Keeping up with The Murchison's

…and I will not EVEN touch my hate/hate relationship with health insurance, which would eventually lead me to a rant on exploiting pricing on any consumer goods necessary for living a healthy life (i.e. vitamins, tampons, decent cold medicine, diapers…you name it.)

{BREATHE!}

Doctors: Can’t live with them, can’t walk see sleep wait on pregnancy take medication LIVE without them.

In the past two days at work, I have spent a good 2 hours on the phone (and mostly on hold) trying to figure out when I’ll get my new arthritis treatment so I can start it, when/how to start my new birth control, ordering RX refills and trying to find out when my dang contacts will come in that I ordered weeks ago. I really do appreciate the thorough care and attention that some doctors give you but when it comes to taking care of actual BUSINESS, the thoroughness seems to dissapear, at least in the last few years of my experience.

In my humble opinion, doctors pretty much have the choice of either really paying attention and caring or doing the minimum and getting paid the same amount - half listening to their patients and suggesting the next drug on the list if the last one failed, but not really getting to the bottom of it. I know a lot of people really don’t like the show “House” because of the negative attitude of Dr. House towards humanity but to be quite honest, most of the time I wish House was around - I wouldn’t care if he was mean to me or made me cry in his fits of arrogance as long as he went into that conference room with his team (including Emily Quartermaine from General Hospital) and figured out what the BEST solution was for MY personal case! I appreciate his honesty, his dedication to the “one patient at a time” approach and in the end, his no holds barred aggressiveness.

Would House tell me to shut up and exercise everyday, buy new tennis shoes and wear them to work everyday against my fashionista-want-to-wear-cute-colored-shoes-everyday will?? Would he say that everything I’ve tried so far for my arthritis was a waste of time, or that (gasp) it’s even making my condition worse and that natural remedies or a shot of whatever magical drug he would suggest is all I need? Would he say that in order to sleep better I need to stop drinking coffee every morning and become an OJ addict instead, or would he agree that it’s a side effect of my auto-immune disease? Most importantly, would he actually take the time to focus on my case, even for 10 minutes? Study my history that goes back to birth? Think about how all the medications I’m on work together and give advice accordingly? Would he CARE (even if it’s hidden by a facade)?

I have to tell you, I would much prefer a seemingly “non-emotional” doctor who improves my quality of life to someone who is quite content with me simply “doing well for what I”ve been through.”

And that is my confession for today - lots of fun doctor messes lately (Including the water main that apparently broke over the weekend at my rheumatology office and has destroyed patient files…unpreventable, I know, but meanwhile my bones are rebelling against me without treatment to start on this week. Figures!)

Okay, okay…maybe I should call this series of posts “Shouldn’t Live Without” but “Can’t” sounds A LOT more dramatic and more similar to O’s Favorite Things Show.

This post is inspired by the BEST gift received from work in 3.5 years…which is pretty interesting since it’s a gift not even made by my company. And that’s really saying something since we own lots of amazing home, office and kitchen brands.

In a late email from my boss last night, he told me to keep my eye out for a delivery today from our friends across campus at IRWIN Tools - a gift from their communication meeting last Friday. Boy was I ecstatic to see what it was - Tervis Tumblers!

Let me tell you why I love Tervis Tumblers:

1. TT’s are guanteed for life. Yes, that’s right: FOR LYFE. They are virtually indestructible but if you somehow manage to destruct them (as my brother has managed to do during his time in college), you submit a replacement form and they send you a new one. Easy as that.
2. They are double-walled, so you don’t get condensation dripping down your drinks into a puddle like the one on my desk right now from my to-go lunch cup.
3. Freezer, Microwave and Dishwasher Safe. (And my personal addition to that feature is that they are easy to clean - there is nothing EASY about cleaning one of those normal travel coffee mugs.)
4. They are clear like glass, but you buy them according to your taste - there are professional and collegiate team logos, monograms, designs and you can personalize them. They also have coordinating lids.
5. Double-insulated = BEST feature! Coffee is hotter and ice water is colder. When we did long hours of wedding registering last year and I brought ice water around in the car in these things, it would still be ICE water when I came out of the store. Amazing, I tell you.
6. Made in America. Okay, I don’t really care about that, but some people do.

