August 15, 2009

I can't tell whether my tolerance for incompetence is lowering or if I'm just encountering greater depths of incompetence on a more frequent basis. I stayed in the bay area this weekend because I had an eye appointment and this has been my morning so far:

Eye doctor appointment: I had a 9:00 a.m. appointment to get "fitted" for contacts. They requested that I bring in my current prescription as a reference which I did. The appointment consisted of this:

Eye doctor: Did you bring your current prescription?
Me: Yes, here you go.
Eye doctor: (Looks at the prescription) Okay, great. How are these contacts working for you?
Me: Pretty well. I like them.
Eye doctor: Okay, great. We don't carry these in stock so we'll have to order them for you.
Me: I order my contacts online cuz they're much cheaper so I just need a new prescription.
Eye doctor: Okay (writes prescription, copying from my old prescription, clips it to my file). This should do it.

She gets up and walks me out to the area where they sell eye glasses and contacts and hands my file and me off to a "sales associate" who will help me with ordering my contacts.

Sales associate: So, you want to order some new contacts.
Me: No, I just want my prescription. I'll order them myself online.
Sales associate: But Doctor M. said you wanted to order contacts.
Me: Well, I'm telling you that I don't. I just want the prescription.
Sales associate: Well, we'll have to charge you for the visit and the fitting.
Me: You can charge me for the visit but not the fitting. She didn't fit me, she just took the fittings from my current prescription.
Sales associate: Well, it's $75 for the visit and $75 for the fitting.
Me: Okay, I'll pay the $75 for the visit but there was no fitting.

After going back and forth a couple more times I finally told her to get the doctor back out. The doctor comes out and tells her not to charge me for the fitting.

Sales associate: Okay, so we'll just charge you for the visit.
Me: Great, can I have my prescription?
Sales associate: Well, you have to pay for the fitting to get your prescription.
Me: Noooooo, we're not going through this again. Give me my file.

I took my file, went to the front desk and after another few minutes of discussion with the counter person and another calling in of the doctor I got my prescription and paid for my visit only.


Visit to CVS Pharmacy to get refills of my Metformin and Actos:

Me: I'd like to drop off this prescription to be filled and order a refill of an existing prescription for Metformin but I'd like to get the non-generic this time.
Pharmacy Tech: But, this prescription is only for Actos.
Me: Right, I'm dropping off this prescription to be filled but you already have the prescription for the Metformin, it's just a refill.
Pharmacy Tech: This prescription is for Actos, you can't get Metformin with this prescription.
Me: Right. The Metformin prescription is an existing prescription that I'm just requesting a refill of.
Pharmacy Tech: So you don't want the Actos?
Me: Yes, I want the Actos and I also want the Metformin.
Pharmacy Tech: But this prescription isn't for Metformin.
Me: Okay, let's start over. I'm here to request a refill of my Metformin prescription.
Pharmacy Tech: Do you have the prescription?
Me: NO. IT IS IN YOUR SYSTEM ALREADY. THIS IS A REFILL.
Pharmacy Tech: What's the name?
Me: Urban StarGazer
Pharmacy Tech: Okay, found it. So you want this refilled?
Me: Yes, but I would like non-generic this time.
Pharmacy Tech: But, this is for generic.
Me: The prescription isn't for generic, it's my choice whether I want generic and I don't.
Pharmacy Tech: Okay, I have to talk with the pharmacist.
Me: Please do.

He goes off, talks to the Pharmacist, comes back.

Pharmacy Tech: Okay, we can do that.
Me: Yes, I know.
Pharmacy Tech: When do you want this?
Me: Today.
Pharmacy Tech: Okay, it'll take about 20 minutes.
Me: Okay. I have another prescription to fill as well. (I hand over the Actos prescription)
Pharmacy Tech: So, you don't want the Metformin then?
Me: YES I WANT THE METFORMIN. I TAKE BOTH DRUGS. I WANT THEM BOTH. I WANT MY METFORMIN, NON-GENERIC, AND I WANT MY ACTOS. BOTH OF THEM. BOTH DRUGS.
Pharmacy Tech: Is this the one you want generics for?
Me: NO. I DON'T WANT GENERICS OF ANYTHING.
Pharmacy Tech: Okay, give us about 20 minutes.

By now I'm so frustrated, I leave and go to my next errand . . .

The pet store: Thankfully, a normal experience. Went in, got the cat food, paid for it and left.

Costco: Left the pet food store and headed for Costco. Got there and a guy was loading up his car so I looked around, not another car in sight, so put on my blinker to indicate that I'm waiting for this space and proceed to wait. After a minute or so I see a car pull up on my left and notice that the guy puts his blinker on. I ponder what space he's waiting for since there isn't anyone else loading up. The loader guy finally gets the car loaded, walks his cart over to the cart area, gets in his car and pulls out.

