Have you ever heard of a "Crazy Check?" Where I'm from...that's what they call the supplemental security income payments people get for having a disability. I stopped messing with someone for using their child to get a crazy check and, quite honestly, I haven't said BOO to her since.

“There are three different ways children can collect Social Security or SSI disability benefits. All of the benefits discussed here are cash benefits paid to disabled children or to the children of disabled or retired workers.

Low-income disabled children. Disabled children whose families have low income can collect Supplemental Security Income (SSI) until they are 18, at which point they might be eligible to start collecting adult SSI benefits. Children who are approved for SSI disability can also receive Medicaid.

Children who don’t qualify for SSI. Children who are younger than 18 (or 19 if a full-time student) and have a parent who is currently receiving Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) or Social Security retirement benefits (or who had earned enough Social Security credits to earn one of these benefits before dying) may be able to collect dependents benefits based on their parents’ records, whether they are disabled or not.

Adults disabled since childhood. Disabled children who are older than 18 but who became disabled before they turn 22 can collect disability benefits if they have a parent collecting Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) or Social Security retirement income (or a deceased parent who was entitled to one of these benefits before their death). ”

— http://www.disabilitysecrets.com/resources/disability/child-disability/social-security-disability-be

See, she would rather have her child labeled with a disability instead of getting up off her azz and getting a job because she has fifty lleven reasons why she can't keep a job.

Fifty lleven and now...THREE kids.

She never thought about what that would mean for the child's educational development, etc. She just did whatever was necessary to get that crazy check. That free money. She learned how to get a crazy check from her mother, who received a crazy check for her back in the day. They fell out over her crazy check when she was about 16 and learned about the crazy check and she started cashing her crazy check herself.

GET.MONEY.

When she turned 18, she applied for a crazy check as an adult and was DENIED, DENIED, DENIED.

GO.GET.A.JOB! Or go to somebody's school. Oh...but wait...you never learned anything in school because you were "disabled" and took special classes structured just for you.

o_0

No biggie...she immediately had a kid and BLOOP! Signed him up for a crazy check. The child was slow...yada...yada. Well...he was was slow because no one read to him or worked with him or did any of the things a parent does with a child.

Unless that parent was just trying to get a crazy check.

Okay...moving on. (I despise that heffa.)

There are two separate type of social security funds. Retirement and disability.

RETIREMENT:

People who work put 6.2 percent of their earnings into social security. The maximum amount is $113k. If you're self-employed, the law states that you have to put 12.4 percent of your income into social security. That money stacks and stacks and stacks. When it's time for you to start "drawing" your social security, they take a mean average of your top 35 years of earnings and use that to calculate how much money you'll get a year issued in 12 equal installments.

The age to start getting your money is 67 but...if you wait until you're 70...your payments will be bigger.

This is the MAIN reason why we have social security numbers so they can keep track of how much money we earn and pay into the system.

DISABILITY:

All employees and employers pay payroll taxes. You know...Mr. FICA. (Remember the first time you saw how much Mr. FICA took out your check? UGH! Eye.Opener!) Disability insurance is paid for out of those funds. So yeah...WE THE PEOPLE pay for people who get a crazy check. Now...yes...there are PLENTY of for real disabled people who really need and deserve to receive these benefits so they don't live in poverty. I mean...we don't want to be those people who don't want to take care of those who genuinely can't take care of themselves right?

RIGHT.

But them other people? OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!

(I know, I know...I get special behind this.)

So yeah...we pay for those checks that go out once a month.

Now...why am I talking about this? Well...because the Republicans are trying to get those crazy checks and ALL.OTHER DISABILITY CHECKS shut down-t.

No more checks!

CHECK CASHING PLACES ALL OVER ARE TREMBLING IN THEIR PARKING LOTS!

Since the beginning of social security being established, they have transferred money from the retirement fund to the disability fund and vice versa 11 times. No biggie. It supposedly always balanced out.

Eventually.

Alright. So...prices keep going up on the cost of living but Republicans have the core belief that taxes shouldn't be raised no matter what. Well...if taxes aren't raised, but living keeps getting more expensive well...where are you going to get the money from in order to continue to support the funds?

Enter cuts.

Tom Reed, Republican Congressman from New York, has sponsored a bill that intends to root out fraud, waste and abuse within the system and cut the abusers off. In his words...unless you are "catastrophically disabled" you should be able to be moved into a job.

Even if you've been crazy check groomed from day one and know nothing about nothing except when your check gets there on the first...you can pay your bills.

