Wednesday Hodgepodge - A Visit to My Youth

1. What song reminds you of a specific time in your life and what is it about that song that makes you remember?

Foreigner's "Cold As Ice" always takes me back to junior high. It was the last couple of months I lived in one town and I always think of the boy I had a crush on then. Then we moved and that was that.

2. What's something you've given up on?

The media being sane about anything. Can you people all not talk about the same stupid stuff?

3. What's something you'll never give up on?

My child.

4. If you had to cook something from scratch in the next hour what would it be?

Well since I'm at work that would be rather difficult. But if I were home we have a pork loin in the fridge that would be cut up and made into delicious breaded pork cutlets. Oh those are tasty.

5. Have you started Christmas shopping? Decorating? Listening to Christmas music?

No to all three. I did get my list for shopping for the secret Santa I'm doing for foster kids. And I did buy a new snowman but haven't put it out yet.

6. What do you know about your parent's wedding?

Big Catholic wedding. Mom converted to marry Dad in the church. And she kept the dress and I tried it on for my wedding but decided all the itchy crinoline wouldn't be good. I did take a button off of it for my something old though.

7. I can't believe I ___________________.

ate the whole thing? Yes I quote commercials.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Friday have to take Whitney for CT scan of her sinuses to figure out where the pressure is on her tear duct. Then schedule surgery to fix that and her deviated septum. Over Christmas break. So she can recover in time to go back to school. Merry Christmas to us.

Dealing with the Hospital ... ARRRGGHHH!!!!

So it has now been 1 1/2 years since my car accident. I have been trying for months to get my bill straightened out at the hospital for the ambulance ride I took. The excuses I've gotten have been ridiculous. Basically it all boils down to the fact that my insurance paid what the negotiated amount was and then said I don't owe anything. The hospital insists that I owe $610. They really didn't know who they were dealing with. A less stubborn woman would have paid. But I knew I didn't have to. The insurance company says I owe $0.

These are the excuses I got from the hospital.

1. You initially said your husband would pick you up then changed your mind so you owe the money. What this has to do with anything I don't know.
2. You were paid directly by the insurance company (not true)
3. The explanation of benefits says "You May Owe this Amount" which was zero. That could mean you could owe a different amount. (that made no sense)
4. There was some initial problems with payment and supposedly insurance refused to pay but then they paid. So I owed the money that wasn't paid.

All of this was all interesting but since they accepted payment from the insurance company, they would be breaking their contract with them if they forced me to pay. I told them this and was told "Well it may look like that but that isn't true." What a bunch of baloney. I work with contracts and believe me if one party breaks it, it negates everything. Does that hospital really want to tick off a major insurance company?

After an hour on the phone yesterday, I had enough. I called my insurance company and told them what was going on. They called the hospital and after getting the run around and leaving multiple voice mails they finally got the hospital to agree that it is a patient write-off.

Now I'll believe this when I don't get another bill from them saying they are going to put it on my credit report. Which if they did, I would go ballistic.

Thanks goodness for my insurance company taking care of this. It has turned into a fulltime job.

Meet Me on Monday

Linking up with Meet Me On Monday today because I'm stumped on a blog post.




Questions:

1.  Does your family/friends know about your blog?


Yes they know about it (well except for my mother because she doesn't use a computer). Whitney will send me texts to tell me to blog again, like she did last night. 

2.  What is your favorite card game?


I used to love pinochle and spades (I was awesome at spades). But haven't played either in several years. And I had a solitaire book when I was a kid that had about 50 ways to play so I got good at a lot of those. So I guess I don't have one anymore.

3.  What do you wear to bed? 


An old tshirt and if I'm hot, a slip. Lately I'm hot a lot thanks to changing hormones. Blech.

4.  What is your favorite kind of French Fry?


A just cooked McDonald's one. Probably a good thing I don't eat there very often.

5.  What is your usual bed time?


I usually go to bed about 11pm. 

Skunk Attack

So as my plane landed last night in Oklahoma City to end my roadtrip, the entire plane filled with skunk smell. I mean like when you run over a skunk in the road skunk smell. Everyone kept looking around and finally the flight attendant announced that yes it was the lovely aroma of a skunk. The pilot came on and said that we didn't hit the skunk. If we didn't hit it, why in the world would it be spraying itself on the middle of a runway? Were there other critters out there that it needed to tell get away from my turf? Maybe he thought the plane was invading his space.

The only good thing was thing is that it didn't permeate the luggage in the bottom. That would have been a mess.

Washington DC

While I have been spending a lot of time in meetings, I've also had a little bit of time for myself.

Like last night I ordered room service. I've only done this one other time so it was pretty cool, at least for me.

Then at lunch we had this lovely plated dessert. We've had quite a variety of desserts and this one was very pretty.

And then after the sessions were over today, a couple of us walked to the White House. I've been there a few times before but the people I was with hadn't, so it is always interesting to hear their comments.

Self portrait - not my best look

The extensive protest outside the White House

Finally some fall colors

The Capitol Steps

Last night at my conference we had the Capitol Steps be our entertainment. I had seen them on television and really enjoyed seeing them in person. I'm always in awe of people who can be clever in how they skewer politicians. And boy is there so much to skewer here in Washington DC. I took some video but I can't get anything to upload from my hotel room. But they had all the hot topics covered including the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Those of us in the audience got some great laughs since we all have to deal with the government in some ways. The big laughs came about the "supercommittee" trying to cut spending. I think we all know how that is going to turn out.

The Earth moved and other things

Saturday there was not one but two earthquakes in Oklahoma. The first one was at 2 in the morning and I slept through it. But the second one was at 11 pm and it was 5.4 and we ALL felt it. It was quite something. My facebook newsfeed blew up in the minutes after and we could get a text out to Whitney to check on her. It felt much crazier to her on the 7th floor of her dorm. Terrifying was her description.

Today I flew to Washington DC for a meeting and had a couple of interesting things. First the woman behind me was in above the knee, skintight leopard boots. She probably had 30-40 bracelets. She was on her way to LA to become a model. Of course I got to overhear the whole conversation on the flight.

The woman in front of me almost had a breakdown because the flight didn't have snacks for sale. Now mind you this is a 30 minute flight from OKC to Dallas. They announced that there would be only limited beverage service. And she didn't understand why they didn't have snacks when the on-flight magazine said they did. Listen lady, it is less than 30 minutes, you can wait to you get to Dallas and buy something there.

I'm not sure what to think about the fact that the plane took several minutes before they okayed us for takeoff because they were "calculating our weight" since we were a full flight. That doesn't sound good.