Just had a really good laugh with my dad about the thought of asking the board for a pay decrease. See, I am just barely over the income limit for assistance programs like VHAP (the state healthcare plan) – if their guidelines were based on takehome pay rather than before taxes, I’d be in. I pay a big chunk of money every month on medication; I can’t go to the doctor; I’ve been putting off lots of things healthwise. It just might actually make sense for me to ask that my wages be cut – and certainly a lot more likely to happen! Preposterous, but true. I’ll crunch the numbers and see where I come out. Ha. I could write a proposal to the board that they give me a raise, or barring that, that they drop my wages a little bit so I can qualify for public assistance. Then I can watch them squirm.