#our bcb’s if you will

[shit-people-probably-didnt-say]

Nina: How many toddlers do you think you could take in a fight?

Jesper: Do I get prep time?

Nina: Yes, but the toddlers get it too

Jesper: Then none, they’ll unionise

[lovebirdgames]

You tweeted about putting what your family members say in your next game, if it's possible could you tell us what it's about? Is it related to band camp boyfriend or an entirely different project?

My sister was just like "We haven't gotten an ask in ages...OH THERE'S AN ASK--" Heheh!

We haven't made a decision yet, there are one of two paths we could take, but we're waiting to see how well Band Camp Boyfriend does before we decide what to do next. Both prospective games we could go onto next are actually teased in Band Camp Boyfriend!

We'll probably make our decision around the first anniversary of the game. For now, we're still enjoying our break. And we still need to update the game and deliver on our promise of an artbook/soundtrack.

[sanguinifex]

Ok, I have just realized what I don’t get about tiktok: first of all, how are there people who can organize their thoughts, into words, more fluently and accurately in speech rather than text, especially when it’s academic language, and second of all, why is it more appealing to watch a slow video rather than a text post, when the video is literally just someone basically reading the equivalent of a text post out loud, with no special effects, diagrams, or nothing?

Like, are people rehearsing saying all this stuff with the correct order and pacing before they speak, or are they just…thinking concepts entirely in words from the get-go or something? How does that even work?

Seriously, every time I have to watch one, it’s the exact same sensation as calling your insurance because the web portal is down, and you have to sit through the goddamn robot voice saying unskippable shit like “did you know? You can easily find benefits online at doesntwork.fuckyou.com,” which if that were true you wouldn’t be fucking calling, and “please enter your date of birth as an eight digit number, with two digits for the month, two digits for the day, and four digits for the year” as if you haven’t been doing that on various IVR systems for the entirety of your adult life, and “a description of benefits is not a guarantee of payment. Claims are subject to eligibility and medical necessity based on the date that services are rendered and the the terms, conditions, limitations, and provisions of the policy in force,” before you can FINALLY ask how much deductible you have left or what your coinsurance for an MRI is, and it reads it in the slowest, stupidest robot voice ever? And now you’ve been on the phone for ten minutes and you could have looked this up in 30 seconds if their goddamn useless GUI-overloaded piece of shit website that they’re too stingy to hire enough webdevs to maintain actually fucking worked?

Well that’s what it feels when I have to wait for the goddamn subtitles to cycle through on a tiktok that should’ve been a goddamn text post.

[existennialmemes]

BCBS: Yeah if your surgery takes longer than our admin staff with no medical training thinks it should, you have to pay out of pocket for the anesthesia.

UHC CEO: [assassinated in the street]

BCBS: ... You know we were just joking about that anesthesia thing ha ha we would never. We love keeping our brains inside customers happy.

[a-queer-seminarian]

kinda fascinating to be in a situation where I've had to call / online chat with insurance representatives during the whole UH CEO fallout. I have BCBS and maaaybe they're always this helpful but idk, they just seem so responsive and taking extra steps to help me out and it turns out the issue I'm having isn't even on their side, it's the dentist's! also their online chat is a real person??? I don't have to work around the AI before it finally transfers me??? Incredible

anyway turning this post into a psa to 1) ALWAYS check that your medical bills match what your insurance's Explanation of Benefits (EOB) reads (you do this by checking what amount your insurance says "patient owes" in the EOB and if your bill doesn't match that, your provider is overcharging you) and 2) DO NOT Get Your Dental Care At Great Expressions Holy Shit I'm Pissed

My wife and I went to the dentist in fall 2022 for the first time since the pandemic started, and the bills we both received were so high i've never gone again since then, because i don't wanna spend 500 bucks on a basic cleaning + X-rays. But my wife has continued to go twice a year cuz her teeth suck so the frequent check-up matters more for her.

And lordy, we've been naive lol. We've heard dental is expensive so we've just been resigned to the high costs; we also both have terrible executive functioning around all things financial and are woefully under-educated about how bills and insurance work — but the latest bill we got was just too damn much and I finally mustered up the spoons to figure shit out.

