Happy Holidays my ass!!!
Pardon the foul language but I have gotten to my boiling point with this political correct bullshit. I think this subject has been hashed by some of my other friends and I don't want to steal their thunder but this is starting to work my nerves.
It is now time for our society to step back and realize just how ridiculous the term "politically correct" has gotten.
This War on Christmas is getting out of hand.
There is no reason to call a Christmas tree a HOLIDAY tree. Call it by it's name and HOLIDAY TREE is NOT it's name. I mean, if you want to call me the Duchess of Rosendale, go ahead, but I'm not the Duchess of Rosendale....mostly because Rosendale doesn't have a duchess for real and also because I'm just NOT the Duchess of Rosendale ... I don't even LIVE in Rosendale!!! Or call me the Queen of Kazakhstan. I don't care, because I'm neither the Duchess of Rosendale or the Queen of Kazakhstan! You might as well just call me what I am....Lauren.
Put up your damn Christmas decorations if you want to. Who cares if you insult other people???? Why should the fact that you put up Christmas decorations in a public place insult other people?? My place of employment was one of the first to put up our CHRISTMAS tree. If someone had told us that they were offended and that we should take it down, I'm pretty sure I would have laughed really hard and said No. We also have a big CHRISTMAS wreath up (complete with a viola in the middle of it...would have been a violin but the violin looked too small). We also have CHRISTMAS ornaments, and CHRISTMAS music playing all day long. We have lots of CHRISTMAS music books. If any of us were Jewish, maybe we'd have a few Hanukkah songs playing. I have no problem with that if any of my coworkers were Jewish. Play with dreidals, I don't care!!! Light the menorah, whatever!!
You know what, last time I checked the United States was all for freedom of religion. You can either celebrate or choose not to celebrate whatever holiday you choose. Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa...I don't care! Celebrate what you want, and I'll celebrate what I want! But I am going to go sing Christmas carols, wrap Christmas presents and put up my Christmas tree...and don't tell me that it offends you because I don't care. If my neighbor were to start lighting their menorah (I don't have any Jewish neighbors that I'm aware of), go ahead! Celebrate your holiday! More power to you! I am NOT offended by people celebrating Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, so why should anyone be offended that I am celebrating Christmas because I am a Christian and believe in celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.
Enjoy your holiday! Watch wonderful Christmas movies such as The Muppet Christmas Carol or It's a Wonderful Life or National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation...whatever your little heart desires. Go to church and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. Make cookies, sing Christmas carols and drink eggnog. Whatever Christmas traditions you have, celebrate them and embrace them. Do not let society tell you to be more politically correct. Our lives are centered around politically correctness, let this be one thing that you are not politically correct about!
And if anyone tells you that your Christmas celebrations offend them, tell them to blow it out their rear end. I'm sure that's not very PC either, but I'm not about being PC right now.
To everyone: A MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
- posted by L. @ 11:41 PM

 
Me vs. the insurance company part 1
I know you all totally miss my stories of my ongoing battle with Cingular. I know, I totally miss telling said stories. But as I have not really had any major complaints with Verizon, there has been a severe lacking in my posts regarding my battles with large corporations. The most exciting thing that ever happened with Verizon is that we tried to switch our phones at the Verizon store and they said they "couldn't match" the internet offer that we had gotten from Verizon. So we used the internet offer, and, lo and behold, a few short days later we got our new phones. Presto. No problems.
Anyway, I know I can't go very long without having to be rather irritated with large corporations so this week's installment is Me vs My Former Employer/Insurance Company.
I terminated employment with My Former Employer (henceforth referred to as MFE) in July. To be exact, July 14. My supervisor at MFE somehow thought it was July 12, whatever, which was sort-of a hassle, sort-of a blessing. For example, upon getting to work on July 14, I couldn't get into the building, and all of my accounts had been shut down. But, on the plus side, I couldn't do ANY work the ENTIRE day. It was great. I got paid for 8 hours of pure NOTHING.
MFE consequently terminated my health/dental/life insurance on July 12, and initially did not pay me for the 13th and 14th (a vacation day as well as a day of sort-of work...hey, I was there, it counts as work, not my problem I couldn't do any work). The pay sorted itself out after about a month of emailing/calling my former supervisor...and I made about $50 out of the deal. If you get paid less, they take fewer taxes out! Hurray! But anyway.
So, MFE was very quick to terminate me from the insurance policy...however I'm still waiting on the COBRA information. I know, it's been five months. I think they've gone long past the point of being slow, and now are probably breaking several laws. When they termed me off my mom's insurance after I graduated from college, I had to sign something to waive my rights to COBRA. I haven't signed that with MFE...and I'm now on policy #2 since quitting. My temporary policy gave me the coverage letter within a few days of the term date which was pretty sweet. But nothing from my former employer on their COBRA information. Huh. THAT'S weird. I actually used to WORK FOR AN INSURANCE COMPANY! You would THINK they would know the rules. Because if they don't know the rules, god help the rest of us....
So anyway, today I got home from work and found three envelopes with the logo from MFE. "Sweet," I thought, foolishly, "they are finally offering me COBRA."
Oh silly silly me. Why would they offer me COBRA?? It's not like they are LEGALLY REQUIRED TO DO SO or anything. NO WORRIES. They definitely sent me THREE letters, one dated Nov 30, one Dec 2, and one Dec 4...which I got all three today, I know, weird...saying that they had previously requested a receipt from me for some meds I bought using my FSA card back in June. They have now "reminded" me that I need to send them those receipts (who knows where the hell those are, I bought that stuff in JUNE!!!).
Never mind that I haven't gotten my COBRA information. Never mind that I haven't gotten my letters of prior coverage that I should really be submitting to my current insurance company. Never mind that they screwed me out of 16 hours of pay initially....
Never mind that I USED TO WORK FOR AN INSURANCE COMPANY. Sweet, I am so ready to call those fuckers tomorrow. This battle is ON!!!!
- posted by L. @ 11:23 PM