What is this world coming to?

About a week and a half ago, the tall bespectacled SnarkGirl had a dental emergency.

Despite all eveidence to the contrary (especially the fact that she's my daughter), she has a tiny jaw. One of her baby molars was coming out, but the teeth in her jaw are so tight that as the adult tooth was pushing up the baby molar was not moving. Eventually it cracked in to four pieces, and then the gum around it got lacerated and infected. One trip to the dentist later, it was disimpacted, cleaned out and we left with a script for antibiotics.

At the time, we paid our regular co-pay. I knew that there was no way Blue Balls/Poo Shield would cover the whole visit, but the admin and I agreed we'd submit and hope for the best.

Today I go the letter from the insurance company, stating that we owed the dentist $275. Ouch, but not entirely unexpected. I called the office to double-check the amount and ask when I should drop off the check. No one answered, so I left a message with my name, cell number and my questions, assuming someone would call back.

I got a call back 30 minutes later. The secretary asked me a favor: "Can I put you on speaker so you can ask your questions? I'd like the others to hear."

I assumed it was a training thing, and agreed. "So, I want to double-check that the amount we owe is $275, and I want to make sure that it's OK that I drop the check off on Wednesday morning."

Dead. Silence.

"Seriously. I can come in Wednesday and pay, right?"

An unknown voice from the background chimed in: "You're volunteering to bring payment in, without complaining or negotiating trying to weasel out of it? Really?"

"Yes. I OWE the money, and I'd like to PAY my bill as soon as I can to clear the debt. Is that acceptable?"

"Wow. That;s just...holy shit. WOW! Yes, come in whenever you want!"

That can't possibly be that rare, can it -- that an office full of people is utterly shocked that I'd want to pay my bill, in full, in timely fashion?

Good grief.

Thunderheads on the horizon.

The "get ready for Fall!" e-mails have started arriving.
The end-of-summer faculty meeting/boot in the ass session has been scheduled.
Book order forms and preliminary class lists have started appearing in mail boxes.

Fuck.

I just got back from vacation!

A quick look at my schedule confirms that I teach my last summer session class on Aug 15, and start the new fall semester on August 29.

Double fuck!

After the horrible spring semester, I was pretty crispy from burnout, and had decided to take summer "off" by only teaching one course. That was knocked galley-west by a colleague going out on FMLA, and I went from "summer at ease" of one class scheduled to "full boat" of three classes in the space of a week.

Everyone's papers are due in the same week, which gives me a fuckton of grading to do on top of my fall semester prep.

Triple fuck with whipped cream on top!