Time to exercise my right to be completely confused and frustrated.

Yes folks, it's time to think about open enrollment and the election process!

The system must be against us because in the month of November, you have to make all your health and insurance decisions for the coming year as well as vote!

Either of these two events can cause a sane person to run away screaming. Which explains why most people just go with what they already know. In the matter of health insurance (if you're lucky enough to even have it) most folks don't even bother to look at the package and continue with the plan that they already have. Even if it no longer fits their needs! Well, I don't really have a choice this year. I have several changes happening next year and I have to make my decisions now to account for those changes. The first change being that my rates are going up. Apparently, my monthly dues are going up 60%. That lil shocker isn't going to kill me, but it's going to mean at least one more of my bagel (plain and toasted) lunches, at the cost of $1.80. This is how I save some money and fill up my tummy. Hey, welcome to the life of the a poor and unknown. Okay, maybe I'm not THAT poor, but you know what I mean.

Second major change happening next year, I'm moving up to Seattle! That lil fact means that I'm going to be leaving my job and since my job is currently providing health insurance to my husband (or domestic partner, thanks to our marriage in 2004 being nullified), the husband will have to get his own health and life insurance. Open enrollment is the time to make all these changes folks.


I've been trying to get as much information about the plans and fees so I can make an informed choice, but of course, that's not possible. That information is only going to be available on November 1, 2006. Then you have about three weeks to read it all up and make your decisions.

So while I'm trying to make decisions on my health care and how much to pay for it, along comes the Election. This one is going to be a big one too. Ahnold is up for re-election and it looks to be pretty ugly. Already the ads to choose the Democratic candidate showed how ugly this fight can get. With Angelides and Westly slinging so much mud in the air and on paper that the voters can't tell the difference between the two! The Republicans already have Ahnold and of course want him to stay in power, but does anybody else?

Me? I'm all for the luck of the dice. I see that there are six candidates on the ballot, and five more write-in candidates, for a total of 11 candidates. So what's a sensible thinking responsible voter supposed to do? I'm going to trust the fates. This of course is all due to the fact that I play Dungeons and Dragons (as well as other Role Playing Games *RPG*) and have so much experience rolling dice, that I'm comfortable with letting the toss of the dice decide my destiny.

This isn't as crazy as it may seem. The first thing I do is read up on all the candidates. i decided in a previous years that I can't stand the two major parties, so decided back then to be a part of neither and registered as an Independent. It was liberating actually and I have no problem with voting for whoever I like. Sometimes it's Democratic, sometimes it's Republican, sometimes it's Green, etc. So this year, with all the ickiness in the polls, it really comes down to if I like what the individual candidates are saying (or not saying in some cases). i look up as much information as I can find in the public domain and the candidates that say things I like hearing, get a number on my dice. Once I have all the faces of my die (singular for dice), I throw it. (I have a program that will create any number of side dice)

No, I'm not going to tell you what I'm voting, that's for me to know and you to guess at. But i will say that it's something that I never thought I would be voting for.

I really like this way of voting. Once all the information is gathered and the decision is still not clear, let the fates decide!

At least this way, I can say that I voted, unlike a lot of "Citizens". It's really a cop-out for me actually, because no matter who wins, I'll only have to live with that decision at the most, a few months, then I'm outta here, since I'm moving to Seattle.

Decision Oh Six
The toss of da die decides
Match made in heaven?

AiYahh!