So here it is - it's Easter morning! And a beautiful one that that. In lieu of going to church, where the hard pews and the constant sit/stand will just aggravate my stubbornly painful hip and back, I've decided to worship the beauty of the outdoors instead. It's been a nice quiet weekend with no obligations or plans and I am recharged and ready (?) to face another full week of work.
Yesterday we made good use of the day by heading up to a mattress outlet where we ordered a very high end latex mattress to replace the poor old Casper. I'm really sad that the Casper didn't do it for me, because they're wonderful. They're sending over a truck to pick it up on Tuesday, just like that. They'll even take back the base AND the mattress cover. Does make one pause to think of the markup on the ones that they do sell. At any rate, I wish I could keep it as a spare bed but at the price tag that it came with and the cost of its upper end replacement, we will need that cash back in the account!
Well, I got distracted and just made my way back to the post after a long week at work. Casper was great, and they refunded the money already, in time to offset the down payment on the new mattress, which comes a week from today. They make them on site at the store we went to, so ours had to be made before it could be delivered, and we had to find a day when we could be home. So, next week it is. We can't wait! Meanwhile, we have been sleeping on the old pillow top and it's at least better than the hard Casper, and my hip is feeling a little better. I also wonder if physical therapy doesn't actually hurt more than it helps sometimes, and I've been away a few days from it now.
Anyway, just thrilled that it's finally the weekend. We are off to Philadelphia to fight science march traffic snarls and chaperone a visit to the Turf Club. Just a note on financial thinking before I go. I have some old 401k rollover accounts, opened at Chase when I was but a young mom relinquishing a promising would-be career. I haven't given much thought to these accounts over the years, and they've changed hands from the original rep. I occasionally get statements and they were connected to our online account, so I monitor their value, but not too closely since the amounts, while somewhat interesting to me, are insignificant in terms of long term retirement funding. I call them the down payment on our vacation home when we turn 59 1/2.
About a year ago one of the reps' assistants started to call me. Fast forward and the bottom line is that they split my accounts between two reps. The IRA Rollover went to one woman, who apparently has several staff beneath her, and the mysterious fixed annuity went to another, who seems to be in the Private Banking group. I recently read that one must have $10 million to use their private bankers. My annuity now values at $14,000. Which may explain the treatment I get from J.P. Morgan financial advisors!
First, I can't access the annuity online. I no longer get statements for it. Turns out that this is because the login ID is not mine, but my husband's. The login name! Not the name on the account, not the social security number, but the name he made up when he activated online banking at the end of the stone age, which was when I opened the accounts. I found this out by harassing the private banker until she finally got back to me and told me this. She has since returned to ignoring me. I only found out about her because she sent me an email announcing her marriage a few months ago.
The other funds are with someone else. Recently I got a letter that stated this account would be turning into a self-directed account and I should learn how to manage my own accounts. They sit in mutual funds which someone recommended for me while I still had toddler brain, and I have no idea if they are appropriate anymore. Scheduled a call to chat with new rep. She called ten minutes late, no apology or explanation, and hadn't really prepared. Then said that we should talk again and she'd send me a packet and I'd return statements. Told me that the letter about the self-directed was not really true after all. The call was set for yesterday morning.
The day before, her assistant called the husband's cell. The husband didn't notice this until I remarked that she still hadn't called me yesterday morning. Finally, last night, we played the message and heard the assistant say that they looked forward to seeing me in their New York offices and that I should bring any statements that I had.
Sigh. I've *worked* in financial services. This isn't how it's done, Chase! You get the statements BEFORE the meeting! And if you don't, you certainly don't promise to send out a packet in advance of a phone meeting, and confirm said phone meeting on the WRONG phone as being an in-person meeting! I know that my money is not worth their time, but someday there may be more when we do retire and cash out the savings we have at our current jobs. And guess who won't be managing it.
I feel better having said that, even if nobody makes it to the end. These are supposed to be New York bankers. In other news, I'm off to walk the dogs. It's what counts as exercise during my OTF sabbatical. Strangely, I'm a pound or so lighter despite the lack of hard core exercise. Perhaps because I barely eat any of the fun foods that I'd have while I felt I could justify them. On to the weekend!
