Things That Make You Go Hmmmm

Maybe I'm the weird one, but it seems I keep running across a lot of idiots.   Is someone trying to prepare me for the Ides of March?  Here's a few examples. 

I have been working on painting and decorating Sambo's room.  I hunted high and low for the perfect sheets and finally found some on Target.com.  The website  said they had them in-store too, but after visiting three stores, that proved untrue.  So I ordered them online.  A different set of sheets came a few days later.  I called and worked out a plan to return them and have the correct sheets re-sent.  A few days later the wrong ones arrived again.  So I called customer service again and the lady told me to return the wrong sheets for a full refund.  I said, that's great.  Except how do I get the right sheets?  Are they even in stock?  She said they had plenty in stock, but the people in charge of filling orders would probably make a mistake a third time, so I should probably just look for new sheets.  I explained how I've already looked for other sheets and those are perfect for what I'm looking for.  She said maybe in a few weeks once I get my refund I could try to re-order them again online and see what happens. 

We got different health insurance a few months ago.  It's proved to be one frustration after another.  But I try not to complain because I am grateful we have health insurance.  That is, if we ever get anything covered.  One of my providers informed me that my claims from this year will all be denied because I didn't get pre-authorization for the services.  And because the service I've been receiving is one of their exclusions.  The benefit booklet I have doesn't say anything about any of that.  So I called the insurance customer service and the lady reassured me that the provider had his information wrong.  So my provider called the insurance a second time and he was told he was right.  I called a second time and spent thirty minutes on the phone asking a ton of questions and writing verbatim what the exclusions are (my service isn't one of them).  I reported back to my provider who said we'll just have to wait and see what happens as they process all the claims.  But he told me to prep for some hefty bills because he fears all the claims will be denied.  Who's the idiot here?

I was dropping Buddy off at school the other morning.  The temperature gauge on my car read 36 degrees, which is really cold for Portland, especially this time of year.  I noticed all the middle school boys were either wearing shorts or short sleeves without coats.  Of the 100 or so boys I saw, not a single one had a coat on.  So are coats totally out of style for tween/teen boys?

And these guys aren't idiots, but they are odd:

Speaking of Sambo's new bedroom, he slept in a sleeping bag in our closet for almost a month while I painted.  (I'll tell the story later about why it took so long to paint the room.)  He LOVED this arrangement and slept incredibly well, probably because it's quiet and dark.  We finally got him a twin mattress and have been trying to get him to sleep in it.  But he now prefers the floor, so every night he rips the mattress cover off the bed, throws everything on the floor and sleeps there.

My boys are both hypochondriacs and love going to the doctor.  At least ten times a day Sambo comes to me with some new owie and if I ask if he needs a kiss, he tells me no, he needs to go the doctor. They both beg and beg me to take them there.  Who loves the doctor?  And why aren't they understanding that we can't AFFORD to take them to the doctor?  (See above!)

Buddy loves scary movies (scary by a 7-year old's standards).  And since Sambo does whatever his older brother does, he loves all those movies too.  However, Sambo is terrified of typical kid movies:  "Stuart Little," "Cars," and "Spirit."  He cries hysterically during them and up until this week I haven't been able to figure out what it is about those movies that bothers him. Turns out he's scared of being chased.  I realized this because when G flies his remote control helicopter around, Sambo hides under the table and recently started verbalizing that he doesn't want to be chased by it -- even if G isn't.  I realized that he cries during a race on "Cars" and when one little creature was chasing another (playfully) in "Stuart Little," and when the horse was running really fast in "Spirit."  But bring on the monsters in Harry Potter because those don't bother him a bit.