Bow Chica Wow Wow.

For those of us who think Britney Spears' videos often resemble pornos, apparently we're not the only ones. According to E!online's gossip guru, the set used for the "Toxic" video is now being used to film gay porn. Luckily, they didn't have to alter the set much.

Sadly, I have yet to see the video, which has been described to me as lewd and in bad taste. Ok, so no one actually said that but judging from her videos, I don't think I'm far off. The song that forever got stuck in my head is now available in my car, thanks to a blogreader who shall remain nameless.

I did however enjoy the article's suggestion that the first film be named "Oops I did him again." The followup could be called "Me against the bedpost." But I think the original video ("Me against the music") with Madonna may already qualify for that heading.

Sometimes love just ain't enough.

A Texas woman is on trial for killing her 2 oldest sons and severely disabling her 15 month old after she "bashed" their heads with rocks. She has pled not guilty by reason of insanity, which is probably plausible judging from the circumstances that she thinks "God told her to kill her kids."

Maybe I'm not giving this full thought, or simply cannot wrap my head around it, but the CNN article states that the husband has been supportive of her throughout the incident. I just don't get how you could do that. Regardless of how much you love your spouse, how would you ever be able to forgive and continue a life with someone who murdered your children? Even if she was insane at the time and needs help, I don't think I would ever be able to sit in a court room and listen to a 911 tape of her confessing to the killing in a calm, disinterested manner.

Maybe I just need a lesson in forgiveness.

Strep Poker

The mom leaves me a voice mail the other day telling me that the doctor just told her she has strep throat and is highly contageous. She also told me that her doctor prescribed an antibiotic for all of us to take. Luckily, I didn't come go home at all between Tues and Thurs, and now the parents are gone. Unluckily, I get home tonight and my brother is hanging out on the couch, and he's got it.

So I had thought I would just take my chances, rather than taking more pills the next few days, but that might not be wise. While I did have my tonsils and adnoids out when I was 8, I don't trust the doctor's "guarantee" that I'll never get strep throat. So the medicine is down, and hopefully I'm in the clear. And hopefully I don't spread it to the 40 or so people in close quarters at a retreat this weekend.

Blog Recommendation

The other day Kevin linked a new blog (De Novo) on his site. From that site, I went to one of the contributor's personal site. And I am much amused. If you haven't already you should check out Jeremy Blachman's blog. Glad to know that someone at Harvard isn't taking himself too seriously.

Sing, Sing a Song.

I'm not usually a big fan of concerts in that I'd much rather spend my money on CDs that I can play repeatedly than on a one night event. But I made an exception to see two of my favorite musicians last night; Guster and John Mayer.

I absolutely loved the Guster set. I've been a huge fan for a few years, and their performance lived up to my expectations. They're coming to Clowes Hall at Butler on April 20th, and I'll probably get tickets. I still enjoy the fact that they are not very well known, and therefore, they stick with the music and don't do the whole "rockstar" thing. They simply played their music and transitioned from song to song, rather than stopping to talk to the audience when you can't understand them anyway.

John Mayer was a different story. I had seen him last fall, when it was just he, his guitar, and a drummer. This year it was he, his guitar, a drummer, and 6 other people on stage playing instruments. The songs he sang were either (1) not his own, or (2) didn't sound like they do on his albums. One of the girls with me actually said she was bored through part of it and people were leaving halfway through the show. He would start playing a song, and then go into a 5 minute guitar solo where he showed his various techniques, including using a drumstick to play the guitar.

I won't dispute that the guy can play the guitar, but I didn't pay 50 bucks to listen to half an hour of guitar solos. He also played a few songs from his next album, including opening the encore with that. I thought encores were where you played the crowd's favorites. And a few times during the show, he gave the audience a choice between different songs that he could play. Once the choice was between "No Such Thing" and "Remedy by Jason Mraz." I found it funny that quite a few people wanted Remedy.

He kept taking time between songs to talk to the audience, but he mumbles like crazy and I only understood about 1/3 of the words over all the screaming girls. There were some funny moments though. At one point he took someone's cell phone and carried on a conversation while still performing. I can only imagine the girl hyperventilating on the other end of that call. And I will never understand why people cheer loudly when an artist substitutes the word "shit" for "stuff" in a song. Come on people, have you never heard the word before.

All in all it was a good concert. Not the best I've been to, which is saying a lot since I've been to exactly 3 concerts (2 John Mayer and 1 Weezer), not counting the "contemporary Christian" concerts of my Jesus Town youth.

