Who do I still think I am??

This one's about to blow the cover off.

MOB-RELATED ACTIVITY:

Is this still a thing?

BCF PROMPT: "In the story/movie Mary Poppins, Mary and Bert stepped into different paintings to explore. What famous painting would you step into and explore for fun?"

What's up y'all? I seriously thought about takin' the night off, because I'm frustrated. Nearly everywhere I've been today, in both a physical and a mental sense, has been met with some combination of sarcasm, futility, ineptitude, or just stupidity. I don't play well with a lot of that goin' around...but more on that later.

I have not seen Mary Poppins since I was a kid. For real. I remember some vague details, like she had an umbrella and she flew. Wasn't she like a nanny or housekeeper or babysitter or somethin'? And that song...not the one with all the consonants, or the one about chimneys, but the medicine one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrnoR9cBP3o. How am I just realizing now that it had nothing to do with medicine at all? Or maybe it does and I'm relying on three minute snippet of the movie to inform my ignorance. Whatever the case, I'm sorta on the minus side of the ledger already on this prompt, and that's before I even spit out...

...That I'm not really a big "art" person. I have very limited no knowledge of who made what, when, or which frame of mind they were in while doing so. I can appreciate it from a visual standpoint, and I can respect you if that's your thing, but for the purpose of this entry, I really don't know. Ask me about a 3-4 defense with a 2-deep look, and I'll tell you what a good play call would be based on the depth of the linebackers. But art? I'm lucky I know Art Garfunkel from Artisan bread.

So I think what I'm gonna do here is crack open iTunes and look at the albums I have uploaded right now, and kill two birds with one stone. Interesting cover art, and a song for "The Soundtrack of Your Life" . Can it be done? Why not?

Ok...after a quick scroll (and I mean quick), this is all I have the patience for tonight, but I'm gonna detour a bit when it comes to the song selection. The album shown is Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here"...it just so happened to be the first thing that caught my eye and looks like you could have a little fun trying to dissect it (low standards and criteria tonight y'all). I'm not a diehard Floyd fan, but I do enjoy a lot of their music, and "Wish You Were Here" is definitely a favorite.

So it's two guys shaking hands...but OMG he's on fire!! Not much really to explore in a physical sense, other than please God somebody do something!! I'm sure much has been said about the metaphorical significance of for the love of God, humanity and puppies, no!! Perhaps it's good versus evil, or a symbolic shaking of hands with the devil, or oh my God he's gonna melt right into that suit!! It could be that they're agreeing to a business deal; maybe a drug deal destined to go wrong. They're in the middle of the street in broad daylight, and nobody's bothered to call 911?! You soulless bastards!!

Bad example, I get it. But I'm not in a mood to be fancy and creative tonight, so that's what you're getting from me.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

** Image ID #1970900 Unavailable **

Like many people who've come to enjoy this song, I've associated it with missing people, as well as a way of coping with loss. The particulars aren't necessary other than the obvious ones I just stated; details can often wind up taking on a life of their own sometimes.

I went through a gigantic Radiohead "phase", for lack of a better term. I would stay up late and patrol file-sharing websites for any and all live and/or unreleased songs, B-sides, videos, anything I could get my fingers on. I'd visit sites like http://www.greenplastic.com/ and http://www.ateaseweb.com/ before doing anything else online, just to see if there was any new Radiohead information I'd missed the previous day. I was a total fan-boy, making copies of cd's I'd burned for myself because "Hey, you should check this out". And then I'd found out that Thom Yorke did an insane cover of "Wish You Were Here", and it felt so much more haunted...ghostlier even. I kind of miss discovering new music in the pre-iTunes days, when you could just fire up Morpheus or Kazaa and take your chances on finding stuff like this.

Turns out it was a legitimate release...I found it many years later in a cut-out bin at a local grocery store, of all places. The album is "Essential Interpretations" (album: Essential Interpretations {link:http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Interpretations-Artists-Yesterdays-Classics/dp/B000BX99NU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393383915&sr=8-1&keywords=EMI+essential+interpretations}; lyrics: http://www.ateaseweb.com/songs/wishyouwerehere.php), which was basically a record company compilation of popular artists covering other artists on the same label. Probably good for business, I suppose. The song is actually credited to Sparklehorse (featuring Thom Yorke), with Yorke doing his vocal take over the phone from a hotel room.

THE DAILY BOX SCORE:

It's been cold and lousy out the last day or so...perfect time to run out of meds and be needing a script when you don't see that doctor for another week and a half. Thought I was doing the right thing by calling the doc's office Friday and leaving a message for the nurse practitioner, so she could have everything called in to my pharmacy and I could just pick everything up in a day or two. Called in the refills I still had on some other things, and Sunday went to pick everything up. Only, there was only one med. Figuring maybe there was a problem with my insurance (and knowing I still had a few Ambien left to get me through another couple of days), I held off until today. Called Kinney (my local drug store) and nope, they've got nothin' for me, and nothin' from the doctor. And that would be because...

...The nurse said she was unable to have my scripts electronically sent over, which was fine, until she got really snotty with me and condescendingly said, "I tried to call you, but the you didn't answer and there was no voicemail." I asked her what number she had for me and she snapped, "I don't know, whatever you have on file here, some 716 number...you can pick your script up at the front desk." Determined not to make an issue out of it or let it ruin my day, I thanked her and got ready to pick it up before lunch. Kinda sad when the free lunch at some church for the less fortunate is the only thing that goes to plan during the day, and even then I managed to drop my donut frosted-side down on the table (and I rarely ever eat donuts, but the one time I do...).

