Update 6

Finally, something positive to report. Granted it's not much, and its primarily a result of stuff I needed to get done myself, but it's still something.

Yesterday, I had to take a bus ride into town, because I wanted to get my phone service disconnected, so that, as far as bills would be concerned, I'd have one less ($90) bill to worry about per month. So, Since Steve and I both had things we needed to get done, we both left the house early to catch the bus, which only comes to our area twice a day: once going up and once going back. As we walked to where we had to meet up with the bus, we stopped by the mailbox. This though meant a 20 minute walk done in the rain to get there, and neither of us had an umbrella at the time, though we both had jackets with hoods so we were at least properly covered, and the rain wasn't too bad.

In the mailbox was something addressed for me. Inside of it was the info stating that I had been approved for my Food Stamps and Medicaid again! Meaning now I had it WITHOUT it being tied to my SSI. Now, even if the worst happens and I lose this appeal (which I would keep fighting regardless) I'll still be able to get food and medical coverage. Despite the rain, this put me in a pretty good mood

When we finally made it into town, after the long bus ride, I went to Verizon and explained I wanted to pay off what was left of my cell phone so that I could also cancel the service on it. It took a little while, since I had to wait for my turn, and, even when it was my turn, it still took a while because their system was being stupid at first, but I eventually got it paid off. I was told that I'd need to call Verizon directly to have the service terminated and get the phone unlocked though. I had other errands to run yesterday, but none of them are relevant to this update, so I'll skip ahead to what happened today.

After taking care of my usual wake-up routine, I called up Verizon, and, surprisingly, ended up getting connected with a person very quickly. I had been expecting to be on hold for a while, but I think I was only on hold for about a minute. I spoke with a woman named Kiya. I told her my situation, and that I had just paid off my cell yesterday. I said I wanted to cancel my cell service and see about getting it unlocked so that, if my financial situation changed, and if I decided I wanted to go to a different carrier (which was not likely considering that where I live Verizon seems to be the only one that gets service due to the heavily wooded area) I'd have the option to do so. I was upfront and polite with her right from the start and told her that I'm not looking for any deals right now. I was looking to cancel it because I have no source of income that would allow me to pay any cell phone bill in the foreseeable future. She was very understanding and was just as polite with me, looking into my account to find out what I needed.

After doing so, I learned that, upon my cancelling of my service today, I would still have use of it until the 27th of this month, which is when my current billing cycle would end. At that point, my cell would be disconnected. I also ended up finding out that my cell became unlocked for free use the moment I had paid it off yesterday. The only caveat is, obviously, I'd need to wait until I was disconnected from Verizon. That really wasn't a big deal since I'm not planning on getting a new cell phone for a while anyway. At least not until I figure out my situation with my SSI.

On a similar note, in preparation for me giving up my cell phone, I got a Google Voice number set up for myself. Steve told me that he had to do that for a while, a few years ago, and, since it was free, I figured, at least this way, I'd still have a phone number for people to reach me. The only drawback is I can only use it in places where I can get Wi-Fi. That being said, to any of my friends here that I've given my cell phone number to in the past, if you would like my Google Voice number, so we can still keep in touch, send me a private message, and I'll give you my number.

So, yeah... It may not be much, but at least things are STARTING to get more positive. Here's hoping things stay that way.