signs of growing up

After going to the doctor's office today for the appointment that has been rescheduled twice (well, three times now) I can honestly say that I have never been more proud of myself than I am right now.  I will admit that I walked in to the University of Alabama student health center today with an already aggravated composure because of the piss poor system they use to schedule and reschedule appointments. For the past month I have been on a merry-go-round with the appointment secretary trying to get everything straightened out. I don't know what is so hard about her job, but I will give her the benefit of the doubt.  After all, the moral of this story is that I am proud of how I handled this very irritating situation.
I got to the doctor's office today after I pulled myself out of bed earlier than normal, which is not to my liking. I even took a shower and put a fresh application of make-up on my face.  That's huge. At my arrival, I was told that my doctor's appointment had been canceled. Fancy that. No one bothered to call and let me know that?? Not only that, but the doctor didn't bother to write a perscription for my refills and leave it at the pharmacy counter either. And for the record, I wasn't going to the doctor today to pick up a Z-pack. I was going to the doctor today to get a refill on my medications that one is not advised to just abruptly quit taking.  As a medical doctor, I would have assumed that she would acknowledge that but I am not really convinced that a public university's health  center really has the cream of the crop. I'm sure she's not all that bad, but I am not writing this to sing her praises. She made me mad, VERY mad, and I'm writing this to sing mine because I handled it cool, VERY cool.
Well, in between my several counts to ten in my head in an effort to calm me down, I had a text conversation with my mother that went like this...

10:39AM - I am about to absolutely lose it, Mom! Lose it!! God is testing my patience right now.
10:40AM - What's wrong?
10:41AM - They canceled my appt w/o telling me. This is the 3rd (beep) time! I've been w/o my medication for a month now! And she didn't even write a script & leave it @pharmacy for me.
10:41AM - I am sitting in the Administrative Secretary office and demanding that someone write me my meds.
10:42AM - Are you serious? How can they do that? Raise Cane.
10:43AM - Good. I will check you out when they admit you to a unit!!
10:53AM - I haven't been this mad in a long, long time. I'm so ready to leave this town. You'll have to drag me back up here next week and I'm not kidding.
10:59AM - Try to calm down and BREATHE or you will have a migraine!
11:23AM - I don't want one of those because the Lord knows I couldn't get a doctor's appointment at this place if the end of the damn world depended on it.
11:24AM - Are you still there?
11:28AM - No, I'm pretty sure I wore out my welcome for the morning. I told them I was going to go eat a chili slaw dog & calm down but that I would be back. I'm the only girl in America that eats a chili slaw dog the day spring break starts. Oh well, that's not the point. I'm still pissed off.
11:29AM - Hahahaha

After leaving the administrative secretary office with my jaws clinched tight so that I would say no more, I went to the infamous little restaurant down the street to get my Carolina delicasse. A dog with chili, slaw, mustard, and onions. If it weren't for hot dogs and Ben & Jerry's ice cream, my mom would have already had to check me out of the looney hospital more than once. My anger at the UA student health center was so extreme that I think I even did the neck vein popping thing that my dad does when he's really aggravated (my mom and sister know exactly what I am talking about). This is the ultimate sign that something is on my father's nerves and the moment he starts doing this quirky little antic is when you begin hoping it is not you that has caused it all to go down. Maybe it works, though, because I think he would of been proud of me, too, for not causing too big of a scene at the secretary office.
To say the least, I surprised myself. A lot of times in my life, I would have thrown a fit or disregarded my class just to release emotion in a fit of rage.  Apparently, my mother expected me to be drug out of there in a straight-jacket and brought straight to the mental hospital that sits on our campus. Being as she and I are clones of one another when it comes to our social and emotional selves, she feared I would be sick with a migraine because of how much anger I was building up.  More than once did she and I get in to the typical mother/daughter bitch outs during my adolescence and then nursed one another through the horrid migraines that the argument caused us. But that's all part of growing up, and now that I am grown up (or at least I like to think so) I can proudly say that all I left behind at the doctor's office was a list of medications I need refilled and my phone number.  It is safe to say that my dignity and class still remain.

Well, I don't actually know how classy I looked scarfing down that hot dog. And as for my dignity, I forgot my windows were down in this beautiful Spring-time weather and got caught singing screaming Janis Joplin at a traffic light. Oh well, I think you get where I was going with it...

Peace&Love
Bjj - The 'Other' Sister