I don't know where to begin…it has beed a weird week.  I have been all stressed out trying to plan for the changes in my income and my health insurance.  I also am overdrawn in my checking and have a disconnection notice for my electric.  Needless to say I spent all of Monday at DSS trying to get help for my electric and all they could offer me was a loan.  A freaking loan.  I can't pay all my bills now.  It prompted me to ask my landlord to include it in my rent and he said he would but my rent went up $60.  I still have to go through with the loan because the way it works here is if there is a balance due for this apartment when he puts it in his name then he will have to pay it so I don't want that to happen, he shouldn't be resposible for my bill, so I am taking the freaking loan and then he is putting the bill in his name.  It also means that I am going to spend the day at DSS again because I need to take some additional information to the emergency case worker and then find out the specifics about the loan.  I also am going to need a new landlord statement so my landlord can fill it out with my new rent for Medicaid.  Tuesday I spent my day at DSS again applying for Medicaid.  I waited all that time for someone to take all my papers and make copies and then told me I should get a letter within 2 weeks.  About what exactly I have no idea.  Hopefully it will include the name of my case worker.  Then I spent wednesday calling all over the county looking for information on a medicaid spend down and found out that I can set that money aside into a trust and that will make me eligible for medicaid and then the trust will pay a recurring bill with the funds.  That was good news.  There are some fees associated with the trust but compared to just handing the money over to DSS its great.  But after this spend down/trust my income will be $767 a month and my rent will be $535 a month.  That does not leave much to live on.  So a neighbor told me I should apply for some rental assistance.  This group of phone calls was the most frustrating.  I first called shelter care plus because I was told that I needed a mental health diagnosis to be eligible.  Well that is not true and the real case is that you have to be a homless drug addict.  The woman there was so rude.  I asked if she had any suggestions because I am not a drug addict and I want to prevent myself from being homeless.  All she said in reply was "I have to get off the phone now."  Nice huh?  So I called section 8 and there is a five year waiting list but it was suggested that I get on it anyway. So that is another stop I have to make today. The woman at Section 8 was way nicer than the other lady.  She gave me a list of places to call.  Well as I called them I got more and more discouraged and stressed out.  Finally I made it to the director of the housing program at Catholic Charities.  She made a point several times that she never talks to clients and no one should have given her number out.  But she was very helpful and she explained that I need to be referred to the program by a therapist at CHBS and I have an appointment there on thursday next week.  She even estimated what my portion of the rent will be based on my income after the medicaid spendown.  It was a great releif to finally get some positive answers.  But I am still stressed about the whole process.  I am nervous about meeting another new counselor, at least I will have a choice about which one I like better.  The one I have been seeing at the samaritans or the new one I will meet at CHBS.  I have been so scared about how I would make it through the fall and winter and if this works out it will be a huge relief.  I hope my landlord goes for it.  I am still feeling very anxious and overwhelmed by this whole process (but at least I feel like I have made some progress).  As for the title of my blog…I couldn't think of anything so its about my dog…I love her a lot.  Frankly she has saved my life many times.  I tried to upload a photo but was having some trouble.