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Thursday, April 13, 2017
the resurrection
Well, in honor of the coming Easter holiday, I thought I'd give the blog a small shot of life after - what - two years? So much has happened so where to begin?
For one thing, M is a person now. She has an apartment and a person and a car (that she pays for) and a savings account! She even just got her first parking lot hit-and-run yesterday! (Scratch what I said about the savings account...) B is on his way, he expects to graduate in just a few short weeks (to me, I suspect they may be long for him.) An internship that he's had for the semester has extended into July so he won't have to worry about hunting while he wraps up his scholastic career, which he capstoned with a travel study class to India!
Otherwise the rest of us are status quo. We lost our dear Rusty (featured as a baby tuxedo cat in the profile picture for this blog) about a year ago to some kind of ruthless and incurable cat cancer. This is where you wonder how people can afford to have pets. Countless tests and medicines and visits later, and within two months the cat died. His cat wife Lilly hasn't recovered. She cries in the morning and wonders why he never comes to visit her in her isolation unit (she can't get along with the new addition, Dora from the mean streets of Philadelphia). Wilbur and Abby have fallen into their routine with their daily dog walkers and frequent weekend travels which leave them home alone for stretches on the weekends. They long for the summer and the trips to the beach (one so far this year! always so much colder just a few miles away by the ocean!) Wilbur is eight years old!
My latest trial is a pain in my hip! For years I fought hip pain on the right and it finally went away. I thought I'd better get to a gym, with my advancing age and all that, so I shopped around and joined Orangetheory Fitness. I loved it! It was a little pricey, but was otherwise everything I'd been looking for in a workout - high energy vibe, varied workouts, and someone to tell me what to do with the weights. A rower was an added plus. I'd never used one before and, unfortunately, it became obvious soon that that was a problem! That and a treadmill workout that involved running on a steep incline.
So the theory is that you're supposed to stay within the "orange" and "red" zones for a minimum of 12 minutes out of the hour and be in the "green" for a fair amount as well. But there was something in me that wanted to get the most possible points in an hour. I'd frantically keep my eye on the screen. One day, a couple of months after I joined, I got a little overzealous and there went the left hip during a treadmill block. Thinking I could walk it off, I continued to go, and modified my workouts, which continued to include rowing, squats, lunges and lots of jumping. My hip continued to worsen, and all I was doing was walking on the treadmill at that point. Still with inclines :/
Finally I went to the doctor at the end of March, to be admonished and told that I've done this to myself. It's awful! The diagnosis is bursitis and SI joint dysfunction. It could have started on the treadmill, but the rower was probably terrible for it as well. I've currently frozen the membership for one month (free with a doctor's note! Imagine having to pay $15 to not have to pay a membership fee for the place where you got hurt in the first place...?) Anyway they were very good about it and I hope they will remain so. I am hoping to be able to go back but at this rate I still have a lot of pain and I'm sure if I go back too soon I will end up having to cancel the membership and join chair yoga.
Along those lines is the bed. We had a terrible pillowtop and I couldn't stand the amount of pain I was in every morning. My entire body ached when I turned over. We tested out a Casper mattress at a local west elm, and it felt pretty OK. They offer a 100 day return, so we gave it a shot. Sadly, I didn't initially love it and now I am not even sure if I like it. I've been away from the gym and yet my hip is not improving, and it's at its worst in the morning. We stopped in and tried some Tempurpedics when we were in NYC to see Hamilton (!) and they were worlds apart from what this bed is like. I feel terrible about returning it, I really, really wanted it to work. But pain is pain and comfort is comfort. I think it's time to pay for the real bed.
And in other news, Hamilton was indeed as engaging as they say! Warning - try to not drink anything the entire day because the bathroom procedure is the worst! I left my seat in the first mezzanine immediately upon the lights going on, had to fight my way downstairs and then they had us wrapping through the orchestra seats just to get to the real line. By the time I got back to my seat, they had already turned off the lights. And I wasn't even last! You literally could not move through some of the common areas. So maybe stay in your seats and relax for 10 minutes. Or an hour. Not good for a claustrophobic! But highly recommend the show. Happy Easter to all!
