The Clinic Saga continued

(this is a continuation of a previous post)

The woman who is sitting next to me continues to wait for her name to be called. She's huffing and puffing and checking her watch. She approaches the receptionist saying, "I just need to see the doctor for a moment. I have to go pick up my kids by 6pm or the day care charges me extra." I'm thinking that she's in a much worse situation than me, so I'm not too upset when they call her in before me.... even though I know my appointment was higher in the queue.

I can hear the conversation going on behind the desk. The woman is saying that her bottom lip is totally numb, and the nurse is telling her that she is having a terrible allergic reaction and should have gone to the ER.

Finally they call my name and I'm a taken into an exam room where the nurse takes my vitals.

It's only about 5 minutes before the doctor comes in.

DR: Tell me what has been going on.

SBE: Well I've been wheezing and coughing an awful lot. It seems like it's been going on for weeks.

DR: (listens to my chest with her stethoscope) Yes, you are wheezing, you have bronchitis. Do you have any family history of bronchitis or asthma?

SBE: No, but do you think it could be caused by allergies? Because it seems like it only happens when I'm at home. Do you think it could be my cats? (I've been doing my own internet research. We poor folk often have to self diagnose if we can't afford to go to the doctor)

DR: Yes, it could be your cats. You should get rid of them.

OBVIOUSLY this woman does not have any pets and if she does, I feel sorry for the poor little creatures. If anyone knows me they know how INSANE-in-love I am with my cats and they would never even THINK of suggesting this. It is equivalent to someone saying a mother should put her children up for adoption. At this point I'm ready to burst into tears. I didn't want to cry in front of everyone so I managed to keep some sort of composure until I got home.

She writes three Rx's - amoxicillin, and two different inhalers. And as she's doing so, she's asking me if I will come back to this clinic after I get my insurance (I had briefly mentioned getting new job, etc). It makes sense that when people who have good insurance go to a clinic like this, it helps their patients who don't have insurance. I understand that. But do I really want to screw around with this sort of thing???? This is my health and my body we are talking about here. Not to mention the emotional stress of visiting the clinic.

I feel for those people, I really do. I feel like I have been one of them. It hasn't been as hard for me because I don't have kids to deal with, and Steve and I know that if we ever have any kind of real huge problem, our parents are stable enough to back us up. A lot of people don't have that kind of insurance. They have nothing.

But I feel like I deserve the right to go to a doctor's office that is clean and private, where medical professionals aren't too stressed to be compassionate. The doc says she wants to see me again in one week. "Okay," I say. I hope I never set foot in the clinic again, unless it's to donate money to them (if I were THAT well off....)

As I'm writing my check for the doctor's fee the paramedics are there picking up the swollen lip lady. "What else was on the pizza?" they're asking her as they wheel her out on a stretcher.

Now I have my inhalers that will hopefully get me by until I can see my new Dr.... who will hopefully refer me to an allergist, and never suggest giving my children up for adoption. I already feel much better after one day. It's a whole different world when you can finally breathe.

The Health Clinic Blues

Last night I went to the poor people's health clinic. My insurance doesn't kick in until December 1st and I have been coughing and wheezing for WEEKS possibly months... so I decided I couldn't wait any longer. I made an appointment, which lead to one of the most depressing evenings I've had in a long time.

I had planned my entire day around this appointment. I drove to work, got there early, left work early... and arrived at the clinic about 5 mins before my appointment. I had been there before.

I ended up waiting 1.25 hours just to get into the exam room. Someone in the office had really bad B.O. There were several small children from various families running around making noise. I couldn't get any knitting done... no concentration. (I wished I had my headphones..... would that have been rude?) It was like an extended El ride, only people kept getting on. Hardly anyone walked out the door the whole time I was in the waiting room. No one had any sense of personal volume.

