taking care of bidness...

i woke up this morning feeling like anxiety personified. yep. if you were to look up "stress case" in the dictionary, you'd see a picture of me at around 7:00 a.m. remember that post i put up last week about how i was going to swallow my fear and schedule those brain scans? yeah? well, i didn't do it. i'm _that_ good at making excuses. but maybe it was my dad constantly asking me, "em, did you get your neurology stuff taken care of?" or maybe it was finally getting tired of that awful feeling that my chest was in a vise grip, but this morning i decided that i couldn't put this off any longer. so today i went to my TA training class at 9:00, but afterwards i took a personal day. that's right. a personal day. if folks can do it in the real world, i can do it in the hurly-burly world of law school.

and, judgments of certain dear friends notwithstanding (and you know who you are), i'm really glad i did this, because i've been able to take care of some things that needed attention in the normal working hours, namely:

1. i have new insurance! goodbye $300/month for COBRA. hello UPMC student health plan. it's not as comprehensive as what i've had in the past, but everything i need is going to be covered and it's going to be a helluva lot more cost-effective. and the woman i talked to on the phone about the student health plan was very nice, which was more than i could say for the woman i talked to on the phone at the customer care number for my now-former insurance provider, who, among other things, suggested that i contact my, erm, employer... i wish, lady. oh, to have an employer!

2. the MRI and the EEG are now officially scheduled. the MRI is february 2nd, the EEG is february 7th.

3. if at first you don't succeed... yeah, so i cancelled the second appointment i made with the new therapist of last week (the good ol' passive agressive break-up-with-therapist technique: go through the reception desk!) and scheduled an appointment with a new one. this will be number three for me at the university counseling center. we'll see if this one can help me calm the anxious creature lurking within my brain, minus the deep breathing exercises and new age music, and without insisting that i explore my emotions...

4. spent almost two hours on the phone with the folks at dell about my computer's broken wireless. (you know how inevitably, when you call a tech support phone number, you spend a lot of time on hold while you're waiting for a live person? well, i find it gosh darn hilarious that while i was waiting and waiting and waiting, i got to hear a billion pre-recorded messages about how i could save time by going to dell.com and using their online tech support chat program. erm, i'm calling because my computer WON'T CONNECT TO THE INTERNET! how the hell is going to dell.com going to help me out? thanks, guys.*) so, long story short, i have to back up all my computer files, then call dell back and have someone walk me through the process of wiping clean my hard drive and re-installing my operating system. does anybody have any experience with this? and the really important question: those 4,280 songs i have on itunes? will my ipod transfer them back to my computer for me, once the system restoration has taken place? or will i have to manually put everything back?

oy. but that headache notwithstanding, i feel a billion times better about my life having gotten some stuff taken care of. i can do this! i can be a law student AND a normal person! good for me.

*it's kinda like how FEMA kept assuring everyone who was affected by hurricane katrina that they could apply for assistance either over the phone or on the internet... you know, since everybody had access to telephones and computers.