It’s time, my friends: throw out your travel coffee mugs of yesteryear and make the switch!! This was an absolute “game changer wedding gift” - it sounds ridiculous, but it is SO true. We now own at least 8 of these and we use them daily. These were the only wedding shower gift I broke into before the wedding which I swore I wouldn’t do - I just couldn’t help myself! We also received a TT monogrammed ice bucket in a tailgating gift basket at our wedding and I can’t wait to break that out really soon!

So, as Oprah would say “LOOK UNDER YOUR SEATSSSSSSSSS!!!!! EVERYBODY GETS A TERVIS TUMBLEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!”

Side Note: Mason and I like to imagine Oprah giving away funnier things than inanimate objects. Like, on the show where Oprah revealed she has a sister she never knew about (which I DVR’ed), at the end I yelled out “Look under your seats!!! Everyone gets a SISTERRRR!” We like to bring that quote out every now and then or use it with things like “Everyone gets their own Dr. Phil!,” just for kicks.

Rewind to last night:

Me: “When are you going to get the DVD’s from (unnamed friend)?

Hubs: “Oh, I’m having a beer with him after work tomorrow.”

Me: (Already having told a friend I wasn’t available after work tomorrow…) “Oh, okay.”

Hubs: “But I won’t be there long - probably just 5:00-6:00 and then I’ll come home and we can cook dinner.”

Is it okay for my husband to have a beer with a friend after work? Certainly! Is this conversation okay? YES!

Fast forward to today on the phone at work:

Hubs: “(Unnamed friend) said that (unnamed team) is playing tonight so I may stay and watch the first half with him.”

Me: “Okay, what time will that mean you’ll get home?”

Hubs: “I’ll probably be there until 8:00.”

Me: “Okay, so are you eating there or are we eating the salmon we thawed out?”

Hubs: “Well I was thinking I could come home after work and we could eat at 5:30 and I’ll just go over there around 6:00.”

Me: “Well, Brittany, Leah and I are going to pick up our St Pat’s tickets at 5:45. I scheduled that since I thought you would be home around 6:00 from your beer.”

Hubs: “Actually, now that I think about it, it might be too late for my to stay and watch the game…I’m not sure.”

Me: “Please let me know what your plan is for the evening so I can plan mine.”

Hubs: “Okay, I’ll think about it and let you know for sure after lunch.”

Is it okay that hubs wants to stay and watch the game with his friend? Absolutely! Is it his fault that he doesn’t know I turned down a friend already to spend Thursday night with him, since we are trying to save money and eat in every night? No, he didn’t know! Am I annoyed? No, of course not! YES!

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Balancing friend time and hubs time has been the hardest thing for me since I got married especially since quite frankly, I would pretty much always love to be hanging out with Mason, or at least have him around. At least that’s a good problem to have, right??

—- CAUTION: GENERALIZATION —-

I hate to put it this way but if I’m lyin’ I’m dyin’: Boys also do not have as many close friends as girls. They also don’t spend as much time with them one-on-one, and they also don’t talk on the phone and/or sit with them for hours chatting like we do. It’s been hard for us to find lots of coed groups of people to hang out with right now for some reason - it’s usually “the girls” or “the guys” which always makes it a choice of “JUST us time” or “not even in the same vicinity time.”

Again, is this all okay?? OF COURSE! That’s just where we’re at right now, and we definitely don’t want to only hang out with couples so until we find lots of mixed groups of friends to hang out with, this will be our plight.

My solution to this difference in personality is to plan things more in advance so that I know what/when/where I will have windows of time to plan things with friends and still leave some time in the day for the hubs. Plans are definitely going to change and I understand that, but I think it’s important to try to be considerate of each other’s time and needs. But of course, my solutions don’t necessarily translate into “boy world” since Mason’s friends (also boys) don’t plan in advance either which leaves him in a tough spot.

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Any advice out there to this newlywed “challenge?” (That’s what we call “problems” in the corporate development world - haha!) Let’s brainstorm some “solutions” to this “opportunity to learn.”

:)