and another month goes by

April felt like a 'nothing' month and flew by admirably, yet here we're over half way through May already. One might think that my life would slow down and take a breath now that I'm not doing any shows, but one would be illy misinformed.

I might as well begin where I left off with my last post. Sadly, my cold did not give a reprieve before Kings Island's opening day, but I still had fun. Diamondback was incredible. So much airtime, and so smooth. I added that and two other rides to my coaster count, but since Chloe still isn't a fan of roller coasters, I couldn't get the credit for Little Bill's Giggle Coaster. It looks like it will be yet another year before I can claim my Jr. Gemini credit and officially say I've ridden all the coasters at Cedar Point as well. *sigh* :)

I would upload some of the pictures I took at Kings Island, but frankly they aren't that great. Instead, I would direct you to Coaster Image, which has far better photos of Diamondback than the ones I got.

The following weekend I saw an awesome production of Godspell at Olde Towne Hall Theatre, and helped Stu build some simple stairs on the back of his house. That's right. Physical labor. Handiwork. Who am I?

Today was Cedar Point's opening day, which had a little less impact since Kings Island broke the winter amusement park fast a month ago. I was debating about going because of the weather forecast, especially since we will be going again Tuesday for my birthday, but I ended up going by myself anyway. I got in early with my season pass and rode six coasters plus Skyhawk in about five hours. Not too shabby. I left mid-afternoon, just before the rain hit.

Tomorrow, my nephew is being baptized, and I'm godfathering. As it turns out, I'm also playing the piano and organ at church, because our organist fell and broke her arm.

The rest is just little things here and there: historical society annual meeting program, a wedding jazz band gig, and now possibly a coaster mini-trip for Memorial Day weekend.

The BIG news is about my job. Without getting too bogged down in the details of how this came about, the short version is that by the end of May, my company will be closing. However, our company's primary client is a music publisher in Florida, who reimbursed my company for the cost of employing me. Basically, now that money will come directly to me instead. I will be a full-time, self-employed graphic artist (freelancer).

And before everyone starts cheering about being one's own boss and making one's own hours and deducting every breath of air from one's taxes, let me tell you it's really not that rosy. I will essentially be doing the exact same work I did before. I might have more opportunities to work from home, but in practice I doubt that will work since I often need immediate collaboration and feedback from my boss and our editor with these projects. (Plus it's just easier than having to drag a bunch of folders and papers home when I need them there.) The main savings for the Florida publisher is that we'll be moving to a smaller, cheaper office space. What had been our printing/production department will become its own separate company in Elyria, run by our production manager. They will still do a significant amount of printing for the Florida publisher as well.

Aside from the annoyance of having to pay estimated taxes every three months, and having to keep track of a hell of a lot more expenses so I can deduct them (whereas previously I just took the standard deduction since it was way higher), another fun aspect is that I will be losing my group health insurance. I can't get COBRA, because the company will cease to exist, and along with it, our health plan.

I started emailing and calling around. A friend of a friend works at Medical Mutual, but she said I couldn't get SuperMed One (their insurance for individuals) because I'd had cancer. I called an insurance agent my minister knew, but the best they could find was Golden Rule through United Healthcare, which wanted me to be in remission five years before they'd give me a policy at all, and even then, it wouldn't cover anything related to the cancer. Aside: I will have been in remission four years this coming July, and have a CAT scan scheduled for then. The CAT scan is made up of three parts and usually comes to about $3500. So... yeah. The next best they could find wanted me to be in remission seven years.

After that phone call is when I really started to worry. Schutze, one of my college roommates who now works for Social Security, called me and we talked for a bit. He suggested I call United Healthcare (my current provider) and ask about "continuation coverage." Apparently those were the magic words, because that indicated I could still be covered for six months if I paid the full premium. Continuation coverage, apparently, is the mini-version of COBRA for companies with fewer than 20 employees (so "COBRA" wasn't even the proper thing to be asking about). Our bookkeeper and I kept reiterating that our company would be closing entirely, but UHC insisted I could still get coverage anyway. Hmmm.

Then I started reading more about it on their website, and realized that the ARRA of 2009 would subsidize 65% of the premium, so I'd only be paying 35%. Which is hilarious because I currently am paying 50% of my premium, with my employer covering the other half. So I'd actually be paying less for health insurance! The hitch, of course, is that it would only last six months, so in December I'd be scrambling to find coverage again.

(Aside: I've also since learned that the average employee contribution for health insurance premiums in the area is about 15-17%, as opposed to my 50%. Some of my friends have jobs where they pay nothing at all. No wonder people think COBRA is "so expensive"; for me, it would just have been double what I was already paying, but for those folks it would be a significant change, especially when combined with losing one's job.)

Anyway, the continuation coverage gave me a sigh of relief, although in the back of my head I was still skeptical that I would be able to get it since our company was closing entirely (why would it be different for mini-COBRA than regular COBRA?). In the meanwhile, the publisher in Florida who will be my primary source of income, discovered that I qualify to go on their United Healthcare policy so long as there's no gap in coverage. Again I would have to pay the full premium, but I would have similar coverage as I do now. And it would have the advantage of being steady, regular insurance (and group insurance at that), rather than expiring after six months.

So yeah. What a difference a week makes. And what a bunch of screwing around. I know some folks like to believe the uninsured are only poor people and minorities, but that's not the case for me. Apparently it also includes self-employed cancer survivors.

As I said, Florida is going to pay me what it used to cost to employ me in Grafton, so that will include the portion of taxes and health premiums that my employer had been paying. That means my net income really shouldn't change, but now I'll be able to deduct mileage and whatnot on my tax return. Plus, I will no longer be paid by the hour; I will be paid 1/12 of that yearly gross figure each month. Hypothetically this means I can take more vacation time so long as my work gets done, but much like "working from home," I highly doubt that will happen in practice. I still intend to keep track of my hours and vacation time in a spreadsheet, however, just in case any questions arise.

So for the immediate future, I'm grateful to have A job and have the health insurance mostly squared away. Now I can get back to looking at my finances and figuring out where I can reduce expenses and/or increase income, in the hopes that I can actually put some money away in my Roth IRA this year instead of just breaking even. It could mean finding a cheaper apartment -- and my lease is up in June, so I need to decide quickly. I sure didn't need to waste a week of my time on top of that looking for health insurance.