For one thing, M is a person now. She has an apartment and a person and a car (that she pays for) and a savings account! She even just got her first parking lot hit-and-run yesterday! (Scratch what I said about the savings account...) B is on his way, he expects to graduate in just a few short weeks (to me, I suspect they may be long for him.) An internship that he's had for the semester has extended into July so he won't have to worry about hunting while he wraps up his scholastic career, which he capstoned with a travel study class to India!
Otherwise the rest of us are status quo. We lost our dear Rusty (featured as a baby tuxedo cat in the profile picture for this blog) about a year ago to some kind of ruthless and incurable cat cancer. This is where you wonder how people can afford to have pets. Countless tests and medicines and visits later, and within two months the cat died. His cat wife Lilly hasn't recovered. She cries in the morning and wonders why he never comes to visit her in her isolation unit (she can't get along with the new addition, Dora from the mean streets of Philadelphia). Wilbur and Abby have fallen into their routine with their daily dog walkers and frequent weekend travels which leave them home alone for stretches on the weekends. They long for the summer and the trips to the beach (one so far this year! always so much colder just a few miles away by the ocean!) Wilbur is eight years old!
My latest trial is a pain in my hip! For years I fought hip pain on the right and it finally went away. I thought I'd better get to a gym, with my advancing age and all that, so I shopped around and joined Orangetheory Fitness. I loved it! It was a little pricey, but was otherwise everything I'd been looking for in a workout - high energy vibe, varied workouts, and someone to tell me what to do with the weights. A rower was an added plus. I'd never used one before and, unfortunately, it became obvious soon that that was a problem! That and a treadmill workout that involved running on a steep incline.
So the theory is that you're supposed to stay within the "orange" and "red" zones for a minimum of 12 minutes out of the hour and be in the "green" for a fair amount as well. But there was something in me that wanted to get the most possible points in an hour. I'd frantically keep my eye on the screen. One day, a couple of months after I joined, I got a little overzealous and there went the left hip during a treadmill block. Thinking I could walk it off, I continued to go, and modified my workouts, which continued to include rowing, squats, lunges and lots of jumping. My hip continued to worsen, and all I was doing was walking on the treadmill at that point. Still with inclines :/
Finally I went to the doctor at the end of March, to be admonished and told that I've done this to myself. It's awful! The diagnosis is bursitis and SI joint dysfunction. It could have started on the treadmill, but the rower was probably terrible for it as well. I've currently frozen the membership for one month (free with a doctor's note! Imagine having to pay $15 to not have to pay a membership fee for the place where you got hurt in the first place...?) Anyway they were very good about it and I hope they will remain so. I am hoping to be able to go back but at this rate I still have a lot of pain and I'm sure if I go back too soon I will end up having to cancel the membership and join chair yoga.
Along those lines is the bed. We had a terrible pillowtop and I couldn't stand the amount of pain I was in every morning. My entire body ached when I turned over. We tested out a Casper mattress at a local west elm, and it felt pretty OK. They offer a 100 day return, so we gave it a shot. Sadly, I didn't initially love it and now I am not even sure if I like it. I've been away from the gym and yet my hip is not improving, and it's at its worst in the morning. We stopped in and tried some Tempurpedics when we were in NYC to see Hamilton (!) and they were worlds apart from what this bed is like. I feel terrible about returning it, I really, really wanted it to work. But pain is pain and comfort is comfort. I think it's time to pay for the real bed.
And in other news, Hamilton was indeed as engaging as they say! Warning - try to not drink anything the entire day because the bathroom procedure is the worst! I left my seat in the first mezzanine immediately upon the lights going on, had to fight my way downstairs and then they had us wrapping through the orchestra seats just to get to the real line. By the time I got back to my seat, they had already turned off the lights. And I wasn't even last! You literally could not move through some of the common areas. So maybe stay in your seats and relax for 10 minutes. Or an hour. Not good for a claustrophobic! But highly recommend the show. Happy Easter to all!
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