Friday I had another doctor's appointment. I made it because the physcian's assistant told me to make come see them, but the doc was looking at me like what are you doing back again. I was in the office for 2 hours and nothing was accomplished. So the doc's secretary finally confirms that my health ins. doesn't require authorization (why couldn't she call and tell me that?) so I went to the hospital for the third time to get the special testing done. I sat there for 15 mins before someone comes out and tells me that THEY DON'T DO THOSE TEST KITS ANYMORE! I said, are you kidding me, since when? She says they're too much trouble, we stopped 8/17.
I'm just too through now. Someone up there is seriously screwing with me. I waited 3 weeks for the stupid nurse to call my insurance to pacify the stupid hospital and now they don't do the stupid test anymore. I can't believe what a nightmare this has been. Now I have to find some place an hour or more from my house to try and get the testing done. Have mercy!
Okay, I bought my iPod for the sole purpose of running. After receiving it, I immediately started jogging and was in heaven for a week and a half.
Suddenly, this week, now that my energy has improved and I've started running faster and longer, the iPod is starting to fail me. Monday, mid-way through a great run, the dang thing shuts off. I had to run down a big old hill all the way home with no music. Wednesday, same thing... only now I'm even further from the house.
Yesterday, I was somewhat more prepared. Around the same general area, the iPod shuts off again. This time I'm able to reboot it and I start off running again. Why does it shut off again. I reset again, but now I'm paranoid, so I'm running back down that big old hill with it in my hand. On top of that, one of the stupid earbuds starts to fall out of my ear. I lose the little foam covering and now it won't stay in at all. The workout was miserable and ruined because of my trusty new iPod.
What to do, what to do? Send it back? Well, after two days of online research, I've discovered that this is a KNOWN problem and MANY runners have the same difficulty. Sending it back will not help. Apple guarantees 25 minutes of skip-free jogging (that's how long the memory buffer lasts). The only trouble is, there doesn't seem to be a clear or consistent solution. The message boards suggest any or all of the following:
1) Buy an Incase Belt for the iPod
2) Defragment or optimize the iPod's hard-drive (there are mixed reactions to this. Some say it's unnecessary, some say it will actually harm the iPod, other's say it's fine)
3) Run with the iPod in my hand
4) Exchange the 40G iPod for the iPod mini that is smaller and better suited for physical activity
5) Format playlists that are 32MB or less
I don't know if any of these solutions will help, but I must try something. Jogging without music is no fun.
Okay.. I'm steaming? Why? I'll tell you. On July 21st, Robyn and I go down the our local Hecht's store in Annapolis, MD to purchase the remaining items on our wedding registry. We were prepared to pay the entire $2200 or so by check. We went that day because we'd get 10% off our total if we did it by the 22nd. The lady in the store was very helpful.. she retrieved all the items we needed while we just sat and waited... But she insisted that we open a Hecht's credit account that day, so we could get an additional 10% off of the total. Sounded like a good idea at the time. Little did I know that we'd be paying for that decision over a month later....
The Hecht's credit account would only give $300 to new customers, so we wrote a very large check to put CREDIT in that account on the store clerk's suggestion. Only to find out that the Hecht's credit wouldn't give us access to that credit until the check clears. So the store clerk says to come back in a few days so the check has time to clear. I kept an eye on the bank and see the amount taken out of our account... and I check the Hecht's account and see that it's available.. Or so the online account thing says.
When we get to the store, the store clerk tells me to call the credit department to verify the funds are available and they tell me that it takes 14 days... We didn't want to wait 14 days so we decide to stop the check and pay for our stuff with our debit card.
The damn store clerk says we should buy gift cards and apply them to our credit account so we can still take advantage of the 10% discount. Well, we were a little leary then, but go along. There was some trouble again with Hecht's credit because the store clerk tried to charge more than we bought with the gift cards... She and her manager gave us the impression that the original check amount and the gift card amounts were unavailble. I started gettig steamed at this point. But it turned out it was still the check amount. The manager suggested that if I could wait, that I shouldn't stop the check because it would flag our credit rating.. So we decide to wait to August 3rd and request a refund of the check amount then. I did this and they tell me it will take ANOTHER 14 days for that to process. Oy Vey! So much for buying that $1000 media cabinet from Pottery Barn anytime soon.
Well... Two Weeks and some change passed and I still didn't see a check in the mail.. So I call to find out what was going on. The Customer Service guy stills me, the approval went out on the 16th, so a check was cut on the 17th, and would be mailed on the 18th. What it takes a whole day to do each step. Hmmm.. what's that 6 hours to put check in envelope, 6 hours to seal it, 6 hours to stamp it, and 6 hours to put it in the mailbox?
Okay.. so if it's mailed on the 17th, I should have it in what 5 days. Well, as of today August 26th, it's not there. So I call my good friends in the Hecht's credit depart up and they tell me that it wasn't sent. Why? The guy is not sure why it wasn't sent, but he put in a request to send me a letter explaining why it wasn't sent. I don't WANT a LETTER... I wan't my money! They've been holding my money hostage for over a month now all because I decided to spend over $2000 shopping there one day?
