Greetings sibs! It\u2019s been a while, thought I\u2019d post an update.<\/p>\n
First, the new job is going great. It\u2019s hard for me to imagine a better job for me, at least in the legal profession. The people are great, the work is exactly what I want to be doing, I get to work from home, the pay is FAR more than I\u2019ve ever made before\u2026 I keep having to remind myself that I\u2019ve earned this and I don\u2019t have to wait for the other shoe to drop.<\/p>\n
Honestly, my only worry is Elon Musk and DOGE. They\u2019ve arbitrarily withheld all federal funding for state health programs, which means TennCare can\u2019t pay our hospital 65 million dollars that we\u2019re owed for services already provided. (This is all confidential, of course.) Both of our senators have assured us that the money will come through in time, once DOGE completes its \u201creview,\u201d but our senators are Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, who are about as trustworthy as a couple of rattlesnakes. Sigh.<\/p>\n
Anyway, the hospital opened a $20 million line of credit to tide us over, but haven\u2019t had to actually tap into it yet. Hopefully this will end soon, but Elon is clearly on an ego rampage so who knows where it will end? I have this vague worry that this will somehow result in me losing this amazing job, but there\u2019s nothing to do but keep at it.<\/p>\n
One more story about the hospital: A few weeks ago some goons from ICE showed up, saying they had word that one of our patients was undocumented and they were there to arrest him. The receptionist called my boss, the head of legal, and he came down and asked to see their warrant. They didn\u2019t have a warrant. \u201cCome back when you have a warrant,\u201d he said. They left, and never came back. Makes you wonder who they were.<\/p>\n
On a brighter note, most things in our lives are going really well. Quark is gearing up for our next show in June, and our fall show is going to be a collection of three short plays written by [hyperventilates<\/em>] ADAM REMSEN. This is both exciting and terrifying, so I\u2019m trying to do a little work on it every day to keep myself from completely freaking out.<\/p>\n We\u2019re also gearing up for our big summer trip. Louisa\u2019s mom and stepdad like going on cruises, and they\u2019ve apparently saved up enough cruise points that they can take us on one. So in June-July we\u2019re going take a cruise from Istanbul up the Adriatic coast to Venice, then Louisa\u2019s mom and stepdad will fly home and the three of us will stay in Venice for 5-6 days. It\u2019s going to be amazing; I\u2019ve never been on a cruise that I can remember (I learned to walk on a cruise when I was a year old), and I\u2019ve always wanted to visit Santorini, Dubrovnik, and a couple other stops we\u2019re going to see. Very cool.<\/p>\n Otherwise we\u2019re trucking along. I had Covid a couple weeks ago, but thank heaven Louisa and Felix didn\u2019t get it. I\u2019m trying to exercise every day, whether that\u2019s walking Lassie or doing calisthenics or whatever\u2013now that I\u2019m working from home it\u2019s way too easy to sit at the computer all day without moving. I wouldn\u2019t mind losing a few pounds around the midsection before our trip, but I\u2019m not going to stress about it. We\u2019re also looking at getting cars, as ours are 11 and 14 years old. They still run OK, mostly, but I want some modern conveniences like a back-up camera and phone connectivity and cruise control. (My current car is totally bare-bones and doesn\u2019t have cruise control.)<\/p>\n That\u2019s the news here. Love you guys and hope you\u2019re doing well! Charlotte, I know you\u2019re busy but I\u2019d love some St. Louis updates when you can!<\/p>\n