This week's playlist...

I am a huge lover of music and its beautiful possibilities. I've always turned to music to help put me in the right mood...or get me out of a bad one. It's a distraction and a muse at the same time. Just in the mood for somethin' a little different, here's a few songs on my playlist this week. What's on yours??


"If I Die Young" by The Band Perry

If I die young,
Bury me in satin.
Lay me down on a bed of roses.
Sink me in the river at dawn;
Send me away with the words of a love song.
The sharp knife of a short life.



"Like a G6" Far East Movement

Poppin' bottles in the ice,
Like a blizzard.
When we drink, we do it right, gettin' slizzard
Sippin' sizzurp in my ride, in my ride, like Three 6
Now I'm feelin' so fly like a G6.



"Misery" Maroon 5

I am in misery.
There aint nobody who can comfort me, oh yea.
Why won't you answer me?
The silence is slowly killing me
Girl, you really got me bad,
You really got me bad.
And I'm gonna get you back,
I'm gonna get you back.

Why do you do what you do to me?
(BTW check out this music video, this lady just beats the crap out of Adam Levine for 3 minutes, it's pretty hilarious)



"New Perspective" Panic at the Disco

Stop there,
And let me correct it.
I wanna live a life from a new perspective.
You come along because I love your face,
And I'll admire your expensive taste.

Who cares?
Divine intervention.
I wanna be praised from a new perspective.
But leaving now would be a good idea;
So catch me up on getting out of here.



"The Only Exception" Paramore

I've got a tight grip on reality,
But I can't let go of what's a part of me here.
I know you're leaving in the morning.
When you wake up,
Leave me with some kind of proof it's not a dream.

Darling, you are the only exception.
You are the only exception.
And I'm on my way to believing.



<3 Have a beautiful week
Amanda :-)

Thursday ramblings

Okay I have two very important discussion topics this evening. One, The Inbetweeners and how BRILLIANT of a show it is. And second, mosquito bites. Yea I never promised they would be related at all or make any sense whatsoever. Deal with it.

If you live in the UK or are an Anglophile like me, you know about The Inbetweeners. I'm in love with this show


It's the fictional chronicle of 4 friends at college (AKA high school plus 2) who are not quite outcasts but definitely not popular. Hence, they are "in between" the two social worlds. They are embarrassingly uncool which makes for terrific comedy. Plus the fact that British television is pretty cool with colorful language and subject matter, which I particularly enjoy. It's not uncommon (particularly on this program) to hear the F-Bomb dropped on national television or see someone's pale English ass on the tube. *ahem* I mean "arse"

The reason why this program has been on my mind is because I've been watching personal marathons of it on my laptop for days and finally got to see the new series release. I can't get this show out of my head, it's so entertaining. Plus I think that they are really relate-able characters. Everyone can identify with that feeling of not quite fitting in. Even now, I'm a grown lady now and I still feel like an "inbetweener" at times--never knowing if I'm saying the right thing or walking around with my skirt tucked into my underoos.

Plus it doesn't hurt that I think I have a massive crush on the actor who plays Simon Bird...

Oh baby, oh baby...yes, please! :D


Alright so as for my second topic, mosquito bites...
Picture this. I was minding my own business tonight, laying on the couch watching TV. Apparently a mosquito, trapped and starving in the house, took it upon himself to have a late night snack. Within a span of about 1 minute, it attacked my forehead, elbow, and leg. I saw the damn thing trying to feast on my leg through my hosiery. Stupid idiot. In any event, now I have 4 welts on my body. Before you see this insane pic, I should warn you that my body is slightly more allergic to mosquito bites that normal:


What the hell, mosquito?!
How am I gonna go to work like this...I look like I'm trying to grow a horn. :-/

This reminds me of the time that Kieran and I took a road trip and I got bitten to hell and back in Savannah, Georgia. Those suckers went to town on my legs. I was red and swollen and the only relief was sweet sweet Benadryl. Oh mama, that's good shit. Hmm...wonder if I've still got some reserves in the medicine cabinet.

:D

August is the season of celebration in Worthing!

Hi, folks!
Back from my trip to England and totally bummed. Why do the months/weeks/days/hours drag on for aggeesss when Kieran and I are apart and then as soon as we're together it flies by like a flash of lightning? Not fair!

The trip was brilliant. First of all, the air in the South of England is delicious. Maybe it's my imagination, but I feel like the air along the Channel seaside can cure any illness or negative mood. And because of the rain and moist air, everything is so green all the time. I know England gets a bad reputation for being gray and rainy but the gray and rain helps the green grass and beautiful flowers to flourish all year long! It's beautiful. :-)





We spent the whole weekend celebrating, it was excellent! Saturday night was Nan and Grandad London's 50th wedding anniversary celebration. Nan, grandad, aunt Debbie, aunt Kathleen, and Michelle came down from London and we all went out for dinner and drinks to celebrate. Somewhere between the celebratory champagne and the pint of Becks after last call, I got embarrassingly drunk. No one can hold their booze better than the English and I just couldn't compete. At the time it seemed like a good idea to try out my best English accent...very loudly exclaiming 'ELLO!!!

