My Lemons My Lemonade

New Level of F🤬🤬🤬ery

Photo by Miguel u00c1. Padriu00f1u00e1n on Pexels.com

Hey My Lovelies! I swear I had every intention of posting yesterday until I thought my ability to screw up my computer without doing anything came into play. Then there was this whole customer support challenge, and then it had gotten late, and and and… Let’s just say by the time I figured out the problem I had a headache the size of Texas from staring at my computer for so long.

What did my general ability to f🤬🤬k up electronics do this time? Somehow, I made Outlook stop receiving mail from my gmail account – first my computer then my phone 🤯. This was a new level of f🤬🤬🤬ery even for my skill set because I hadn’t changed anything on either device to warrant this kind of disaster!

Ok disaster may be a bit overstated, but I hate having to logon to my gmail account online to deal with email. And the mail app that comes with the Apple operating system is for s🤬🤬T, especially after utilizing Outlook.

So, I start what little trouble shooting I know to do (which became less than usually because of the “new” Outlook) and nothing is working. I tried to check the pathways but the capability to do that doesn’t exist anymore, at least not the way I am familiar with 🙄. Did the whole shut it down and restart process and nothing. At this point I decide to call customer service because they can walk me through the solutions, right?

But, as with everything in my life, it’s not that easy 🤦‍♀️.

At this point I will ask those of you who use Microsoft 360 for personal use to take note: when I called the number that I googled for MS tech support, I was told I had to call a different number, which the moron started rattling off before I could grab a pen and paper to write it down 😒. I scribble it down and start dialing. And shock of all shocks got right through 😮. Or so I thought… What I got was a message stating that MS no longer provides tech support for home users via phone and to go to http://support.microsoft.com to work with an online agent to address my problem (I add the link for those who want to bookmark it for future use and I highly recommend it). The reason for this change is that they can get to users faster – keep that in mind for the next step in this ridiculous process. And by the way, am I the only one wondering why the only person I actually talked to didn’t just send me to the site, instead of adding an unnecessary step to this process?

Back to the story – I hit up the site, login and ask for a chat session. I am assigned a case number and put into the cue for the online version of the “next available operator” and I wait, thinking it’ll be ten, fifteen minutes at most. And I can’t flip between windows because it may kick me out of the cue 🙄. So, I sit and wait, keeping my computer from going to sleep for 45 minutes. You heard that right, 45 minutes! That’s how much they didn’t decrease the wait time. I have waited less time back in the day with phone support 😡. At this point I’ve spent close to an hour and a half trying to figure out the problem, so I’m sure you can guess my what my frustration level was 😁.

And FINALLY, it’s my turn 🎉🎉. Thus begins the typing marathon of this is what’s happening, how do I fix it, yada yada yada… Long story (not so short 😆) the issue was on Microsoft’s end 🤬🤬🤬 (and yes, I googled to see if any message was posted about an outage – nope), that it hadn’t been fixed and here’s a link to follow the progress. 45 minutes for that!!! Couldn’t you have just sent a blast email out to Outlook accounts (I’m required to have one per Microsoft and it was working fine) to notify people of the issue and save what I’m guessing is hundreds, if not thousands of unnecessary tech support service requests? Or am I just that naïve to think something so simple could work?

Anyway, since I had the guy on the hook, I asked for assistance with one more little issue. About two months ago all my female emojis started showing up with a male figure and a female symbol next to it (I tried to show an example with a male emoji, and it came up as male with the male symbol 😆😆😆). Now when I paste any of my post into WordPress, it comes out just fine so the issue is in all MS programs. I asked if he had a solution and he sent me a link to a totally useless assist, because of course that’s how it works in my world 😆😆😆.

So, all in I spent nearly two hours trying to solve a problem that I didn’t even create, gave myself a whopping headache and never got around to whipping up the post I had intended for yesterday (I whopped but I couldn’t whip 🤪). At least the first issue was resolved around 11:30 last night 😊.

This felt like a FML moment 😜.

Note: while you’re here, why not click the link for my previous post on I Love a Mama’s Boy – it is going to be a hilarious season…

Not a Recap – I Love A Mama’s Boy S.3 Ep.1

Oh this is going to be a season 😳. I will say it again, these people need therapy and strong boundaries if they want to have healthy relationships with people other than their MOTHERS! Many of these relationships are cringy at best and damn near incestuous at worst. And they willingly share this with the world, thinking this is normal 🤦‍♀️.

With that is mind, let’s get this crazy ride started 🎢.

