Bureaucracy

Today I received two letters. One from Norman Regional Hospital which basically said: fill out a claim form with your insurance or they wont pay. I also received one from my insurance which basically said the same thing. However, there was no claim form in the envelope so I investigated online. The claim form was a whopping 3-4 lines long and included such vital information as "Doctors name" and "Reason for visit"....I also had to input my address.

It makes me wonder what exactly the hospital submitted to the insurance company in the first place....did they not include the fact that I had indeed been seen at the ER, and perhaps even WHY? Of course not, that would be too simple.

But if you think struggling against bureacracy as an adult is frustrating, recall childhood. I'm, of course, reminded of another touching playground memory.

It was a glorious sunny day. I stood tall on the top of the big toy, surveying all around me. On this day of days, I decided it would be a good idea to attempt a front flip off of said big toy. Unfortunately, mastering front flips takes some practice, and ideally should be done in a pool or on a trampoline etc..So instead of landing on my feet, I landed flat on my back, violently forcing all of the air out of my lungs and instantly triggering a severe asthma attack. (In addition to my teeth grinding, night terrors, and bedwetting, I was also adorably asthmatic so you can go ahead and add wheezing to your mental image of me now.)

I made my way to the teacher on duty at recess and struggled to say to her. "I cant breath, I need to go to the nurse"

She so cleverly replied, "If you can talk, you can breath"

and there you have it: small, bitter people, doing jobs they hate, making your life more difficult in any way they can. Its a beautiful thing.