A middle aged mother and her daughter, who was about my age, walked into the clinic when I was parking. They were waiting just as long as myself. The daughter went up to the receptionist several times (who was constantly on the phone - not making personal calls, I'm sure, but was very busy) to explain her situation. Apparently the mother did not speak English and the daughter had to be there with her to translate, or maybe also as her transportation. All they wanted was the mother's mammogram results but the daughter had to be in class at 5pm... they were there well after 5. I thought, "Oh God, how terrible to receive your mammogram results in a place like this.... especially if it was bad news...."

Another family came in through the door - a mother, father, and son who was about 9 or 10. None of them spoke English.... I couldn't believe that the son didn't know any. It seems like even if he went to a school where Spanish was the main language (not surprising for Chicago) they would at least have English as a subject.... who knows. Anyway, there was only one nurse who spoke Spanish. She spoke with the father for a moment just behind the counter. I think they were trying to find out how much something cost.... not sure. (Maybe I should brush up on my one year of HS Spanish :) The father came out and spoke with the mother. (At least the child was well behaved in this family. He wasn't maniacally bouncing off the walls like the others.) Then he had to consult the nurse again. He waltzed off behind reception and knocked on the exam room where the nurse was in with a patient!!! I saw all of this going on through the glass window of the reception desk. I saw him turn the handle of the door! There is NO privacy in this place! It's insane!

At this point I'm very close to just walking out the door and cutting my losses.

I waited.....

An obviously teenage girl comes through the front door with her freakin' 5 month old baby! The baby was very cute but this was ABSURD. This girl was probably 16.... I was disgusted - not necessarily at her, but at the situation.



Another woman comes through the door. She has an appointment, but she's after me in the queue.... she sits down... and waits....

to be continued...

Cardigan City

The first half of fall I spent lots of my knitting time working on a couple different cardigans. This is my first Baby Surprise Jacket and I LOVED the pattern! It's so awesome. For this one I used 2 different colors of sublime. I call this one Tavis's first cashmere sweater. It's for my cousin's baby due in about a week. I wanted him to have something fancy-shmancy.

I gave it to Zach & Niph recently and they liked it a lot. Of course it won't fit Tavis until he's almost a year or so.... maybe 9 months. But that's okay. It's nice to have something to grow into - especially cashmere! Now, it's not totally cashmere - it's blended with merino. Still I know it isn't practical, but it's not meant to be a practical gift.

I took these photos on a very nice October day in someone else's garden - tee hee!

A detail shot of the colors and buttons

I was so pleased with the way the first one turned out that I made a second BSJ and I'm not saying who this one is for! It's a SURPRISE.... just in case they read my blog... but if they DID read my blog they would probably know right away....

Anyway, I used Noro Silk Garden Lite and I forgot what the color was called. Maybe it was just a dye lot number. Yeah it was. And I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE the buttons I chose for this one. In the first photo I hadn't sewn them on yet, but the second is a detail shot. Surprisingly, I bought them at Hancock. I was in a pinch and I just had to spend some time looking. There they were!

Now, the third sweater is one that I made up myself, for myself. I really like it. There are a lot of things that just "happened" while I was making it. I didn't have a ton of expectations. A majority of the sweater is made by picking up stitches. I'm not completely happy with it so I want to play around with the pattern a little bit more. So maybe in a year I'll have another version...

It has one big oblong button to hold it together in front. Oh, and the yarn is some strange rayon blend that I purchased on big spools from Midwest Discount Yarn. I doubt if I will ever be able to tell what it's really made of or find any more of it. The next edition may be constructed of something entirely different.

I added some yarn overs to the edge to make it feel a little prettier.

Well I'm off to bed..... sitting at a desk all day really is exhausting.

More tomorrow on my christmas stocking dilemmas.