I pull into the space and hop out of the car and the guy in the other car starts honking at me like crazy and rolls down his window and starts screaming at me about stealing his space, etc. I walk up to his car and explain that if he were there first, how could I have watched him pull up while I was waiting. He screams and yells some more, I flip him off, tell him to go fuck himself and head into Costco.

Went in, got what I needed, got in line, got it paid for and went out. Got to my car and there was a note on my windshield telling me that he took down my license number and was going to report me, etc. I noticed he had parked a couple of spaces down from me (I had memorized his license plate in case he did something shitty since he seemed like a nutball) so I wrote "Fuck off, psycho" on the note and put it on his windshield. Got in the car and headed off.

Back into CVS pharmacy hell: I go back to CVS, back to the pharmacy and up to the "Pick Up" line. Unfortunately, the same Pharmacy Tech is manning the pick up window (looks like he's the only one on duty today). I tell him I'm here to pick up my prescription and give him my name. He finds my prescriptions and brings them over.

He informs me that there is no generic for Actos so I have to have the non-generic and then he tells me that luckily they DID have the generic of the Metformin.

I'm so frustrated at this point that I literally feel like my head is going to pop and I find myself saying (before I can stop myself), "Look you fucking idiot. I didn't want generic Actos. I didn't want generic Metformin. I DON'T WANT GENERIC ANYTHING."

And he picks up the vial of Metformin and says, "So, you don't want this?"

It took every ounce of strength I had not to start screaming at him at that point so I just told him to get the fuck away from me and get someone else, anyone else, to help me. He walks away and comes back with the Pharmacist. I explain the situation to him -- about what an idiot the other guy is, what transpired, and how I JUST WANT MY FUCKING PRESCRIPTION AND I WANT IT RIGHT! He apologizes and tells me to come back in 15 minutes and they will have my prescription correct and ready.

I left the store at that point. I am going to walk back over there in a couple of minutes.

Pray that they have it right.

Strange (and Icky) But True

Seeing Spidey's fish on her blog reminded me of something my brother E told me the other day . . . he used to work at a county hospital and used to tell us stories about weird things he saw there but he's at a private hospital now and the things he sees seem even more odd.

We all agree that this one is the strangest, so far.

The other day a woman came into their emergency room, with her husband, with a koi stuck in her peep. They had to cut the fish into pieces to get it out.

I can't even imagine what in the world would inspire someone to do that. E's theory is that it had something to do with the wiggling that the fish would do as it was trying to breath in its death throes.

Vibrators are cheap and easily available! I don't get people.

August 9, 2009

Damn, Scout. I was in the kitchen washing my hands and when I came out Scout was sitting on the end table next to my cup of coffee smacking her fat little pig lips so I smelled her breath and, yep, she'd been drinking my coffee. So, a cup of coffee wasted and I wonder how the caffeine will impact her?

I made a tequla lime marinade for chicken this morning and it's marinading away in my fridge right now. I've never made it before but it smelled really good. I love chicken but hate working with it because I'm so raw-chicken-germ-phobic. I'm usually super careful about what the raw chicken touches but the recipe called for boneless-with-skin chicken so I had to debone it and that got messy and scary chicken-germ-juice got on the counter and dripped into the sink.

I use the Dawn dishwashing soap with bleach which gives me comfort on the germ-phobe front but with chicken-germ-juice I go a little crazy. I wash everything that touched it then wash the sink and counters down, then rewash everything again, and then rewash the counters and sinks. I know this probably sounds a little crazy but it's only with raw chicken that I get so phobic. The tequila lime chicken is for tomorrow -- since it has to marinade overnight -- and today I'm making carnitas.

The puking and pooping-outside-the-box problem that Jack was having (the things I had originally taken him to the vet for when the noticed his eye) seem to have stopped. I did a full litter change in the litter box which I realized I hadn't done in a couple of months -- I usually do it once a month -- and that seems to have cured both Jack pooping outside the box and the odd smell in the litter box room that I couldn't figure out. Jack seems very happy with the litter box now, so much so that the other day I found him sleeping wrapped around the box. Weirdo.

The puking seems to have stopped as well. Not sure why.

Something just dawned on me . . . I wonder what the chicken is going to look like after soaking in a marinade of fresh lime juice, fresh orange juice and tequila for a day . . . won't all that citrus "cook" it like it does in ceviche?

Anyways, I need to eat something, take my metformin and run some errands. BBL.