It must be the feeling of spring in the air, but I’m getting the itch to live out my digital nomad dreams and travel Europe. The last time I felt this way, I wrote out an elaborate three month itinerary. But I am also sensible and don’t wish to quit a fairly flexible, health insurance-providing salaried job. (I’ve also considered changing jobs stateside, which is a separate topic, but after looking and applying around have concluded that the grass isn’t always greener…) Nevertheless, the wanderlust is once more upon me. Fortunately, my cousin and I are planning a trip this summer to the south of France beH, which is a great outlet for this feeling. I’ve also just reserved some time off work for the week following Succos (yes, this is how planning works in the wide world – haha). There are several places that might work for that week – Alsace is the one I have in mind at the moment, but that is seven months off and who knows where I will even be in the world at that point.
This week I decided to take on the project of Medicare credentialing. This is the process of becoming a Medicare provider. Last year I credentialed with a bunch of insurances through a platform called Headway, but the platform made me feel overwhelmed (many therapists do like it!) and I wanted to be more independent, so I ended up closing my account. I put private practice on hold while certifying as a Journal to the Self instructor and giving my first two courses, but now I’m ready to work on private practice again. Since there is a shortage of therapists who accept Medicare (probably for good reason, haha), and I love working with the older adult population, I decided to start there. The application was a hassle and a half – the interface looks like it hasn’t been updated since 1985 – but I submitted it. I’ll follow up in a couple of weeks to make sure I submitted what I think I did!
This process also entailed setting up a business checking account for electronic payments from Medicare (somewhat of a process), which entailed getting an EIN (this only took a moment), so that’s done too.
The next business-y item on my to do list is to set up a website for my journaling business which I really must do. I think the tech of it is what’s feeling overwhelming to me. I’ve been told to use Wix and to purchase a domain name. Do you have any insight?
In some other weekly tidbits, this week I took a train to the World Trade Center station for an appointment in the area, and I fell in love with the station (haha). It is called the Oculus and it’s so airy and white – it reminds me of the scene at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows when Harry is in the in-between space and refers to it as “King’s Cross.” I mean, the Oculus is also a shopping mall, so not a perfect comparison, but it felt so vastly different from my usual destination of Penn Station.
Also, I went out with two friends for a birthday this week. The lava cake we shared for dessert was gooey and perfect – I hadn’t had one of those in a while!
And that’s it for now, folks! Wishing you a restful Shabbos.
(Photo credit: Nils Rotura/Pexels)