Mom Laila, Shakeb and Emily: Yep, Emily is back 😱! I am not sure how she managed to convince Shekeb to take her back after her behavior at the end of last season, but she also got him to move in with her!?! She basically admits to manipulating him into it by putting his name on the lease but he I guess it was the push he needed 🤷‍♀️? He does see his mom regularly, which is not enough for Laila, who would prefer he move back in with her. He wants her to bless the new place, which she will do, if Emily isn’t there. Considering that Emily hasn’t apologized to Laila for her rampage last season, I can’t exactly blame her. I foretell many more arguments, lots of “he’s my soulmate” (I heard that a few times tonight 😬) and more tantrums by Emily. My two cents, I think Shekeb needs to go low/no contact with both of them until he learns to stand up for himself. I mean he wasn’t allowed to bring his pet bird because Emily moved in her two dogs (which he says is like living with three Emily’s 😆😆😆).

Mom Nancy, Roberto and Christy: They met at the gym and were training MMA. Now Christy is a stay at mom of two daughters (we’ll come back to this in a moment), and Roberto is a “farmer by day, and MMA fighter by night”. They eloped before their first child was born, which has put Christy on Nancy’s bad side as she wasn’t invited to the wedding. Nancy says she didn’t like Christy at first sight, so Christy was screwed from the beginning. Before I go any further, I should mention that Roberto is one of seven sons (mostly adult, I think) so I’m confused why his mom has so much time to focus on him. She is openly rude to Christy even when Christy asks for help in preparing Albondingas soup as it is Roberto’s favorite dish. I am not sure how Christy puts up with the anger and disrespect that just rolls off of Nancy in waves. I think to keep what little piece there is, Roberto visits his mom alone regularly (although he said he sneaks over to her house 😬). On one of his visits, his mom decides to bring up the fact that the youngest daughter doesn’t look like him and he should get a paternity test and his brother agrees! They have no other reason to suspect he’s not the father of what looks to be like a two- or three-year-old child EXCEPT for the fact she doesn’t look like him when the first child does. And the fact they hate her. He is appalled and angrily leaves Nancy’s house. And yet the previews show him asking his wife for a paternity test 🤦‍♀️. Either Christy agreed to do the show to see if Roberto can understand her concerns about his mother’s meddling or to decide if this relationship is worth fighting for. Time will tell…

Mom Kelly, Matt and Brittiney: Yep, Kelly and Matt back and Kim is not 😒 (see links below). Now in the season finale, Matt stated he “he did not see this coming” (literally the title of the season 2 finale) in reference to the breakup. Fast forward a few months to filming and it’s “my ex and I decided to call things off”. Revisionist history for $200 please Alex 😁. Matt still doesn’t have any boundaries with his mom (she walks in on him in his underwear and says “hubba hubba 😬) and he lives on the house 20 feet from his parents’ house. The two of them talk about the how devastated the family was by the break-up (insert hard 🙄 here). Now Matt wants to make sure that whoever he dates next understands and accepts their weird ass relationship. Enter Brittney… they are just “dating” for now because she has to get Kelly’s stamp of approval before attaining girlfriend status (she’s willing to roll with it for the moment). Anyone want to take bets on how that’s going to play out? If you think Kelly is going to greet her with open arms, I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell you 😁. And if the season’s previews are any indication, Brittney may not make the cut (run Brittney run 🏃‍♀️). Which would probably be a blessing.

Mom Lorenda, Tre and Abbey: At first, they seem relatively normal. Tre and his mom like to make tik tok videos together. But the more you watch, the more I understand Abbey’s frustration. Abbey has known Lorenda since she was a child and Abbey got together with Tre when they were in high school. You would think that since Lorenda has known her so long that would help. Not when it comes to a Mama’s Boy 🤷‍♀️. Now Tre and Abbey have a 7-year old child together and they live together but are not engaged. Their property also backs up to Lorenda’s property. So she visits any damn time she pleases – including making breakfast at the butt crack of dawn since Tre works at a factory and his shift starts really early. And doesn’t care that Abbey is still sleeping because she works hours later 🙄. Poor Abbey can’t figure out where she fits into Tre and Lorenda’s relationship 😢. And it doesn’t help that Lorenda doesn’t think she is good enough for her son because “there is just something missing”. I think she seems like a lovely girl. So far all of the interview scenes have Tre and his mom together and Abbey by herself – foreshadowing perhaps? Oh, and we have another mom who manages her son’s bills – as in writes them out and mails them. I do not in any way understand this concept as I’ve managed my own bills since I was 18, when I started having bills 😁.

