Peter's Place

Why Are We Rushing the Year Away? This is really me, everything else is AI-generated. The holiday pause we’ve misplaced Bloomfield, CT —  We are officially two weeks away from the New Year. The calendar still clearly reads “December,” yet if you look around at the collective mindset, it feels as though we have already fast-forwarded to January 1st. We haven't even unwrapped the Christmas gifts or lit the final Hanukkah candles, yet the noise of “New Year, New Me” resolutions and Q1 planning is already deafening. Why are we acting like the New Year is already here? This is not just nostalgia talking; it is a yearning for a different pace of life. There was a time when people genuinely took their time. The holiday season was a distinct container of time—a pause button on the chaotic soundtrack of life—where the primary objective was simply to experience joy, connection, and—for...

[Updated 25 June 2017 at 7:20 pm EDT with information on driver requirements and safety features] As someone who's been using ride-sharing technology from apps such as  Lyft  and  Uber  for the past few years, I see a lot of misconceptions and misperceptions about them, especially by people who've never used them. Here are my thoughts, based on my real life experiences after having taken hundreds of rides with both services over the past few years. I'm not merely responding to the hype surrounding them based on stories I've read or heard about but my actual experiences. People are afraid of technology and have a tendency demonize anything new and disruptive to the status-quo. We need to get over our fears of change and embrace new technologies and the world we live in, especially when those technologies make our lives easier. Lyft  and  Uber  are companies that have been operating for years and have had time to work most of the kinks out of th...

Today, October 21st, is my birthday. Perhaps the most common question I am asked, especially when meeting someone new, is, "how old will you be?" My typical response is, "I'll be celebrating my 29th birthday." And it's a factual statement. One can celebrate anything one chooses, and I happen to choose to celebrate my 29th birthday. But it's not for the reason most people would think. Many may deem such a response to be a sign of vanity. There is, after all, an increasing amount of anxiety surrounding the entrance to one's fourth decade of life (or in layman's terms, turning 30 ). There also is the common myth among many gay men—especially those young adults and 20-somethings—that crossing the boundary into one's thirties is the death knell of gay life. Worst of all, thirty becomes that age when one no longer can get laid and instantly transforms one into an old troll or, worse, a chicken hawk. There's even a zeitgeist surrou...

Guest blog by Sarah Dubinsky, Esq. What do you do for a living? That’s the first question asked at any networking event.  It’s the second question potential in-laws ask after the pleasantry of “where did you two meet” has been resolved. Work status comes up on Facebook. Your friends of friends want to know.  Heck, I want to know. Am I defined by my disability or my career? I used to work full-time as a lawyer, advocating for impoverished individuals with disabilities seeking public benefits.  Due to a relapse of schizoaffective disorder last year, I became one of them. I didn’t earn a dollar for 14 months.  In irony, my sympathy curdled into empathy. Every interaction with neighbors, former colleagues, people I met at weddings became a self-judgment. A simple “how are you?” internally turned into “what are you doing with your life?” Well, I was being sick.  I couldn’t decide between shrugging off the question with a quick smile and a “fine” or ...

Lords a-leaping is the U.S. economy slow to recover! Reflecting a steep decline in energy costs, lower inflation and slow-but-steady economic growth, the  2015 PNC Christmas Price Index® (PNC CPI)  experienced its lowest growth rate in six years at 0.6 percent in the whimsical economic analysis by PNC Wealth Management. Except for years in which the PNC CPI fell, this is the lowest rate by which it has risen in its history . According to the 32nd annual report, which measures the cost of the gifts in the holiday classic  The Twelve Days of Christmas , the price tag for the PNC CPI is $34,130.99 in 2015, a mere $198 more than last year’s cost and in-line with the U.S. government’s Consumer Price Index, which has increased 0.2 percent over the past 12 months. The cost of 10 lords a-leaping increased 3 percent over last year, but the price of nine of the other 12 gifts listed in one of the most well-known Christmas carols,  The Twelve Days of Christmas ...

Oh, the trials and tribulations of living on Social Security Disability Income with Medicare health insurance! The Rising Cost of Healthcare in the USA The problem of rising healthcare costs in the USA could not be more insane than what I'm currently being subjected to. I received a notice (so they say) from my Medicare Part D insurance provider (that's the insurance coverage that pays for all of my medications) that my premium was being reduced this year. One might think, this is a good thing, right? Well, as it turns out, it is exactly the opposite! I went to CVS today to refill five of my prescriptions that I must take in order to maintain my current health. These prescriptions are all required for me to function at close to a level of normalcy. The cost of the coinsurance for these five prescriptions is going to be $193.52! Last year, I paid all of approximately $40 for these very same prescriptions! This is complete insanity. I may be saving $40 on my...