Another day, another fired story on delay. I know, I know, but this I promise you (shout out to all the *NSYNC fans out there), I will post my fired story sometime next week regardless of how it is. Whether I like it or I don’t. Whether I think it’s art or shit, it’s going up sometime next week so I can get it over with. Sounds like a plan?
Good.
In the meantime and in between time, I thought I’d catch you up on what I’ve been up to since I got fired a couple months ago. Well, the first thing I did, the very same day I got fired, was make an appointment to see the dentist. I had a 25 year old crown that popped off when I was flossing back in June of last year. I’d been meaning to see the dentist since I got insurance at this job back in October of 2022. I finally got up the nerve to go in December, but one of the dentist’s I saw was out of network and would have charged me around $1,000 to get my crown replaced, so you know I didn’t go to him – he was really nice though.
The next dentist I went to was not as nice, and emphatically stated I needed a root canal. However the first dentist, the nice one, told me it may or may not be a possibility, he wouldn’t know until he began working on the tooth.
So I left that dentist without any work done, and was apprehensive about returning until May, when I had my trip to San Francisco planned. I was hoping to have that gaping black hole in my tooth fixed before then. But to be honest, other than it being unsightly when I open my mouth, because I do be opening my mouth big when I talk, when I laugh, and it’s only like the third molar back, so I’m sure everyone can see it – it didn’t bother me. As a matter of fact, after my crown came off, I kinda liked the feeling of not having a fake tooth in my mouth. I liked the feel of my real tooth being there even though about two thirds of it was gone on the surface.
Anyway, in May I was like I’m going on vacation, let me address this hole in my tooth. This time I went searching for a holistic dentist – I think that’s what you call them. I made an appointment with one that I thought was in network, only to get there and find out that he wasn’t. He too wasn’t very friendly, but he could have been the nicest dentist in the world and I wasn’t about to fork over thousands of dollars to him.
After that, I just put it off again, and then I got fired and that let a fire under my ass to get a new crown. I got fired August 2nd, my benefits lasted till August 31st. I called the dentist that very same day, and was in his chair August 3rd. This dentist was in network. The crown ended up costing me about $500 out of pocket. I’m happy with the results and I didn’t need a root canal!
Same thing with my glasses. I also needed to use it or loose it with my benefits, so I went and got my eyes examined and got a new prescription for glasses. I’ve had my current glasses since 2014. I ended up ordering a pair of clear-framed Ray-Ban’s with gold lining. I’d been into clear frames for a minute now, but, once the glasses arrived in the mail (I bought them online) I wasn’t so into them anymore. Not to mention, I added extras light the blue-light shield which was like $80, and all it was was like a yellow tinting. But most importantly, I just didn’t like the style of the glasses, so I sent those back, and I’m back to wearing the same glasses I’ve been wearing since 2014.
I Gotta Get Away
I went to the Bahamas, and Niagara Falls, and popped into Toronto right quick. This vacation was already planned before I got fired, and happened just 14 days after the fact. In other words, it came right on time. At first I was like, I don’t know, should I go? The money had already been spent, but once I got there, more money was sure to come out my pocket. Actually, even before I got fired I wasn’t sure if I should go, since I just spent so much money on my trip to San Fran in May. But finally I decided I was going to go and I’m so glad I did. My mother was going there for a conference, and I accompanied her – not to the conference, just on the trip. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, and I just thoroughly enjoyed being there. I only left the resort once to go to the grocery store, the rest of the time I was just at the resort. The food was expensive as hell, the service was not always great, but I still loved my time there. I literally had an alcoholic beverage each day (sometimes two) I was there except the day we departed, five in total – all were delicious except one. The second and third days there, I spent a good amount of my time at their water park and pools – the lazy river and the wave pool were my main hangouts. At night I slept with the sliding glass door open(we were on the 17th floor) because the room was cold but the air outside was hot, and it was the perfect contrast. We had a lovely ocean view and it was nice to be reintroduced to cable TV. What was also nice is the TV signal was from Florida, so they played American channels. They even took American dollars so no need to exchange currencies.
From there we had a really long layover in Toronto, like over 24 hours of a layover, so we went to Niagara Falls which is only an hour and a half drive from Toronto. I booked the hotel in Niagara Falls before I was fired. I was being really cheap and wanted to save $20 by staying at the Quality Inn — OMG, the worst hotel ever. We literally moved four rooms it was so bad, and the fourth room was still unsatisfactory, but it was like 1 am at that point, so we just stayed.
The next morning, or later that same day we went to the falls, and they were lovely. We did the boat ride on the river that took us around the falls on both the American and the Canadian side, though we visited from the Canadian side.
After that we had to rush back and catch our flight which we missed and ended up staying an extra night in Toronto, or actually Mississauga, the city the airport is in. The next day we drove about 30 minutes to get to Toronto proper, and see what it looks like. We took a picture at the Toronto sign downtown then made sure to get to the airport early for our flight that evening.
Self Care Every Day
When I first got fired, my first thought was, oh shit, I need to find another job quick because I need a pay check again. But then I only ended up applying to one job but quickly withdraw my application. Now that I think about it, I should have just left it there to see what would have happened. But anyway, being fired is a pretty traumatic experience, in fact working there for the last year was filled with a lot of unpleasant moments. So before I put myself back out there, I just wanted to take a break from that, heal from that. Thankfully, I’ve been saving up my coins so in the event of some shit like this, I could do that. I never spent my entire check. I always put something aside. I do that with any job, even if it’s $10, because you just never know. I also applied for unemployment, but I didn’t do that right away, because you have to look for work while you’re on it, and I just wanted some time to just be. But as I saw my savings dwindling, I was like let me gon head and get this unemployment right quick.
Oh, I picketed with the WGA writer’s strike – just for a day, showed a little solidarity.
But overall, I’ve just been trying to relax, feel my feelings – hurt, pain, sadness, depression, but also relief, spurts of joy, gratefulness, contentment and hope for what to come, knowing that what it is, it’s up to me.
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