There are 9 million people on disability. No telling how many of them are NOT catastrophically disabled.

If there were a true way of rooting out fraud, waste and abuse I say go for it. I want faux crazy check people to get the boot! Sure I'm worried about what they will do once they don't get their crazy checks anymore but I'm safe since I won't be in charge of figuring that out.

These are the types of areas where I'm EXTREMELY conservative in thought. Laying up and getting hard working tax payers to give you something for doing nothing makes my damn teeth itch. If they came up with a way to do it right...I have not one problem with it.

Do I think they will do it right however? Nah. LOL! I don't have faith in any politician to do anything the right way for the right reasons. They might want to...but I understand that it's not as black and white as I hope these types of things can be.

This will be an interesting one to watch.

Do you know anyone who receives SSI? Do you know anyone who does but you don't think should? If they got cut off...do you think they would be able to get a job?

T-Monnie

January 17, 2015

Favorite Recipes

Italian Sausage, Potato and Collard Green Soup!

T-Monnie

January 17, 2015

Favorite Recipes

I had a bunch of stuff but no recipe that included all of the stuff I had and wanted some soup. Some HEARTY soup. The kind of soup that you wanted multiple bowls of in one sitting. Because of my current grocery shopping limitations I've learned to simply make it do what it do and use what I have.

That said...I started tossing some stuff together in a way that made sense and WOW! It was so good, I had to stop and take a picture mid-bowl so I could tell yall about it!

So...this is what I did. I'll try and write it out like a for real recipe. LOL!

Ingredients:

Bacon grease. :)
Italian sausage (Remove from casing. I used turkey and it was the spicy kind.)
4 large potatoes (peeled and diced)
8 cups of chicken stock (yall know I swear by Herb Ox)
1 large yellow onion (diced)
4 cloves of garlic (minced)
2 cups heavy whipping cream
Bunch of collards (cleaned, stripped and cut into manageable strips)
Seasoning (Tony Chachere, red pepper flakes, parsley)

Add enough bacon grease to the bottom of the pot to saute onions and add onions and the sausage. Chop up sausage as it cooks. Cook until sausage is done.

Add chicken stock, garlic and seasoning (go light on the Tony Chachere as Italian sausage can be a bit salty), bring to boil.

Add potatoes and cook for about 20 minutes on medium high.

Add collards and cook for 10 more minutes.

Stir in cream.

Serve up a bowl.

Post up like a SUPASTAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Remember to work with what you have. Soup is easy. If you don't have heavy cream, use milk with a bit of flour to thicken it. You know how to do it. If you don't...send me a message and I'll see how I can help you. All good cooks started off wrong. LOL!

T-Monnie

January 16, 2015

Family Framily Friends, Holidays!, Life Be Life'ing

A Love Note to My Best Girlfriend

T-Monnie

January 16, 2015

Family Framily Friends, Holidays!, Life Be Life'ing

Kneipp Herbal Bath Valerian & Hops Deep Sleep

I haven't been in a good place for a while now even though I've been trying to power through it. Those who truly love me know this and have been being patient with me and my shit. I can't explain what it's like being around me when I'm not me you know? See...being me is this powerful ball of energy and light. I can always find the best of it all and have a good time no matter what. When you have access to me regularly you kinda get used to that so being around the absolute opposite spectrum of that for months on end can take a toll on you. You can start forgetting the good bits of me because they are so far from the surface. When I'm quiet it can be a struggle to find words to fill in the gaps and, those I love love me for all the right reasons. Not because of what I have done or can do for them. Not because of people I know or places I go. Not for anything other than the feelings they get being around me. The love they know I willingly share and can sometimes cloak them with.

Christmas Eve arrived with my not having purchased a single thing for anyone or even food for the dinner party we were hosting. I kept meaning to start. I kept picking up my keys, my wallet...I kept being inactive. Robby decided that he'd go with me to help make it all happen and we did so even after having a family emergency health scare.

I'd made lists of what I wanted to do and of what I had every intention of doing but lists mean nothing on Christmas Eve when the lines are long the shopping scare because of location and because the rest of the world has completed their lists and have their fabulous gifts wrapped under the trees waiting to exchange their thoughtfulness with those who deserve their thoughtfulness.

Me? I did what I could knowing that we had guests arriving at 6:30pm and my menu consisted of standing prime rib roast, a natural ham and all the trimmings and fixings and Lord...all I truly wanted was my mommy and my daddy and my brothers and tree with trimmings and blue and silver decorations and noise and noise and noise and hustling, bustling and noise, noise, sweet glorious noise of happy and excited children and parents.

