Thursday, September 22, 2011

It's been a week.

We went to Seoul last Sunday, but didn't make it to Lotte World. What we did instead was to become professional navigators on the KoRail. **rolling eyes** We chalked it up to a run-through for our "real" visit to Seoul, which may be this weekend or next weekend. We're just playing it by ear. Y'know, sometimes it comes down to just saying "OK! LET'S DO IT!" Kind of like jumping off the cliffs at Percy Priest Lake, it takes a crazy moment of nerve once you know what you're really getting into. The visit was fun, though. We walked amidst the street vendors, tourists, and locals on the busiest streets I've ever been on. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, too. There was a nice breeze, beautiful skies, and it was about 75 degrees. We shopped, we ate at a Korean BBQ restaurant... which is not like American BBQ... and we stopped at a chocolate shop. That place was a rip off. I consider myself somewhat of a chocolate connosieur and this place has lots to learn about chocolate. It was mediocre. That's it... just mediocre. I bought a box of nine individual chocolates which I picked out myself, two smoothies, and a small bag of chocolate cookies. **Darnit, I cannot remember the name of that place!** The first time the girl rang it up it came to 16,000 won, then she looked at me.... the sucker-of-an-American, and it was like a lightbulb went off in her head. She punched a couple more buttons and the final tally was 34,000 won, which is roughly $35. I crossed my eyes, shook my head, and said "Say what?" All the prices were posted, with the exception of the chocolates. Turns out they were $2 A PIECE!!!! Yes, I KNOW!!! Crazy, right? That's $18 for nine measley little pieces of chocolate. Lindt isn't even that much and they actually know what they're doing! I think she gave me the "tourist" price. So anyway... I paid, sat down with my much lighter wallet and thought "these had better be euphoria-inducing chocolates". They were not. I'm actually growling as I type this. I know I should just let it go, but I can't stand it! ARGH!! The thing about it is that I didn't eat any of the chocolates there, so I had no clue at the time as to how badly I'd been ripped off.  I just sipped my ice cream smoothie and brought the chocolates home. You can only imagine my disappointment when Bruce and I finally got the munchkin to bed and we snuck off to our room to indulge. I was so disappointed by the third piece. BUT, if that's the worst thing that happens on this trip then I'll probably be fine. No permanent scarring... just a deeply inbedded traumatic incident at the hands of an egotistical chocolatier.

My wonderful, fantastic, sexy husband is on pass for today. **laughing** The pass didn't count for much considering he's at work this very moment. Supposedly, he shouldn't be gone long, but in case you don't know ONE of the ARMY's mantras it's: Hope for the best and prepare for the worst. So I'm not really making concrete plans for today. Tentatively, we're going to get Alyssa's haircut and do a couple of errands on post. I also want to go to the "Ville" to go back to the shop with the sweetest little man. I did some comparison shopping in Seoul and some of the same trinkets cost over 200% more there. I really have no clue if all this stuff is going to fit in my suitcase!

I bought a coat in New City the other night. It's taken a turn for the chilly here and there's nothing like realizing you don't have "appropriate" clothing **wink, wink**. It's an awesome grey jacket. Kind of modern-biker-cool-woman style. It's form-fitting with a collar that can be turned down or flared out. It was a Large! It stumps me that I can wear a size 2/4 jeans and a Large in a form fitting jacket. It's not the chest that's tight, but the shoulders. Call me quarterback Claire... lol. I'm just built like a strong American, not a slim, petite Korean. The jackets still cool, though, no matter the size on the tag.

To veer off subject for a moment... I am in pain. Motrin's not working. Aleve's not working. Tak-Sen (a Korean pain killer) ain't workin' either! I need to see my doctor. After eight weeks I shouldn't be in anymore pain. Things are not right, either. I mean... something's jacked up. Bruce and I had a little heart-to-heart the other night (I am sen-see-tive about my body, and he's definitely not a dumb man) and he finally told me that "No, they're not right. They need to be fixed." I thought so, too, but chalked it up to the brain-washing of the doctor telling me, wide-eyed, "OH, they're great". No. They ain't great. They're jacked up. It looks like the left one is herniating AGAIN and the right one, in NO shape or form matches it. All due to the fact that BOTH surgeries were not done correctly. Bruce and I came to the conclusion, after much discussing, that we had not had unreasonable expectations, but rather unreasonable results. Unacceptable. If that doctor wasn't sure he could deliver on his work, then he should have NEVER accepted me as a patient.  It makes me mad because if they had done what they were supposed to do (the first time), and used the available, approved tools (hello Alloderm), which were approved because I sent ALL medical records and a personal letter to my insurance company.... not them, as they were supposed to do, I stayed on top of every step so that things finally got taken care of, then things wouldv'e turned out much differently.  Oh, and did I mention they wanted to bill my insurance for the second surgery? That right there was flat out unethical. It was their mistake. OK... I'll stop. I'm just really upset that I worked SO hard to lose weight so that I'd like my body, only to have deal with the pain and disappointment of TWO reconstructive surgeries that did not have the results that I was told they would have. I have honestly suffered at the hands of an imcompetent team of supposed professionals, who in the beginning were SOOOOOO reassuring that it would all just be GREAT. Hmph. This is NOT the end of this story. One more thing... that severe pain that I had... y'know the one that the "hand doctor" tried to prescribe the suicidal-feeling-inducing Neurontin for since my doctor was on vacation, yet again? Yeah, well, when my doctor (with 47 years experience) finally saw me and said he hadn't EVER seen anything like that... I got online the other day, and within 10 minutes.... yes, 10 minutes... I found what it was. It's called Mondor's syndrome. Now gee... how hard would that have been for him to just try to look up? I think I was just a billing opportunity to an insurance company for that office. Makes me wonder if they charged my insurance company for the Alloderm. Hmmm.... I'm going to check into that because that stuff is expensive and they did NOT use it on me.

Well, I've got a 2.5 year old telling me it's her turn on the computer. Ugh, what's with all this sharing stuff? I feel like turning to her and saying "NO! MINE! ALL MINE!" That's a little childish, though, isn't it? I think I'm supposed to be doing something along the lines of **rolling eyes** "setting an example", so I'm signing off.

Come see Ha Me da (that's Thank You, phonetically, in Korean)

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