26 March 2011

Highs and Lows


Thursday was a ridiculously high day: I met with the course coordinator for the IU campus I will teach at the coming year to discuss classes and I'm going to get to teach some really phenomenal bits: tradebooks in the classroom (educational talk for children's literature), another assessment class, and (I am most geeked out about this one) research in language education. I essentially get to teach a class about reading research to connect with practice! It's my dream class, providing a conduit between those two seemingly separate worlds and I find myself dreaming of readings. Seriously. I'm pathetic, I know. Thursday was a high. 

Friday was a low. I made an appointment at the student health center to wrap my head around what was happening with my breathing. As in I wasn't doing it all that well. I figured this was my new head cold - I used to get them every fall and every spring but hadn't since moving to Indiana. My lungs ached, my throat was scratchy, they hurt after running. What the heck, right? Allergies, apparently. I've never had allergies in my life, so the world of inhalers and things are totally new to me. So after the PA decides that I don't have bronchitis, as this was diagnosed in the spring, but allergies. He writes me prescriptions and I go get them filled and I go to pay and find out that my student health insurance has expired. Hm. This has never happened before. As a fellowship recipient, I should receive health insurance through the end of the summer. I spent the first portion of the summer working as a graduate assistant for another professor in the department, putting together materials and helping out with teacher study groups, fulfilling my fall duties for my fellowship with a separate contract written for the spring. Apparently, those two contracts were never looked at together, so it looks like I am just teaching one class, not enough for health insurance. (It is important to note that both myself and the office manager in my department cleared the fall semester arrangement with people, so imagine my surprise when my insurance comes up as invalid!) So, the baseline frustration: I have allergies. They don't know to what yet, but I have a massive amount of prescription drugs and inhalers waiting for me upstairs in my bedroom. I do not have insurance. At least not right now. My fingers are crossed that the people in control of contracts and things are working on it. 

And today: today, I am sitting in my kitchen, drinking the last of this morning's pot of coffee and attempting to plan out what to do with my day. I need to finish taxes, accomplish some feedback, read some articles, volunteer for a play. Lots of stuff to do. Now to do it. I'm ready for an even-keel kind of day. 

2 comments:

  1. Yay! Congratulations on your classes! That's amazing. But not having health insurance is not amazing. So sorry. Hopefully the drugs do something and you feel better soon.

    I finally got around to watching 7 up and seven plus seven and I'm so anxious to watch the rest! I thought 7 up was interesting, but then when you watch the second of the series you can see these real grown people emerging. I can't wait to see if anyone can break free of their social class- not just in terms of wealth, but in the way that they think. It's great stuff.

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  2. Oh, wait until you see some of the later movies - they grow and change so much! It's insanely fascinating! Glad you like it!

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