03.16.2026 + the healthcare rant
OK so yesterday I did my taxes which I had been putting off for months because of the insane amount of forms I got in the mail. Last year I had two jobs, collected unemployment and went through four health insurance providers among other things. It ended up not being bad in the end but the part about health insurance pissed me off so bad. Easily the hardest thing I had to deal with regarding unemployment was health insurance and having to deal with it AGAIN at tax time was making me go insane about healthcare in this country.
When I lost my job I could either pay a frankly insane amount of money to keep my (decent at best) coverage through my employer or try and navigate the MA health insurance marketplace to get something I could actually afford while collecting unemployment. And I eventually did, after I had to spend hours filling out an insanely complicated application, then having to fill it out a second time to update my income after the state approved my unemployment and started paying me. Then I was granted the privilege to buy an overpriced health insurance plan.
Anyway I could go on but the TLDR is that when I did my taxes I didn't understand what the tax credits that I got when I signed up for the gov health insurance plan meant and I guess because my income was over a certain level (because I got a new job last year) I had to pay all those back so I had a surprise $500 tax bill. I'm lucky to be at a point where something like that hitting isn't a huge deal but like come on. Why does this have to be so complicated for no reason. My theory is that the average American doesn't care about this kind of thing because they think government healthcare is "poor people shit" despite everyone being one layoff away from having to go on it. Like truly I think if everyone lost their jobs through no fault of their own more often and had to go through these ludicrous bureaucracy things people would be more radicalized to change things for the better. Especially when you think about how much of our tax money that could be used to better people's lives are going to fight useless wars. What a world we live in.
Anyway. In more positive news I went on a second date with the hot dilf last week and we had another good time. I like hanging out with him. He likes video games so I'm trying to get him on Diablo for the days like today where it's too gross to go out. But I do want to see him again soon. Maybe this weekend.
Third Time Ice Cream my beloved also finally opened it's permanent location so you know I went down for the grand opening. They have food now so I got a yummy hot dog and got a chocolate mahlab cherry ice cream that was truly delicious. I have a feeling I'm gonna be there weekly this summer (at least). Their new space is very cute and has great people watching potential lol. Plus they're close to Flat Top's now which has the new Pokemon pinball machine people are going crazy over. I played a game and it is pretty fun, very much Attack From Mars with a Pokemon theme (but with harder shots) so it seems like a win. But I also really fucked with the Tron pinball they had also put in since the last time I was there.
Finally my friend hosted a pre-Oscars movie night. Finally saw Sinners which was EXCELLENT and also Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (lol) which was better than I thought it would be. The connection between those two being having a lead playing two different roles as himself which was pretty funny. During the first 15 minutes of Sonic 3 I had a realization that I made my parents take me to many dogshit animated movies as a kid that they had to sit through. I do not have children but I feel like I understand that feeling more now. Sinners though!! Wow. Definitely my favorite movie from last year.
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