Nice to meet you!... or, not so much...

Yesterday I had to travel for work so I was in my car for a good part of the day. When I got out of range of all my pre-programmed radio stations, I started scanning for something to listen to. Eventually I happened upon good old Rush Limbaugh and actually stopped for a spell to see what rubbish he was spewing today. Within one minute he proclaimed: "Obama is an elitist who thinks he is so smart and knows everything". I said out loud in my car: "Well, hello pot~ have you met kettle?" and the next few minutes down the interstate I wondered to myself: why would anyone want to know Rush Limbaugh? Does he have any friends? He must be the most insufferable person to be around with his constant hate-pinions. It got me to thinking, who would I like to meet in the world, and who would I really not ever care to know?

This isn't like that game where you ask each other "If you could have any 3 people to dinner, who would they be?" and the other person inevitably replies: Jesus, Oprah, and someone else like Brad Pitt or a president or Elvis. No, I started thinking, if I could choose people that I would really like to know and consider a friend of mine, who would they be? And in addition to that-- who would I never ever care to meet or be friends with?

Of course, the number 1 person I cannot wait to meet is my unborn baby. My due date seems ages away. I talk to him/her everyday and am so glad to have one of those home dopplers to listen to the heartbeat. But every day that goes by is one more day closer to getting to meet and hold him/her and I know the day will be here soon enough.

My rules:
For my lists, I only listed living people (even though Princess Diana is way up there on my list), and I was really trying to think of people I would like to be friends with, not just a celebrity or star that I would see at some event and say "Could you sign my tshirt?" just to say I met them. For the "don't care to know list", I left off obvious choices such as murderers and criminals (yeah, that means you too, OJ), or people that the media have crafted into bad guys (Heidi and Spencer, duh). I'm sure as soon as I publish this I'll think of a bunch that I forgot, but these came to mind easily.

People I'd Love to Call My Friend
1. Jon Stewart- smart, funny, what's not to like about this guy?
2. Stephen King- anybody who can write such unimaginable stuff would be a great ally
3. Kathy Griffin's Mom, Maggie- she is one sweet lady and I would buy her a box of wine
4. Rob Dyrdek's bodyguard, Big- not sure why, I just think he would be a great friend
5. Costco CEO Jim Sinegal- Google him, you'll see why
6. Hugh Hefner- say what you will, but anybody who has a library full of hand written, leather bound journals that chronicle his entire life has got to be a pretty neat person
7. Katie Couric- you know once that camera turns off she is a smart alecky, party girl
8. Allie Brosh- read her blog, this girl is hysterical and quirky and I bet every minute around her would be a laugh fest
9. Will Ferrell- I hope he's not one of those tortured artists who uses humor to escape his demons, cause I think he has a huge heart and could keep me entertained for hours
10. Bob Kevoian- I've listened to "Bob and Tom" every morning for the past 14 years, and Bob is the one I most relate to
11. Dave Barry- he is the Everyman
12. Kelly Ripa- funny, honest, and just enough body obsessed that I would watch what I eat around her
13. Michael J. Fox- I loved him before we all knew about his secret battle with Parkinson's, and I loved him even more when he shared it and didn't let it stop him

People I Don't Care to Ever Know
1. The aforementioned Rush Limbaugh
2. Tiger Woods- what an abuse of influence, that guy
3. Bob Knight- love him or hate him, I'll take the latter
4. Kate Gosselin- I can't believe people book her to speak at conferences for women and mothers
5. The Watson's Girl- her voice makes my skin crawl
6. Ann Curry- her interview style makes me question how she has such a high profile journalism job--she is terrible
7. Dr. Phil- loved him in the 90's, not sure what happened to him after that
8. Mike Myers- great movies, hilarious guy, but I have to believe the stories about him that he is impossible to be around
9. Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Kim Kardashian- and the rest of that "famous for nothing" genre
10. Laura Bush- I've never heard anything interesting come out of her smoking-wrinkled mouth

Ok, so I could sit here all day and do this. It's kind of fun when you think about it. You're probably thinking: why make a list of people you wouldn't want to meet? You'll probably never meet them anyway. But I guess it's just interesting to put it out in writing and look more at the traits that I like and don't like about these people. It is probably quite relevant to the circle of friends I run with now. I obviously like funny, hard working, honest, loyal people with substance. Write your lists out, see who's on it and who's not.


All things Olive today:
My baby's strong and fast heartbeat
Plums
Seeing my school friends next week!

I just want my medication....

As of January 2010, my health insurance stipulates that you have to get your medications filled at one of the company owned pharmacies at work or pay a higher copayment for going somewhere else. Well, that sounds like a no-brainer-- who wouldn't want to get their prescriptions filled right where they work? Very convenient, no? NO. First of all, the company I work for is huge, with many locations and lots of scattered around buildings, and my building is not one with the pharmacy in it. Technically, this is not "at work" for me. Second, the pharmacies have banker's hours. Who gets sick from 8 to 5 and not on weekends or holidays? Finally, these company owned pharmacies were never designed to handle the volume of the thousands of employees filling all their scripts. The lines can be outrageously long and I personally like to go to a pharmacy where I can pick up other things on my list of household needs all in one stop. This is like being told to do all your grocery shopping at the farmers market. I love my national chain, 24/7 drive thru pharmacy!

So, for the past year, I have continued to have my scripts filled at large retail pharmacies and just paid the extra copayment rather than mess with the "convenience" of filling any meds at work.

Until this past weekend.....

