Please!...Don't call 911

As some of my former roommates and most of my friends can attest, there was a time in my life when I suffered from a fate worse than death...Bad Health Insurance. I'm not talking about the HMO nightmare, "But I don't want to take generic drugs!" I'm talking about there was only one doctor in town who took my insurance and he had a tooth growing out of his ear. That's why when walking across a street I used the phrase, "Please don't hit me, my insurance is bad."

My insurance was so bad it didn't cover the cost of an ambulance (at the time $400). All my roommates knew the drill. DO NOT call an ambulance for me unless you thought I was really going to die...and was unconscious...and not breathing...and you'd already tried CPR. Because I knew I couldn't afford the cost of the ambulance and I didn't want anyone to be able to ask me for my insurance card. Sample conversation:

(Me holding a napkin to a gushing head wound)
Kumiko: Tanika do you want me to call an ambulance?
Me: No that's ok I'm good.
Kumiko:(worried) but you're losing blood fast and could die.
Me: I'm good the bus is coming in 45 minutes.

And until yesterday I thought I was one of a kind. While working at the mathnasium a kid came in and told us that while he was walking up a lady fell from the top of the building a couple doors down and was laying on the sidewalk. I asked if anyone had called for an ambulance. He said yes, but she told them not too. The woman was clearly hurt but didn't want an ambulance to come. When the ambulance showed up I saw something I didn't expect to see in my entire life. When the ambulance came the woman refused it. I said the woman REFUSED THE AMBULANCE! Clearly needed the ambulance, but refused it. WHY in the name of all that's good and holy did she refuse? Because she couldn't afford it. I just wanna say to the lady with the broken back. I hear you sista, I hear you.

Now this is totally random but my friend Anna posted on her blog about an all to frequent occurence that happens when you have a crush on someone, but spend just a little too much time with them. As this has happened to me recently I found it all too true.

Blactoid: As an avid reader two of my favorite author's are Toni Morrison and Mildred D. Taylor. Toni Morrison was the first black woman to recieve a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. While both authors portray the life of black women living in an extremely racist environment, Morrison's writing is grittier and more poignant. As a budding writer on occasion, I'm encouraged to read work by women who aren't afraid to talk about contraversial subjects especially during a time when people would rather sweep things under a rug and forget about them.