Aaaand it turns out that, while the dentist charged nearly one thousand dollars for her three fillings, the EOB shows we only owe $128. Buck. Wild.

So I've gone through every charge we've gotten over the years and they are all hundreds of dollars higher than the EOB. Great Expressions has been taking advantage of our ignorance and naivety to rob us for two fricking years.

If I understand what one insurance rep told me, since Great Expressions has a contract with BCBS they're supposed to charge us an in-network rate, which is far cheaper than out-of-network rates. Basically they send their proposed bill to our insurance, who send back a fraction of the money proposed as decided in the contract between them; insurance also tells the dentist the cost the dentist can then charge us.

But Great Expressions is pocketing the insurance money and then charging us the remainder of their original proposed cost instead of the contracted rate. So they're clearly aware that we are in-network, but still charging us like we're out-of-network. WTF

Anyway thank you BCBS reps who helped me figure all this out, incredible to actually have some non-AI customer service in this age lol. And everyone else please wish me luck as I make a chart of each dental bill we've gotten since 2022 versus what the EOB states — and then take it to the dental clinic in person because they are Not Helpful over the phone lemme tell you

The plan is to try to talk it out with them myself, and if I can't get them to listen to me I'm going to call an BCBS insurance rep while in the clinic with them so they can talk it over lmao. And if that doesn't get me the past years' charges back...idk if i can consult a lawyer or whatever but I'm gonna get this damn money back.

also we're going to get a new damn dentist. obviously

[book--brackets]

Summaries under the cut

The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler

Alice always thought fairy tales had happy endings. That--along with everything else--changed the day she met her first fairy

When Alice's father goes down in a shipwreck, she is sent to live with her uncle Geryon--an uncle she's never heard of and knows nothing about. He lives in an enormous manor with a massive library that is off-limits to Alice. But then she meets a talking cat. And even for a rule-follower, when a talking cat sneaks you into a forbidden library and introduces you to an arrogant boy who dares you to open a book, it's hard to resist. Especially if you're a reader to begin with. Soon Alice finds herself INSIDE the book, and the only way out is to defeat the creature imprisoned within.

It seems her uncle is more than he says he is. But then so is Alice.

Troy by Adele Geras

The Siege of Troy has lasted almost ten years. Inside the walled city food is (Malacca). and death is common. From the heights of Mount Olympus The Gods keep watch. But Aphrodite. Goddess of Love. is bored with the endless. dreary war. Aided by Eros's bow. the goddess sends two sisters down a bloody path to an awful truth: In the fury of war. love strikes the deadliest blows.

Casson Family by Hilary McKay

The four Casson children, whose mother, Eve, is a fine-arts painter, have all been given the names of paint colors. Cadmium (Caddy), is the eldest; then Saffron (Saffy); Indigo, the only boy; and Rose, the youngest. When Saffy discovers quite by accident that she has been adopted, she is deeply upset, though the others assure her that it makes no difference at all. Saffy is the daughter of Eve's twin sister, who lived in Siena, Italy, and died in a car crash. Grandad brought Saffy, as a very small child, back from Siena.

At Grandad's death he leaves something to each of the children. To Saffy, it is "her angel," although no one knows its identity. How Saffy discovers what her angel is, with the help of an energetic new friend, lies at the heart of this enchanting story.

Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth by E. L. Konigsburg

A lonely girl discovers a magical world and a new friend when she meets a young witch on Halloween.

Unicorns of Balinor by Mary Stanton

After a terrible riding accident, Ari cannot remember anything of her past and is sent to live on a farm with foster parents. What Ari doesn't know is that she is not from our world, but from Balinor, a land of sorcerers and unicorns! Her parents, the King and Queen, sent her to Earth to protect her from a raging war before they were banished from their homeland. Now Ari--Princess Arianna--has found the road back to Balinor. As she struggles to remember her heritage, she must face the challenge of restoring peace to Balinor.

The Divide by Elizabeth Kay

When Felix and his parents visit the Divide in Costa Rica, a place where the waters that run down to the Pacific and Atlantic oceans separate, he faints and wakes to discover an amazing back-to-front world where mythical creatures are real and humans and science are legend.

