Newsy Post

From the title of this post, you can deduce one thing: BORING! While to me, my week has been a bit hectic, other people would say, 'Why can't I have that little to do?' :) Anyway, here is what has been going on in my world.

I don't know what it is about Mondays, but that is when I have to do most of my phone calling--or receive phone calls. A little over a week ago, I went to see our new dermatologist here in town. She is just a sweetheart and I am well pleased with her. (I didn't REALLY have problems with my last derm--I got along well with him. The biggest problem is, he is a little curmudgeonly and you never quite know what mood he is going to be in. And, I think he is close to deciding to retire, so it was time to move on.) She gave me some samples of a new med for my skin and told me to call if I want a prescription for it. I don't know how well the stuff is going to work long-term, but it seemed to help a bit so I called for a prescription. I decided to use the local pharmacy instead of my insurance's pharmacy--after all, it would be nice to help the locals whenever I can. Me calling the office--1st call. The doctor called me back about some test results--2nd call. The nurse called me to say she has a $50 coupon for use on the prescription for the meds--3rd call. The pharmacy called to tell me the prescription CO-PAY was going to be $100 and do I still want them to fill it--4th call. Of course, NONE of these calls were less than 5 minutes in length--more like 10-15 minutes. And there were the normal, everyday phone calls, so I spent more than my share of time on the phone.

To make a long story even longer, the point to all of this. I am VERY grateful for our health/prescription insurance. I am very well blessed and know it--I would NOT be using meds from a dermatologist or allergist if it wasn't for the insurance. Now that I have that out of the way, I have a complaint. The medication that I would have had a $100 co-pay, PER MONTH, at the local pharmacy, will only cost me $45 for a three-month supply if I use the insurance company's mail-order pharmacy. The cost savings is great for me, but in no uncertain terms, the insurance company is FORCING me to use mail-order instead of using local. This just is not fair--either to me OR my local pharmacy. The locals just cannot compete--and the insurance company will not let them. When I order by mail, I get three month's worth of a prescription--when I buy locally, I CANNOT get more than a one month supply at a time. It is not fair. But, I have to go with what will cost me the least. I hate it.

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My meds's saga isn't over. On Tuesday I had to go to the doctor's office to bring in the paperwork so that they could fax my prescriptions to the mail-order pharmacy. This helps shortens the time it takes for me to get my meds--by almost a week. So, it was out and about early.

K STILL didn't finish removing the old TV and stand from the living room, so it still was a mess. I, however, DID go out and buy the storage unit for our DVDs--I needed to get them off of the window seat in the dining room. I needed to go grocery shopping and needed some stuff for our trip, so it was off to the stores after K left for work. It is so hard for me to get out of the house at a reasonable time with the time change. I find myself thinking I have all the time in the world because it is still light out, when it actually is close to closing time for some of the stores! And I also was racing against time because the game started at 10:00pm, so I wanted to be home for that--and I made it!

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Today the woman who will taking care of the cat for the weekend came over. My youngest worked for a pet sitter before she moved away, and this business was sold to the woman who is sitting this weekend, so she needed to come by and get instructions and meet me and the cat, etc. For the price of $12, she will feed the cat, scoop the litter, clean up whatever litter is on the floor, clean up any hacked-up hairballs, bring in the mail, bring in the newspaper, water plants, play with the cat, brush the cat, and what ever else I need done! Not a bad deal! Of course, her job is much easier here than in other places: she probably won't even see the cat. To say my cat is antisocial is putting it mildly! Our neighbors--who usually take care of her, and are out of town--have said the only way they know the cat is still in the house when they feed her is the fact that the food is gone the next day. But, the woman said she might sit and read for awhile anyway, just to see if the cat comes out of hiding and wants to make friends. Good luck!

I still have so much to get done before we leave. Between the mani/pedi I need to do for myself--and the other grooming-type stuff I put off too long--I take care of all of the packing and household stuff before we go. I know I have talked about this before, but it is enough of an annoyance to do it again. I appreciate K doing all of the driving whenever we go on a trip. If it was up to ME driving, we would never go anywhere. But WHY do I have to do ALL of the preparations! Cleaning the house, packing, garbage, watering plants, feeding the cat, ironing, planning the driving route, adjusting the thermostat and window blinds, etc, etc, etc. I EVEN have to decide what K is going to want to wear! I just don't understand it. So, while I am doing all of the last-minute preparations--which means packing, feeding the cat, thermostat, etc--what is K doing? Sleeping. What COULD he be doing? Putting gas in the vehicle and going to the ATM. When do those things get done? On our way out of town--which adds another 30, 45, or 60 minutes to our trip! The explanation for this? He is a man.

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I think I will be able to have the house to myself tomorrow, even though K will not be working. He probably will be driving up north to bring some things to C--among them: the old TV. YAY!!!!! I may have it out of the house before we leave! At least I won't have to be tripping over him while doing what needs to be done--it makes my job a whole lot easier.

I don't know how relaxing this trip will be. To begin with, I will be starting out tired--as I am with every trip we take. Then, we will be rushing around all day Saturday, just so we can do all that we want. We still don't know what we will do on Sunday, but we will travel, at the very least--which is tiring enough. One of these days, I WILL get a vacation where I can do NOTHING but relax--maybe we will get to go to one of those Mexican or Caribbean resorts that you hear about. A nice thought--sitting in the sun, drinking mimosas, reading trashy novels, taking leisurely naps, having massages. Now, THAT'S a vacation!