Minor Things Causing Me Disproportionate Unrest:
- I need to figure out C’s bday party — he decided he wanted one, and I feel like 12 is one of the last times kids tend to have ‘party’ parties, and he has gone to a few this year, so I want to make it happen. But the schedule tetris is real. We have narrowed it down to two dates so hopefully this will be checked off the list soon. (SIDE NOTE: I always do parties for the kids assuming they want one, and I enjoy it for the most part, but every kids’ bday party always spawns QUITE a checklist — the invites! Tracking the RSVPs (loosely at least)! Booking a venue! Ordering food! Decor if needed (probably not in this case, whew)! Cake! Etc. I tend to heave a sigh of relief once the bday gift text thank-yous are sent.)
(ALSO HOW IS HE 12. That seems like such a big number!)
- Pilates scheduling woes. I have the “8 classes a month” Club Pilates membership, not the unlimited. And as a result, I am not first in line for signups even if I sign up as soon as I am able for each month. Today was my first ever attempt at waitlisting a class that failed! I had actually forgotten that I was on the waitlist, and then realized at 5:45 AM that I hadn’t gotten the typical reminder text one hour prior to class. Duh, because I was still waitlisted. I ended up doing an Anna Greenberg yoga/pilates combo (forgot how hard those are — it was definitely an equally good workout) instead and actually rejoined Peloton for the privilege of this 45 min session, so that was fine, but I’m struggling to get in my 8 CP classes as it is, and if I can’t get into the 1.5-level classes that work with my schedule, well. . . that’s not great. (I think I may only make it to 5 this month due to travel, and that is not very many classes for the $199 cost of membership). Anyway, I don’t really have an answer for this, but it took up too much headspace this morning.
- My non-hormonal birth control is suddenly not covered by my insurance. HOPEFULLY the prior authorization will work, because I would rather not pay $400 for it, but I really don’t want to go back on OCPs (culprit for years of migraines, plus just seems not ideal at my age). I’ve made about 5 calls to the OBGYN office and pharmacy and the lack of transparency in the process is really frustrating!
(TRUST ME I already know how bad this is from the patient perspective – we have multiple nurses in our office whose sole role is to deal with prior auths and insurance navigation, and I have many patients simply unable to get meds that would benefit them due to coverage. It’s really frustrating!!!! For everyone, provider included!)
- One of my middle schoolers was asked to bring in two garbage sized bags of plastic bottles to school. Um. I am stressed out by this (possibly more than the kid). I don’t know which recycle bins I can raid to achieve this, nor do I have the bandwidth to think about it.
- A’s gym meet is on Friday evening in Miami. The good news is that I should be able to high tail it out of work on Friday at 5 pm in time to take her down. But I feel like this time slot is not ideal for the athletes OR the spectators! (AND I’ll miss connecting with reader/comment Nikki, who has a daughter competing in the same meet! sad!). (The only positive – A’s practices are often around that time slot, so maybe it’s NOT the worst thing for the athletes? At least they are used to moving then!).
- G‘s school calendar starts 9 days after A/C. They just released the first day info, so spring break is TBD (and really to me that matters more). But man that’s going to be some lag time!
Minor Victories and Positive Coincidences:
Only fair to follow up the above whiny list with things that *have* worked out. Only fair, right!?
- Camp is mostly figured out!! I only have ~2 weeks of camp to figure out for G, and she has tentatively agreed to the local tennis camp which is just a few hours per day (and gets cancelled every time it rains, which is a lot, but that’s okay because I don’t actually need the childcare coverage). C/G are doing 5-6 weeks of camp each this year, while A will most likely be taking geometry and going to a lot of gymnastics practices. Everything is day camp other than one overnight week of bball camp for C, so this was a much cheaper line item than it has been in years past!! I WILL TAKE IT. Big fat check to the annual chore of figuring out summer!
(Next year A will be 15, and I will encourage her to look for jobs! I think she’ll be pretty busy with math/gym this summer though.)
- Josh and I put 2 date nights on the calendar. And one is this weekend. Hooray!
- I was able to drive to an orthodontist appointment today during my call day AND take care of a quick errand at the our neighborhood HOA office without incident.
I feel like there should be more victories to balance out my grievances but that is all I could come up with . . . I will be on the lookout for more.
7 Comments
Prior authorizations are the absolute worst for everyone — except the insurance company. The person is my office who does them is amazing. She should be canonized for sainthood. I am sorry you are dealing with this.
our office has THREE dedicated nurses (one entirely dedicated to GH, then the others split the diabetes meds, GLPs, and other pricey things like Alkindi or Crenessity)
My older son stopped parties at age 11 that I did not realize was the case until he turned 12 and refused one! So sad. So my youngest just turned 11, so let’s see if he’s the same. He seems to like the attention more haha.
Two garbage bags full of plastic bottles would end me haha. Why do teachers/schools do this to families.
And your Pilates issue is why I could never join these types of programs. It doesn’t make sense to me. 🙁
We will miss seeing you at the gymnastics meet!! It’s always such a toss up what time the competition time will be. I get so excited when we get our schedule for meets and it’s a nice, normal time on a weekend (10 am on a Saturday – yay! 8 am Sunday morning – booo). Last year we had an odd number of Friday comps which was annoying for missing school and work.
I’m jealous you have summer camps figured out! We had a great formula the past few summers and a few things are interfering this year so more TBD than usual…
Lol I would just not bring in two giant trash bags full of plastic bottles sorry. I’m not doing that. If my kid can scrounge it up great, but if not oh well!
As for parties, my son transitioned to doing things like going to an amusement part with a couple of friends when he was around 11, but his friends all still like to have big birthday hangouts so we just go with it. He might want to do some kind of giant sleepover this year (he will be 14). I am also planning my younger son’s birthday party — he is turning 5 but it’s the first time we’ve done a big party! We host at home and I’m not making it stressful, but I want to invite all of his friends so it’s going to be a lot of people. But I really like hosting parties.
Ugh. PAs. Those are the worst. I’ve had to deal with them quite a bit since I’m on an expensive regimen to treat my RA. The most annoying thing I experienced was that there were separate PAs for a starter kit for a TNF inhibitor I was on and then a separate PA for the refills. I mean, they go together, why can’t the PA cover both? It resulted in delays and I was so desperate to start the med after having Paul so I was terribly frustrated!
The trash bag project is odd. Are they supposed to go and pick up trash? Because that is a lot of plastic bottles to procure… it would take us quite a while to fill 2 plastic bags with plastic bottles!
Paul has his first “bigger” birthday party at SkyZone later this month. It’s the first party that will require so little effort from me since they set up the room and provide the food. I just need to bring snacks and dessert so am getting off quite easy. But since I have 2 boys who are not into decor, I’ve gotten off pretty easy even for their low key DIY parties. Decorations are just not my thing and don’t feel worth the money!
And finally, the wait list thing is frustrating! My SIL goes to the same pilates place and has said it’s hard to get into classes. My OTF unlimited membership is less than your 8 class one. I think it’s $150. But we don’t have the space constraints a pilates studio has. I think they can have as many as 39 people in a class as I think there are 13 treadmills, rowers, and weight stations – so they can have 3 groups at a time in their busiest classes. So that must keep the price down! It still feels expensive after not having a a gym membership for 9+ years but the expense motivates me to fit in as many classes as I can.
Plastic bottles seems like a kid problem, not a parent problem. I would take this off your list.
I am sometimes on the waitlist for my gym classes but it usually clears (kids sick, etc). I find it strange that they have levels and can’t differentiate during class. That sounds super limiting. My classes ways have a low impact/high impact options for all moves.