Pop Quiz

This photo represents a part of my first day at work. Is this:

a.) Me, yawning, exhausted from the time change.

b.) Me performing an operetta as an expression of my joy and gratitude for this new job.

c.) Singer with a Glove by Degas

d.) Me expressing my frustrations to the woman in HR... and maybe, just maybe, I'm making that gesture where my hand comes out backwards from under my chin. (Is that an Italian thing?)

e.) All of the above

So yeah, the first day was "no big whoop". Maybe I did feel a little bit like ant in an ant farm. Maybe I liked the feeling. Except I didn't like the part where I came home in the dark. That was no fun. But I DID like the part where I waited for Steve and we rode two trains and a bus home together! AND he changed his schedule so that we start and stop at the same time everyday so we ALWAYS ride two trains and bus together.... isn't that sweet???? He told his supervisor that he didn't want me to come home and have to start cooking dinner without him every day. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

I had a fantastic four day weekend. George and Mary came to visit us, mostly to take the motorcycle back to Cinci for some work, but they also agreed to spend some time with us. But only if we played Wii, they said!

Steve is coaching them in tennis

In addition to all the Wii, we had a fake Thanksgiving potluck for Julie's bday! YUM. We were all in pain for the rest of the evening. That's how good it was. Everything was delicious. I should have photo'd the 10 lb chocolate pie.

George and I set up a website for him to post all kinds of family history info and details of their trip to Greece (who knows, maybe we'll actually get to go someday!) http://www.nyktas.com/ Nothing is really on there yet....

And on Sunday, Steve and I walked in the park. How nice.

Recently, Monkey and I had a photoshoot - *I* took pictures of *her*, not vice versa. She couldn't figure out how to work the camera.... something about thumbs.

Anyway, if you want to see more cute photos of my beautiful Monkey (and I know you ALL do) go to my Picasa web album.

Girl Day

Yesterday I had the day off. It's part of my long weekend before I have to go to a REAL job.

The night before was slightly chaotic. I hosted Stich n Bitch and consumed large quantities of spicy indian food, brie, goat cheese, cookies, and beer. If that isn't a recipe for disaster in my stomach, I don't know what is!

On top of that I noticed the basement had flooded just before my guests arrived.

Sleeping that night was restless. I couldn't stop thinking about the basement and my soaking wet storage space, my new job, knitting projects, etc.... I threw up the concoction I had ingested for dinner. Phew.... I needed a relaxing day.

Enter Brittany - my former neighbor and currently-unemployed, good friend. We spent the morning and afternoon by taking a walk along the lakefront with the sunshine floating down through colorful leaves, having tea, going to the hardware store, and the running store - we even went to the MALL and ate lunch at Ruby Tuesdays - ha! Normally I wouldn't be caught dead at Ruby Tuesdays but it was all part of the mall experience. Anyway it was a great time. I needed girlfriend time.

By the time I was home the hot water was turned back on.... oh yeah, did I mention we were without hot water for almost 24 hours??...... hence the flood.

I was able to clean out my storage space and not much was ruined. My luggage was dry, thank god. I re-packed everything and put it up on cinder blocks this time. So if it ever happens again - I'M READY!

After dinner Steve and I did some more studio/guest room cleaning so his dad will have a place to sleep this weekend. In short, I had a fun day AND I was productive! Whoa!

Tonight I'm being taken to see Phantom of the Opera, as it just opened this week in Chicago for a short run. Courtesy of my other friend and former neighbor, Sumi. Wow I DO have good friends. I'm so thankful for that.

Do I hear sleigh bells?????

On Wednesday I hosted a "Halloween" Stitch n Bitch at my house... or shall we call it Stitch and WITCH??? Anyway, it was fun. I didn't get much knitting done, just a lot of eating. Plus I helped Erin with her costume for a chunk of the evening.

Is it too early to be thinking about christmas??????

Maybe it's because we aren't travelling on Christmas or Christmas Eve, or maybe it's because we are spending our first christmas at home together with Monkey and Elvis, but I'm REALLY excited for christmas this year!

I went to Hancock Fabrics to get cheap yarn to make stockings for the four us (and possibly one for turtle.) I got really chunky yarn so hopefully they will knit up fast. And if I start now, I can stagger them in with other projects.

Just hear those sleigh bells jinglin' ring ting tinglin' too....

