Normalspeak, Please?

I called a professional office not too long ago and the person on the other end spoke with that annoying upward lilt at the end of every other sentence. That rather placed the kibosh on doing any business with them.

Remember Valley Girl speak? The upward lilt is too similar. Grotesque visions come to mind of someone gagging on a spoon. Whenever someone talks to me with this dialect, his or her credibility nosedives. It sounds too disingenuous and artificial.

There are many social changes I can roll with. Weirdspeak is not among them. I can appreciate our diverse cultural linguistic discourse in the United States. I cannot appreciate being constantly "talked up" to in a conversation! This is weird! If I'm on a gurney about to be sliced into, the guy or gal standing over me should not have the upward lilt. Is he/she asking me if it hurts or telling me it hurts? This is important to know!

Doc Robbery

    I'm getting that agitated feeling- the one that generates a little heat under my collar. From time to time it intensifies my propensity to blither and blather without first being reasonable. I know me well enough to ignore the agitation, stand back, look at the big picture, apply some logic - (sometimes count to ten) maybe do a little research, and then and only then proceed to blither and blather. Having applied most of those steps, I'm still feeling that little agitated feeling.

    It's that time again. Every three months David has a medcheck with his pediatrician before he refills his script. No problem, even though sometimes it seems like three months comes way too soon.  During his medcheck doc checks things like heart rate, BP, listens to his heart/lungs, records height /weight and asks me a bunch of questions.

    A few weeks ago I received a postcard in the mail informing me that David needed his yearly physical. During his physical, doc checks things like heart rate, BP, listens to his heart/lungs, records height/weight and asks me a bunch of questions.

    I call doc to schedule David's appointment for his medcheck and physical. Only much to my chagrin this is going to require two separate appointments.

    "WHAT?" I asked the receptionist on the phone?

    "Well, for insurance purposes we need to make two separate appointments."

    I think what she meant to say was they wanted to commit highway robbery and they needed  cooperation and consent to inconvenience my son and me in the process. But, I didn't want to be inconvenienced, which meant I had to call the insurance company.

    Today I called doc's office again to schedule David's physical and medcheck at the same time. They wanted to know if my insurance would pay them for the two separate exams. The insurance company assured me they will indeed pay.

    It's true that medicine is more complicated than ever. Everything must be coded perfectly before insurance companies will pay. But, today I'm feeling more sympathetic towards insurance companies than previously I have. Say what you want about processing paperwork, bureaucracy, coding, and medical law etc. etc. I have a lot of respect for all my medical providers, but highway robbery is still highway robbery. And I think the heat under my collar does not require a diagnosis. Thanks heavens!