Phantom Stallion by Terri Farley

When 13-year-old Samantha returns home to her family′s cattle ranch in Nevada, she′s worried. She moved away two years ago to recover from a bad fall off her beloved mustang, Blackie, and she′s still not sure she can get back in the saddle. Her new colt doesn′t seem to like her, and the other ranchers treat her like the boss′s spoiled daughter, and Blackie has been missing since that fateful day. But that′s just the beginning. When Sam suddenly finds the fate of a mysterious mustang who may or may not be the missing Blackie - resting in her hands, she has to learn to be a real cowgirl, ready or not.

Miri and Molly by Annie Barrows

Miri is the only single child in the middle of a family with two sets of twins--older brothers and younger sisters. When the family moves to an old farmhouse Miri accidentally travels back in time to 1935 only to discover Molly, a girl in need of a real family to call her own.

Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone

Almost everybody who has grown up in Chicago knows about the Thorne Rooms. Housed in the Children’s Galleries of the Chicago Art Institute, they are a collection of 68 exquisitely crafted miniature rooms made in the 1930s by Mrs. James Ward Thorne. Each of the 68 rooms is designed in the style of a different historic period, and every detail is perfect, from the knobs on the doors to the candles in the candlesticks. Some might even say, the rooms are magic.

Imagine—what if you discovered a key that allowed you to shrink so that you were small enough to sneak inside and explore the rooms’ secrets? What if you discovered that others had done so before you? And that someone had left something important behind?

Hitler's Daughter by Jackie French

Her name was Heidi, and she was Hitler's daughter.

It began on a rainy morning in Australia, as part of a game played by Mark and his friends. It was a storytelling game, and the four friends took turns weaving tales about fairies and mermaids and horses. But Anna's story was different this time: it was not a fairy tale or an adventure story. The story was about a young girl who lived during World War II. Her name was Heidi, and she was Hitler's daughter.

As Anna's story unfolds, Mark is haunted by the image of Hitler's daughter. He wonders what he would have done in her place if he had known his father was an evil man leading the world into a war that was destroying millions of lives. And if Mark had known, would he have had the power and determination to stop him?

[krillking]

Hello I am an officer from the online beast containment bureau. You may have heard of our work. We think that the recent incidents in your inbox have been the work of a nefarious and mischievous beast and would like to know if you have any more knowledge on the subject

oh thank god. The BCB.

yes hello i think i have a prime suspect on who this nefarious and mischievous beast is.......here is a picture...

[sunnyisinsane]

seven several-sentence sunday. Day

Thank you @bcbdrums ! :D I uh . Got carried away . Whoops .

The sound of creaking is occasionally heard through the silence.

My view is focused on one thing though, that man, hand gripping the screw in his head. He's gotten taller since I last saw, Spirit was the tallest man in the "group". I was always forced to be around his friends, what luck that they're all faculty of this damned academy. The sound of a leg bouncing is also here, it's familiar and annoying. I'm not focusing on that though, I can see him in the corner of my eye and I wish I didn't, I've grown to hate the color red because of him. My focus is on the freak nonetheless. Nobody has said anything, just sitting silently at this table. There's stitches all over it. Suddenly, to my right he clears his throat.

"Maka's been good, she's top of her class, she's becoming a great meister!" The man exclaimed nervously.

"I don't care." I glare at my ex husband, he bites his lip, making those stupid panicked noises before looking down, nodding. I was hoping that'd be it until a different voice speaks up.

"Figures you wouldn't care, I mean...when was your last visit?" He smirks, the stitching on his cheek gets pulled back freakishly from the movement. I stand up from my seat.

"You have no right asking that! I needed to get away from this asshole over here! Mothering isn't easy!" Spirit gulps, looking at me after I say this loudly. Stein just stands up as well. "How could you know? You've never done it." He says, blankly, still smiling. As if this is funny.

"Oh, please, you couldn't even take care of a mouse! Honestly it's a wonder Spirit moved back in with you! He only did it because he needs someone to give his pathetic ass a purpose! He's only here because I left!" I slam my fist against the stitched table. .

Stein scoffs, "Spirit's a grown man, he does what he wants. You should know, you clearly couldn't please him or keep him in line."

I gasp, horrified, before I can say something Spirit stands up, embarrassed.

"Stein!"

We both don't acknowledge him, continuing on.

"Spirit is a spineless whore!"

