My blood pressure rises...

got a health insurance bill which said I hadn't paid last month. I would give myself an A- in bill paying. I typically pay the day the bill arrives, but every six months or so, a bill goes unpaid for some reason.

I checked and I have the type of checkbook that makes a little carbon copy of the check which I staple to the bill. Wow, this is sounding old school even to me, but it works. So sure enough, I had paid the bill on January 24th.

So it's off to the lovely phone tree which makes me crazy... have been punished by them too many times... and finally when I get a REPRESENTATIVE after saying it nicely once only to hear, "I'm sorry, I didn't understand what you said. Please say it again" -- I screamed REPRESENTATIVE!!!!!!!

And I get this guy who goes through this stupid script when all I really want is to know if my check had somehow arrived... fially he concludes his little intro speech with  the scripted, "Patricia, how can I make your day better today?"

Oh buddy, don't start with me. Who writes these stupid lines?

I fill him in with what I think is an easy thing to solve... just see if my check has arrived. Instead I have to tell him three times when I mailed it while he (no doubt) counted on his fingers how many days had elapsed.

Was I aware that it takes seven to ten working days for a payment to be processed?

My fingers go through the phone and begin to wrap around his throat.

Oh, at one point, he said "Well, your payment is later" is this scolding type tone and I said, "Do not talk to me in that tone; I sent my check. You lost it." And then the flood of apologies, but I hate being scolded.

Ok, eventually, I just paid the late part with a credit card and I know some of you (BARBARA!!) are thinking I should do automatic withdrawals, but I resist that. I don't know. I think I'm just stubborn.

Then it was on to Verizon for the extended I can't activate my phone... call. They are always nice but it just makes me see red when you have to keep going over the same information. They are sending me a new sim card and the guy confirmed my address three times. Now he has it in front of him on his computer screen and I don't say it fast slurring it all together. I always say it very slowly... I don't even say East 87th St, I say East Eight Seven Street... and I say it all slowly... at the third ask for me to confirm, I just inhaled and said it again slowly.

When I lived on York Avenue, I used to tell cab drivers "88th and York" and often they would take me to "80th and York" and so I learned to say "eight eight and York." Ok, this is all more than anyone wants to know.

I don't know, maybe I *am* a crabby old lady.