Partial Vindication Afoot?

My Medi-Cal/IHSS battle has been brutal. it has been a road of sharp rocks and deep mud, thorns and rotting carcasses, and I have traveled it almost entirely alone since literally no person or advocate I have contacted has actually done anything to help, save for a couple. It added pressure and stress to an already overwhelming responsiblity to my parents, obliterated important financial and career goals, and it's been hell.

But there is something of possible good that may be starting to emerge from the stench of it all. If I am correct there will be a (small) degree of vindication, or relief greater than what the original "best case" outcome was expected to be. It won't make up for the abuse I've been subjected to, but it's a little extra which helps. I'll take it! And this will be in addition to the deal mentioned in my previous post.

I don't mean to be cryptic about it, I just don't want to celebrate prematurely. Nothing is yet confirmed. I received some new information in the post today that could be great if it goes through as it appears. I've been wrong before, since the government tends to work in senseless, illogical ways sometimes, so I'm just "cautiously optimistic" about it. It's nothing "huge" but then, coming out of this at all positive is huge.

Then maybe this can be the start of getting on with things and it won't be so long that I can return to animating!

Stay tuned.

I'm 1 and 9

1 out of 9 is mostly good news. If you've read past posts you may know I have been struggling with some seriously troublesome bureaucracy that has to do with services my parents receive from the state and county; earned wages the county refuses to pay, entitlements arbitrarily denied and other stuff that I've been trying to fix for more than a year.

When there are problems with these things, the law allows the recipient to request a "fair hearing" within 90 days to try to resolve the problems before an administrative judge. As my parents' representative I had requested hearings last August for 2 of the issues and never got a response. I even re-requested one of them, but it seems all my requests were ignored, misdirected or lost until well after the 90-day limit had expired. Seems like just more bs to me. At stake were more than 500 hours of earned wages from last year which IHSS has refused to pay, citing various ambiguous "regulations".

Months later I finally got a hearing scheduled. Then a few days prior to the hearing I got a call from a representative of the county (which runs IHSS) to propose what basically amounts to a settlement in lieu of proceeding with the hearing. I was offered about 85% of the unpaid wages I was requesting. Though I believe I have a solid case, there's no way of telling how the judge would have ruled, but the county's offer was guaranteed. I've not had good luck with these things before so rather than risk losing it all I had to accept the offer of 85%.

Settling does leave one of the issues uncorrected, which could negatively affect me (and other caregivers) in the future. And even though 85% is a lot better than zero, I still feel I've been cheated out of wages I've earned through blood, sweat and tears. And I've still got about 7 other problems to try to get fixed before it's all over. The upside is that the money will be put to good use and will help with some of my short term goals. 1 for 9 is much better than 0 for 9.

No WONDER!

Now I know why stuff has been so screwy in the past year! From now on it's all gonna be great! All thanks to this best-selling DVD/book! According to The Secret, all the crap I've been going through is because I've been thinking about crap! It all makes perfect sense! All I have to do is stop thinking of all that poo and start thinking of, I dunno, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and sunshine and going on holiday! Oh, plus world peace. Then my mental rays (or something) will "vibe" out into the universe like specially tuned magnets and very soon I will be enjoying peanut butter cup heaven. Or maybe I'll receive an advertisement with the newspaper that has a picture of like Hawaii on it!

Ridiculing a DVD I have not watched aside, I did think about sunshine one time and the next day the sun was out, so I can't say it doesn't work.

Might the reason I'm often thinking of/stressing over/scrambling to fix a bunch of BSes be that's what I've been experiencing? Maybe if I can get that stuff to go away I'll have room in my melon to focus intently on tranquility, bliss and my dream animation career that got t-boned at the intersection of Broke Street and Family Obligations Way.