Other parts of the day up 9:00 am-1:45 pm:
- Make Jake breakfast.
- Call the pharmacy to see if the rest of Jake's medication is available. They will "call me right back".**
- Call Health Plan of San Mateo (Medi-Cal) and finds out why Jake was denied benefits at the pharmacy (Co-Pay mind you... They don't even need to pay the whole thing anymore because we were so tired of all of the B.S.)
- Get hung up on after 48 minutes.
- Call back.
- Get transferred to a generic voicemail box after 43 minutes.
- Call an unrelated department at the same agency.
- Get transferred to another department (maybe the right one?).
- Talk with a person who speaks English...apparently there was a computer glitch on their side "It shouldn't have affected anyone externally. Hmm maybe that's why we are so busy today".
- Discover that all will be set right within 24-48 hours after the nice lady puts a work order in to "change the screen that everyone outside of San Mateo Health Plan looks at".
- Learn that I should "just pay full price at the pharmacy" and I can "get it reimbursed later".
- Remind myself of how lucky I am that my child's medication is more often than not, less than $50.00 a month, and I can afford to pay that out of pocket.
- Remind myself of how lucky I am that I speak English, am resourceful and have the time to navigate the system effectively.
- Remind myself that I may not send hate mail to Official Public Agencies.
- Make Jake lunch
- Complete the asinine form for respite hour reimbursement. The one that is now being mailed to my house in an 8 1/2" by 11" envelope(vs. plain old #10) at an additional cost to taxpayers each month to thousands of people.
- Decide not to place a note in the envelope telling Golden Gate Regional Center that they are wasting money that could be used to provide more people with respite, or a reimbursement rate closer to a wage we actually pay anyone who cares for our child.
- Call San Mateo County Special Education Transportation
- Learn indeed, that Jake's school day is one hour shorter and starts at a different time. 8:30-12:20
- Call San Mateo County Office of Special Education to ask why the paper I was sent (4 days ago) has 8:20-1:10 as his school hours.
- Get asked "Well, does he have a long day or a short day?".
- Answer, as nicely as I can, "Well, I'm not sure. We've never been to kindergarten before".
- Get told "Transportation sets the bell times".
- My question: "Am I to understand that the transportation department determines how many of hours a day my child is educated?"
- Flustered response from difficult-to-understand-and-now-wishing-he-had-never- answered-the-phone-on-his-lunch-break-man "I think he gets out at 12:20. The teacher probably knows and will let parents know on the first day of school."
- Politely inform the important person at the Office of Special Education that perhaps this short notice (school starts Tuesday) might be difficult for parents who are trying to provide childcare for their children... and that perhaps those parents who don't know about the change in schedule might be up to an hour late picking up their children from school.***
- Remind myself that I may not drink alcoholic beverages in the middle of the day, jump off the balcony or watch soap operas for the rest of the afternoon.
- Go back to putting audio books on my new-to-me-refurbished ipod.
** It is now 2:17 pm and they have not yet returned my call.
***Very important to share because I have a "save the world" mentality.
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