circle of life

i am fairly certain we've already used this title for a post, but whatevs. as c4ts re-enters the world of gainful employment, i find myself outside of it. hakuna matata or something. apparently all of my entre-employment wisdom comes from the lion king.

this reprieve has given me a lot more time to do...everything. the upside is that i've seen more friends in the past week than in the past 3 months or so. the downside is that having infinite time still doesn't make me want to go to the gym. let's hope i don't end up looking like al gore, post bush v. gore. remember when gore was in the bubble? [ed note: c'mon, that's positively bubble-esque for a politician.]

anyway, apparently we were all wrong about the mortgage-backed securities that led us down this path in the first place. (or at least what we understood from that episode of this american life explaining it to us). friends, they are not toxic, risky or even troubled. in fact, they are merely "legacy assets." get it? we inherited this shit!

excuse me while i go peruse some "legacy brothers" tchochkes.

what the meaning of is iz

i had my last remaining wisdom tooth removed the other day and prior to the procedure my dentist took a panoramic x-ray of my entire mouth. of course, my insurance company decided to not reimburse me for this. now, my dental insurance policy said 100% of any "routine x-rays" would be covered, which was enough to get me on the phone with the insurance company. i felt kind of bad for the woman on the other end, since i'm pretty sure all she ever hears is people bitching about how much they are being charged.

the conversation went something like this - mind you, she was very aggressive from the get-go, probably because she was anticipating my yelling at her:

her: ma'am, we only cover routine x-rays and a panoramic x-ray is not routine.
me: i don't understand. how is it not routine when it's in the course of treating something like a wisdom tooth?
her: now, if your dentist took x-rays of only a couple of teeth, that's cheaper and considered routine.
me: but the dentist would take those x-rays only because there was a special occasion, like a cavity or a broken tooth. i don't think that should be considered routine.
her: panoramic x-rays are very expensive and not routine.

i pretty much left it there. am i crazy? am i totally misunderstanding the definition of "routine?" my friend pointed out that they can label it however they want, but the bottom line is, they're not paying for it.