"Kami!"

Stein snorts, but shrugs.

"Like I said, he's a grown man, he can do what he wants. It's his choice to stop acting like a child though." I cross my arms, glaring at Stein as he says this. "Okay guys you're just being mean to me now." A sad voice says underneath everything.

At this point Stein and I have gotten closer, emphasizing our words as we speak, both of our hands on the table as Spirit looks at us pitifully.

"Well he chose me over you! You're just a danger to everyone! I'm the one with the daughter with him!"

"how's that going for you?" Stein grins, looking around the room, as if to emphasize the point that Spirit lives with him again.

"I can see your soul, Stein. You're anxious, you're getting defensive and worried! You act so high and mighty but I can read you, way better than anyone could!" I say, grinning, looking at his soul, my words are true too. Stein may be able to give quick responses but he's always been threatened by me. The man's smile drops, he glances away, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Guys! Please, let's try getting along! Why don't we try resonating?" Spirit says, putting a hand between us. We both get caught off guard. It's silent for a moment before I move away from the table.

"You're so naive, so stupid, if you think I'd ever resonate with Franken Stein!"

"I'd say the same about you," Stein says as he lights his own cigarette. Spirit frowns, pouting. "That has to be the stupidest idea you've had yet." The stitched man shoots a look at Spirit as he says this.

I get up, towards the door. "For once, I agree with Stein here." Spirit's about to cry and Stein just smokes his cigarette quietly.

Then I leave.

Yeah I went a bit overboard there .thanks for the @ again bcb :D I didn't proofread this btw anywho uh

@takeyourcyanide , you . You write . Hi. I am TAGGING you btw you don't have to actually . Do these .

[pandavalkyrie]

Zero patience for people getting on their high horse about 'murder always bad' Yeah you're right it is, my job involves me watching helplessly as companies like UHC murder people begging for healthcare every day.

'Only policy can change this' Sure where are you planning to get the money to bribe our politicians to change policy, cause UHC and the others have plenty to spare

'The BCBS policy change had nothing to do with the shooting' Yes it did lol the shooting put a spotlight on the policy change and they reversed it due to bad optics. I guarantee once things settle down next year they'll try to slip it back in again.

The only policy change that's going to change things effectively enough involve tearing it all down and starting from scratch but the people shaking their finger over this don't want that either so maybe stfu and go sit on your hands, you're worse than useless

[deadweight-at7am]

Are we in the French Revolution Season of America? Well, we should have been decades ago.

I have a migraine and can't sleep so let me yap about insurance for a bit.

Everyone's heard the UHC CEO was shot dead in NYC. And I'm sure most people are like "yeah, and?" Indeed. I have a unique perspective on this because I work in healthcare, specifically healthcare admin and my actual specialty is fighting claim denials on behalf of my company. I am unusually qualified to have opinions on this. I know quite a bit more about it than the average joe.

United Health Group is a notorious ghoul in the healthcare world, specifically behavioral health (mental health). It surprises me how many people don't understand what I mean when I say "behavioral health". We're talking psych. UHC's vendor for behavioral health is called Optum. Not many people know this but you can have Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance, but your behavioral health benefits can be taken care of by Optum. This is called a "carve out". Insurance companies do this for... God knows why (cost? savings? something to do with saving a buck I'm sure) but it surprises patients time and time again. It doesn't happen super often but it does happen. And what that means is that you have to find providers that take Optum/UHC even though your main insurance is BCBS/Cigna/Aetna/Whatever. Behavioral Health is it's own little special world in the insurance marketplace and it's... sometimes very poorly run and very mismanaged. I work in psych and this isn't my first job working in psychology - so I have a LOT of experience here. When I tell you that Optum is one of the WORST and most predatory behavioral health payors I've ever encountered, I kid you not. The only other tragic fucking mess I've seen that rivals UHC is Cigna's BH group called Evernorth. Oh my god, don't ever try to get any answers at Evernorth - no one there knows how a fucking thing works.

