Tell it like it is
Things have been a bit grim around here. Money is tight. So tight we are waiting for the lights to go out because we can't pay our electric bill. The pantry is empty and there's not enough change to buy a packet of ramen noodles. Okay, it's not that bad because if we cashed in our coffee can of pennies we could probably buy some ramen noodles. Rob and I weren't able to get 40 hours a week at our jobs the last couple of weeks and it's really taken a hit on the finances. I'm kicking myself now for "doing the right thing" and getting the damn car insurance that the state of Texas requires by law. Before it was a law, the rates were affordable, after it became a law the rates shot up. And that $120/month it now costs which is going to the insurance thieves would go a long way towards putting food on the table. We can't afford Rob's medication and he's gone three day's without it. Does that make him likely to stroke out any minute now? I don't know. We can hope he makes it the six days until I get paid again, but that check is going to be a small one since I've only worked about 25-30 hours a week this pay period instead of 40. I can probably hit my folks up for a loan for the medication, but that's something I'm really loathe to do since we've borrowed money from them so many times over these last few years. But this is a potentially life and death situation so I'll swallow my pride again and make the phone call tomorrow. My own health needs some attention and I was supposed to get health insurance next month at work, but it looks like I won't now because I haven't been working full-time hours and will have to wait until I work another six months in a row of full-time hours. So basically, I will never have health insurance and I've told Rob that if I have a heart attack then he needs to just let me die and not call the ambulance. Truthfully, I don't want to live if it means facing a $300,000 medical debt I will never be able to pay off. These are the kinds of choices that millions of Americans face everyday in the "land of opportunity". A land where the president laughingly tells a woman who says she works three jobs that it's "uniquely American" to work three jobs and "that's good." WHAT THE FUCK? It's "good" to have to work three jobs to make ends meet? Rob's talking about getting a second job and I'm looking at that as well as a way to keep our house and keep the lights on each month. But a part of me screams that this is insanity. We'll spend all our time working and while we might keep a roof over our heads, we won't have much of anything else in terms of a life. Now Rob is a revolutionary type, ready to overthrow the government if need be or commit crimes in the name of the greater good. If the poor of this country decided to revolt, I have no doubt that Rob would be at their side. I, on the other hand, am I pacifist. I'm much more likely to cruise down to Mexico and find me a patch of land where I can scrounge out a living rather than participate in an overthrow of the US government. And as strong as our marriage is, I don't think it could survive the loss of our house because that would put Rob on the roof with a gun shooting at the repo folk and me running for the hills. So maybe both of us working a second job for a while isn't insanity. It might just be what it takes to hold it all together.