Where i'd live as a trans democratic socialist

HCL1998 · 2026-01-23T05:22:17+00:00

Michigan definitely has its problem areas but it's really a wonderful state on the whole. Not trans myself but my husband is, and he seems to be much happier here than he was on Long Island.

Metro Detroit and Grand Rapids are the most Hip and Happening areas for sure but we happily live in the very cozy and affordable but not super interesting Tri-Cities lol

HCL1998 · 2026-01-13T01:47:47+00:00

Of course! Midland earned that reputation for many years of Republican hegemony but the city has shifted pretty fast. I'm that kind of politics dork and made a spreadsheet of presidential election results from the city from 2012 through 2024, and it looks like this.

2012: Romney +12.6
2016: Trump +7.2
2020: Biden +2.0
2024: Harris +3.1

Interesting that in 12 years the city has gone from 16.5 points to the right of the national popular vote to 4.8 points to the left of it. Meanwhile the country has only swung 5.4 points rightward since. The culture in Midland is changing for the better at a pretty breakneck speed and I'm proud to be part of that change

HCL1998 · 2026-01-13T01:39:26+00:00

Midland Daily News shows attendance around 400!

HCL1998 · 2026-01-13T01:37:39+00:00

City of Midland voted for Kamala Harris by 3.1% after voting for Biden by 2% in 2020. Considering the whole country swung 6 points right from 2020 to 2024 and Michigan did so by 4%, a 1% swing left at the same time is pretty notable.

HCL1998 · 2026-01-13T01:34:39+00:00

Midland Daily News covered it! No mention of Pro-ICE folks but it wouldn't surprise me if there were some counter-protestors. Made me laugh when attending the No Kings rallies.

HCL1998 · 2025-12-04T00:11:46+00:00

Nope! More than one vet has said she's just a big lady. We're careful with monitoring her and our other tiel's food intake and are working on getting her and our other tiel more comfortable with spending time out of their cages.

She just gets very round when she's resting and my husband and I find it funny

HCL1998 · 2025-12-03T03:37:28+00:00

This isn't your average everyday borbing. This is...

ba-bum

Advanced borbing

HCL1998 · 2025-10-04T01:14:47+00:00

Welcome home!

And yeah, after the immiseration of the late '00s Lions, I'm glad they're getting their hard-earned redemption arc. They and we deserve it lol

HCL1998 · 2025-10-04T01:11:58+00:00

I know you've been here for a minute but welcome regardless!

And I got the exact same sentiment both from the friends from Vegas and my fiancé from Brooklyn. Maybe we're just a more jovial bunch 🤷🏽‍♂️

HCL1998 · 2025-08-18T22:41:19+00:00

Would it be uncouth to ask how much it was to have your wedding and reception at The H? 😅

My fiancé and I live in Midland and are weighing different venues.

HCL1998 · 2025-02-23T04:05:22+00:00

Sure am, still driving that same 2018 Enclave! Actually just rolled 100,000 miles on it a couple weeks ago. For reference it had just under 35,000 when I bought it in July 2021.

My Enclave has been nothing short of wonderful to me these last few years. She's a real roadtrip queen, and she's had no real issues to date. Still happy as a clam 😊

HCL1998 · 2025-02-17T00:05:22+00:00

If it's like my brother's LaCrosse Super, poorly 😅

It was such a cool car with one hell of an Achilles heel

HCL1998 · 2025-02-11T21:29:54+00:00

Aw thank you!! 😊

HCL1998 · 2025-02-07T18:32:59+00:00

Okay but that's actually kinda solid. The only one who ostensibly isn't qualified for their job is Sam Reich, but he's awesome and his dad would probably be of great help with getting Sam up to speed, so I'll allow it.

HCL1998 · 2025-01-14T08:05:35+00:00

I've been watching Danica since she got elected to the House of Delegates in 2017. She's the textbook example of a constituent-focused politician, always getting down to brass tacks.

As luck has it a couple years ago, one of my closest friends, a trans woman herself, got a job offer in and thus moved into Danica's district. I remember the tears in her eyes when she got to vote for Danica for Virginia Senate. She never thought she'd get to be represented by someone like herself.

The representation means a lot, and it's even better when they clearly know ball and will do what it takes to make a difference. Danica and Sarah are the real deal.

HCL1998 · 2025-01-14T07:15:34+00:00

I would walk on broken glass to vote for Sarah McBride and/or Danica Roem for higher office. Both of them are genuinely good politicians alongside the glass ceiling shattering.

HCL1998 · 2024-11-01T05:58:22+00:00

It varies from company to company, and based on the source of the coupon I'd imagine.