Final Thoughts:

For the families with adorable children – mama’s you need to leave them alone and stop causing issues. And the son’s need to defend their families, putting them first.
If the guy your dating says their mom is his “best friend” take a close look at those boundaries.
We have one more Mama’s boy to meet next week and I threw up a little in my mouth watching them with each other (he called his mom a MILF 🤢)
If you want to see what Kim Cobb is up to, you can read a recent interview here https://tvshowsace.com/2022/06/07/i-love-a-mamas-boy-will-kimberly-cobb-be-back-for-new-season/. Bombshell – she was asked back and turned it down 🤯. While I’m happy for her, maybe we’ll get some sort of interview with her during the season – fingers crossed. You can also follow her on Instagram instgram.com/kimberlycobb or twitter.com/kimberlycobbb and she has her own podcast titled My Lips Podcast

Those are my impression of week one of who knows how many 😆😆😆 (ok usually its around 13-15, but we’ll see). If you have any interest in reading last season’s post, just click on the “I Love a Mama’s Boy” tag at the bottom. Until next week My Lovelies…

Happy Happy Happy!

Exactly how I look when doing my happy dance 😁
Photo by Haste LeArt V. on Pexels.com

Well, my week got infinitely better Tuesday! No, my fight with medical records has not been resolved. That would have been too easy 😆😆😆. Come to think of it, still no call back from either the office manager or the patient advocate – may need to file a complaint with MUSC for their lack of response to this issue 🤔.

My week is infinitely better because Tuesday was NEW BOOK DAY 🍾🥂🎉. Laugh if you must but one of my favorite authors, Kim Harrison, released her long awaited (well long awaited my fans anyway) book in The Hollows series – Trouble with the Cursed (doing my happy dance 💃🏼💃🏼). I have read all sixteen novels previous to this one, the pre-qual novel and the short story collections of these characters. And I own almost all of them (still trying to find three of the earlier works). I have also read (and own) the two books of her Drafter Series. To say I am a fan would be putting it mildly 😁😁.

After I pried it from the mailman’s grip (once he found it that is 🙄), I tore into it and its as if I never left Cincinnati (not that I ever been really 😆) and I’m already a quarter of a way through it. Loving it so far 💜💜.

Now, I could wax poetic again about how much I love this series, how the characters are like old friends I haven’t seen in years (ok it’s only been a year since the last novel 😆), or I could just encourage you to check out the series yourself! Mind you the first book came out in 2004, but there is always the library – which I strongly endorse using. And many libraries offer the capability of borrowing e-books, so win-win! And, if you haven’t guessed already from the title of this book, the author has a fondness for Clint Eastwood movies. Check out her other titles in the series and see how many you can guess 😉.

As for When Women Were Dragons – I tried, I really did. But, I just could not get into the story and I was not a fan of the authors writing style, so I returned it. But if you, My Lovelies (and fellow book nerds), have a different experience with the book, please let me know.

Since I will most likely be finished with this book before the weekend is out (and there are no new books on my to buy list due anytime soon 😒), next on my list is one of my Ollies bargains – Providence by Carol Kepnes. I let you know how I fair with that, most likely next week.

Until next time, read something you love 💜.

A Hill I Will Die On

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Pexels.com

Hi My Lovelies! Well, here we are on another Monday and another week challenges. At least my weekend was pleasant. I hope yours was as well.

On to my latest challenge – medical billing issues 😡. So, every year I have an annual check-up separate from my gynecologist appt. It’s the only way to get my cholesterol medications renewed. This year was no exception. Called and stated the purpose of the appointment and was scheduled for mid-April. Went to said appointment, reiterated to the doctor the purpose of the appointment and also stated I had a secondary issue. Get through it all and get my blood drawn, as I do every year, and then scheduled a follow-up appointment to discuss blood work and secondary issue. Easy peasy.

Until three weeks later, when I get billed for the blood work because it wasn’t covered (what?). Call insurance to find out why the claim was denied, and they state that the health center needs to code the visit as a check-up and resubmit it. No problem, call the “conglomerate” known as MUSC – billing and ask them to recode the bill. They tell me they will look into it and send a letter once it’s been investigated. And by letter they mean a message on the patient portal site that you have to log into, not something direct like an actual letter or email 🙄.