So anyway, what UHC likes to do with patients that get therapy is they will see that a patient is costing them a lot of money - you know, actually using the benefits they pay premiums for. They'll then decide that this can't continue and they'll stop paying for services until the provider that is doing them undergoes a "Medical Records Review". What that means politely is that they think you're over-using their benefit and they don't want to pay for this service, so you now have to prove that you need it. This is usually a taske the provider must do. Our providers must write an appeal and submit the patient's records for review to UHC. You might think "so what? submit the paperwork". Not so fast. The process is not cut and dry. You have to write the review, which is time the provider isn't being paid for. They must then give it to someone (me) or fax the paperwork themselves, while also compiling their medical records which usually means months worth of notes. This means in our practice that we must have a medical records person submit the documents to our boss, who then signs off on them after proofing them - this is so the records meet requirements medically. Then we have to compile, sort and fax the paperwork and then we get to track it. Meanwhile, the payments for the service stop. UHC does not continue to pay for services while a review is in process. You just have to assume it will work out. Our success rate with these reviews is low, something like 40%... so our providers often just opt not to do them. When I tell you it doesn't matter what the provider writes in the review or who does it, I mean it. We have a Harvard trained Psychologist who sees patients for talk therapy and knows all the specifics. She wrote one of these for a patient, gave it to me, I sent it, tracked it, etc. It was magically approved (one of the only successes I've personally seen) and then 6 months later they did it AGAIN and this time our Psych was like "I'm not doing this anymore, we've proven she needs the therapy, her situation hasn't magically changed in 6 months!" The patient had complex issues that definitely required therapy and pharmacological intervention. I also get calls from Optum, about 1-2 a month wherein a doctor will call us and say they're from Optum and they're stopping services because X, Y, Z. They'll say that the diagnosis doesn't require the amount of visits that the patient has had and I can't argue with them - I just note it and relay the message. Every single Psychologist in our practice hates UHC. Whenever the email I write contains the word "Optum" or "Denial" the providers tell me they don't even want to read them LOL I do not get the same kind of denials from any other insurer, JUST Optum. That tells you something. There is no insurance company I like, to be frank, but if you asked me who I hated the most it's Optum. And the funny thing is that our healthcare through my job is UHC (but I can't afford it). The benefits are outrageously expensive and have high deductibles. Count me out.

That was a lot of words to say that their processes are in place to make things hard on providers and on patients. They want it to be difficult, confusing and nearly impossible to navigate. They bank on you not knowing anything - so the best thing to do is know AS MUCH as you possibly can. What I described here is the main reason why I can not work for an insurance company or become a broker, I do not like or want to sell anyone any of it. I hate insurance and I think it's all a huge scam.

An insurance company's first priority is to keep profit margins high. It is not to help provide excellent care. It's not patient satisfaction. You give them money and they aim to keep it. That's it. So, a CEO is most definitely in charge of helping to keep that company profitable. Insurance companies make BILLIONS - yes, BILLIONS of dollars - a year. They're not "just scraping by".

My number one concern has ALWAYS been single payer healthcare in the US and I have never quite figured out why people are so against the idea. I know why greedy companies don't want it to happen and all I can assume is that the lobbying against it and spreading of misinformation and fear mongering is the reason it's gotten in to so many people's heads that it's "bad". Look around you, does it seem like anything is working well the way it is?

[mutualcombat]

my office cut contract with BCBS in August and we still have patients coming in for their appointments, reading our sign as they're walking out, and have the gall to get all pissy like we hid this info from them

we sent an email, a text and a fucking letter in july like ffs how do you miss all 3 of those

[lovebirdgames]

Why does Alex have a character named after her, but there's no character named Taylor? Should I play as "Taylor" as a tribute?

We more named him Alex because it sounds like alto sax, which is the instrument he would've started on before switching to bari sax. I know I put Barry up as a possible name, but it just didn't seem to suit him so Barry the Baritone got it.

It wound up making testing confusing for Alex when she used her name (we would give Mr. Wiley our names to test/jump to each route). XD

Marian and Sabrina do have Taylor as a last name so we did wind up slipping it in there, though I forgot that was their last name and Alex was like "...Really?"

