I'd Rather Be Sick

I hate insurance. Especially mine, which is just beyond crap. I have to call a different place for every single question, so the person who tells me which doctor is covered can't tell me at what rate, and the person who tells me how much it will cost to go to the doctor can't tell me which medications are on the "preferred" list, so that I can ask specifically for that drug. I've been on the phone for an hour, and every single person I've talked to has been completely useless. (Thanks for everything you do Yvette, Jessica and Sarita. *scowl*)

My place of employment no longer has in-house HR, and the people in the corporate office have no idea why I'm calling them with questions that should be directed to the local representative (who doesn't exist). They also don't have the answers to my questions, since they apparenlty can't be bothered with trivial details like insurance, FMLA and workman's comp. They have much more important things to discuss, like where exactly the motivational posters should be placed in the break-room. There are a number of websites that I can go to to find out bits and pieces of the information that I need, but it's pretty much "enter your question and we'll give you the answer." So, I can type in the name of any drug that I want, and they'll tell me if or how it's covered, but there's not just a list so that I can go to my doctor and say "here, pick one of these please." Fabulous, insurance provided by Magic 8-Ball®.

No one will tell me if a skin-cancer screen falls under "preventive care." If it does, I can head off to the doctor right now, and the deductible won't apply. If it doesn't, I have to wait until we can afford to shell out $250 for someone to make me take off my clothes and take pictures of my freckles. There's a big difference between $25 and $250 and I don't understand why the girl on the phone can't tell me which amount I need. Also, I might need to get pre-approved for care,but it depends on what the doctor does. How the hell am I supposed to know that before I go in? Insurance girl doesn't know. She says "I know that sounds like it doesn't make sense." Well, yeah. I feel like screaming and crying and throwing myself down the (nonexistent, in this house) stairs. Instead I'm going to clean out the car, dust and vacuum. Diversion therapy. Free. (Although probably not covered under my plan.)

Ho Hum...

My mom is going to be in town tomorrow and I'm trying to get motivated enough to deep clean the house. She'll probably only be here for an hour or so, but I still feel compelled to do the whole scrub the floors thing. So naturally, at the time I need it the most, my vacuum cleaner broke. Our old house had terrible gold shag carpet and it was just too hard on my little Hoover. So now I'm shopping for a new dust sucker. Any suggestions? Don't say Dyson, there's no way I can afford one of those.

While Justin was picking up some of the random stuff that congregates in our back yard I took this picture of Marlowe. He's clearly trying to get back to his wild dog roots. Can't you just see visions of the Serengeti (or wherever the wild beagles roam) dancing through his head?

Also, it's been a week but I just got this picture and I wanted to post it. Last Saturday the wind blew through here at about 80 miles per hour. I posted pics of the dirt in the sky during the brown out but wasn't aware of just how nasty it really was until we were driving home from work Sunday morning and saw a row of telephone poles that looked (and continue to look) like this:There were about 15 of them and I thought that surely there must have been some sort of terrible accident or something...but no...just the wind. This is exactly the sort of thing that makes me laugh when I hear newscasters in other parts of the country give "strong wind advisories" during a 20mph breeze.

Storms!!

We have serious storms coming tonight, at least in the towns around us. I'm not quite sure if they're going to miss Levelland or not. Really wishing that I could stay home from work tonight though!!

Here's what outside looked like 5 minutes ago:

Here is what it looks like now. No, I didn't take these with a sepia filter. It's just that dirty outside.

Nasty!!

Exactly.

And nobody start lecturing me either! I tan 3 months a year, 4 days a week. I am not "tanorexic," and the only time I feel pretty is when I'm a little golden. Without a tan my skin is freckly and uneven, not that coveted, Victorian version of pale that magazines show to prove that having no tan is sexy. I refuse to use stinky streaky self tanner. If occasionally having to get a little something zapped off me is the trade for having a moderately healthy self esteem, so be it.

Weird

So, all of a sudden my little brother looks like the kind of boy that girls want to date. I know this because all the girls he works with try to have lunch with him every day. Mostly, it confuses him...

Curses! Foiled Again!

I want this: Essure. There is no one in this area that is trained in the procedure to give it to me (according to their website anyway), the closest Dr. who can give this to me is 75 miles away, and is (of course) not covered by my insurance. The other thing that I think I'd be happy with is Mirena, which my doctor won't give me because I haven't had a baby. (It's possible that no one would let me have the Essure for the same reason.) I'm just really really tired of having to deal with birth control on a monthly basis. I hate worrying that I'm not going to be able to afford my NuvaRing every month and I hate that the reason that I can't have what I want is because I don't have a child. I don't WANT a child. That's the freakin' point!! I've tried depo-provera which works for several months at a time, but the reason that it works for me as birth control is because it depresses me too much to get out of bed, even to shower, and I'm pretty sure that nobody wants to be around me during that joyous time. Especially for anything naughty. Arggh!!

Suggestions anyone?

Two!

Justin and I have been married for 2 years today. The traditional gift for this anniversary is cotton, and so we are changing each other's sheets. Ah, romance!

God It Gets Worse!

I found the full Marital Rating Scale (AND the one for husbands!) out of a possible 80 I got (drum roll please) 9. I thought surely it would get better if I had more questions to answer but oh no! I'm worse off than I thought I was. Justin's score is a 42, which puts him in the "average" category.

This thing is obviously skewed to make it easier on the guys. They have more questions, and more bonus questions, in which the answer is worth a possible 5 points. (20 points on the sex question, which is twice as much as on the wife quiz!) Ah well...I guess I don't want to vacation in the 40s after all.

I Did Not Do Well...