Shockingly, I woke up on Sunday without a hangover...I'm telling you, that sea air must be magical!! Sunday was our engagement BBQ, which was beautifully planned and catered by Sue, Kevin, and Madaleine. They really gave us a delicious and perfect party in the back garden. The weather cooperated...on and off...and there were loads of good friends and family.






Needless to say, between partays, going out, long walks on the beach, and generally being sickeningly in love---not much actual wedding planning got done. Except Kieran's mom gave me a really cool wedding planning book and file folder to help keep me organized...at least it's on the right track! However, I did order my "save the date" magnets and they are super sweet. Hopefully they will come in the mail next week :)

I also got the templates of the invitations in the mail when I got home. I like them but I think it needs a little DIY touch to make it pop. I'm still unsure. Gotta run it by the MoH tonight to get her opinion.

Finally last night I got a rough guest list from Kieran and my mom and went over numbers. Things look okay at the moment. Except the fact that I originally guesstimated needing about 20 hotel rooms and now it's more like 40! So mom and I are gonna go see another hotel options this afternoon and hopefully we can do room blocks at 2 places.

Holy Moley....so many plans, so little time. 7 months this week!!

I know the planning sucks ass and I never want to plan a wedding again, but I can't even wait for the wedding. It's gonna be such a blasty and I can't wait to start our lives together...and actually BE TOGETHER.

Looking forward to going back to England for Christmas/New Years. I hope Kieran will be able to come over here for Thanksgiving and Kim's wedding, but we'll see what happens with the fiance visa. Still pending at the moment...jerkheads. I just hate this distance :-(

Alright folks, wedding stuff with mom this afternoon and then pow-wowing with the MoH this evening.

A BIG THANK YOU to the Todds, Baxters, Grims, and the friends/family of the English posse...for the brilliant party, your words of support/congratulations, and your love. I'm already homesick for England! Roll on, December

<3

I'M BACK!

Goodness me, I have been a super slacker with blogging. My bad. No worries, though! I am back at it again. For your reading pleasure...

Work has been great, no complaints there. Definitely a breath of fresh air to work in a positive environment. Meanwhile, over the past few weeks I've been hearing about my co-workers at my former job dropping out of the office like flies--pursuing better work environments, too! I'm really pleased to hear it, I'm glad people are looking out for themselves and telling our old boss to shove it.

I'm enjoying interacting with the clients and their families. Among other roles, social workers are often consulted to problem solve. I really love that part of the job--putting the puzzle pieces together to bring about an ideal outcome.

I've been bustin' my butt over the past week to get ahead of all my work cause I'M GOING TO ENGLAND (more on that in a moment). Of course all my clients decide to discharge at the same exact time I'm going to be out of town. How dare they! :-)

So yes, I am going to England for a week, starting tomorrow! Woot! Excited to see the fiance and his family. We're gonna be celebrating two special events over the weekend--his nan and granddad's 50th wedding anniversary (WOW) and our engagement. It's gonna be so fun, I'm looking forward to it. I haven't seen Kieran since we got engaged in June! lame! Maybe we can get some wise, sound marriage advice from them! I'm sure they can let us in on the awesome, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I can't even imagine turning 50 years old, let alone celebrating a 50th anniversary. That's heart-warming stuff.

Wedding planning hit the ground running since I booked my location but now it's stalled and I dunno what to do to jump start it again!! So far I've taken care of the following:
1) Date and Venue
2) Colors
3) Bridal party
4) THE DRESS...MY LOVERRRR
5) Designed and ordered my "Save the date" magnets
6) In the process of designing the invitations
7) Submitted my immigration crap

Now I'm stuck. I dunno what to do next. Do I do the food? Or flowers? What about room blocks and wedding registry? BLAHHHH. My head is spinning and I can't quite get my feet planted firmly. Meanwhile, TheKnot.com keeps sending me daily emails with the subject lines like: "8 disastrous things that can happen at your reception" Dudes, are you for real? Cut that shit out, you're giving me a nervous tick.

The other day Kieran said to me, "So what do you wanna do when you're over here?" thinking that I had big fun plans. Sorry, lovey, we're doing the wedding registry, the guest lists, and browsing for suits. Bwahahah!! he cannot escape when I'm there! This shit is hard and he ain't getting off so easy :-D

This past weekend, I took a much needed mental vacation at the beach with my two best girlfriends--my Maid of Honor, Erica and my bridesmaid, Rachel.