I saw my doctor on Friday, and she sent an electronic prescription in for me to my Large National Chain Retail 24/7 With Drive Thru Pharmacy. My hubby and I ran around all day long and when we finally got home that evening, there was a message to call The Pharmacy. Turns out, this medication the doctor ordered is "special" and my insurance says I can only fill it at one of the "Workplace, Bankers Hours, located inside a building with a big long lines Pharmacies". I looked at the clock-- Workplace Pharmacy officially closed. He told me to call on Monday and have Workplace Pharmacy get the prescription from them and have it filled. *sigh* Well, all right. I let out a mediocre snarl.

Monday morning. I call Workplace Pharmacy and explain to them that there is a script waiting for me at the Large National Chain Retail 24/7 With Drive Thru Pharmacy that they can't fill because of my stupid insurance rules and asked them to please call and fill it. "Yep, no problem, we'll do that".

Monday afternoon. After work, I drive over to Workplace Pharmacy and stand in line for 18 minutes behind 6 customers in a very tiny space about the size of my bathroom. There is one Pharmacy Tech working the register, and one Pharmacist filling the scripts. Whispered snarl. When it's finally my turn, I approach the window and ask for my script. I hear the pharmacist behind the counter say "Oh. Yeah, that's a long story". Audible snarl. "What?" The pharmacist comes over and has a little piece of paper in his hand. He says, "We called the Large National Chain Retail 24/7 With Drive Thru Pharmacy and they didn't have a prescription for you. Then, we called this number (he points to the piece of paper where I see someone has written the number to my doctor's office) and that number doesn't exist for your doctor".

Pause. Close my eyes, breathe in once, out once, open eyes again.

Me: "Ok, yes, that is my doctor's office phone number; perhaps the person misdialed and should have dialed it twice before deciding it didn't exist. Also, I know somebody had something on record for me somewhere because I didn't give you all my doctor's phone number, so the other pharmacy had to tell you that, which would have been on.the.script.".

The Workplace Pharmacist shrugs his shoulders and calls over to the Large National Chain Retail 24/7 With Drive Thru Pharmacy to double check. He hangs up and confirms again to me: nope, they don't have any record of having a prescription for me. What is this, the Twilight Zone? Yes there is, they called and told me they couldn't fill it! On Friday! And told me to call you!

Now there are people lined up behind me. Guess what-- I don't care. Roaring snarl. I will not be brushed off that easily. I said "Let me call them, where is there a phone that I can use?" and the Pharmacist hands me the phone from behind the counter.

I call over to Large National Chain Retail 24/7 With Drive Thru Pharmacy and push the automated menu buttons until I get a chipper young lady who informs me she is the Pharmacy Tech on duty. I explain to her that I am waiting over at Workplace, Bankers Hours, located inside a building with a big long lines Pharmacy trying to pick up my prescription that they were supposed to release. I tell her all about the Friday night phone call from them saying the medication was special and couldn't be filled by them and that I would need to have it transferred. She takes my information and puts me on hold. She comes back on and says:

"We don't have any record of ever receiving this prescription for you. We can see when they came in and when we closed them out, and there is just nothing here for you". And then she says a sentence that makes me feel as if she could be right, and this might all be a bad dream. She says: "Are you sure it was this pharmacy that you spoke to?" but she says it in a half-committed voice that shows even she believes she deserves to have her ass beaten for such a dumb thing to say.

At this point I take a nanosecond to fantasize that I have magical powers and the ability to reach through the phone, down the cord, across the phone lines, into her store and smack her around 3 of 4 times while I shout: "Pay Attention!!! Of COURSE it was you all I spoke to, you're the only pharmacy I use!!!!!" But I zap back into reality and take it easy on her with just, "Are you kidding me, yes, it was your pharmacy. Let me speak to someone else". She gladly put me on hold.

Next up: the Retail Pharmacist who just came on shift and has no idea what the bozo before him did that day with my script. He half-heartedly listens to me tell the whole story again and he says, "Well, we just don't have anything here in the system for you". I said, "Then you need to call the pharmacist at home that worked today and ask he/she what the h*ll they did with my prescription!"

At this point, I have now been in the Workplace, Bankers Hours, located inside a building with a big long lines Pharmacy for a good 35 minutes. I am tired, hungry, and losing my will to fight. I say to Retail Pharmacist, who clearly does not care what happened to my script and is peeved with Retail Tech for putting me over to him, "so what do I do now?". And he says "I'm not sure, call the doctor for a new script". To which I say, envisioning the white flag of surrender waving above my head, "well, ok". And you know what? He never, ever, not once, through the entire conversation said "We're sorry". Jerk.

I hang up the phone and turn back to the Workplace Pharmacy tech. She says she will call my doctor in the morning and get a new script for me. She then lights up and says: "Hey, let me call the (Workplace) Pharmacist who was here today and see if we can get better details of what happened when she called for your script". Great idea!

She turns to the computer, pauses for a moment with her hands above the keys, then says to the Pharmacist: "What's the name of the pharmacist on day shift?"

And it was a good thing I was sitting down, because Workplace Pharmacist replies: "I don't know, I think it starts with an S".

WHAT?

Are you joking?

You guys don't even know the names of your coworkers that pass off messages for people's prescriptions to you??????? Have you not been paying attention the last 35 minutes to see that there are numerous communication breakdowns here???

I left my cell phone number, walked out, went home, and have been cursing my insurance ever since. Just because they decide that I should use a certain pharmacy, I am 4 days without the medicine my doctor ordered, and not even a prescription anywhere now to show for it. And once the mess is straightened out, I'll have to make another trip to the Workplace Pharmacy, stand in another long line while trying my best not to invade the other customers' personal space in the tiny area, and wait for my turn to go to the window and cross all my fingers and toes that the med is there waiting for me. Wow, the convenience of filling prescriptions at work.

All things Olive today:
Air conditioning!
Neighbors that make me dinner
1/2 cran grape juice mixed with 1/2 seltzer water