So the guy gets back to me and says ACTUALLY checks get mailed out in the middle of the month and the end of the month.. So my check should get mailed out tomorrow, the 27th and I should get it in 7-10 days.
Yeah, Right! Someone I fully expect to be on the phone with these characters again. To heck with Hecht's...
I can't believe that I wrote complimentary reviews of the Hecht's employee's while I was being attended to originally. I will be finding an outlet to complain to shortly.
Hmm.. you think if I owed them money on the credit account. They'd let me get away with this crap? "Well, I only write checks at the end of the month, so you'll have to wait to next month to get the money".
Thursday, August 5th, I asked to work at home because I've still been really sick and the new medication isn't working at all. In order to get new medication, my doctor wants me to have special enzyme and genetic testing to make sure it won't make me sick (like most of the other meds for Crohn's Disease). This has to be done in a hospital, so I took the day to get this taken care of.
John planned to go to work late so he could take me. So, I go to the hospital and the Out-Patient Testing clerk tells me the order isn't signed by the doctor and if I don't have pre-authorization the test could cost me $1,800.
So I call my doc, she calls my doc, she faxes the form... all this stuff and no response. I sit there and 45 minutes later I get a return call. Doc's secretary tells me to go home while she figures out what the problem is. Hours later after calling the office a few times, I find out that recently they've started requiring a doctor's signature, but this is new to them. Also, she promises that her contacts swear I don't need pre-authorization and I WON'T be billed for the testing. She gives me a name and number to confirm this.
Long story short... instead of faxing the new order to the hospital later that day, she puts the script in the mail. I stayed home for nothing.
So Monday comes and so does the doctor's order. After work John got the doctor's order from the mail, picked me up and took me straight to the hospital. I went back to Out-Patient Testing like I did last time only now there was NO ONE there. We sat there for a while and then started calling around the hospital. No help. We finally went back up front and they told us I had to be admitted up there. So more rigamarole with the "your HMO might not pay for this and it's a million dollar test and do you have authorization."
I told the girl that I went through this last week and my doctor's office called around and assured me that I don't need one. I'm already angry from sitting around all this time.
She fills out a billion forms and sends me back to Out-Patient Testing. No one there still. John decides to run an errand since we had a friend coming over later and we were running out of time. He leaves and the plebotomist (blood-work technician) arrives.
Now she has me filling out more paperwork. And am I sure that the insurance will pay? Yes? Are you sure, because it's an expensive test...
I lost it. I told her to give me the testing kit and the paperwork back, I'm leaving. So I left once again without getting the testing done. I called John and he came back for me. I was so frustrated, I just cried and cried and cried. HMOs suck. Health care sucks. Everyone vote for Kerry/Edwards in November. At least they want to fix this kind of madness.
On impulse, I decided that I just had to have an iPod. This was not a frivolous desire, mind you. There was a higher purpose for this purchase. I'm steadily getting too fat and the iPod will allow me to listen to music while I jog. See the logic, here? iPod + Me = Jogging. Jogging + Me = Losing weight. Hence: iPod = losing weight.
Now that I've explained the reason behind my needing my new iPod as soon as possible, I'll explain why FEDEX sucks. I paid extra for shipping so Apple would send my iPod in two days instead of in 5 days for free. My package was due to arrive Thursday morning and I watched the shipment tracking closely. Something was delayed and they changed delivery to Friday. Sigh. Okay, I can be patient for one extra day.
The package arrived in Crofton at 9:00 AM Friday and the tracking stopped there, despite my checking for updates every few hours. Last I heard it went from Crofton (10 minutes from my house) to Baltimore (far from my house).
Needless to say, it wasn't there when I arrived home. I called. FEDEX was very nice on the phone. They said they didn't know what happened and will have dispatch call me direct. Fast forward to 10PM. No response from FEDEX, so I called again. Yes, I was extremely pressed to receive my iPod.
They guy on the phone, Muhamed, was very nice. The package went back to the Crofton station at 7PM. The station closed at 8PM. Hello? Where was my return phone call... I could have picked it up.
Not to worry, they'll deliver it on Saturday. Not. They didn't even attempt to deliver it. I got back home from a day of errands only to find it was still at the station (yes, after a 3rd phone call). It's 4:30 the station closes at 5:00. John broke the sound barrier getting us there 4:50 on the dot.
I asked the stone-faced clerk why my package wasn't delivered. Response? I don't know. Gee, thanks for all you help.
I got my iPod, though. But, through no help of FEDEX. Next time I'll save my express shipping money. When in doubt, use UPS!
I've actually been pretty sick, lately. For the past few weeks I've been trying to get my Crohn's disease under control, and on top of that I had a bought with the flu. I missed a lot of work during that time and had a lot of catching up to do. Just as I was starting to get things back in order, my doctor put me on a new medication last Friday. John and I spent all of Friday evening shopping and preparing for Sharon's baby shower on Saturday. We stayed up until 3:00 AM. Well, then I started getting sick from the new medication and I was up the rest of the night.
