This is how much we love him

Mark and I, like the responsible middle class well trained citizens we are, started trying to acquire life insurance before Zachary was born. It was on that list of things that was less critical than "diapers" but more critical than say "buy a puppy". Sweet. Columbia, thoughtfully, offers a connection with an insurance provider as well as reasonable rates. Hooray! This should be a cakewalk. We print out the awesome forms which ask sixteen thousand ways "Are you dying? Should we know? Have you died before? Please explain". We filled them out. We posted them off. We had a baby.

And waited.

and waited.

And...

In december, mark got a call from a very nice woman whose job involves wandering around the city and collecting blood and urine samples. She's not a vampire. So she did that.

Still waiting. Just at different stages.

Finally about a month ago Mark calls the aforementioned insurance company and says "Hellooooooo, we were trying to give you money......". He also encounters a representative of this company hawking their wares on a neighborhood street corner.

"Hey you! With the baby! You need life insurance!"

(Mark) "Yeah, I've been trying to get it from your company since BEFORE THE BABY WAS BORN!"

(silence).

Turns out they... had individually stalled out, on both requests, at different stages.

(slaps forehead)

The nice lady returned a weekend ago to draw my blood and supervise peeing in a cup. Mark finally got a letter saying "Thank you. You qualify for the standard rate."

No quote. No further directions. No information.


Except that his underwriter is named "Wilhelmena Wigfall".

I wonder if they use pseudonyms, so people can't find them? One can only hope.

Mark called to try to get further information and was given an eight hundred number to query. He called. It was for the National Union of Electronic Engineers.

I hope this is a moment of his dyslexia. Otherwise we're all in trouble.

UPDATE: Several phone calls later and it was established that the esteemed Ms. Wigfall managed to completely fail to pass on the info of her decision on Mark's request. An info packet (may) be on its way.

PPS: After these two most recent disasters it is difficult to know how to give, where to give, what to give... Especially with the countries being Myanmar & China. After a little bit of poking around, we're giving through AJWS (the American Jewish World Service). We're hoping that their past work in Myanmar will help the aid get to the right place.

Good to know

Apparently Zachary is Zachary and not Zacharina because...
I eat cereal in the morning. Or was eating (quite well) in france when I first got pregnant.

Because boys are harder to grow? Or harder to starve later, so we set the nutritional bar high? The real question here is "MOM, WHY DID YOU TRY TO STARVE ME OUT SO EARLY ON??" *grin*
Right. Just checking.

There aren't many people I want to hit with sticks....

But these people? These people top the list.

My favorite is the woman who "refuses to sacrifice" her children for the greater good.
*insert growl here*

Firstly? Your children ARE the greater good. Secondly? I'm glad your children are so much more important than every other person on the planet. Incredible. Absolutely incredible.And lastly? I wish people would get educated. The diseases that have been effectively erradicated by vaccination are really not things we want hanging about. Because diptheria? Doesn't it sound sort of cute? Yeah, its not.

It is weird, but these vaccines may not have been developed just as an awesome conspiracy to damage our children. I mean, that is a high quality use of resources. But please.

(puts away hitting stick)

My mom is coming today! Back to cleaning. Pictures will, inevitably, follow.

Big Picture Content: Run away!

Ok, this is an itsy bitsy rant. But I'll put in a picture of the baby, so we cool ;)

I know this blog is really only read by like three people, and at least two of you already know about this so.... Skip now *grin*.

I was just reading an article on the new york times, and saw a link here. It's to "Ethos Water" for those of you not newtab clicking as we speak. Buy a bottle of water, help bring clean water to africa. Doesn't that sound faaaantastic? Well no, I think it's a bit crap actually. Because bottling water is bad for everyone, because plastic water bottles are a huge waste disposal issue, and because you can just DONATE MONEY as opposed to buying a product you don't need to donate less money than you would have in the first place. I'm thrilled that philanthropy & environmental awareness are moving up in the public eye. I'm sad that we feel like we have to trick people.

Part of this whole "raise a baby into a person" thing has involved us thinking about who we are and what we want him to learn about the world, on a day to day basis. Like how important it is to giggle ALL THE TIME. Some lessons are a little less obvious than this and we just hope he absorbs them on the more decadal time scale (seriously. Decadel is a word, Mom. I promise.). One of those lessons is tzedakah. And one of the ways we do it is through the One Percent Foundation. Wha? Well, a while back people started tossing this idea around... one percent. I mean, one percent of your income isn't so much, right? But it turns out its a nontrivial amount. I think it started with companies trying to demonstrate they understood the idea of embedding themselves in their communities. And now it has grown to encompass a larger movement - people who are giving at least one percent of their income to move the world forward. Onwards & upwards. Raising all boats. That sort of thing. We belong to OPF and it is a fantastic foundation started by some folks we've known for a long time (Hola, Mike & Daniel!). It is a group of "young people" (thank goodness someone still thinks we're young) investing our money and pooling it to increase the impact of our giving. It is just getting off the ground and growing so... click over. Check it out. And even if you don't jump on board with the awesomeness, it is the sort of awesomeness you can do ALL BY YOURSELF. And it will still be awesome. Find a group who you want to get behind. Help that old lady across the street. Don't push someone onto the subway tracks.

Do more than buy a bottle of water :)