the lawyer advised me to apply on my own because she thinks that as long as my pdoc’s and therapist’s reports comprehensively support why i qualify for disability, she doesn’t think i’ll need a lawyer. she said to expect to be denied, then appeal (timely), then appeal again if i have to. if i’m denied a third time, then i’ll have to go to a hearing, and that’s when she said to retain a lawyer. otherwise, she didn’t want to take our money unnecessarily. go figure. clearly, she did not go to the same law school as Alan Shore.

the first thing i need to do is call the Social Security office and ask if i need to come in to apply, or if i can do it by phone. the lawyer said that i will need the exact dates of my hospitalizations these past two years, and that there will be a ton of paperwork. all this sounds overwhelming to me, but it can’t be any more difficult than getting grad school application matierals together. right?

See more progress on: apply for disability

Friday Fun

1. Are you a coffee or tea hound?  If so, what is your favorite everyday poison?
   coffee
2. Are you a Starbucks fan, or another brand?
   *sigh* Starbucks
3. If you are a coffee drinker, brewed or instant?  If you prefer tea, loose or bagged?
   brewed
4. What is your average daily intake?
   most recently, one grande decaf, nonfat, pumpkin spice latte with whipped a day

since Hee Seop already removed half of his pain patch himself, i called the vet’s office.  having morphine enter your system through your skin is one thing, but chewing on a morphine patch is another.  they instructed me to remove it–once i managed to wrestle him down.  i thought about putting it on that one tight spot on my back, but i’d have to use duct tape to keep it on because the adhesive’s covered in fur.  so i just flushed it down the toilet like they told me to do.

i’m thinking of doing NaNoWriMo this year, even though i’m not a fiction writer, though Alchera Project #38, which i just completed (such as it is) is fiction.  but i’ve had such a hard time writing for the past couple of years, and this might help.

you have to write a 50,000-word novel (obviously, it doesn’t have to be the Greatest American) from November 1-30, 2005.  not before, not after, but during the month of November.  you can write outlines and make notes and stuff, which of course i don’t have, but the actual prose writing takes place next month.  the only goal is to reach 50,000 words.

should i bother?  i thought that working on the various Alchera Projects would get me jump started, but it hasn’t, really.  well, unless you count writing something halfway coherent the night before it’s due.

part of my problem is self-editing and revising as i go.  this seems to me like a giant freewriting exercise, and that could be a good thing for me.  in the past, i’ve even typed with my eyes closed so i don’t dwell on diction, syntax, and grammar.  wouldn’t that be something?  write a 50,000-word novel with your eyes shut.

decisions, decisions.