23 March 2007

Recent Goings-On In My Life: Renewed Injury, Insurance, & Civil Marriage

A lot has gone on in my life these past two weeks, focusing on the three topics listed in this posting's header.
It all started with my waking up last Tuesday morning (13 March 2007) and trying to get out of bed. Whilst in this process, I moved my leg in such a fashion as to reinjure it (see here for the [continuing] story of my knee and its injury). I then found out, in the process of contacting my insurance company (Aetna) of trying to find out who my doctor was, that I had been uninsured since the beginning of March since I hadn't renewed my insurance policy (the cover letter I had received two months before had warned me about ending my insurance policy were I not to renew on 1 March 2008, so I figured I was fine for the time being - little did I know it was merely a typo, meant to be this year).
I then spoke with my girlfriend about my situation and we contemplated about me getting on her insurance policy (she's a public school teacher). We then figured how might one go about such a thing? You need to be married. What does one need to do to be married? So, looking it up online, we then went and applied for a marriage license. Afterwards, we then went to pick out an engagement ring (we had planned
this part since before the preceeding weekend). Two nights later, we then had a civil marriage performed and were legally married (but not Jewishly/halakhically). So I was one step closer to getting insured and getting my knee looked at.
Then came Saturday night when, as I was getting up from laying down, my knee pained me once again and I waited and waited and waited for it to get better. It was not to be immediate. For over twenty hours, I moved very little until Sunday night. I still was rather immobile the following day, Monday, and missed school that day, though a classmate of mine picked me up crutches, which allowed me to move around, albeit with difficulty.
However, throughout the rest of the week, with each passing day, my knee has improved, though, as of this posting, I am still not yet quite walking on it.

8 comments:

Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

dude, you're married... but not. that's hilarious... and probably weird, eh? I can't tell in the picture... is the mesadeir civilmarriagein who i think it is?

does one say 'mazal tov' for such an event, or can you only say "congratulations"? :-P

Drew Kaplan said...

Rabbi Josh Yuter was the one who married us - yup.
And the correct response to this is "congratulations".
Yeah, we got civilly married before getting engaged....

Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

Rabbi Josh Yuter was the one who married us - yup.

and you don't even give the rav a link? ;-)

who else was there? or will there be opportunity on shabbos for finding out all the crazy details?

Anonymous said...

My grandparents got married civilly six months before their Jewish marriage. My father once asked them if they considered themselves married then, they looked shocked and said "Of course not!" But I hope you two have as long and happy a life together as they had.

--Ruth

Anonymous said...

i dont mean to be the one to point it out...but isnt it kind of fraud to get legally married for insurance purposes? i woudl compare it to green card marriages. I mean i understand that you got engaged and plan on getting married but until then...i believe its a lie. I've noticed that you pay careful attention to Halacha...what does it say about this topic?

Drew Kaplan said...

No, it's not insurance fraud - we're legally married. If you want to bring halakhah into it, then dina malkhuta dina - we're considered legally married and, thus, the insurance company should recognize it as such. Trust me - you're not the first one to bring it up - I asked rabbis about this.

SusQHB said...

in defense of drew and rachel, many many frum couples have their civil ceremony prior to the chuppah. some for insurance purposes, others for taxes, others for many other reasons. unlike non-frum people, frum yids do not have the ability to elope on a whim like other people (helllooo Britney Spears). a halachic wedding takes a lot of organization and preparation and can not be organized overnight. props for getting the height's official civil marriage wrangler to do the ceremony.

thanbo said...

but you post your civil marriage before your engagement...?

and yes, i thought I recognized former cow-orker R' J. Yuter.