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Not an INDependent Contractor

Ugh...waiting to get paid is no fun.  The bills pile up, the family has to be fed and it really is frustrating to not get paid when I expect to be paid.  I told my hub last night that I am not an Independent Contractor...I am a DEPENDENT contractor.  No doubt about it.  I still am relying on a company to pay me for work I do daily, diligently, like a true blue loyal employee...but I am not even that (an employee).  I get no paid holidays, no paid sick days, vacation....health insurance benefits....none of that.  I hate when my sister talks about her 3 week paid vacations or is she up to 4?!  I try not to be jealous but sometimes it is tough.  I read an article today on the Internet about folks who are called 'silent millionaires'.  These are ordinary people possibly living next door who have a net worth either with real estate or investments or a combination of both... of $ 1 Million dollars or more.  The secret?  Investing...no matter what. 

But I have a hard time investing when there are so many bills and debts.  How do I justify putting $100/month or more into an asset account, while I'm still paying interest that is higher than what I could make on a 'safe' investment. Although I try to watch where the 'other' money goes and you can ask my family...and know that I do...I am going to really try to concentrate on debts this year and not rack up any new debt.  This is going to be hard with one in college and one learning how to drive soon.

So I have my fingers crossed that I will get paid tomorrow.   At least the weather has been beautiful today and I took some time to play with the dogs...stopped and looked up at the sky and said "At least this beautiful day is FREE. Thank you God" ! 

 

 

Happy Valentines Day!

I'm not going to write a ton right now because it is a work day. But I am ahead today which makes sense because when I'm not off on another tangent I can get work done at a steady clip.  Lately I've been on the hunt for a new female sheltie puppy and that has been a distraction.  We thought we were going to see one last evening down in Austin but turns out the owner's wife was also talking to a Diane from my area and they thought it was the same person. That Diane was already planning on seeing the available female yesterday afternoon - so by that point I knew that was that!

I just remembered that my own dog groomer has shelties and had mentioned hers was pregnant last time I had the dogs groomed. Since they were due for an appt. anyway I called her. Made the appointment but also to my glee she DID have puppies that were 2 weeks old now...and had one remaining available female. We looked at them last night and we are definitely getting her.  She's even letting me bring her home for an hour or so when she is 4+ wks old, just to get used to us gradually. I thought that was really nice of her.  She didn't need a deposit -which I thought was nice too.  I would have loved to take her other female because she was a blue merle...more rare and very pretty markings. But ours is a cutie too. No definite name yet but we are thinking of Tika or Teka (offshoot from Teko - the foster we had for only 4 days).  Here's a pic that the owner sent me today. Isn't she cute?  Well back to work. Happy V day everyone!

TGIF again

Well this week has dragged for me, must be because except for one really nice day the weather has been pretty crappy. I want my normal Texas weather back!!  I got a jump start on work today so I thought I'd take a break and write an entry (even though i still need to get dressed for the day).  :)

We did buy that  95 Honda Civic for Stacey from the nice couple who went to UT and are by now back in Thailand. It is the same model year and color as mine so it looks sort of funny to see two practically identical cars in the driveway.  That one has a spoiler though and is a 2 door so there is a slight different.

I thought the couple that we bought the car from both got undergraduate degrees but he got a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and I forget what she got hers in, but she just earned her Masters!  I did ask him if they'd miss the US and he said they will certainly miss all the conveniences we have here, but they are very traditional and are going back to be with family (and seem to be okay with that).  While we were waiting at the title transfer place we were chatting and that is when I found that out.  It was really interesting talking with someone from another country. He said we should visit Thailand because the US Dollar is worth so much more there!  I asked if we could stay with them and he said "Absolutely"! He probably actually would but I don't see us ever going to Thailand.  I don't even know when our next vacation anywhere will be since we love our dogs and my hub doesn't like the idea of kennels.  This man did say that in his family his father determines what careers the children pursue. They don't get to chose their own career paths...I thought that was really interesting.  He said he would have rather done something else...like in the business management field.  He was actually thinking of Purdue for his PhD and so was interested to know that is where I went.

Other than that...life goes on.  As I typically do every week or even every few days lately, I've been looking at our finances or lack thereof. I am looking into a debt consolidation loan and hope that it gets approved.  It is a decent rate and would be a 5 year term, so if it goes through that will be most of our outstanding credit card debt. It will be an installment loan like a car payment and not just keep adding on new interest like the credit cards do.  This would make me feel a little better about the state of our situation. :)   It would help out since I still don't have any part-time other work going on.  Of course I could go knocking on doors with my lia sophia but that is just not me and it never will be. 

