my mother did a nice thing: she paid off (well, almost paid off) my one and only active credit card. this thing was about to take the turn of all my other bills - it was already suspended and over limit by $200 (late and over limit fees). though they had put us in their collection department yet, we knew it was coming. mother cleared all but the most recent late and over limit fees and this was a good thing, and not just because of collections avoidance. although i don't want to run the thing all the way back up again, we haven't been able to get saxy's drivers license reissued because he needs a physical since he has a passenger endorsement. the man has no insurance and physicals were looking way beyond out means to pay. now we can.
i've also considered getting a REALLY cheap car and using the credit to get one of us out of state to look for a job in a place that actually has jobs. the car thing might be taken care of with our tax return, assuming the people who sued us don't take all of it as i'm sure they have something giving them first dibs on the money. more than likely, the credit card doesn't have enough for a cheap car that actually works. as for the going out of state, there's a risk of stranding whoever goes without money, without job, and no way home. not sure i really want to risk that with the way our luck has been lately.
and then i got to thinking. i've been wanting my m.a. just for that possibility that it will help me get a job. i originally wanted an m.f.a. because that's a terminal degree, but all the low residency (required with my family situation) m.f.a. programs are literary and i don't do literary. i am a genre writer and proud of it. i've pretty much given up the possibility though because i would have to pay for airfare and the residency in advance and, seriously, if we don't have enough money for a physical, we certainly don't have enough for a plane ticket or 2 week residency. however, with this card paid up, we could actually afford those things. it was actually a dilemma for me because, as i said earlier, i really don't want to run the card up, but this would be my one chance at the degree.
but it looks like instead of getting me started on my m.a., which would be much more pleasant, i will need to go to the dentist instead. i had this filling fall out a long time ago (at least a couple of years) and it looks like the sucker is finally giving me trouble. and even if the pain in my mouth is related to my headaches or the result of a bruised gum, i really should get the hole in my head refilled. if it's not the source of the pain in my mouth now, it eventually will be. and i suppose i should be thankful it didnlt start giving me trouble when there was no way to pay to take care of it.
but did i mention that i also have no dental insurance?
linnorm, with the blessing of his medical insurance provider (until he remarries, anyway), has me included in his family plan for medical. so, i can get my physicals, refill my meds, and all that general physical stuff, and payment is minimal. i could even have surgery, if it were needed, and pay very little out of pocket costs. however, i am not on the vision or the dental plan, so i have to pay in full for new glasses and any dental work. as you can imagine, i hang onto my glasses until i am near blind and haven't seen a dentist in years. the real trick will be convincing the dentist to just take care of the one hole. no x-rays, no other fillings. a cleaning, maybe, depends on the cost.
i'm really beginning to think the masters degree just isn't meant to be, at least not right now. but there's really no help for it. sometime in the next week i need to get the name and phone number of the dentist linnorm takes the kiddles to and call. maybe i'll be lucky and it won't cost that much.