In the meantime, I return for my follow-up and let the front desk know the issue. Their response? “That’s not the first time we’ve heard that today.” Not at all helpful. Then I’m called back where the doctor pulls my previous visit up on the computer and I notice that the notes say the last visit was a follow-up!?! I was so confused and thought maybe the notes were for this visit, so I let it lie, partially because this doctor was not particularly friendly. Push through appointment and ask the billing person what I can do about the coding issue. She says call the billing number because they can’t change/fix the records. I decide to wait for the letter and move forward from there

So said letter comes in stating that I provided no information to indicate the need to change the coding – not that they asked for any information and I still have to pay the bill (frustration level 😡😡😡). On Friday, I call the billing department back because not only would (could?) they not make the coding change, they also didn’t apply my co-pay from my recent visit and were charging me another $40 on top of the blood work bill. I get the co-pay issue straightened out, but they tell me that I have to call my doctor’s office and get them to change the notes so that it will be coded correctly. I tell them that they keep telling me to call the billing number, but I will try one more time, to get someone at the office to submit corrected notes. Called the doctor’s office immediately following the call to billing and the first thing they say is to call billing 🤦‍♀️. I once again explain the problem and they don’t know what to do so they send me to the office manager who has yet to call me back (frustration level 😡😡😡😡😡). For the record, I called at noon on Friday, so I don’t think it’s too much to expect a call back by Monday noon. So today, I called the patient advocate and got VM 🙄 and had to leave another VM. Let’s see if I get a response. I’m also waiting on hold with billing to dispute the charge so they can’t send it to collections, which would probably happen knowing my luck.

At this point, I am realizing that these large medical “conglomerates” create bigger problems in patient support than they solve. Had I known that the medical center I had chosen last year was moving in that direction, I would have never made and appointment there.

As for the actual bill, I can afford to pay it, but I am willing to die on this hill because the point of insurance is to cover such expenses. Otherwise, why have insurance? Also, the principal of it and all 😆. And, dammit, I am right!

Seriously, it shouldn’t be this hard to find someone to help.

If you have any other advice on how to handle this, I’m all ears because I am running out of patience with this whole thing.

And, at this point, I’ve been holding for billing for 32 minutes and counting (typed most of this post while waiting 😜). FRUSTRATION LEVEL 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬.

**Edited to Add: Ah a small amount of success. First (after about 40 minutes), the billing dept. answered. The nice customer service rep had another person review the issue and now it’s going to a compliance officer. Hopefully this will move this issue in the right direction 🤞. I have to say the billing department has been nothing but helpful in what they can do. It’s the disconnect from the doctor’s office that is the real problem.**

**Second edit: 4:38 pm and no return call from either the office manager or patient advocate. Color me shocked 😱!**

T-Minus 8 Days Until I Love a Mama’s Boy ⏳

That’s right, season 3 premieres June 19^th at 10 pm on TLC. Sadly, TLC’s website does a poor job of marketing it’s upcoming shows because I couldn’t find any mention of the premiere! No cast info, date and time, trailer – nothing about season 3 🤷‍♀️!

So, I sleuthed the internet for y’all and this is what I’ve found so far: mom Kelly and Matt (with a possible new love interest 😬) are returning as is Shekeb, his mom Laila and Emily?!? That baffles the mind. Unfortunately, my queen, Kim Cobb (Matt’s ex fiancée) isn’t coming back 😢. I mean I don’t want her with Matt because he treated her like crap, but I am hoping for a nice cameo or some sort of update.

As for new cast members, there is very little in way of information, including simple names! The best I could do was glean what I could from the trailer (link below). I can’t understand why TLC isn’t doing a better job of promoting it? I mean it has a cult following (me, right here 🙋‍♀️ 😆) but they are giving out no info on the newest cast members.

So this is what I got from the trailer: there are three new relationships joining the current cast members. They are Esther (mom), Ethan and his girlfriend (no name given); Kristie (sp?) the wife, Roberto and his mom Nancy (I think 😁); and Tre, his mom (no name given) and his girlfriend (again, no name given).

That is literally all I could find out about this season. There was some press about Shekeb and Matt, but the most of it was a rehash of last season and that they are back for season 3. Now I will tell you, having watched it from season 1, that this is the third year for Shekeb and Emily’s relationship and I’m not holding out hope that they’ll make it to season 4. Yep I said what I said and I will eat my words if proven wrong, but I doubt I will be 😆😆😆.

Well, I wish I had more for you, but come the Monday (or Tuesday 😁) following the premiere, I will post my thoughts in another round of Not a Recap.

Note: If you click the I Love a Mama’s Boy tag at the bottom, it will take you to all of last season’s posts so you can refresh your memories. Happy reading!

I Love a Mama’s Boy – Sunday, June 19^th at 10 pm on TLC.

https://www.eonline.com/videos/340141/i-love-a-mamas-boy-exclusive-meet-the-season-3-cast

So Many Books 🫢

My new favorite store to buy books from – Ollies! Granted to books are usually a few years old, but it has encouraged me to seek out new authors as a result. They are my bargain buys, that mostly work out. Currently, I have six in line to read that I picked up there. Unfortunately, they keep getting pushed back due to recently released library books that I want to read – just not purchase 😁.

