i love meeting people who have been through enough to know that life's too short to keep kindness to yourself. Today i was told by a sweet elderly lady (to whom i was a total stranger) that i had the eyes of a child. then she told a nurse how pretty she thought her eyelashes were. she said she had been looking at people's eyes since she was diagnosed with glaucoma. she just started noticing people's eyes and was fascinated by them. obviously, she was also of the opinion that people should hear kind words. 

some people withdraw when life hits them, others love it more every time.

i want to be the second kind when i grow up.

lambs

the plan for today's lesson was to make a lamb. i mean, Easter is coming, it is quite obvious that we'd be making a lamb. so we ended up with a whole flock. and a sheepdog. dog designed and made by the girls, complete with red tongue, floppy ears, 3D hat, and an attendance list (with pencil) to keep track of the sheep. 

lamb pyramid

noone will convince me that working with kids isn't therapeutic :o)

obamacare

i am fully aware that this post might shock some of my friends. but don't worry, i have not become a liberal. i'm just trying to make sense of what i see. i found out about something and i've got some questions. not many. so, make yourself comfortable, take a deep breath, and make sure you have a refreshing drink handy.


i used to think that obamacare was an introduction of the sort of government (i.e. mandatory federal tax) funded social healthcare system we here in eastern europe long to get rid of and don't seem to be able to. now let me make something clear. in this system, employees only get 55% of what their employers spend on them. the remaining 45% goes to their health insurance and retirement plan (so if your employer can afford spending, say, $24,000/year on you, you'd only see $13,200 of it (minus income tax) - the other $10,800 goes to your healthcare and retirement.) this is mandatory and goes to the government. if you are self-employed, there is a flat health tax, currently in the equivalent of more-less $300/month, which you must pay, whether you make any money or not. this health insurance covers basic healthcare plus most specialist and a lot of hospital care, but not all of it. you have a very limited choice of quality, since most good doctors, especially dentists and other specialists, choose private practice where they can charge much more than they'd get paid by the government, and which offers much better working environment. so if you want to see a good doctor who really knows what he or she is doing, or an expert therapist, you have to pay cash. this is not covered by your government health insurance and you don't get a refund. you can sign a contract with a private clinic or get private health coverage, but neither relieves you from being "health taxed" by the government. this "socialist" system gives almost everyone (including those registered as unemployed, but not those working on commission contracts!) access to poor healthcare. good healthcare is available to those who still have enough left after their "health tax", i.e. the above-average income crowd.


so this is what i thought obamacare mandated. everyone to get under government health insurance. that would be putting her on the fast track to doom. i know some of you'll probably say she's already there, but trust me, she's still got a way to go. anyway. what i found out, just recently, is that the mandate is to get under ANY insurance. private or government. the argument for it being that the people who choose not to get insurance end up needing medical attention sooner or later, and when they do, you're not gonna just let them die, right? and somebody has to pay for the healthcare they receive? so who pays for it? because they sure don't. so who? the clinics and hospitals who accept them? the state budget? the federal budget? hey, in that case why get insurance at all when somebody else'll pay for me in the end if i don't? the way i see it - and correct me if i'm wrong - this bill, among other things, forces everyone to take responsibility for their own medical bills. what's unrepublican about that? i mean, i can see how it'd scare the conservative mind to be told by the government to do anything at all. but maybe forcing people to be responsible isn't so bad? after all, it isn't very republican to burden public budget with irresponsible people's medical bills. this needs to be solved, either way. if you don't like it, do you have another solution? are there any alternative ideas from the conservative side, or contest alone? 


i know there is much more to this bill, but this is what i understand as the main controversy. please do correct me if i'm wrong. also, i hope someone out there can tell me that the GOP isn't just blocking everything the dems come up with, but that there are alternative ideas and actual debate. the u.s. constitution would never have been written if everyone just kept contesting each other's input...


oh, and here are a few helpful figures, some of them a bit disturbing: 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/27/us-usa-court-healthcare-idUSBRE82P03K20120327


i totally forgot to write about auntie. i'll try to remember to do it soon. hopefully, i still remember what i wanted to say...