Friday

It’s time for Mom to find a doctor, and I found I doctor off her insurance website that I thought might be a good fit. Mom called on Wed to make an appointment for Friday.

So here it is, Friday afternoon. I’m able to leave work mid-afternoon to meet Mom at the new doctor’s office. My sister was driving Mom up to the doctor. I arrived about an hour early, and was a tad bit hungry, so I decided to try to find a Subway near by on the University of North Texas campus.

I find myself at a three way stop with a stoplight. This part might get a little confusing. I see the car in front of me take a left to get on the street I was on, so I automatically thought that there must be a red light to my immediate right and decided to take a right. As soon as I do I look in my rear-view mirror and see a police women who decided to turn on her lights.

She approached me and was very professional. She said something to the effect that I failed to yield to her and she had to slam on her brakes. I tell her I’m thankful she was able to do so because I would hate to be in an accident. She ten asked for the license and insurance which I promptly handed to her. She noticed that my insurance was not up to date. This was a shock to me since I’m pretty good at keeping up to date on this stuff. I searched briefly but to no avail. She mentions that she will be right back as she takes my license to her vehicle. About ten seconds after she left, I found my insurance. Turns out I took it out when I got my inspection sticker a short time back. Since I know not to get out of a vehicle after being pulled over, I just stay put.

As soon as she comes back, I tell her I have found my updated insurance papers. We then get in this conversation:

Cop: I’m going to give you a break and not give you a citation for failing to yield, however, I am going to give you a citation for not having your insurance.
Me: Well, yes ma’am, but my insurance is right here.
Cop: But you didn’t present it to me at the time.
Me: But isn’t now the time?
Cop: You know, I can still give you a ticket for not yielding to me.
Me: Where do I sign. 🙁

Good news – no real ticket. All I have to do is run by the courthouse with my insurance and nothing goes on my record. Just a big lesson in humility and learning how to bite one’s tongue.

Now I’m hungry, but out of time to find a Subway, so I decided to head straight to the doctor’s office to meet my mother and sister. I arrive a tad bit early and tell the receptionist that my mother has an appointment, but I would like to get started on the new patient paperwork. She then informs me that my mother does not have an appointment. I asked her if there was another doctor by this name and some other questions, but it seems like I’m out of luck.

About that time my mother and sister come in and we are all trying to figure this out. Mom tells the receptionist that she called two days ealier to make the appointment and that she spoke with Vickie. Turns out there is no Vickie. We then pull out the paper that I printed from her health insurance’s website that provided the doctor’s name, address, and phone number. The name and address was correct, but another doctor’s phone number was listed. I’m guessing this was some database error on the insurance company’s part. Long story short, we talked to the other doctor and they were still happy to see us; but we still intend on visiting the doctor we were actually at sometime in the near future.

Saturday

Some of you may remember my buddy Eric. He’s a captain in the Army and was serving in Iraq. I use to post his emails on my old blog until a roadside bomb hit his stryker. Here’s a pic of the event. He’s OK now, he took a lick’n and kept on tick’n after some surgery and such.

His wife Heather emailed me and asked if I would help throw a surprise birthday party for him at Dave and Busters. They were flying in from the state of Washington and she needed me to help coordinate some stuff like getting an icecream cake from Baskin Robbins. She went ahead and call D&B earlier in the week. The told her it wouldn’t be a problem for them to put the icecream cake in the freezer while we ate and that we would just have to call an hour ahead of time for them to hold a table for us since we had about ten in our party. Heather asked if I would call ahead for her so not to alarm Eric.

I called an hour and a half ahead of time and the receptionist informed me that not only can they not hold a table for us but we can’t bring in a food from the outside. I then asked to speak to a manager and asked if he would help us out. He told me that it would be a Dallas health code violation to allow any outside food be in an area with their food, but was willing to help me regarding the table. It couldn’t be reserved for us, but he would hold one for us. I still don’t understand the difference. I did ask if I could keep the cake in the vehicle (since it was in the high 20’s that day) and just bring it in for dessert and the manager was OK with that.

Turns out that the D&B location we wanted everyone to meet at is a little hard to find, so other than me and wifeGeeding, Eric and Heather were the first to arrive. When it was time to get a table, turns out they didn’t have anything on record for us.

Dinner was real nice, and Eric really liked his cake. Might be the best birthday cake ever if you ask me. But this part cracked me up. After we were done cutting cake and all, the waitress comes over and asks if we would like for her to put the icecream cake in the freezer. We all just froze for a second, and I told her that would be great. I hope she didn’t lose her job for breaking the Dallas health code.