[anglerflsh]

re: your poetry post, can you give some pointers as to where to learn the rhyming patterns in poetry and the like? i only ever see poetry from the ideas/feelings perspective, but ive never learned the logic and structure behind it lol

I've learned most of it from my literature and grammar classes, it's taught in our school since elementary, so I wouldn't know of any books or manuals that talk specifially about it - but I can give you a rundown of how I do it, anon, if it counts for anything lol

Prefacing that this will be starting from italian poetica because that's what I know best: any poem, but specifically the pre-futurism/1910s ones (A Lot) will have some kind of structure aside from just the ryming scheme; The structure I am most familiar with is accentual-sillabic, so for example any single verso will have its stressed syllable in a fixed potision and occasionally a set number of sillables (eg. an endecasillablic metre means a stress on the tenth syllable, usually penultimate, equally to 11 total syllables), but there are also only accentual, or only sillabic verses, common in French poetry (?), all of which count as types of qualitative metre - as well as quantitative metre, which was more widley used in Latin and Greek poetry and which rather based itself on patterns of syllable weight (something that I know little about tbh; I think it's based on the lenght of pronunciation of the actual syllable).

this, of course, goes without even mentioning free-verse structure and less well-known ones.

Going back to the rhyming scheme, that also comes into play with structure in the sense that ... there are just a lot of them to pick from. The classic is the repeated AABB one, where each verse will rhyme with the one underneath (''kissing rhyme'' in italian), or the alterning ABAB, the crossed ABBA, the 'chained' or third rhyme ABA BCB CDC used for terzine, and plenty more! That's not all the ways to classify rhymes of course: you have plain rhyme between words accented on the penultimate syllable, cut rhyme between words accented on the last, sdrucciola with accents on the third-to-last, bisdrucciola on the fourth-to-last... etc etc

Then, of course, come the classifications in stanza lenghts! Groups of three verses are a terzina, well known for being Dante's favourite number (joke inserted to lighten this infodump), groups of four a quatrina, etc -

and depending on the number of single groups and on the type of verses in them, you have further classification as canzone, ode, madrigale, carme, filastrocca, ballata, sonetto... the latter for example is made of fourteen endecasyllabic verses grouped in two quartine, one in the beginning and one in the end, in crossed or alternate rhyme, and two terzine with any kind of rhyme structre.

this of course doesn't touch on the inner things and games of poem structure like the falling rhyme, spaces in between groups, enjambement, alliteration, allegorical figures, anafore, onomatopee, and all that fun stuff! Essentially when you see a poem look for the number of syllables in each verse, where the stressed syllable falls, how the rhymes are put, how many verses are in each stanza and strofa...

[theorgantrail]

Insurance: Healthcare Workers' Perspective (i.e why it sucks)

1. Why Doctors Don't Carry Your Insurance

This was one of the most surprising things to learn when I started working in a dr's office. Insurance sucks just as much for providers as it does for the patients. (The only upside is we have a separate hotline for calling).

Doctors have to pay (quite a lot of money $$$ btw) to register as providers with insurance. Each individual company (BCBS, USAA, Kaiser, etc) requires a fee, and often will have different processes for registration. This process is not instantaneous, either, but can take anywhere up to 2 years.

That is why many younger/newer providers will often only carry a couple insurances. So the more insurances a provider carries, the more they fought and paid for accessibility for their patients.

2. Prior Authorization

“Physicians spend an enormous amount of time fighting these prior authorization rejections to get patients the therapies that they need,”

-Jack Resneck Jr., MD

What doctors wish patients knew about prior authorization

One major problem in healthcare, which one of our admins talks about in the insurance section, is prior authorization.

I have personally worked in healthcare on and off for about 3 years. At one point, I was a receptionist for a busy ENT clinic, where I helped file medical and insurance paperwork and talked to just about e v e r y insurance company there is the US.

One of the most common (and incredibly frustrating) forms was prior auth, and everyone involved absolutely hates this form. The doctor, the MA's, the patient, the insurance workers you call, etc. Often, we have to call back and forth over a period of weeks to even months to get a patient a single medication that is very often necessary for living.

Mind you, this again takes a lot of precious time. Dr. Resneck went on to say that, "We physicians often find ourselves fighting over and over and over through a series of appeals to get the patient the medication or the test or the treatment that they need," which I can attest is absolutely true! Talk about incredibly dangerous for continuity for care and health of the patient!

On top of how busy the clinic and physicians are, these authorizations and appeals often go to the support healthcare workers, like receptionists or MA's, to handle.