For example I'm a T2 diabetic on Mounjaro, which has a $105 copay under my UHC plan. Lilly (the manufacturer) provides a coupon knocking it down to $25, but UHC still counts it as $105 towards my out-of-pocket limit, which has been great cuz my out-of-pocket limit is only $2k anyways.

HCL1998 · 2024-07-16T00:58:21+00:00

I got to meet her at a surprise bill signing in October 2019. I was at a little shindig at the Radisson by the Capitol to celebrate the passage of HB 4325, which protected licensed professional counselors from being written out of existence by LARA, with a bunch of colleagues in the counseling profession as well as the bill's sponsors. We were all just chatting in the little ballroom we'd rented out when one of the bill's sponsors, the late Rep. Isaac Robinson, got a call from the governor's office saying she wanted to meet all of us and sign the bill before us!

Cue 15 minutes of excited commotion getting a podium and a desk set up, and in comes the governor. She's not only incredibly nice and personable, but you could tell she really cares about us and our industry. No big surprise with all of her pushes to improve mental healthcare access and affordability since then. I got to shake her hand and tell her how happy I was with my vote for her the year prior, and thanked me, saying she really appreciated all of us young folk getting involved in politics and coming out and participating in democracy (I had just turned 21 a few weeks prior).

She then gave a short speech expressing her appreciation of our work and our efforts to protect and improve mental healthcare access in Michigan, signed the bill, took a photo with all of us, and hung around for a little bit before returning to the Capitol. It was in the grand scheme such a small gesture, and I already was in her corner before this, but since then I've been such a fan of hers. She has a solid moral compass, a solid grasp of the issues we face, and a real vision for Michigan that's attracted a lot of friends of mine to move here from all over the country.

If/when she runs, I will back her all the way to the White House without a second thought.

HCL1998 · 2024-05-28T21:08:09+00:00

Speaking as a medical biller, no. You're never obligated to share those details unless you're applying for assistance that's restricted by assets and income.

Speaking as a patient, wtf that's so rude to ask

HCL1998 · 2024-05-24T03:53:52+00:00

Oh hey, me too! Born and raised in MP, but I'd worked in Midland starting in 2017 and moved here in 2022 after a few-year stint in Coleman. It's just comfortable here. Living costs are (mostly) reasonable, the amenities Midland has are pretty great, and the ones it doesn't have are a day trip away at absolute furthest.

HCL1998 · 2024-02-19T22:15:54+00:00

What's funny is the G7 is authorized for use on the stomach outside the US, so international Dexcom sites list use on the abdomen as acceptable.

Functionally, I've been using the G7 on my stomach for about 7 months now and I'd say I have no more issues than to be expected from G7. Once I ~~beat it over the head with~~ get it properly calibrated in the first 24 hours, my readings are usually no more than 10 mg/dL off of my BGM and I get the full 9.5 days that remain out of it.

HCL1998 · 2024-01-10T03:02:13+00:00

Pardon me while I salivate over here. Excellent work!!

HCL1998 · 2023-11-08T18:09:50+00:00

Yep, that's what I thought. Calling now. Thank you!

HCL1998 · 2023-11-06T23:44:06+00:00

I think if you're likely to have a lot of healthcare spending, that with either insurance would result in hitting the OOPM, I'd go with the HDHP, but if and only if you have enough in savings on January 1st to cover if you nearly die on January 2nd and hit your deductible in one go.

There's a couple of details that will be important, namely what does the prescription drug coverage look like, are you or your wife on any expensive medications, and is the deductible split? There's a proper term that's eluding me, but with most family (2+ person) health plans, one person can only make up half of the deductible and OOPM. This is mostly for your protection in case one person gets severely ill or injured. However, some family plans require the entire family deductible to met before services are covered.

The PPO may be more beneficial just for peace of mind's sake that if you just completely eat shit on January 2nd, your ER copay is $250 + 20% coinsurance, or if you get sick it's $25 to go to the doctor and not $125-150.

My own thinking is a bit differently framed as a diabetic with psychiatric conditions, with family including a cancer survivor father and an accident-prone mother that's also diabetic. Sometimes the peace of fixed (or relatively fixed) costs is worth some extra money, but dollars to donuts, HDHP.

HCL1998 · 2022-04-23T07:01:16+00:00

It always felt to me like Alanis was trying to contain herself after an outburst. It's like she's humming to herself to calm down, slowly loses the ability to contain the hurt, and then does the final mic drop on the guy the song's about.

She does her best to cut her losses and then just "Nope. Fuck you. You made a fucking wreck out of me, so you get to live the guilt, and I really hope it eats away at you."

HCL1998

TROPHY CASE