Another Unusual Twitter Day
I'm fairly decent at playing Twitter hashtag games. Still, I was initially taken back by the theme "as cold as Jennifer Aniston's nipples". [For any unfamiliar reader, Jennifer was the "girl next door" lead Rachel in the long-running "Friends" series, which partially focused on Rachel's relationship with Ross.] I grew up a good Catholic boy, who never dared to mention "breasts" or "nipples" in front of my mom or 4 little sisters. I can only imagine Aniston's embarrassment or shock to find part of her anatomy the subject of a hashtag game.(In a certain manner, guys have a similar issue. While at UWM as a junior professor, I had befriended this psychology graduate student who basically ran a stat laboratory; I was using LISREL, a confirmatory factor analysis package, not available from my connected office PC. This young woman had very large breasts; she never showed an inch of cleavage, mostly wearing conservative, minimizing things like pullover sweaters. In politically correct academia I would never make any reference to breasts, but as she got to know me better, she did, telling me this story of how one of her professors kept her after lecture one day, complaining that the size of her breasts was distracting to other students. I really didn't know what to say; it's not like she could detach her breasts and store them in a locker during class. I thought maybe he was weirdly attracted to her and making an improper advance. I myself was attracted to her, but a lot of it had to do with our growing friendship; as a junior professor, I really didn't want to open up Pandora's box of faculty/student relationships, even though she wasn't my own student and studied in another school of the college. I did get the feeling, though, the attraction was mutual; for example, one day I entered the lab, she was on the phone, waved an enthusiastic hello, and then shifted in her chair showing off a side view of her ample bosom. She also invited me to her apartment one day (no, I did not accept).
(So anyway one day she sees me in a courtyard between buildings and we have a short small talk chat. I swear to God I didn't have a single conscious thought about her appearance. But after she left, I suddenly became acutely aware that a part of my anatomy was erect, something I don't recall happening before or since in public. (It may have been completely unrelated to the encounter; maybe my anatomy rubbed up against clothing.) I could have died of embarrassment; I certainly didn't want anyone seeing me like that. I wasn't quite sure of what to do; I tried focusing on ice. Eventually I was able to continue my walk to the other building.) Of course, if a woman's nipples are hard, it could mean things other than sexual arousal.
So I ad-libbed 3 tweets on the topic:
-- Cherokee Lizzie's feelings for Comrade Bernie
-- Trump's support for former AG Jeff Sessions
-- my former girlfriend
All 3 went "viral" in my classification of a tweet with 1000 or more impressions/views. Not in the ballpark of my biggest tweet, but as I write, I have 6 top tweets in that range over the past month, which I think is a personal record.
As to the reference of my former girlfriend, I'm particularly referring to KA in a recent autobiographical essay I recently published. I really haven't had that many relationships and/or break-ups, but when I broke up with Kathryn, I honestly believed that she had already moved on from our relationship because she was cutting my phone calls short. But no, I hadn't ever experienced the hell of a woman scorned. She was determined to have the last word. I ended up getting a multiple-page, single-spaced letter on company letterhead, just so full of hate, I've never read past the first paragraph which, as I recall, referred to me as the spawn of Satan. I have absolutely no clue what led to this. I don't think it's normal. At least I'm not aware of anyone else experiencing something similar. I always treated her nicely, with respect. But as I noted in my essay, I had gone to an Astros game an earlier Saturday afternoon and came back to literally 20 answering machine messages from her, demanding to know where I was. I don't think that's normal behavior; I suspected that she had issues, and I'm not a psychologist trained to deal with it. I have no idea how she would write a 3- or so page rant directed at me. This rage against me (there were other passive-aggressive incidents later) continued to the point I left my beloved Catholic Newman Association because I didn't want to deal with her. And it pissed me off, because I was a graduate student, and she wasn't enrolled (she lived a couple of blocks south of campus).
My Health Insurance Company and the Damn Hospital
Everybody has their own horror stories dealing with insurance companies and/or hospitals. Part of this I've probably discussed in prior posts.From a usability standpoint, it really sucks. For example, you may get different invoices from the hospital--multiples from individual doctors, specialties (e.g., radiology), from the hospital itself. Now add in a complication like my health insurance hadn't processed my monthly premium and had shown a status of "no insurance"; I actually got called by some hospital bureaucrat on the last day of my 3-day stay, had contacted my insurance company, which assured me the hospital had obsolete information which should be updated within a day or two, then called multiple places in the hospital trying to communicate the update. So, it's been like a game of Whac-a-Mole, with many of the several invoices assuming I'm without insurance--even almost 4 months after my visit. It's exasperating as hell. So on top of all the different invoices, I also have to figure out which ones are legitimate "my responsibility".
A typical example was the latest one earlier this week from radiology. Now I could swear the radiology charges were the first ones adjudicated through the insurance company. But I get an invoice for $160, net a self-pay discount of $36 or so. Now when they put "self-pay", that basically means they don't know I have insurance. So I have to call in to my insurance, give them invoice information, and they eventually come back and say, "No, the hospital says you owe them something like $5.60." Say what?? God knows where that came from.
But what really triggers me is the biggest hospital bill, about $6800, shows a claim status of "Completed" and they put down I'm responsible for about $6700. Say what? I have no idea how the hospital and insurance company negotiate bills, but usually there's a significant discount, the insurance pays a chunk, and I pay the residual "my responsibility". Now part of this is complicated because in my case there's a small deductible (like about $1000) plus co-pays. So the first thing I notice is none of these charges have been discounted and the insurance is picking up ZERO. Never mind only a portion of charges should be out-of-pocket given the fact I've paid my deductible.
So I call up the insurance company and what they tell me is the hospital did not deliver supporting material for the charges within a certain time frame and so they completed the process, not that it's closed, but they won't do anything until the hospital documents charges in the manner expected by the insurer. So, no, I'm not responsible for $6700, but they are waiting for the hospital to comply. I'm pissed--why aren't they checking with the hospital? Why am I having to call them to check on documentation from the hospital? So I was assured that the hospital is now aware of the information request. (I just checked, at least a week later and have been told the hospital still hasn't sent them anything.) I have no idea why the insurance company doesn't show a status of "IN PROCESS" and doesn't assign a responsibility until the claim is closed. The last thing I need is my credit score being ruined by bureaucratic nonsense.