Most often was a medication that was simply being refilled by a new doctor, or occasionally the exact same doctor (the patients window of insurance viability had just lapsed)! A patient could have been on a medication for YEARS and suddenly the insurance would be dragging their feet. And they won't talk to patients, the point-blank will only discuss and haggle with physicians and their representatives (ie. ME).

There is lot more to this subject, but unfortunately, I have other homework to get to.

Did either of these surprise you?

[book--brackets]

Summaries under the cut

Fairyland by Catherynne Valente

Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking the form of a gentleman in a green jacket), who invites her on an adventure, implying that her help is needed in Fairyland. The new Marquess is unpredictable and fickle, and also not much older than September. Only September can retrieve a talisman the Marquess wants from the enchanted woods, and if she doesn’t . . . then the Marquess will make life impossible for the inhabitants of Fairyland. September is already making new friends, including a book-loving Wyvern and a mysterious boy named Saturday.

Beyonders by Brandon Mull

Jason Walker has often wished his life could be a bit less predictable--until a routine day at the zoo ends with Jason suddenly transporting from the hippo tank to a place unlike anything he's ever seen. In the past, the people of Lyrian welcomed visitors from the Beyond, but attitudes have changed since the wizard emperor Maldor rose to power. The brave resistors who opposed the emperor have been bought off or broken, leaving a realm where fear and suspicion prevail.

In his search for a way home, Jason meets Rachel, who was also mysteriously drawn to Lyrian from our world. With the help of a few scattered rebels, Jason and Rachel become entangled in a quest to piece together the word of power that can destroy the emperor, and learn that their best hope to find a way home will be to save this world without heroes.

The Missing by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Thirteen-year-old Jonah has always known that he was adopted, and he's never thought it was any big deal. Then he and a new friend, Chip, who's also adopted, begin receiving mysterious letters. The first one says, "You are one of the missing." The second one says, "Beware! They're coming back to get you."

Jonah, Chip, and Jonah's sister, Katherine, are plunged into a mystery that involves the FBI, a vast smuggling operation, an airplane that appeared out of nowhere - and people who seem to appear and disappear at will. The kids discover they are caught in a battle between two opposing forces that want very different things for Jonah and Chip's lives.

Do Jonah and Chip have any choice in the matter? And what should they choose when both alternatives are horrifying?

The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith

Pongo and Missis had a lovely life. With their human owners, the Dearlys, to look after them, they lived in a comfortable home in London with their 15 adorable Dalmatian puppies, loved and admired by all. Especially the Dearlys' neighbor Cruella de Vil, a fur-fancying fashion plate with designs on the Dalmatians' spotted coats! So, when the puppies are stolen from the Dearly home, and even Scotland Yard is unable to find them, Pongo and Missis know they must take matters into their own paws!

Tales of Magic by Edward Eager

Four children wish on a Half Magic coin that gets their mother Alison half-way home, rescued by Mr Smith. Mark's wish zaps them to a desert without island, where half-talking cat Carrie gabbles to a camel. Romantic Katherine battles Launcelot. Eldest Jane rejects siblings for another family. Stubborn youngest, Martha, causes a riot downtown.

Bambi by Felix Salten

Bambi's life in the woods begins happily. There are forest animals to play with -- Friend Hare, the chattery squirrel, the noisy screech owl, and Bambi's twin cousins, frail Gobo and beautiful Faline.

But winter comes, and Bambi learns that the woods hold danger -- and things he doesn't understand. The first snowfall makes food hard to find. Bambi's father, a handsome stag, roams the forest, but leaves Bambi and his mother alone.

Then there is Man. He comes to the forest with weapons that can wound an animal. He does terrible things to Gobo, to Bambi's mother, and even to Bambi. But He can't keep Bambi from growing into a handsome stag himself, and becoming...the Prince of the Forest.

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield

Pauline, Petrova and Posy are orphans determined to help out their family by attending the Children's Academy of Dancing and Stage Training. But when they vow to make a name for themselves, they have no idea it's going to be such hard work! They launch themselves into the world of show business, complete with working papers, the glare of the spotlight, and practice, practice, practice! Pauline is destined for the movies. Posy is a born dancer. But practical Petrova finds she'd rather pilot a plane than perform a pirouette. Each girl must find the courage to follow her dream.