Someone please explain

I was just reading a cnn.com article and am confused by something. The story is about a 9 year old boy being found after he had disappeared from a Kmart. In explaining the Amber Alert system, the article states:
An Amber Alert for a missing child goes to media outlets and lottery retailers and activates traffic advisory signs along highways.

Lottery Retailers?

Pointless Trivia

File this away in things you'll never need to know unless you find yourself on a TV trivia gameshow.

Fountains of Wayne, best known for thier hit "Stacy's Mom" wrote the title song for the movie "That Thing You Do". The movie producers held a contest and liked the FOW song the best, thus making it the theme to the movie.

This random fact is brought to you courtesy of the insomnia side effect of Exxedrine Migraine and The Internet Movie Database.

Baby-Mania

My niece or nephew is still 7 months away from being born, but baby mania has hit. It's all anyone talks about around here. My parents have already exchanged "congratulations on expecting a new grandchild" cards. I didn't realize they made such a thing, but my mother assured me they even had "congrats on expecting triplet grandchildren". The card my mom gave to my dad said something like "soon there will be 2 new little hands to hold...." Cute, but do we really need to funnel more money to Hallmark?

My brother-in-law for the most part refers to the baby as a boy as often as he can in hopes that by saying it so many times it will make it true. He will call me on my cell phone in the middle of the day and say, "your nephew is doing fine today." As if at 1:37 on a Monday afternoon I was sitting there asking myself, "I wonder how my unborn niece/nephew is." They won't know the baby's sex for another few weeks, but I'm thinking it's going to be a girl just to spite him. He says he won't be disappointed if it's a girl, he'll just be broke.

My dad has his schedule all planned out. My sister isn't really sure when she's due because of the fertility treatments, but it's either late Sept, or early Oct. My dad's birthday is Sept 26th, and he's bound and determined that his grandchild be born on his birthday. He's told my sister that on the 25th they're going out for a Mexican lunch, followed by a Chinese dinner, and jogging in between.

I'm staying out of the babyness for a while longer, though I am keeping an eye on my sister to gauge how I may be if I ever have children. So far pregnancy makes her puke a lot and makes her incapable of crossing the room to get a glass of water. We're only at week 9 and I'm already sick of, "why don't you get your sister a drink/something to eat/a blanket/ a gold-encrusted statuette of the late Pope so she doesn't have to get up since she's expecting."

She's pregnant? Gee, I must have missed the 85 emails sent to friends, family, friends of family, and former coworkers' mothers.

Can't get you out of my head.

On the radio this morning, I heard this catchy song that got stuck in my head for the rest of the day. I don't usually listen to the radio for this exact reason. I tend to get a song stuck in my head for days at a time (like the one from which the title of this post is derived) so I usually stick with my CDs. Anyway, I liked this song, but I didn't know anything about it except for a few phrases. I got on the net to look it up, and much to my dismay, I found out it's a Britney Spears song. ("Toxic")

Now I'm faced with the dilemma of admitting I like a Britney Spears song, or of hating it just on principle. I'm leaning more towards hating it since I couldn't actually decipher any of the words and only the tune is stuck in my head. And the only thing worse than singing a song in your head over and over, is humming it because you don't know the words.

Updated: I just saw this review on Amazon.com: My initial reaction was... this can't be Britney... it doesn't even sound like Britney. I think because it's got a europop flavour in it and sounds Kylie-ish. But I automatically loved this track. It's catchy... it's nice... it's different... and it's unusual...PERFECT. When I bought the CDsingle, something familiar was on the credit list...CATHY DENNIS--one of the co-writter/producer of Kylie's mega-hit track "Cant Get You Out of My Head".

Good to know that it's this Cathy that I can now blame for all of these songs stuck in my head.

This post is brought to you by the following products...

Watching the NCAA tournament the other day, I realized just how far advertising has gone. It was halftime and the announcer was talking to the coach of one of the teams, and under them is the tag "Dasani Sideline Report." Apparently the network is now selling certain time slots of the actual coverage. Not only do we have commercials during the event, ads plastered on the floor and sides, and even sponsors for the score ticker at the bottom, we now have sponsors for any segment where they talk to the announcer on the floor.

I'm just waiting for the day when we'll have the "Pepsi first quarter" or when "the team has taken their IKEA timeout." And I don't think it's long until we have the "Eli Lilly Pacers." You heard it here first.

