After 50 minutes of waiting, fifty minutes of listening to elevator music that was turned to random squeaks and screeches by the thousands of miles between Bali and wherever SSA is located in America, I finally got a rep on the phone, who told me that, despite the information on their website as well as that offered in an earlier email, my Medicare card was not sent out two months prior to my birthday, but on the 25th of January, two days after my birthday. No wonder I haven't received it!
So it may show up within ten days. Keeping my fingers crossed.
As I've said, these things kind of irritate me and I get fixated on them. I like to have everything in place, everything running smoothly. Which is something that rarely happens, I suppose. Somehow, I've lived 65 years without facing the fact that things rarely run smoothly. And now, as with every year, I am facing the annual renewal of my residence permit in Indonesia--an irritating process fraught with glitches, delays, inconvenient appointments and such like.
In the meantime, like a hibernating bear, I seem to have put on a lot of weight during the rainy season here. This struck me as the case this morning when I was unable to button my pants. For a while, I had been good about taking two walks a day and staying off the pastries and other sweets. With the combination of rain and suffocating humidity, however, I have fallen out of this habit. When one is stuck in the house, it seems there is not much to do but eat. Nonetheless, I will have to force myself back into shape, or some semblance of shape, before I find myself unable to button any pair of pants.
Perhaps I will need to take it easy on the lattes, too. Big day at Starbucks today, by the way. There's a deal on the phone server--2 for 1--which has drawn perhaps three times as many people as the Renon Starbucks generally sees. Indonesians are the most enthusiastic bargain hunters in the world, dashing from one bargain to another. Why pay full price, right? And why buy one when you can bring of friend and get two (or like me, be your own friend and get two). Tomorrow it will be 'buy one chicken katsu and get one free' at the restaurant down the way, or what have you. Indonesians and drawn to a bargain like bees to flowers. They have no allegiance to any one establishment. They go where the deal is on.
So it may show up within ten days. Keeping my fingers crossed.
As I've said, these things kind of irritate me and I get fixated on them. I like to have everything in place, everything running smoothly. Which is something that rarely happens, I suppose. Somehow, I've lived 65 years without facing the fact that things rarely run smoothly. And now, as with every year, I am facing the annual renewal of my residence permit in Indonesia--an irritating process fraught with glitches, delays, inconvenient appointments and such like.
In the meantime, like a hibernating bear, I seem to have put on a lot of weight during the rainy season here. This struck me as the case this morning when I was unable to button my pants. For a while, I had been good about taking two walks a day and staying off the pastries and other sweets. With the combination of rain and suffocating humidity, however, I have fallen out of this habit. When one is stuck in the house, it seems there is not much to do but eat. Nonetheless, I will have to force myself back into shape, or some semblance of shape, before I find myself unable to button any pair of pants.
Perhaps I will need to take it easy on the lattes, too. Big day at Starbucks today, by the way. There's a deal on the phone server--2 for 1--which has drawn perhaps three times as many people as the Renon Starbucks generally sees. Indonesians are the most enthusiastic bargain hunters in the world, dashing from one bargain to another. Why pay full price, right? And why buy one when you can bring of friend and get two (or like me, be your own friend and get two). Tomorrow it will be 'buy one chicken katsu and get one free' at the restaurant down the way, or what have you. Indonesians and drawn to a bargain like bees to flowers. They have no allegiance to any one establishment. They go where the deal is on.
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