My Savior!

Back when we lived in the land of dirt and wind, they had these places known as "fast-food" restaurants. They were so very convenient, and in fact almost a little too convenient as it sure increased the Fat population. But I learned to live on this "fast-food", as did my uber-fast metabolism.

Fast forward a few months.

The fast-food scene is scarce out here in the land of snow. There are a few places scattered here and there, but nothing feels as convenient as I've grown accustomed to. What they do have an abundance of out here are Dairy Queens. Those seem to be everywhere. Thankfully, they now serve all sorts of food instead of the olden days of simply being an ice cream joint.

Behold the FLAMETHROWER!

Do you hear the angels singing? This little number will single-handedly save me whenever I find myself showing signs of hunger. It took me two months to find, but by golly I found it!

Thank you, DQ. Thank you.

Drugs are bad, mmkay?

This is what we are always told. But I'm not only talking about the ones you get on the street, because those damn prescriptions will get you, too! Even if the drug is doing you a world of good, unless your medical insurance kicks ass, you're gonna get your ass kicked.

Back in the day when I was still employed in California, I was a life-long member of Kaiser Permanente. I bitched and moaned whenever their rates or co-pays would go up, but all in all I figured I was getting a pretty sweet deal. Now I understand just how sweet that deal really was.

Exhibit A - A two-month supply of Prozac from Kaiser. I suffer from minor depression from time to time, but I mostly take it to deal with anxiety. Total cost? Ten dollars.

Exhibit B - A one-month supply of Prozac from Medco. I was ecstatic when I found out my prescription from Kaiser was still valid and I wouldn't need to see a new doctor to get a new prescription. Unfortunately my excitement didn't last long as my jaw hit the floor when it came time to pay. Total cost? Fifty dollars!

So there you have it. With Kaiser, my happy drugs were costing me about five cents a pill. And now, with Medco, they are 84 cents a pill. That's super weak.

I think the moral of the story is this: if you have anxiety as a result of worrying about being able to pay for the pills that are supposed to cure your anxiety, why take them at all? I'll tell you why. Because it's super bad for your brain to just stop taking them, that's why!

They've got me by the gonads.

A huge dose of Minnesota.

Today I crossed the line. Today I may have become a Minnesotan. I was awoken this morning by the buzzing of my cell phone. It was my good friend Dot. "We're going sledding. You in?" Heck yeah I was! I had never been sledding and I knew it was something everyone kept saying I had to do. There was only one problem: I didn't have all of the necessary clothes to have as much fun as possible.

It turns out we had to stop by Target to try and buy a sled. We decided to look for the things that I was missing. I already owned a pair of snowboarding pants, so I was almost set in the "below the waste" department. What I didn't have was a waterproof jacket and snow boots. We've been living in MN for two months now and I have gotten by pretty a-okay with just my Converse. Today was the day that I wouldn't. And get this: none of the stores that we visited had boots. None of them! But I did find a great jacket at Target for only $25 so at least I was set in that department.

By the end of our sledding fun, my hands and feet were FROZEN. It turns out I needed waterproof gloves as well. What did I think of sledding? For the most part it was awesome. It's a little bit painful on the ol' tail bone, but a little extra padding in the sled would help with that. I was wearing three pairs of pants and I still hit a few painful bumps. Oh, and for whatever reason I didn't bring my scarf today so my beard was quite icy by the time we were finished.

Next came the hot drinks to thaw out our frozen toes. Mint hot chocolate, yum!

Now, at this point we had two options. One was to go home and play video games. The other was to finally get me some hockey skates so we could hit the ice. Guess what we did? $43 later, I had a NEW pair of hockey skates. Add on some $20 boots and I'm set for the next round of sledding!

We went to two different ice skating rinks, but because it was Sunday the lights had been turned off early. Psh, lights. Who needs lights? We hit that ice in the dark and shredded it up for a good two hours. It was awesome! That was the first time I have ever ice skated outside, let alone played ice hockey. Growing up in California, the only ice skating I ever did was at the local mall with my Grandpa, and that was only a couple times as a wee child. As for hockey, I spent a few middle-school years playing roller hockey with friends. It's definitely not the same as being out on the ice. I'm already looking forward to round two!

So there you have it. A big ol' slap to the face from Minnesota. Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am!

Meeting People, Making Friends

Two months later and here we are: still cold but living a-okay. I've met a lot of good people over the past 60 days and I thought I'd share the list with you. I'm only going to put their initials (both if I can remember everyone's last names), and only for the people I've seen enough to get that friend vibe from. Let's do this.

AB, AH, AY
BB
JA, JR, J
KF, KM, KM
LM
MM, M
NS
PM
TJ

I think that's about all I can remember so far. But hey, that's way more than I expected so early on in this new chapter of my life, so I'm completely happy about it. Thanks for letting me get to know you! =)