by on April 3, 2009

Megan Joy Gone and My Season Analysis

Megan Joy goes home! Yay!What was up with Megan Joy Wednesday night? She repeatedly smiled and waved when her name was mentioned as being on the chopping block called “the bottom three,” did that ridiculous crow sound as she flew to the chairs, and was totally fine with going home when she got the axe. Who is okay with going home from American Idol!? Something personal or show-related is behind that strange behavior, and I hope that crow call and flapping was her “hidden talent” from some “get to know your fellow Idols” evening they had in the mansion.

I suspect she’s got some kind of separation anxiety, fear of failure, or a twisted fear of success. She hadn’t used her unique voice for about a month and was bordering on self-sabotage on a weekly basis. What started as endearing became the most annoying parts of each week, aside from Simon and Paula acting like 2nd graders.

On another note, Lady GaGa–how in the world does someone who comes up with a routine/act like get any positive attention? The music wasn’t that bad, so I can understand how the iTunes sales are good, but the routine was atrocious! If I was a paying concert-goer, I’d be looking for some way to get my money back, because I would have to look at my feet or keep my eyes shut to enjoy the music because her wardrobe, hair, piano, dancing, and the stupid leather zipper eye patch was too much.

Filed Under: American Idol Tagged With: , ,
by on April 3, 2009

Bounce! Not Just a Book, a Way of Life

One day at the beginning of February I committed myself to finish Bounce! by Barry J. Moltz because I had to–I’d just been fired. At the time I didn’t think anyone could relate more to his opening chapter than I did because it was as if my story was being told, except the names were changed to protect the innocent. There I was: 30 years old, married just two years, stuck with a brand new mortgage, and kicked to the curb with one month of severance pay to get on my own two feet… if only I could even comprehend what had happened.

I had failed. Failed as an employee (I guess), failed as a husband, and failed as a member of society. I was down in the dumps and later learned that I met more than enough criteria to be diagnosed with “major depression.” The eternal optimist, I started working on projects I had been dabbling on late into the night for friends and clients the very next day. I listened to the book every day, and with each shower, my business confidence grew and seemingly washed away old concerns.

There are so many good “take-aways” from Bounce! that this would be an article rather than a review to go over everything that impacted our life through the experiences and wisdom Barry poured into these pages. Here are the best bits that directly affected my day-to-day life after failure and my increasing confidence:

  • Failure is not always your fault. Sometimes things just happen out of your control and there is nothing you could do to prevent, prepare for, or postpone every failure. People move, die, cheat. Companies fold, merge, and take you out. Failure will happen to everyone at some point.
  • [Read more…]
Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: , , , ,
by on April 1, 2009

Our Little COBRA Insurance Nightmare

We’ve been up a mountain, into a trench, and back again since last evening when my gorgeous reminded me that she was going to write all of our checks for stuff due that we don’t do online. For whatever reason I suddenly remembered that the rates for our COBRA were going up for the April payment and did one of my quick freak-outs because I had no idea where that paper was any more. Baby did, of course, so I went and got it from the filing cabinet.

Then the night got really bad.

Before I even got downstairs I remembered the day we got this paper and I wanted to check off a couple of boxes and send it right back because it was actually the open-enrollment form for the next year of coverage. To NOT send it back was to NOT elect for coverage. We had a lot of crap going on at the time… like losing my job!… so we didn’t do it that night. Or the next. Or the next. Soon the paper got shuffled from one place to another to be filed in our drawer to know what the new check amount needed to be.

Fast-forward again to last night. I’m sitting there in complete and utter shock that our insurance was going to end in 6 hours. The company was moving COBRA to an outside vendor and had needed the form by February 25th and I knew right there that we were up a creek without a paddle because it couldn’t just be an inside oversight thing to let us continue. A call in the morning confirmed just that, too.

After 4 hours of calling this person and that and e-mailing and working myself into a tizzy and down into a depression over and over again, the benefits person did confirm that the Aetna sales department was correct that we are eleigible for HIPAA portability/conversion because we didn’t lapse due to non-payment but because of non-signing up and I had an e-mail copy of our certificate of continual coverage 10 minutes later.

I made a quick call to Aetna again to confirm that the deductible and out-of-pocket maximums listed on the plan would be the smaller number applied to my care if my non-sicky sick wife wasn’t making claims. That is the case, so our expenditures will mostly be premiums, and I can tell you we’re getting a lot back in taxes again this year with those costs.

Thankfully, ever so thankfully, even if I was hospitalized we could cover the deductible and the out-of-pocket for the entire ordeal and just pay the premiums and any copays for the rest of the year without having to decide whether to eat or get medical care. So long as this is as automatic of an application as it appears from the forms and from the sales department, we are going to be just fine.

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: , , , , ,
by on April 1, 2009

American Idol Season 8 Top 9 Post-Show

Last night was another “hot or not” night for the singers. It has been quite a while since there has been such a black and white contrast between the “in” crowd and the obvious eventual losers.

On the “HAWT” list last night: Adam Lambert, Kris Allen, Allison Iraheta, and Danny Gokey. This is the time of year that David Cook started to make a name for himself last season, and I think Kris Allen is doing the same thing. Don’t get too excited, though, because Adam Lambert could mop the floor with David Cook, so Kris doesn’t stand a chance. Allison, does… maybe.

The “losers” who are digging themselves deeper were: Anoop Desai, Megan Joy, Scott MacIntyre, and Lil Rounds. I’m sorry, but Scott “They just told me five minutes ago that my pants are pink” MacIntyre is going home tonight. Blind will only get you so many votes for so long when you have to listen to his crap of late. The person going home is definitely in that group, but my money would be on Scott if I were a gambling man.

Filed Under: American Idol Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
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