The Man. 9-26-11 (Yes, I know I'm white.)

The day has been going downhill. Someone added my name to something, and it came as a surprise to me. I'm trying to figure out how to deal with it, but it's not a good feeling. Next, I found out the book shelves I ordered online from Target 2 days ago had a price drop of $13, but after 20 min. of leading me on, the guy on the phone said I couldn't get the difference. Then, I went to a talk about Maori parenting, or rather, about a woman trying to help Maori women who are about to lose their children. If I remember the numbers correctly, Maoris make up 14% of the New Zealand population, but Maoris are about 60% of the children that are taken away from their parents. That number seems too incredible to be correct. Mercy, I hope not! But I'm just talking about The Man (you know, whitey... the establishment).
On the way home from the Maori talk, me, as pregnant as I am, was getting on the tram and was shifting my bag to sit down in a seat, when a college student whipped around me and sat down. Fortunately, there was still a seat left, or I would have been a goner, standing up in the non-air-conditioned tram with windows that wouldn't open. Her and her Vera Bradley bag and Iphone. I managed to check myself, but I felt like going off on a rant about entitled, upper middle class, white folks, especially those that think that they should get a trophy just for appearing. Yes, she was a female, but she's just a cog in the machine, a contributor to the hegemony!
And so the final tipping point in my rant is the issue of life insurance to take care of my little Boop. It was 9pm after a book lecture, and I was trying to get prepared for work and settle in for the evening. I received a phone call; the insurance rate I had initially been quoted, after all of the paper work, had doubled! Of course, I started the application process in late June, when I was still at a normal BMI. Now that I have ballooned to an appropriate pregnancy weight 3 months later, it will be hard to get a decent rate on insurance. And then there was the panic of what happens to me if something happens during delivery. Who will take care of my little Boop? So it's a pretty low time, I'm tired, not sure what to do, and I'm feeling stressed because of The Man.

Insurance Agent. 7-6-11

I touched base with my insurance agent, mainly to see about getting life insurance. I made the appointment before my crazy weekend at the ER. However, I thought it would be good to get some estimates. It's pricey, but I know it's one of those things I have to do at my age and with my health. I also mentioned a couple of issues that have presented themselves with my neighbors. For one thing, my neighbors offered me $200 to cut down a tree that is on their property. Of course, it would be $1000+ to cut down that tree. The neighbor said that if the tree fell on my shed, I would be responsible. Nay say the insurance agent and underwriter. The neighbors would be negligent, especially since they knew it in advance.

One of the other more pressing issues is I suspect neighbors are moving stuff on my property. My insurance agent was amazed and had never heard the like. Neighbor has been moving my garbage can, and my mom suspects this is so that she can see into my kitchen to snoop. She just barged into my house one day, following my mom, to see my kitchen. The latest thing is that some shutters were moved. Some mats were also moved that were left from the last owner. They were rotten and apparently had a wire sticking out, which I discovered after it poked a hole through the bottom of my foot and out the side on Derby Day.

A proper response? My inclination is to build a very tall fence, which sounds good, except that I'm a bit short on funds. If I say something to them, I know I will be the source of much gossip. They may also try to retaliate. One idea is to make friends with their neighbors who put up the fence, to learn more about who they used, etc. Neighbors will be very upset if I put up a fence as they complained about their neighbor who put up the fence. Their front door faces the side of their neighbor's house, and their back door faces the side of mine. So, their front door does not face the street. They go back to FL for the winter in December through April. I figure I can make some headway in that time. I need to get the surveyor out to just know what the boundaries are, and well, I need to win the lottery, I guess.