This is the George W . Crane Marital Rating Scale. It's basically a Cosmo-Quiz for husbands in the 1940s to determine whether their wife is good at being a wife, or if perhaps the husband in question should have looked a little harder before settling down. If you click the picture it will get bigger and you can read it. This isn't the entire scale, I couldn't find it, but my score based on this is a 10, which, you may note puts me under the "Very poor (failure)" category. I'd better get to work darning those socks and throw out all my red nail polish in order to improve my score, otherwise, who knows what Justin will do...

Well It's About Time!

Everybody who wants to get married can...at least in California. (And at least for now.)

In other news, John McCain says that (maybe) we won't be in Iraq for 100 more years...just 5. (Apparently he's voting for Obama. Or maybe he found out that we wouldn't be spending any more money on this disaster.)

Also, I'm not sure why this is news. I'm disappointed in you Huffington Post.

"Say Crayon"

So, if you've talked to me in the past few weeks I probably asked you to say a specific word in order to see how you say it, and if what you say is the same as what I say. I'm interested in this because my accent is in constant flux, depending on who I've spoken to most recently (or what movies I've watched, an hour into Steel Magnolias I'm as Southern as they come). SO, now there's a website catering to my linguistic addiction. Every week, a list of words is posted and people record themselves saying them. The videos are then posted to Flikr. This is seriously addictive. Enjoy!

Smooch

So, those of you that follow my Twitter (over there --->) know that I've been having dreams about kissing a co-worker. If you weren't aware of that, well, you are now so catch up. I'm not really attracted to him in actual reality, and in my dream life, I really suspect that his presence is just symbolic of someone else (in the dream, he doesn't *exactly* look like himself, but I call him his name and my dream brain knows who he's supposed to be). Anyway, dreams are crazy and don't always mean anything and so, while I thought that the dreams were weird, I wasn't really bothered, not like I would be if I was killing him or something. However, last night was the first time I've seen him since the dreams started, and it was so weird! It felt the way that it feels in high school when you've got a class with your crush and you can't stop behaving like a complete idiot. Except that he's not my crush! So it's not even fun! AND now I'm all irrationally worried that he somehow knows what's going on. PLUS, now someone (points at J.) that I actually kiss is being all jealous, which is totally unfair.

Also how awesome would it be if I was actually shaped like that girl in the picture?

All Puffed Up

I had a rough night, and am on my way to bed, but I couldn't resist posting this. Here is what Maybe looks like when she stomps around in an ant bed, has an allergic reaction to the inevitable bites and gets a swollen head:

I know it's not nice to point and laugh, but come on! You'll all be happy to know that with the help of Benadryl, she's made a full recovery. Not that this experience will stop her from stomping around the ant bed again the first chance she gets. (This was the second time in 3 days.) Apparently masochism is the family disease.

Moms:

Technologically Advanced

Justin taught me how to upload video on YouTube and I figured out how to use the video function on my camera so ta-dah! There is now video of my dogs and their new snack. Enjoy.

*Pop*

Maybe says that she's upset by the disproportionate number of photos of Marlowe that I've been posting, so in order to rectify the situation, I'm posting one of her all by herself and one of her with Marlowe. In both pictures the dogs are chasing after bubbles, which are apparently a very tasty snack. Watching them do this was so much funnier than you can tell in the pictures. They were actually jumping after the bubbles and then they'd close their mouths around them very slowly. Every time one popped in her mouth, Maybe got all offended and snapped at Marlowe because she thought he had stolen her treat. Very entertaining. Everyone should have a dog.


If you click on this picture and view the full size version, you can see Maybe's tongue sticking out of her mouth...she's so embarrassed.

Gifts

Just wanted to post pictures of the cake and flowers that Justin got me for my birthday.

German Chocolate,with cherries. Delicious!


Lilies. I fully believe that all flowers should be yellow, blue, white or green, these are perfect!

He also got me a new pink sundress, a ring that he made in his jewelry class, which is really cool and elegant (but I haven't taken a picture yet), bubbles and a frisbee. Once again, Justin wins the good husband award. Here's a picture of Marlowe being terrified of the bubbles:

Happy Birthday

To me...


My (great) Aunt Eva Pearl kept a diary of the entire year that I was born January-December of 1981. I received it last year, after her death, and it is the most precious thing that I own. On this date, 27 years ago she wrote:

6 May 1981-Wednesday- The great day arrived-you were born. Such a beautiful little girl!
We love your name--SusanLee - Lee for your grandmother and great grandmothers (Lackey and McCaghren). Mother, your great grandmother (who died the day before I was born), was a person of principle. She was self reliant and determined. She had a strong personality.
O-how proud we are of you! You have such wonderful parents. May your life be a happy one. You will have an abundance of love showered upon you!

And I have.

Touched--Vanished!!

This post has been deleted because the blog owner feels that it displayed waaay too much self-pity. My apologies to those of you who had the misfortune of reading it.

Don't Let the Picture Fool You

The wind for the past 3 days has turned the dogs into monsters. They have been running around and tearing things up and barking and generally misbehaving all weekend (our weekend being Wednesday through Saturday). If they're not careful I'm going to put their faces on FOUND posters and wait for some liar to come pick them up. Somebody totally would too, a sucker's born every minute.

What The...?

Okay, so I've seen Phantom of the Opera about 50 times. I know the music, I know the dialogue and I know the lyrics. You can understand my confusion (and dismay) when I pop the soundtrack cd (a newish one, that I haven't played before) into the player and the words to Think of Me are wrong. Not just a couple of words either, the whole freakin' thing. I know this song. I love this song. I've sung it for auditions, I've sung it in the shower and in the car and while dancing around in the kitchen. So now I want to know who decided to screw around with a classic and when they did it? See for yourself. (If you click this box it will get big and you can actually read them.)The new one seems to have an extra verse or something....and what's all that crap about evergreen? So, if you're reading this Sir Andrew, FIX IT NOW!