Finally about 6 AM Saturday morning I gave up trying to get some rest and decided to take a long hot bath. Well, since I was up most of the night, I'd gotten a chill and I made the water too hot. When I got out of the tub I began to feel light-headed. I sat down on the toilet seat to gather myself and promptly lost consciousness. I woke up lifting my head from the corner of my bathtub. When I touched my face, I realized I was bleeding from my left eyebrow.
I woke John up and he had to take me to the emergency room. I was in the hospital all morning because they wanted to do a blood workup, CAT scan, EKG and a tetanus shot. I came for stitches but that was one of the last things they did. By then I was beginning to freak out because Sharon and all her peeps were going to show up at my house in less than an hour.
I begged them to do the stitches so I could leave. I finally got them to release me, but not with out some tears and general freaking out to spur them on.
I got back in the house five minutes before Sharon and some of my friends showed up. I was forced to let them help with the food so everything could get finished in a reasonable amount of time. So I greeted her guests with a black eye and five stitches in my head, but everything seemed to go reasonably well.
I continued to be sick for a few more days from my new medication, so finally yesterday I saw my doctor again and was placed on something else temporarily. Tuesday I'll have to have a colonoscopy, but I'm already starting to feel better.
Yesterday could very well be the most miserable day of my life. I have a horrendous toothache. I know I should have had my wisdom teeth pulled when I was younger. But it's hard to have major oral surgery when you're not in pain.
Well, now I'm in pain. Unfortunately, after seeing two dentists yesterday, they did nothing for me. I have to wait until Wednesday to have the surgery done. That means all be away at my Mystery Weekend tomorrow trying to suffer through the pain. Sometimes the IB ibuprofen works but when it's not working, it's really not working.
I don't know how they expect me to make it through an entire week. On the up side, I'm glad to get this over now instead of the week of my wedding or honeymoon. And John was so loving and sweet during this time. He stayed home from work yesterday to take me to his dentist. He stayed with me all day, bringing me ice, cold drinks or just rubbing my back. I don't think I could love him more if I tried. He's just the best guy in the world.
No, I'm not talking about that questionable meat product... I'm talking about e-mail spam. It should be against the law to fill up someone's inbox with inane crap that's 99% fraudulent anyway.
People who want porn have no trouble finding it on their own... no need to hand deliver it to everyone at once. People who are fat, need to enlarge certain appendages or want to work at home can also find the appropriate services on their own. What makes them think sending anonymous annoying e-mails will convince me to use their products.
In all honesty, I'd go out of my way not to use it after they've ticked me off from the word go. Just like those fools who put flyers under your car's windshield wipers. The ones you don't notice until you've already pulled off and suddenly realize you can't see... those people are not getting my business either.
They are cracking down on telemarketing... why can't they crack down on Spam?
I know everyone wakes up on the wrong side of the bed once in a while. You look at the clock, you look at the bed. You look at the glaring unforgiving beast that is your clock and you look at the soft warm welcoming arms that are your bed...
And a voice in your head softly whispers go back to sleep...
I started to listen to that voice this morning and at the last minute, an attack of conscience pulled me away and I rushed to get ready for work afterall. So I rush to the MARC train station only to discover that the 6:59 train was cancelled. So the next train isn't far off, 7:12, not so bad, right?
Wrong. A new schedule has changed the 7:12 train to 7:19. What time does that train show up? 7:30. So I get on the very late train and I'm sitting there politely reading my book when a suspicious feeling settles over me... where's my purse?
Where IS my purse? AT HOME! I'm on the train to DC and my purse is at home. No money. No Metro fare card. Nothing. So I tell the woman I'd been talking to at the train station that I was going to have ride the train right back home because I'd forgotten my purse.
Well, now comes the truly bright spot in my dark morning. This woman offers to loan me money and a spare fare card. But, that's not all. The woman next to her, whom I don't know at all hands me a Metro fare card with OVER $17 on it. I tried to give it back, but she insisted that I take it. She was so sweet! So, there are still nice/generous people in the world. It's a shame I'm so shocked and amazed when I come across them.
Where is the Sun?
It made a VERY brief appearance yesterday after a month of rainy days.. and now we are back to the cloudy, dreary, rainy days... I want the sunny weather.
I need to go outside and mow the grass, play basketball, rollerblade, etc...
Hmmm.. We just saw the Matrix Reloaded and after all the snazzy special effects, fast-paced action, flying people, flying cars, flying motorcycles, gunshots, ghosts, explosions, and sexual energy I'm left wondering. WHAT the heck did it all mean? What did I just watch?
Did I like the movie? Truth be told, I don't know if I liked it or not, because I don't really understand it. All that jabbering from Morpheus, the Council, the Oracle, the French Guy, Agent Smith and the Architect did more to confuse the story than to help it. Oh well. At least X2 RULED!