[Fic] "Trollstuck: Make Her Pay," part 44 -- Homestuck

back to part 43

( Trollstuck: Make Her Pay, part 44 )

Hey look, I'm still working on this story! We are inching ever-closer to a hopefully dramatic conclusion. :-)

3 things: health insurance, job training, holiday angst

1. This afternoon I applied for health insurance via New York's state health exchange website. Turns out I am eligible for Medicaid -- big surprise, given my current finances. I have written down the number to call when I get another job and am not, you know, slowly eating up my savings.

I had to call my current insurance provider to get some information the exchange wanted but which was not printed on my insurance card. That was kind of annoying, but the operator I got was very nice and helpful so aside from the terrible crackly hold music, the experience was largely painless.

I am not completely clear on how my newly acquired Medicaid is meant to work. Presumably I get a card in the mail or something, and then have to make sure I only go to health providers who accept Medicaid? I dunno, if I haven't received anything by January I'll call until I find someone who will explain stuff coherently.

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2. Today is my first training session for the receptionist-by-any-other-name job. There are three of them -- Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, each 6-9pm out near the mall. So I can catch the #13 bus there, but I'll have to take the #30 bus back and then walk a mile from the Commons to my house because the #13 makes its last inbound trip at 6:30pm. Oh well, walking is good for me. I think this scenario will hold for any shifts I get at either of the mall-adjacent offices. The one down on S. Meadow St., on the other hand, may be trickier. I mean, I could walk there and back, but it would take roughly 45 minutes each way. And there is a bus, but I'd have to walk into town to catch it, and I'm not sure when the last inbound trip is on that route.

I'm nervous, of course. New things are always a little fraught. But hey, I am an intelligent person and I give good customer service. Everything will work out fine. (Also, they are paying me for the training. The pay is peanuts, but still. Earned income!)

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3. I am still thrashing my way through the maze of "oh god presents, what do???" but I have at least learned several things NOT to buy for various people, because other people have already bought the items in question. So, you know, progress! *sigh*

December Talking Meme, Day 15: how to sustain writing over extended periods

December 15: how do you sustain writing over a long period of time, for example: the guardian in spite of herself? (for anonymous) [Tumblr crosspost]

To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure! I certainly don't keep stories constantly 'alive' at the same level of interest in my head for the entire stretch, but if there was a big enough spark at the beginning to create a story I bothered to world-build and outline and get at least a few thousand words into, I have thus far always been able to dredge that up again with a bit of time and attention, even years later. It may simply be the fact that they're incomplete. Unfinished things nag at me; somewhere in the background of my mind, I'm always turning them over and wondering what happens next.

On a purely technical level, I keep outlines and timelines and background world-building files, so I can refresh my memory on the details that inevitably slip away when a story is on hiatus. It always pays to write stuff down, even things you're sure you couldn't possibly forget. Because trust me, you will forget them. *wry*

Tangentially, I've been lucky not to run into a problem I've seen disrupt other writers, where incessant reader interest and demands for updates turn a beloved story into a chore. This is mostly because I don't receive a lot of those reviews, which may be related to the kind of stories I tend to write, or may be related to my deliberately low-key fandom presence. Additionally, I turn writing into a chore purely on my own -- for various and sundry reasons, I treat a publicly posted chapter as an implicit promise that I will finish a story, however long it takes and however little anyone may care by the time I reach the end -- so outside expectations only add a little to a weight that already exists instead of creating pressure out of nowhere. I have gotten choosier about posting unfinished stuff over my years in fandom because I don't want to box myself in with too many of those promises, just in case.

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December Talking Meme: All Days