Mrs. Balabusta meets PS2

Well, I may be putting my reputation on the line but here goes.

Yesterday, I played with my husband's Playstation. It all started with a trip to Target to get socks for my youngest son whose socks have been shanghied by his brothers and are now serving time in Yeshiva. The guy really had no socks, just a bunch of sock molecules and some plasma holding them together.

Of course at Target, where I might add, people were ripping things off the walls like Christmas was tomorrow, they also sell PS2 games. What a relief! If they didn't we might have to go to Best Buy, and that's a parking lot you don't want to get into until like Next January or so, unless you upgrade your car insurance to include "Freaks Of Nature" - but I digress.

So they sell PS2 games at Target and although that is usually a site where I can park the kids while I pick up the tinfoil and sandwich bags, this time I parked the PT there. When we got to the checkout line there was a game in my basket. I held it up and said "And what is This??" to which the PT replied without missing a beat, "On Sale." (he knows me really well.)

In the name of Shalom Bayis, I said "uh huh". Turns out he bought an X-Men game (I like X-men) for PS2. When we got home he offered me a turn to be Wolverine (I like Wolverine). The fastest way to get my attention is to offer me unlimited superpowers.

Turns out it was fun, once I figured it out. And we have two controllers so someone could play with me, which was also fun. My thumb was getting a little stiff after the first couple of hours. There - I said it. I played Playstation for a couple of hours and it was fun.

Now maybe the PT will start knitting and the universe will be complete.

Health Insurance - Don't get me started.

Because my husband is a doctor, he qualifies as both the employer and the employee and for the purposes of health insurance, we pay both halves of the premium. You shudder to think what that might be, and if you aren't shuddering, you should start shuddering.

It's about $1400/month.

Let me tell you what we get for that. I have in my hand an EOB from Blue Cross about my son's foot surgery. He had ingrown toenails and had 3 margins excised and cauterized, which I might mention is a permanent fix to an otherwise constant problem. All of it done on an outpatient basis, local anesthesia, no preop and no follow up.
The DPM charged $1012, (probably wishful thinking on his part, but we all have our dreams.)
The insurance company adjusted his charges, per contract, to $286.02.
Less my $25 copay, and the $224.04 they applied to my deductible.
Blue Cross paid the DPM a whopping $36.98.

I don't know about you, but I can't fill up my car for that amount.

This is about the time where I started explaining to my husband that your copay is a flat tax you pay just for utilizing "the system". The deductible, is really a misnomer, but in our case is $1500/person and $3000/family. It isn't deducted from anything, it's the amount you have to pay out of your pocket before the insurance will kick in. Which brings us to our next term, out of pocket. Stay with me here, the deductible does not go towards your out of pocket limits, even though it comes out of your pocket. Only copays and coinsurance counts towards your out of pocket.

I had Physical Therapy over the summer for my Achilles Tendon, all ordered by an orthopod, for which I received a bill of $2000, which the insurance company cut in half, literally, and then applied it towards my deductible. I called the company up on this one and said, "Aren't you supposed to pay like 80% after you cut the charges in half?" The answer is no, because they don't pay for physical therapy.

Go read your policy.

I have a couple of suggestions about what they can go do, and they can use my policy to do it - because you know what - That's about what it's good for.

V' haMaivin Yavin. (all the rest of you can use your imaginations)

Be careful what you ask for....

So I come back from lunch and my waiting room is full with 3 girls slouched over in chairs.

I quickly duck into Student Services and ask the receptionist, a Student Worker named Molly, if anyone has anything they would like to tell me.

Without missing a beat Molly replied, "You look very spiffy with the pink sweater on today-"

She cracked me and my assistant up, while we were laughing, I thanked her, but asked her if she had any information about the pts in the waiting room.

She didn't know there were patients in my waiting room. I thanked her again and told her I would be back tomorrow for an "update".

Now where did I leave my pants?

I have finished all the ironing downstairs and I have made an amazing discovery.

First of all, I don't think the boys took any towels back with them so one can only guess if they are taking any showers.

Second, I found three of Moe's pants down there. So I don't know what he is wearing. He wouldn't fit in his brother's pants, although I am not sure that would stop him.

Third, there are at least 8 shirts and 2 pairs of tzizis down there. So what are they wearing and pray tell, what did they "pack" for 3 days?

Inquiring minds what to know.

I had a really weird dream

This qualifies as strange, but completely understandable, doubly so for New Yorkers, extra credit for those of you from Da Bronx.

We used to live at AECOM (Einstein) before we found religion and moved out to Wisconsin, (just kidding). Anyway, in my dream I am standing at the bus stop on the corner of Morris Park and Eastchester Rd, waiting for the Bx21 to take me down to 180th and East Tremont where I would catch the 5, (and then later the 2) to the city. This was something I did pretty much every day for a long time, unless the Bx31 came first, in which case I could get down to Westchester Square and catch the 6 (express in the Bronx, local in Manhattan) to work.

So I am standing on the corner and I look down at my watch and it reads 20 of 4, which I thought was strange, because I now wear a digital watch, not a face, and I was wondering what happened to the one I put on this morning, and then I realized that we changed the clocks and it would be getting dark in like 20 minutes.

The Bx21 pulled up and I got on. I called Mark from my cell on the bus. I am not going to make it I told him. I forgot about the extra hour, near panic closing in. Just get on the train, he says.

Now I am at East Tremont. I haven't thought about this train station in over ten years, but I tell you in my dream I could smell it. Do I have money for another fare, I think it's over $2 now. The train pulls up, I hear it but I am still downstairs. Panic - as you know, the train you hear pull up is always the one that gets away, just a fact.

I started running - running - then I woke up. In Milwaukee.

Well, that was an unscheduled stop.