Aren't they adorable?! I love these girls. We had a fantastic and exhausting time! I feel like the richest person in the world to have love in my life and friends who know how to make me laugh. I'm not ready to talk about how much I'm gonna miss these gals when I hop the pond!! :(

Alrighty, it's already 10:15pm and I still haven't packed!!!! Gotta run for now. Will update when I get home from England.

All my love,
Amanda :-)
xXxXxXx <----that's how the English express their love via the internets

Pining for the NHS!

Alright, so here's my current deal--I don't have health insurance. I don't get employment-based benefits because my current job is a temporary position. So I applied for COBRA and private insurance WELL in advance to make sure I'd be covered. And yet I am still fucked. Shocker.

Basically right now I am stuck. I sent in my COBRA paperwork almost a month ago and haven't heard a damn thing. Lord only knows if it got misplaced and it's floating around in federal government paperwork hell somewhere. Not to mention that it's gonna cost me $350 per month to keep so I am really hoping that the private insurance comes through.

Well imagine my surprise when I get a letter from the private insurance company on Friday evening (of course, when you can't call anyone) saying they can't cover me cause I have a pre-existing condition. Are you shitting me, devil company? How's about you go into your little computer of doom and see how YOU IDIOTS WERE COVERING ME FOR THE EXACT SAME ISSUE LESS THAN 2 YEARS AGO! Not to mention that I've been covered by your sorry company in some way shape or form since I was a goddamn fetus!

So I have been trying to channel my anger into crafting a logical and well-documented appeal. I'm trying not to be a crazy person and call those idiots. But then I get this email from them today:

Dear Amanda,

Thank you for your interest in health insurance coverage from DEVIL, INC. According to our records, you were mailed a package explaining the plan we offered you, along with the necessary explanations and forms. However, we have not received the completed forms.
If you are still interested in coverage from DEVIL, INC., you must return these forms within the next 15 days.

uhhh...once again...ARE YOU SHITTING ME?! I got your damn "offer" 2 business days ago. You are hanging on my last nerve, DEVIL, INC!!!

As I started to craft an angry reply email, I realized two things: 1) It's unlikely anyone will read this; and 2) If someone does read this I am gonna look like a total loon which won't help my appeal.

So I decided to replicate my dream reply email here on the blog to vent my frustrations in supportive environment. Perhaps others who have dealt with this bullshit can relate. I am hoping, at the very least, that getting this out will supress my anger enough so I can actually sleep.


Dear DEVIL, INC--

Thanks for the shout out! I appreciate your reminder of my recent denial. You're so thoughtful like that. I hope you're milking this whole "denial for pre-existing condition" thing before it's illegal in 3 years. How's that working out for you? I totally get that your boss is probably on your ass about meeting the yearly quota for denying folks for life-sustaining treatments and putting your hard-working friends and neighbors into debilitating debt. Sounds like a tough job! My boss can be a hard-ass, too. bwah bwah

So anyways, FUCK YOU AND YOUR 15 DAYS. Omigosh, I'm so sorry--that's my pre-existing condition acting up again. It makes me unable to filter my opinions.

Hey so remember that time when you covered me for the exact same condition like 2 years ago? Hey, that was fun! Maybe you could just do again for me---ya know, for old time's sake. And remember how my family and I have been loyal customers since the 1970's despite your asinine premiums? Well that was fun while it lasted, I suppose. I always knew you'd be a fickle friend. My mother warned me about you.

Don't you worry your deformed little head, DEVIL, INC! My appeal is on its way to you. Considering I am going to spend more than 48 hours putting it together, I think you'll be pleased that my appeal will be well thought-out and documented. I know you're anxious to receive it, DEVIL, INC--it's like waiting to open Christmas pressies!! It's so hard, I know! Time just seems to pass so slowly when you're sending out threatening letters and emails all day. That must be so hard for you!!! Are you working hard or hardly working, buddy? har har!

Anywho, you're an asshole as usual and I enjoy our love-hate relationship as much as the next American. I hope you'll consider covering me for my EXISTING condition which was KNOWN TO YOU ALL ALONG. That would be super.

Fortunately, we will only have to deal with one another for the next 9 months, as I am leaving your sorry ass for a system that won't rape my bank account. I know it hurts, babe. But I'm sure you'll be fine. You'll just find a poor old lady to harass or an infant to deny--just for shits and giggles. You will soon forget me.

I look forward to the displeasure of putting up with you for the next 9 months or so. Oh and by the way, when you get my letter, you have 7 business days to respond. Good luck!

Loveless always,
Amanda


Okay, I admit I feel a little better.

To all American Belles in England--give me the real scoop on the NHS. Can health care really be free and quality at the same time?


Whilst you mull that question over, check out this cartoon I found on Google