Evil Pharmacist

So for those of you who haven't heard this yet, I will do a recap.

There is an evil pharmacist at my pharmacy. Every time I get her, there is undoubtedly a "problem" with my insurance. Now, the problem is as follows: she goes to run my insurance, and it comes back saying I owe the full amount on whatever prescription. For my birth control, full price is more than $60/month, when insurance knocks it down to a co-pay of $25. Now, I feel I should note this woman is in fact a real pharmacist, she's at least 50 and has been there since I started filling my prescriptions 2 years ago, and she gets really rude really fast and speaks perfect English. This is not an issue where she is lacking training, experience, wisdom, or appropriate communication.

The first time this happens I brushed it off. I thought, "Eh, well...it's probably a computer error." I took the evil pharmacist's advice and kept my receipt, went home and called insurance to see what was up. They said I only owed $25, even though I had paid $60. I kept this to myself as money was tight at the time (Mr. Borealis was between jobs). When I went back the evil pharmacist said her computer said $60, so if I couldn't provide proof then I couldn't get a refund. She didn't want to talk to insurance.

From then on I avoided that pharmacist because she was rude. However, last fall I was 2 days late on the refill and finally caved. I thought it would run smooth and surely whatever issue or lacking training in entering insurance info had been remedied since our last encounter. Not so. That time she told me my insurance was expired. I said no, it was not. She looked at my card and said it was through the state, and having worked there for twelve years or something, they renewed every October so I needed a new card for my insurance to apply. That didn't sound right to me, so I called Mr. B and sure enough, our insurance was current and renewed in July. Evil pharmacist said her computer said my insurance was expired. I checked to be sure the correct date was on the card, pointed it out, and evil pharmacist said I needed a new card but to keep my receipt. I went home, Mr. B agreed it was weird, he called the insurance company who also agreed it shouldn't have happened, and we requested new cards just in case. I went back in for a refund, this time with my paper proof, and the evil pharmacist said that she could not issue a refund because it was more than 10 days old. I'm thinking, "$%^#%!" I again keep this secret from Mr. B.

Here's the kicker: the next month I go in to pick up my birth control with my fresh insurance card (no information changed--just a new piece of plastic) and have it in hand when I get to the counter to pick up. The evil pharmacist walks in and takes my order, relieving the pharmacist who I had walked up to. I tell her my last name, she gets my birth control, and says "That'll be $25." without even looking at my card. My jaw drops. I say, "You made me go through the ordeal of getting a new card because you told me my insurance was expired--then you refused to refund me when the error wasn't with insurance. It went through this time?" She shrugs and repeats that it's $25. I pay and grind my teeth all the way out to the car. I vow that I will sooner get pregnant before dealing with this inept woman again.

Today, I'm working hard on end of semester projects. I send Mr. B out to get my birth control. Well, guess who he got at the counter? And guess how much my birth control was, because the computer said so, even though Mr. B told all these previous stories and had them check their record to confirm we usually pay $25? Evil pharmacist made him pay $60 anyways, and as always "keep the receipt."

So he came home and told me what happened. And guess who just got blasted by name and store location to the corporate email address?

Vindication will be mine. I kept my receipts.

Alula

Checking in on the New Year's Resolution

Hi all,

So now that we're a little more than halfway through the year, I'm checking in on my New Year's Resolutions (listed on the right sidebar). I'm a little behind on the dates I had set for myself, but generally optimistic about things.

I got my job at more pay and more hours and better perks than I had envisioned; however, it is a desk job, and the first few weeks pretty effectively crashed my diet back to start. Worse than where I started, actually.

Prepare for the brutal honesty. And if any of you tell Mr. Borealis (or anyone else, for that matter) my real numbers, I will torture you with a spork.

I went from 170 to about 185. My feet started killing me because I have a genetic condition where my tissues lack the normal degree of collagen, so I think the arches in my feet just gave. This was around the time that I had to buy new shoes with better arch support. However, I started severe damage control on my weight about 2 weeks ago, as it was my second resolution after getting a job to finance school. I weighed in this morning at 179, with my goal still being in the 140s.

I'm not sure how the online store is going; lately I don't have time to make my own products to sell. I'm still hoping to get that thing running by year's end.

Alula

One Day at a Time

Alula all I can tell you is for you to take one day at a time. And Enjoy the good things that come your way. Above is a picture of my little garden my zucchini are taking over and my tomato plants (not in the picture) are getting really big. Lots of random things in this garden like some onions and strawberries even my lavender is growing. Now if Mr Man remembers to water the garden in my coming up absence from the house. Little man and I will be coming into your area next Saturday we will try to convince Mr Man to go to the Flea Market Sunday and then the big water Park on Monday. I just have to get little man watched on that Monday he's just too little to be going to such a big water park and I love my mom but I don't think she will be able to keep up with Little Man. So then Mr Man will be coming back home and to the garden, I will stay with my mom and leave for a family reunion in Florida on the 29Th Thu the 10Th. And then Mr Man will Have to come get us because he doesn't want to be without the car for that long. Who knows how much longer that truck is going to last. And if anyone wonders for this trip to Florida Mom will be on oxygen a cpap for the plane, Nessy the "Service Dog" will be going on the plane actually with us not in the baggage area, and Little Man is going as a lap Child for this very long flight. Please wish me luck that I don't completely loose my mind, not that I haven't lost it already. Well fun and games, one day at time.

fuzzy

Rain just keeps on pouring down...

