Irritating Things in My Life

Julianne Hough (dancer on Dancing with the Stars, aspiring country singer) is 20 years old. She has joined the ranks of celebrities that date people that are way too old for them. Her boyfriend is 29. That's a big difference when you're that young. Also, following the rules of "Half+7," the oldest she could go with out it being sketchy is 26, and that's pushing it. Perhaps I'm a big prude when it comes to these things, but that's like a grad student dating an undergrad. Ew.

I spent an hour trying to figure out my prescription drug coverage today. First, I went to the United Healthcare website. They made me create an account. Then I tried to see what drugs were listed under which tier (there's a three tier system of co-pays). I was directed to the Medco website (mail-in pharmacy), which made me create another account. To sign up, they requested a nine-digit member number, which was supposedly on my card somewhere or it was my SSN. There was no nine-digit number on the card, so I tried my SSN. That didn't work, so I tried every number on the card, none of which worked. Then I called customer service, which was closed for the day. That was fine, since it was 9:30 PM. I used the self-service menu, which gave me a phone number for the drug company, which I called. It was a different number from the first one, but somehow ended up directing me to the exact same menu I had just listened to telling me to call that number. I found another number to call in the information packet, and at that point I got to talk to a real, live person. He was very nice and set up an account for me. However, he kept calling me Mrs. Mahler. While I get that he was trying to be polite, he really shouldn't assume I'm a)married, or b)if I were married I would take my husband's name. He also called me Mrs. Paterno once, which was ridiculous. After all this, I found that every single long-term prescription that I have taken (nose spray, etc.) falls under the $30 co-pay and not the $10 one. I also found out that I should order my drugs online through the mail-in pharmacy, because it's cheaper.

After the whole ordeal, I still never got the information I was looking for. I'm trying to figure out if IUDs are covered by insurance, and nowhere could I find this information. Sigh...

Advisor

I have never felt so intimidated by someone in my life. I think I am a pretty confident person and that when it comes to talking to my superiors, I can usually express myself without feeling frightened. Not so here. I am genuinely worried that whatever I send to my advisor, it won't be good enough. Consequently, he probably thinks I'm not doing anything. I feel like every time I go talk to him, he will criticize something that I'm doing or make me feel bad about the work that I've done. There are also a few professors that I am intimidated by, but not to this degree. It's beginning to interfere with my ability to get things done.

How do so many people have the uncanny ability to know exactly when I'm about to step away from my computer to do something and choose that exact moment to IM me? It drives me absolutely insane.