Halloween Transformations

Today is Halloween, so first of all, happy spooky fun and safe Halloween to you and yours. On Sunday we started watching all of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. One per day. Elvis was inspired to dress as Freddy Krueger today. Monkey decided she didn't need a costume since she is already a black cat, so here there are, all ready for trick or treating.

Another big event: today was my last day as an underpaid artist's assistant! Woo hoo! I'm taking a long weekend and then I get to start my new grown-up job with decent pay and benefits. I think I have waited long enough for this. All those months of not being able to do all of the things that normal people should be entitled to.... it has really made me appreciate everything. And all of the help we received from our parents when things went wrong - we definitely would not have made it without that. Plus now that I know how to live on a tight budget it's SAVE SAVE SAVE for a house or a wedding or a trip or pay off student loans... something to that effect.

In honor of Halloween AND my last day at Judy Lichtenstein Designs we had a FEAST. We ordered falafel from Cafe Orchid. Laura, who is awesome and is taking over my job, made these lovely cupcakes (see below), and I made SNICKERDOODLES!

You may also have noticed some changes to my blog. In the beginning I thought I would have two blogs: one for the day to day, and one for knitting. But then I realized that knitting is day to day for me... plus everyone else has co-mingled their general blog entries with knitting blog entries so why can't I? Sarah Sue Magoo, will remain a knit only blog, but you will see Knit-Talk on the beeline blog as well... just a head's up...



I found this photo online. This isn't Rosie but this what I think Rosie should be for Halloween. SOOO CUTE!

It Really Is Fall!

Gone are the days like these - of open windows in our apartment. It finally feels like fall. All of the leaves are turning and falling. The past few days have been really pleasant with highs around 60, but some of the nights are downright chilly - especially before the heat came on last weekend.

I've been doing a lot of cooking, too. I've made apple crumble, turkey meatloaf, mashed sweet potatoes, Steve cooked a pork loin (not all in the same day, though) and tonight we had spaghetti squash with pesto and sundried tomatoes. Tomorrow I'm going to make snickerdoodles!!!

I'm still able to get in some bike riding these days. This is the milk crate I snagged as a boot to put all of my things in.... except it's important to make sure that the knitting needles are pointing toward the back, so they don't poke me in the rear whilst riding.... has happened a couple of times.

Now for some cat pictures! This is Elvis and Monkey checking their email.....

This is a bed that we bought for them... called the mysterious kuddler.... however I've yet to find out why it's so mysterious. Maybe it's because I've only seen Monkey in it twice and once Elvis got in but that's only because he was playing with something in it. They always seem to take a while to warm up to things we buy for them.

Almost every weekend has some home improvement time involved. This is just one of our new ikea shelves, i.e. cat cubicles. No really - it now houses my records and my yarn and knitting supplies.

We also put up new blinds and curtains in the living room. Eeeekk! Look at that couch! I wish this were only it's Halloween costume. I know I know - I'm getting on that cover thing. I promise!!!! I have 2 days off this week which I hope to devote some time to covering the couch.

MCA SNB

I think Kristen said it best when she posted her entry, so I'm just going to be lazy and quote her:

She's got the biggest, balls of them all!

...to quote a fabulous old AC/DC song....oh, am I dating myself???

The MCA (Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art) hosts a Stitch N Bitch "party" (as they call it, not us) once a month free every 3rd Tuesday. Tonight Sarah & I met there and hung out for about an hour or so knitting with some new peeps and having a beer.

There was a local artist, Pate Conaway, who knits with gigantic needles and gigantic cotton "yarn"...it was pretty entertaining to see....very cool. We were total dorks and took our picture with him to post on our knitting blog...

Wow, as Sarah put it, "we're knitting groupies"....I could just die....

check out the eyeball wallpaper.... that s***t creeps me out, man.

Annie's Song

Our final trip in August took us to Colorado Springs where my dear friend Annie Miller (now Easterling) was married and asked me to be a part of the ceremony.

We had a fabulous time and it's always great to catch up with the Miller family, who were my second family in high school.... even though Pam and I chat regularly online! We're knitting buddies, of course.

