Love Is...

Not supposed to be hard. This is not to say that it doesn't take effort to maintain a relationship, but the back and forth, will-they/won't they of movies doesn't work in real life. Rarely do you break up with someone multiple times and still have that person be a good match for you. Generally, you break up with someone for a good reason, and you should never look back. Good relationships should make you the best person you can be, and they should elevate you. They shouldn't make you miserable or unhappy.

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...

My Office

There is a lot of drama in my office. I thought I was out of high school. Guess not. I'm glad I learned to think for myself and do what I feel is right when I was there, though.

High School Reunion

I went to my 5 year high school reunion today. While I was there, I figured out why my friendships have shifted since then. The people that I was close with in high school I am no longer close with, and people who I was friends with but not superclose with I'm much closer to now. This is because the ones I used to be friends with have no intellectual curiosity. They are content with the knowledge they have and have no desire to learn more. I don't understand that.

I'm going to congratulate myself and say, "Yay, Rachel!" I did better this quarter than in the fall, and I raised my GPA (and passed my classes). I'm so close to keeping my money I can taste it. Here's to more improvement.

And now, a rant.

[redacted].

I thought better of it. I'm pissed, though.

Erm...

I had a lot I thought about saying, but I'll just be angsty for a bit.

One would think that in a male-dominated area such as physics the chances would be high of meeting someone you click with. As the saying goes, "the odds are good but the goods are odd." At UCI, however, the odds are not even good. Everyone I'm close with is in a relationship. There are guys that I am kind of interested in, but the physics department is so fucked up that I'm not sure I want to deal with that. I briefly alluded to this earlier, but there is/was/whatever a boy (Main Boy). One of the girls (Acquaintance) said to another girl (Good Friend) that they should set me up with Main Boy. The main players in this story plus others go out one night. Acquaintance pushes me and Main Boy together to dance, but by the end of the night Acquaintance and Main Boy are possibly making out and definitely holding hands on the car ride home. I would like to meet other people, but since I live in my office and do work all the time this seems less than likely. Plus I've only dated physicists and engineers so I don't know what I would do with someone that isn't in my field. The only times I've met people that I've truly cared about/loved romantically have been over the summer in Ojai. I suppose there was also Best Guy Friend, but he wasn't a physicist and that didn't work out so much. Dr. Zook has nine cats now. I don't want to end up like her. Nor do I want to end up like Bridget Jones (I watched Bridget Jones's Diary the other day, which prompted this wallowing).