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin

Rebecca’s father had died three years before and the family farm had become heavily indebted. In order to ease the burden on her widowed mother, Rebecca is sent to live with her lonely aunts at their farm and there she spends the next seven years till she becomes an adult. Rebecca brings her youthful enthusiasm and imagination to their quiet life and often clashes with her stern Aunt Miranda. Yet, Rebecca finds love and acceptance with her Aunt Jane and she grows up to be a proper and intelligent young lady who never loses her sunny outlook and kind heart.

Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Being a princess isn't all that...

You've heard the fairy tale: a glass slipper, Prince Charming, happily ever after...

Welcome to reality: royal genealogy lessons, needlepoint, acting like "a proper lady," and—worst of all—a prince who is not the least bit interesting, and certainly not charming.

As soon-to-be princess Ella deals with her new-found status, she comes to realize she is not "your majesty" material. But breaking off a royal engagement is no easy feat, especially when you're crushing on another boy in the palace... For Ella to escape, it will take intelligence, determination, and spunk—and no ladylike behavior allowed.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jaqueline Kelly

Calpurnia Virginia Tate is eleven years old in 1899 when she wonders why the yellow grasshoppers in her Texas backyard are so much bigger than the green ones. With a little help from her notoriously cantankerous grandfather, an avid naturalist, she figures out that the green grasshoppers are easier to see against the yellow grass, so they are eaten before they can get any larger.

As Callie explores the natural world around her, she develops a close relationship with her grandfather, navigates the dangers of living with six brothers, and comes up against just what it means to be a girl at the turn of the century.

[nochiquinn]

I'm gonna put the tl;dr at the beginning and if anybody wants context/details they'll be under the readmore.

tl;dr: we have to pay BCBS $900 to keep Sam and her 11 y/o daughter's insurance active. we can do it, but only if we ignore every other bill, and so are currently trying to raise $500 to offset this impact. linktree has various ways to help, including a gfm and grocery gift cards.

(if this parses weirdly it's bc it was originally drafted for bsky, be nice to me, writing these multiple times is A Lot)

the context: long-time readers will know, Sam has leukemia and has been in treatment since November. she's been on medical leave from work and we've been paying her insurance out of pocket, $600/mo. this is where the problem splits into two different threads, both equally stupid.

thread 1: the mail service in georgia in screwed on a fundamental level (source). BCBS only accepts OOP payments by mail. you see where this is going.

we sent a money order through the mail, as we've done numerous times. it got hung up at the post office. BCBS never informed us there was an issue, and instead canceled the coverage for failure to pay. we found out about this two days before Sam was scheduled to start her last round of chemo. $600 to reinstate. we got it sorted, but it involved borrowing money.

because of this, and further lack of communication from BCBS, we are technically behind by a month, and it accrues interest. this is the $900. this is less urgent than getting her coverage back before the chemo started, but it's still not great. we can do it, splitting it between two of her husband's paychecks, but that runs the risk of additional interest and as previously stated is only possible if we let other bills slide. this is the attempt to raise $500.

thread 2: her job stopped approving her medical leave, so BCBS dropped her coverage Again. we were not notified of this Again. she is currently In The Hospital for treatment and monitoring. again, we got it sorted, but at this point it's starting to feel like extortion. (I mean all health insurance is extortion but ykwim) The hospital is helping Sam apply for Medicare (or Medicaid, I can never keep them straight) so HOPEFULLY this is our last month dealing with this, but I'm not putting my eggs in that basket until it's a sure thing.

related: kiddo needs an insulin refill. kiddo needs cgm sensors. kiddo needs glasses, which is a whole other snafu that could have been avoided if bcbs made any sense whatsoever. this is the second reason keeping the insurance active is so important. (in the event of medicaid/care David will get insurance through his job and put her on it.)

David is trying so, so hard to keep us above water, but he's Just One Guy, and a multiply disabled one at that. everybody in this house is multiply disabled at this point. we've only been able to get this far thanks to our irl and online support networks. and if you've donated any amount at any point, you're part of that support network. it is truly impossible to articulate how grateful we are, but I keep trying. thank you for helping, and for sharing, and for continuing to help. 💜🧡