Ok, so I just spent the last half of my afternoon trying to figure out what the HELL I'm supposed to do with this COBRA coverage issue.
And let me tell you - NO one makes it easy...

I worked in NJ and had NJPLUS, which is essentially BlueCrossBlueShield. Now I'm in WNY, where NJPLUS has no doctors. AH! you say, there are doctors in WNY that are in BCBS though. YES! You are right!

However, BCBS of WNY told me that I had to have a "guest membership" in order to choose a physician here. Otherwise if I use a doctor here and I don't have a guest membership, it's considered "out of network."

NJ told me three, count 'em, THREE different stories.
1. It's all out of network once I move out of the state.
2. The NJPLUS plan automatically converts to Empire PPO (which is not even the same type of plan - NJPLUS is an HMO)
3. NJPLUS is still the plan, but it will be administered through Empire Direct HMO, so I should choose a doctor from their HMO list. This one seems to make the most sense, but when I called Empire, they were like, "We won't cover that - you have to call WNY BCBS"

So I spent 2 hours on and off the phone and I still have empty COBRA paperwork that HAS to be filled out or I get NOTHING (like the Seinfeld Soup Nazi but for health insurance).

You know, I would just say "fuck it" and not do any of it, but there's that "you never know" thing in the back of my head, plus I don't want to have a break in my coverage lest it cause an "issue" with preexisting condition nonsense for my new insurance...aaaarrrrggh!!!

I can't even tell you guys how INSANE this is. Though you can guess. All for 2 months of coverage before the bennies kick in at Roswell.

So tomorrow I'm calling NJ Division of Benefits to find out about the COBRA stuff, hopefully once and for all.

On a happier note, here's a photo of me and my niece (Camille, aka, "Munchkin") at her 1st birthday party (right before we moved).
She is the sweetest thing going...I miss her a lot!

So I'm sitting here in the living room of our new place playing on the computer while chico is (what are you doing?) - oh yes, collapsing boxes. My estimate is it's about 5 million boxes or so. And only 2.5 million left to unpack - hooray!!

A song just came on the TV/music channel - angel of the morning. You know this one - "just call me angel of the morning, angel..."

God, that reminds me of the 4th grade when we used to have roller skating parties. I had the hugest crush on some 6th grader with freckles and a guy in my own class - Gary Gentilucci (nice name, I know-talk about piasan). I just loved those parties because I could roller skate REAL good - backwards skate? No problemo!

To date, I have not tried roller blading, but I HAVE noticed that roller skating is kind of back in style!! YES! I gotta get me some wheels, baby!

So, if you wait around long enough and stuff comes back in style, does that mean in about 6 years those fluorescent "RELAX" and "WORLD PEACE" T shirts with big, fat hip belts are going to come back? I mean, geez, freakin' leg warmers are coming back - at least if you're a Victoria's Secret catalog model...ugh.

I better go dust off my Duran Duran tapes....

Hola estrippers!

I would like to formally report from the Sleep Inn in Amherst that chico and I have landed!!

After much nail biting (our stuff didn't fit on the truck in NJ [we wanted the bigger size and got the smaller one] so we were forced to get a second truck..), we arrived in town around midnight Monday.

Yesterday was "move all your crap into the new apartment" day. Me, chico and two friends of ours who were SO KIND to make the trip from NJ and Long Island to help us. (kudos, dudes)

We realized quickly that (1) our office desk will not fit up the stairway. OK, no prob. Picked up by a donation place - we could use a different desk anyway.

OK, but the bed - it's a queen, but doesn't have a split boxspring. In our old place, which was also an old house, we got the thing up over the balcony. In this place, no such luck....

Chico and JS tried to get it up the back stairs, and after (1) lodging it in the stairwell, (2) breaking a window trying to dislodge it, (3) making a HOLE in the wall trying to dislodge it the OTHER way and (4) sawing the f'ing thing in HALF to get it back out of the house, I SERIOUSLY needed a Valium and a moment of silence for the boxspring (jesus, the set cost a LOT of money and it's only 2 years old!). *sigh*

Always with the best laid plans - *raspberries*

the good news, tho, is that our neighbor in the house is real nice, landlord and his wife are super nice and the apartment is big and airy and light.

With apologies to Master Card...

Jettisoned Ikea desk set - $200
Sawed-in-half Fancy schmancy boxspring - $900
Meeting nice people in a new place - priceless

Lastly, I think I speak for me and chico when I say MANY THANKS! to the (e:peeps) for your advice and help about all things Buffalo.

Hope to post again soon, but it's almost time for check out!!
see ya around!

...you got time to clean!

And clean we did! Me, sistah and moms - sweating it out in the apartment. It turned out pretty great - though I think I'll have to buy a LOT more swiffers to cover all that floor space - woo hoo!

My mom got this industrial strength fan to blow around the apartment. And what's really funny is that it is REALLY strong - on low it's like an airplane...I mean look at what happened when we turned it on "medium"...



Almost blew me out the window!

By the way - we went to Romeo&Juliet's for lunch - YUM. My sister and I ate a quattro formaggio pizza with spinach and tomato and my mom had some panini with olive focaccia. It was yum-ified. Thanks for the great recommendations.

Here is another photo of me with the clock my father gave to me. It's circa 1920-30s - belonged to my great uncle. It's completely mechanical and I love it. It reminds me of my dad...



Here's a pic of my sister demonstrating how you can crap AND vomit at the same time in our little half-bathroom...


Thanks for that!

And thanks to mom and sister N. for travelling up and working hard and hanging out....
the crew, glistening with sweat, but satisfied with a half day's work:

You know it peeps!
Mom, sister and I are going to be skulking around tomorrow he he he. We're going to clean up our new apt (which is fantastically clean already, but you know, gotta put "the touch" on it and make everything smell like Simple Green..)

The drive was great - 6.25 hours with 2 stops. Probably averaged close to 70 mph - not (e:chico)'s record, but I still have time. ;-)

Our apt is HUGE. Methinks if anyone has some info about a place to get some bedroom furniture, area rugs and perhaps a nice LR chair (or 2), that would be fantastic. I'm not shopping on this trip, but it would be good info to have for when we "officially" move up next week!

Another Q for you (e:peeps) -
Where can we three go tomorrow for some lunch that would be sort of inexpensive but yummy? Doesn't have to be sit down - we were even thinking of a pizza joint if there's a good one around. We're around the park/cemetary area, so it's easy to jump on the 198 and get down to Elmwood or Delaware or wherever (I say that like I know where I'm going..HA!).

Come on (e:peeps) - gimme the food!

ps - chico is correct to say I'm 5 foot -- tho I'm the oldest sister, I am *sigh* the shortest. The 29-ish thing was pretty nice though...he he....