Well off to get on with my day..

Mammogram Overkill

I have to wonder just how many women get unnecessary mammograms?  I've had some scares already in my 49 short years and frankly am somewhat hesitant about believing that the high technology today is so wonderful! 

Last week when I got a phone call about coming back in, it was to get another mammogram of my left breast.  I asked why as my right one was the one previously diagnosed with micro calcifications after which having a botched up needle biopsy, appear to not be an issue any longer.  The reason given to me was that there was a shadow seen on the left one and that it may just have been the way it was taken (such as overlapping tissue or some such thing).  They wanted me to come back this week!  Okay, the heart started pounding and I was thinking "Oh no, I may have cancer".  It doesn't matter how lightly the pleasant folks on the other end of the phone put it, you are being called BACK and that can't be a good thing.  I was told that they would take a core mammogram of my left breast and then set up an appointment for an ultrasound in case they determined that I needed to have that done after that. 

No matter how much I tried to reassure myself nothing was there as I didn't feel any kind of lump or anything unusual, it wasn't tucked very far in my mind for the next week. 

When I arrived today I was told they were going to take a bilateral of each breast and then two of the left again.  I challenged the technician because I was told I would only need the left one done.  I have learned to not just trust anyone wearing a white lab coat and why should I subject myself to more radiation and a higher non-covered portion of the bill that was surely going to be given to me - mistake or not.  Turns out I was right and just the left breast was subjected to the sqwishing and pain.  

Luckily I didn't have to wait very long when she called me back in to the hallway.  She told me that my left upper breast was more dense than the right one when I had my mammogram, which I guessing was a more dense shadow and so they wanted to take a closer look at the left one and when they did, there was nothing suspicious there.  I'm guessing the density got thinned out by the new film taking and so I didn't need an ultrasound and could call the nurse later if I wanted to have the official report (but she had heard the radiologist reading the films and that is what he said).

Later I decided to call and got a nurse who although was extremely nice, was skirting my questions.  She was explaining how if they had seen something I would have needed an ultrasound to explore it further, but they did not need to.  I guess she was waiting for me to say "Well that's great news, thanks" and hang up.  But I wanted to know more than that.  I asked if my left breast then showed that it was more dense than the one they took a year ago?  She couldn't really answer me.  She just said the left had more density than the right and so again I said "So it was more dense that last year's mammo".  Her response was "It must have been".  

Well sorry but that is crap.  I have no solid proof that the radiologist first compared this year's mammo's to the ones done a year ago (as a diagnostic mammo no less).  For all I know just this year's were viewed and since the left didn't match the right one in density, another one was ordered.  Hmm...so they could just go ahead and cause me the extra worry, time away from work, traffic headaches, radiation exposure and medical expense that they can line their pockets with? 

Don't get me wrong.  I am completely ecstatic that I don't have breast cancer!  But I would have been happier getting a form letter that nothing was found.  I just wonder how many other women go through needless second mammograms on a daily basis.  I'm sure some of those turn out to be actual findings that do need to be diagnosed and treated. I'm just wondering of all the ones that truely have something for the poor woman in the xray machine to worry about, how many are needlessly adding gray hair, stress, anxiety and worry onto someone who already has enough to worry about with the caring of home and family!

Quik update

Well good news!  I had my follow up mammogram and it turned out fine.  There was nothing there in the dense area that they took a closer image of.  I am very grateful for that but at the same time am just wondering about mammogram overkill.  Think I write some more later on or maybe even shortly as my work is at a standstill (system problems).

It took me  a lot longer to get down to my appointment because of being on the main highway and it being rush hour.  What I thought would take me 40 minutes, took me an hour.  I tried to phone the office but they don't answer phones until 8:00am. My appt. was at 7:30am.  How dumb is that?  They also have a 4 digit code for getting into their special parking area. Well I didn't have that with me and thought I would be able to get it via calling as well. I thought I was 'saved' when the recording mentioned a phone # for 'the back office'...but that one kept ringing and ringing.  I got to the parking lot and sat there for a minute wondering if I should just proceed to the pay by the hour parking lot a block ahead.  That would put me even later!  Luckily a nice man in a small cart (guessing maintenance man) was exiting the area and I jumped out of my car to see if he could give me the code.  He just let me in himself so I was glad! 

I ran to the office and was pretty much out of breath by the time I got there and was apologizing, but the girl said it was fine. I was the first appointment of the day and wasn't holding anything up.  Well that was nice to know.  And then as I said, my prayers (and anyone else who was praying for me) were answered.