On a sadder note, I've given up on my brackets. 2 of my Final Four are already out, and I'll be lucky if I still have 3 teams in the Sweet Sixteen after tomorrow. As long as neither Duke or Kentucky win the thing, I'll be fine. I'm still rooting for the long shot Pitt, but if today is any indication, I'll be wrong about that too.

March Madness

I haven't really paid much attention to basketball this year, but as always, that changes once the tournament starts. I made my predictions the other day, and so far I'm not doing well. Usually I have the foresight to pick a strong underdog, such as Gonzaga in years past. But this year the Zags aren't underdogs and my picks are stagnant.

I have a few rules to live by when making picks: Always pick a 12 seed over a 5. Only I picked the wrong one this year. I went with BYU over Syracuse when I should have taken Manhattan over Florida. Hindsight is 20/20. My big underdog this year may have to be Louisville. I have them making it to the Sweet Sixteen, but that likely will not happen. A girl can dream though.

My final four picks are still in the running. This year they consist of Gonzaga, Pitt, Illinois, and Stanford. Yes, I may be a bit optimistic, but like I said, I haven't followed as closely as in years past. And we have to get at least 1 Big Ten team past the first round.

Spring break

My friends and I were supposed to meet another friend for her birthday yesterday, and we ate dinner early so we'd be ready to go out. We planned on getting at the bar at 10ish, so we called a cab at 9:15 to pick us up. Naively, we believed them when they said there was a cab in the area and would be there shortly. 3 cab companies, a dozen phone calls, and a few drinks later, our cab finally came at 11:30. By the time we got to the bar, there was a line of about a hundred people, and as we neared the door, we had about 40 more cut in front of us and pretended they knew someone up there.

But it all ended up well. The beer was cheap, the music was retro, and the company was great. And I didn't have to get up this morning. I'm thinking we need 2 weeks of spring break.

Say Again?

In small town Indiana, fishing and hunting are big past times. While neither my immediate family nor my cousins hunt, we're surrounded by cousins and uncles who do. So we're all pretty familiar with what it entails.

Yesterday, I met up with my parents, my aunt, and my cousins to go see my high school play in the boys basketball regional finals. While we still ended up in a small town in Southern Indiana, it was a mini-field trip away from our small, middle of nowhere town (i.e. the Jesus Town). My parents thought we should try some restaurant we can't go to in the Jesus town or the neighboring ones, so someone suggested 'Max and Erma's'. Everyone thought that sounded like a good idea... except my cousin.

My 12 year old cousin turns to my dad, and in all seriousness says, "I do NOT want to eat at the taxidermist's."

Priceless.

Because Indiana people are more newsworthy.

The thing I hate most about local television is when they do the "Indiana Connection." The most prominent example of this happened tonight. One of the Indy news stations was covering the bombing of trains in Madrid. Over 180 people were killed in these bombings. And what was the tagline for the story?

"Deadly bombings in Spain; what about the Indiana students who were only miles away?"

Apparently, it's not enough to report about the people who lost their lives in the tragic event, that we have to talk about Indiana citizens who just so happened to be in the country, and were not injured or even involved. The egocentrism of this state disgusts me.

Parents: the anti-normal.

I caught part of an interview on the Today Show this morning with Elizabeth Smart's parents. I didn't realize it had been over a year since she was found. But the part I found interesting, was when they mentioned that she just wanted to be a normal kid, out of the spotlight, and not having her life defined by this incident.

Here's a thought: stop giving damn interviews then. How is she supposed to leave this behind her if her parents continue to give interviews and keep bringing it up for us to remember? If I hadn't seen the interview today, it's unlikely I would have thought about her in the next year. In the infamous words of Chuck, [they] need to quit.

Gossip Circles

If you like celebrity gossip, you'll love the A-List. This site is a conglomeration of any and all rumors and far-fetched stories you can imagine. I'm not sure I would bet the farm on some of the allegations, but they are worth a read if you're bored.

Just give me the damn receipt.

Like any single woman in her 20s, I dread being labeled a "cat lady." I myself only have 1 cat, but when I moved home to save money, I gained caretaking duties of my mom's cat and my brother's cat. And since there are now 3 cats in one house, the cat litter is bought in bulk. The only store that sells the Arm and Hammer brand in the large size is Target. So whenever I shop there, I have to stock up for the next few weeks.