Most recently on the new release book list – Decimate by Cristopher Rice (yep, Ann Rice’s son carrying on the family business 😁). I first picked him up in 2019 when he released the first book in the Burning Girltrilogy, which I loved 💜. So when this came out, I decided to give it a read. The first 200 pages run at a steady rate, but boy I hit around 210 or so and I could not put it down. I spent 2 hours Saturday night and another three Sunday just plowing through it (it clocked in at a whopping 420 pages 😮). The story, the characters – perfection, and I didn’t see the twists and turns it took, which is always a plus for me!

Prior to that, I had borrowed The Book of Night by Holly Black. Now some people might label this magical realism, I like to think of it as supernatural set in a universe one step left of ours 😜. Another favorite even though I struggled a little with the concept a bit. Again, characters I enjoyed and a story that had a different spin to it, although I did figure out the “surprise ending” long before I got to it. But I enjoyed it enough to finish in about 4-5 days.

Speaking of supernatural adjacent worlds, I picked up the book The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu at B&N because I had a gift card, and it was buy one get one 50% of paperbacks so this was one of two I picked up. The book was originally released in 2021 so guess what? The sequel, Our Lady of Mysterious ~~Maladies~~Ailments (I keep saying Maladies because alliteration 😁), was already released so I trotted over to the library once again to grab it because I was hooked 🪝, despite the protagonist annoying character flaws 😆😆. I am looking forward to the third book, whenever it gets released, I am that big of a book geek 😊.

The other paperback I picked up with The Library of the Dead was The Family Plot by Meg Collins. Of all the books I’ve read in this post, this was the least successful for me. I emphasis for me because, not everyone likes the same thing, so some of you might want to give it a go as you might enjoy it more than I did 🙂. But I did finish it, despite figuring most of it out, so there’s that (trust me, I will put a book aside if I am not enjoying it at all).

My current read is When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill. I’m about 50 pages in and while I like the concept of the book, I’m not sure I care for the writing style. So, I may cheat read my way through it because Kim Harrison latest in the Hollows series will be released on Tuesday and I’ve already ordered it. I cannot wait to see my old friends 🤗.

Lastly, I would like to say that it sucks when one of your favorite authors is from Sweden. For some reason it takes forever to get English translated copies of books. Right now, she has at least two books not available to me and is planning another in her primary series and I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait before I can get my hands on any of them 😭.

The life of a reader….

Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men…

Did you ever have a day go so off the rails from what you planned; you wonder why you bothered? My day was like that.

It started when my riding mower deck just up and quit on me out of nowhere. I was mowing the “back forty” when I either hit something or the mower belt just rotted through and broke, which is a distinct possibility since I have no idea if it’s ever been replaced 🤷‍♀️. 😁😁😁 And the guy I used the last time I serviced it retired, so I had to find another shop that could do the repair 🙄. Fortunately, there was one 2 miles from me that kindly came over and picked it up. But it still sucks when something auto related happens because it’s always going to be a couple hundred dollars 😒.

Next on the agenda was a quick trip to the library to drop off my current read, and I ran into the director who was a friend. We hadn’t had a chance to catch-up in a while, so that trip took longer than planned. Also, I found another book I was dying to read (When Women Were Dragons 😮) so of course I picked that up. It’s not like I have 6 books in my current TBR (to be read) pile and am planning to order the next Kim Harrison novel, as well as my therapist new book 🤦‍♀️ (Hi my name is Charleen and I have a 📚 problem 🤪).

Next, I was off in search of a simple household bucket. First, I tried The Dollar Store, and I ran into another friend I hadn’t talked to in quite a long time, so of course we chatted for 20 minutes or so. But that was good, because I had been thinking about her in regard to a story out of Columbia regarding an animal rescue (my friend runs one as well). Turns out she knew the woman in question 😬. It is not a pretty story, and I was concerned about the effect it would have on her and another local program – both of which I know to are run with integrity and transparency. Thankfully, I think they’ll be ok.

Got the “tea” but no bucket, so off to Big Lots where surely they have a simple bucket. I take one lap around the store and NOTHING! This is the third store in two days I have looked for a bucket at – WTH? Take a second lap when I hear someone call out to me and it’s my beloved realtor Jeanene 🥰. So, we had a catch-up as well and I’m beginning to wonder where all these people are coming from 😆? I could go days without running into anyone I know and three in one day?!? I’m trying to figure out what the universe is trying to tell me 🤔.

So, for errands that should have taken 40 minutes tops took me 2 hours 😆😆😆. Coming home without a bucket – $0. catching up with friends – priceless 😊.

As I said, best laid plans….