The less fun part about Spring Break was getting screwed by my Dentist.
We used to go to this bad-ass old school dentist. She worked out of this kind of creepy basement office in some random apartment building. It was a one-woman show, none of that frilly receptionist hygienist stuff. Not even x-rays. She would just look at you and know what was going on, and then dive in for the most painful and most thorough cleanings I've ever experienced. I was a little scared of her, but my teeth were great, and most of all the co-pay was always $20.
And then insurance changed things around and suddenly I had to go to new fancy dentist. Fancy dentist apparently works in a dental spa with little fountains and fancy laser x-ray's that show up on flatscreen tvs. Unsurprisingly fancy dentist's fancy machines found some very fancy gum infection that probably might just go away - but could also kill me unless I had a deep cleaning right now! Deep cleaning apparently would be a $70 co-pay, $90 total with some extra anti-bacterial rinse. Not wanting to maybe die, I figured I could do $90. So I hung out for $20 minutes, did the deep clean thing (What is the difference between a deep clean and a regular clean besides $70? They use different instruments, that get slightly deeper.) swished around some minty stuff, and went up to pay.
Whereupon I was told that special fancy deep cleaning chemical combo was actually $70+$90. Which being $70 more than I had agreed to, didn't sit right with me.
Fortunately I've been trying to get better at the whole responsible, assertive adult who is not cowed by authority things, so got up all my courage to do the adult thing and very politely said that I had been told it would be $90 total, so would they please go and double check? They would, and they did. And came back and just as nicely told me that it was actually $160 per quadrant. As in not just $160, but $160 four times. $640 - which is about $550 more than I agreed to, and about $300 more than I really care about my teeth being fancy extra special clean.
I really wanted to argue some more, to use my fancy lawyer powers for good, or at least my own good. But my fear based on past precedent that I'd somehow end up with a $2400 20-minute cleaning won out so instead I signed the papers and went home to cry and call my Mommy.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Spontenaity
It's Spring Break a few weeks ago, and oh, I tried my nardest to enjoy it. Pretty well succeeded too.
Tuesday began with a much-needed haircut, and then we decided, out of the blue with no planning or foresight, to finally go and explore one of the little corners of the DC area that we've always meant to go down to, but never quite managed to work up the will power to actually go and do. (Old Town Alexandria, if you're curious).
We must have been giddy with spontaneity or something, because spur of the moment is so not how I roll. I plan. I love my plans, and spreadsheets. Generally any out of the ordinary excursion only happens after a few hours of googling and the creation of detailed spreadsheets of various sites to see and a host of dining options, complete with transportation timetables, a detailed map and a rough itinerary. I wish I was kidding. Well, kind of.
You see, my crazy planning apparently does have value. This value became very apparent about 10 minutes into our metro ride when it became very obvious that in our regularly routine lives, this was lunch time. Suddenly all the cute little shops and row houses and water front whatever really didn't matter. We needed food, and we needed it now. It's not hard to tell when we're hungry. We walk quicker, scanning the area like hawks. Our sentences become quick and staccato as we try to communicate as little as possible, because we know any extra syllables will only be hunger induced head ripping. All we needed to do was find some good fast food favorite. Like a 5 Guys or a Chipotle.
After about 5 blocks we found a Subway.
I have no problem with Subway. They are very adequate. They definitely give you food that is edible and tastes ok and is certainly worth $5. It's a perfect quick lunch. But this was spontaneous date day of love. And clearly that was much better suited by yummy but still budget friendly burgers or burritos.
I continued to feel that way for another two blocks. At which point it became very clear that a spontaneous date day of love depended much more on friendly, fed people that still liked each other than it did on the perfect meal. We went back and had Subway. It was very adequate.
One block past where we had previously stopped we saw a Five Guys. A few blocks latter, a Chipotle. What else was there to do but laugh?
Tuesday began with a much-needed haircut, and then we decided, out of the blue with no planning or foresight, to finally go and explore one of the little corners of the DC area that we've always meant to go down to, but never quite managed to work up the will power to actually go and do. (Old Town Alexandria, if you're curious).
We must have been giddy with spontaneity or something, because spur of the moment is so not how I roll. I plan. I love my plans, and spreadsheets. Generally any out of the ordinary excursion only happens after a few hours of googling and the creation of detailed spreadsheets of various sites to see and a host of dining options, complete with transportation timetables, a detailed map and a rough itinerary. I wish I was kidding. Well, kind of.
You see, my crazy planning apparently does have value. This value became very apparent about 10 minutes into our metro ride when it became very obvious that in our regularly routine lives, this was lunch time. Suddenly all the cute little shops and row houses and water front whatever really didn't matter. We needed food, and we needed it now. It's not hard to tell when we're hungry. We walk quicker, scanning the area like hawks. Our sentences become quick and staccato as we try to communicate as little as possible, because we know any extra syllables will only be hunger induced head ripping. All we needed to do was find some good fast food favorite. Like a 5 Guys or a Chipotle.
After about 5 blocks we found a Subway.
I have no problem with Subway. They are very adequate. They definitely give you food that is edible and tastes ok and is certainly worth $5. It's a perfect quick lunch. But this was spontaneous date day of love. And clearly that was much better suited by yummy but still budget friendly burgers or burritos.
I continued to feel that way for another two blocks. At which point it became very clear that a spontaneous date day of love depended much more on friendly, fed people that still liked each other than it did on the perfect meal. We went back and had Subway. It was very adequate.
One block past where we had previously stopped we saw a Five Guys. A few blocks latter, a Chipotle. What else was there to do but laugh?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)