Since I live in the armpit of Indiana, and the closest Target is 45 miles away, I have to stop on my way home from school when I need my Target fix. The other day, I stopped in to buy some essentials; makeup brushes, cds, greeting cards, and of course 2 giant sized cat litter boxes. As I'm checking out, the cashier asks me if I need a gift receipt. I politely decline, and she looks me in the eye and says, "I don't suppose the cats will be returning anything."

Bitch.

Life.

There are many things I realize on a day to day basis, and today more than ever I realized that life is too short to mess with meaningless shit.

My uncle was diagnosed about a year and a half ago with ALS [Lou Gehrig's Disease]. And last Friday he passed away. ALS is one of the cruelest diseases in that it deteriorates the body completely, while leaving the mind intact. Up untill his final moments, my uncle was still mentally there, though he couldn't speak or even move in the slightest way.

Today I attended his funeral with the rest of my family. I sat directly behind his 14 year old daughter and 12 year old son and struggled to make it through the video montage that included pictures of him holding each of them on the day they were born. While we have an extremely close family of aunts, uncles and cousins, no one will ever be able to take the place of their dad. I'm glad they had some comfort knowing that their dad was a Godly man, and we all wholly believe he is in a better place and we will see him again.

So while I don't usually post something so personal, I just wanted to remind you to take time out of your day to enjoy the people you have around you and let them know they are special to you. I know it's trite, but it's completely true.

March Resolution

I decided it was time to make my March resolution. (I do monthly resolutions because I don't have the resolve to actually carry out a year long one. Though I must say, some monthly resolutions have inadvertantly become permanent ones. If I have 30 days to commit to one resolution rather than 365 days to 10 resolutions, I'm more likely to be successful.)

Anyway, this month's resolution is to be less self-depricating. (i.e. learn how to take a compliment.) As my friend Kelly P. pointed out, sarcasm and dry humor are my #1 defense mechanism. And while that's part of the reason some of you love me, as Chuck would say, sometimes "she needs to quit."

Therefore, I give any and all of you the right to refer to my resolution if I am breaking it at any point. Just don't have too much fun doing it.

The price of fame.

Ok, so I was going to be a little light on the posting, but after Chuck has pointed out that I'm not linked on our law school site, and people now realize who I am, I thought I'd explain myself.

I started blogging last August, and for a lucky few of you, you know where that blog is located. I only moved here a few weeks ago, upon realizing that some law school people had stumbled across my blog and decided I needed something a bit more professional. I'll provide the link to that old blog as soon as I am able to remove some posts. Since it was a "secret" blog, there are some things I don't particularly want the world to know. As I told Kelly, it was becoming a game to see how long I could go with the new blog without being noticed/linked by Sapere Aude. Apparently that would last until today.

So now I've been outed and there's no more hiding for me. And now people will realize that I'm actually friends with Chuck in real life as well as in cyber world. *Shudder*

A few days off.

Blogging will be a little light this week. I have a lot going on in the family and I'm not much in the mood for posting. I won't go into details since this is supposed to be a meaningless blog and not a depression-fest.

But when inspiration does hit, I'm coming here first. I have a few posts in my head (including a shopping trip to Target and my March resolution.) So, I'll be back soon.

Who said retirement homes were boring.

This Smoking Gun article has led me to believe that as we get older, we regress to our childhood. A resident of the nursing home slugged another resident for telling him to "quit playing with the salad greens" on the salad bar. Apparently he was upset because the man was taking too long getting his food. Instead the "picky eater", as his mother called him, took a swing at the man and ended up biting another resident on the arm. The scuffle ended up sending 3 residents to the hospital. Forget bar brawls, this was a salad bar brawl.

The stupidest fight I ever got into with my sister involved a pair of sandals. I was 15 at the time, and she was 17. I was trying to get back a pair of sandals that she had borrowed, and I stood at the bottom of the stairway yelling at her to throw them down. She opened her door, and set them at the top of the stairs, but refused to throw them down to me. So I stood at the bottom of the stairs yelling at her, and she stood at the top refusing to throw them down. We did this for like 5 min. Finally, I did the mature thing and went up the stairs to get my shoes. And once I got there, she had already gone into her room and laid down on her bed. I opened her door and grabbed armfuls of her clothes (which hung on a wall rack inside her door) and began hurling them down the stairs. (My sister was always the girlie girl of the family who kept everything in nice and neat order.) I only got about two armfuls thrown before she lunged at me and knocked me down half the flight of stairs.