At least that explains why my doctor's office never called last Thursday to remind me of my appointment on Friday...and they're usually really good about calling around the same time before every day I'm scheduled to go there. And since they're not getting my voicemail, now I'm wondering if there's something wrong with my phone...I can make calls, but I guess I'm not receiving any. Before I did anything, I went online to see if there was any sort of replacement I'd be able to get (cheap-ass phone, free service, out of warranty)...had to go through their verbal recertification first (that's one call), and I remembered I never updated my address when I moved out here, so I went back online to do that- only my address **is not valid. Huh?? So I call the number the website directs me to, and it's a total "Tell us what you need...here's our menu" kind of thing, which I absolutely can't stand. And of course, there's no option to either change my address or speak to a representative. So I called the other number listed online, for tech support (further proof that I can make calls), and they tell me to call the other number, and a bunch of other crap that I already did, and I wasn't pleased with the results, but they'll "like for you to take a survey today on your experience", and if you know me you know I hate surveys, so I thanked her for being no help at all, hung up, and tried again on the original line. Sure enough, thirty seconds into that experience my call-waiting is beeping because Yay! Survey! and no, I'm gonna wait and make sure this is taken care of. And I swear I got the exact same person on the phone after repeatedly pressing zero literally 15 times to bypass their "Tell Me How I Can Help You" with the "every option except the one I need" menu.

I need a break from this because I can feel my anger coming back to me at a level I haven't experienced in a long time.

So I tell this woman what I need- my address changed, in case I ever need to a new phone or what have you- and she proceeds to repeat pretty much everything I say and follow it up with another question that I can barely understand but answer anyway, and finally we get down to the most important stat of all; the crux of the matter, if you will...my address. Which I told her, much the same as I would tell a 97 year old who's very hard of hearing. I can feel my face rejecting the muscles my mouth is pulling by trying to spell the words I've said. I'm overcompensating because I know I mumble at times, but this woman isn't helping me help herself help me by botching everything I'm saying, which is furthering frustration at this point I've only brought upon myself for looking into a possible non-issue. Finally we get it right, she puts me on hold, comes back, and she's like, "Do you know a Mark? A Patrick?" I lost it. I blew up on her. I did the raised-octave "WHAAAAAAT?" before blasting her with "No, I have no idea who those people are and what does this have to do with me?!" Turns out these people have lived at some point in the same building I live in now ('cuz there's like 25 separate residences in my building) and they can't validate me or some stupid thing. But she'll "go ahead and notate my account that my new address is such-and-such", even though for all intents and purposes, my mailing address will remain unchanged. Cool, I was hoping that would happen. I would love for all my mail from this company to be sent three to four hours away to people I don't talk to anymore and really don't like (and I'm sure the feeling's mutual, but that's neither here nor there at the moment). Then, to top it off, she tells me I can look up my info online, because she can't email me a confirmation of any of our conversation (which was being recorded for quality control purposes). So I'd had it. I wasted over an hour of my day on this, and got absolutely nowhere, if not worse off than where I began.

After all this, I remembered I can receive calls, because my new orthopedic doctor's office called me yesterday and left me a voicemail to remind me of that appointment..

So I exhaled a bit, and decided I'd do a little window shopping, knowing full well I can't afford a new phone right now anyway, but having worked in the industry before I like to at least know what's out there. I won't say where I looked because frankly, they don't need the business anyway and their website didn't exactly merit the promotion by not allowing me to compare the differences between certain models until I logged in with my site-specific user ID that is linked to my billing info. Hi, I'm not a member of your secret society, so I don't have a "user ID"...I'm just here to look around, thanks. Employing a similar type of button-mashing strategy that got me through on the phone earlier, I think I moused my way past whatever info they wanted from me and finally got to do what it was I set out to do...until a window came up that asked me if I'd like to take a survey to rate my experience on their website. Yes, a-flippin'-nother damn survey. I love how I'm asked for my opinion right after I've had a shitty experience, because I tend to fly off the handle when I'm asked how I really feel by a corporation I know damn well they don't give shit how I feel (in retrospect, the funniest part of the survey with my current phone company was that it was automated, and it kept going through even though my voicemail (surprise! I have voicemail!) had taken the call...yet I kept trying to answer the survey as if it were a live call, so pressing "1" for "very dissatisfied" was actually more like pressing "1" to replay the message, but I was too pissed off to care).

And to top it off, I got a letter today from Social Services that stated two items of personal concern: 1) I am NON-EXEMPT from work-related activities; and 2) I am EXEMPT from work-related activities. So which is it? Another effin' phone call I'm gonna have to make in the morning.

On a positive note, I at least have more Ambien, so I will sleep tonight and hopefully not stress out too much in the morning about seeing the new ortho in the afternoon. I'm also gonna cut this short here, right now, because I've about had it with today and it might be time to take said Ambien so I'm not sleeping all freaking morning (I get paranoid sometimes that I'll oversleep, even when I have no reason to wake up early). And I've vented enough for one day. Hopefully I'll have more fun things to share tomorrow...as for this moment though, it really is GOODNIGHT NOW!!