The National Weather Service should issue a warning for my life.

Sultry red sunflower in my garden.

Ladies, let me give you the update since last for those of you who haven't heard yet. We spent the 4th of July in hospital room 213 this year; we actually had a pretty decent view of several fireworks shows out the window. Mr. B's father was released from the hospital on Sunday the 5th.

Now allow me to give a play-by-play of last Monday, the 6th. I wake up and see Mr. B out the door; he was going on an out-of-town job this week. So in a very relieved state of mind that his father is out of the hospital, we both go off to work. Around ten, I get a calm phone message from Mr. B. He has some bad news. I'm dialing him back at my office when the phone rings and I answer. It's Mr. B, and he sounds worried and sheepish--he tells me his father has been readmitted to the hospital for chest pain. I keep my voice calm as I give my condolences and he explains they are treating with blood thinners. Then he takes a deep breath.

"Well, there's something else, too..."

Apparently he hit a deer halfway out to his destination. He was going about 60 when it leaped out in front of the car. I try to not freak out (hey, we get big deer out here) in the middle of my office and ask if he's okay. He mumbles something "that's always the first thing people ask.." and then says he's fine--except he probably didn't need another scare after all of last week. Unfortunately the deer died on impact. He got the news about his dad while he was waiting for the state troopers to show up, and thought it best to leave out his own news given that his mother was pretty hysterical already.

The car sustained, as we now know, more than $4,000 in damage. Our insurance deductible is only $350, so it wasn't a terribly big deal. Mr. B called his boss, and explained about the heart attack, and the relapse, and the babies (our good friend the Valedictorian and his wife had their first child on the 1st, just before my new niece on the 2nd), and the deer, and got cleared to take the week off to recover mentally and spend time with family.

While I was driving home that afternoon, I hear sirens as I enter an intersection. I'm twisting this way and that trying to find the damn ambulance but I can't see it; as my brain debates whether to stop or go, my foot just hits the gas and I clear the second half of the intersection. Then, in my rear view mirror, I see the car on the perpendicular street that had been just to my left pull into the intersection with such speed that it hit the car right behind me and spun out. The ambulance he'd been trying to let through stopped right there, and in my head I'm going "Oh my god, if I had stopped I would have been between those two cars that just collided."

So I keep my mouth shut about it until we've carefully broken the news of Mr. B's accident to his parents, then I tell him. We both feel a little sick to our stomachs because 2 babies and a heart attack are a coincidence; both of us having a near-death experience on the same day? What is God trying to tell me?

I'm really freaked out.

Alula

When it rains...

...it pours.

My first sunflower of the season. Yes, it really does appear pink in real life--I have no idea how this one hybridized into pastel colors, because all of them last year were bright reds, oranges, yellows, or some dusted combination.

It's pouring in my life right now. Don't expect me to take your phone calls.

Mr. B's father had to be rushed to the hospital Wednesday morning due a blocked coronary artery. This is essentially a heart attack, but no one wants to say it around Mr. B's mother. The man is only 50, and he really didn't have that many risk factors. At the hospital they immediately inserted a device into his femoral artery and put in a stent to unblock the artery, and he was doing very well Wednesday evening. On Thursday (yesterday), he dislodged the plug that was put in his femoral artery from inserting the device for the stent, and had some significant internal bleeding in his leg. It was incredibly painful for him, and last night they had drugged him basically into a stupor to get him through it; seeing his father like that really didn't go over very well with Mr. B.

Mr. B is not well with this, and his whole family is pretty much in shock. Thursday evening he came on pretty strong about how we had to have a baby right now so that he wouldn't die alone in a hospital and there would be someone to remember him. Blame me if you want to--I told him I didn't think he was thinking clearly at the time and we'd discuss it later.

Last night, Ociffer and Snow finally delivered (their first attempt to induce was last Thursday at the hospital). It's a girl! She's absolutely beautiful in the pictures I've gotten, 7 pounds and some odd ounces, 19 and a quarter inches long. Full head of dark hair; Snow was apparently joking last night that her hair is already so long she might be able to braid it. I'm making the long drive later today to meet my new niece.

Other than that, I will be at the hospital with Mr. B and family, which I very strongly feel is where I belong right now. To cap it off, I have a group project worth half of my grade I was supposed to turn in today, and half of it isn't done yet because I lost Wednesday and Thursday as well.

Mr. B is supposed to be doing out of town work the rest of this month, and I don't know what's going to happen with that.

Alula