As the middle child, I always used to get punished for everything. My parents' theory was that 'if one is guilty, they all are.' But since I had only thrown clothes and my sister's actions involved my safety, my parents decided to punish her. So they took her door off the hinges for 2 weeks. This was a big punishment because my sister valued her privacy more than anything. And for the next 2 weeks I stood in her doorway laughing my ass off while dodging whatever she was throwing at me while yelling at me to get away from her. Those were the days.

Lord of the Snooze

I stayed with a couple of friends last night, who decided that at 10 p.m. it was time to introduce me to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I'm not exactly sure that late at night is the appropriate time to wheel out 6 hours of movie. I'm generally not into fantasy films and I will forever associate the LOTR with the Disney cartoon version "The Hobbit." I didn't necessarily dislike the movie(s), but my enjoyment of it was proportionate to the number of rum and cokes I had.

In related news, there has been a leakage of footage from the Star Wars Ep. 3 set. If you're into that, you can find the video here. [This is actually a video archive for Hayden Christensen (whom I may or may not have had an obsession with in past years) but you can scroll down to the Star Wars column and find it there.] I actually hated Star Wars growing up, until I watched the entire original trilogy with my brother one winter break and he explained it to me. It's amazing how much more entertaining a movie is when you understand what's going on.

The snowball effect.

I went to my salon yesterday for a routine haircut. Usually this takes about 20 minutes and I'm out of there quickly. Last night I walked out 3 hours later after the cut, a pedicure, and a makeup consultation. How the hell did I get myself into that?

Pet Peeves

I was waiting for the elevator today, and I was running late for class. And as everyone knows, the elevators at school are the slowest on the planet. So I stood there for about 5 min, stubborn that one would come sooner or later. The one on the right apparently kept going between the 2nd and 3rd floors. And the one on the left hovered on the third floor forever. But just as I see it starting down, someone comes up out of no where and pushes the down button.

Anyone who knows anything about elevators knows that if it's heading down when it gets to the first floor, it will pick up the down person and keep going down before going back up. And sure enough, it did. This person hopped on the elevator mere seconds after pushing the button while I and 3 other people who had been standing there for some time had to wait like 2 more minutes. And that just pisses me off.

Paying Peyton

The big story around the state is the record breaking contract between the Colts and Peyton Manning. He will receive $99 million for a 7 yr. contract. Last night, Jay Leno pointed out that this figures out to be about $1 million a game. Damn. I enjoy sports and even consider myself a Colts fan, but no one is worth that much. I can just hear the flak next Jan. when he again fails to get the Colts to a Superbowl.

Eligible no more.

One of the NFL's most eligible batchelors is off the market. [Well he may not technically be off the market, but he has been moved to a higher shelf where you'll need the assistance of a store employee with one of those poles to reach him.]

The highly delectable Tom Brady is reportedly dating actress/model/luckiest girl in the world Bridget Moynahan. Some of you may remember her as John Cusack's jilted fiancee in the less than successful Serendipity, or as Natasha, again as a jilted fiancee on Sex and the City. Appropriately her next project is entitled Hating Her. Details are scarce as to how long the two have been together but, in my opinion, she is leagues ahead of Brady's ex (as rumor has it) Tara Reid. Moynahan left her boyfriend, a screenwriter, who ironically, is a huge Patriots fan to be with Brady. Frankly, I'd leave myself if I thought that meant I had a chance at him.

In observance of this sad revelation, I'm going to lock myself in my room and watch old tapes of Michigan football games. It's times like these I'm thankful that I have an obsessed father who insists on keeping old football games.

Adventures in Babysitting

Yesterday, the Indianapolis Star named a kid from my high school as a potential candidate for Mr. Indiana Basketball. That will never happen, but still, it got me to thinking about something. I used to teach this kid in Sunday School. Which for any of you that have ever been to Sunday School know it's pretty much the equivalent of babysitting. In addition to him, I also used to watch the star of my high school's girls basketball team, who is likely a candidate for Ms. Indiana Basketball. Granted my watching skills probably had nothing to do with their success. In addition to those two, I also used to watch 2 guys who make up half of a band (who in their heyday 2 yrs ago had a record deal and toured the country with some well known contemporary Christian artists.)

