Learning Balance

Started a day with reading The Fences Between Us and writing in my journal. After breakfast, I made some phone calls I've been putting off. I received a bill in the mail from South Jersey Radiology last week. I thought they said they were waiting for the insurance to come through! When I called them, they said they hadn't heard from them. I called the Union, and they directed me to AmeriHealth. The woman on the line said her boss "has it in the pile on his desk with 15,000 others" and will get to it eventually. I was (and am) steamed. Will get to it eventually? I sent it to them over a month ago! What are we paying these people for? Don't they have people who can run these things through a computer and get them organized in five seconds? Isn't that what computers and secretaries are for? What's that "boss" doing, playing video games? And people wonder why I put off doing my health insurance for so long. If this is what health insurance is like for everyone, the system needs more than an overhaul. It needs to be dragged by its hair and shaken to its very roots.

I called the Foot & Ankle Center next. I hadn't heard anything about my orthopedics, and I had put off calling them because they just moved down the White Horse Pike to Haddon Heights a few weeks ago. I know how confusing moves can be! Colleen was much nicer than the health insurance receptionist. She said that no, they still hadn't come in, and yes, they were waiting on my stalled health insurance. She'll call me when they hear something...and if they don't call in a month, I'll ride up to their new location.

I finally headed out for today's errands around 11. Volunteered at the Haddon Township Library first. There were lots of DVDs to shelve today and plenty of things to do. I helped an energetic toddler boy and his mommy find Bob the Builder DVDs. (Not a hard thing to do - the only series the library has as many copies of are Pokemon, Sesame Street, and Thomas the Tank Engine.) A slightly older boy requested Go Diego, Go!

I did get a few things out for myself today, but no movies or cartoons. Most of the workout DVDs at the Haddon Township Library are empty-headed vehicles for too-skinny, too-muscular celebrities in tight-fitting clothes with bright covers. There was only one that was even close to useful for me, Power Yoga. The front cover was plain white with a normal-looking woman doing simple yoga moves, and claimed it was a "revitalizing total body workout." Well, why not? I also took out a book on fitness walking and another one that I thought might help, Fit From Within, on changing your mentality towards eating and exercise in order to lose weight.

It always takes me a long time to pick books. It was past two when I went downstairs to Wendy's for lunch. Yeah, I know, you shouldn't eat fast food when you're trying to lose weight. Wendy's, however, is a pretty good choice for people who need something fast and cheap without killing their diet. I had that half-a-salad and one other item for $5.89 deal, in this case a salad and a baked potato. (I also ordered a Diet Coke.) This time, I went with the Apple Pecan Salad, which is tasty and filling. Honestly, just the so-called "half" salad fills me up; I probably wouldn't even need a whole one. With the baked potato, it's the perfect meal on the go.

Made a quick stop at the Westmont Acme on my way to Collingswood. They did have the marshmallows I wanted, but not the whole-wheat flour. I did find something I'd been on the hunt for, though. I heard online that Jell-O put out its divine Pumpkin Spice Pudding mix again this holiday season after having missed the last two years. I never saw it at the Audubon Acme or the Super Fresh...but when I was browsing around in the Westmont Acme's baking aisle, I found a display on the end that showed off baking items for Valentine's Day...including several boxes of Pumpkin Spice Pudding mix. I immediately grabbed two.

Rode over to the Collingswood Library next, dodging the traffic on Cuthbert and Haddon. There was a few more things for me to do there this week than last week. There was a couple of DVDs to file and shelve, and they really needed to be organized. I was able to shelve a book in the non-fiction section, too. Even so, I left after less than an hour to pick up a bottle of water at WaWa before yoga class.

Yoga class was very small today, just six people...but that gave us more room to work on basic standing poses and twists. Boy, did I get a workout! I sweat a lot more in this supposedly easier class than I ever did in the more "advanced" morning one. It's really hard to try to focus on going more slowly, instead of just trying to keep up with everyone else.

It was getting dark by the time I headed out. I took the long way through Newton River Park, enjoying the chilly oncoming twilight. On my way home, there were a group of kids selling Girl Scout Cookies. Two were the Scouts themselves. The others appeared to be young teens and their friends who got corralled into babysitting. I bought a box of Lemonade cookies from them. I can't resist young entrepreneurs. I also remember how hard it was for my sisters to sell Girl Scouts Cookies in the dead of winter in Cape May when we were younger. My family would often end up buying more than half the boxes for ourselves because we could never find enough people to sell them to.

When I got home, I got so caught up reading Fit from Within, I almost missed dinnertime! I had to put aside the chicken I planned to have tonight and just have leftovers while I ran more Looney Tunes.