{"id":6555,"date":"2010-08-11T21:41:33","date_gmt":"2010-08-12T04:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/?p=6555"},"modified":"2010-08-11T21:50:38","modified_gmt":"2010-08-12T04:50:38","slug":"totally-worth-the-sucky-health-insurance-stress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/2010\/08\/11\/totally-worth-the-sucky-health-insurance-stress\/","title":{"rendered":"Totally worth the sucky health insurance stress."},"content":{"rendered":"

We take the kids to school, together, on most mornings.\u00c2\u00a0 We have breakfast or lunch together a few times a week.\u00c2\u00a0 On many days, we pick the kids up together, too.\u00c2\u00a0 We play games a few times a week and sit down to the same table for dinner.\u00c2\u00a0 In the edges, there are a lot of trading: dinner duties, one of us at the cafe working early morning hours or into the night.\u00c2\u00a0 There are things that we could do better, but that’s how it goes — we’re always working on being better.<\/p>\n

We didn’t get to this place because we planned it.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not even exactly sure how it all happened.\u00c2\u00a0 We took a lot of risks; life is a lot of ups and downs.\u00c2\u00a0 Job insecurity.\u00c2\u00a0 Liquidation of savings.\u00c2\u00a0 Inability to plan in advance.\u00c2\u00a0 More than a year of repeated denials for health care.\u00c2\u00a0 Uncertainty.\u00c2\u00a0 Working crazy hours, on different schedules, for weeks at a time.<\/p>\n

But being in this crazy place is the best thing in our lives.\u00c2\u00a0 The thing for which we’re the most proud.\u00c2\u00a0 We have time with our kids, flexibility in our lives, and fulfilling careers.\u00c2\u00a0 Both of us.\u00c2\u00a0 On our own terms.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not that we just got here — it’s what we do everyday.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s never been about working to a point or reaching a goal, it’s about living right now and doing it the best way that we can.\u00c2\u00a0 Somehow, the rest just manages to work out.<\/p>\n

My new job is less risk and more defined, but has the common hallmarks of something that fits me: it’s flexible, has many opportunities that can go in whatever direction I take them, and involves domestic and international projects.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s got an “interim” prefix for now, as I didn’t apply for it and have to go through a formal process of Provost approval and interviews before the role begins straight off with the Director title.\u00c2\u00a0 Plus, since I’m officially a student until the PhD diploma is in my hand, I have wait until December before getting to the next step.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is perfect as it means I can try things out for awhile to see how everything fits.\u00c2\u00a0 Meanwhile, it puts me into a supportive academic school Uptown, within biking distance through some of the prettiest parts of our city, where I can sit in my corner office on the top floor and see the bell tower, gracious oaks, and green quad of the main campus.\u00c2\u00a0 One of my colleagues is completing the site visits to the African continent, which will allow me to focus on fall travel to Belize and India.\u00c2\u00a0 The India trip will be more extensive.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ll all go, visiting with friends and staying for Diwali, the Indian festival of lights.<\/p>\n

It’s very, very exciting — and right now, as I transition from one position into another (and get my defense draft through committee for a September defense), very, very busy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We take the kids to school, together, on most mornings.\u00c2\u00a0 We have breakfast or lunch together a few times a week.\u00c2\u00a0 On many days, we pick the kids up together, too.\u00c2\u00a0 We play games a few times a week and sit down to the same table for dinner.\u00c2\u00a0 In the edges, there are a lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6555"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6555"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6559,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6555\/revisions\/6559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}