The Sprayberries

Irony and You Have to Be Kidding Me

[jd] 28 July 2007

Do you remember the good old days of automated phone menus? Press 1 for customer service and the like? Now a days everyone has some annoying voice recognition program that usually reduces me to screaming at the phone 'I said yes! YES! Oh, for god's sake REP-PRE-SENT-TA-TIVE'. So I was navigating my health insurance call center because I was trying to get an approval code to go see a therapist. After going back to the main menu two times, I finally found the right sub-menu to get to mental health. For the first time they offered me the option of pressing a number or speaking my option. By this time I considered myself to be a UHC menu ninja, so I clearly spoke 'mental health' instead of pressing 2, at which point a soothing voice comes on the phone and says, "Thank you, goodbye", then hangs up on me.

I am thinking this is a pretty funny story, when my friend Missy starts telling me about her ridiculous day, which was one of the most ridiculous days I have ever heard of. Without getting into details that aren't mine to share, Missy was with her daughter Lilly at the Childrens' Hospital of Philadelphia (Lilly is okay). After determining that the pediatric ward they were in did not have rice cereal or bananas to feed Lilly (when starting babies on solid food you are only supposed to add a new food every week or so), she went out to the car to get some of their baby food. When Missy gets back, she asks the nurse for a baby spoon. The nurse looks her in the eye and says, "You would think we would have those here, wouldn't you?".