lora | kathleen

With the arrival of my Peace Corps medical packet two weeks ago, I’ve been scrambling to figure out where I’ll get my physical and lab work done.

Why? I am one of the 50 million Americans without health insurance.

I believe people have a lot of misconceptions about those without health insurance, whatever the reason. I am a young, hard-working American who happens to be employed as a contractor (by an American corporation) making too much money for low-income health services and too little money to be able to afford decent health coverage.

On the same note, I’m lucky that I’m young and healthy enough to have no current issues. I discovered what I thought was my health insurance is emergency only coverage, and less than a week after applying for individual health insurance I was approved starting June 1. And I know that I am very lucky.

The coverage isn’t great, but it’s good enough for the next 5 months. My doctor’s visits will still be expensive, but I won’t be in medical debt for the rest of my life over it.  Unfortunately others don’t have that choice.

I don’t want to get up on my soapbox, but I’m just saddened by the priorities of our society. We’d rather support and fund the corporations we rely on to take care of us, but blame the individual when the system fails them.

Sigh.

via threecirclez

I feel as though I am going 2,000 different directions. And it’s starting to stress me out.

I wanted to write about all the things that stressed me out last (including my dog chewing up my brand new, just arrived in the mail yesterday The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau), but I had some time to chill out and decided instead to simply write about the things I’m thankful for.

• Pleasant, cool weather (in May!)
• Sitting on the balcony with my puppy and a glass of wine
• My AWESOME new business cards from Moo.com (printed on ecofriendly/100% recycled paper)
• Closing another credit card
• Apprendre le français
• The thunderstorm this morning!

via simplescrapper.com

I have asked the universe and prayed for patience for a very long time. I don’t remember when I started asking for it, but up until recently I’d given up that I ever learn it.

That is, until in NYC, I didn’t stress about being (very) late to our Sunday in the park. Or in Miami, when things didn’t go as planned and I was able to roll with the punches. Or on the flight home, when we had to turn around less than 60 miles from our destination because of storms and I didn’t arrive until over 6 hours later on a typically 45 minute flight.

Okay, well on that last one I finally snapped after we sat on the tarmac for about 45 minutes at our destination and my cell phone battery died. Getting angry at a cell phone seems a little silly now, but hey, I was one very tired and hungry human.

So clearly my patience is still a work in progress, but I realize that I’m capable of having it. I know it will be great to have in my future endeavors!

Do you have a trait that you consider your “work in progress”?

Miami Beach

When asked how things are going, I have several friends who reply, “Living the dream, just living the dream.”  It’s always seemed to be a bit of a joke, that you’re living your dream but not quite the dream you’d envisioned…

I woke up yesterday morning to this amazing view of the ocean off my hotel balcony in Miami.  The wifi unfortunately doesn’t reach out there well enough to access my work place VPN, but I’ve been able to take a few coffee breaks and enjoy the amazing view.

I feel so fortunate to be in a place that gives me the opportunity to sit on a balcony overlooking the ocean on a random Wednesday in May. Flight included.  While considering that, I was struck by the fact that I am actually living my dream of travelling for work and seeing the world. Maybe not quite in the way I envisioned it, but the dream all the same.

As I work toward where I actually want to be, I felt content with the here and now.

After all, I’m living the dream.

via pinterest

I love to travel. Last weekend I was in NYC, this week will be in Miami, travelling home this coming weekend and then I have a few weeks off before I get started again with Orlando and Portland.

I’m excited this week to be visiting Miami for the first time.  Pretty much everything I know about Miami comes courtesy of Burn Notice and CSI: Miami. We have a great venue on the beach so I’m optimistic we’ll have pretty views from the windows of our training room.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

(image via pinterest)