pretty nice. Right now, for instance, I'm working on my blog, sipping an Irish Cream on the rocks, safe and warm in the bay window of my beautiful living room in Columbia Heights, watching the rain spit and drizzle on the other side of the window. Yup, my friends, this is, indeed the good life.
But it isn't all booze and blogging. I had some business to attend to today. The business of living. 401K and health insurance kind of business. First, I called the company that manages the 401K that I started with my previous employer. I asked if I could just leave my 401K where it is until I have a better idea of what to do with it in the future. The person on the phone said that was just fine. So good, 401K taken care of. For now.
The next task to deal with was the future of my health insurance. I have health insurance through my previous employer for the next three days. But starting May 1st, that insurance ends. I looked into COBRA-ing my current health insurance, but that would cost well over $500 per month. Na-ah. Not gonna happen.
So this left me with the Obamacare plan that I signed-up for on March 31st, back when I knew that I was going to quit soon. Through Obamacare, I signed up for the cheapest health and dental plans that I could find on the market. So I have a Kaiser Permanente plan with the highest deductible possible, because it's the smallest monthly payment. But my new health and dental insurance haven't been activated yet. I had to upload my "Certificate of Naturalization" to the DC Health Link website to prove my American citizenship. And I had to send off my payments for my new health and dental insurance programs. I wrote out the checks, put stamps on the envelopes, and dropped the letters in the mailbox. Hopefully all of this crazy and confusing paperwork will be over with, and I will be a fully-insured human being.
Dry-cleaning (at least for my boyfriend) is another part of the business of living. So, this afternoon, in another attempt to be a helpful and supportive girlfriend, I went by myself to the dry cleaner's to pick-up Eric's shirts. I knew that a major storm was heading towards DC, and Eric wouldn't be mad at me if I didn't go, but I was still determined to get his shirts.
I left the house and threw-out a bag of garbage into the dumpster around the corner from us (to be helpful and thoughtful). I mailed those checks for my health and dental insurance. I cashed my last pay-check (yup, the LAST pay-check), and I popped into Target for some shampoo and hand soap (boring "business of living" kind of things). I wondered if I had the strength to carry my bag of Target goods and pick-up Eric's shirts from the dry cleaner's, all before the rain arrived.
And it turned out, yes, I could do all of those things. I pretty much power-walked to the dry cleaner's with my bag of Target goods. Then I picked-up Eric's nine shirts and managed to power-walk all the way back home. I could feel my back start to hurt. I could feel the rain start to drop. But I made it home!
So there you have it. Even during a "Dream Month," there are still mundane tasks that need to be accomplished. Cleaning, laundry, health insurance, etc. It's not glamorous, but it still needs to happen.
I will now take the next ten minutes to do the most unglamorous thing in the world. I would like to sit still for ten minutes, in silence, with my eyes closed, and just focus on my heart beat. I promised myself that I would do tons of yoga and meditation during this "Dream Month," and while I've managed to meditate most days, I haven't even started on the yoga yet. Maybe tomorrow. That would be nice.
More fun things tomorrow. For instance, I'm seriously craving chocolate-covered strawberries. So I may go hunt down some of those tomorrow. We'll see where the day goes. But I kind of like that I don't know where the day will go. I'm up for anything right now.
Friends, I will now leave you with a YouTube video that I loved watching when I loved in London. It's a fan video for the song "Good Life" by the band OneRepublic. I love this song, I love the message, and in the case of this video, I love the footage of London. You can't see it if you're reading this on an iPhone or iPad, so I recommend going home and watching this on your laptop.
I hope you all have a lovely evening, and a very, very, very good life, indeed.
-Leila
P.S. Ever wondered what it felt like to be a 20-something in a group house in DC in the year 2010? Well, now you too can feel like one of the housemates by watching all 10 episodes of the "Sherman House Webisodes" (for free!) at www.shwebisodes.com.
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