But before I pat myself on the back, I would be remiss not to mention that I also used to babysit 3 brothers. I was such a great sitter that on the first night the oldest one fractured the middle one's arm. Believe it or not, I actually received a $20 tip that night because of how difficult they were, and babysat them regularly for the next 2 years.

Legal Trivia

I learned something new and random yesterday. Who was the only U.S. Supreme Court Justice from Indiana? There's only been 1. Guesses?

Ms. Bush

Ok, a friend just showed me this so I had to link it. What George W. would look like as a woman. Trust me, it's worth the click.

The layout.

I'm getting positive feedback about this layout. Yes, I did come up with the design myself, but I cheated. I viewed the source of my friend's blog and then just cut and pasted relevant coding into mine. I did however change the format to be 2 columns instead of 3. That required a lot of math and fine tuning to make sure everything lined up. For a while it kept posting the blog column down the page. But I think I got it figured out. As to the pic at the top, I took a pic off the net, cropped it down and added font with a picture editor. It looks like crap but I never claimed to be a graphic artist. I used to have a decent knowledge of html, but I forget most of it. Maybe this will be good for me.

Actually, some of the format is still working wrong. I didn't do anything to get the lines that divide between the posts, but I kinda like it that way. I think it's because I have it set up to put the date in the box, and blogger only does the date for the new post of the day. Inadvertant, but I like it. Right now this format will work. And judging by how long it took me to get it to this point, it will work for a long time.

TV on the brain.

I hate when I have migraines. Mainly because of the pain, but also because of the side effects of the medication. Before the invention of the wonderful Exedrin Migraine I had to rely on prescription Imitrex. Great drug for getting rid of the headaches, bad drug for tripping me out. When I took one I always had to leave work because it made me loopy. Like I couldn't open a door because it felt like my hand was going through the handle loopy.

But now I've just taken the Exedrin, and I will be awake until about 2 in the morning. Those things are pure caffeine. And if I were a productive person I'd do my reading that I'm saving for tomorrow morning. But I'm not. So instead I'm wide awake and watching the conclusion of "Average Joe 2: Hawaii." Have never seen an episode till this point and yet the channel won't change. I think I need to petition Exedrin to include a side effect warning: May cause temporary loss of sanity and inclination to watch bad TV.

Edited: Ok, so the shocking twist was that she used to date Fabio? Uh, I heard her give an interview a few weeks ago where she admitted that. And Mr. Hunk boy can't deal with that so he ditches her? Whatever. Bring on the Apprentice. Quality reality programming.

The name game.

I think I did my first official babysitting as an aunt on Sat. night. Except I was actually babysitting the sister because her husband had to run to the "big city" to get her meds. She's having morning sickness that is making me rethink my desire to have children.

While I was hanging out at her house, I picked up a couple of her baby names books. I don't know why she bothered considering they've already got the names picked out. Both my sister and brother in law have names that end in 'son'. Naturally, my sister thinks that any and all of her kids must have names ending in 'son.' The proposition is so cheesy I get sick to my stomach. Do people lose their common sense when they get married and start a family?

Oscar Wrapup

Wasn't really surprised by anything. I knew that LOTR would win awards, but I didn't think they would take home all that they were nominated for.

I'm becoming a bit afraid of the trend for best actress. I think voters may be substituting the ability to look homely for acting. This year it was Charlize with the prosthetic facial features, last year was Kidman with the nose, and the year before was Halle with no makeup. While the physical attributes do play a part, I think people get caught up in how they "look nothing like themselves" and call that good acting. Maybe I'm wrong, but I did see the movie Halle won for, and I didn't think there was anything special about it.

I was pleasantly surprised that Johnny dressed nicely. Though I think the "bob" haircut needs to go.

Bill me later.

A month ago, one of my prescriptions expired. When I picked it up at the pharmacy, they told me that my doctor said I must see him to get it filled again. So I called, scheduled an apt, took off work, drove the hour and a half to the apt, and waited over an hour because the doctor was behind.

But once he came back, he looked at my chart, and then looked at me. He asked why I was there, and I told him because his office said I had to. I had been told I needed to have some labs done. Then he kind of chuckled and informed me that usually they have to see patients to renew, but since he knew my case so well, and I was on the medication for a certain reason, he didn't have to see me for probably 2 more years.

Thanks. Wasn't that something you could have told me over the phone? So he decided not to do the labs (which is good because my insurance probably wouldn't pay for it anyway.) But damn it if he didn't bill me 50 bucks for the visit anyway.