Adventures with various people who might be slightly dimwitted

Yesterday I called Anthony's insulin pump supplier to re-order some infusion sets and cartridges. The customer service rep snickered at me when I wondered aloud if any problems would arise due to our new insurance carrier. I asked her gently, (because I am always gentle) "did you just snicker at me?" Well, it turns out she wasn't snickering, she was merely stretching in her chair and it must have sounded like snickering. So anyway, even with all the snickering and lying going on, the phone call only took about five minutes.

This morning, around 7 AM, Greg called me on his way to work, telling me had gotten a message saying a problem had arisen with our new insurance company and the pump supplier wouldn't be shipping out the order. And then I spent the next three hours in a rotating series of calls between the pump supplier and the insurance company and medical device companies, trying to get someone to help me and reminding anyone who would listen that I had been snickered at the day before over expressing my thoughts that this very thing may happen.

On top of talking to the insurance people and the pump people and the medical device people, I was forced to make threatening faces and hand motions to my children all morning in an attempt to get them to start on their schoolwork. But they know they have me right where they want me when I'm on the phone trying to take care of anything related to Anthony's diabetes care. It was an exhausting morning.

Here's the basic gist of what happened. The pump supplier doesn't take our insurance, so our insurance company was requesting we get our supplies locally through a medical device distributor, except for that all of the companies they led me to didn't carry the supplies I needed.


I kept calling the insurance company back and we kept expanding our search out further and further, until finally I found a company in Orlando who said, "yes, we can help you." I excitedly said, "so, you have the supplies there in your warehouse?" And the woman said, "well, no, we don't have the supplies here, we call your insulin pump supplier and we tell them what you need and then they send it to you." And I said, "oh, so you do what I did yesterday morning, except for you charge the pump supplier for your time, whereas I was doing it for free, plus I got to hear someone snicker at me when I wondered aloud if I would have any problems with this whole thing." No, I didn't say that. But I thought it. And that's just as good, right?

But the best and most wonderful part of the day is that Anthony's pump supplies are still not ordered. When I called the distributor ( who isn't technically distributing anything more than a phone call) later in the day to make sure she had ordered the supplies she told me she hadn't, even though earlier in the day she told me she was marking this as "urgent." It did sound as though I had woken her up from her nap when I called her at 4 PM, so at least she was well rested and that made me feel better.

She made up a story about how she hadn't placed the order because she needed my doctor's phone number, which I had given her earlier in the morning, but I suppose maybe when she fell asleep at her desk it had rubbed off on her cheek or something. Hey, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. I gave her the number again, and she said, "okay, I'll call your doctor right now and tell them I need proof of Anthony's diabetes and then as soon as I get that I'll send the order. But you may want to call your doctor , too , because sometimes they don't answer my requests right away." Oh, good thinking, I thought. Wow, this woman was on top of it!

I later found out I was wrong about that, but I simply can't go on. I'm too tired. But look whose snickering now pump supply lady. Turns out I was right to worry. Feels pretty good to be right, even if it means I didn't actually get those supplies Anthony needs to stay healthy. But really, why obsess over a silly thing like that?

A very short thing about ten year old boys

If the following scenarios involved an adult male, the humor in them would most definitely be lost, but coming from a ten year old, it's just plain funny.

- Only a ten year old boy can sit in a doctor's office, excrete gas (loudly) several times and have someone, let alone the proper and polite nutritionist, find it highly amusing and "cute" (her word, not mine).

- And only a ten year old boy can say, in complete seriousness and sincerity, "mom, this candle smells just like apple pie. It actually smells like an apple pie just farted in my face. It's awesome!"

Random, oh so random

So many things to say and so little time to do it, so here goes a long random thoughts post.

- School is in full swing. I'm learning! Me, learning - so exciting. I haven't learned anything new and exciting in years, probably decades. (And yes, it took a huge amount of effort to keep myself that dumb.) Among other things, the girls are doing an ancient history/lit. study for the year, so I broke out my old Norton Anthology and took out a couple of history books from the library and now I have to stay up late at night and read and take notes and try and remember information so I can pass my vast knowledge onto my daughters. I'm exhausted and thinking about demanding a raise. Teaching high school is much different than teaching middle school, but I must say, I'm loving it. Oh, the girls...yes, they're loving it too.

- Anthony is a different child now that he's homeschooling - more relaxed, happier. More than one person has commented to me that Anthony is indeed calmer, so it's not just me with my mom blinders on. I prayed for a long time about him and homeschooling and at some point I decided that whatever was best for him would manifest itself in some way and whatever way that was I would be able to accept it. And then Greg told me he wanted Anthony home for school. Of course, when I finally got what I wanted for so long I began to panic and doubt if this was the right thing. I spent a large part (by which I mean all) of the summer having a mid-life crisis/nervous breakdown and then school began and I realized we are doing the best thing ever for Anthony. I couldn't be happier, but check back in a few weeks because I'm sure by that point I'll be thrown into the depths of despair. It's who I am.

- Some of life's disappointments are almost too hard to bare and this summer I got a full dose of that reality. Whatever I thought the new M&M pretzel candies were going to offer me, I was sadly mistaken when I had my first taste of one back in July and suddenly came face to face with what can only be described as the biggest letdown of my life.

- Speaking of disappointment, I went shopping for some new skirts that past week. I worked hard to try on clothes while not looking in the mirror, but was only mildly successful in my attempts. I kept accidentally catching glimpses of myself. Does anyone enjoy looking in the mirror? If you say yes you really do risk coming across as completely vain and full of yourself. Please, just be disgusted with yourself. It's the right thing to do. It's what God would want for you. He doesn't like vanity.

- Greg and I are taking the kids on an actual family vacation in November. We're not really vacation type people. We're day trip kind of people. I like the day trip. First of all, I am an old fart and like being in my own bed at night and secondly, I get grossed out over everything, so being away is never that fun for me and I make sure it's not fun for anyone else, so we hardly ever go away for extended periods. I'm the kind of person who goes to a hotel and takes all of my clothes out of my bag and lays them down on the bed before I get on it, so that my body doesn't have to touch other people's filth, but then I realize all of those same clothes are going to have to be worn by me the next day and I get hyper and crabby and I lay in the bed with my flip flops on and don't move. As charming as this sounds, my husband doesn't find it even slightly interesting anymore. Anyway, this time it's going to be different. We're going to a nice cabin up on the Georgia, Tenn. border and the place looks more than do-able. It's quite nice. I will have fun!

- I will have fun, but I will also be overtaken by the romantic notion that life in the Blue Ridge Mountains is so quaint and peaceful and perfect and maybe we should just move there. I have prepared Greg for this and he said he knows and is completely okay with the knowledge that I will hound him for several weeks about moving.

- Have a fun weekend all!