Have you talked to HR again, Jess? You might be able to get them to change, if you remind them they promised, and you expected, etc....also double check they dont' start taking out money for the health care too early.

HR's trying to do something about it -- the problem is that the Oxford online enrollment system automatically calculates "1st of the month following 90 days of employment," and so unless she lies about my hire date (which would be MY solution), there's no way to get it to change. She's calling them on the phone right now to see if anything can be done, but I'm not optimistic.

My plan covers 100% of health insurance costs, so at least I don't have to worry about that. But we really can't afford another month of COBRA.

Wait a minute. 31+31+28=90. If you started 12/1, 2/28 should be the 90th day.

That's what I thought too, but apparently Oxford's computers don't see it that way. Hopefully HR will be able to get a real person to bypass the automated system.

Fuck, Jessica. I'm sorry about the health care SNAFU.

Oh, it's an automated system. No wonder. I hope the real people can make something work.

and now I'm being told that, actually, since March 1st is the 90th day of my employment (what with Feb being a short month), my health insurance won't be able to start until April 1st.

This almost sounds like a programming error. Like they just took your hire date and added 90 to it, when in fact they should add 89. (ie if they're adding 90 they're really counting 90 days beyond your hire date, which would be your 91st day of employment.

eta: one way to see this is to think if the insurance kicked in after your third day of employment. If you take 1 (for the 1st of the month) and add 3 you'd end up with the 4th, which is obviously not your third day of employment.

Jessica, I hope you don't have to keep fighting this, but if you do, don't give up. Please take my word for it, as someone who's been on both sides of this coin, that there is someone at your place, who can call someone at their place, and straighten this out, eventually, even if it means the insurer will need to use some sort of manual work-around.

If I do have a god, it's the God Of Parenthetical Abuse.

Bwah.

Gronklies, everyone.

My only thoughts about gods/religion/churches this morning is to say my parents picked the church we grew up in -- after a little vetting -- mostly because it had a lot of kids in the congregation. They weren't so concerned about whether the church was a congregationalist, methodist, presbyterian, etc., but more concerned with whether they and their children would find a sense of community there. So, all grown up, I have no complaints with religion, I don't particularly believe, but I still like the idea of community.

ION, the DH and I went to the taping of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me..." last night. Peter Sagal is a very funny man, much of what we heard cannot be aired even though Michael Powell is no longer with the FCC, and now I know all the answers for Saturday's broadcast.

ETA: Jessica the insurance thing sucks. Be a thorn in the HR person's side until you're sure she's made every phone call possible to keep her promise to you.

Juliana, my sister in(paren) abuse. Funny you should say it like that, cause CG told me maybe I could start a religion like Ayn Rand, kind of based on"baroque paragraphs and abuse of parentheses" (I knew better than to write an editor all verklempt, but it spilled out before I could gave a crap for composition.)

Oh, Jessica, that just SUCKS! I hope you're able to work something out with them...that's just ridiculous.

Someone, please tell me to stop looking up more info for my big research project. I don't need any more sources! I've got too many as it is. I just can't help myself, though. I find this topic fascinating, and I want to see EVERYTHING that is out there on it.

Belief-wise, I'm not sure. I can't say I absolutely believe in G-d. I can't say I absolutely don't. I am extremely doubtful that I will ever see proof one way or the other. (Well, I'm certain I'll never see "There is no G-d" proof, and, while I'm not ruling out the possibility, I really don't think I'll ever see definitive "There is a G-d" proof.) And in general, I don't really see the point in spending much time on that question.

I think that, if I needed to totally pin down my beliefs, I believe in some kind of unifying force. I don't believe in a G-d that's micromanaging every detail of our lives, but I do believe that there's something binding everything together. Maybe it's close to Spinosa's view of G-d, but not quite.

I want to see EVERYTHING that is out there on it.

If I were your librarian, I'd love you for this. However...

Stop! Looking! Up! More! Sources! You can always go back when the paper is done, set up an independent study, etc., to feed your need to know.