As per Informed Delivery, I was made aware that I would be receiving something in the mail from the IRS.

I thought that it would be the check or the debit card that the IRS portal had promised me, because all of that was supposed to start happening and going out on the fifteenth… but nope. This is probably going to be something like what I experienced with the first stimulus check where it took them months to even get it to me, and then they shorted me dependent pay (+2) for months, finally fixing that. I’ve had to threaten to get a hold of my state’s Legal Aid program again, having actually done so when HHSC and the OAG wanted to actively enforce Bub’s child support case in spite of the fact that it is unsafe to do for multiple reasons. The moment that they found out that I had contacted Legal Aid and that Legal Aid was working that up as a possible case, they put his child support case back into non-enforcement, where it has wordlessly stayed ever since. It was only when I threatened Legal Aid’s intervention that they actually did this, too. Blatant.

With any luck, it may be deposited into the bank account that the IRS has on file for me in the next… few days? But if not, I will definitely be contacting someone about the IRS. They have all of my financial information on file. None of this should be taking as long as it is, or it has in general. For fuck’s sake…

Apparently complaining to the right people about this got me desirable results. I like the sound of this.

So far, my bank (since I can’t use the IRS website to verify my identity, not having a credit card and having an ID card so “blurry” that ID.me claims not to be able to read it) claims that they don’t see anything for the Advance Child Tax Credit being deposited into my account. I was eligible for all three stimulus checks, which I got, and I am the only person who can claim either one of my children as dependents — Monster’s father is now permanently denied access to him, and Bub’s father does not have enough overnights to be able to claim him, nor does he have any taxable income. (I’m told he won’t apply for SSI, making matters worse.)

I was going to buy Monster odds and ends with it, and I was going to buy Bub some more video games, but obviously that is pissing itself away since we might not even get the Advance Child Tax Credit to begin with.

I don’t know, though, I can be a bit of a pessimist when I put my whole back into it.

My neck, my back, my Netflix, and my snacks. Because that’s how it goes a lot of the time now.

Until the next time.

Or I actually need it for my asthma or my migraines.

The list goes on.

At any rate, while on prednisone I managed to contract food poisoning or some kind of stomach infection… and if there is one thing that I can not stand, it is the feeling of nausea. I can cope with varying degrees of pain just fine. I can cope with nausea a lot less handily. I guess we’re two for two now in this whole “prednisone caused something that probably would never even have happened in the first place were it not for prednisone”. I don’t think I would have gotten the Staph infection on my leg that I did were it not for prednisone allowing it to become opportunistic enough to become a wound. And I’m almost completely certain of the fact that I would not have come down with food poisoning or whatever stomach infection I continue to work through were it not for actively being on prednisone at the time that it had taken hold, because my diet isn’t that varied. I also don’t eat anything that is raw or hasn’t been maximally cooked.

Weirdly enough, another feeling I can not stand is being too cold or too hot when I am trying to go to sleep.

But I swear, I want this to be one of the last times that I will have needed prednisone… for good.

I’ve begun to open my mind up more to the idea of living somewhere else, preferably in a roommate sort of situation so that things like rent and utilities could be shared. If something like that fell into my lap, I would give it some serious consideration if it were in the right state and there were easily accessible supports and services for disabled individuals. It would be even better if the area in question had a great public transit system or we just happened to live somewhere that allowed us to walk to meet the majority of our goals. Having a low crime rate would be ideal… something that’s lower than the average crime rate of our current location. If I can find something like that, or if — as stated — something falls into my lap, I would give it more consideration. Right now, I’m leaving all of my options open although I’ve made it increasingly clearer that I would not be comfortable inheriting my parents’ house. I don’t think it would be an ideal thing for any of us.

I would actually love to live in a city that I didn’t just plain have to feel apprehensive about.