There's that saying that goes, "You never really appreciate something until it's gone"....well, what if you never had it? Then what, do you still appreciate it when you get it? Hell yes, you do! 

Let me explain, my parents were and still are dirt poor and I don't remember a time in my life that we've ever had health insurance. Sure, we can go to the low income clinics and pay on a sliding scale but there was a unspoken rule where if you were still breathing, no matter how bad it hurt, then you don't need to see the doctor...well, because the doctor costs money. $45/consultation is still a lot of money, add medication and easily it can be the difference between eating that week or getting better. 

Luckily, I've only been extremely sick 3 times in my life where I seriously needed medical attention. One time was bronchitis in my freshman year of college. I didn't have health insurance back then, so I stayed in my bed for 3 weeks, alive but barely. I don't know how I survived then without a visits to the doctor but I remember I never, ever, wanted to feel like again. Fast forward to now, where for the first time in my life my employer has supplied me a more than generous healthcare package. I've had the flu twice just this past winter, which were both RIDICULOUSLY painful and when the second flu hit, I waltzed into Kaiser, paid a $15.00 copay, and got my medicine. Simple as that. They asked my name, I was in their system and covered and I could go to any Kaiser in Northern California and pay the same.

As if I didn't already know, my experience has definitely reinforced the idea that healthcare coverage is a luxury and unfortunately in this country only afforded to a few. I am grateful and lucky to be receiving it in a time where the economy is so uncertain. You don't appreciate something until it's gone, but for me, the minute I was covered I appreciated it cause it meant that I could finally see a doctor if I fall ill. It meant that, I didn't have to try to diagnose myself using google and guessing the medication I should take. It meant that I could disassociate the value of my well-being with the value of a dollar and that is a powerful thought in itself. No amount of money saved is worth unnecessary suffering if a visit to the doctors can make you better. 

Sometimes I feel like I can't do it. It's not you, it really is me. I don't like the person I am when I am with you.

I'm not a complainer of most things. When it comes to working hard, or doing things I don't want to do, I get it..to take some, you must give some. What I do complain about is about stupidity...no, not even stupidity, about lack of common sense that I see everyday. I have to admit, ever since working at a grocery store, I don't have much hope for humanity. I've become quite cynical even, but there are certain things that everyone SHOULD do and KNOW how to do.

For example, the blonde 20-something-year-old that felt it NECESSARY to press elevator buttons B, E, F and G floors as to make an semi-educated guess as to which floor she parked on. Understandable sometimes...except really? REALLY? This isn't a damn costco parking lot with multiple aisles, this is a concrete garage structure with clearly marked floors seperated by alphabet. It's not enough that there are FAT alphabet letters on every one of those pillars when you get out of your car? It's not enough that all floors are color coded? And it must not be enough when every time you pass a floor while you are trying to park your car that the walls tell you where you are. What makes Missy blonde think that it's okay to laugh along the way and say, "oops not this floor" while the other 5 patrons of the elevator know where they are going. TO CATCH THE DAMN MUNI on Floor A! And if you live in San Francisco, you already know that Muni is spotty, when it does come, you bet your ass you're going to run for it. When nextbus.com says the bus arrives in 8 minutes, you don't want to spend the precious little time you have to catch the bus stuck in the elevator because this airhead has the memory retention comparable to that of a spoon. This warrants a, "oh, helllllll no!" This is common sense people. I mean c'mon, really? Folks, please remember where you parked. It save everyone time and a headache and prevents you from being called stupid.

Also, damn self-entitled middle-class upbringing, rebel-against-society, angry-about-nothing PUNK WANNABES that feel the need to sit on the entrance steps of the train during primetime commute hours. Look everyone just wants to get on the bus and go home. The most WTF moments that I've had is getting ready to board the train with 10 people behind me and seeing your dumb ass sitting there unwilling to move, making me either 1. try to walk over you in that small ass gap that you've created between yourself and pole (which probably has more class than you in that it would move if it could) or 2. move to another entrance way 10 feet away and risk having the doors close and having to miss the train and wait for another one. There are available seats...you don't have to sit on the floor. It's okay, no one will look down on you if you sit on a seat....that's what its purpose is for. In fact, who would WANT to sit on the floor? Do you realize that that is where bums put their leaky trash bags of shit? Do you realize that when dog owners come back from the dog park, that you are sitting on the shit deposited and dispelled from the bottom of their shoes? Really, the streets of San Francisco are by no means clean, and if you had grown up in the city you would have better sense than to sit on the floor of ..ugh...the muni. I mean, you can afford a nice skateboard, name brand sunglasses, nice clothes, you are by no means of the lower class, what makes you so angry and against society that you have to stop the world from turning to express yourself by sitting on the floor of where every one is trying to pass? People, I just DO NOT get it. Uggghhhhhhhhh our education system truly needs a course on common sense.