Meltdown

What a day! It was really, really lousy. And also not so lousy. And then really nice.

First, I opened up my mail from yesterday to discover that the hospital had sent my account to collections because my pathetic insurance company (eh hmm, BCBS of Utah) can't get off their asses and pay the damn bill(s). When I called them today, they had the "missing info" RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM and thought it should be taken care of pretty soon. Yeah, that's really helpful for my credit rating. Thanks dipwads!

Then, my fabulous HR department let me know they made some errors on my deductions this year, and would need to make an extra $600+ deduction from my December 25th paycheck. Merry Christmas!

Next, I decided there would be no better way to spend my lunch break than applying for Ashi's Social Security card. The government is being run by morons, it is frightening. I provided the listed 3 pieces of ID FOR MY TWO YEAR OLD. I had his WA birth certificate, US adoption decree, and immunization record. The chicklet at the counter insisted she had to see his Ethiopian birth certificate, Ethiopian adoption decree (yeah never mind they are in Amharic) and his green card.
ME: Please tell me why you'd rather see the foreign documents?
Chicklet: Oh, because these US ones aren't proof of age or birth because he wasn't born here.
ME: (thinking: Bull Shit they aren't! And by the way) the Ethiopian ones aren't in English.
Chicklet: We have a translator.
ME: I don't see Amharic listed here.
Chicklet: Well the translators are contacted over the phone, we just call and they'll get whatever language we need.
ME: (thinking: I'd like to see you translate an Amharic DOCUMENT over the phone Dummy)

So I run home, and bring back more paperwork. This time I provide:
US Birth Certificate
Ethiopian Birth Certificate
US Adoption Decree
Ethiopian Adoption Decree
Immunization Record
Green Card
and for good measure, his Visa and Passport.

8 forms of identification. Which is quite a feat for any two year old child!

You know what happened then? Well Miss Mensa 2009 had a problem with the fact that his name was not the same on his Ethiopian and US documents. It didn't seem to matter that his name change was documented in the Adoption Decree. She actually was arguing with me that he couldn't have a SS card in the name on his US BIRTH CERTIFICATE! I did not think many nice thoughts about this woman as I drove back to the office.

So I go back to work. Which isn't exactly my favorite place in the world these days. Year end is always the worst, it's when we get our most recent accounting of how much crappier next year's benefits will be. As if our current insurance plan isn't bad enough, next year we'll be moving to an UNsurance plan with a $10,000 deductible and NOTHING covered until you hit $10,000. Umm, no thank you. Last year they just plain took several days of everyone's vacation time and restricted how we could use it. And if you might happen to need FMLA or maternity leave, well good luck to you. You may have 2 weeks unpaid, but after that you lose ALL benefits until you've been back for 3 months. It's a damn expensive LOA, trust me I know.

But, as a token of gratitude, we did get our bonuses today. While they are triple last year's- it is absolutely nothing compared to the lost Health Insurance. Me thinks they are trying to pacify the masses. It's not really working.

BUT...it is my birthday today. So I got Vietnamese food, cake, flowers, camping gear, and my own personal elementary school Christmas Program. So all is right with the world again. Okay, it wasn't really my own personal Christmas Program, but between the cookies at school and the cake at home my kids passed out in their respective sugar comas as soon as I put them in bed tonight. So it was sort of a gift :)