I'm so happy for Annie and Josh. They are a perfect pair: best friends and partners in life. Everytime I look at the photos I find myself tearing up again.

These are just some of the highlights, but the rest can be seen by clicking here.

This is my "hand-colored" photo. I love taking wedding photos.

Getting ready for the ceremony

Lacey, Annie, and Pam

the kiss!

Steve in the Garden of the Gods

a mountain goat

a rattlesnake

I love digital photography!

Time Travelling

There were several weeks after we moved when I didn't have time to blog. Had I found the time, I would have posted these photos from some of our August trips.

First, we rode the megabus to Minneapolis for a long weekend. We stayed at Bryce's house. This is his cat, Koffi, peeking out of the screen door.

Here is Tulip snuggling in her bed.

We also attended Dawn and Dave's wedding.

This is Dawn in her wedding gown. Click here to see more Minneapolis photos

I had a lot of free knitting time that weekend so this is the progress I made on my cardigan. This is one of the first things I've designed myself from complete scratch. It's not based on any type of pattern, just my own measurements. A lot of the time I will take a pattern, and change the yarn completely (requiring a lot of math) and add some other embellishments. I just hate making something that looks exactly like the photo in the pattern.

Well, the cardigan is finished, and I had Steve photograph me wearing it yesterday so more on that soon!

officially dinks

That's right! Steve and I are officially dinks - dual income no kids. Northwestern has asked me to become a part of their Digital Media Services team, specifically working in the Visual Media Collection scanning and retouching images such as the one you see here. Who knew Manet could create such beautiful etchings of Monkey and Elvis!?!

Now that I will be earning a normal living like a normal person (i.e. above the poverty level) I will be able to afford luxuries such as: saving money, possibly flying on an airplane, sleeping in a real bed, buying myself an article of clothing at Salvation Army or maybe even Target. Woo hoo! Target clothes - we are moving up in this world.

Weekend Shmeekend

We all had high hopes for this weekend. The coral reef openend, my mom and sister were coming into town to see it and maybe we would do a little shopping. Bryce and Christy were also in town for a wedding so we were able to play wii and eat indian food. Then it all went down the tubes. My poor mom had a migraine Saturday morning that was not responding to any medication even after I called her doc at home to send a Rx over to my local walgreens for more meds. I was late picking my sister up from the train and the bathroom radiator was spewing hot water and steam (Steve took care of that). After retreiving Catherine from Union Station we spent much of the afternoon in the ER with Mom. They fixed her up... but she was still very groggy for the remainder of the evening. Steve and Catherine and I had sushi and watched movies.

Today I thought we would finally make it down to the reef but it didn't happen. I think Mom just needed to go home.

I'm exhausted but the highlight of the weekend was definitely a free ticket to see Jersey Boys this evening!!!! THANKS SUMI! It was such a great show and I definitely have a better appreciation for Franki Valli and the Four Seasons. Guess what? Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio were in the audience, and went up on stage and the end. (It was press night) Very fun!

I think I may actually get to ride my bike a little this week.

Hyperbolic Coral Reef opening reception

Well, the Crochet Coral Reef project is coming to a close. And the opening reception is TONIGHT at the cultural center from 6-8 with a lecture at 5:30. The events will take place on the second floor in the Chicago Rooms.

Even though the exhibition is up, there will be workshops going on Thursdays at noon for the duration of the show. October 13th to December 16th.

This photo is of one of the double-stitch twins (http://www.doublestitchwear.com/) I think this is Erika... stitching together part of the Chicago Reef.

You can see more of my photos by going to my picasa album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahbellis27/CoralReef

There is also more information about the project on the following websites:
http://www.chicagoculturalcenter.org/
http://www.theiff.org/
www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/

This is a photo of one of the artists who are contributing to the show: Inga Hamilton. Her blog can be found at: http://www.rockpoolcandy.typepad.com/

Hope to see you there!

Procrastination Station

So I should be unpacking..... but I wanted to chill while I had my morning cup o' joe. Try it!

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™