I'm making blueberry muffins and waiting for a friend to arrive!

I'm waiting for the muscle relaxants to kick and wondering if getting up to put on the Lidocaine patch is worth...getting up.

Neck's not killing-killing me, or anything. Otherwise I'd have put it on already. Just wondering what measures I should take before my massage tomorrow afternoon. I bless whatever brought a cool and funny massage therapist into krav (okay, it was probably her obsessive boyfriend--do I bless him, or whatever brought him in?) who's willing to slot me in at fairly short notice.

Exercise today (all I've accomplished, really) loosened it up some, but not enough.

I just have to shake a fist at UCLA Medical billing. They sent me bills for ~$700 for some stuff. Now, with a bill that big, I wait for insurance to have a crack at it, since I shouldn't be getting bills that large. So I wait, and I wait, and then I finally decide to look up the EOBs myself, and they make no sense. Over a month ago I called UCLA Medical billing to say "Hey? No sense!" at which point they transferred the bill from one department to another. I checked up on them a couple weeks ago, and they told me to hold off on any action.

Yesterday I get a "Will proceed to collections toute suite" bill. For $12. Because apparently I should have paid that off when I first got the bill for $700. The rest of the amount has gone away, which is quite nice. And the lady when I called made it seem like it wouldn't be quite that immediate them repossessing my car or anything.

Makes me wonder if I should 2xcheck every bill, not just the big ones.

There are so many ways insurance billing can be fucked up, I'd say yes. Might buy a tank or eight of gas every year?

That said, I've gotten bill-like things that I couldn't tell if they were bills or not, and erred on the side of ignoring them. No one has come after me yet....

I wish you were feeling better.

I still haven't seen any bill at all for the birth of my son. Who is four months old. I actually called them the other week, because a friend of mine had the first notification of a similar bill when the collection agency called, and the woman poked around in my record and discovered lots of incompetence and screwups, and said I should see that bill eventually (it's a simple copay; I already know what it is.)

Ridiculous incompetence.

I hate the way they go at the weakest link (us) so quickly and with such intimidating language. Anything under about $70 I'm going to figure is really my responsibility--or at least not worth the time in research. Ten times that amount? Damn skippy I'm going to let things ride some while the behemoth insurance gets its ass in gear. Too often this stuff is because they won't play nicely together, and everyone gets an attack of the passives.

This is why I certainly keep all my medical bills and all my EOBs.

Yes, I and a couple of others around here can attest to the fact that brain tumors are distinctly lacking in up-sides.

My brother mostly deals with the experimental lab end, not so much the treatment end. Mice, rats, petri dishes and manufactured cells. Today he apparently met with some kids and parents. It's a sobering reminder of what he's really working on. I mean, I'm sure he's aware of that on some level on the day to day, but he's missing his kid today and people are...personal.

I think asshat is coming into common use. Just heard it on Ghost Whisperer.

I don't know if I'm Jew enough for JDate. I don't observe the Sabbath, and bacon is fantastic.

Really, very few people on JDate, at least in most cities, are observant. Most of the observant people have moved over to Frumster by now.

Frumster! Sorry--that's a great name.