I craved noise in the silence of our life. In a life without chaos. With complete order around me at all times.

The pace I set for myself on Christmas Eve was crazy and only a crazy person would do it but I didn't want to let anyone down so I made it all happen and it was good. It was a good thing. We ate, we drank, we were merry. I snuck away to wrap gifts for those in attendance. Gifts my depression forced me to make do with and they all smiled politely and oohed and ahhed properly because that's what people who love you do. They look at you knowing the truth of who you want to be. Who you would be if you could just push past it all. All the demons and disappointments you've allowed to heap on you and beat you down into a tiny bit of the tiniest of all you are and you smile with them knowing that this is the greatest gift they could ever give you. That they could see through it down into the heart of who you are and not judge you solely on today and not take it personally and not make your shit about them.

Because it's your shit. It's my shit.

And it's only about me.

And you use that to do things that would be humiliating to some with your stats because you know it will always be a struggle to do what you love. But you do it with a smile and a pleasant attitude so you're unthreatening. So you can have access to those you need to have access to in order to get to that next step.

Depression can fuck up so much and sometimes I wonder if it's really the thing that gets you or...is it the circumstances of it all that brings the depression to you. And that makes me think too deeply about the cause of it all.

My best girlfriend is one of God's most precious gifts to me. For Christmas, she gave me the most awesome of the awesome things. A box of them really. A box of awesome that seemed to never stop. Everything was magical. One thing after the other. Thoughtful things that she hoped, wish and probably prayed would get me back to being me. The kind of stuff others would never get me because well...they don't GET me.

A box filled with relaxation, good sleep, warm feelings and guilty pleasures.

Her gifts are always so amazing and why I will always buy her things for no reason...just because I saw it and thought of her.

Last night, after a long four days, I used one of the gifts and took a hot bath. I got into bed with the television on a thirty minute timer and I snuggled up next to my Robinator. I was asleep within 5 minutes. A deep, relaxing almost comatose sleep. Satisfying.

When I got up this morning, I stretched languorously and felt the power I often feel flowing through my body as I'm planning out my next steps and moves. As I'm shaking off that doubt that shows up sometimes even though I know perfectly well what I'm capable of. I laughed at the things that happened this week. The nail in my tire. My husband in the driveway at 5:00am in the morning changing the tire. My pumping gas in the dark standing there with cold rain sliding down my face making the cold colder. The makeup I don't wear breaking me out. My hair being damaged by someone who doesn't know how or care how to be gentle with my hair. The noise, the noise, the noise. The constant back-and-forth reaching out for something I know I can see. The lines when I DON'T.DO.LINES.

On this day I'm so grateful for my best girlfriend. That she GETS me even when the knowledge of who I am at that exact moment makes her want to strangle the shit out of me. I'm grateful she knows that when I'm lost...I haven't forgotten who I am...I'm just struggling to get back there.

I'm grateful that I have no ego about many things others would have.

I'm grateful that I know how to use my resources, even the simple one of being a cute girl, properly.

I'm grateful for my husband, the perfection that is truly him as he props me up, no matter what, with his strong shoulders and pushes me outside my comfort zone so he can watch me, once again, fly.

I'm grateful for all those who love me. The ones who aren't put off by the unanswered phone calls, texts and emails. The ones who don't take it personally. The ones who don't try to make my shit...about them.

Because it's not.

I love you.

I love yall.

Sometimes, however...I have to tuck in and rebuild and that's hard to do. So very, very hard.

T-Monnie

January 16, 2015

In the News NOW!

Papa Johns

T-Monnie

January 16, 2015

In the News NOW!

Disclaimer: I don't eat Papa John's pizza. Even if they sold gluten-free organic pizza...I still wouldn't eat there because I think the owner is a dick.

So...a Papa John's employee was delivering pizza and then robbed at gunpoint.

She pulled out her gun and shot him in the face.

Papa John's policy is that employees are not allowed to carry firearms while working.

The robber dude ran away and the police found him in someone's yard and arrested him.

Papa John's has decided to not fire the employee and will instead transfer her to another position.

Betwix you and me...I hope that job is HEAD.DAMN.GUNSLINGER.EXTRAORDINARE!!!!!!!!!

That's all. I had not one problem with her shooting that little shit. She shoulda stood over him yelling "PIZZA, PIZZA!"

SIP: That's not Papa John's slogan, that's Little Caesar's slogan.

Me: Semantics.

What say you? You have a problem with any of this? Should they have fired her for breaking company rules?