Of Early Morning Calls and Sparking Muses by Konnie Enos

 Well, that’s a crappy start to the day. Getting a phone call at six o’clock in the morning is never pleasant. It makes you think there is some major issue somewhere. And I knew this call wasn’t from a family member because I set the ringtone for family members differently than the standard one.

Let me explain.

On Saturday I received a couple of bills from a medical provider in my area. Because of my insurance, I should never be billed, but occasionally someone messes something up and doesn’t bill correctly or somehow submits it wrong. In most cases I can get them to correct the error and take care of the bill however that usually includes fighting with the employee I end up talking to about how I do NOT owe them anything, it’s covered.

I was not looking forward to that phone call but made the effort while I studied the bills. I found it was an error with my insurance before I ever got an employee on the phone. Fortunately, she was excellent at her job and immediately found the issue was with my insurance. We worked together to straighten out the error.

Somehow they’d gotten my primary insurance mixed up with the member ID number of my secondary insurance and I’m not sure they had the ID number on my secondary at all. It took a few, but it was an easy fix.

With the issue fully resolved, I completely put it out of my mind. Instead of focusing on things I still needed to take care of. Like the bills that needed to be paid, the appointments family members needed to get to, or the service the car was due for.

Then there’s yesterday. At some point in the morning, I remember thinking I’d have to spend time that day doing finances and writing my post. I did manage a tiny bit to update my checkbook register but did not finish the task. Between interruptions and distractions, I also did not write anything. I somehow forgot it was Tuesday. Or more likely spaced that I had to write the post for this morning.

Then, late enough in the evening to consider retiring for the day, I got a splitting headache so bad I could not focus on my computer screen. Writing anything was out of the question even if I’d had an idea to write on, which I didn’t. I was seriously considering just going to bed when I remembered that I had a post to write.

I took some Tylenol, which helped a little, but eventually texted Bonnie to warn her that I might have an issue getting a post up. She was not happy with me because apparently I had either not comprehended how late it was or had failed to calculate the time difference. Based on her reply, I’m assuming my message woke her up.

At this point, I decided that sleep was going to help more than medicine so I took the steps needed to shut off my tech and get ready for bed. Though I added the step of resetting my wake-up alarm an hour earlier so I’d have time to figure out a post before it was due.

So, after my alarm woke me up, I wisely got right up and went to the bathroom, no hitting snooze. While I was in there, my phone started ringing and woke Jerry up. He did not find it quickly enough to answer it.

Now, as I said, I knew it wasn’t a family member, and being the senior citizen I am, I’ve grown up with the idea that you do not call people before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. People of my generation tend to think that means there is an emergency when you call outside of those hours.

So needless to say, we’re a bit panicked about who called and why.

I looked at the call log. It was an unsaved number, but clearly a business. I could think of no reason for a business to call at that hour and had to assume they were a call center or something and didn’t comprehend the time difference. Though I still had no idea what company it was from. I wasn’t about to call back at that hour.

They left a voice message.

It was some guy returning my call from Saturday! You know, the one I’d already resolved and completely forgotten about!

I would be a lot more upset if it had woken me up but still, there was no reason for them to call me back, let alone at that hour.

So yeah, a crappy start to the day, but at least it sparked my muse.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Update: I was wrong, It was a medical bill, just a different one. Though it was still an insurance issue. This time I just had to update my secondary insurance. But seriously? Six o’clock?